INDUSTRY NEWS

GEA HX is now Kelvion

A standalone company has been created out of the former Heat Exchanger division of the GEA Group. After a change in ownership, various segments of the Heat Exchanger division will operate under different names and market presence, such as DencoHappel (former Air Treatment) while the Power Cooling Solutions business will be renamed before the end of the year.

The Heat Exchanger sector will be known as Kelvion, homage to Lord Kelvin, a pioneer of thermodynamics. The company will supply plate heat exchangers, finned-tube heat exchangers, shell-and-tube heat exchangers, modular cooling towers and refrigeration heat exchangers.

Duke plan changes

Duke Energy is no longer constructing a 45- mile transmission line and substation when it builds two new natural gas plants in the Asheville, North Carolina area. Under the revised plan, the company will replace its coal plant in Asheville with two smaller gas units rather than one large plant.

The new plan includes a two-phased approach to reconfigure the Asheville power plant. Officials said they created a new plan after getting community feedback on the company’s original plan to connect one new large electrical station to the substation in South Carolina via a highvoltage transmission line.

Duke Energy also plans retiring the coal units as scheduled by 2020. In their place will be two natural gas combined-cycle 280 MW units, with the option for a simple-cycle 190 MW unit in 2023 or later, depending on the success of the company and community’s efforts to reduce daily and peak power demand. The new units will be dual-fuel so oil can serve as emergency backup. The company also plans a utility-scale solar power plant on the site.

Chromalloy facility

At a grand opening ceremony in Guaymas, Mexico, Chromalloy announced that its new state-of-the-art gas turbine engine machining facility is operational and producing aircraft engine components. The 36,000 square foot manufacturing center has the capacity to machine up to 68,000 gas turbine components a year.

It replaces Chromalloy’s adjacent 17,000 square foot facility, in operation since 2009. The Guaymas facility supplies precision machining on new production, high and low pressure gas turbine engine components, including blades and segments. Customers include aircraft engine manufacturers and manufacturers of heavy industrial gas turbines. Services include multi-axis machining, grinding, milling and Electro Discharge Machining (EDM). Chromalloy also operates a gas turbine engine component repair center in Mexicali, Mexico.

Kobe Steel in India

Kobe Steel has established a subsidiary company in India called Kobelco Compressors India (KCIN). It has begun marketing standard air compressors. Kobe Steel has large market shares in Japan and other Asian countries. The Indian compressor market of $250 million is expected to double in the next several years.

PWPS African sales

PW Power Systems announced commercial operation of three Mobilepac gas turbine generator packages in sub-Saharan Africa. They are located in Conakry, Guinea, and operated by K-Energie. The Mobilepac uses Swiftpac gas turbine package technology. PW Power Systems also has units operating in Togo and Benin.

British gas plant upgrade

British utility Centrica announced plans to return its South Humber Bank gas-fired power station in Lincolnshire, UK to full service in 2017. Centrica will overhaul gas turbines ahead of the start of its capacity market contract. The £63 million overhaul of the 1,285 MW power station would secure its future up to 2027, the company said. The station’s capacity is expected to increase by 14 MW as a result of the turbine upgrade.

Elliott supplies Williams

Elliott Group will supply the compression equipment for Williams’ new 525 kTA propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant in Redwater, Alberta, Canada. The PDH unit is an expansion of the company’s Redwater fractionation, distribution and storage complex. Fluor Canada is the EPC contractor.

Elliott will provide three compression trains for the reactor effluent, heat pump, and propylene refrigeration duties. The package encompasses auxiliaries including lubrication, buffer gas and control systems. When it comes online in 2017, the plant will be the first in Canada to produce polymer grade propylene.

Holly Refining Corp. has also chosen Elliott to supply compression equipment for an upgrade at its Navajo Refinery in Artesia, New Mexico. This will help meet EPA emission standards for clean fuel formulation. KP Engineering is the EPC contractor. Elliott will provide the hydrogen recycle string consisting of a 15MB7 compressor plus motor and gear. The H2 recycle unit will be built and tested in Elliott’s manufacturing facility in Jeannette, Pennsylvania. Delivery is scheduled for the third quarter of 2016.

