Condenser Tubes Polished on LNG Plant

Mineral deposits removed prior to inspection

Summary

Having experienced Tube Tech’s successful cleaning of LNG condenser tubes on a Middle East LNG site this Asian LNG plant contracted Tube Tech for a specialist application on its own site. The tubes within three condensers were polished utilising Tube Tech’s innovative tailor made technology prior to the condensers being inspected, effectively, quickly and safely.

Challenge

• Brass tubes to be cleaned to a high standard.
• The condensers had never been cleaned back to bare metal before.
• Tube surface to be polished to enable accurate IRIS inspection readings.
• Deposit was known to be hard and tenacious but thickness was unknown.
• Work scope to be completed within a short time frame.

 Solution

• Tube Tech used their single flexsafe system to polish the tubes to a very high standard. This system had previously been used successfully on an LNG plant in the Middle East earlier in the year.
• The system is extremely safe as no high pressure water is used.
• This bespoke cleaning technology removes tenacious scale and polishes the internal tube surface in one action.
• All tubes were polished successfully within the time allocated by the client.
• The high standard of cleaning and polishing within the tube bore enabled a high degree of accurate IRIS inspection readings to be achieved.

Tube Tech comment

Martin Byford, Operations Director:  “We were pleased to have our LNG Condenser Tube Polishing service called on again so soon. It is crucial to have condenser tubes as clean as possible prior to inspection. Our unique system is tailor made for LNG plants and the polishing service is an ideal solution to the challenge of pre-inspection tube cleaning.”