The Monitor

Many large industrial facilities, including refineries, chemical plants, and petrochemical facilities, are utilizing combined cycle units with heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) to produce power for their operations. However, as many HRSGs operate at high temperatures and pressures, harsh conditions can transform seemingly minor chemistry upsets into major problems.

Topics: Power, Steam & Water

Microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and algae can present challenges in maintaining and operating industrial cooling systems. These contaminants can increase pathogens and create biofilms in cooling systems. This biofilm can lead to equipment damage and inaccurate measurements. One way to combat these concerns is through chlorine dosing.

Topics: Any Application, Steam & Water

Let’s say you have a large order for a dry powdered food product. You need to be sure the product fits the customer’s specifications before it’s shipped, or you need to keep tabs on the moisture content of your material throughout a processing run, or you need to ensure that your chemical material doesn’t rise above a certain level of volatility. To accomplish these tasks, you’ll need to accurately sample and test the material using a sampler that can enter the material stream, capture a statistically significant quantity of that material that is representative of the process. For the most accurate and repeatable sampling, you will need to employ a method that limits bias and allows precise samples to be taken at regular intervals, leaving no room for error – an automatic sampler.

Topics: Food & Beverage, Solids & Powder, Pharmaceutical

In a steam and water analysis system (SWAS), alarms can frequently turn into a nuisance for operations and maintenance personnel. Over time, plant personnel can become desensitized, leading them to distrust analyzer data or not act when chemistry events arise. This can leave a power plant vulnerable to chemistry-related failures that could cause downtime and negatively impact production. Smart alarms help address these issues by monitoring cycle chemistry, identifying chemistry events in real-time, and allowing chemists to take proper actions to correct conditions. These smart analyzer alarms help steam and water operators improve their response time to critical chemistry events.

In today’s utility plants, effective SWAS equipment management is crucial to maximizing uptime and generating revenue.

Topics: Power, Steam & Water

Effectively monitoring cycle chemistry in a power plant relies on the availability, accuracy and trustworthiness of analyzer data. Like most industrial monitoring systems, the quality of the data is governed by the full Steam and Water Analysis System (SWAS) with accurate, timely data for corrective action.

Topics: Power, Steam & Water

Incorrect flow rates can cause incorrect critical measurements, unreliable steam and water sample analysis system (SWAS) performance and damaged equipment. Automating sample flow control on your SWAS can help you meet plant process needs without high personnel costs and metric concerns.

Topics: Power, Steam & Water

High-quality steam is the key to safe and efficient production in processing plants including refineries, chemical facilities, pulp and paper production, food processing and co-generation plants. Improper chemistry control in the steam cycle can leave your plant at risk for buildup of impurities and corrosion of equipment, insufficient power production, and damages to the environment and plant personnel.

Topics: Any Application, Steam & Water

Industrial steam plants and combined steam and power facilities, also known as cogeneration plants, commonly use boilers to provide high-quality steam and electric power. As the heart of the plant, these boilers are crucial to efficient energy creation. If impurities enter the boiler feedwater or corrosion develops inside the boiler, equipment can be damaged, the plant can experience unexpected downtime, and energy creation can be extremely ineffective. It’s critical to limit impurities and corrosion in a boiler system to maximize boiler output and prevent these challenges.

Topics: Any Application, Steam & Water

Cycle chemistry management is the best way to help prevent, recognize and minimize potentially devastating water chemistry events in a facility. A well-planned and designed sampling system with the right instrumentation can help provide the critical insights you need to monitor cycle chemistry, protect equipment and ensure safe operation.

Topics: Power, Steam & Water