Siemens digest

Siemens will supply key components for the Bibiyana South Combined Cycle Power Plant in Bangladesh. It includes one model SGT5-4000F GT, an SST-3000 ST and a model SGen-2000H generator, along with all associated auxiliary systems and the electrical and I & C systems. Total capacity in the single-shaft plant will be 400 MW, with commissioning scheduled for May 2018.

The company received funding for its power plant project in Egypt. The $8.5 billion deal, which calls for three CCPPs with a capacity of 4,800 MW each, plus 12 wind farms, was signed in June. This project, said to be the biggest in Siemens’ history, will start in 2016, with full production by 2018.

Siemens received an order to supply two SGT6-8000H GTs and two SGen6- 2000H generators for the Empalme II CCPP in Sonora, Mexico. The plant will have a capacity of 791 MW. Commercial operation is scheduled for April 2018.

Six model SGT6-8000H GTs are to be installed in the Empalme I (770 MW), Empalme II (791 MW) and Valle de México II (615 MW) CCPPs. Siemens is also supplying two SGT6-5000F GTs for the Tula plant located in Hidalgo, Mexico.

Egyptian CCPPs

Egypt signed a $600 million agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a 1,800 MW CCPP in Damanhour, 150 km northwest of Cairo. It will consist of two units with a generating capacity of 900 MW each.

The plant will be located on vacant land, part of an existing power plant with old units that use gas or oil as fuel. Three 65-MW units which have been in service for more than 40 years have been decommissioned.

Another $420 million Egyptian contract will enable Orascom Construction to convert the 1,000 MW Assiut and 500 MW West Damietta power plants into combined cycle plants, which will boost capacity by 50% without any extra fuel intake.

Orascom is building two more power plants with Siemens, and has entered a consortium with Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Corp. to build a coalfired plant with up to 3,000 MW capacity.

Russian plants

Gazprom commissioned two CCPPs in Russia, one at CHPP-20 power plant in Moscow and the other at the Serov SDPP power plant in Sverdlovsk. Each unit has a capacity of 420 MW, with 58% efficiency. The projects were implemented using Siemens gas and steam turbines, and exhaust heat boilers manufactured by Power Machines (St. Petersburg, Russia).

Bangladesh nuclear

The nation’s state-run Atomic Energy Commission recently signed a deal with Russia to set up two nuclear power plants, each with a capacity of 1,200 MW. The investment is estimated at $12.65 billion. Work is scheduled to begin soon at Ruppur in Iswardi, 160 km (100 miles) from Dhaka. The first power plant is expected to begin operation by 2022 and the second by 2023. The plant will use a new generation reactor that has a lifespan of 60 years, which can be extended for another 20 years.

Middle East combined cycle

Mitsui and its consortium partners recently received a $2.3 billion order from Oman Power and Water Procurement (OPWP) to build two CCPPs with a combined capacity of 3.15 GW. The Sohar-3 and Ibri power plants will be commissioned in 2019. Power will be sold to OPWP under a 15-year power purchase agreement.

MHPS digest

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA) has begun production on its JSeries turbine at its Savannah Machinery Works (SMW) in Savannah, Georgia. Seven more M501Js are planned to roll off the SMW assembly line within the next year.

Seventeen J-series units are currently in commercial operation at six different power plants worldwide, and unit 18 was scheduled to go on-line in January 2016 in South Korea. The company recently increased its total units sold to 41 with the announcement that two M501Js will be installed at an 850 MW plant in Nuevo León, Mexico. It provides 61.5% efficiency with 1,600°C (2,912°F) turbine inlet temperatures.

The first J-Series turbine being built in North America is slated for installation at Grand River Dam Authority’s (GRDA) Grand River Energy Center in Oklahoma. The unit will replace an old coal-fired unit.

MHPS has also received an order for a gas-fired H-25 gas turbine and a generator from Korea Petrochemical Ind. Co. (KPIC). The turbine and generator will be installed in a power generation plant at KPIC’s Onsan Plant, which produces ethylene, in Ulsan- Metropolitan City, in southeastern Korea. KPIC is expanding power generation capacity at the plant to increase ethylene production.

