Industrial Noise & Vibration Centre

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Fan silencing in the power industries

Schiller biofuel power station fan noise attenuation

The Power Industry International journal published an article about the application of our innovative aerodynamic fan noise attenuation technology to cut not just the cost of noise control projects to reduce the noise from large fans feeding into stacks in the power industry, but also to improve fan efficiency.

The suggestion was that the widespread adoption of the technology could substantially reduce capital and running costs compared with traditional fan noise attenuation techniques such as attenuators, acoustic enclosures and lagging.

The journalist uses the application of the technology to the 50MW Schiller biomass power station in the US as an example. This is the largest power station of its type and uses a huge, house-sized ID combustion fan connected to a stack. The aerodynamic fan noise attenuation was installed within a time window of just 12 hours - compare that with the costly weeks of downtime required to install conventional mufflers. This cut the fan noise by 10dB at fraction of the cost and the fan efficiency was substantially improved.

An interesting point made in the article is that the noise control installation may seem too simple. The industry is used to the idea of massive noise control structures and extensive downtime. Compare that with the option to install elegant aerodynamic inserts inside the fan casing in a few hoursĀ to eliminate the noise problem at source without compromising fan efficiency.

Exactly the same point applies to many other industries such as steel and cement industry fansĀ and the associated signature stacks that broadcast the fan noise far and wide.

Read the Power Engineering International fan noise control article