Monitoring of power equipment lubricating oils.
At present the number of power plants in Russia is continuously growing.
Dozens of them are commissioned every year.
Distribution power generation strategy gives the opportunity to move power source maximum closer to the consumer and substantially reduce the losses for the transmission of the energy. Reliable operation of power equipment directly depends not only on quality of its manufacture but also on up-to-date diagnostic tools using for lubricating oils and process fluids. Magazine staff decided to study available opportunities for diagnostic of power equipment technical condition. One of the diagnostic methods together with integrated control system is laboratory analysis of used lubricating oils. To understand how analysis of used lubricating oils is applied the specialists of the magazine visited International test centre of fuel and lubrication materials. The questions were answered by Mr. Smirnov, managing director of the center, and Mr. Antonov, technical director.

 

Effectiveness of water and air cooling combination for heavy duty gas turbines.

Reasonable substitution of open air cooling system of first stage of gas turbine plant with closed water cooling and its combination with air cooling of following stages of gas turbine will give the opportunity to significantly reduce compressor air bleed and additional losses and also to improve main parameters of gas turbine plants and combined cycle power stations developed of their base. In comparison with common total air cooling, efficiency of gas turbine plant and combined cycle
power station with combined water and air cooling is higher by 1.8…2.1 % (abs.). Application of only compressor air for cooling of up-to-date heavy duty simple cycle gas turbine plant with initial gas temperature of 1500…1600 °C will increase overall air consumption up to 18…20 % of compressor output.
Practically half of this consumption is used for high-temperature cooling of the first stage of gas turbine.

 

Turbocharger solutions for new engine generations.
The latest development of engines is mainly driven by performance targets, lifetime costs and rules or regulations regarding emissions.
All these demands lead to new generations of engines with several new technologies. On the one hand gas engines show the trend to install two-stage turbocharging systems to use the benefit of the intercooling for better performance.
On the other hand diesel engines have to include new engine technologies, like exhaust gas recirculation or exhaust gas after treatment systems, to manage the trade-off between emissions and specific fuel oil consumption demands. Dual fuel engines are characterized by higher compressor pressure ratios for diesel mode in comparison to gas mode.

 

Service life of spark plugs: how can it be extended.
Purchasing costs of fast-wearing components and expendable materials is one of the most important expenditure items for owners and operators of gas engine power plants. The most expensive item among them during the operation of the plants is spark plugs. To increase the profit every manufacturer of gas engines tries to create advanced expendable materials and in result to
monopolize in such a way aftermarket coverage of  the equipment. However, as in the case of other components, spark plugs are manufactured at production facilities of original manufacturers such as Denso, Champion, MOTORTECH which deliver wide assortment of other products. Schedule of spark plugs exchange is settled by manufacturers.
Usually, it reaches 80…4000 operating hours.
However, by using additional technological tools and materials it is possible to extend spark plugs service life by two and sometimes three times.
They include SparkView portable device, CleaMot plugs cleaning kit, GapTool adjuster of spark plugs gap, regulator of spark plug seating position, dielectric lubricant and sealing metal ring.

 

Fuel injection advance angle influence to technical and economic performance of 8DM-21/21 diesel engine.
Modern market of locomotive and automobile propulsion engines and power plants makes ever increasing demands for the reduction of specific effective fuel consumption and emission levels on all operating modes of the engines. One of the ways to solve the problem is application of fuel injection advance angle control depending on engine output and rotation speed.

 

Advanced technology for corrosion protection was brought to use at production facility in Slavyansk.
Slavyansky plant introduced the technology for the protection of heat-exchanging equipment from corrosion in 2019.
This patented technology meets all requirements of ISO 12944 international standard. Aluminum pigmented polyurethane coating was especially developed for the protection of heat-exchangers with air cooling from devastating impact of corrosion. The coating is applied in a thin layer (20 μm) on the base of special technology.
It gives the opportunity to prevent decrease of heat-exchange rate.

 

Gas engine market in Russia: a new stage of development.
With the development of gas transportation systems and increase of liquefied natural gas production in Russian Federation in 2015-2019 concernment of customers in gas and dual-fuel engines of different application rose exponentially. Increased interest of customers to engines operating on natural gas is determined by low cost of fuel gas and short payback period. High environmental safety and compliance parameters of such engines application in urban and agricultural sectors are also very important. In perspective it is expected the increase of demands in gas and dual-fuel engines for railway transport, river and sea vessels, in particular ice-class vessels using for development of northern territories.

 

Golden lightnings, the main awards in the sphere of distributed power generation were handed out in Moscow.
52 projects were applied for the award. These projects were realized in Byelorussia, Germany, Canada, Italy and in different regions of Russia.
Thirty seven projects reached the final of the completion. They were thoroughly evaluated by Decision Board which consisted of leading specialists in the sphere of distributed power generation, rectors of industry-specific universities and distinguished scientists.
TechEnergoService company from Tyumen became the winner of the award in the first nomination «The best project in the sphere of distributed power generation up to 5 MW». It presented for the competition the project of gas engine power station for power supply of drilling equipment on the site of Severo-Komsomolskoye oil and gas field in Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Area. Total output of the station is 4 MW.
Realization of the project gave the opportunity to 4 times reduce the costs of the fuel.

 

Flow meter of steam turbine vacuum system.
As it is known, at operation of steam turbine non-condensable gases (atmosphere air) penetrate to steam condensation chamber of steam turbine plants. Physical presence of the air in the steam deteriorates operating conditions of condensing chamber and leads to pressure increasing and, consequently, to decrease of operation economy of steam turbine plant.
Exceeding of permitted value of non-condensable gases volume leads to dead areas appearance – heat-exchange in these areas deteriorates considerably.
Main ejectors are used to remove non-condensable gases from condensing chamber of steam turbine.
They create deep vacuum, draw off the air and vent it to turbine room. For determination of air volume throttle air meters are used. They are installed on exhaust flange of the main ejector. Air meter developed by the specialists of All-Russian thermal engineering institute was created as throttle device. It comprises of pressure-difference device (measuring membrane) and single-glass water differential manometer.

 

International conference and exhibition Power-Gen Europe ‘2019.
International Power-Gen Europe Conference and Exhibition, co-located with Electrify Europe event, experienced a record number attendees across the three events over three days. The event provided a clear picture that the European power market is changing and it is changing fast. The high number of attendees across all the events is a reflection of the industry’s eagerness to discover the latest developments in business, technology and policy at a moment of such rapid change for power generation.
It’s an exciting time to be working in such an innovative industry.