Replacement seawater condenser

(year 2014)

At the beginning of 2014, a customer from the Netherlands requested EBNER’s assistance in the following problem:

A heat exchanger with a diameter of 3.6m and a weight of about 60 tons of a plant for the production of several hundred thousand tons of food-grade salt and other salts should be replaced. The task of the heat exchanger is the condensation of up to 120t/h of exhaust steam (vapour steam) of the last stage of the evaporator using 5.250t/h of seawater as a cooling medium.

The highest priority was given to reliability and punctuality, as the complete replacement had to be carried out within the annual production break within a period of only 3 weeks. EBNER was able to draw from all its know-how and experience in design, calculation, engineering, planning, production, assembly and commissioning.

The scope of services of EBNER was defined as follows:

• Thermodynamic computation as well as computation of strength and statics
• Creation of the production drawing and planning of the new heat exchanger in the existing building
• Production of the 60-ton heat exchanger in the production hall in Eiterfeld
• Disassembly of the old heat exchanger and various pipelines
• Adaptation of the steel structure and installation of the new heat exchanger, as well as some peripheral devices and connection of the pipelines
• commissioning

The work was carried out under difficult conditions laterally through an opening in the facade of the building at about 15m height. The entire assembly operation was completed in 3 shifts within the production stoppage on time and successfully by the skilled personnel of the assembly department of EBNER.