Emerson’s Tom Mullins and Daniel Quintero presented How Will Valve Automation Change in a Sustainability and Decarbonization World at the 2024 Ovation User Group Conference. Here is their presentation abstract.
Sustainability and Decarbonization (S&D) are increasingly highlighted in corporate annual reports as a desired objective. The move to drive down emissions and use lower environmental impact alternatives will affect the way plants of the future automate their factories; forcing them to look at new services, new safety requirements, and develop energy efficient solutions to drive down emissions and at the same time, increase safety. Valve actuators have been used in hydrogen and C02 applications in the Oil and Gas space, but now these applications will be moving into water and power. In this session, we will discuss applications in these environments and solutions: C02 carbon capture, Hydrogen, and energy efficiency through electric actuation in an Ovation environment.
Companies are responding to regulations and incentives, driving new applications for automated valves. Valve actuation, traditionally used in the oil and gas industry, will help the energy transition in the power and water industries. New CO2 pipeline and hydrogen manufacturing applications are changing requirements for electric and pneumatic actuators. Electric actuators often use fail-safe technologies for emergency shutdown (ESD) and blowdown valves (BDV). Smart, intelligent actuators can interface with today’s control systems, offering less capital cost and more predictive maintenance capabilities.
Sustainable operations are highly efficient, flexible, and environmentally sustainable facilities that leverage advanced technologies and integrate multiple energy sources. Sustainability and decarbonization are essential for complying with environmental regulations, mitigating climate risks, and achieving a competitive advantage.
Safety Instrumented Systems (SISs) are crucial because these facilities involve high-risk processes where failures can have severe consequences, including equipment damage, environmental harm, and human injury or death. As hydrogen pipelines enter the power generation industry, SISs will play a more significant role in their use. Emergency Shutdown valves (ESD) with Safety Integrity Level (SIL) capable actuators and systems will be normal in areas where Hydrogen and CO2 are present.
Valve actuators are essential in these new environments and solutions for CO2 carbon capture, hydrogen, and energy efficiency.
Across many industries, companies are interested in standardizing SIS environments, electrification, hydrogen and CO2 valve actuation, connectivity, and smart feedback.
One way to transport hydrogen is to blend it with natural gas in pipelines. By blending hydrogen with conventional fuels, the electric power generation industry can achieve a more sustainable and efficient energy mix, positioning itself for a cleaner and more resilient future.
With hydrogen pipelines or blended natural gas and hydrogen pipelines, there will be additional considerations for actuation. The valve actuation solution requires electrical power but must have mechanical ESD performance, but also, the explosion-proof area classification may change to allow the presence of hydrogen. The Bettis EHO Electro-Hydraulic Operator has onboard hydraulic systems generating high-pressure fluid motion. It has a high torque range providing reliable spring fail-safe operations in up to SIL 3 safety applications and is Class I Div 1 Group B (Hydrogen) rated.
Electric actuators are replacing pneumatic actuators due to operational costs, energy consumption, maintenance, and digital connectivity advantages for advanced monitoring and diagnostics.
The Bettis electric-powered actuation portfolio is available for quarter-turn and multi-turn valves, spring return, and small quarter-turn valves.
The Bettis RTS Fail-Safe Mechanical Spring Return Electric Actuators are designed and field-proven to reliably shut down on the loss of power or signal. The design can independently adjust motor speed and fail-safe shutdown time. These actuators are available in compact multi-turn, quarter-turn, and linear designs.
They noted that there are three primary methods to achieve a fail-safe stroke on the loss of main power to an electric actuator—supercapacitor, battery backup, and mechanical spring return. A mechanical spring design was chosen for these actuators as the best and most reliable method for fail-safe operations.
The Bettis XTE3000 electric actuator is an intelligent multi-turn valve actuator. It measures critical parameters and displays them for monitoring and diagnostics in real-time or through the DCMlink software. DCMlink collects data from electric actuators, providing connectivity to plant-level asset management systems. Wiring to these devices can be optimized with wired HART or WirelessHART for the process variables and comprehensive diagnostics.
Globe, ball, gate, and butterfly valves have numerous applications in power generation. Some of these include fuel gas control valves, gas shutoff valves, steam turbine inlet control valves, main steam stop valves, feedwater control valves, condensate return valves, cooling water control valves, bypass valves, isolation valves, pressure-reducing valves, and pilot gas valves.
They summarized the presentation by noting that H2 and CO2 will drive new actuation applications with different area classifications and safety requirements (safety instrumented systems). Spring return fail-safe electric actuators can eliminate maintenance and energy-intense compressors. As power generation companies advance their sustainability and decarbonization efforts, Emerson can help with the right technologies and expertise.
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