Happy Holidays from Power Specialties, Inc.

"Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect." — Oren Arnold

Combustion Air Flow Monitoring: Better Combustion Control Saves Money

Millions of dollars are wasted every day in combustion processes in the power and co-generation industries: in kilns, smelters, ovens and similar applications. Combustion losses are insidious because the processes operate normally while hiding operation inefficiencies. In the average process, operators and management can’t easily identify the large amounts of fuel being wasted. An efficiency audit will reveal problems that raise operation costs.

Most combustion systems have mechanical controls set to overfeed combustion air by as much as 20%. Fuel costs and additional maintenance costs associated with blower or burner wear can add up to thousands of dollars wasted per day. However, there is a low cost remedy that can be implemented during a short downtime — upgrading combustion air flow meters or installing an instrumented control system.

Benefits of Combustion Airflow Monitoring

• Fuel cost savings
• Improve process stability
• Reduce operator interventions
• Increase equipment capacity
• Improve safety
• Reduce carbon footprint
• Improve sustainability

THE CHALLENGES

How can large combustion processes be modified so they operate more efficiently over a wide
operating range with dirty gases that tend to plug and coat?

• Dealing With Limited Straight Runs

Combustion processes generally consume a high volume of combustion air that travels to the burners through large ducts. To measure air velocity accurately, airflow meters require straight runs upstream and downstream to ensure the meter is reading a fully developed flow profile. Insufficient straight runs can adversely affect flow meter accuracy, process stability and combustion efficiency. Installation of sufficient straight run for flow measurement is typically not considered in the design of a system and multiple solutions are needed to accurately measure airflow.

• Tighter Control in High Turndown Situations

Combustion system turndown and operational flexibility is often constrained by limitations of the control system. The performance of mechanical control systems is poor because mechanical linkages poorly control fuel-to-air ratios when operated over a wide range of firing rates. That’s why they are set to overfeed combustion air. Instrumented control systems perform better at controlling fuel/air mixture if the flow meter is designed and installed correctly.

• Reducing Plugging and Coating

Combustion air flow meters can become coated and plugged when particulates are present. This reduces flow meter accuracy and can potentially shut down the process.

• Improving Efficiency and Environmental Compliance

Combustion processes require sufficient airflow for the efficient combustion of fuel.They also must comply with environmental regulations. Introducing excessive air reduces the efficiency of the combustion process, wastes fuel, and can dramatically increase operating costs. Mechanical combustion control systems do not provide a means to tune airflow for the ideal ratio. An instrumented system provides such a means but the ability to provide fuel savings is often limited by the performance of its air flow meter.

Air Monitor Corporation Products

Solutions to combustion airflow challenges are readily available with innovative products manufactured by Santa Rosa, CA. Air Monitor Corporation.  To learn more, or to discuss your aiRflow monitoring challenge, contact Power Specialties, Inc. Call them at (816) 353-6550 or visit their web site at https://powerspecialties.com.
based

Recorded Webinar: Detection Technologies for Toxic and Combustible Gases

This recorded webinar, presented by MSA, provides an excellent overview of the history of gas detection and the technologies used today. MSA is the world's leading manufacturer of safety products designed to protect people throughout the world.

Industrial gas detectors are used in a wide variety of chemical plants, refineries, water treatment plants, and other manufacturing facilities to continuously monitor and detect toxic or combustible gases and vapors. They are equipped with audible and visual alarms to alert personnel to the existence of these conditions.  The major components for industrial gas detectors are the sensor, the detector, the transmitter, and the annunciator.  Gas detection systems are available as single point sensing or multiple point sensing capabilities, and in fixed position or portable configurations.

For more information about MSA gas detection products, contact Power Specialties. Call them at (816) 353-6550 or visit them at https://powerspecialties.com.

Celebrating Our Veterans on Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a day of observance and celebration for those who have served in the United States military. Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day because of the November 11 Armistice that ended World War I. In 1954 it was officially changed to Veterans Day to include Veterans of all wars. This holiday honors those who took an oath to defend the United States and our Constitution, from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Through the observance of Veterans Day, we remind ourselves of our Veterans patriotism, love of country and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

Power Specialties thanks our Veterans, past and present, for serving our country and protecting our freedom.

