Hydroblasting/Industrial Cleaning and the Clean Air Act
BLOG

As a company that provides hydroblasting, chemical, and other cleaning services, we at Thompson Industrial Services make it a priority to be intimately acquainted with the latest regulatory developments as they impact our customers’ equipment that we clean. Few of those developmentshave had as much effect on our coal-burning utility clients as the Clean Air Act, which originated in 1990 but has been made substantially more stringent within the last month. An executive order in August placed additional restrictions on carbon emissions, specifically targeting power plants. With more vigor than ever before, we continue to research and create new cleaning approaches that help our clients adhere to EPA regulations while also saving money and time.In-situ SCR catalyst cleaning is one of the most important of those advances in both our technology and services rendered to achieve the ever-increasing critical emission standards being required. In-Situ SCR Catalyst Cleaning Effective and thorough SCR catalyst cleaning is one of the most difficult processes that our company accomplishes for our clients. Removing flyash, popcorn and LPA, ammonium bisulfate and magnesium oxide deposits from plugged modules and cleaning the inner-catalyst’sreactive surfaces are extremely troublesome. However, due to the EPA’s extremely strict regulations, these types of catalyst fouling problems must be resolved to maintain the SCR’s optimum clean air output. Our experts have developed a patent-pending composite in-situ, drycleaning process that does an exceptionally thorough job of removing excessive, efficiency-impairing tough deposits from catalysts. Dual Catalyst-Cleaning Approach In cleaning an SCR and its catalyst, our team tackles the deposit removal in multiplesteps as follows: 

  •  Initially de-bulk ash deposits by vacuumingfrom above the catalyst surfaces including the annulus below the screens.
     
  •  Loosen, dislodge, and remove catalyst pluggage by a number of field-proven means utilizing various proprietary methodologies in our “tool box,” complemented by cleaning the innermost catalyst surfaces to remove residues impeding the reactivity and/or gas pass flow deep within the modules. This is readily accomplished utilizing specialized vibrators securely connected to the support beams underneath, enhanced by other supporting techniques and equipment, to remove the material deep within the catalyst, in areas inaccessible to other cleaning methods. This process can and has been successfully performed for years on all types and catalysts and materials of construction without any damage whatsoever. 

As with many of our boiler cleaning, hydroblasting, and other services, Thompson’s unique In-situSCR catalyst cleaning process is planned, organized and executed to be a seamless activity for our clients, with no catalyst removal required whatsoever. And the high level of training that our SCR crew members bring to each job gives clients confidence in their ability to complete the cleaning without being closely supervised by the plant supervision or safety professionals.
 

Press Contact