Emergency tube cleaning project

The project

During a scheduled outage at a 300+ MW Danish power generation plant, the operators discovered severe fouling within the tubes of their surface condensers. However, the outage was already ongoing and they had not prepared for a condenser cleaning. Due to the short timeframe and little preparation, the customer faced a challenge on making sure the condenser tubes were clean before going back into operation. The fouling primarily consisted of biological deposits, such as mussels and shells from the seawater which they use as their cooling medium.

The challenge

Surface condensers are critical components in thermal power plants. Over time, these systems will accumulate fouling from minerals, biological growth and macrofouling, especially inside the condenser tubes. Keeping these systems clean is essential to an efficient power generation process.

Since the customer was not aware of the severity of the deposits inside the tubes and they had little time and experience to arrange a cleaning, they came in touch with Goodway Benelux. Upon contact it was clear that the issue was urgent and they needed assistance. Goodway Benelux had to assist with supplying the correct cleaning equipment and products, as well as the training and supervision of local operators to ensure the cleaning was carried out correctly.

The solution

Goodway Benelux provided their BFP big shot tube cleaning system, along with nylon coiled brush projectiles to remove the biological and seagrown deposits from inside the condenser tubes. Furthermore, two productexperts travelled to Denmark to train the local operators – who had never used Goodway® tube cleaning equipment before.

Within 24 hours, Goodway Benelux was on-site with all the equipment and necessary preparations to support the customer with supervising the cleaning process. Within 2 days on-site, the operators were able to clean 3000-3500 tubes per 6-hour shift. The cleaning went on 24/7 and was finished within roughly 4 days. In total, all of the 15.600 condenser tubes were cleaned and inspected.

Summary

• Goodway Benelux was on-site within 24 hours after receiving the initial call from the customer
• Goodway Benelux provided an on-site training of local operators who had never used Goodway® tube cleaning equipment before
• Within 4 days, all of the 15.600 condenser tubes were cleaned and inspected