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- Wednesday, 26 April 2023
The innovative path of engineer Kim
At the end of the 80s, when the green agenda had not yet taken hold of the masses and did not dominate the economy, a young energy engineer with Alexey Kim sat down for a thesis on the issues of proper, or rather combined fuel combustion. His graduation project was called "The transfer of Almaty CHP-1 to natural gas combustion", which he defended in 1990. Now few people know, but it was this work that was subsequently laid the foundation for a real project, which was implemented at the station.
Alexey started working at the CHP-1 back in 1982 as a mechanic for the repair of boiler equipment. At the same time he studied at the Almaty Energy Institute. His supervisor was Valery Dmitrievich Ogai, who suggested this topic to him.
As Alexey Andreevich himself recalls, now the chief engineer of Almaty CHPP-1, two important circumstances came together during the writing of the thesis: firstly, practical work at the station allowed him to study the equipment, understand the schematic diagram of the station, and secondly, during this period the reconstruction of the gas control station was carried out.
And although environmental issues have not yet been so acute, power engineers have already been concerned about the large emissions of the station. In addition, the CHP-1 is located in the city center, respectively, the requirements for it were already increased at that time. By the way, the combined option of burning fuel at the station's boilers – coal, fuel oil and seasonal surpluses of natural gas from the Bukhara-Khiva deposits – was provided for by the USSR State Planning Committee back in March 1965.
– CHP-1 is one of the oldest stations in Kazakhstan. From 1935 to 1971, some of its boilers worked on Karaganda brown coal, and several – on coal. Gas development began during its reconstruction in 1962-1972. The first test volume of natural gas was burned in February 1971. After a successful experiment, a project was ordered to convert boilers to natural gas combustion, – says the power engineer. – And, since 1979, the gas, which became a reserve fuel, was burned only in the summer. I was also interested in this topic: from 1981, when I came to the station, until 1990, I made a dozen rationalization proposals, and then defended my project.
In the 2000s, the requirements for NOx emissions (the collective name of nitrogen oxides) increased. At the station, as Alexey Andreevich recalls, in the meantime, the correct stationary modes of fuel combustion were being worked out.
– The complete readiness of the transition of the CHP to gas was already in the 90s, – says the engineer. – But there was no gas, so in winter we worked on coal, in summer – on gas.
When there was a combined combustion of coal and gas, coal was 5-6 times cheaper than natural gas in cost. And since we burn gas in the summer, the station showed a very good reduction in the emissions of combustion products into the atmosphere of the city. The unique technological scheme of CHP-1 allowed to achieve the best specific indicators, according to them it became the best in Kazakhstan. Moreover, our station was among the top most economical stations in the CIS. But by gradually switching the station to gas, we also solved environmental problems.
In 2008-2009, when a new gas pipeline was launched, the CHP began to receive gas from it. The percentage of coal burning was gradually reduced. After 2010, the station began to increase gas combustion, and in 2017 it was decided to completely switch it to gas, making fuel oil a reserve fuel.
– We burned the coal and mothballed the equipment. But as environmental requirements became tougher, the station began to switch to European standards, – continues Alexey Andreevich. – Therefore, in 1992, we installed an emulsifier with an ash recovery coefficient of 99.2-99.4% on one of the boilers. But it was constantly clogged, it was necessary to clean it, take measures. Many stations that supplied such emulsifiers then dismantled them, because they were very capricious in operation. We continued to exploit and refine them. Since 2002, a new generation of emulsifiers has been used – first plastic, then titanium. They were much lighter in operation, but they had a warranty period of only five years.
As a result, they were also abandoned at the station. But an engineer is an engineer to find the best technical solutions. In 2005, he became the chief engineer of CHP-1, and in November of the following year they decided to install an experimental wooden emulsifier. What the engineers of CHP-1 proposed together with Alexey Andreevich at the 10th boiler of the station surprised many.
