0% found this document useful (0 votes)
Gaffoglio Alloy For Condenser Tubes PDF
Download as pdf
Download as pdf
Download as pdf
/ 13
PWR-Vol. 30 1996 Joint Powar Generation Conference
‘Volume 2
ASME 1996
FINE WALL (22 BWG) 90-10 AND 70-30 COPPER-NICKEL
CONDENSER TUBE USE AT
THE HENNEPIN ENERGY RESOURCE COMPANY POWER PLANT
William E, Helliwell
Hennepin Energy Resource Company
505 6" Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55405
George A. Anderson
Olin Fineweld® Tube
102 Progress Parkway
‘Cuba, MO 65453,
‘ABSTRACT
Hennepin Energy Resource Co. (HERC) has been operating it six
yearold 38MW Minneapolis, MN waste to energy powerplant since
(October, 1989 with twenty-two gage wall (22 BWG - 0.028" wall)
90-10 and 70-30 copper-nickel condense tubes. Twenty gage ws
(20 BWG - 0.035" wall) 90-10 and 70-30 copper-nickel tubes have
‘been used succesfully in both sea water and fresh water powerplant
condensers since the early 1970's as both new construction and
replacement tubes, However, this isthe frst, known to the authors,
‘we of 22 BWG wall 90-10 and 70.30 copper-nickel condenser tubes
in power utility condenser although there certainly are locations
‘here this material combination and wall thickness would make &
00d choice. This paper describes the plant with emphasis on the
condenser and its tubes, the condensate side and water side
interfaces, tube performance, and the copper-nckel alloy features.
INTRODUCTION
Each man, woman, and child inthe United States generates about 4
pounds of garbage daly, the great majority of which i disposed of
in landfills. But landfill capacity i diminishing in some areas ofthe
‘country and the nation now faces «challenge: how to safeguard the
cavironment while maximizing the potential uses of slid wast,
Hennepin County, a national leader in solid waste management,
‘slablished an integrated solid waste management system in which
‘non-ecycled wastes safely combusted and itsenergy vale retieved
89
at a stateofthe.art wasteto-energy facility; recyclables. are
collected, sold, and processed nto usable goods; common household
contents, such as leaning solvent, batteries, and motor oil, are
collected separately fr safe disporal: and combustion ash and noa-
‘combustible waste are deposited in properly lined landfill,
Hennepin County's waste-to-lectric-energy facility anchors this
fally integrated solid waste management system, procesing about
‘one-third ofthe County's waste, Located on the edge of downtown
Minneapolis, the facility is owned and operated by the Hennepin
Energy Resource Company, L.P.,asubsiiary of Ogden Projetsthe
‘country’ slangestwaste-to-energy company. The facility returns more
than two-thirds of energy sales revenues to the Hennepin County
Department of Environmental Management.
Although a few instances exist where 20 BWG wall 90-10 copper-
nickel condenser tubes have been installed prior to 1970, the concept
‘was initiated in 1972? and continued to develop during the decide
ofthe 1970's and into the 1980's until now it isa well established and
‘proven material application. Ithas been extensively uted in both new
construction and retubing applications with seawater, brackish
water, fresh water, and cooling tower water cooling.
Lighter wall copper alloy tubes are commonly used in air
conditioning applications. It ie common, for instance, to supply
0.032" 21 BWG) and even 0.030" wall90-10 copper-nickel tubes for heat pump applications and 0.022" (24 BWG)wall95-Scopper-nickel
tubes forlthium bromide chiller applications. The Hennepin Energy
Resource Co, facility is the fit electric power generating plant
condenser application for 22 BWG wall 90-10 and 70-30 copper.
nickel condenser tubes known to the authors
‘THE HENNEPIN POWER PLANT
‘The Hennepin resouree recovery facility, Figure 1, began commercial
‘operation in October, 1989 and converts up to 1212 tonsday and
245,000 tons/year of roid waste to salable energy. While the facility
is capable of producing 38 megawatts of electricity, it runs on the
power it produces with resource recovery operations consuming
about four megawatts. The reminder i sold to th local utility and
used fo power are homes and businesses thus offetting the burning
of non-renewable ls, a wells reducing related emissions. As of
December 31, 1995, the plant has generated 1,529,597,000 kewh of
clectricity, saving the equivalent of approximately 1,100,000 tons of
coal or 2,600,000 barrels of fuel ol and disposed of 2,197,066 tons of
‘waste, conserving approximately 4,200,000 eu yds of landfill
‘The facility wtlizes the mass burn combustion technology mentioned
in Reference 3 to reduce the volume of delivered waste by 90%, see
Figure? Wasteiscombusted at furnace temperaturesexceeding 1800
“F and reduced to an inert ash reside, Before leaving the facility,
‘combustion air i directed through technologically advanced air
pollution control equipment incuding dry gas scrubbers and fabric
filter baghouss. In addition, the facility uses anhydrous ammonia
injection into the furnace to reduce NO, emissions and powdered
activated carbon injection at th inlet to the scrubbers to reduce
‘mercury emissions. Facility emissions and wastewater discharges are
scely regulated by state and federal agencies, as are handling and
disposal of combustion sh,
‘THE CONDENSER
‘The Hennepin Energy condenser is of the cylindrical profile, see
‘Table. Water flows ina two pass configuration: in atthe bottom of
‘one end, through the lower bank of tubes to the returnend, returning
by the upper bank of tubes tothe discharge end. Waterflow is 27,160
‘gpm which repeeentea nominal velocity of 7 fps through the tubes
‘Steam flow is approximately 300,000 Ibsyhour with a normal turbine
Dock pressure of 2. inches of mercury. There are (9) nine support
plates with a nominal 26" spacing over the 22 foot long tubes.
