Customer Support>Recent Releases

We continue to enhance and update our software suite by adding new features, improving existing features, and keeping up-to-date with both technical and economic trends. Typically, we release between one and two major software updates per year.  The following list shows some highlights of recent releases.

Release History - follow link to highlights and update letter for each release

Latest Release

March 15, 2008: Thermoflow Suite 18 (TFLOW18) released. Some highlights follow.

• PEACE cost estimations in all programs have been revised significantly upward consistent with changes in the power generation and infrastructure marketplace. Expect plant cost increases of 25 to 35% relative to estimates from Version 17.

• The PEACE Schematic outputs for GT PRO and GT MASTER now include a three-dimensional view of your plant..

• GT PRO now includes a District heating design wizard. New DH configurations include ability to integrate an HRSG economizer with the bled steam district heating condensers..

• A new file comparison feature compares GT PRO or GT MASTER files to reveal differences among their inputs.

• Improvements made to THERMOFLEX provide more details for boiler design, and include a grate-fired furnace, an independent fuel pulverizer, a radiantly cooled passage, and addition of water wall heat transfer coincident with convective heat exchangers.

• New components in THERMOFLEX accommodate modeling solar thermal cycles. A new fluid type was added to represent thermal oils. The thermal oil library includes about 25 commercially available heat transfer fluids.

• Shell and tube heat exchangers to represent economizers, evaporators, and superheaters were added.

• Fuel database was updated so it now includes over 40 biomass fuels.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW18 for details.

April 26, 2007: Thermoflow Suite 17 (TFLOW17) released. Some highlights follow.

• GT PRO and GT MASTER now include exergy accounting for the combined cycle, gas turbine, HRSG, and ST/condenser.

• A significant number of new components were introduced into THERMOFLEX for modeling coal gasification, and IGCC power plants. These components are fully compatible with their GT PRO and GT MASTER counterparts.

• A new air-swept pulverizer model was developed and is included in STEAM PRO/STEAM MASTER and THERMOFLEX.

• STEAM PRO and STEAM MASTER have new features needed to model brown-coal boilers.

• THERMOFLEX now includes the CFB model that has been part of STEAM PRO since early 2004.

• THERMOFLEX can now import STEAM PRO files and create an equivalent THERMOFLEX file using a procedure that mirrors that available for GT PRO files since 1996.

• THERMOFLEX can now import GT PRO files that include Gasification systems, and Desalination systems.

• PEACE cost estimates were updated to reflect increases in major equipment costs, and the continued strong demand for labor, key materials, and basic commodities including steel and concrete.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW17 for details.

July 25, 2006: Thermoflow Suite 16 (TFLOW16) released. Some highlights follow.

• Significant IGCC enhancements to GT PRO and GT MASTER. New hardware-based models for the gasifier vessel and raw syngas coolers were added in this version. Additional steam sources are now available for interconnecting raw syngas coolers to the power island. New IGCC output graphics were added to better illustrate flows between the gasification plant and the power island. The gas cleanup system now includes a CO shift with supplemental steam sources from the power block. ASU model includes a more detailed model of the intercooled compressor trains.

• THERMOFLEX's refrigerant list was expanded to include 39 additional materials whose properties are computed using the REFPROP 7.0 software from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.

• STEAM PRO and STEAM MASTER now include a pulverizer capacity model to estimate coal handling capacity as a function of fuel hardness, desired fineness, and moisture content.

• 21 new gas turbine specifications were added to the GT library used by all THERMOFLOW programs. The library now includes 324 engine specifications.

• All PRO and MASTER programs include new pie charts and block diagrams are to concisely illustrate the breakdown of energy flows into and out of the plant.

• THERMOFLEX includes new components for flue gas handling and treatment including flyash removal using electrostatic precipitation or fabric filters, and wet limestone desulphurization. A new district heater component designed to more easily interact with steam turbines over a wide load range is included.

• PEACE cost estimates in all programs were updated to reflect an up tick in gas turbine pricing, and to track continued strong worldwide demand for labor and basic commodities including steel and concrete.

• THERMOFLEX now has an automated steam turbine loading mode. It causes steam flow to the turbine to be adjusted so the turbine’s shaft output or its generator power balances another load in the plant.

• 16 new reciprocating engine specs were added to the engine library used by THERMOFLEX and RECIPRO. The library now contains 374 engine specs.

• The off-design UA model for THERMOFLEX virtual HRSG heat exchangers was improved to include effects of stream temperatures and pressures. The list-style input menus for these components were replaced by user-friendly graphical menus.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW16 for details.

August 16, 2005: Thermoflow Suite 15 (TFLOW15) released. Some highlights follow.

• Alternate language options are provided for GT PRO, GT MASTER, PEACE, STEAM PRO, and STEAM MASTER to make the programs more friendly and understandable to users whose first language is not English.

• A cooling system optimization process has been implemented in GT MASTER and STEAM MASTER. The program determines the number of operating cooling water pumps and, if present, the number of operating full speed and half speed cells of a multi-cell cooling tower that should be running for best plant performance, or sets numbers of operating full and half speed fans of air-cooled condensers.

• An improved feedwater heater system design wizard has been implemented in STEAM PRO which will automatically adjust steam turbine bleed pressures and feedwater heater exit temperatures, allowing the casual user to alter steam turbine conditions with confidence that the feedwater heating system will follow appropriately.

• Gas turbine database now includes 303 specifications. Users with a license for the GE APPS program can run GT PRO and GT MASTER using GE APPS as the calculation engine for the gas turbine.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW15 for details.

October 4, 2004: Thermoflow Suite 14 (TFLOW14) released. Some highlights follow.

• An improved Wizard initialization of design parameters in GT PRO tailors steam conditions to be commensurate with the selected gas turbine’s characteristics expected at the prescribed site conditions and selected fuel type.

• New tools in GT MASTER provide a streamlined approach to tuning the performance of your GT MASTER simulation to measured, expected, or vendor-guaranteed data at either a single operating point or several operating conditions.

• Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) Desalination system models are now included in GT PRO/GT MASTER/PEACE, as well as in THERMOFLEX/PEACE. The Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) desalination system models, introduced in the last version, have been improved.

• A Tower Boiler model has been added to STEAM PRO/STEAM MASTER/PEACE as an alternative to the previously assumed two-pass boiler configuration.

• A new Package Boiler Component has been added to THERMOFLEX/PEACE, providing hardware details and cost estimation.
  The Cooling Tower model used in all of the heat balance programs can now be selected to be a counterflow unit, different in configuration and cost from the existing crossflow tower model.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW14 for details.

March 12, 2004: Thermoflow Suite 13 (TFLOW13) released. Some highlights follow.

• Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) system model in GT PRO/GT MASTER/PEACE.

• Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) Desalination system model in GT PRO/GT MASTER/PEACE, as well as in THERMOFLEX/PEACE.

• Circulating Fluidised Bed (CFB) model in STEAM PRO/STEAM MASTER/PEACE.

• User-defined Component in THERMOFLEX, allowing a licensed “component author” to write and run his own component model within the THERMOFLEX system.

• TOPS (Thermoflow Optimization System) is now available as an Excel overlay onto any Thermoflow model.

• The fuel definition program PROFUEL has been expanded, and now includes a large data base with over 100 typical coals from all over the world. This program and its files are now a common standard used by all Thermoflow programs.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW13 for details.

August 15, 2003: Thermoflow Suite 12 (TFLOW12) released. Some highlights follow.

• Preliminary Engineering and Cost Estimation (PEACE) functionality available in STEAM MASTER.

