Electric actuators help cut power plant emissions
An
Industrial Devices UK product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jan 28, 2002
By adopting 640 electric actuators on its coal-fired boilers, a 2000MW power station in the North West of England has improved the reliability of its combustion control
By adopting 640 electric actuators from Industrial Devices UK to replace the existing hydraulic actuators on all four coal-fired boilers, a 2000MW power station in the North West of England has improved the reliability of the combustion control necessary to minimise the greenhouse gas emissions from the flue.
Low-NOx (nitrous oxide) burners within the boilers rely on close position control of multiple dampers to achieve optimum combustion conditions and initially this was achieved with hydraulic actuators.
However, any damper actuator failure resulted in a partial loss of control over CO2 and NOx emissions.
Mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) is critical and replacement of a hydraulic actuator could take 2 maintenance operators a full shift, working in temperatures up to 60C.
Fitted with Amphenol plug and socket connections, Industrial Devices' electric actuators can be replaced in 30 minutes by a single maintenance operator.
The environment adjacent to the boiler also demanded a robust working specification.
In addition to the normal elevated temperatures, any breakdown of the boiler brick lining could expose the actuators to very high temperatures.
This becomes more likely towards the end of the four-year life of the lining.
With hydraulic actuators this high temperature exposure represented a serious fire risk which has been eliminated by the use of the electric actuators.
Because of the fine powdered coal in the vicinity, an IP66 specification was required in addition to their being UL approved to UL94 VO and flame retardant to 650oC.
The actuators are rated for 108mm strokes at 6000 Newtons although the actual operational duty cycle of 6 moves per hour against a load of 500 N will yield an extremely long operational life and a projected mean-time-between-failures (MTBF) well beyond the rated 200,000 operations.
This high MTBF to MTTR ratio was critical to the selection of electric actuators for the application.
Actuator travel speed is 5mm/sec, and end-travel switches in series with the 24 volt dc drive motors ensure complete safety.
The actuators are powered from dedicated 110 volt IP54 transformer rectifier power supplies.
Analogue damper position is achieved by a 0 -10 volt signal from a PLC that works in conjunction with a feedback potentiometer within the actuator.
Gas analysers constantly monitor the flue gas composition and route input signals to the PLC to adjust damper position for more efficient combustion.
Overall the new electric actuators will provide greater safety, reduced maintenance, better long-term reliability, faster replacement in the event of actuator failure and more consistent control of the greenhouse gas output of the power station.
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