www.dieselgasturbine.

com AUTUMN 2021

A KHL Group Publication

COVERING LARGE ENGINE AND GAS TURBINE MARKETS SINCE 1969

Executive roundtable
DECARBONIZATION, COVID AND FUTURE MARKETS

HÅKAN AGNEVALL, PAUL BROWNING, MARTY HAYCRAFT, CARLOS LANGE, PROF. KANGKI LEE, JAVAID RIAZ, OLIVER
president and CEO president and vice president of president and CEO senior vice general manager RIEMENSCHNEIDER,
of Wärtsilä Corp. CEO of Mitsubishi Caterpillar Inc. and of INNIO. president, High of Parker Gas managing director of
Power Americas. president and CEO Power Systems of Turbine Division. ABB Turbocharging.
of Progress Rail. AVL List GmbH.

MARINE TECHNOLOGY:
ENHANCED LUBRICATION

2021 TURBINE
SPECS-AT-A-GLANCE

POWER GENERATION MARINE PROPULSION OIL & GAS RAIL TRACTION

 FILTRATION

The proper air

filtration for
a gas turbine
incorporates
several variables.

Cause and e.FFECT

D
ust and moisture in the intake air of Freudenberg Filtration Technologies
gas turbines cause deposits on the believes it has an answer with its Freudenberg’s simulation
blade surfaces known as ‘fouling’, simulation software, the electronic
as well as corrosion damage in the hot gas Freudenberg Filter Efficiency Tool,
software helps operators
area. or e.FFECT for short. With e.FFECT, optimize air filtration
This results in in higher heat rate and Freudenberg Filtration Technologies said
less efficiency while maintenance effort it is able to configure individually
and costs also increase. Multi-stage air optimized air filter systems
intake filter systems provide protection and tailored to the specific needs of
functional reliability – as long as they are turbomachinery operators.
precisely tailored to the requirements of
the plant and the specific environmental FACTORING TOTAL COST
conditions at the power plant location. OF OWNERSHIP
The relationship between the dust mass “The power output is influenced
entering the compressor of a gas turbine by the dust ingress into the
over a period of time and the loss of machine and the dust is
turbine performance it causes can serve as building up deposits on
an important parameter in selecting the the blades,” said Thomas >
most economical sequence of filter classes
in multi-stage systems. Because air filters
always separate a percentage of particles,
site specific dust concentrations affect the
dust load entering the compressor. A high
concentration of dust at a specific site
means that a correspondingly higher dust
load will be transported into the turbine.
But how can operators find site-specific
data and how can that be incorporated
into the filtration selection process?

