Members’ News & Views GIVE YOUR ENGINE THE ATTENTION IT DESERVES
The gas engine is the component that’s key to earning revenue on most AD sites, yet it often receives the least attention when planning a project. So, how fit for purpose is your engine? It may be running now, but how easy is it to start? How efficient is it? And what steps, if any, are you taking to prolong its effectiveness? James Thompson, Director of Gen-C, explains...
If a car was to run at 1500 RPM (the speed at which a gas engine runs), we could assume that it’s comfortably doing 50mph. If it ran for 92 per cent of the 8,760 hours in a year (this is the minimum expectation of many service contracts) it would travel 402,960 miles. This gives an idea of the workload expected from a typical AD plant gas engine, yet I see little evidence when speaking with plant owners and operators of any planned component upgrade to ensure its continued effective running. While they may subscribe to service contracts, these usually focus on core engine components – oil changes, filters, cylinder heads, etc – and not the ancillary components that govern a gas engine’s true effectiveness. In fact, the two most influential elements for consideration in biogas engine operations are ignition control and fuel mixing.
Ignition systems
In an eight-cylinder engine, an ignition controller has to send an electrical charge out to the sparkplugs 100 times per second, whilst bolted to a vibrating engine frame, in an environment often containing corrosive gases which can attack circuit boards. Rather than waiting for these delicate components to fail and subsequently losing days, or even weeks, of Feed-in Tariff payments while sourcing a replacement, it makes more sense to plan an upgrade to coincide with a 40,000-hour engine service, for example. This way, you can take advantage of the latest technology, which will have more energy, greater flexibility and spark control, and more overall reliability. After all, if your ignition controller is more than five years old, it will almost certainly have a capacitive discharge system which is prehistoric in comparison to the output stage technology of the systems available today.
Fuel mixers Unfortunately, I have encountered numerous fuel mixers that are clearly more suited to natural gas applications, but have found their way onto biogas sites as a cut price, off the shelf solution, shoe-horned into a CHP with little thought given to the individual site’s requirements. A big giveaway is where the gas dose is controlled. Often, we see it at the end of the gas train, over a metre away from where it actually gets mixed with air before entering the engine. This yields a system which is slow to react and often very difficult to start. Rather than accepting that the engine is difficult to start up, or in extreme cases resorting to squirting ‘easy start’ into the air cleaner, a simpler and more effective solution would be to schedule an upgrade and modernise this key function of effective engine management. Easier starting, smoother running, and lower gas use are typical benefits.
30 AD & BIORESOURCES NEWS | SPRING 2017
Long term gains There can be a culture of ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ within the AD industry, but look at it another way – would you fly on an airline with this mentality? Waiting for a problem to happen can more than double the cost to rectify it, when you factor in express deliveries, overtime, the time taken to source the parts and the subsequent lost revenue. Taking time now to access your engine set-up and plan a structured and considered upgrade will certainly pay dividends in the long term.
We were involved in a full engine upgrade last year that resulted in the same output but used 8m3
per hour less gas. That’s a saving of over 70,000m3 of
gas per year, as well as the increased availability and export value as a result. Proof, if it were needed, that getting the right engine can seriously improve the success of your plant.
www.gen-c.co.uk
Gen-C is a privately owned gas engine company that distributes Sandfirden gas engines, parts, systems and Motortech gas engine upgrades for critical power applications. Its product range covers all aspects of gas engines from sparkplugs to full ignition systems, upgrades and CHP solutions.
www.adbioresources.org adbioresources.org
MEMBER VOICE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
