Automated Recovery Boiler Sootblowing Control System, 2001 Process Control, Electrical & Info. Conference Proceedings
Barbara G. Haley, Floyd I. Lawrence, Brad S. Carlberg, James Johnson--In the Automated Recovery Boiler Sootblower Control System package, the sootblowers are controlled by two redundant PLCs and monitored from the DCS operator interface and a redundant plasma, touch-screen operator interface terminal via six (6) separate display screens, Sootblowing Control, Manual Mode Blower Select, Automatic Sequence Blower Out of Service, Limit Switch Monitoring, Alarm Notification and Help screens. The plant had to upgrade from a pre-existing, stand-alone sootblower panel and its associated hard-wired field devices. Plant operators now have greater access to process data and are better able to select a specific sootblowing sequence and to quickly find and troubleshoot failed field devices from the Alarm Notification display on the DCS. By operating in either Steam Mode Automatic or Continuous Mode, the sootblower optimization control system package, utilizing strategic sootblowing sequences, ensures that the plant only blows soot when it needs to, and only in the necessary locations; improving heat transfer and overall boiler efficiency, balancing blowing sequences to avoid unnecessary steam usage, increasing plant equipment life, and avoiding forced outages due to soot accumulation.