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Jaggery is a form of unrefined sugar and is obtained by boiling raw sugarcane juice till it almost solidifies. Jaggery making is a simple process comprising crushing of sugarcane for juice extraction, filtration, and boiling of juice for concentration and then cooling and solidifying to give jaggery blocks. The juice is extracted in a conventional crusher this is then filtered and boiled in shallow iron pans.

The need for Steam turbines is derived since jaggery making is shifting from traditional methods to Vacuum Pan Boiling and other methods like juice boiling crushing in the sugar industry. After crushing the Sugarcane Bagasse is readily available. In the process, steam is required around 120 Deg C which is at 1.2 to 1.5 kg/cm2 (g) pressure. A high-pressure boiler of 32 kg/cm2 (g) and 380 deg C can be a good option for a jaggery plant of more than 250 TCD. For a 100 to 200 TCD plant, medium pressure capacity boilers can be used.

Which can be sent through a steam turbine and further sent to process for jaggery making by steam boiling method. Steam boiling is a step towards modernization of jaggery making. The steam generated is first used for Power Generation in the Steam Turbines and then used for process heating. Turtle Turbines has supplied several Steam Turbines for the jaggery industry making them self-sufficient on power and heat. Power generated by using high-pressure boilers normally fulfills the plant’s total electrical load and power generated with medium pressure saturated boiler with Grid Sync Option can meet the total electrical demand.

The jaggery plant can be run smoothly just like a sugar plant by using a boiler and Turbine in the plant. Using the already available bagasse can reduce the cost drastically.

Steam Turbine is the power generating equipment. If steam turbines shut down for a longer duration it becomes a huge loss of power and it also affects on production rate.
There are many failures that occur in the steam turbine at running condition. Following are some major failures in a steam turbine.

1. Blades failure – Blades generally failed due to crack which is the effect of fatigue, corrosion, pitting, and creep.
   There are three main causes of blade failure – The cause of failure on the blade is influenced by several factors such as fatigue, creep, oxidation, corrosion, erosion, and surface degradation due to working at high temperatures.
2. Bearing failure – Bearing failure occurs due to abrasion, bond failure, cavitations erosion, corrosion, fatigue, overheating, surface wear, structural damage.
3. Rotor Failure – This happens due to various stresses that can occur on the rotor. Various stresses can cause rotor failures – Thermal, magnetic, dynamic, environmental, mechanical, and residual. When installed and operated as designed, the stresses remain within tolerance and the motor operates properly for years.
4. Steam Turbine Rotor Vibration Failures – If the rotor gets imbalanced it increases vibration. Vibration in the rotor also occurs due to casing because of temperature fluctuations.
5. Blade Rubs – Running in the sealing of a high-pressure rotor caused bending of rotor and blade tip rubs.
6. Casing misalignment – Rotor bending also occurs due to casing misalignment between two shafts of an integrated rotor can cause an eccentricity of the mass center of the rotor, and this eccentricity at high rotational speed will produce a centrifugal force in the radial direction, causing bending of the rotor.
7. Failures can be caused by poor maintenance also.

To avoid all the above failures, the following prevention needs to take.
Stresses on blades can be reduced by making the blading stronger, using better design and quality, and by adding damping by means of caulking strips and lashing.
Bearing failures can be prevented by using the correct bearing design. Store bearings actively. Install bearings properly. Lubricate timely. Rotor failures – To prevent rotor failure, do not exceed the maximum speed and maximum mass limits for the rotor. Do not leave the centrifuge until the full operating speed is reached and appears to be running safely without incident. Stop centrifuge immediately if you notice any unusual noises or shaking. Clean the centrifuge daily or at least weekly. Remove the rotor and any sample or container holders. Interior cleaning includes the interior bucket specimen holder, rotor, and supports. To avoid rotor bending, the turbine should remain on turning gear until the high-pressure casing temperature is below 150C and the oil temperature is below 75C. Turtle Turbines has a well-trained and dedicated team for the maintenance of steam turbines. Turtle Turbines provide solutions for all types of failures in the steam turbines.

