Air Pre-heaters and Heat Exchangers Will Be The Hot Topic

On January 22^nd at 10 a.m. CST

Air pre-heaters and heat exchangers play an important role in maintaining the efficiency and air quality of coal burning power plants.  Fine particulate and SO₃ removal can be improved by controlling the temperature of the flue gases.  Reliability and performance can be improved by minimizing fly ash fouling.  However, each plant needs to be carefully analyzed to determine where and how heat exchangers can be used to best accomplish these objectives.

John Guffre, Chief Research Scientist at Paragon Airheater Technologies, will be the featured speaker.  John has over 30 years experience in the power generation field working on improving power plant efficiency and the design and operation of pollution control equipment.  According to John, the air heater on a fossil fuel fired power plant is responsible for at least 10 percent of the overall thermal efficiency of the plant.  A poorly operating air heater, however, will result not only in a direct reduction in air heater thermal efficiency; it can have detrimental downstream effects on the air and combustion system.  In some cases, these downstream effects can result in an additional loss in efficiency of 5 to 10 percent.  He will focus his presentation on the direct thermal losses in the air heater and fan systems.

Bob McIlvaine will also review the extensive information on air heaters in the McIlvaine Decision Trees.  He will provide highlights from the decision trees, previous webinars on air heaters, and audio interviews.  The participants will be asked to comment on the following:

1.      Would tubular air heaters provide greater efficiency?

2.      What changes in air heater design are warranted in a plant that wants to be carbon ready?

3.      Mistubishi and Hitachi use additional heat exchangers prior to the precipitator to improve particulate control.  Is this desirable?

4.      Would use of heat exchangers to reheat the flue gas eliminate mercury hot spots?

5.      If CO₂ trading is implemented, will this warrant new air heater designs?

We welcome additional input for this conference.  There is still time to put you on the program.

To register for the January 22, 2009 “Hot Topic Hour” at 10:00 a.m. CST, click on:  http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/FGDnetoppbroch/Default1.htm .

Bob McIlvaine

847 784-0012

rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com