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Innovative HRSG Cleaning could save you $600,000 or more per year

Picture of Palmetto Soft Palmetto Soft Nov 20, 2020 4:57:00 AM

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Heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) cleaning is an effective way to restore lost performance because it reduces the back-pressure on the gas turbine, thereby increasing the net power output or reducing cost of fuel per megawatt generation. Every additional half inch (water column) of pressure drop through a typical F-class HRSG cleaning reduces the bottom line by about $100,000 per annum, depending on the price of fuel. An effective cleaning on a fouled HRSG cleaning could be expected to regain at least 3-6 inches of pressure drop.

Dirty HRSG tubes penalize plant performance in several ways. Fouling of the gas-side HRSG tubes increases a plant's heat rate by reducing the heat transfer and increasing the back-pressure of the gas turbine. Reduced heat transfer efficiency also reduces the output of the steam turbine, and excessively fouled HRSGs cleaning can exceed their designated back-pressure limit, triggering an expensive and automatic "turbine trip" or curtail otherwise available generation capacity.