CASE STUDY

IGS HVTS STOPPED EROSION-

CORROSION IN WASTE-

FUELLED CFB BOILER

PROBLEM

Corrosion and erosion mechanisms were both major contributors to tube wastage

in this biomass CFB Boiler, burning waste/biomass.

SOLUTION

The plant has implemented customized HVTS (High Velocity Thermal Spray)

cladding to avoid imminent large scale boiler tube panel replacement.

A successful 5-year maintenance strategy was implemented to prioritize locations

based on corrosive gaseous constituents, unit design, wastage rates and tube

condition.

Problem Areas and Custom SolutionThe unit was commissioned in 2008 and protective cladding

was installed that same year. After several years in service, low

tube thickness values were observed requiring expansion of

the cladding coverage. In addition, previously utilized cladding

had reached its useable life and required refurbishment.

IGS’ material engineers, project managers and technical

managers, in close cooperation with the biomass plant

manager, have reviewed extreme corrosion/erosion findings

and wear along the existing cladding to evaluate specifics of the

evidenced wastage, fuel composition, and operational aspects.

As a result, IGS has introduced a cladding system customized

to the process to mitigate the wastage and extend the life of

the protection system.

To maximize budget utilization during past outages, IGS has

installed thinner specification cladding in 2015, limiting life

expectancy but maximizing the coverage of critical threats to

reliability during that operation campaign until 2017 outage.

Inspection in 2017The inspection was carried out together with the 3rd party

CFB Expert and Plant Manager. Cladding was observed to be

in a flawless condition. This mini-outage verified the reliability

of the IGS HVTS cladding. Extensive inspection was completed

throughout the entirety of the cladding scope. With the top

coat completely intact, the cladding system was confirmed to

be in ‘as-sprayed’ condition.

Fouling was virtually eliminated in the cladded locations and

any adhered fouling was no longer tenacious and was easily

brushed away.

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AVOIDING IMMINENT LARGE SCALE CFB BOILER TUBE PANEL REPLACEMENT | CASE STUDY

BOILER WATERWALL PROTECTION

IGS HVTS succesfully protects hundreds of CFB, BFB, WtE, Biomass and coal-fired boilers worldwide.

IGS have performed over 4,000 site projects and installed millions of square feet of reliable HVTS metal cladding surface protection.

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IGS Maintenance Applications at the Biomass Plant

2008

Cladding installed to mitigate expected erosion

within the CFB boiler.

after

Plant Manager, Pete Kline Said:“During operation, we had fouling, we had buildup, we had erosion that was

eroding that off and refouling. There were some mechanisms going on there that I wasn’t expecting and didn’t understand, and we were seeing some

significant loss.

We had a very large area that we had to protect. And in doing that, the

approach became to prevent us having to get to the point where we had to do large panel replacements. And, to the point of the outage cost, when

you are looking at tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a day in terms of

lost production, the actual cost of the maintenance, the actual cost of the

application and the labor is really small in comparison to the lost production

costs.

Anywhere you can shave a day off the outage, even if it costs more to shave

that outage time down, there’s a no brainer cost return when you look at the

operational savings and the cost of lost production time.

The reality was, we’d have one scheduled outage a year. Our goal was always

to try to keep that to less than 10 days and that didn’t give us a lot of time in

the unit to cover and address the large areas that we were talking about and

experiencing problems with.”

Pete Kline Continued...

“What that required us to do was to develop a long-term approach of identifying the high-risk areas,

the critical areas and prioritizing the application

over time. Identify what areas we were going to go

after, where we were going to make that application

and how to basically map out a multi-year plan to protect areas of the unit, knowing that we’re dealing

with a sacrificial material and we’re going to have to

come back and continue to inspect and monitor the

previously protected areas.

That process was one that I was very involved in, in

terms of helping us evaluate the specific areas and

work with us to stay within a reasonable budget to achieve our goals and the timeframe that we

had during the specific outage periods that we had

scheduled. It was a collaborative effort between the

folks at our plant and the IGS team.”

2015

Aggressive erosion-corrosion mechanism

analyzed and customized cladding solution installed.

2018

5-year maintenance plan created, prioritizing

locations based on wastage rates and tube

condition.