SuperSystems, Inc. (SSI)

 

SuperSystems, Inc. (SSI) is a recognized leader in cogeneration and seawater desalination in the Southern California area, where we have some of the most successful gas turbine and absorption chiller based cogeneration plants in commercial operation. We also boast the established success of our many desalination plants or cogen-desal combinations in commercial operation overseas.

SSI employs the latest innovations and commits all our resources to finding cost effective and responsive solutions to our clients’ electrical, steam, heating, cooling, or desalinated water needs.

 

Selected Clients List 

	BANK OF AMERICA BREA DATA CENTER, BREA, CA
	HOTEL DEL CORONADO, SAN DIEGO, CA
	SAINT JOHN'S HOSPITAL, SANTA MONICA
	US NAVY LONG BEACH, CA
	TORRANCE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, TORRANCE, CA
	ROYAL COMMISSION FOR JUBAIL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, SAUDI ARABIA
	VA HOSPITAL, LONG BEACH, CA
	ETIWANDA POWER PLANT UNITS 1 & 2, SCE, SAN BERNARDINO, CA
	AIRTEL PLAZA HOTEL,VAN NUYS, CA
	PCL/ENOVA (SDG&E) Power Desalination Privatization, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
	LAW OFFICE OF MANATT,PHELEPS,ROTHENBERG & PHILLIPS, LA, CA
	BIOMASS ONE PLANT, MEDFORD, OR
	SECURITY PACIFIC BANK, CA
	LA DWP HARBOR POWER PLANT, LA DWP, CA
	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON CO, ROSEMEAD, CA
	SANTA MONICA LOEWS HOTEL, SANTA MONICA, CA
	SAINT JOHN'S HOSPITAL, SANTA MONICA, CA
	AMERICA WEST AIRLINE, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
	CITY OF HAWTHORNE, HAWTHORNE, CA
	PCL/ENOVA (SDG&E) Power Desalination Privatization, Honolulu, Hawaii
	SANTEE DAIRIES, LOS ANGELES, CA
	SAN BERNARDINO POWER PLANT, SCE, CA
	ROYAL COMMISSION FOR YANBU INDUSTRIL COMPLEX, SAUDI ARABIA
	PCL/ENOVA (SDG&E) Power Desalination Privatization, Big Island, Hawaii
	DAR EL HANDASA (American Univ. Cogen in Iraq), CAIRO, EGYPT
	MADERA COUNTY WOOD WASTE FACILITY, CA
	EL MONTE DIE CASTING, EL MONTE, CA
	PCL/ENOVA (SDG&E) Power Desalination, Based on Privatization, La Paz, Mexico
	BANK OF AMERICA PASADINA DATA CENTER, PASADINA, CA
	FEDERAL PAPER BOARD, LA, CA
	AIRTEL PLAZA HOTEL COGENERATION, VAN NUYS, CA
	LA DWP HAYNES POWER PLANT, LA-DWP, CA
	Modifications of MSF Desalination Facility, Virgin Island, USA
	US BUREAU OF RECLAMATION “Pilot Desal Plant in California”, Denver, CO
	BAKERSFIELD AGRICULTURE WASTE COGNERATION, BAKERSFIELD, CA
	YANBU POWER DESALINATION COMPLEX, PARSONS CO. JEDDAH, SAUDI
	AMERICA WEST AIRLINE, .PHOENIX, ARIZONA
	BLUE LAKE BIOMASS FACILITY, BLUE LAKE, CA
	HydroDyne Co.: Detailed Design, Fabrication & Installaion of Small MSF Unit, Massilon, Ohio
	TAMPA/ FLORIDA POWER DESALINATION PROJECT, ENOVA (SDG&E)
	SANTA MONICA MEDICAL CENTER, SANTA MONICA, CA
	CALSTATE UNIVERSITY, BAKERSFIELD, CA
	ASIR POWER DESALINATION, ASIR, SAUDI ARABIA
	UNION PACIFIC RESOURCES, WILMINGTON, CA
	IRELL & MANILLA LAW OFFICE, LA, CA
	HONEYWELL CORP., LA, CA
	VALLEY HILTON HOTEL, SHERMAN OAKS, CA
	FORBES ENERGY CORP.
	DAR EL HANDASA (Oman Power Desalination Bidding), Muscat, Oman
	CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION, Cogen Plant Develop. In Katowica, Poland
	DAR EL HANDASA: American University Cogeneration Plant in Mosul, Iraq

Also The Principals of SuperSystems were Involved, for a Period of Five Years, in the Operation & Maintenance of Jeddah Power Desalination Complex, as well as Al-Khobar, Dubai, and Al-Wadjh Desalination Facilities in Saudi Arabia (SWCC). Also Involved in the Construction of a Bagasse Fired Cogeneration for a Sugar Cane Factory (KUS, Egypt), and in the Detailed Engineering Design of Shah-Bahar Power Desalination Plant for the Iranian Navy.

