O&M

News reports tell us that rapidly growing economies, such as China’s, are importing more oil and raw materials each year, thereby pushing up commodity prices on the world market. One of the side effects of rising commodity prices is considerable increases in the cost of water treatment chemicals. Don’t be tempted to skimp on chemicals to save a buck but risk catastrophic damage. In the words of NASA’s former flight director, Gene Kranz: “Failure is not an option.”

Proper attention to dissolved oxygen levels in feedwater is fundamental for long-term equipment reliability, especially in a combined-cycle plant. When equipment approaches its design life, proper use of new analytic tools and technical expertise can identify impending corrosion and erosion problems and provide you with an estimate of remaining equipment life.

Tackling substandard water sources / Control abrasive wear in scrubber piping / Sensors and final control elements

Assess your cooling tower’s condition / Proper technique for vertical-up stick welding / Move material with a sonic horn

Many of today’s advanced steam generators favor either an all-volatile treatment or oxygenated treatment chemistry program, both of which require strict maintenance of an ultra-pure boiler feedwater or condensate system. Those requirements are many times at odds with the lower-quality water sources, such as graywater, available for plant makeup and cooling water. Adding a condensate polisher can be a simple, cost-effective solution.

Over time, turbine compressors and other driven compressors suffer from corrosion, oxidation, and, in many cases, severe fouling, which in turn can cause in-service breakdown and premature overhaul. Today’s innovative protective coatings can be applied on-site to rotors and individual components to replicate the surface finish, corrosion resistance, and antifouling properties of new components.

Measuring the level of flyash in your silos is not an easy task, in part because the flyash collected at one plant can be remarkably different from that collected at another plant, even if both fire the same coal. Such variability means that selecting the right instrument for your application is important.

Protection against arc flash more important than ever; Laramie River Station uses new coating technology; Protecting power plant pipes: Basics you must know

Power plant training: New techniques required

Boiler water wall leaks have been a major cause of steam plant forced outages. But conventional nondestructive evaluation techniques have a poor track record of detecting corrosion fatigue cracking on the inside surface of the cold side of waterwall tubing. EPRI is performing field trials of a prototype direct-digital radiographic system that promises to be a game changer.