Water-cooled wear zone
A revolutionary, efficient and economical method for improving operational accessibility and productivity for waste fired power plants
Reducing the maintenance costs by reducing the refractory volume
Our water-cooled wear zone was primarily developed to reduce the area of uncooled refractory in the furnace of our waste-to-energy boilers. The disadvantage of uncooled refractory is that it tends to build up large volumes of slag, which in some cases can disturb the operation of the plant. Especially on the lower part of the furnace side walls, build-up of slag can interrupt the waste flow and therefore heavily influence the combustion process. In extreme cases this can shut down the plant. Another advantage of reducing the refractory volume is the resulting reduction in maintenance costs.
The construction
The wear zone itself is a fully welded construction with relatively thick-walled tubes as well as the plates. This is primarily to ensure structural stability, but also to provide a large allowance for erosion to withstand the inside pressure in the wear zone. The wear zone is either part of the evaporator or part of a separate circuit (such as a district heating circuit). The circulation principle depends on whether the wear zone is part of the evaporator (natural or, in some cases, forced circulation) or part of a separate circuit (forced circulation). In cases where the wear zone coolant temperature is high (i.e. above 230°C), the wear zone is protected with Inconel, a nickel-based metal with outstanding characteristics with regard to high temperature corrosion in waste-to-energy boilers.