Further orders include:

• A boiler to be installed at the Shinseocheon Thermal Power Plant

• A 1,000 MW class coal-fired, ultrasupercritical- pressure thermal power generation plant to be constructed by Korea Midland Power Co., Ltd., slated to commence operation in September 2019

• An ultra-supercritical-pressure boiler and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system for a 1 GW capacity expansion project at an existing coal-fired power generation plant in Cirebon, Indonesia

• A boiler, steam turbine and generator for the San Buenaventura Power Plant, a 500 MW supercritical-pressure, coal-fired power generation plant to be built in the Philippines

• An 880 MW CCPP destined for Indonesia’s state-owned electricity company.

GE digest

GE’s Power Services business has secured two Enhanced Steam Path (ESP) upgrades for power plants in Rhode Island and California. GE will perform a first-ever ESP upgrade on the GE D-11 ST at an Entergy Rhode Island State Energy plant in Johnson, Rhode Island.

This 583 MW CCPP will experience an output improvement of 26 MW, boost revenue and address steam turbine vibration issues via a rotor replacement. In March 2016, GE also will perform an upgrade on the GE D-11 at the Elk Hills facility in Tupman, California, adding about 3 MW to the plant and increasing efficiency by 1%.

GE Power’s Digital Power Plant has gained 15 customers for the company’s Predix industrial software platform over the past 90 days. Predix is a secure cloud-based platform built to support industrial data. It allows developers to quickly build, test and deploy power plant and other applications (Turbomachinery International Nov/Dec 2015, p.32).

GE Oil & Gas and Asian energy company PT Donggi Senoro LNG will provide full package services, including planned (spare parts, repairs, supervision and manpower) and unplanned maintenance in Indonesia.

Iberdrola Generation Mexico has ordered two GE 6F.01 gas turbines and longterm services for two plants in Altamira and San Juan Del Rio; they will have a combined generation capacity of about 100 MW. Commercial operation for both plants is expected in 2017.

Industrial PCs

GE industrial PCs (IPC) will now include the company’s supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and human machine interface (HMI) software to precisely monitor and control environment, equipment and resources. The new, integrated SCADA Edge IPC provides the processing power needed to sift through vast amounts of data.

GE’s Power Services business has completed inspection and repairs of the 180 MW Ensenyurt Power Plant on the outskirts of Istanbul, Turkey. This marked the first time GE completed repairs on non-GE-made parts as well as GE-supplied components.

The CCPP uses gas as its primary fuel and diesel as a secondary fuel to generate electricity and steam for district heating. The station features three GE 40-MW Frame 6B gas turbine-generator sets and a GE 74D-SPFG- CAX ST.

Dynegy is installing GE hardware and software equipment to upgrade four of its power plants to enhance reliability and increase output by a total of 210 MW. GE will supply eight sets of Advanced Gas Path (AGP) upgrades and its OpFlex Peak Fire software for the fleet of 7FA.03 gas turbines

Capstone supplies India landfill project

Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) has developed a landfill project for Eastern Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) where a 30 kW Capstone microturbine is installed to produce power from landfill gas.

GAIL also supplied technical assistance for landfill closure as well as gastapping wells, connecting all these to manifold piping for further treatment and supply to the microturbine.

This initiative is in line with the Indian government’s commitment to enhance the renewable energy component of the country’s energy production target and agreements made at the Paris climate summit. Recent Chennai floods have left tons of solid waste accumulating in Indian cities, which require solutions like EDMC has adopted in Eastern Delhi.

GAIL explored all options for compressing landfill gas (LFG) to produce power. These included gas turbines and reciprocating engine gensets. It decided on microturbine technology as the reciprocating gas engine could not operate satisfactorily when methane content fell below 50%.

Generators required for producing power from LFG must have remote start and continuous unattended operation, ease of maintenance and high reliability. The Capstone microturbine met those requirements.

It can operate with 35% or less methane content in the inlet gas, and does not have maintenance-intensive components, such as an oil pump, oil filter, water pump, radiator, coupling or starter motor. A total of six major subassemblies requiring periodic maintenance attention are absent in this microturbine.

M/s Brio Energy of Mumbai, exclusive distributor of Capstone in India, supplied the microturbine, commissioned in December 2015. The facility also includes a counter-current CO2 scrubber, and a compressor for landfill gas since the pressure of the gas generated is near atmospheric, and the microturbine requires an inlet gas pressure at a minimum of 5 kg/cm2 and maximum raw land-fill gas of 50m3/hr for 24 hrs continuous operation.

