CASE STUDIES

STUDY 1

Completed more than twenty-six biomass boiler projects ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 pounds per hour, eleven turbine projects, twelve new electrostatic precipitator developments, thirty-eight kiln installations, four thermal oil units, and more than twenty miscellaneous engineering projects.   These projects included the design of all of the boilers and associated equipment for a boiler manufacturer.  The burners, grates, forced draft systems, induced draft systems, combustion management systems, boiler drums, boiler water walls, boiler roof tubes, superheaters, economizers, combustion air preheaters, multiclones, cyclones, baghouses, electrostatic precipitators, stacks, ash handling systems (wet and dry, fuel conveying systems, silos, buildings, and other systems were designed.  Auxiliary systems including boiler feedwater, make-up water, softened water, condensate, boiler blowdown, including selecting all of the equipment necessary for the systems which included, FD Fans, ID Fans, combustion air fans, dual fuel burners, boiler feedwater pumps (steam turbine and electric, steam and air sootblowers, instruments, flow control valves, pressure control valves, temperature control valves, pressure relief valves, etc.  The design software utilized was updated to include finite element analysis - FEA (MATLAB), computational fluid dynamics - CFD (PIPE-FLO), RISA (Structural Analysis), Aspen (chemical process simulator) and Triflex (Pipe Stress) to optimize the use of 3D Modeling systems including Plant 3D, Revit, AutoCad 3D, and Inventor.  Integration of the software was critical to the construction of these facilities.  At one site, the piping system was designed and fabricated in the shop and field installed with overall construction time reduced by 50% for the piping installation and a 30% cost savings.

 

STUDY 2

An $87M anaerobic digestion to renewable natural gas project was designed and constructed for Shell New Energies Project in Junction City, Oregon where the engineering and design from project development through engineering issued for construction drawings and construction support.  The work was directed by our Project Manager, where he directed the following engineering documentation packages: Preliminary Investment Decision (PID) engineering design; Final Investment Decision (FID) engineering design; completion engineering including 30%, 60%, 90% design review packages; and Issued for Construction (IFC) engineering design.  Balance of plant equipment selections were provided to the contractor and incorporated in the project design.  The project manager was instrumental in integrating the process engineering for the anaerobic digestion design (performed by another international consulting firm) with the balance of plant design.  The process, mechanical, electrical, structural and civil design was performed by the project team and completed to meet the project timeline.  All permitting activities were performed by the project team and integrated from engineering through construction.

STUDY 3

Completed a  200,000 pounds per hour boiler at 900 psi/ 1000 F operating requirements with 15 MW back pressure turbine for a confidential client in Northern California.   This project included the design of all of the boilers and associated equipment for a complete biomass project.  The burners, grate system, forced draft systems, induced draft systems, combustion management systems, boiler drums, boiler water walls, boiler roof tubes, superheaters, economizers, combustion air preheaters, multiclones, cyclones, baghouses, electrostatic precipitators, stacks, ash handling systems (wet and dry, fuel conveying systems, silos, buildings, and other systems were designed.  Auxiliary systems including boiler feedwater, make-up water, softened water, condensate, boiler blowdown, including selecting all of the equipment necessary for the systems which included, FD Fan, ID Fan, combustion air fan, dual fuel burner, boiler feedwater pump (steam turbine and electric), steam system and air sootblowers, instruments, flow control valves, pressure control valves, temperature control valves, pressure relief valves, etc.  The design software utilized was updated to include finite element analysis - FEA (MATLAB), computational fluid dynamics - CFD (PIPE-FLO), RISA (Structural Analysis), Aspen (chemical process simulator) and Triflex (Pipe Stress) to optimize the use of 3D Modeling systems including Plant 3D, Revit, AutoCad 3D, and Inventor.  Integration of the software was critical to the construction of this facility.  Project was designed from concept design to construction completion in 42 months including all of the permits required.  Complex analysis of feedstock and combustion was performed including complete redesign of the combustion air system to optimize performance of the burner system and resulting boiler performance.

HEAT RECOVERY

  • Expertise in Renewable Natural Gas and Anaerobic Digestion.

  • Certified Energy Studies and Projects

  • Executed over 35 biomass to energy projects with co-generation from concept to Commissioning.

  • Developed 25 biomass to energy projects from $10M to $250M involving wood chips, agricultural residues (rice straws, corn stover, sugar cane bagasse, fruit bunches, peanut shells, hazelnut shells, field trash, etc.), energy crops (switchgrass, miscanthus, king grass), municipal solid waste, chicken litter and more.

SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS IN

  • Forensics for Insurance Companies - Over 35 separate forensic studies performed from $2M to $600M

  • Boilers - biomass, natural gas, recovery- Over 50 Boiler Projects from development through Design and Construction

  • Biomass to Power – combustion, pyrolysis, gasification,  torrefaction

  • Anaerobic Digestion to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)/Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

  • Piping and Pump Systems

  • Thermal Systems – Heat Recovery, Cogeneration, Heat Exchangers

  • Steam System DesigN

  • 3D Environments – Revit (structural), Inventor (Mechanical), Plant 3D