Natural Gas and Fuel Oil Fired Plants
Natural gas-fired plants are regarded as the cleanest fossil power plants. By burning the gas, boiler feed water is heated up into steam for subsequent electricity generation.
Monitoring and controlling the flow of these feed lines is of crucial importance for the safety and performance of the power plant. By employing FLEXIM’s high-temperature clamp-on WaveInjector mounting fixture, accurate and reliable measurements even at pipe wall temperatures of 400 °C / 750 °F and more can be established. As the measurement system is completely non-invasive, it is independent of the pressurization levels within the pipe, doesn’t cause any pressure drop, and makes process shut-downs for installation a thing of the past.
Due to the integrated HybridTrek mode, the FLUXUS flow meter can also clearly detect steam entrainment in the feed water flows – a clear cause for decreased plant performance.
Aside from flow measurement of feed water flows at extreme temperatures, the FLUXUS flow meters can also measure and monitor the flow of fuel oil or gas to the boilers to achieve the most efficient plant operation.
Either fuel oil or feed gas needs to be measured very accurately and reliably in often harsh environments. Due to matched and paired transducers, sophisticated high-speed flow calculations, and very rugged stainless steel solutions, FLEXIM perfectly suits such prerequisites.
Fuel oil feed lines are conventionally either monitored by the use of orifice plates and differential pressure or positive displacement meters:
Both of these flow meter types require a lot of maintenance due to wear and tear by the abrasive and partially clogging medium. With the non-invasive ultrasonic clamp-on flow meter technology, FLEXIM offers a better solution.
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No pipe cutting or welding is required and as the flowmeter has zero contact with the medium, it is virtually maintenance-free. Moreover, it offers an unlimited measurement range and high zero point stability. By factoring in the fuel oil temperature (and pressure), the FLUXUS flow meters also output the normalized flow rate.
For gas feed lines, FLEXIM developed a special transducer technology – Lamb wave transducers – to offer the most accurate clamp-on flow measurement possible. The clamp-on measurement system is independent of pipe dimensions, material, and wall thickness. There are no upper-pressure limits and even on very low-pressure lines, the flow meter is capable of carrying out a bi-directional flow measurement over a wide turndown range. By factoring in pressure and temperature (as well as the individual gas composition if needed), the FLUXUS gas flow meter outputs normalized flow rates.
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