Last week, from 3. – 8. September 2023, the SIAPWS Nordic delegation consisting of Folmer Fogh (Ørsted), Mads Skovbjerg (COWI), Arja Lehikoinen (Valmet), Mikko Vepsäläinen (VTT) and I Monika Nielsen (SIAPWS Chair, Ørsted), went to Turin in Italy for the IAPWS Annual Meeting 2023.
It’s been a very interesting week, with good talks and discussions. As always, we took part in the working group meetings in the Power Cycle Chemistry (PCC) Group. Mikko was elected as a new member of the PCC group. During the week there has been discussions about new/upcoming TGD’s (Technical Guidance Documents), White Papers and ICRNs (IAPWS Certified Research Need).
A topic of discussion was Corrosion Product Monitoring in flexible / cycling power plants. Mads Skovbjerg presented his final work in the IAPWS International Collaboration (IC) Project reported in his Master Thesis. The research done by Mads Skovbjerg during the last year needs to be incorporated in the current White Paper on this topic, with the intent of turning it into a TGD. A steering Group (STG) was established with both old and new members. The STG starts the work by reviewing the White Paper on the topic from 2019 and will meet in October for an update on the progress. The STG consists of Dooley (STG Chair, IAPWS Executive Secretary), Nielsen (SIAPWS), McCann (BIAPWS), McAllister (AUSAPWS), Skovbjerg (SIAPWS), Vepsäläinen (SIAPWS), Lehikoinen (SIAPWS) and Leidich (GSAPWS).
Another topic was Electrical Boilers. There is a need for a TGD for these boilers where a minimum requirement for instrumentation is stated and some recommendations on the water and steam quality. Therefore, this year we established a STG for this work. The STG agreed on producing a TGD on the subject and the work was already started during the week. The STG hopes that the manufactures / vendors of Electrical Boiler will give their inputs on the subject and the TGD draft will be circulated for commenting. The STG consists of Addison (STG Chair, NZAPWS), Nielsen (SIAPWS), Vepsäläinen (SIAPWS) and Dooley (IAPWS Executive Secretary).
The White Paper on Flue Gas Condensate Cleaning is now going for a second revision after getting feedback from the IAPWS PCC group. After the revision the document is going for a second review in PCC. In parallel the STG starts to work on converting the White Paper into a TGD. The STG consists of Fogh (STG Chair, SIAPWS), Dooley (IAPWS Executive Secretary) and the SIAPWS Working Group. A new member of the STG is Ludwin Daal from the Netherlands.
In PCC the discussion of the future of PCC was on the agenda and especially the communication about what PCC is working on was discussed. On the IAPWS website, there is not a lot of information about what PCC is all about, and there is not a lot of communication from PCC in between the annual meetings. The result from the discussion is that PCC will initiate 3-4 webinars in the coming year and on the IAPWS website there will be a section added for the PCC (and the other working groups; TPWS, PCAS, TSR and SCSW). Another thing that will be produced is some general information in ppt. format about the PCC work, so the National Groups have the same information to share with their members.
The IAPWS Symposium on Wednesday was this year concentrated around Sea Water. A few “takeaways” for the PCC members was that Sea Water is very salty and it’s difficult to measure in sea water.
The traditional IAPWS Dinner on Wednesday evening was held at Stupinigi Palace. A very nice setting for the dinner where we had the traditional speeches from every Head of National Committees.
On Thursday we went on a field trip, visiting INRiM – the National Metrology Institute of Italy. We got a very interesting insight in the field of measuring the speed of sound and density in high pressures and at cryogenic temperatures and how they are doing acoustic sound testing measuring the sound absorption in different materials.
Overall, it has been a great and productive meeting in Turin, and I want to express my appreciation to the Italian National Committee for organizing the meeting.
Next year will be the International Conference on the Properties of Water and Steam (ICPWS), and this will be held in Boulder, Colorado, USA on 23.-28. June 2024.
More information on the ICPWS next year can be found through links on the IAPWS website.
You may already now also book your calendar for the IAPWS 2025 meeting, which is going to be held in Helsinki, Finland on 22.-27. June 2025. The SIAPWS Nordic EC has already started the planning.
Monika Nielsen
SIAPWS Chair
