Waste-to-Energy (WtE) Opportunities in Combined Cycle Power Plants

Nowadays the use of packing as a tool for sealing or restricting the amount of fluid leakage is common in pumps. All manufacturers recommend a slight leakage through the packing for accomplishing water lubrication at the surface of the involved equipments. Also there is a definite relationship of leakage rate to maximum life of packing. Less than the recommended leakage rate will tend to reduce the life factor. Excessive pressure of the packing against the sleeve will adversely affect sleeve life. The leakage rate becomes important when the cost of fluid providing is high, besides pump performance as one of the main components of the system is persistent. Obviously, the continuous leakage of expensive fluid is a significant waste of energy and resource; the best solutions are to harness and to recover it. Decrease of leak rate and finally elimination of it is not possible in all cases, especially in high pressure pumps. Therefore, recovery of leaked fluid and reuse it at the system is the most efficient possible way. Hydro machine is the equipment used in the steam cycle of power plant. It consists of hydraulic turbine and water pump that are sealed by packing. Hydro turbine is designed for recovering and controlling unwanted head in the return main and circulating water pump is responsible for transferring fluid from the condenser to the cooling tower. The fluid is demin water and its specifications are as following: