Some practical steam accumulator installations

摘要

Covey consulting has been involved in the design and commissioning of several successful steam storage installations over the past 25 years. These have all been of the 'Ruth Accumulator' or variable pressure type, which are typically installed to protect the steam generation plant from rapid load swings. Steam storage devices are an old concept which is rarely seen these days. Modern gas fired boilers can generally tolerate rapid load swings without unacceptable cost in efficiency and emissions. However solid fuel fired boilers coupled to large and rapid load swings can still be a serious problem, leading to loss of efficiency and unacceptable emissions. The accumulators we have been involved with have had to do with coal-fired and recovery boilers coupled to batch pulp digesters. All started up and worked reliably for many years. Our intention in this presentation is to explain how these devices work, and to provide practical methodology which would allow an engineer to carry out sizing and design. We have used real numbers, and typical data to this end.