KRR Prostream has been operating in the Waste and Biomass sectors for 16 years and provides a cleaning service to all the major Operators in the UK and Ireland.

We have a comprehensive training programme in cooperation with our Licensor and Technology provider so our Operators are always highly trained and able to offer skills to the Plant that help keep it running, and above all save a lot of money with unexpected outages.

Waste incineration plants are, due to their heterogeneous fuel, very susceptible to fouling on their heat exchanger surfaces. Fouling in Energy from Waste (EfW) and Energy from Biomass (EfB) fuelled boilers is recognised as having a considerable negative impact on availability, efficiency and financial returns. Boiler manufacturers and operators alike are continually striving to improve the cleaning technologies on EfW and EfB boilers to optimise operations, whereas EPC contractors have slightly different drivers. Boiler tube bundles that are heavily fouled will compromise your generating capacity due to poor heat exchange and/or high pressure drop. With extreme fouling, your plant may need to be taken offline. Installed equipment such as rappers or soot blowers may not be up to the task of keeping the gas path free and ensuring good heat transfer.

KRR Prostream provides services and equipment that is able to solve such problems.

High Temperature Camera Inspection

Initially KRR Prostream use a High Temperature camera which is deployed whilst the boiler is onload (up to 1200°c) and allows the Operators and Plant personnel the ability to pinpoint where the cleaning focus should concentrate, and also provide a record of comparison, before and after the boiler is cleaned.

Door before

Door after

PressureWavePlus or Bang&Clean

The conventional method of cleaning manually is by using different types of lances and bags to create a pulse inside the boiler which removes fouling. Known as ‘Pressure Wave Technology’ or more commonly ‘Bang&Clean’ this method is very versatile, and can be used throughout the boiler from the furnace to the economiser.

The various advantages of Bang&Clean are as follows:

• Reduction of downtime, due to on-load application
• Higher availability of the plant
• Increase in efficiency due to better heat transfer
• Increase in efficiency through reduction of pressure loss
• Reduced emissions due to better combustion
• Maximum safety for plant and people
• No damage to the plant

In Energy from Biomass plants, ash particles (inert substances) are deposited as caking on the heat exchanger tubes and walls of the boiler. These can be removed very efficiently by the targeted positioning of the pressure wave using Bang&Clean.

A more recent innovation is the Shock Pulse Generator. A new product range has been introduced in the past year, which

Shock Pulse Generators – Fixed boiler cleaning machinery

The Shock Pulse Generator was developed in 2009 and since then has proven to be outstanding performance. As with manual explosion cleaning processes, the Shock Pulse Generator cleans the boiler by shock waves. The shock waves are created by fast combustion of a mixture of burnable gas (Natural Gas or Methane) and air. Contrary to manual processes, the combustion is carried out automatically and outside of the boiler, in a pressure resistant device. The resulting supersonic shock wave is introduced into the boiler by means of a valve and a discharge nozzle. The combustion gas, the boiler tubes and walls are put into a short oscillation, so that deposits, i.e. slag and fly ash, are cleaned off.

Shock Pulse Generator

Function and Cleaning Effect

The following steps are performed during one cycle:

• Filling of combustion chamber with methane / natural gas and air
• Mixing of gases in combustion chamber
• Ignition by glow plug
• Opening of piston, releasing discharge valve
• Injection of shock pulse into the boiler
• Short shock pulse cleans heating surfaces, removing slag and fly ash
• Mild boiler cleaning without damage to boiler tubes

The benefits of Boiler cleaning by means of Shock Pulse Generators:

• Permanent and automated boiler cleaning, thus lower exhaust temperature and higher boiler efficiency, improved CO2 plant performance
• No steam consumption, no thermal abrasion or damaging of boiler tubes
• Higher plant availability by longer boiler traveling period, less cleaning needs during maintenance stops
• Reduction of heat transfer surface area for same steam capacity
• Saving of boiler house volume by reduced space requirement
• Investment cost saving by reduced number of cleaning devices
• High degree of operational safety – boiler remains closed during operation
• Quick and easy installation by modular and compact type series
• High industrial standard (CE-certification based on Pressure Equipment Directive, clearly defined ATEX zones, PLC system monitoring, PROFIBUS/MODBUS compatible

The business also offers a monitoring and reporting service to assist clients to manage energy and costs.

KRR Prostream are sponsors of Operational Optimisation 2022 where Mike Anderson, Managing Director, will be taking part in a session about 'Reducing downtime and outage of EfW Plants' touching on topics ranging from improving boiler performance, increasing the time between outages and best practice techniques.

For more information and to book your place at Operational Optimisation visit opopworkshop.com