Many products supplied to the petrochemical industry are used in a diverse range of applications and technologies. Whilst some of these are related directly to the exploration, transportation and processing of oil and its derivative products, others relate to its usage. One of these applications is power stations.
In these situations the fuel is burnt in boilers or reactors to produce steam, which is then used to drive turbines which then in turn drive generators. The principle is pretty straightforward and in theory is the same whatever fuel is used to generate the heat and produce the stem, be it nuclear, coal, gas or oil.
The use of any particular fuels, however, produces its own particular problems, and in the case of burning fossil fuels such as oil or coal one of the residual problems is the pollutants given off as the by-product of combustion. One of the constituents of the combustion gases is sulphur dioxide which when combined with water vapour in the atmosphere produces acid rain.
There is now strict legislation to stop this and so to prevent this happening the exhaust gases are subjected to a process called Flue Gas Desulpherisation (FGD) to reduce the levels of this harmful gas. Basically this is done by bringing the gas into contact with another substance which absorbs the sulphur dioxide gas, transforming it into other chemicals which are easier to drain off. The problem is that one of the by-products of this process is hydrochloric acid which is extremely corrosive to pipes, pipe fittings and flanges downstream of the conversion process.
On of the few materials which are suitable for use in these applications is super duplex stainless steel as it can withstand this acid corrosion. At Chemipetro we manufacture a wide rage of flanges and fittings as well as pipes which are specifically suitable for this type of installation.
For more information visit www.chemipetro.co.uk
