Don’t you hate it when the power goes out? Electricity is the backbone of our daily lives, and when it’s suddenly gone it seems like the world comes to a stop. So what are some preventative measures power plants are taking to eliminate power outages?
First and foremost, plants are cracking down on their maintenance. This may seem elementary, but if you think about it, the upkeep of machinery is going to keep any facility running. The first step in proper equipment maintenance is to make sure it’s clean. Most equipment in power plants can’t be cleaned with water, so sandblasting became a popular method. Unfortunately this often did more harm than good for the equipment, particularly when cleaning heat exchanger pipes.
The Irony that is Sand Blasting
For those of you that don’t know, heat exchangers are a key component in power plant operations. In order to ensure optimal utilization of heating power, the accumulating soot layer needs to be removed from these pipes. Sand blasting is impractical to do this for two reasons. Firstly, if you use sand as a blasting media, you can expect abrasion on the surface of the equipment. Heat exchangers need to be examined for damage on a regular basis, so they are cleaned fairly often. Routinely using sand blasting increases the damage done to the equipment. (Kind of ironic that a method used to prevent equipment damage is actually causing it).
Secondly, after blasting with sand there is A LOT of clean up to do. This can take workers away from their regular duties. There’s also a ridiculously high cost to clean up the several tons of contaminated sand from the blasting process. The sand mixed together with removed soot deposits at the bottom of the boiler, which adds considerably to the cost of its removal. Because of all this, cleaning equipment with dry ice has become an essential component of equipment maintenance in power plants.
A Better Way
Power plants have started implementing dry ice blasting as a way to help improve overall maintenance, which has considerable benefits over sand blasting. Firstly, it’s a nonabrasive process, so it supports the need for a cleaning process that doesn’t damage equipment. Secondly, dry ice cleaning can be done in almost half the time of other methods because the dry ice pellets vaporize upon contact with the surface. This holds a huge advantage over sand blasting because it eliminates the after cleanup. Finally, dry ice blasting is an eco-friendly process (an important initiative for this industry) because it delays CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
If all that weren’t enough, utilizing dry ice blasting has allowed some power plants to cut their cleaning expenses but nearly 70%. For the full cost breakdown see the charts below₁
Sand blasting
- The cleaned area in the chart refers to heat exchanger pipes in a boiler section of 16.4×26 ft. (5x8m). This chart does not show the added costs of stopping the heater for 4 additional hours for sand recollection
- The cost of running the sand aspirator and recollection in a special truck
- Dry ice pricing varies by location
- The cost of renting a portable compressor varies by location and may not be necessary based on the PSI (bar) of the facility
To learn more about how dry ice blasting is being utilized in power plants click here
Dry Ice Technology 