ADEX has developed and patented a new control technology brought to life through our self-tuning artificial intelligence platform.
This technology boosts dispatchability and increases economic performance, safety and reliability within industrial applications. We are experts in thermal power plants where we have a successful track record of systems installed in coal-fired, combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT), biomass and waste-to-energy power plants.
Sustainable and cost-efficient power plant control systems
Our customers minimise energy consumption, emissions, environmental impact and costly resources needed for maintenance thanks to our solutions. Thermal power plants operating under optimised adaptive ADEX systems become high-efficiency, low emissions (HELE) plants, reducing heat rate beyond 1%, CO level to around 65%, NOx level to approximately 40%, and increasing ramping rate by more than 250%.
Our self-tuning artificial intelligence platform is made of two key pieces: disruptive ADEX controllers, which substitute old PID controllers, and an adaptive predictive control system, which is an add-on to the client’s existing control system. ADEX controllers include brand new algorithms that do not need any big data or machine learning. They self-tune to the process dynamics, making the commissioning of the platform very quick and creating a long-lasting system.
Payback of our deployments is typically less than six months, so ADEX brings benefits from the short term.
Optimised adaptive predictive control techniques for power sectors
ADEX Technology represents the development of optimised adaptive predictive control techniques. US patent 6,662,058 B1 introduced ADEX methodology, which enables optimal guidance of predictive industrial processes by combining adaptive Self-Tuning Artificial Intelligence (AI) and expert plant knowledge.
The Self-Tuning AI automatically addresses process and environmental uncertainties, and identifies and tracks actual process dynamics in real time. ADEX systems do not need prior accurate knowledge of the process dynamics or its changes with time and can handle system deviations to achieve optimal guidance of critical process variables under stable plant operation.
Our optimisers address few but key variables, which produce the highest positive impact on plant behaviour and performance. The control performance of ADEX systems for superheated and reheated steam temperature, turbine power, oxygen excess, carbon monoxide (CO) level, nitrogen oxide (NOx) level, as well as the increase in ramping rate during power transitions, is proven in several plants worldwide.
Costly and time-consuming conventional APCs do not fix the entire problem, but ADEX does. To find out more about our complete solutions, we can provide anonymised graphs from real cases.
Benefits of predictive adaptive expert control technology in coal-fired and CCGT power plants
Due to the growing deployment of intermittent renewables, coal-fired and CCGT power plants are increasingly required to carry out an unprecedented amount of ramping to provide stability for the grid and ensure that demand is always met. However, applying state-of-the-art control methodologies to old power plants, which are designed to work on a stable load and even close to full load, makes the result extremely inefficient. Therefore, power plants are suffering negative settlements of imbalance tariffs. Not only that, power plants are struggling to comply with new emissions regulations and constant ups and downs of load are adding extra thermal stress and thermal fatigue not known ever before.
ADEX help power plants to accurately follow dispatch orders while increasing stability and performance. Our existing customers are enjoying massive economic benefits in upward and downward regulation environments.
ADEX technology makes constant load changes smooth and within the bore metal temperature ranges, avoiding trips and minimising thermal stress. Eluding one issue provides a high return on investment (ROI).
Benefits of predictive adaptive expert control technology in biomass and waste-to-energy power plants
Biomass and waste-to-energy plants work with stable loads. Most of them are selling their electricity in the forward and future market or the day-ahead market.
ADEX Technology optimises the combustion process, which ensures a better incineration process to produce less dirt and ash.
Exchangers are much cleaner, increasing the performance ratio and extending cleaning periods. We have customers who have doubled these periods from three to six months. The extra availability of the plant brings a huge ROI in ADEX.
Fuel (biomass and particularly waste) is very heterogeneous in these environments. For example, the percentage of plastic increase in regular waste is dynamically changing the calorific value of the mix. ADEX Self-tuning AI stabilises the combustion and easily handles the variations.
We also decrease CO and NOX emissions to maintain plant throughput.
How ADEX Technology works
Temperatures are stabilised by the ADEX system to significantly reduce oscillations. This minimises the thermal fatigue of equipment, avoids frequent plant trips, increases plant operational safety, and minimises equipment repair or replacement expenses. The system also optimises equipment life expectancy.
The steam temperature stability enables a significant increase in set points, reducing heat rates and CO₂ emissions, as well as achieving higher productivity.
Load changes generally produce a significant loss of equilibrium between the flow rates of evaporated steam in the drum and feedwater to the boiler. Control systems are not usually able to adequately compensate for them and the drum level suffers significant vibrations that can exceed design limits. The ADEX system achieves precise drum level regulation, which enables safe and precise control of rapid load changes.
Due to the complexity of the combustion process, traditional control systems try to achieve load changes with a moderate ramping rate to avoid stability problems. ADEX systems do this while allowing steam pressure fluctuations within an admissible band that achieves accurate power control during rapid transitions.
To achieve these goals, you can implement ADEX Technology through any or all of our five products for the energy sector:
- Steam Attemperator Optimizer
- DRUM Level Optimizer
- COMBUSTION Optimizer
- Primary Emissions Reducer
- Secondary Emissions Reducer