  

The Staff 

The principals of SSI are registered degreed engineers with over 30 years of experience in both technical and management capacities.

Wide Range of Services:
Our staff of consulting engineers are highly qualified mechanical, electrical, and control systems specialists, all of whom boast extensive hands-on experience in one or more of the following areas:

	Multi-Stage Flash, Multi-Effect Distillation, Reverse Osmosis, or Hybrid seawater or brackish water desalination.
	Gas, oil, biomass, bagasse, coal, or MSW fired cogeneration plants.
	Fluidized-bed combustion plants.
	Renewable energy systems.
	Industrial parks.
	Integrated energy systems.
	Heating and cooling.
	Waste heat recovery systems.
	Emission control.

  

Advanced Engineering & Technologies 

1. Power and desalinated Seawater from Biomass and Refused Fuels

SSI staff, as well as the principals of SuperSystems, Inc. were involved in many biomass and solid waste fuels power plants and cogeneration facilities.

Our expertise covers plants utilizing one or more of the following fuels, or a combinations/mixture of these fuels:

Biomass, forest residuals, sawdust, wood-waste, agriculture waste, or a mixture of these fuels.

Landfill gas and digester gas, and other biogas sources.

Shredded tires, MSW, coal, bagasse, etc. In some of our plants, when the local environmental regulations allow, a standard-typical refused fuel- boiler is applied, in other cases a fluidized bed boiler for reduced emission is selected to satisfy California and Oregon very stringent environmental regulations. These facilities are normally integrated with wet-or dry- scrubbers, or electrostatic precipitators (ESP), for particulate removal. The moisture content is the most important factors in the design of biomass and refused fuels power plant. In a wet and rainy locations, the moisture content of the biomass/wood waste/agriculture waste/MSW has to be kept below 55% moisture content to avoid boiler blackout during operation. In addition to these fuels, SSI designed a number of small and medium size power and cogeneration systems operating with the heavy-Bunker C – fuel, or with a low sulfur diesel fuel. 2. Multi/All-Purpose Facilities,"APF", Innovation The APF facility would produce, simultaneously: Electricity; Cooling for air conditioning and near-by industry, offices, hotels, and buildings Heating, for industries or during winter time; High purity distilled water, for chemical and pharmaceutical industries; Drinking water quality from seawater desalination. SuperSystems, Inc., "SSI" engineers were approached by several clients interested in this application. Over the years SSI developed extensive experience, performed numerous research work and studies and engineering design related to the APF plant economy and design features. We have developed innovative design technique to handle many challenging tasks: optimize load cycling and demand fluctuation, optimize plant size, and fuel consumption. We conducted several economic studies and conceptual designs for a few of our clients, related to maintaining the simplicity, reliability, and high efficiency. In the course of our effort, we have also developed financial models specifically designed to meet Multi-Purpose Facility’s economy and design features. The APF facility has proved to be economically very attractive for hot and wormer weather countries such as Hawaii, Mexico, the Middle Eastern Gulf States such as UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, etc. The studies, programs, and design of “APF “ is a Proprietary Information to SSI. 3. Upgrading Aged Power, Cogen and Seawater Desalination Facilities Most of the combined power seawater desalination facilities which are -already- in commercial operation around the world, especially those in the petro-dollar countries of the Middle East, were constructed many years ago during periods of low oil prices. SSI previous experience in U.S. Virgin Islands desalination plants modifications, and the principals of SSI, who were involved for many years in operating and maintaining combined power and desalination facilities in Saudi Arabia, such as Jeddah Phase One and Jeddah Phase Two Power Desalination, and a number of small desalination facilities in Dubai, Al-Wadjh, Umlujj , and Al-Khobar were important factors in the field of modifying and improving existing aged facilities. In addition of reviewing-or upgrading- existing material, we also investigated and applied successfully methods to improve the production, reduce fuel consumption, upgrade or improve the facility control system and plant reliability. Briefly to highlight SSI typical initial evaluation and assessment of MSF and MED desalination facility rehabilitation, we examine:- heat transfer areas and tube bundles conditions, venting system, brine gates and distillate gates conditions and adjustment, demister and distillate quality, pumping performance and pressure drop, steam consumption and the performance ratio evaluation, operating temperature and chemicals dozing evaluation, control system and water levels, vacuum performance and leakage spots, etc., Utilizing our heat transfer programs for the MSF and the MED desalination systems, we would review and calculated the deterioration in the overall heat transfer coefficient and generate an existing single line Heat and Mass Balance Diagram based on current facility conditions. As a result of upgrading and modifying the desalination section, SSI was able to increase the production and reduce plant fuel consumption of the attached power section, simultaneously. Cogeneration and Power Arena: We have considerable involvement - not only in the detailed engineering design- but also in upgrading and improving the efficiency and reliability of many cogeneration facilities, ( plants that producing electricity, cooling and heating simultaneously) and power plants in California, Oregon, Arizona and other places. For Power and Cogeneration plants, briefly, we focus on: generate boiler unit heat balance sheet, performance, combustion