Sophisticated new/retrofit cogeneration plant boosts profits
Conversion of a coal-capable boiler that produced 200-psig saturated steam for process to a high-pressure unit, the addition of a new coal-fired steam generator, and the installation of two turbine/generators at its Park 500 reconstituted-leaf (tobacco) plant in Chester, Va, have enabled Philip Morris USA to reduce the facility's operating costs while improving availability. The first process line at the plant, and the 120,000-lb/hr (at 200 psig, saturated), oil-fired packaged boiler serving it, were installed in 1974. Purpose: To reprocess into a usable product the stems and other parts of the tobacco leaf that must be removed before cigarette manufacture. The reconstituted-leaf process essentially makes a sheet of pure tobacco ''paper'' using a method similar to that of the kraft process. Reconstituted leaf is mixed with natural leaf in the manufacture of smoking materials. Though it accounts for only a small amount of the tobacco in a typical cigarette, the reprocessed product is an important economic factor, because of the high cost of natural leaf. About the time a second process line and the 200,000-lb/hr coal-fired boiler for it were installed in 1978, oil prices jumped dramatically and the relatively simple, oil/gas-fired, low-pressure industrial steam system-an industry standard since the 1950s-became an economic liability. Thus, when planning for a third process line was initiated in 1979, coal firing and cogeneration were foremost in the minds of engineers.
- OSTI ID:
- 6253804
- Journal Information:
- Power; (United States), Vol. 129:3
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
The integrated approach to a gas turbine topping cycle cogeneration system
Gas and oil fired package boilers 20,000 - 50,000 lb/hr
Related Subjects
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
COGENERATION
ON-SITE POWER GENERATION
RETROFITTING
STEAM GENERATORS
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
FUEL SUBSTITUTION
TURBOGENERATORS
BOILER FUELS
COAL
DUAL-PURPOSE POWER PLANTS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
PETROLEUM
TOBACCO
BOILERS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
DEUS
ELECTRIC GENERATORS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY SYSTEMS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
MATERIALS
POWER GENERATION
POWER PLANTS
STEAM GENERATION
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
VAPOR GENERATORS
200108* - Fossil-Fueled Power Plants- Fuels- (1980-)
320301 - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Industrial & Agricultural Processes- Energy Sources