Company News


Boilers: Precise Control Valves for Power Plants

February 10, 2022 | Company News

 

With ARCA Valves you will find the right control valve for each process step in the boiler of the power plant.

1) Main/feed wa­ter con­trol val­ve

With this control valve, the level in the boiler drum is regulated so that boiler feed water is continuously available in the boiler for steam generation. In order to compensate for the difference between the characteristic curve of the feed water pump and the operating characteristic of the boiler system, the characteristic curve of the feed water control valve must be designed accordingly.

2)Fil­ling/feed wa­ter con­trol val­ve

The boiler drum is filled by this control valve when the system is started up. Since a large differential pressure and cavitation have to be mastered during start-up, this valve is subject to high stress and thus wear. Therefore, this often small valve is equipped with a hard multi-stage trim and is located in parallel with the main feed water control valve, which must then be designed for maintaining the level.

3) Bur­ner con­trol val­ve on the boi­ler

This valve regulates the supply of natural gas to the gas burner or the heating oil to the oil burner on the boiler. During gas operation, the valve regulates to maintain the defined control characteristic and reduce noise. When heating oil is used, this valve functions as an overflow facility and holds the pressure upstream of the oil burner nozzle constant.

4) Sludge con­trol val­ve

This valve quickly opens for a brief moment to drain a small quantity of boiler feed water for desludging the boiler water drum. Hard internal parts are required to withstand the high differential pressure, cavitation, and abrasion that prevail. The seat faces of this control valve are subject to wear, which is why we recommend installing an additional shut-off valve here.

5) Boi­ler start-up con­trol val­ve

The start-up control valve typically blows steam through a silencer system into the atmosphere when the boiler plant is started. Since the steam expands with a high-pressure reduction, this valve usually has an asymmetric design.

6) Soot Blo­wer Con­trol Val­ve

The walls of the heat exchangers in the boiler are steam-cleaned of soot particles to optimize heat transfer efficiency inside the boiler. To this end, soot blower control valves feed live steam to the soot blower nozzles with minimum actuating time.

7) Air prehea­ter con­trol val­ve

The burner air is preheated to optimize the effectiveness of the combustion process. The temperature of the burner air is determined by the steam fed to the air preheater via this control valve.

8) 3-way mi­xing val­ve

Superheating the steam of the steam turbines while they are running increases plant efficiency and prevents the turbine blades from becoming damaged by condensed drops of liquid. For better energy utilisation of the generated steam, secondary overheating is installed in power plants with higher steam pressures. The heat transferred to the superheater varies greatly due to fluctuating loads and soot deposits in particular. The temperature of the superheater must therefore be regulated. The superheated steam is passed through a pipe coil by means of the 3-way mixing valve, which is located in the water-filled part of the steam drum. The colder drum water with the saturated steam temperature thus cools the superheated steam.

8) Boi­ler in­jec­tion coo­ler

Another way of controlling the superheater temperature is usually implemented in new systems by injecting boiler feed water with a controllable injection cooler.

 



SCADA Monitoring and Control Solutions with Cattron

February 7, 2022 | Company News

Make the Switch!

Don’t get left behind and become susceptible to lost communications with legacy phone line alarm dialers. Below are the top 3 reasons to switch to a wireless, cloud-based monitoring and control solution for your water and wastewater applications.



Intro to EcoStruxure

January 11, 2022 | Company News

EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s IoT-enabled, plug-and-play, open, interoperable architecture and platform for infrastructure, industries homes, buildings, and data centers. EcoStruxure enables enhanced safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity in your business by advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity.

EcoStruxure enables you to act based on real-time information and business logic. It connects everything in your plant from bottom to top by collecting critical data and transmitting this data from sensors to the cloud. The EcoStruxure platform allows for embedded connectivity and intelligence, using standards-based communication protocols and the ability for smart devices to perform native analytics for control decisions. It assists developers, systems integrators, and your engineering staff in building applications such as monitoring, visualization, and control systems for implementing smart operations. The platform also leverages scalable Microsoft Azure IoT technology to deliver digital services to help optimize operations.

