The lubrication small turbine of the air pressure unit has been replaced with a motor-driven version
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The lubrication small turbine in air pressure units has been replaced with a motor-driven system; typically, such small turbines consume 2 to 3 tons of steam at 1.0 megapascal per hour, resulting in steam-related costs of over 3 million yuan per year. The cost is too high! If the unit turbine is replaced with a motor drive, a significant amount of steam can be saved. Is there any risk in this approach? Our factory’s mechanical department has always been unwilling to make changes.
Currently, most lubrication oil pumps in air compressors are equipped with two electric pumps and feature oil pressure interlock for automatic startup; however, it is necessary for the two motors to be powered by two separate power supplies
The turbine is primarily about stability; whether to use electricity or steam depends on the steam balance in your plant. If the 10 kilograms of steam you use are all by-product, then why switch to electric power? Even if you do switch to electric power, you still have to figure out what to do with those several tons of steam. It’s just an example.
It’s better to use steam; it’s stable, and even with the whole plant’s steam balance taken into account, there won’t be a shortage of steam! For electricity use, two pumps are necessary, along with two power supplies. Otherwise, a power outage will cause the lubrication system of the air compressor to fail, damaging the gauge; it’s no longer just a matter of steam!
Our turbine lubricating oil stations are motor-driven, and there are quite a few problems; the main one is related to the low-pressure interlock mechanism. When one unit shuts down, the oil pressure rises too slowly after the other unit starts up, which leads to the shutdown of the turbine. The electricity supply isn’t working properly; the problem hasn’t been resolved yet. I’m thinking that if we had a small turbine, we wouldn’t have to deal with these issues
Using a smaller turbine will help stabilize things, but regarding the phenomenon you mentioned, the system will still shut down due to interlocks even after changing the turbine. Investigate the reason for this. You could try increasing the pressure at which the backup pump starts automatically; generally, there is a delay in electrical automatic starting, so try to minimize that delay.
Here we use motor drive; in the event of power fluctuations, the motor drive allows for quick pump startup, and it’s less likely to occur a low oil pressure shutdown. When driven by a turbine, switching from motor drive to turbine drive is somewhat difficult. In fact, all oil pumps No. 1 and No. 2 in the system are equipped with dual-power supply circuits. From an economic perspective, it’s better to be cautious
You can set up a interlock in the circuit such that when one pump loses power, the other pump starts automatically; it isn’t the signal of low oil pressure that controls the startup of the backup pump, which makes it easier to implement from an electrical engineering perspective