Highly Efficient Utility Steam Generators
With its thousands of welds, pipes extending several hundred kilometers and many thousands of tons of heavy structural steel, the utility steam generator (boiler) is at the heart of any fossil-fired power plant. This is where the pulverized fuel is burnt at around 1,450 °C; forming here are also the hot flue gases and the extremely hot steam under high pressure, which subsequently drives the turbine blades.
HPE develops, designs and supplies steam generators for unit capacities up to and over 1,100 Mwel with 300 bar plus pressures, 600 °C live steam temperatures and reheater temperatures up to 620 °C for all the available fossil fuels. These extend from coal and lignite to specific fuels (e.g. gases from coke ovens / steelworks and refinery residues).
With a track record extending back over 100 years, Hitachi Power Europe is one of the market and technology leaders in utility steam generators. References include over 370,000 megawatts of installed power plant capacity (of which 180,000 MW is coal, 43,000 MW lignite and 140,000 MW oil and gas firing) which have been set up since 1970.
Developments are constantly ongoing in utility steam generators. New, highly-resistant materials, for instance, should enable them to achieve even higher steam temperatures and pressures. This is the way to raise the efficiency of tomorrow's coal power plants to over 50%.
For more information please contact sales@hitachi-power.co.za