Riken Keiki Co’s OHC-800 (photo), a relatively new type of calorimeter, uses optical and sonic sensors to provide real-time monitoring with high accuracy. The instrument’s use in optimizing turbine and boiler air/fuel ratios make it of interest to O&M personnel at gas-turbine-based simple- and combined-cycle plants. Recall that competitor gas chromatographs provide highly accurate analyses […]

An owner/operator presenting on aqueous-ammonia (NH3) storage tank inspections at the CCUG2020 Week Four session said that according to the governing standard, API510, a “fitness for service” assessment should be conducted every 10 years (or half the remaining life calculated during the last inspection) for pressure tanks. The method results in a calculated remaining life,

EPRI Technical Executive Sam Korellis opened the CCUG2020 Week Four agenda with a review of EPRI’s cooling-tower (CT) fan-motor-drive and gearbox field evaluation program and its implications for CTs serving more than 800 units at about 300 powerplants. Many CTs are equipped with multiple fans which start and stop depending on load and ambient temperature.

The main messages from the presentation on fire suppression systems during Week Four of the CCUG2020 meeting, by ORR Protection’s Chuck Hatfield, are that NFPA Code requirements include the life (human) safety and reliability of suppression equipment, whether low- or high-pressure type; and that the industry is “moving away from CO2-based suppression to water-mist systems.” One

Steve Shulder, EPRI’s subject matter expert on water and steam chemistry addressed chemistry-related damage from flexible operations during Week Four of the CCUG2020 program. Thorough to a fault, most of Shulder’s slides are laden with bullet points, likely summarizing chapters of EPRI reports on the subject. It’s almost impossible to condense the 45-slide deck into