DIESEL & GAS TURBINE WORLDWIDE AUTUMN 2021 11

 FILTRATION
Schroth, Market Segment Manager
Turbomachinery for Freudenberg. “But
the power output is also influenced by
the pressure drop – the airflow resistance
of the filters – and basically the software
is providing a total cost of ownership
calculation based on site-specific
conditions where the power plant is
located.”
e.FFECT maps the actual operation of
a plant onto a digital model. Based on
the site-specific conditions and relevant
variables for efficient operation, the
software tool compares the filtration
systems in question and determines the
best solution. This is necessary because the
more specifically a filter system is tailored
to the respective plant requirements, the
more efficiently, safely and economically it
can be operated, according to Freudenberg.
In the case of turbomachinery, this
typically involves the use of multistage
filter systems: coordinated, sequentially
connected combinations of pocket,
cassette and/or cartridge filters. e.FFECT
The power output
is influenced by the dust
ingress into the machine
and the dust is building up
deposits on the blades.”
THOMAS SCHROTH, market segment
manager turbomachinery, Freudenberg
12 AUTUMN 2021 DIESEL & GAS TURBINE WORLDWIDE
calculates the individual filtration
efficiency of each filter stage and
the accumulated quantities of dust
per filter element.
One factor that influences the
filtration system is the composition
of the local ambient air. To ensure
that the intake air
filter system can
be precisely
designed, it
is therefore
important to
know where a
power plant is
being operated. This may
be in an urban area with high
levels of submicron particulate
matter, in a rural region with a
high pollen count, near a humid
coastline, or in an area characterized
by drought and high concentrations
of coarse dust like for example sand.
To analyze the supply air at a specific
location, e.FFECT either uses the ongoing
measurements of national environmental of gas turbines, the main factors causing
authorities or other available data of performance losses are fouling and the
particle concentrations that can be pressure drop of the particle-laden filters.
determined in the immediate vicinity of e.FFECT uses the interaction of these
the site. calculation parameters to determine the
optimum value for which the sum of the
E.FFECT MAKES POTENTIALS OF two system-inherent performance losses is
PERFORMANCE GAINS VISIBLE the lowest.
Process requirements and plant specifics, Two extreme scenarios illustrate this
such as the intake mass flow of the point more clearly. An ultra-fine filter
turbomachine, are particularly important system with an extremely high degree of
in determining the requirement profile for separation would hugely reduce fouling,
the filtration of the intake air. In the case but would lead to high reductions in
performance due to pressure drops in the
Location is a key determining factor when filter system. Conversely, using no filter
choosing a filter. system at all would mean zero pressure
loss, but would severely accelerate and
intensify fouling, resulting in a steep drop
in power output and the efficiency of the
system. By comparing different solutions,
e.FFECT calculates the “golden mean”, i.e.
the lowest average value that promises the
highest power output.
“With the help of e.FFECT, our
customers can be sure of implementing
a site- and plant-optimized air filtration
solution,” Schroth said. “Our simulation
and calculation tool incorporates the
knowledge gained from decades of

filtration experience, data evaluation from
more than 50 actual power plants, and
numerous tests at Freudenberg Filtration
Technologies. Power plant operators can
immediately see the savings potential
and the resulting monetary effect and are
thus in a position to make meaningful
comparisons. The advantages are
obvious: a tailor-made
filtration solution leads
to lower maintenance
requirements, longer
service life and reduced
operating costs. It
combines increased
functional reliability and
plant availability with
improved cost-effectiveness.”
Schroth said e.FFECT
serves as a proactive
maintenance tool because
it can predict lifetime of the
filter based on site conditions.
“The lifetime of the filter
Experience, Reliability, Integrity...
The AXH manufacturing complex consists of six plants, totaling 585,500 SF on 67 acres.
Location of a power plant can
influence what type of filtration the
operator will choose.
depends on the dust at the site,
so you can select certain filters
and if I choose filter A it’s lifespan
could be 12 months, but if I choose filter
B with different features, it could be 18
months,” Schroth said.
USED IN PLANNING
Schroth said that some customers are using
the e.EFFECT system in the planning
stages for new power plants as well.
“We get requests from utilities when
they plan a new power plant and when
they speak to the OEM
of the turbine they
can request certain
filtration systems in
advance, ”he said.
“They can tell the
OEM‚ ‘We would like
to have for this site
filtration system A
and B and in this
sequence because
The company has
developed a white
paper with Ansaldo
Energia.
FILTRATION
With the help
of e.FFECT, our
customers can be sure
of implementing a site-
and plant-optimized air
filtration solution.”
THOMAS SCHROTH, market segment
manager turbomachinery, Freudenberg
this will be optimum for our operation.’”
Turbine OEMs naturally try to
standardize their systems, so the end user
has to be proactive in selection on the
filtration system, Schroth said.
“You can get filters in different particle
removal efficiencies, pressure drops and
achievable lifetimes, so you can try to get
the optimum filter for your site,” he said.
“We cannot say one filter fits all – when
I operate a turbine in an area with a low
concentration of very small particles it
might not be necessary to install a very
highly efficient filter that removes those
small particles but also produces pressure
drop and power loss due to that pressure
drop. It’s more about picking a tailor-made
filtration system for the site.” n