• THERMOFLEX has new steam turbine assembly feature – essentially the automated steam turbine definition from STEAM PRO and STEAM MASTER as a module in the fully-flexible THERMOFLEX environment. Outputs include PEACE dimensions, weights, cost.

• ELINK – the Excel Link to Thermoflow software has new method to create flexible GUI (Graphical User Interface). You can make attractive, user-defined pictorial interfaces to Thermoflow models, making them easy to use by staff who are unfamiliar to our suite of software.

• New DRS Product: Our data reconciliation system (DRS), which we have developed and applied to several operating power plants over the years, is now available as an Excel Add-in, just like ELINK. DRS reconciles measured plant data and a Thermoflow model, finding a model that “best-fits” the measurements. Useful for analysis of performance tests and online monitoring of plant operation and performance.

• Gas turbine database shared by the software suite was updated. 13 new engine specs added, and 3 existing specs updated.

• Cost estimates for steam turbines and other plant components updated.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW12 for details.

March 28, 2003: Thermoflow Suite 11 (TFLOW11) released. Some highlights follow.

• Rationalized program version numbering system so the individual programs and the CD are now organized by a single, suite number. Since GT PRO, our oldest program, is currently at Version 11, we jumped from TFLOW8 (the previous release) to TFLOW11, the current release.

• Preliminary Engineering and Cost Estimation module added to STEAM PRO.

• Completely revamped conventional boiler model to introduce robust, fuel--dependent logic to automatically select the boilers’ thermodynamic design parameters, as well as its geometry and materials.

• ASHRAE Climate Data: Thermoflow has licensed from ASHRAE the rights to include its extensive world climate database with our software. It is easily accessible from the site menu in all programs.

• Gas turbine database shared by the software suite was updated. 13 new engine specs added, and 5 existing specs updated.

• Based on strong collaboration with a major air-cooled condenser vendor, engineering and cost estimates for air-cooled condensers with rectangular and oval tubes added.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW11 for details.

July 12, 2002: Thermoflow Suite 8 (TFLOW8) released. Some highlights follow.

• Driven by increasing use of our software by HRSG vendors, the engineered PEACE components in THERMOFLEX have been expanded to provide a flexible, detailed platform for thermal design and simulation of HRSG’s. An HRSG Assembly has been introduced, allowing GT PRO-level preliminary drawings and estimates to be make for entire HRSG’s which are created from a collection of THERMOFLEX icons. Ability to model supercritical HRSG's available using new Once-Through Boiler (OTB) element.

• GT PRO & GT MASTER steam turbine model; the steam turbine has new options for specification of casing configuration, necessary for detailed leakage modeling and for a more physically based, new, cost estimation procedure in PEACE.

• GT PRO HRSG design; additional features to support several HRSG vendors incorporated.

• Gas turbine database shared by the software suite was updated. 33 new engine specs added, and 10 existing specs updated.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW8 for details.

December 10, 2001: Thermoflow Suite 7 (TFLOW7) released. Some highlights follow.

• PEACE functionality in THERMOFLEX further enhanced to fully provide support for system analysis and sub-system design complete with physical equipment descriptions and cost estimates.

• THERMOFLEX user manual completely rewritten to include all new PEACE components. A large number of sample files have been added and described with the manual to help understand model features and program capabilities.

• Reciprocating engine database significantly revised and updated. Presently, over 300 engine specifications are available for use in THERMOFLEX and RECIPRO. Engine specs include cost estimates.

• GT PRO, GT MASTER, and PEACE now have context sensitive on-line help. A set of narrated tutorials are provided to help new and existing customers get the most out of their software investment.

• Emissions: A new easy-to-use facility allows users to flexibly define gas turbine and duct burner non-stoichiometric emissions rates for CO, NOx, UHC and ammonia slip in the SCR. A summary component and plant-wide output table is provided to clearly report plant emissions.

• Gas turbine database was updated. A new specification for the Mitsubishi 501F was added.

Read update letter distributed with TFLOW7 for details.