As the name suggests a Boiler Turbines Generator is made up of a boiler, a steam turbine and generator, and other auxiliary components. The boiler produces high-pressure, high-temperature steam. The steam turbine converts steam heat energy into mechanical energy. The mechanical energy is then converted into electric power by the generator.

Steam from the boiler enters the high-pressure cylinder of a condensing turbine and, after passing through it, returns to the boiler via an intermediate superheater in a boiler-turbine unit. The secondary superheated steam is fed into the turbine’s medium-pressure cylinder, then into the low-pressure cylinder and condenser. A pump removes the water from the condenser.
It then passes through low- and high-pressure feed-water heaters, as well as a deaerator, before entering the boiler.

The technological processes in a boiler-turbine unit are vastly different from those in a nonmodular power plant. In a boiler-turbine unit, the boiler and turbine both start up at the same time, allowing for a smooth increase in steam pressure and temperature, which improves the warmup conditions for the turbine and steam pipes.

In a condensing turbine, the exhaust in a vacuum goes to the condenser and it represents wasted energy. Whereas in a backpressure turbine, the exhaust from the steam turbine is used effectively in a downstream process. In certain changed situations, an existing Extraction Condensing Turbine may have to be changed to Back Pressure Turbine.

In conversation of condensing turbine to backpressure turbine, the challenge is to redesign the turbine internals within the casing boundary conditions. Turtle Turbines can convert the existing condensing turbine into a back pressure turbine with a new optimized steam flow path. By eliminating the last blade stages and implementing a new shaft sealing on low-pressure end to allow only cooling steam flow. The earlier extraction flow is reused and modified to become the new exhaust of the turbine. The turbine casing could be reused with minor modifications, minimizing the required investment and shutdown time as much as possible.

Turtle Turbines keep the same turbine casing, same layout, and foundation. The customer receives upgraded equipment that is able to deliver a significantly increased heating steam output which allows their customer to have a more profitable operation of the powerplant. Hence investment cost is minimized as new major equipment was eliminated and the upgrade was made possible without having to stop the equipment longer than usual and required major overhaul.

Steam Turbine overhauling is very important to run turbine continuously with maximum efficiency. Overhauling of steam turbine is the major thing that we need to do every year within the scheduled time. In overhauling firstly we need to consider major overhauls like detailed inspection and overhaul of the entire steam turbine generator set including the turbine casing rotor, seals, bearings, the generator, and auxiliaries such as the gear, couplings, lubrication system, and controls.

Following are the some steps we need to take into action while doing steam turbine overhauling.

1. Isolate steam inlet, remove coupling gaurd and Coupling spacer to disconnect from driven. 2. Dismantle governor and linkages with governor valve. 3. Loose the bolts connecting top half split casing with bottom casing and take out. 4. Remove bearing covers on both side inboard and outboard. 5. Remove leak off lines of carbon ring housings. 6. Take out rotor with gland box and transfer to workshop to carry further overhaul. 7. Dismantle gland box case and carbon rings and journal bearings. 8. Remove governor drive coupling, trip collar, ball bearing, steam bunters on outboard side. 9. Remove coupling hub and steam bunters on inboard side. 10. Loosen wheel lock nuts with noting proper position of wheel and remove the wheel from the shaft with the use of arbor press. 11. Perfect inspection should be carried on each and every parts in case of any damage, score, brake. 12. Assembly is the reverse procedures of dismantle. Use proper sealing compound in between casing split and bearing housing cover. 13. The following factors should be considered while and after assembling are, shaft run out, nozzle and reversing chamber condition, governor valve and trip functioning, journal bearing radial clearance and crush, carbon ring clearance, governor function, free rotation, alignment, etc. 14. Trip check should be checked before coupled with driven.

Turtle Turbines has a well-trained and dedicated team for the commissioning, maintenance, and overhauling of a steam turbine.
Turtle Turbines supplies steam turbine and also carry out overhauling and maintenance within India and abroad. For more information please visit www.turtleturbines.com

A Pressure Compounded Impulse Turbine is also called as Rateau Turbine after its inventor. Compounding steam turbines is done to extract energy more efficiently in a number of stages rather than a single stage. The compounding is done to reduce the increase in the entropy thus increasing the efficiency of the Steam Turbine.

