July 2011 - Cire Technologies Consulting and Troubleshooting Services

Cire Technologies, Inc. Jul 13, 2011

Cire Technologies is proud to report on a recent project:

Cire Technologies provided inspection services for a client's recuperative thermal oxidizer prior to its State-mandated stack test.

This is a service we offer our customers to help ensure the oxidizer passes the test, avoiding unpleasant surprises. Although the oxidizer was not manufactured by Cire Technologies, our extensive design and field experience make us the ideal fit for this type of job. Further driving the client's interest in our expertise were challenges with the production speeds of a new product for Walmart. Our objectives were to prepare the oxidizer for the test and to increase production speeds so that our customer could make their new product profitably.

The initial inspection revealed damage to the existing burner and leakage through penetrations of the oxidizer housing for the burner UV flame detector and spark igniter. The leakage was caused by improper accounting for the thermal growth of the burner assembly.

By analyzing the heat exchanger inlet and outlet temperatures and calculating the solvent load to the oxidizer, we determined that the oxidizer's design should have allowed for production of the new product at higher line speeds. At the same time, we investigated the oxidizer control system to help determine the nature of nuisance shutdowns that reduced the production line speeds.

Correcting a thermocouple that was incorrectly wired and changing the parameters of the oxidizer fan speed control resulted in increases in process line speed of over 25% and profitability for our customer.

During the burner and housing leak repairs, we installed additional test ports to facilitate troubleshooting if the stack test results were unsatisfactory.

When the preliminary stack test failed, we used the new test ports to isolate the cause of the failure to the primary heat exchanger. From our knowledge of oxidizer construction, we isolated the problem to the packed, hot-side head plate and proposed a repair.

A new contract to repair the heat exchanger was completed including our recommended improvements to the original design to make the packed joint serviceable. The final stack test resulted in a DRE greater than 99%.

Oxidizers need to meet stringent regulatory standards. Ensuring successful results requires the expertise of consultants with extensive design and field experience. In this fairly typical case, we were able to help our customer meet the regulatory requirements of the oxidizer and simultaneously increase the company's profitability.