Incineration Plants: A Full Range Of Measurement Solutions

A waste-to-energy plant is a modern term for contemporary incinerators that burn waste in highly efficient furnaces/boilers to produce steam and/or electricity. Incineration is a waste treatment technology that involves the combustion of organic materials and/or substances. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment“. The incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ashes, flue gases, particulates and heat which can, in turn, be used to generate electricity.

The key element of the plant is the boiler drum. Its main task is the provision of  feedwater, after it has been preheated, to the external economizer, the superheaters and tube nests. Furthermore, saturated steam is withdrawn at this point for primary air and feedwater preheating.

Level measurement, the actual key to steam quantity and turbine control, must be highly reliable and consistently available. This main parameter is usually kept constant by a combustion control (multicomponent control). However, different parameters of the partly vaporous partly liquid medium to be measured, i.e. water, a boiler pressure of up to 725 psi and temperatures of up to 509 °F place particularly high demands on the instrumentation and its corrective calculations.