In addition tits normal operation, the condenser is expected to be
capable of receiving instantaneous full turbine inlet steam flowin the
event of a turbine trip, and full steam low from both steam
‘generators during periods of turbin/generator maintenance. The
[HRC facility has no separate by-pass or dump condenser but relies
‘on a full flow steam conditioning valve to reduce pressure and
temperature to approximately 50 prig saturation conditions prior to
90
‘admission to the main condenser. The main condenser i designed
with distribution headers and surface area to accommodate these
conditions. Ful load turbine trips put added stresson the condenser,
its tubes, and the tube-to-tubesheet joins, Turbine inspections are
‘accommodated by isolating the turbine outlet from the condenser by
means ofa specially designed gullotin isolation damper, which
allows turbine caver and rator removal while operating at capacity
with reasonable condenser pressures and temperatures.
“The condenser tubes are
Main Body:
(6342 x 34" dia, x 22 BWG (0.028") avg, wall x 22° 2-1/2" long,
Alloy: UNS C70600 90-10 copper-nicke.
‘Temper: As welded, Light Cold Worked,
‘Specification: ASTM-B-S43 "Welded Copper and Copper-Alloy
Heat Exchanger Tube"
‘Air Removal Setion:
238 x 34" dia, x22 BWG (0.028") avg. wall x 22" 2-1/2" ong,
Alloy: UNS C71500 70-30 copper-nickel.
‘Specification: ASTM-B-II1 "Copper and Copper-Alloy Seamless
‘Condenser Tubes and Ferrule Stock".
‘Tube-to-tubesheet joints were designed to Heat Exchange Institute
(HED) Standards ® and support plate spacing, a vibration
consideration when using reduced wall tubes, was calculated using
HEI principles °°. There were no special methods used during
rolling-in of the tubes to the tubesheets and there has been no
‘bration damage tothe condenser during it sx years of service.
WATER SIDE
‘The water side flow arrangement is shown in Figure 3. Two 350 hp
pumps provide the 27,160 gpm flow at approximately 30 psig postive
prestureat the condenser. A forced draft cooling tower is used with
‘lowdown to the storm sewer and make-up from the Minneapolis
city water supply. The tower is of a wetdry desiga, with heat
‘exchangers for cold weather vapor plume abatement. Since the
lowdown is required to be sent to the storm sewer, its water
treatment program is appropriately designed for discharge tothe
Mississipi River system, The pH ofthe cooling water is controled
by addition of blended organic phosphonates and synthetic anionic
polymeric dispersants. Five to seven cycles of concentration is
targeted and normal pH range between 8.5 and 8.8 is achieved
without addition of sulfuric acid. A hetero-cycic azole is alo added
to protect copper and copper.ally metals. Blended anionic and
‘nonionic polymeric dspersuats are also added to effectively disperse
calcium phosphate and iron which is normally found in cooling
water systems, Isothiazolone biocide is batch-fed as required with
appropriate hoiding times for microbiological control. Chlorine added by Minneapolis for drinking water treatment is scavenged
Prior to discharge tothe storm sewer sytem,
CONDENSATE SIDE
The condensate, feedwater, and steam system is shown in Figore 4
There are one each low and intermediate pressure feedwater heaters
and ove deaerating heater and storage tank which discharges tothe
tle ofthe boiler feedpumps. Boiler water make-up comes from two
10 gpm demineralizers which accept Minneapolis city water input.
There is one condensate polisher which accepts «10% condensate
lde-stream flow.
xygen scavenging is accomplished by the use ofa blend of dethyl-
sydroxyl amine (DEHA) fed into thecondensate systemdownstream,
2f the hotwel. Tis injection point was selected in order to protect
he feedwater heaters and piping. A volatile neutralizing amine
vroduct is added to the feedwater system downstream of the
‘ecdwater pumps. Condensat/feedwater pH is maintained between
\2 and 9.2. The steam generators are protected by a blend of
volyphosphate and sodium hydroxide with a polymeric sludge
lispersant injected into the steam drum with the feedwater, Since
take-up levels rarely reach 2% boiler OH’ alkalinity can be
aaintained between S and 10 ppm.
