Seal Oil System/ Drain Regulator Tank
Seal Oil System/ Drain Regulator Tank
(OP)
I am workin on 300MW Mitsubishi made generator. it uses hydrogen as a cooling agent. Now the problem is that for the past 1 year hydrogen gas is leaking, we contacted Japan and they sent a team for overhauling. unfortunately the problem persists. i have 2 findings
1) pressure drop in H2 only occurs in late hours around 6pm to 8Am
2) whenever the drain regulator tank's level drops the leakage occurs.
Can anyone please guide me as to what is the purpose of this Drain Regulator Tank and what optimal settings should i enforce or look for, because i think its the cause of leakage of H2 gas since the overhaul didnot show any problem in any part of generator.
1) pressure drop in H2 only occurs in late hours around 6pm to 8Am
2) whenever the drain regulator tank's level drops the leakage occurs.
Can anyone please guide me as to what is the purpose of this Drain Regulator Tank and what optimal settings should i enforce or look for, because i think its the cause of leakage of H2 gas since the overhaul didnot show any problem in any part of generator.





RE: Seal Oil System/ Drain Regulator Tank
Just an observation.
It looks like the drain regulator tank is part of a seal to prevent H2 loss and when the level drops there is apparently not enough back pressure to prevent H2 loss.
Why would the level in regulator tank drop or vary?
RE: Seal Oil System/ Drain Regulator Tank
Are you sure its not just a reduction in liquid volume due to overnight cooling, and that is increasing the volume of H2 and reducing the pressure?
What are the temperatures and pressures at 6 pm and 8 am?
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"Pumping systems account for nearly 20% of the world's energy used by electric motors and 25% to 50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities." - DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99.99% for pipeline companies) http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/
RE: Seal Oil System/ Drain Regulator Tank
Because they've got a night watchman who drains the tank, possibly because he takes the _label_ on the tank as an _instruction_. E.g.,
"DRAIN REGULATOR TANK"
..reads differently if you interpret the first word as a verb, not an adjective.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Seal Oil System/ Drain Regulator Tank
Whether or not that's the cause it's an interesting observation on your part
RE: Seal Oil System/ Drain Regulator Tank
One of our night watchmen fancied himself a boiler expert, figured the gage was showing too much head, and would drain water out of the system until it got to a level that was acceptable to him.
Our water consumption was outrageous for most of a year, until the plant manager correlated the excess consumption with presence of that particular watchman.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA