Cleaning heat exchangers in one of Germany’s largest biogas refineries with the JetMaster system from mycon
Cleaning through heat exchangers back to greater energy efficiency – this is the experience of the biogas refinery in Arneburg. The biogas refinery in Arneburg is one of the largest biomethane refineries in Germany. Gas has been fed into the public grid from there since May 2013. It covers an area of 6 hectares and produces 12.2 million Nm³ of biogas per year from maize, whole crop silage and grain. 5,000 households can thus be supplied with electricity and heat. Ten employees ensure the smooth operation of the plant.
At the beginning of September, Kipp Umwelttechnik GmbH was also able to make its contribution to the flawless functioning of the system. The job was to clean the heat exchanger. This involved around 30m² of heavily calcified heat exchangers. These had already lost much of their efficiency, which led to a significant increase in operating costs. This was not the first time that Kipp Umwelttechnik GmbH has worked on a biogas plant that produces gas rather than electricity. However, the Nordmethan GmbH plant was by far the largest to date. Here, too, the
Cleaning heat exchangers with the JetMaster process from mycon GmbH
Cleaning heavily calcified heat exchangers – more precisely table-top coolers – is a particularly challenging task. Desktop coolers consist of axial fans with pipes running underneath them, which are surrounded by sensitive aluminum fins. The distance between the slats and the floor is usually 50 to 100 cm. Either a refrigerant or a liquid to be cooled is fed through the pipes. Due to the density of the slats, the spaces between them are difficult to access. The more the fins become dirty, the more energy is required to achieve the desired cooling capacity.
The heat exchanger cleaning commissioned by Nordmethan GmbH at the Arneburg site involved table coolers with ten axial fans and a fin surface area of around 30 m². According to the operator of the system, cleaning by another service provider last year was not very successful, which meant that the planned cleaning interval could only just be adhered to.
As a rule, heat exchangers are cleaned using a spraying process with chemicals. This type of cleaning consumes considerable resources and is not environmentally friendly. Moreover, success is not always a given. Cleaning with a high-pressure cleaner also consumes considerable water resources. However, there are two main problems here: 1. the jet often does not penetrate the entire construction depth of the heat exchanger, so it is only cleaned on the surface and 2. The dense jet can also quickly damage the sensitive slats if it hits them at an angle.
Kipp Umwelttechnik GmbH successfully cleaned the heat exchangers using the JetMaster process and additional combination devices from sister company mycon GmbH. One particular advantage of this approach was that Kipp Umwelttechnik GmbH was able to clean the heat exchangers while they were in operation. It was not necessary to switch off the table coolers.
Cleaning heat exchangers leads to greater efficiency – Nordmethan GmbH is delighted
Sven Staffa, Operations Manager at Nordmethan GmbH:
“We are very satisfied with the cleaning of the heat exchangers. We will be using the services of Kipp Umwelttechnik at other locations in the near future.”
Georg Vernickel, plant engineer at Nordmethan GmbH:
“After we had the heat exchangers cleaned, the performance of the table coolers is almost back to the values directly after installation. The Kipp Umwelttechnik employee did a really good job. Even after half of the cleaning, we could see much greater success than after the entire last cleaning.”
If carried out professionally, having heat exchangers cleaned has other advantages for the operator in addition to reducing operating costs:
- Deep cleaning extends the cleaning interval
- The operating life of the heat exchanger is extended as corrosion is caused by soiling. With professional cleaning, these can be almost completely removed.
Press contact: Maike Küppershaus, Kipp Umwelttechnik GmbH – m.kueppershaus@kipp-umwelttechnik.de
