Steam generation

[vennivivi]

Hi,

First of all,please bear with me as I`m not a turbodynamic guy. I `m rather an electrical one. I will introduce the picture of the situation.I work in a dyeing factory located close to a power generation plant. We have a contract with the plant and the power plant supplies us with electricity and steam for our process.We have a very tight agreement with them. The situation is such that we are very efficient electrically and quite inefficient on the steam side. It will be most economical for us to use the excess electricity of our contract and use it to maximise the steam side. It`s going to be quite expensive to maximise the use of steam in the plant.I know it looks a bit weird.We have around 1 MW of electricity available to supplement the steam consumption. Our actual steam consumption is around 120 t/hr 10-15 deg C above saturated.We need around 30 t/hr of additional steam. They could supply us steam at higher temperature if required. I am looking for suitable solutions and I`ve been told that turbo-charger could be a soulution.Grateful to have views from memebers.

Regards.

Grundig

 

[dcasto]

1 Mw is 3,415,179 BTU/hr at 1200 BTU/lb, thats 2846 lbs/hr, 1.5 tons/hr steam, thats all there is.

Changing the steam temperature doesn't add very much energy per pound, and besides, I'd guesss your contract is a energy one, not a mass one. ie you pay for the btu's delivered and not the mass of steam delivered.

I can't see where a turbo-charger would do anything. You might be able to take the steam coming in and go through a turbo-generator to make electricity, but you don't need electricity.

Also, if the steam is haotter, you may use less pounds per hour, but its still energy.

Bottom line, do you need more energy, in which case, theres nothing you can do, or is your heat exchangers fouled and you are at some limit on production because you cannot get all the energy out of the steam you buy.

 

[willard3]

Turbo chargers take waste heat and pressure from positive-displacement engines and convert it to shaft energy.

Whoever recommends turbo chargers for your arrangement, show him the door.

 

[vennivivi]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I should perhaps have said turbo-compressor.

Grundig

 

[zerosum]

Grundig,

I agree with dcasto, except that if you're returning condensate to the energy source (generating plant), the net steam energy available might really calculate a bit higher, because typically the heat value of process steam is closer to 1000-1100 Btu/lb when returning condensate. Since I would guess you're figuring in metric tonnes, the end result is about the same as dcasto stated, not much help from the electrical side is possible.

Do you have both a demand charge and an energy charge in your power contract? Does either the thermal or electrical load swing appreciably?