12-18-08

Power Plant Fan Selection was Hot Topic on December 18, 2008

It was a Howden alumni meeting as all four speakers revealed previous employment with this company. We had some highly experienced and capable speakers--

Marcel Kamutzki, Daltec Canadian Buffalo

Jim Greenzweig, Fläktwoods

David Marshall, Howden Variax

John Gray, TLT Babcock

You can view their biographies and pictures at Bios, Abstracts, Photos - December 18, 2008.doc

There was lots of good discussion with fan specificers such as Hitachi and Sargent & Lundy asking questions and providing additional information. There were differences of opinion on whether to deal exclusively with the OEM when upgrading a fan or whether to consider a competitor for the job. Comparisons of axial and centrifugal fans were made by several of the speakers.

The importance of minimizing energy consumption was high on the list of topics. David Marshall pointed out that an 800 MW boiler has fans rated at 25 MW or over three percent of the boiler output. A 10 percent reduction in fan horsepower can save $2.6 million/yr. Speakers covered FD, ID, and booster fans. They also covered variable speed drives and various vane configurations.

The power points can be viewed separately in the FGD Decision Tree as follows:

Marcel Kamutzki – Daltec Canadian Buffalo Mfg. Ltd.

Start

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Scrub

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Physical

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Component Specification

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Fans

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