A Case Study on Insulating Main Steam Line (MSL) with Silica Aerogel

In this paper, a case study on replacing the existing insulating material (Mineral wool) by the Silica Aerogel in the main steam line (MSL) of the thermal power plant is presented.A sample length of 3 m in MSL was insulated with various thicknesses of silica aerogel, mineral wool and the combinations of mineral wool and silica aerogel. The heat loss in the sample length with different insulating material was calculated by carrying out field experiments. The results show that the silica aerogel is providing better insulation than the mineral wool. Nonetheless, the use of silica aerogel is expensive. To bring down the cost, hybrid insulation with the optimal thickness of silica aerogel + mineral wool + silica aerogel was suggested. This hybrid combination considerably reduced the heat loss and improved the thermal efficiency. The payback period for this implementation was reported.