There are many reasons a company can grow. Customer satisfaction can play a major role in a company’s success. Making safety the top priority for its employees and clients is another. To become a leader in your industry, you must continue to research, develop and seek new processes that save time and cut costs for everyone. This requires innovation and development of new technology for the benefit of our customers. If a company does not evolve, another company will. To stay ahead of the pack, you must create value.
For this reason, adopting an innovation mindset when tackling some of the biggest challenges that arise during the pre-commissioning cleaning phase of a project is a must. Below are just a few of the innovations brought to the pre-commissioning cleaning industry that have been widely accepted for their project savings around the world.
Chemical cleaning alternative for piping systems
In the past, long piping systems required chemical cleaning processes per the specifications posed due to their operational applications. This often translated into many setups and relocations. Further, it required the handling and storage of chemical waste throughout the project. Since the introduction of the high-pressure aqualazing internal pipe cleaning process, many new applications for this service have evolved. An example of this is large-bore compressor suction piping. Typically large-bore piping required some mix of chemical cleaning involving extensive setup and poor circulation capabilities, not to mention extensive waste handling, storage and disposal. Aqualazing all but eliminated these potential issues and provided major schedule reduction and substantial cost savings.
Power plants now have an option
Some new power plants require a full chemical cleaning of the boiler and steam piping before going operational. This involves a massive chemical cleaning setup and makes it necessary to pass through the superheat sections to incorporate the steam piping. This invariably leads to hazardous chemical waste issues due to the exotic metals used in superheat piping systems. We started thinking outside the box and found we could use our high-pressure aqualazing internal pipe cleaning services to clean the steam piping prior to performing steam blows. This allowed for a reduced chemical cleaning scope and the elimination of potential hazardous chemical waste altogether. By aqualazing the steam piping prior to steam blows, you can eliminate the extensive piping needed for the chemical cleaning setup while also reducing steam blow durations. The result is that demineralized water and fuel charges drop substantially. The steam blows can now clean the superheat sections very quickly without the risk of introducing potentially harmful chemicals into these sections.
Steam blow noise reduction
There have been many challenges to executing steam blows due to project locations and the amount of real estate available to perform the service. Typical steam blow setups require a certain length of temporary piping to allow for quenching or cooling the steam, and to start the deceleration process to reach acceptable noise reduction at the exhaust point. Some setups just didn’t have enough room. Utilizing extensive engineering processes to incorporate dry silencers eliminates the quenching or cooling requirements for noise reduction. This means cost savings from reduced temporary piping as well as significantly reduced noise levels in and around the jobsite.
Environmentally friendly chemical cleaning
In certain projects, there is a need for a low-cost, simple degreasing process for boiler cleanings that doesn’t require a full degrease/ acid cleaning. Research led to a low-temperature, nonhazardous degreasing chemistry that not only saves on waste disposal, but also reduces the actual chemical cleaning setup footprint by eliminating an outside heat source. This has proven to provide substantial project cost savings that are passed on to the customer.
As our industry continues to grow in the future, implementing innovative thinking and new technology to adapt with the evolving engineering and pre-commissioning needs is the mark of a valuable pre-commissioning partner.
For more information, visit www. bwenergyservices.com or call (281) 534-9300.
