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.