For years, the mining company had encountered fouling problems in several areas of their mill operations. With unsuccessful attempts to remove the buildup from the pipes, the fouling had become a critical issue in mill operation. The facility had to construct a new LT return pipe to continue mill operations since they had been unable to find an effective cleaning technique. Even with this new line in place, the facility was left with a challenge: how to clean the original pipe and utilize the existing pipe as a standby line. Read the full case study.

AIMM "Hydrokinetically" cleaned 14 heat exchangers in the process train of a recovery unit in a petrochemical plant in Houston, Texas. Each exchanger, some plugged for several years, was severely fouled with polymers. With over 500 tubes each, there were 7000 tubes needing AIMM´s cleaning.

Traditional hydro-blasting cleaning had, over the years, left many tubes solidly plugged, and others were still lined with polymers. In addition to a lengthy downtime during the original cleaning processes, the cost of cleaning the 14 bundles was $30,000. Furthermore, production time lasted only six to eight weeks before the next shutdown.

AIMM cleaned all of the plugged tubes and removed the entire polymer coating inside the tube - in a fraction of the time formerly demanded by the hydroblasters! Three months later, an elated plant manager reported to AIMM that the train had continued to run with little drop in efficiency.

A syngas plant located on Houston's Ship Channel contacted AIMM, anxious for a remedy to their unique predicament. An 840-tube exchanger was plugged solid with a nickel sulphite product. A disappointing attempt to sand jet the tubes merely resulted in 805 of the tubes being blocked with both sand and nickel sulphite. Only 35 tubes were open in the entire bundle.

The customer had already decided to scrap the exchanger when the plant engineer learned of AIMM's unique patented Hydrokinetics™ cleaning method. Plant management chose to try AIMM, as a replacement of the exchanger would have exceeded $500,000.00. Two hydrokinetic passes were made through the exchanger, opening up 66% of the tubes. The customer required 30% of the tubes for minimum operation.

AIMM not only doubled the plant exchanger flow, but as a bonus, saved the plant more than half a million dollars in capital investment!

A Texas City, Texas petrochemical plant had a 600-tube exchanger with a majority of its tubes blocked… many for over 10 years! The foulant was a core of catalyst surrounded by crystallized coke on the walls of the tubes. Previous attempts to open tubes utilizing global drill bits were unsuccessful and resulted in nine drill bits being "lost" in the tubes. The efficiency of the entire exchanger was so poor that plans were already made to replace the unit, when AIMM was called to try their Hydrokinetics™ process on the foulant.

Following initial site evaluation and set-up, AIMM cleaned all 600 tubes in five hours. The missing nine drill bits, plus some lost brushes and stainless steel plugs, were also extruded from the tubes. In less than a day, the unit was back online and operating at "brand new " efficiency. The plant saved thousands of dollars in down time. In addition, AIMM saved them over $500,000.00 in capital expenditures, in addition to removal and installation costs.

Eight thousand feet of 2 1/2" Ø boiler tubes at a central Texas power plant were plugged with fly ash, lime and other fouling materials. Previous cleaning methods by other companies had routinely taken four weeks: two weeks for cutting out the tubes for hydro-blasting and two weeks for tube replacement.

The customer's loss of revenue during these down times was $60,000.00 per day, for a total of $1,680,000.00 for the four-week process. The plant manager met AIMM personnel earlier that year at a trade show and remembered their patented Hydrokinetics™ process. Upon contacting AIMM, a crew was dispatched.

Under the heat and vacuum conditions of the boiler, the fouling materials had created a glass-hard conglomerate, totally plugging the lines. Removal of this substance was extremely labor intensive and time consuming, and resulted only in very limited flow. AIMM , however, completely cleared the tubes and had the customer back online in six days!

On May 21st, 2001, AIMM was contacted by ATOFINA's Engineering Department concerning a problem that the Port Arthur, Texas facility had with the #02H-101 crude heater. For reasons unknown to AIMM, the heater had lost flow to it's #4 pass and had coked solid. No flow was present, thus negating the possibility of the use of traditional steam air de-coking procedures.

A discussion was held to determine whether Hydrokinetics™ could successfully unplug the heater and complete the de-coking / de-scaling job in less time. AIMM has extensive experience in cleaning products such as coke and assured ATOFINA that this would be a viable application utilizing Hydrokinetics™. After the discussion of the problem with ATOFINA, AIMM's representatives felt that the Hydrokinetics process was viable, as no other available technology will work on totally blocked tubes. AIMM agreed to mobilize immediately and be at the plant on Tuesday May 22nd, 2001.

