IMPULSE - Advanced Industrial Manufacture of Next-Generation MARBN Steel for Cleaner Fossil Plant

IMPULSE will work with a novel "MARBN" high temperature steel, recently developed in the TSB funded project "IMPACT"
and shown to offer capability for an increase in steam power plant temperature of 25 degrees C. IMPULSE, whose
consortium includes most IMPACT members together with new pipe, welding and innovative research partners, will take
MARBN from the laboratory on to full-scale industrial manufacture of ingot castings, pipework, and weldments. This will
improve efficiency and reliability of current and future steel-based steam power plant, and thus increase security of supply
and reduce cost and carbon emissions.
MARBN 8-tonne ingot casting technology will be developed, and following high temperature (to 1250 degrees C) testing
and manufacturing simulation, two full-scale pipe extrusion trials will be undertaken, with product validation by testing and
electron metallography. Matching welding consumables will also be developed, qualified and tested.
Long term creep and creep-fatigue data generation will feed into performance validation, materials standardisation, and
pressure vessel design codes. Interaction with the European KMM-VIN collaboration will enable constructive interchange
with parallel European projects.
Loughborough University (LU) will make use of its strong background in characterisation and thermodynamic and kinetic
modelling to provide a thorough investigation of the microstructures of MARBN after processing and welding in order to
inform manufacturing routes and required heat treatments. In addition, LU will thoroughly investigate data relating to the creep performance of existing power plant steels to provide a direct comparison to MARBN to encourage its use within the
commercial sector.

The proposed project will enable industrial partners, Doosan Babcock, Wyman-Gordon, Goodwin Steel Castings, Alstom
Power, Metrode Products and E.ON Technologies and their supply chains to gain market share on behalf of UK plc. in a
growing global energy market, where the need exists for larger and more efficient coal fired plant. In order to deliver
technology solutions, it is necessary to gain improved knowledge about materials' performance during processing and
subsequent service, together with new processing routes for component manufacture and consumable design for the
welding of large scale components. The project will also further develop collaborations between industry, research
organisations and academia - a vital mix for market success.
In the most general sense, the UK population and economy will benefit from this research programme in that it will enable
the UK combustion power generation sector to maintain a cost-competitive, environmentally-acceptable generation option.
It will also create and safeguard a significant number of UK jobs in the manufacturing sector.
The research will also contribute to meeting nationally and internationally agreed targets for CO2 emissions. For next
generation power plant with carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS), better materials performance is the key to
improved efficiency, and in turn to both cost and emissions savings. The use of MARBN has the potential to increase
operating temperature of plant by up to 25 degrees C. This 25 degrees C uprating will increase efficiency by approximately
1%, reducing costs by at least 2%, and could save 1M tonnes of carbon per annum in the UK alone, even if CCS is not
fitted. Flexible, abated fossil plant will enable supply security as the process of decarbonisation progresses.
Results will be disseminated as appropriate to UK industrialists and academics through fora such as the Institute of
Materials Energy Materials group, and the Advanced Power Generation Technology Forum; in Europe through the
Materials for Energy network within KMM-VIN; and worldwide via international conferences, workshops, and international
standardisation committees.