Interview and Quote from an Outage Work Control Manager and Engineer
Bobbi Monacelli- How would you compare the “The Bang…. blast process of cleaning vs the Dry Ice Blasting Process in HRSGs”
“Granted you are getting substantially more material from the Bang… Blasting process, BUT that does not make the performance greater. In fact, comparing the cost to do the process, plants are losing money on this process.”
It seems Dry Ice Blasting is achieving greater performance due to the concentrated cleaning directly to the tubes.
The assumption is the scaling that’s getting knocked down is not all coming from the tubes. The Bang …. process is measuring the quantity of the material they shovel out of the bottom of the HRSG but the performance increase is not better than ice blasting.
This leads me to believe that the scaling coming off is either from the sidewall or header material. This doesn’t necessarily gain efficiency. You’re knocking down a lot of material – very expensively. This is again not helping efficiency. Whereas when your team is dry ice blasting you’re concentrating on the tube fouling and build-up directly.
The Bang Blast cleaning .. just knocks everything into the unit. It takes the rust off of everything. We haven’t gained any efficiency from taking rust off the sidewall. And the cost is astronomical compared to the price of dry ice blasting which has proven records of back pressure decreases on an average of 3 inches with a qualified experienced blaster such as your team at US Cleanblast.