– We chose a solid-grade larch because in such an environment it only grows stronger over the years. We bought the forest ourselves, threw sketches. All worked out according to the drawing and assembled it in a month, – says engineer KIM. – The size of the emulsifier is 2.5 by 4.5 meters, a total of 45 cells turned out. When we were working on the project, my nephew, a furniture maker, advised not to put a whole tree, but to cut it into strips. We did so – in strips of 9 cm, and in Karaganda we made a bar, and it led. On the milling machine, we cut special grooves, for assembly After assembly, stainless steel swirlers were installed in the lower part. We gave birth to such a child – it has been working for 17 years so far! Over the years, only 30% of the boards have been changed. Then this project cost us 1.3 million tenge, while titanium would be estimated at 45 million tenge. Our emulsifier captures 99.4% of emissions. We also made flushing devices that allow it to be serviced without stopping the boiler. The wooden emulsifier works perfectly, although it was made experimentally. And from 2006 to 2009, we switched all boilers to emulsifiers. CHP-1 became the first station where all boilers worked with emulsifiers of the second generation!
In his time – from 2011 to 2013 – the reconstruction of burner devices was carried out with the installation of additional blast channels to reduce NOx emissions into the atmosphere of the city.
– Everything remains the same in the burner devices, except for the additional air supply, – explains the chief engineer of the station. – We additionally supplied tertiary air and side blast. Everything was divided, the secondary air system was changed. Our last rational proposal was on energy conservation. After we stopped working on coal and switched to gas, we made a proposal to reduce the dosage of hot air and water supply. We worked with specialists of specialized research institutes on all projects. We used to argue – as usual, when theorists and practitioners converge – but everything was thoroughly calculated and worked out in production. In my opinion, all the reconstructions were interesting. I think if all Almaty thermal power plants are converted to gas, then we will be the most profitable. There are only doubts about gas supplies: in the early 90s, Almaty consumed 130 thousand cubic meters of gas per year, and now only for CHP-1 and ZTC, the same amount per hour is needed! I hope this issue will be resolved in the interests of production, and most importantly – the residents of the city.
As for CHP-1, we recall that in accordance with the "Comprehensive Plan of measures to improve the state of the atmospheric air of Almaty for 2016-2017", since July 1, 2017, the year-round operation of the station on natural gas combustion has been established. Earlier, an independent energy expert examination was carried out to change the type of its main and reserve fuel, according to which natural gas was determined to be the main type of fuel, and fuel oil was determined to be the reserve type.
It is easy for both personnel and equipment to work on gas. There is no dusting, no pumping and abrasive wear of the equipment. Now constant air measurements are being made at the station. "And he is cleaner here than on the street, like Seifullina", they say not without pride at CHP-1. If we speak the official language, then according to experts, the values of nitrogen oxide emissions have been brought up to the norms of the Technical Regulations of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Alexey Andreevich is also credited with his painstaking systematic long-term work on collecting statistical data of the station. He started it in the 90s, when he became the head of the boiler shop. He was entering data on the park resource into a table that he had developed himself. First in paper form, then in electronic form. He transferred from the archive to the table all the information on all the equipment – boiler, turbine, steam pipelines – from the date of its commissioning. Further, according to the formulas in the table, the total operating time of the equipment is calculated. He finished the table when he was deputy chief engineer of the station. Now, in all production divisions of the company, they have been working for many years according to his author's table "Operating time and park resource of the main equipment".
– The main equipment of the station and each node on which the operation of the equipment depends have a park resource, – Alexey Kim argues the need for such analytics. – Now all the information is in one table. And, since 2008, we have been regularly carrying out an inspection of all equipment and entering everything into the table. This allows you to keep the entire resource under control, timely carry out capital and routine repairs, prevention. I have been working at the station for 41 years. And over the years, I can say that I have fulfilled all the tasks of my thesis.
It is difficult for non-specialists to assess the full scale of this realized thesis. But as noted in JSC "AlES", the structural unit of which is CHP-1, for 2007-2022, the plant achieved a reduction in emissions by 69%, from 10.5 thousand to 3.4 thousand tons, due to the implementation of environmental measures, such as: installation of new emulsifiers on all boiler units, with a degree of purification of 99.2%, as well as the complete exclusion of sulfur and ash emissions from the composition, and the exclusion of ash and slag from the composition of waste, which significantly reduced the load on the atmosphere of Almaty.
In general, the innovation activity under the leadership of Alexey Kim has brought significant economic and environmental benefits to the entire company. Over the past seven years alone, 58 rationalization proposals have been submitted at the station, 34 of them have been approved, 15 have already been implemented. The economic effect of the implemented proposals is 38.6 million tenge. And in general, Alexey Kim's creative engineering approach has shown that innovation is rightfully considered an important economic category that allows you to reduce capital costs and achieve your goals.
