Widely used boilers in industrial applications require safety shutdown technology to bring them to a safe state in abnormal conditions. Fuel line lines require safety shutdown valves to stop the flow of combustion fuel.
In a Today’s Boiler article, New Shutoff Valve Technologies Help Boiler Manufacturers Meet Changing Global Landscape, Emerson’s Shaista Mallik highlights advancements in these valves.
Shaista opens highlighting the importance of the fuel train components:
…to improve the safety, reliability, energy efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of boiler installations.
Some of the innovations in fuel shutoff valves include:
High flow rates — Designers changed the curvature, volumes, and capacities to optimize the flow, not only through the valves but also through the entire fuel train. Minimized pressure drop — As natural gas flows through the fuel train, pressure drops through any device (i.e., elbow or bend in the pipeline). This can be an issue for the user when inlet pressure is low, yet demand needs to be maintained in order for the boiler or any unit operation to function. The highest level of pressure drop occurs through the double safety shut-off valve, and due to high coefficent of flow (CV)/flow ratings in new shutoff valves, the pressure drop is minimized. Handling a wide range of pressures — The new valve has a close-off pressure rating of up to 75 psi, which means it reliably performs in low-pressure applications common in densely populated metropolitan areas, like New York City, as well as high-pressure applications subject to high system pressure spikes, typical in remote locations in Canada, Minnesota, or the Rockies. Valve proving — Valve proving is a protocol that opens and closes the main shutoff valves (double block and bleed arrangement) in the proper sequence and monitors pressure in the gas pipe between the two safety shut-off valves. This ensures there’s no gas leakage across the train. Valve proving improves energy efficiency by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions and further reduces vent piping. Published gas capacities enable users to seamlessly run a valve proving protocol on the fuel train. Compact, monoblock designs — New valves are smaller than previous models and can be mounted in any position, even upside down. They can weigh only 25% as much as existing products. Plus, only the end connector is threaded, not the valve, so the same valve can be used with either NPT or ISO end connectors. The monoblock design also allows two valves to be placed in a single body casting.
Read the article as Shaista describes how these innovations improve compliance with ever stricter global regulations & safety standards, increase reliability, improve energy efficiency, reduce component complexity, and simplify installation.
Visit the Modular Fuel Gas Shut-Off Valves sections on Emerson’s ASCO site for more on this family of modular gas safety shut-off valves. You can also connect and interact with other fluid control experts in the Fluid Control & Pneumatics group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
The post Innovations in Fuel Shutoff Valves appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.