EcoStruxure is the foundational technology backbone on which Schneider Electric solutions are built and delivered. It is the heart of the IoT system.



Looking Forward 2022

January 10, 2022 | Company News

We have all felt the impact of the supply chain issues, shipping delays and labor shortages. As we look forward into 2022, Neal Systems has been taking steps to ensure our customers are shielded from some of the avoidable problems that can occur when you have limited stock and limited staff. Our team has a large technician team with varying expertise areas that can provide expert level maintenance and engineering for you.

Our on-site calibrations, which are done via a tablet, generate certificates electronically and immediately.  All information is stored securely in the cloud with full customer access to make searching, sorting and filtering certificates easy.

The technicians on our preventative maintenance team can perform a range of tasks from single instruments through to entire systems.  They have experience in dealing with situations where no drawings or manuals currently exist and can reverse engineer those documents through site visits from highly experienced field personnel.  This means we can either follow established PM procedures or design and document them from scratch.

Need on site-service on a whim? NSI has a range of unscheduled plans ranging from cost effective business hours, telephone only support, right through to 24/7/365 on-site support.  All service plans get a dedicated telephone number that rings through directly to the service department during work hours and the on-call service tech during off hours.

Need a guarantee of on time shipment? For an annual fee, a customer can buy into the full guaranteed stock list with the knowledge that NSI will ship the same day if requested before 2pm.

NSI can even monitor your SCADA and PLC networks remotely to let you know if there are any problems before you even know yourself. These services can prevent downtown and limit the expenses associated with installation and instrumentation assistance.

These are just some of the services available to our customers. We look forward to assisting you with reliable, efficient and on-time services and solutions in 2022. For a complete list of available options schedule, a quick call with one of our team members today!



Simplifying complexity in the hydrogen economy

January 6, 2022 | Company NewsProduct News

 

Why hydrogen?

Hydrogen is an odourless, invisible gas with a colourful future. It is likely to play a significant part in the future of the physical transportation of power and as an environmentally friendly fuel to power transport. On a weight for weigh basis, the energy density of hydrogen is many times that of gasoline, diesel, or Li batteries.

However hydrogen is also highly combustible, and it’s highly probable that systems producing, distributing or using hydrogen, will need to comply with stringent codes and standards around safety and explosion prevention.

Many governments are rolling out long term hydrogen strategies, aiming at decarbonising a significant proportion of their energy use over the coming decades. Follow these links to 3 examples: USA, Europe Union & UK.

Where does Expo fit in? 

As these plans are beginning to be realised, new infrastructure and supply chains are emerging. While some hydrogen will directly replace natural gas in existing infrastructure – for instance combustion in gas fired power stations, or in domestic hot water heating systems, a significant proportion will be used in applications for the first time – for instance road vehicle refuelling.

To drive these new applications, new end-users, manufacturers and OEMs will become involved in generating, moving, or using hydrogen – some with little or no previous experience with hazardous areas. That’s why specialist companies, such as Expo Technologies, are becoming increasingly involved. Our 60+ years of hazardous area know-how, developed from supporting hydrocarbon industries, directly maps to the hydrogen supply chain. 

Expo has already worked on a number of projects across the vehicle refuelling sector – you can read some recent case studies here:

Other useful resources – external links

Hydrogen – Responsing to a dynamic environment. Herbert Smith Freehills LLC: https://www.herbertsmithfreehills.com/latest-thinking/hydrogen

Hydrogen Europe https://hydrogeneurope.eu/

The future of hydrogen – IEA.org: https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-hydrogen

The Hydrogen Council: https://hydrogencouncil.com/en/

Scottish Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association: http://www.shfca.org.uk/

What does a hydrogen refueling station look like? https://hydrogen-central.com/what-hydrogen-refueling-station-look-like/

How does a hydrogen filling station work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soC2YlGULNU

US Dept. of Energy:  H2 strategy 

European Union: H2 strategy

UK: H2 strategy

Original article here.


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