Technical Papers and Articles

Sector: Refining & Petrochemical

Originally published in BIC Magazine, this article examines the use of pressurized liquid nitrogen (LN₂) as a safe and effective industrialcleaning tool for removing tenacious fouling deposits encountered in petroleum refinery process equipment while also significantly reducing unit turnaround time.

Sector: Power Generation

Losses attributed to condenser tube leaks, fouling and failures continue to climb, costing the power generation industry an estimated half a billion dollars annually in maintenance costs and loss of production. For the period 2008 through 2010 condenser tube related forced outages and derates were responsible for removing over 9.1 million megawatt hours from the grid. To adequately prevent condenser tube failures, effective tube cleaning and nondestructive testing must be performed. Effective tube cleaning should ideally remove all deposits, leaving only the cleanest metal surface. Once tubes are free of fouling deposits, multi-frequency eddy current testing should be used to establish the overall integrity of the condenser tubing.

Keywords: condenser tube cleaners, condenser tube cleaning, condenser cleaning, heat exchanger tube cleaner, heat exchanger cleaning, condenser leak testing, condenser air inleakage, condenser helium leak testing, air inleakage helium leak tests, condenser tube leaks, condenser tube failure, condenser vacuum leak testing

Sector: Power Generation

In the past, the performance of a condenser has been judged by empirical criteria such as cleanliness factor, terminal temperature difference and/or cooling water pressure drop. However, these criteria vary with load, cooling water inlet temperature and cooling water flow rate. Thus, to base maintenance or operating decisions on deviations in the empirical criteria requires that these other factors be taken into account. One way to avoid this is to develop a benchmark or reference condenser duty. A source for this reference can be found in the analysis of turbine thermal kit data to create a design model of the turbine LP stage.

Sector: Power Generation

The proper performance of the condenser is critical to minimizing the operating costs of a turbogenerator unit, in terms of both heat rate and generation capacity. After reviewing the major causes for deteriorating condenser performance, a distinction is drawn between those causes that are cyclical or predictable and those that occur at random time intervals. In the first category, the fouling of condenser tubes and/or tubesheet can be corrected by cleaning, the intervals between which can be optimized. A number of cleaning techniques are reviewed. The second category is concerned with water or air in-leakage, the return of the condenser to normal operation depending on how quickly the source of the leak can be located and then corrected. Tracer gas techniques for leak detection have become the preferred method.

Keywords: condenser leak testing, condenser helium leak testing, condenser helium leak detection, condenser vaccum leak testing, condenser air inleakage, condenser air in-leakage, condenser tube leak, tube leak detection, tracer gas leak testing, tracer gas leak inspection, tracer gas leak detection, SF6 condenser leak detection, air inleakage helium test, air in-leakage helium testing

Sector: Power Generation

Variations in condenser backpressure about design can impact the economic operation of a turbogenerator unit in terms not only of heat rate, but also of the cost of chemicals used to compensate for the dissolved oxygen concentration in both the condensate and feedwater. These effects can be adjusted by employing means to control condenser backpressure and this paper examines how the costs of these effects can be evaluated and suggests some approaches for the active control of backpressure.

Sector: Power Generation

Originally published in Power Engineering Magazine, this article examines how South Texas Project Nuclear utilized Conco Systems calcium carbonate scale removal tool, the Cal-Buster™ to remove over four cubic yards of calcium carbonate scale weighing two and a half tons from the plant's unit one 96,234 titanium tubes.  Following the cleaning, South Texas Project employed the same strategy in the cleaning of their Unit 2 condensers.  This article depicts and excellent alternative to chemical based cleaning for the effective removal of calcium scale.

Keywords: condenser tube cleaner, condenser tube cleaners, condenser tube cleaning, condenser calcium scale, cal-buster, calbuster, heat exchanger tube cleaner, heat exchanger cleaning, tube cleaners, tube cleaning brush, metal tube cleaner, condenser calcium scaling, removing calcium carbonate from tubing

Sector: Power Generation

The largest single factor that can affect turbine cycle efficiency within a generation station is the heat transfer of the condenser. Depending on turbine design, poor condenser performance can cost as much as 7% in extra fuel being consumed. Thus, maintaining condenser performance can be of benefit not only economically to the plant but also to the environment. The factors affecting condenser heat transfer are; tube-sheet macro fouling, tube deposits, air inleakage and air removal pump condition.

Sector: Power Generation

Traditional methods of pinpointing condenser cooling water leaks including the use of plastic wrap, foam, flame from a match or candle, sound, vibration, eddy-current inspection, chemical analysis, and even tracing with helium gas are reviewed in this article originall published in Power Magazine.

Keywords: condenser leak testing, condenser leak detection, air inleakage. air in-leakage, vacuum leak detection, power plant leak detection, helium leak detection services, condenser tube leaks, condenser air inleakage detection, air inleakage helium leak tests, condenser vacuum leak testing

Sector: Power Generation

Efficient condenser operation is critical to minimizing the operating costs and improving the performance of a turbogenerator unit or power plant. Efficient condenser performance is recognized by an improvement in heat rate and generation capacity, less fuel is consumed and a significant reduction in CO2 emissions can be achieved. Condenser tube fouling and condenser air-inleakage have been found to have a significant impact on condenser performance and subsequently plant performance.

Sector: Power Generation

Published in Power Engineering Magazine, this article examines the importance of maintaining a power plant's water system, as well as recent innovations in condenser tube cleaning.  These cleaning innovations have recovered up to 25 megawatts lost due to operating above design backpressure as a result of fouled and blocked condenser tubes.

Keywords: condenser tube cleaning, fouled condenser tubes, blocked condenser tubes, condenser cleaning, heat exchanger cleaning, condenser tube fouling, blocked condenser tubes, condenser leak detection, condenser tube leaks

Sector: Power Generation

Originally published in Power Plant Chemistry this article examines the two most common condenser tube problems faced by chemists; internal tube fouling and tube failure. Fouling can have a major impact on power generation efficiency and/or capacity, and tube leaks can seriously impact unit availability and reliability.  Fundamental understanding of the root cause(s) of these issues and their mitigation is essential to resolving these problems and/or preventing their reoccurence.

Keywords: condenser tube cleaning, condenser tube cleaner, condenser cleaning, heat exchanger cleaning, condenser tube fouling, condenser tube leaks, condenser leak detection, condenser tube leak detection, tracer gas leak detection