- With only a week's notice to plan the project, prepare a quotation and get all necessary equipment assembled and shipped to site, Tube Tech moved with well-practiced speed.
- Tube Tech inspected the tubes to discover the extent of the fouling.
- Three alternative cleaning systems were taken to site to ensure all scenarios were covered.
- The fouling to be removed from the inside of the tubes was a gooey and putty-like substance, which included the remains of a catalytic (PCA) material.
- The effluent was potentially carcinogenic and would therefore require the operators to wear half-BA suits in the cleaning area.
- Two innovative cleaning methods were used to clean both the headers and tubes effectively.
- The first method was based on the well-established SafeTrack system.
- The second method utilised a newly-developed Hydrolance, a hydraulically-driven rotary lance which employs a hydraulically-powered reaming principle with simultaneous pump pressure of 30-52kpsi water.
- The Hydrolance applied a high-torque rotary action within the tube and it removed the various consistencies of deposit encountered.
- Despite the sticky nature of the effluent, which constantly threatened to glue the jetting lances in the tubes, both systems progressed better than expected.
- The cleaning went so well, that the two ACC units Tube Tech had been contracted to clean were completed quickly enough for the client to ask for a third, then a fourth unit to be cleaned as well.
- All four units were completely cleaned to inspection standard within the shutdown.