CONDENSER PROTECTION

Condensers are tubular heat exchangers where the cooling water circulates in a large number of parallel, small-bore tubes. The efficiency of the condenser is strictly proportional to the heat-transfer coefficient of the tube walls, i.e. to how clean the inner surface of the tubes may be.

Condensers tend to foul up over time and the efficiency of the plant decreases (up to 3% loss of generated power is not unusual).

To prevent debris from entering into the condenser, we recommend installing one of our “W” type debris filters. These filters have been used since 1936; they are installed on the inlet pipe as close as possible to the condenser and are regularly backwashed to remove collected debris. Over the past 30 years, over 800 such filters have been installed with 80 in Japan alone. For more details, refer to our debris filter page.

To help protect condenser and heat-exchanger tubes from fouling-related problems, two different condenser tube-cleaning systems are available:

The conventional grid type, used everywhere for the past sixty years, where the cleaning balls are arrested on angled grids. The balls roll along the grid down to the collection box where they are pumped out and sent back upstream of the condenser via a ball-management skid.

When the grids are dirty, the balls are collected and the grids tilted to be backwashed. Unfortunately, many balls remain impinged on the grid and are lost when the grids are tilted. Furthermore, after some time and due to wear, the grids no longer close tightly and some balls pass through the resulting gaps. Balls escaping into the environment are being forbidden world-over.
With the BEAUDREY-patented “ZERO BALL LOSS (ZBL)” system, balls are arrested by a specially-adapted debris filter and pumped out via a ball-handling skid to be re-injected upstream of the condenser.

No balls can escape the system and pollute nature.

BEAUDREY Zero Ball Loss systems are more compact and generally less expensive than the grid type.