부산대학교 도서관

Georgia Power Co.'s Jack McDonough station, near Atlanta, Ga, consists of two tangentially fired boilers rated 1.734-million lb/hr, each paired with a 265-MW turbine/generator. The plant's primary fuel is Eastern Bituminous coal, which is ground by five pulverizers. In April 1993, it first began evaluating a new high-efficiency rotor for the pulverizer exhausters, supplied by ABB C-E Services Inc. Windsor, Conn. McDonough was designed to burn coal with a Hardgrove Grindability Index (HGI) of 55 and is typically supplied fuel with an HGI of 45. Thus, the units must operate with all five pulverizers to obtain full load, although each was intended to generate full load using four pulverizers. Now that the plant is burning low-sulfur coal to comply with the clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the increased hardness limits McDonough's full-load capabilities and will dramatically increase pulverizer maintenance. Management was left with two options: a complete pulverizer replacement or further modifications. (The mills had already been upgraded several years ago.) The introduction of high-efficiency rotors for the exhauster fans made the second option more attractive. Unfortunately, the vendor had no significant operating experience with the rotor design, still in the developmental stage. Therefore, the plant decided to install a test rotor at McDonough Unit 2. This article is a review of the rotor's basic theory of operation, test results, and wear characteristics experienced at the unit.