Turbosteam’s goal is to maximize a power plant’s economic efficiency. We’re driven to convert zero and low-cost energy sources into the maximum amount of useful energy at the lowest possible price.

We characterize our design philosophy as a “heat first” approach because we focus first on a facility’s thermal energy needs and then design a power plant around them to achieve maximum overall efficiency.

Pressure energy recovery

Many boiler plants produce steam at a higher pressure than is required by downstream processes. This over-pressurization helps to keep distribution piping costs down and it adds “cushions” into the plant’s operation, but it comes at a cost of burning more fuel than is required to serve the thermal loads. When this pressurized steam reaches low-pressure steam distribution networks, a pressure reduction valve typically throttles down the steam, as shown in the following figure.

These valves lower steam pressure, but they also waste energy that was consumed in the boiler to produce the high-pressure steam. By installing a backpressure steam turbine generator, in parallel with the pressure reduction valve, Turbosteam can recover this waste energy as higher-value electric power.

Thermal energy recovery

Waste thermal energy is released as a byproduct of several industrial processes. In many cases, this energy can be profitably recovered to generate electric power. These opportunities generally take one of two forms:

1. Many industrial processes (including power-generation cycles) exhaust high volumes of high-temperature heat. This exhaust often can be directed through a waste-heat-recovery boiler to generate pressurized steam that then can be sent to a steam turbine. This process is quite common in the power industry, where so-called “simple-cycle” gas turbines are converted into “combined-cycle” gas turbines through the recovery of their exhaust heat and the addition of a steam cycle. Profitable opportunities exist in any industrial process that releases such high-grade waste heat. For example, the thermal oxidizers that many plants use on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), in order to comply with environmental regulations, often can recover the exhaust heat and be converted into revenue-generating devices.
2. Some facilities exhaust steam on a continuous or near-continuous basis as a natural part of their operations, either as rejected heat from exothermic chemical reactions or to balance thermal loads. In many cases, the volume of vented steam is sufficient to be profitably converted by an on-site power plant in order to lower an industrialist’s overall energy purchases. This conversion is most common in the chemical industry and at some waste-incineration plants.

Waste fuel recovery

In the wood products, steel, and chemical industries, boilers often serve two purposes: to generate steam for thermal loads and to dispose of waste fuel (e.g., wood chips, blast furnace gas, etc.. This waste is effectively a zero-cost fuel, and, as a result, industrials do not often focus on this conversion’s efficiency. In many cases, this creates an opportunity to extract value by increasing combustion efficiency and creating “excess” steam, which can then be converted into electric power. In some jurisdictions, such power is eligible for renewable energy credits, further enhancing a project’s overall value.

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