Sometimes

By powerplanter

Sawdust

You work at a high tech powerplant.
Now you have to work with bags of sawdust.
Problem in a seawater cooled plant is that a tiny leak in the cooling system has effect at the water that goes to the boiler (and so to the steam going to the turbine).
In the condenser the steam coming from the steamturbine is condensated back to water.
This happens under vacuum.
The water is then pumped back to the boiler.
When salt is sucked in (by the vacuum) through a tiny leak in the pipes of the condensor it goes to the boiler where it deposits in the heated pipes.
At that place the heat transfer goes dramatically back end the pipe gets damaged.
Some of the salt that has not settled in the boiler goes to the turbie causing the efficiency to go back.
So: we use a special system for cleaning the condenserpipes with spongeballs.
But now we use that system to inject sawdust in the seawatersystem and the vacuum in the condenser must suck a tiny piece of sawdust in the tiny leak.
In this way the leak is closed because the sawdust expands a little in the water.
Repairs have to be carried out as soon as possible but we have to stop the unit for several days then...
So we have to make a plan to investigate and repair.

Here Bob and Arjan have put sawdust in the filter and are starting the small pump which pums the sawdust and seawater to the inlet of the condenser.

See also this for a glimpse of the work on the drain system.

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