Coke plant including exhaust gas sharing
A coke plant includes multiple coke ovens where each coke oven is adapted to produce exhaust gases, a common tunnel fluidly connected to the plurality of coke ovens and configured to receive the exhaust gases from each of the coke ovens, multiple standard heat recovery steam generators fluidly connected to the common tunnel where the ratio of coke ovens to standard heat recovery steam generators is at least 20:1, and a redundant heat recovery steam generator fluidly connected to the common tunnel where any one of the plurality of standard heat recovery steam generators and the redundant heat recovery steam generator is adapted to receive the exhaust gases from the plurality of ovens and extract heat from the exhaust gases and where the standard heat recovery steam generators and the redundant heat recovery steam generator are all connected in parallel with each other.
1. A system for coking coal comprising:
a plurality of coke ovens, wherein each coke oven includes:
an oven chamber;
an uptake duct in fluid communication with the oven chamber, the uptake duct being configured to receive exhaust gases from the oven chamber; and
an uptake damper in fluid communication with the uptake duct, the uptake damper being positioned by an actuator to any one of a plurality of positions including fully opened and fully closed;
a common tunnel fluidly connected to the plurality of coke ovens and being configured to receive the exhaust gases from each of the coke ovens;
a plurality of heat recovery steam generators fluidly connected to the common tunnel and transitionable between a normal mode and a gas sharing mode, wherein—
each heat recovery steam generator is in fluid communication with a heat recovery steam generator damper configured to be positioned by an actuator to any one of a plurality of positions including fully opened and fully closed,
the heat recovery steam generators are configured to operate at a first capacity when in the normal mode,
at least one heat recovery steam generator is configured to operate at a second capacity that is greater than the first capacity in the gas sharing mode, and
at least one heat recovery steam generator is configured to operate at a third capacity that is less than the first capacity in the gas sharing mode; and
a controller configured to initiate the gas sharing mode by providing a position instruction to at least one of the actuators to cause the at least one actuator to alter the position of at least one of the uptake dampers or heat recovery steam generator dampers to thereby maintain a target draft within the system for coking coal by directing exhaust gases from the at least one heat recovery steam generator configured to operate at the third capacity to the at least one heat recovery steam generator configured to operate at a second capacity.
2. The system for coking coal of claim 1 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at a location within the common tunnel comprises a common tunnel draft of at least 0.7 inches of water.
3. The system for coking coal of claim 1 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at a location within the common tunnel comprises a common tunnel draft of at least 1.0 inches of water.
4. The system for coking coal of claim 1 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at a location within the common tunnel comprises an oven draft of at least 2.0 inches of water.
5. The system for coking coal of claim 1 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at the location within each of the plurality of ovens comprises an oven draft of at least 0.1 inches of water.
6. The system for coking coal of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of coke ovens comprises a pressure sensor configured to detect an oven draft, and wherein the controller is in communication with the at least one actuator and with the pressure sensor and is configured to provide position instructions to the at least one actuator in response to the oven draft detected by the pressure sensor.
7. The system for coking coal of claim 6 , wherein the controller is configured to provide the position instruction to the at least one actuator to cause the at least one actuator to alter the position of an uptake damper to thereby maintain the oven draft at least at 0.1 inches of water.
8. The system for coking coal of claim 1 , wherein the ratio of ovens to heat recovery steam generators is at least 20:1.
9. The system for coking coal of claim 1 , wherein the at least one heat recovery steam generator configured to operate at the second capacity is capable of handling exhaust gases from 60 ovens.
10. The system for coking coal of claim 1 , wherein the third capacity is substantially zero.
11. A system for coking coal comprising:
a plurality of coke ovens, wherein each coke oven includes:
an oven chamber; and
an uptake duct in fluid communication with the oven chamber, the uptake duct being configured to receive exhaust gases from the oven chamber;
a common tunnel fluidly connected to the plurality of coke ovens and being configured to receive the exhaust gases from each of the coke ovens; and
a plurality of heat recovery steam generators fluidly connected to the common tunnel, wherein the heat recovery steam generators are configured to operate at a first capacity, and wherein at least one of the heat recovery steam generators is configured to operate at a second capacity that is greater than the first capacity when the capacity of at least one of the other heat recovery steam generators is reduced;
wherein the heat recovery steam generators are all fluidly connected with each other and configured to engage a gas sharing mode wherein exhaust gases are rerouted through the common tunnel from the at least one heat recovery steam generator with reduced capacity to the at least one heat recovery steam generator configured to operate at the second capacity that is greater than the first capacity.
12. The system for coking coal of claim 11 , wherein the reduced capacity of the at least one heat recover steam generator is zero.
13. The system for coking coal of claim 11 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at a location within the common tunnel comprises a common tunnel draft of at least 1.0 inches of water.
14. The system for coking coal of claim 11 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at a location within the common tunnel comprises an oven draft of at least 2.0 inches of water.
15. The system for coking coal of claim 11 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at the location within each of the plurality of ovens comprises an oven draft of at least 0.1 inches of water.
16. A system for coking coal comprising;
a plurality of coke ovens, wherein each coke oven includes:
an oven chamber; and
an uptake duct in fluid communication with the oven chamber, the uptake duct being configured to receive exhaust gases from the oven chamber;
a common tunnel fluidly connected to the plurality of coke ovens and being configured to receive the exhaust gases from each of the coke ovens;
a plurality of heat recovery steam generators fluidly connected to the common tunnel; and
a controller configured to initiate a gas sharing mode, wherein, when the gas sharing mode is initiated, exhaust gases are rerouted through the common tunnel from a first heat recovery steam generator to a second heat recovery steam generator, thereby reducing an operating capacity of the first heat recovery steam generator and increasing an operating capacity of the second heat recovery steam generator.
17. The system for coking coal of claim 16 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at a location within the common tunnel comprises a common tunnel draft of at least 0.7 inches of water.
18. The system for coking coal of claim 16 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at a location within the common tunnel comprises a common tunnel draft of at least 1.0 inches of water.
19. The system for coking coal of claim 16 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at a location within the common tunnel comprises an oven draft of at least 2.0 inches of water.
20. The system for coking coal of claim 16 , wherein, during the gas sharing mode, operating conditions at the location within each of the plurality of ovens comprises an oven draft of at least 0.1 inches of water.