Clean air to the rescue: 
filter upgrade saves turbines from degradation

Industrial environment case study

Key achievements

Equally Spaced Items

520,000$ USD
Savings per year

166,000
MMBtu
Fuel reduction per year

8,800 tons
CO2 reduction per year

3X
Improved
compressor efficiency

Summary

Customer profile

Global Power Synergy Public Company Limited in Thailand focuses on power generation and renewable energy. Camfil provided solutions for six, 38 MW GE gas turbines in three different plants within the company.

Original installation

The original installation was a two-stage filtration system. The first stage was equipped with T6 bag-style pre-filters, while the second stage was equipped with T10 v-bank-style final filters with a 300mm depth.

Site conditions
The plants are situated along the coast of Thailand in an industrial area, where they encounter high dust concentrations. The annual average for PM2.5 is 34.8 µg/m3 while the PM10 average is 86.2 µg/m3. Both are above the annual average air quality guidelines of 5 µg/m3 and 15 µg/m3 respectively[1]. 
Camfil solution
To reduce fouling and related downtime, Camfil suggested an upgrade to CamGT 3V-600 T12. It is an EPA-class, v-bank-style filter with a 600mm depth, that is optimized for long life in harsh environments with a low and stable pressure drop.
Problem statement
As a result of the high dust concentrations, the gas turbines experienced fouling of the compressor blades. This lead to a drop in compressor efficiency which required shutting down the engines for water washes, as well as high fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
Results
This resulted in a higher and more stable compressor efficiency, lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, as well as total savings of $520,000 per year on operational costs. For more details and information, please view details below.

Results

The graph on the left shows that the T10 filter always starts at a compressor efficiency of around 91% before it drops due to fouling, with its lowest efficiency value being 90%. An offline water wash was required to bring this value up each time it dropped. As for the T12 filter, the efficiency remains stable around 91% during the 120 week period. The T12 filters demonstrate improved performance, with a compressor efficiency loss rate approximately 3.27 times lower than that of the T10 filters.

The graph on the right shows that despite its higher efficiency rating, which typically implies a greater pressure drop, the CamGT 3V-600 filter configuration had a similar performance to the T10 efficiency filter. This is due to its 600mm deep frame that allows for greater media area and low velocity, providing the lowest pressure drop and longest available life.

Camfil’s solution saved GSPC 520,000$ and helped reduce fuel consumption of 166,000 MMBtu and CO2 emissions of 8,800 tons each year, the equivalent of taking approximately 1,900 cars off the road!

[1] https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/345329/9789240034228-eng.pdf