The microturbine operates gas compressors, pumps and blowers as a part of unit testing. Excess power will be uploaded to the grid. The unit has already been synchronized with the local grid frequency and has insulatedgate, field-effect transistor circuitry. Starting and stopping of the engine require touching of two buttons. Engine noise was less than half a normal genset of the same capacity. Exhaust NOx was less than 9 ppm. at Dynegy’s Hanging Rock Energy Facility and Washington Energy Facility in Ohio and the Fayette Energy Facility in Pennsylvania. Dynegy also is upgrading its Independence Energy Facility in Oswego, New York, with four sets of AGP hardware.

GE, BNP Paribas, Citigroup and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group are coleading project financing for construction and operation of the 1,029 MW Caithness Moxie Freedom CCPP in Luzerne County, PA. The contract consists of two 7HA.02 GTs, two STs, the control system, associated equipment and a long-term services contract. The turbines will operate in single- shaft combined cycle configurations and are expected to begin commercial operation in 2018.

Xcel Energy’s Black Dog Power Plant in Burnsville, MN, is transitioning from coal to natural gas at one of its units by adding a GE 7F.05 gas turbine to replace an existing coalfired steam boiler. The 7F.05 unit is expected to be used in peaking operation.

Protecting against blackouts

The West Medway Generating Station in Medway, MA was originally fueled by oil and used to meet peak demand and to protect against blackouts. GE is providing its owner, Exelon, with two LMS100PA+ aeroderivative GTs and a control system to upgrade the facility.

GE’s Power Services business has secured more than $310 million in services orders for three power plants in Mexico, Chile and Trinidad and Tobago. This includes maintenance services for three 7FA.05 GTs and a D11 ST that will be installed at the new Techgen CCPP in Pesquería, Mexico, a service agreement for the Nueva Renca Power Plant (a 379 MW CCPP in the Santiago, Chile powered by one 9FA with a GE D11 ST), and replacement of two MS7001E (Frame 7E) GTs at the 236 MW Penal Power Station with two MS7001EA (Frame 7EA) GTs in Trinidad.

GE has been awarded a contract valued at nearly $1 billion for the engineering, construction and provision of gas turbine services for the Waad Al Shamal CCPP of Saudi Electricity Company. Scheduled for completion in 48 months, the plant will support phosphate mining operations. GE will supply four GE 7F.05 GTs and an ST.

Graphalloy acquisition

Graphite Metallizing Holdings, Inc. (GMHI) has purchased Exalto UK, a manufacturer of water-lubricated bearings. Exalto supplies the marine and pump industries with rubberlined and composite Cutlass bearings. GMHI has developed a method for combining molten metal and carbon to create a graphite-metal alloy.

Siemens grabs CD-adapco

Siemens has agreed to buy CD-adapco, a privately held engineering software firm, for almost $1 billion. CD-adapco makes simulation software for engineers to model the inside workings of complex machinery. Siemens intends to use these new assets as part of its ongoing initiative to improve overall product lifecycles.

CD-adapco has around 900 employees in 50 offices worldwide. Its annual revenues are about $200 million. As well as turbomachinery simulations, the company’s software is also used for automotive engines, aerospace and other fields.

Saudi Aramco maritime deal

Saudi Aramco and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group signed a general memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly collaborate on business development opportunities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The signing ceremony was presided by Amin H. Nasser, President and CEO of Saudi Aramco; Ki-sun Chung, Senior Vice President of HHI Corporate Planning, accompanied by Jeong-Hwan Kim, COO of HHI Shipbuilding, and Cheul-ho Park, COO of HHI IP&E (Industrial Plant and Engineering).

The MoU lays out a multi-faceted business cooperation framework in areas such as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), downstream, and the development of a casting and forging facility. It also covers the development of a massive maritime yard and the advancement of maritime diesel engine manufacturing in Saudi Arabia.

Kobelco expansion

Kobe Steel continues its global expansion with the estabishment of a subsidiary in Thailand called Kobelco Copressors (Thailand) Ltd. (KCTH). It has been put there to market and sell standard air compressors as well as provide after sales services. Based in Bangkok, the target for 2020 is to have supplied 800 compressor units.