FLUID HANDLING
STEAM GENERATION CYCLE
MAGNETROL
ARE SUBTLE INEFFICIENCIES
CONDENSING YOUR BOTTOM LINE?
In many process industries, as much as 60%
of total energy consumption goes to the
production of steam. Our newly updated
white paper on the steam generation cycle
shows how better level instrumentation
can improve efficiency, reduce fuel
consumption, lower costs, and prevent
production downtime.
To identify key areas in the steam
generation cycle, condensate recovery
system and waste heat recovery process
where cost-effective instrumentation
solutions offer a tangible return on
investment over the short-term. The goal
is to reduce heat rate, environmental
impact, fuel and water consumption,
water treatment and maintenance costs
in commercial and heavy industries
where steam generation is essential to the
production processes.
Although plausible, it is rare to identify
a single source of inefficiency related to
poor-quality level controls that impact
a company’s bottom line in the double-
digit percentile. More so than not, it is
these small incremental opportunities for
improvement across various aspects of
the steam generation cycle, condensate
recovery system and waste heat recovery
process that ultimately equate to
substantial savings.
• Reduced water consumption, treatment,
discharge and inventory management
• Improved boiler/steam drum control –
energy savings and steam quality
• Reduced fuel consumption – waste heat
recovery
• Energy management – fuel gas,
combustion air and compressed air flow
• Hardware protection & maintenance –
pumps and pump seals
Oftentimes, the hidden maintenance
costs and inefficiencies associated
with a technology’s vulnerabilities
(sustained operation in high pressure
and temperature steam environments;
chemical exposure; errors due to the
complexity of the measurement itself and
subsequent calibration requirements) are
overshadowed by the day-to-day operation
of these processes.
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PECM Issue 39
respectively. Additionally, better level
control technology at the boiler side
eliminates energy losses resulting from
unnecessary blowdown to prevent
carryover conditions.
Dampfauslass
Swell
Feed
water
Normal Water
Level
Shrink
Steam
and und
Dampf-
water
mix
Wassergemisch
Regardless of the scale of an operation
–commercial power generation or small
scale boiler system, leveraging the
inherent attributes of an instrument’s
fundamental technology in both the short-
term (engineering, upfront cost, installation
and commissioning) and long- term
(maintenance, day-to-day practicality and
energy management) present simple and
cost-effective approaches to maximizing
the return on investment in the system
itself.
Estimates of up to 49 percent of the energy
can be recovered through the use of
flash steam routed to heat exchangers or
the deaerator to preheat boiler makeup
water or support the deaeration process,
Optimizing boiler, deaerator, heat
exchanger/condenser and blowdown
usage relative to level control primarily
affects fuel economy by better managing
the amount of energy required to produce
high quality steam for any given task.
Seamless response to changes in demand
and reducing maintenance associated
with the instrumentation or damage
to hardware are residual benefits that
have their own financial ramifications;
hence, should also be considered when
implementing any technology. The
return on investment time frame can vary
depending on the scale of the operation as
well as the time spent maintaining aging
instrumentation.
Download the white paper today.
www.steamgen.magnetrol.com