EATURES OF THE COPPER-NICKEL ALLOYS
“bere are several copper alloy materials that are identified as copper
ickel alloys, se Table II. However, the most commonly used
oppernickel condenser tube materials are 90-10 (UNS C70600) and
0.30 (UNS 71500) copper‘nickel. For condenser applications,
tes of these materials are commonly supplied in 18 BWG (0.049"),
9 BWG (0.042"), or 20 BWG (0.035") wall thicknesses”. As
‘placement tubes (etubings),itiscommon for 19 BWG or 20 BWG.
all 90-10 copper-nicke! to be selected asthe replacement material
© 18 BWG wall admiralty tubes whose useful life has been met
‘unique feature of 90-10 and 70-30 copper-nicklis their wide range
application areas. They may be used in (lean) waters of high total
solved solids (TDS), such as seawater (30,000ppm TDS,
»000ppm chlorides), to fresh water (<1000ppm TDS) from a wide
ge of sources, in addition to cooling tower applications. On the
rndensate side, the copper-nicke alloys may be used in the main
‘at transfer section of the condenser, the air removal section, and
«© peripheral sections due to their high resistance to ammonia
\ntaining compounds and steam impingement, Table IL
OPPER-NICKEL CONDENSATE SIDE
secopper-ickelalloys, UNS C7060090-10 copper-nickeland UNS
11500 70-30 copper-nickel are far superior to the other commonly
ed copper and brass alloys in resistance to ammonia on the
‘denser condensate side. Tests conducted” in 1000 pp (seated)
ammonia (pH = 109) show that 90-10 copper-nickel is
approximately 25 times better than admiralty and 70-20 copper-
nickel is approximately 125 times better than admiralty in this
‘environment, as shown in Figure 5. The copper-nickel alloys stand
apart from the traditional copper alloys like admiralty brass,
luminum brass, or arsenical copper in ammonia resistance. In
Addition, the copper-nickel alloys ae essentially immune to stress
corrosion cracking (SCC)in an ammonia environment”,
in Table IV.
COPPER-NICKEL WATER SIDE
‘The copper-nickel alloys were originally developed as seawater
condenser tube materials and found wide sein both land based and
shipboard condensers. They are frequently used in both once
through and recirculating cooling water systems where the water has
«abroad range of total dissolved solids (TDS). To be succesful the
‘copper-nickel condenser tube material must be resistant to selective
attack such as pitting and erosion in addition to being resistant 19
biofouling for good heat transfer characteristics,
90-10 copper-ickel has been reported to have been installed in two
Units of afresh water cooled power plat in the United States over
40 years ago, Test tubes of 90-10 copper-aickel were installed in a
power plant on the Ohio River in 1949. Wit the long passage of
Aime, itis dificult to confirm the performance of these tubes,
However in 1981 both sites wee reported to be performing wel, A
‘more timely installation with which the authors are familars the use
‘of 20 BWG wall 90-10 copper-nickel throughout the condensers of|
‘two 1300MW supercritical generating units a the Tennessee Valley
‘Authority Cumberland Station which started operation in 1973. Itis
cour understanding that these tubes have been performing well over
their 22 year life, to date,
COPPER-NICKEL MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
The mechanical properties of the condenser tube material are very
important factors in the condenser design and condenser tube
installation. A condenser tube must resist rube vibration in service
while being capable of making satisfactory rolled tube-o-tubeshect
joint, 90-10 copper-nickel has a modulus of elasticity of 18x 10 psi
‘while 70-30 copper-nickel has a modulus of elasticity of 22x 10" pi
‘These are both higher than the other copper alloys commonly used
in powerplant condensers such as admiralty brass and provide the
required stiffoes for service and ductility for installation.
Figure 6 shows a relationship between tube support plate spacing,
tube wall thickness, and steam velocity for 90-10 coppernickel
tubes", It is especially important when retubing an 18 BWG
admiralty brass tubed condenser, for instance, with 20 BWG or 22
‘BWG wallcopper-nickel tubes to be certain thata vibration problem
isnot reated. Asan approximate guide ifthe existing 18 BWG wall admiralty brass condenser tubes do not have a vibration problem, it
i unlikely that replacement 20 BWG wall 90-10 copper-ickel
‘condenser tubes will have a vibration problem. Further, vibration
problems are typically localized, ie: between one or two support
plates, and are alzo typically isolated to the outer few rows of tubes
ina tube bundle. If vibration problems are considered possible, the
tube bundle may be selectively “staked” to prevent damage.
‘The tube-tocube-sheet joint is commonly made with a torque
controled roller expander. Most of these tools have three rollers
while tome have four or five, the later for rolling of the more