Case History of Reapplication of a 2500 KW Steam Turbine/Gear Drive Generator

Abstract

In today' s equipment market more and more projects are turning toward existing equipment to justify a project. New equipment's delivery time and/or capital cost can keep a good project "grounded". In the turbomachinery industry, a few companies have developed the expertise to identify candidates of existing machines that can be adopted for many new applications. These companies can inspect, modify, recondition and rerate the equipment as needed, which helps bring in a project within budget and on time. This paper is the history of such an application. The delivery schedule requirements and limited capital made the project feasible only through the technology of reapplying existing machines to a new service. The project involves a plant that extracts landfill gas and converts it to diesel fuel, naphtha and a high grade of wax. The plant requires a steam turbine generator set to produce electrical power for its base load operation. This paper covers the history of how the turbine, gear and generator were selected, along with the highlights of the engineering work required to insure the mechanical operation of the string of equipment.