Steam Attemperator Optimizer

Today thermal power plants are flexing load as much as 10% load to 100 % load multiple times a day, and they are picking up turbine cycles where they have metal temperature changes over 25ºC. Instantaneous temperature ramps are exciding the manufacturer limits, so the superheater header and the steam turbine are being damaged.

Customers need to invest time and money to improve control but process dynamics will not ever allow them to be good enough.

However, with ADEX Technology, customers can transition from one load to the other without exceeding temperature ramp limits on the turbine rotor.

Our Steam Attemperator Optimizer can smoothly drive the temperature along an optimal ramp trajectory on load changes and, particularly, on startups. The ADEX Platform can optimize steam temperature and maintain the best physical balance between ramp speed and metal temperature limits.

This should minimize the thermal fatigue of the equipment, avoid plant trips, increase plant operational safety, minimize costly expenses for equipment repair or replacement, and enlarge significantly equipment life expectancy. Additionally, the stability provided to steam temperatures by ADEX will enable a significant increase in their set points, resulting in a better heat rate for the plant, higher productivity, and saving of CO2 emissions.

This control is part of the ADEX Superheated & Reheated Steam Temperature Optimizer process control and will certainly mean a significant improvement in every thermal power plant as it already happens in all our customers.

Steam Attemperator Adaptive Predictive Expert Control is the first step in our effort to support Power Plants in their way toward HELE (High Efficiency Low Emissions) plants.