Electric and Pneumatic Damper Drives for Combustion Air and Flue Gas

Download the Damper Drive Catalog Here

There are more than 45,000 industrial and commercial boilers larger than 10 MMBtu/hr in the United States with a total fuel input capacity of 2.7 million MMBtu/hr. One way to improve the efficiency of these boilers is to improve the combustion control system.

Current combustion control systems lack continuous carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions monitoring capability and the automated controls needed to improve fuel performance. A novel combustion control system, along with gas sensors, sets the opening of fuel and air inlets based on flue-gas concentrations. Continuous feedback from measurements of oxygen, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide concentrations enable the control system to improve combustion efficiency while maintaining low carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions and allows continuous monitoring of boiler performance.

Combustion air and flue gas damper drives fill a critical role requiring safety, accuracy and reliability of the combustion control system. The proper damper drive delivers quality, power and performance providing  precise control and speed increases the BTU/Fuel ratio and increases the MW/Fuel ratio.

Rotork offers a full-line of electric and pneumatic damper control solutions for the isolation and control of combustion air and flue gas. Our products improve the efficiency and reliability of large and small boilers, furnaces and process heaters.

---

DOWNLOAD THE ROTORK TYPE-K DAMPER DRIVE CATALOG FROM THIS WEB PAGE

---

For more information, contact Power Specialties, Inc. Call them at (816) 353-6550 or visit their web site at https://www.powerspecialties.com.

Top Five Tips for Choosing a Flow Meter

The wide range of flow technology alternatives on hand can make it a confusing task to select the right flowmeter. A wide range of factors can influence the selection of flowmeter, of which only one is the cost. Including the fluid type, application environment, working parameters such as temperature, pressure and flow rate, flow meter technology, requirements for precision and repeatability, reliability, installation limitations, maintenance requirements, and instrument life cycle are many considerations to consider. Below are our top five criteria when selecting a flow meter.

1. Regulations, compliance
   1. What local, state, regional or national regulations impact the measurement location?
   2. Are there additional recording, data logging or calibration verification requirements to comply with regulations?
   3. What agency approvals must the flow meter have?
2. Fluid type at the measurement point
   1. Dry or wet gas conditions may affect sensors
   2. Corrosive components in oil may affect sensor material selections
   3. Flow back contains mixtures of oil, gas, solids, chemicals, and water that must be separated
3. Fluid conditions
   1. Does the accuracy spec of the flow meter change based on the composition of the fluid type?
   2. Does the fluid composition change over time?
   3. What is the pressure and velocity in the pipe? Is it constant?
   4. Are there installation limitations (straight pipe runs, limited access to the pipe, tight spaces)?
4. Additional equipment
   1. Does the flow meter require additional equipment or instrumentation to operate successfully at the point of measurement?
5. Additional calculations
1. Will you need to do additional calculations to determine an accurate flow rate? 

List is courtesy of Fox Thermal.

For more information about flow meter selection, contact:

Power Specialties, Inc.
9118 E. 72nd Terrace
Raytown, MO 64133
Toll Free: (800) 432-6550
Phone: (816) 353-6550
Fax: (816) 353-1740
www.powerspecialties.com

Top 10 Reasons Why ProSafe-RS Safety Instrumented System (SIS) Is the Fastest Growing Safety Control System

Before ProSafe-RS, DCSs and SISs were typically supplied by different vendors and required extra engineering for the individual systems and interconnections. Furthermore, these systems were more difficult to master and operate as they had different interfaces. ProSafe-RS overcomes these hurdles through complete integration with Yokogawa’s CENTUM DCS – an industry first. The ProSafe-RS has been a global success since its debut in 2005, and is continually being improved.

ProSafe-RS has a unique and excellent dual architecture that is based on Yokogawa’s supremely reliable DCS technology. The SIS has a modular design, and dual architecture is implemented inside each module. And the modules themselves can be installed in a dual redundant configuration. This is controlled by the SIS and is fully transparent to the user. This approach maximizes both safety and availability, independently and simultaneously. This flexible system configuration makes it possible for the user to configure redundancy on a module by module basis, achieving the required availability in each system component.

For more information about Yokogawa's ProSafe-RS, contact Power Specialties, Inc. Call them at (816) 353-6550 or visit their web site at https://powerspecialties.com.