Features

May 1885 POWER reported on the latest Twist Automatic Engine (Figure 1) in its cover story for the May 1885 issue. The editor explained that "each end of the cylinder has one main valve, for admission and exhaust, and one cut-off valve; all being plugs with partial rotary movement; and the cut-off valves being within […]

This month we officially commemorate the 125th anniversary of the magazine that has been essential reading for owners and operators of power generating plants. As you read this brief history, you’ll see that—although we’re looking back at an illustrious past—the secret of POWER’s success has been its commitment to the future. As we look forward to the next milestone anniversary, we anticipate covering the latest developments in a new generation of power technologies. As always, our mission is to provide the best information and advice in the service of safely and efficiently powering the global energy industry.

Advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) construction practices honed in Japan aren’t just impressive, they’re also eminently suitable for the fleet of new units planned for the U.S. Conceptually, these techniques show the transition from "construction" to "manufacturing" that has already taken place in other industries.

April 1884 POWER reported on the latest offering from Philadelphia-based Southwark Foundry and Machine Co. (Figure 1) as its lead story. "This is a self-contained, high speed auto­matic cut-off engine. It has been designed with special reference to simplicity, and solidity of parts, and to heavy and continuous work. 1. The Southwark engine was the […]

Carbon capture and sequestration have many technical hurdles to leap in coming years. The capture and reuse of CO2 to enhance oil recovery preceded the current clamor over climate change, and that experience is often used as an example that the process is a viable way to handle this greenhouse gas. This article explores options for the first part of the process: CO2 separation and capture.

Hyperbolic cooling towers have a distinctive shape, but that form is subordinate to function—natural-draft cooling is cheaper than mechanical-draft cooling. The lower operating costs are offset to some degree by the higher cost of protecting internal tower surfaces from swings in humidity that foster corrosion damage. Learn how one utility added cathodic protection when it repaired its corroded hyperbolic tower, giving it a new lease on life.

Doctors and engineers realize that solving a health problem is better done by identifying and eliminating its cause than by treating its symptoms. For machinery, the class of multidisciplinary methods known as root cause analysis (RCA) is an important tool for addressing chronic reliability problems. But RCA often is improperly applied to lubrication-related problems. Read on to learn how to use the technique correctly.

Want some good news about your predictive maintenance program for a change? A recent research report by the Aberdeen Group found the electric utility industry benchmarks exceptionally well against other industries in its PDM practices. In fact, the research found that best-in-class companies outperformed industry peers in improving asset availability by up to a three-to-one margin. In a web exclusive, the Aberdeen Group has provided its report for download from powermag.com as a service to our readers.

Part I of this three-part series (POWER, October 2006) explored the negative impacts of sulfur trioxide (SO₃) on the operations and maintenance of back-end plant equipment. Part II (February 2007) listed and quantified the likely and potential benefits of limiting the concentration of SO₃ in flue gas to 3 ppm at the entrance to the air heater. This final part describes the characteristics of an optimal SO₃ removal technology and details the operating experience of a patented process that has worked successfully at a half-dozen plants for up to three years.

The challenge for suppliers of aftermarket turbine blades is that their starting point is an existing blade and nothing else. There are no CAD models, drawings, measurements, tolerances, or inspection data associated with it. However, thanks to the latest in computer tools, a blade now can be digitally recreated to exact specifications and built using the latest design and manufacturing practices. Here’s an inside look at how turbine blades are captured, reconstructed, inspected, and remade to be better than the originals.