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For full details and to register your place, please visit the event website.
Please briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience with fired power boilers and EfW
Holly Schneeberger (HS): As an engineer with a background in heat transfer and fluid systems, my role has so far been to provide consultancy services and engineering advice, which has often been to owners of fired boilers and power generating equipment. As a consultant, I have the opportunity to involve myself with various different types of engineering challenges that principally involve numerical simulations and computational analysis.
What is the top challenge facing your industry at present?
HS: Our industry is facing a number of challenges, but perhaps the most pressing is our transition to Net Zero – this will heavily define the landscape in which we all operate over the next twenty or more years.
How would you say your industry has evolved over the past five years?
HS: Not only has the industry changed around us in the mixture of technology – the decline in coal fired generation versus the increasing importance of EfW and CCGT, we are seeing significant demands placed on plants that were never designed to operate in a flexible environment. I think this will only get worse over the coming decade, requiring significant effort and investment to stay ahead of.
What developments are going on in your industry that may have an impact on the development of future approaches to boiler technology and power generation?
HS: As a consultant, I am exposed to a wide range of different power generation and storage technologies. It is exciting to see the progress being made around large nuclear, but also small/modular nuclear, pumped hydro, battery storage, flywheels etc. It is clear that there is no single technology solution, and so making a variety of different technologies work together is perhaps one of our biggest challenges.
What will you be presenting at the 2023 ‘Boiler User Group’ and how will this benefit participants?
HS: My presentation will discuss one of the first projects I was involved with when I joined Frazer-Nash – a study I undertook with my colleagues to understand the cause of abnormal temperature profiles seen across the span of a large coal fired power station.
We developed a ‘first principles’ approach that relied on fundamental behaviour of both the local and the global flow effects within headers, boiler tubes and pipework running between the turbine and boiler.
The work we conducted has enabled a detailed understanding of the root cause of the problem, and tested various solutions to mitigate the problem, some of which will be implemented during a forthcoming major overhaul.
Why is it important for engineers and industry to come together at this event and share best practice?
HS: Sharing knowledge is a crucially important element of engineering, especially the lessons learned that can benefit the safety and reliability of assets supporting the wider community.
The IMechE Boiler User Group 2023 will take place on 15-16 November 2023 in Nottingham.
The user group will address issues relating to all aspects of the design, operation, maintenance and integrity of boilers (fired boiler plant associated with power generation or industrial process steam). This will cover a wide scope of plant areas and fuels, including waste, biomass, fossil and other fuels.
For full details and to register your place, please visit the event website.