The Niagara Falls garbage burning plant, which recycles waste and transforms it into electricity and steam energy, uses steam conditioning valves for turbine bypass and to supplement turbine output. The existing valves were over 50 years old and were scheduled to be replaced, but before this could be done an old valve shattered. The disaster required emergency work on valves in a timely manner.
NYNE Mechanical, a valve repair facility in Massachusetts, was called to help. Its team helped respond to the valve emergency, dispatching its mobile shop. The technicians repaired the upper and lower bonnet assemblies, and making a triple-seared valve plug hit the attemperator seat and the two steam seats inside the valve at the same time.
NYNE’s engineers troubleshooted quickly, even making a mock valve plug out of threaded rod and threaded-on valve plugs. Once emergency repairs were finished, the plant was able to continue producing energy and supplying steam distribution that night.
Image credit: NYNE Mechanical