Burner cooling water failure trip interlock
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What is the real significance of setting up an interlock that causes shutdown in case of a problem with the burner cooling water? Our company’s burners are equipped with a 4-out-of-2 trip interlock for cooling water, but over the years of operation, the burners have never stopped working due to the activation of this interlock. Burner leaks can generally be detected using online analyzers in combination with sample testing; there are no significant fluctuations in other parameters such as inlet and outlet flow rates, inlet pressure, and outlet temperature. If we rely too much on this trip interlock, it might be necessary to wait until the burner is completely damaged
We’re lucky, and the burners are of good quality as well; there has been no cascade shutdown due to the burners’ cooling water issues over all these years. We have experienced several chain stops due to burner leaks, and we feel that this chain reaction is necessary; the process from changes in burner flow and temperature to the activation of the chain reaction is very fast.
This interlock is absolutely necessary; it represents the valuable lessons learned over the years of development of Texaco gasifiers. The burner interlock isn’t meant to prevent the burner from being burned through, but rather to minimize losses in the event that the burner is damaged. With so many conditions set for this interlock, once any of them are triggered, the inlet and outlet valves for the burner’s cooling water are closed, thereby isolating the gasifier system and preventing high-temperature gases from escaping (this is the true purpose of the burner cooling water interlock)! As long as the interlock for the burner’s cooling water is activated and those two shut-off valves close, even if the burner has not been burned through, the burner will still get damaged due to the lack of water supply at that point! We once shut down the inlet and outlet isolation valves for the burner cooling water due to a mistake (pressing the burner cooling water emergency stop button when the vaporization furnace was brought to an emergency stop), which resulted in a perfectly good burner being damaged!
An interlock for the burner cooling water is necessary. Flow rate difference, outlet temperature, inlet pressure. Our company has also experienced this several times: sudden fluctuations in flow rate led to minor leaks in the burners, which caused the plant to stop operating. As for online analysis, we are virtually non-existent and vulnerable to environmental influences.
It’s necessary to check the reasons for the fluctuations if there are any
Smida, where did you press the burner emergency stop while operating?
Haha, it seems like they know each other. When I was working at Baotou Shi*, the technicians there made a similar mistake
I haven’t seen you at Haichuan in a long time
The return water temperature does change a bit, but there has been no change in the inlet and outlet flow rates; even though the online analyzer kept giving alarms at full scale for extended periods, no fluctuations in the inlet and outlet flow rates were observed
It’s not that the burner didn’t leak; after determining that there was a leak, we removed the burner and found obvious holes on its end face, and inspections confirmed that indeed there was a leak. Yet, there was no variation in the flow rate at the inlet and outlet – we don’t understand why
If the holes can already be seen, it’s already quite serious; usually, burner leaks are caused by very small cracks. At the same time, when a leakage-induced chain reaction occurs, the inlet and outlet valves for the burner’s cooling water will close automatically, which may lead to further severe damage to the burner; once, when we were removing the burner, we accidentally broke the coil