Everyone knows that scheduled maintenance is an essential part of running a plant. It offers a chance to upgrade, retrofit, or replace equipment that isn’t running efficiently, and it’s also a time to make assessments about compliance with emission regulations.
Paying attention to fuel delivery and draft systems can pay off big if done correctly — and the enormous investment of upgrading to a whole new boiler system can be avoided. Keep reading to find out more about successfully maintaining your fuel flow system.
Inconsistent Fuel Flow
One main reason plants experience emissions issues is that their fuel flow is inconsistent. This manifests as uneven mounds on the boiler grate with stoker-fired boilers, and the result is very high levels of UBC, or unburned carbon, getting blown into the exhaust gas draft system by the combustion air. This raises the levels of NOx and CO2, which increases greenhouse gases and particulate matter.
A maintenance outage is the perfect time for the installation of upgraded fuel feed equipment so that the flow of fuel is consistent. Another potential upgrade to be done during this time is a properly-sized overfire air system, which reins in a lot of the UBC before it hits the fly ash. Computational fluid dynamic modeling can assist in identifying problems with airflow and combustion, and can help you decide the location and amount of overfire air system needed.
Plan for Success
None of these upgrades matter if they aren’t properly implemented — and that means taking time to come up with a schedule for maintenance before something breaks down. As painful as it may be to shut down a plant for maintenance, it’s even more painful — and usually much longer — to shut down because of equipment failure.
When it comes to maintaining, repairing, and replacing equipment in industrial plants, nobody has experience like ProcessBarron. Whether you need help with fuel flow or you’re looking for a company to partner with you on every aspect of your plant, we are here to keep your plant up and running.