quality and the air fuel ratio boiler fan performance check steam quality, flow rates, reducing stations, compressors, chemicals, etc. condenser vacuum and condenser tube conditions feed-water heaters pumping performance fuel consumption we generate a complete heat and mass balance diagrams at different loads for the facility and compare with the brand-new –design values- data power output analysis 4. Optimization in SuperSystems’ Design & Specification: Higher Efficiency and Reduced Fuel Consumption The key challenge in seawater desalination facilities today is the energy consumption and cost. Today's analysis of seawater desalination leads to the statement that energy consumption, like fuel in thermal desalination and dual purpose plants, or electric energy in RO, is a major concern. This is why SuperSystems Engineers has spent extensive amount of time in developing an "Optimization Analysis, Models and Programs" for the sake of reducing the fuel and energy consumption -and under certain scenarios- also reduce initial facility’s capital investment. These optimization programs are a detailed one, and the program and its analysis are a "proprietary information' to SSI. We optimize the desalination system for reduced energy We optimize the relationship between the power section and the desalination plant including the Performance (Gain) Ratio: heat transfer area, number of effects or stages, pumping powers and flow rates, top temperature, steam grade, and scale protection, Evaluate various approaches to reduce the initial investment at the same output. Examine the cost effectiveness of a hybrid systems (for large size facilities) We generate a detailed “Heat & Mass Balance Diagrams” at different conditions Minimize the brine disposal flow rate 5. SSI Experience in Performance Contracts and Shared Energy Savings Contracts 1. SuperSystems previous experience related to the “Performance Contracts” and “Shared Energy Savings Contract” goes back to 1990 when SSI/Biomass One joint venture was awarded the first ever contract from US Navy to design, construct, own and operate a Cogeneration Facility for 12 years (Under BOOT scenario) that would provide the Navy Facility with electricity, heating and cooling for air conditioning. SSI joint venture won this Contract from US Navy in a long and very competitive process. 2. We assisted many of our clients with the required expertise and technique to minimize the plant risk during their "Contract Structuring" period. Our effort were related to two definite types of contracts: Performance Contracts and Shared Savings of a combined Power and Seawater Desalination Projects. California and USA Draught & Mexico, Hawaii Desalination Projects In the United States, water supply shortages and the current sever draught have prompted California, Texas, Florida and many other states to use brackish water, water reuse, and seawater desalination as an additional source of the water supply system. A California civil grand jury has recently ruled that desalination technology is only single solution to avert drought disaster and to averting an environmental disaster created by water shortages as a statewide drought continues. Over the last 25 years, SSI received contracts from California’s largest utilities, such as LADWP, SCE (Edison Co.), SDG&E, US Bureau of Reclamation, and other California and Arizona private companies to study the feasibility, economics, and technology of various desalination processes. Good portion of our work included integrating seawater- or brackish water- desalination facility with existing, large size, utilities power plants, repowering projects, and with large size cogeneration systems SSI is currently pursuing the development of a combined power and seawater desalination facility in California. The contractual requirement, the stringent environmental requirement and the review cycles by different State and Federal agencies, including the preparation of about 15 packages to be submitted to about 15 different federal, state, and local agencies is a difficult and time consuming process, that we hope it will be revised and simplified, to speed up the development and construction of seawater desalination plants. SSI was selected by California Electric Utilities to evaluated and perform conceptual design, operating and initial capital related to integrating seawater desalination (20-30 MGD Size) with existing power plants (1050 MW), and integrating desalination with a large base load combined cycle, 980 MW size. Errors & Omission Investigation Report and Expert Witness SSI has been hired by a number of “California Law Firms” such as Irell & Manilla Law Office, the Law office of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, Los Angeles office, Attorneys by Del Coronado, and St. John’s Hospital outside Attorneys and Law Office, among many others, to investigate and prepare a comprehensive –detailed- report including all the supporting technical and cost documents related to the “Errors & Omission” during each of the following phases: • Engineering Design Phase; • Equipment Purchasing; • Construction Phase (and Construction Defects); • Start Up and Testing and; • The Commercial Operation Phase Description of each error, supporting documents, violations of federal, state and city codes and standards, list of total cost and technical issues, total cost to correct, present value of all costs, and “Contract Terms Violations” items are all included in SSI’s Report Training Courses and Programs We have conducted several training programs- using a very well prepared set of overhead projectors and slides that are extremely informative and beneficial to: • Graduate engineers and post graduate students from colleges and universities • Power plant operating engineers • Cogeneration and power plant’s operators, high school levels. • Dual purpose facilities –power and seawater desalination- engineers and operators   SuperSystems, Inc. Main Office: Irvine, California USA Tel: 949-786-7117 FAX: 949-733-3430 E-mails: supersystems@cox.net