Inventive High Pressure Water Jetting
Many innovative alternatives - a new approach to cleaning heat transfer equipment
Inventive High Pressure Water Jetting
Many innovative alternatives - a new approach to cleaning heat transfer equipment
The higher temperatures of summer put extra pressure on heat exchangers at this Chevron Texaco refinery.
The external fin fan banks on air-cooled heat exchangers had become fouled by heavy deposits. This reduces the efficiency of the heat exchangers and with the higher temperatures of the summer months this means the heat exchangers would have to work harder to perform their function. The client’s requisites were that scaffold requirements were minimised to reduce added costs and for production to continue at full rate while the cleaning operation was carried out. This meant only a few of the coolers could be off line at one time.
Tube Tech International recommended its SafeJetT system of high-pressure water as the best way to remove the fouling. Tube Tech also used its own design of extendable and balanced lances to achieve the highest quality clean, but only a small access/safety scaffold is required therefore keeping further ancillary costs to a minimum. This is a tried and tested method for Tube Tech which has proved this combination of equipment’s effectiveness on heat exchangers in oil installations around the world. The Tube Tech team on site had to carry out the cleaning work at night when both the equipment and ambient temperatures were lower and a few coolers at a time could be taken off line.
This spring cleaning operation by Tube Tech meant the client was able to approach the summer months knowing that their heat exchangers’ cooling capability was at full efficiency. With the work carried out at night and in a short period of time by the Tube Tech team, there was no also production loss for the client.
A refinery spokesman said: “All the work was done on night shift with no disruption to the running of the plant. There was a clean down after every shift so there were no safety issues. We tried to reduce the amount of scaffolding as the safety of personnel was the main objective, irrelevant of cost. It was completed ahead of plan and the feedback from our Operations Department shows increased cooling has been achieved.”
Tube Tech’s Scott Donson said: “We used our well tried and tested method for this operation and it was yet again very successful. Tube Tech has successfully performed similar work at many plants Worldwide, but there are always small challenges to overcome on each occasion just to make the job unique.”
Clients can be contacted via Tube Tech for references.
Fin Fan Air Cooled Condenser Units (ACCU) Cleaned in Environmentally Sensitive Manner
Fin Fan Air Cooled Condenser (ACC) Cleaned in One Day
