Power plant insulation is judged largely on what happens during an outage. Insulation that has to be destroyed to inspect the surface underneath, and then re-manufactured before restart, puts itself on the critical path twice. Over a plant life that is a large recurring cost that never appears in the original insulation comparison.
The thermal case matters too, particularly on cycling plant. A plant that starts and stops daily pays for the heat stored in its own insulation on every single cycle, so low heat storage is worth more than the steady-state lambda comparison suggests.
Where aerogel changes the outcome
- Can be removed and refitted for inspection rather than destroyed and replaced
- Low heat storage, so cycling plant wastes less energy on each start
- Thin profile fits inside existing lagging envelopes during an upgrade
- Hydrophobic, which matters on outdoor plant and around steam leaks
- Faster to fit, which shortens the insulation window in the outage plan
Typical scope
- Steam turbine casings and valve chests
- Main steam, hot reheat and cold reheat pipework
- Boiler walls, headers and access doors
- Gas turbine exhaust ducting and stacks
- Heat recovery steam generator components
- Feedwater heaters and deaerators
Products for this sector
- Aerogel Blanket AB-650 - main steam and general hot service
- Aerogel Blanket AB-1000 - exhaust ducting and high temperature sections
- Aerogel Board RB-650 - casings, doors and access panels
Talk to us about your project
Send us your line list, drawings or target U-values and we will come back with a thickness recommendation, a bill of material and a quotation. Contact our technical team.