Our team arrived at the Port Arthur, Texas facility at 08:00 AM and proceeded with the necessary pre-job tasks and was shown to the job site. Setup was completed at approximately 10:00 AM, and after a brief safety audit we commenced inducing the Hydrokinetic Process into the inlet side of the #4 pass of the #02H-101 crude heater.

Our Hydrokinetic Process was operational for approximately 15 minutes when a significant pressure spike was noted. Pressure rose slowly to approximately 1,100 PSI, hovered for a few moments, and then fell to the normal discharge pressure of our pump. The same phenomena happened five additional times in a rapid succession. Subsequently we noticed that flow was coming through the vacuum line and a considerable amount of coke solids and crude residues were discharged into the vacuum truck attached to the outlet end of the pipe. After a brief period, our system became static. Pressure was kept at a maximum possible of 4,100 PSI, which told us that the pluggage had stopped moving. It was also noted that our pressure gauges had stopped fluctuating and had become static at the maximum safe working pressure.

Following our standard operational procedures, we then proceeded to reverse the process from the outlet side of the tube into the inlet. After removing the inlet flange and affixing it to the discharge side of the heater, we commenced to induce our Hydrokinetic process. We noticed almost immediately that the pressure rose sharply, and we could hear the fouling material being broken up and moving through the tube, whereupon the process became static.

Reversing the process again resulted in a large volume of coke and water being ejected from the discharge side of the heater tube. The above procedure was repeated another five or six times with the same results. More and more coke was being ejected with each cycle reversal. On the final cycle a large quantity of burned oil was ejected, then with a huge gush the remainder of the coke was expelled. The heater then was allowed to flush.

Following our standard operational procedures, plastic wadding was inserted into the tube and flushed with high volume water to verify the proper cleanliness of the tube. Once this procedure was completed, we continued inserting medium density pigs and extremely rigid power brush pigs, especially manufactured for the Hydrokinetic process. The result was a tube completely de-coked and de-scaled in a period of less than 12 hours.

Examination of the chunks of coke showed that the surface in contact with the tube wall was smooth and the other side presented Tuberculation. Examination of the fouling debris and piping at hand showed that the heater was completely clean and that a Steam-Air de-coking was unnecessary, thus saving an additional 26 hours of down time. In approximately 18 hours, AIMM had saved ATOFINA as much as 10 days in down time (the time that it would have taken to cut out and replace the plugged pass of the heater).

According to the times taken to fill up the tubes from each side, we determined that the pluggage was mostly located on the bottom section of the heater. It is believed from the manner in which the heater reacted and from the volume of coke expelled from the tube, that 50% to 60% of the volume of the tube was coked solid.

AIMM was contracted to clean and process a process surge (Pye Gas) tank utilizing state of art vapor recovery systems and robotics for product removal. The project was completed on time and within the estimated budget.

AIMM successfully removed and processed it into three distinct streams (product, water and solids) of sludge from an above ground storage tank. We vapor controlled all gases (Benzene and Sour Gas) from the tank and maintained air emission compliance as set by EPA regulations. AIMM utilized a Robotic wash system with a camera and light to visually see the tank contents and motivate the sludge to suction point for removal while the tank remained closed and on the plant vapor recovery system. All separation equipment was under vapor controls to meet emission regulations, and a polymer was injected to enhance separation.

The tank was cleaned and all material processed without incident or violation (people, environmental, or process).

AIMM Technologies was requested to analyze the process of a geothermal plant in Costa Rica. After a careful review of the process, it was determined that the current efficiency drop in the process was located at the preheaters and evaporators in the system. After researching the maintenance history, it was found that the exchangers had never been properly cleaned in the 5 year history of the plant.

AIMM developed a plan for cleaning and inspecting the exchangers, as well as establishing a full preventative maintenance plan. AIMM utilized their rotating hose equipment to clean each tube in one pass, allowing a quick inspection since downtime is critical.

After cleaning and inspecting, the damaged tubes were plugged and the exchangers placed back in service.

Once the plant was operational again, right on schedule, the facility saw a 35% efficiency increase in the cleaned equipment!