Boiler house "Križi" adaptation for work with liquefied petroleum gas

PAS „Daugavpils siltumtikli“

Daugavpils, Latvia

2024

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In 2024, UAB "GANDARAS ENERGOEFEKTAS" carried out the reconstruction of the local boiler house in the Krizhi microdistrict, and now here operates the most modern boiler house of Daugavpils siltumtīkli. In addition, due to the implementation of this project, several risk factors that were obviously present before the reconstruction were prevented.

The main danger in the local boiler house "Krizhi", which was taken over from a private heat energy producer, was the lack of reserve capacity. Namely, there were only two wood chip boilers - 1 MW and 0.5 MW. In winter period the needs of residents of this area for heat were met by a large 1 MW boiler. However, heat production is not for nothing called critical infrastructure, which means that a situation cannot be allowed when there is no equipment for city heating in the middle of winter. There must be reserve capacity! There were none in Kryzhi, so several years ago in winter, when a large boiler broke down, residents of five multi-story buildings and kindergarten children did not have access to hot water during its repair.

The second risk factor was human-factor. The activities of the "Krizhi" woodchip boiler house were controlled by one operator, on whose reactions and actions the well-being of all residents of the area actually depended. And if this person had made a mistake (although, of course, at the Daugavpils siltumtīkli enterprise work highly qualified and experienced boiler operators), it would not have been possible to promptly compensate for it using the capacities of other boiler houses, because the "Krizhi" boiler house is local, i.e. it heats a specific area and is not connected to other heat sources.

The boiler house building now has three boilers, a rotary economizer with a hygroscopic coating and a station for preparing the coolant, as well as collecting and cleaning the condensate. A completely closed production cycle is provided here, and this boiler house is the most modern and technologically advanced in the entire enterprise.

The boiler house has two boilers of 1 MW each and one small boiler of 0.5 MW - they provide the "Krizhi" microdistrict with heating and hot water. While the old equipment was being dismantled and new equipment was being installed, a mobile local boiler house was operating here, producing heat for heating water. And "Krizhi" entered the new heating season with a new full-fledged boiler house.

The gas boilers installed here are economical in themselves, producing up to 102% efficiency at a lower calorific value. The flue gases from the boilers are fed to a rotary economizer, which also uses their heat to further heat the air taken from the street for combustion, after which the flue gases exit into the atmosphere with a temperature of only about +25ºC. In turn, the condensate that forms during this process is sent to the decarbonizer. After it, we get water that can be used as a coolant in heating networks. Thus, to feed the network, water is taken not from the water supply, but from a by-product of heat production.

That is why this boiler house is called the most modern and automated among the facilities of the Daugavpils siltumtīkli enterprise. Its operation is remotely controlled by dispatchers at TPP-1. Diesel fuel is stored here as a reserve fuel. Each of the large boilers can independently provide residents of "Krizhi" with both heating and hot water during the cold season.