A clogged up cooler will never be a troubling issue for IKM Ocean Teams group’s workshop. In corporation with their customer, they achieve their goal, exceeding all expectations while saving both time & money.
Heatric Cooler - ready to be cleaned.
Our customer arrives at IKM Ocean Team with a clogged Heatric cooler containing too many particles and deposits from their gas production. It therefore needs a thorough cleaning in order to get the flow through the gas channels back to its true performance level.
Cleaning of heatric coolers are one of IKM Ocean Team in-house workshop’s main expertises.
Additives are the Root Cause
The delivered cooler serves as a part of the process, where gas is extracted from the subsoil. Cooler water and gas are transported, however, independently of one another, through the compressed blocks of corridors while the gas is cooled down for further course.
A particular type of contamination might be the root of troubles regarding heatric coolers: scavenger, a result of an economically viable additive supplied gas used in order to soften in the extraction process while avoiding corrosion.
H2S (Hydrogen Sulfide) scavenger, among others, increases efficiency in production, but also provides a form of waste product secreted as particles. Secreted particles will, after prolonged production, end up clogging the gas corridors, creating a higher differential pressure across the cooler, which then eventually give up.
The Alternative Solutions
The customer’s heatric cooler is constructed as a closed box and it is hard to penetrate in order to mechanically clean it. It could be an alternative to clean mechanically as a first, yet the result will, in many cases, not meet any of the customer’s desired results. Meanwhile, the gas and cooler water corridors are different for each cooler, making another alternative, “puffing with Nitrogen” in combination with chemical and mechanical cleaning a solution, but only if the chemistry doesn’t clean proberly or the dp measurements does not move.
IKM Ocean Teams Solution:
True Value of Chemical Cleaning
In close corporation with our customer, IKM Ocean Team identify the type of contamination followed by a decision on how to clean most effectively: That is chemical cleaning. The right mixture of chemistry is then prepared.
This plate illustrates the inside of a heatric cooler. A huge amount of plates similar to this one are compressed. During production, gas and cooling water navigate through the tiny corridors independently from each other until clogged.
In order to identify the contamination quantity, IKM Ocean Team measures the differential pressure continuously through out the entire cleaning process. Our customer’s cooler was clogged cocurrent by 2.5 bar, where a level between 0.3 - 0.5 bar is considered normal and indicates free passage.
The cleaning procedure starts: 2000 liters of water per minute circulate through the cooler, further through the mixture tank with chemistry, and back to the pump, cocurrently and countercurrent.
The pump capacity is 3600 meters per minute. The detergent used is the most economically and environmentally sound for the result, the customer desires to end up with. In order to achieve the most effective cleaning, and to capture the particles, which can be wedged inside the cooler, it is important to circulate in both directions and measure the pressure a constant temperature, continuously.
Effective Thinking - also through the Night!
There is a certain temperature that allows the chemistry to work around the clock, even when the circulation is shut down for the night. Instead of cooling it down, the cooler is left to soak in chemistry with this constant temperature. It is pure advantage to keep track of the process during the day, while the chemistry works miracles throughout the night.
The visible result of a chemical cleaning in shape of contaminating particles caught in the filter
A heatric cooler after a chemical cleaning.
Result of Great Value to the Customer
IKM Ocean Team obtains the customer’s desired outcome. The Heatric arrived with a differential pressure at 2.5 bar. After the procedure, it was measured at 0.3 bar, which means, a power increase of more than 80% and approximately an equally efficient gas permeation as by a new heatric cooler.
Back in the Game
The heatric cooler plays a part of several coolers succeeding one another. Therefore, it is ok to dismantle one in case of breakdown, temporarily. It is important for the customer that the cooler gets back in operation as fast as possible. A new heatric cooler takes months to build and comes at a great cost. Whereas, a chemical cleaning at IKM Ocean Team is done fast within 14 days and to a percentage of the purchase price. The purified heatric quickly serves its cost back through efficient production.
IKM Ocean Team’s specialists, equipment, effective ideas and services within the field of chemical cleaning of heatric coolers are in the far front, with competitive expertise, and not least: cost effective in the long run.