Kolkata to Cairo, Munich & More: Acoustic Cleaning Travels

The sights and sounds recalled by myself and our Technical Director Alex Bergus when we have travelled overseas to visit our acoustic cleaning clients are often colourful and fascinating. We have shared many of these already in our acoustic cleaning blog and today we're sharing even more ... and introducing a new boy!

The sights - these can vary hugely, from familiar ones such as looking at blocked silos on a site inspection to coming across unusual cars such as this Ambassador in Kolkata (capital of West Bengal). In production since the late 1950s the 'Amby' is an iconic car in India, based on the 1950s British Morris Oxford and it's not every day that we get to see one!

 

The sounds - these are certainly no less varied. It might be the familiar sound one of our acoustic cleaners being tested after installation on a silo in the hot sun or conversely the unfamiliar grunt of a camel as it passes by on patrol at the Great Pyramids of Giza. Look closely in the photograph below (taken by Alex) and you will see the policeman on his camel. There’s also our post from July (click here) where you can see the camel in question close up!

It is not always hard work out under the hot sun of far flung destinations, however. From time to time we are invited to attend and often speak at international conferences and trade fairs. Here is Alex talking to attendees at a recent Waste to Energy conference in Munich. 

The photograph was taken by our new Marketing and Customer Service Manager Dan Keeling who took the opportunity to meet some of the European Waste to Energy industry's leading players.

Conferences such as these are great opportunities for us to spread the word about our innovative acoustic cleaning technologies and we relish the variety of questions put to us. For example, what are the benefits of acoustic cleaners and how do they compare to traditional steam soot blowers? We can readily answer these questions and it’s always great to be able to do this in person as we get the opportunity to demonstrate not only our expertise in the field but our passion!

However, for those of you that we don’t get to meet, here is a page of the most commonly asked questions we receive, including how the technology works, the importance of the shape, frequency ranges and compressed air requirements.  There are many more questions of course and there has not been one (yet!) that we’ve struggled to answer :)

The Pop & Swing Of Economiser Cleaning Success

Most successful outcomes in industry are the result of the ‘appliance of science’. The success story I’d like to share with you today is a great example of that, except that it has one more ingredient - the ability to pop and swing!

One of my earliest blog posts recalled a trip to London to visit London Waste, a rather special power generation plant which converts household waste to energy. They were struggling with material build-up in one of the boiler economisers. Steam soot blowers, water sprays, manual cleaning and grit blasting had hitherto been their adopted methods of economiser cleaning but were not proving effective enough. Also it was not cost effective with periodic downtime of up to 3 days and a cost implication of circa £70,000. So the plant manager was eager to try our acoustic cleaners. Naturally, he needed to discuss the idea in detail to be sure that it was the right choice, hence my trip.

However, the success story that resulted might never have happened had I declined the invitation to take a closer look at the economiser section itself. The plant manager was lithe and fit whereas I …. well, let’s just say I was in a different class, so several leaps of faith were required.

His instructions of “Just pop through that hatch up there” and “Just swing your legs round here” still echo in my mind with a sense of fear and trepidation – and that’s five years on!

The reward for my endeavours? The following year saw 1 x PAS 60 curved acoustic cleaner and 2 of our PAS 75 units installed at the plant.

Two years further on and the plant was so pleased with the improved efficiency of the struggling economiser that a further 4 x curved PAS60 and 8 x PAS 75 were purchased and installed to help the remaining 4 boiler economisers.

PAS75 acoustic cleaner installed on economiser

Another two years later (early 2013), I was invited to return to the plant to look at the problems caused by fine ash in their filter bank (blocking of the filter bags). Following my recommendations, a series of our acoustic cleaners was installed in all these units. (Another story in itself, details of which will come later!)

I am most grateful to London Waste for entrusting their business to my company and also for granting permission to publish a detailed case study which is now available on our website. You can read and download the pdf by visiting our case studies page.