In this turbine, the total Pressure is dropped in more than one stage and each stage consists of a set of nozzles and moving blades. In every stage pressure is dropped and velocity is gained. The velocity thus gained is utilized in converting to useful work.

As a result, the total pressure drop of the steam does not occur in the first nozzle but is distributed among all of the nozzle rings in the arrangement.

The Curtis Turbine is a Compound Impulse Turbine, the compounding limited for only Velocity. The Curtis turbine, invented in 1897, differs significantly from any other type of steam turbine in that it allows for the use of relatively low speeds without introducing any complicated mechanism. The Curtis wheel is widely used as the first stage of steam turbines in various multistage turbines today.

The Curtis Turbine is composed of one Stage of Nozzle as the Single Stage Turbine, followed by two rows of moving blades. These two rows are separated by one row of fixed blades attached to the Turbine Stator which has the function of redirecting the Steam leaving the first row of moving blades to the second row of moving blades. In the Curtis Stage, the total Pressure drop occurs in the nozzles. The pressure in two rows of the blades remains constant. The rotor rotates when steam passes through the nozzle and strikes the turbine blades that are fixed on the rotor. The rotor can be coupled to a drive unit such as a Pump, Blower, Fan, or to an electric generator to generate power.

Extraction back-pressure turbines are used when two or more types of process steam at different pressures are required. Process steam at required pressures is supplied through extraction openings and turbine exhaust while generating power in the process. Electric output is dependent on the demand for process steam.

Extraction backpressure steam turbines are used in medium & lower pressure requirements. This type of steam turbine is used in various industry segments like Vegetable Oil Industry, Dairy plant, Chemicals plants, etc. In this type of steam Turbine, we can achieve total cogeneration. We can also harness more power generation.

There are some important specifications of the extraction backpressure turbine. Type of steam turbine, Input & output steam parameters, No. of stages used, Power generation, steam flow & exhaust steam pressure & temperatures.
Turtle Turbines supplies Extraction Back Pressure Steam Turbines. Turtle Turbines is one of the few companies in the world offering Extraction Back Pressure Steam Turbines at capacities as small as 500 kW up to 5000 kW. These turbines have used the areas of vegetable oil, dairy plants & chemical plants. The sustainable solutions Turtle develops for client companies are environment friendly and enable efficient deployment of energy. For more information visit www.turtleturbines.com

Ethanol is an important industrial chemical. Ethanol is used as a solvent, in the synthesis of organic chemicals & also an additive to automotive gasoline (forming a mixture known as gasohol). ENA a Spirit very similar in composition to Ethanol is the intoxicating ingredient of many alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine & distilled spirits. ENA and Ethanol have completely different applications. ENA cannot be used for bleeding with automotive gasoline.

Ethanol is used to remove the carbon equivalent of 20 million cars from the road. Ethanol is used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40-45% compared to gasoline-even when hypothetical land-use change emissions are included.

Different types of Alcohol such as RS, IS and ENA very similar to Ethanol is used as a solvent in the manufacture of varnishes and perfumes, also used as a preservative for biological specimens; in the preparation of essences and flavorings; in medicines and drugs. Ethanol is a renewable, domestically produced transportation fuel. Ethanol is used in low-level blends, such as E10 (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline). E15 (10.5% to 15% ethanol), or E85 (flex fuel)- a gasoline-ethanol blend containing 51% to 83% ethanol depending on geography and season ethanol helps to reduce emissions.

To produce quality ethanol, Steam at a constant and stable temperature is required. Turtle Turbines manufactures Steam Turbines specifically designed for Ethanol plants and is the best solution available in the market to get reliable power generation. Besides reliable power, Turtle Turbines provide steam at the exhaust at much more constant and steady pressures than can be achieved through PRV. Turtle Turbines manufactures a full line of steam turbines with capacities ranging from 300 kW to 3000 kW.

Turtle Turbines create products that are suitable for both safe and hazardous areas. Our products are appropriate for both continuous essential and non-critical applications. The modular construction concept allows for the greatest degree of customization to meet the most stringent project specifications.