Water-Cooled Wear Zones
Water-cooled wear zones are a revolutionary, efficient, and economical way to improve operational accessibility and productivity for waste-fired power plants.
Experiences from the 15 plants where we have installed water-cooled wear zones show that the total annual energy production has increased significantly – in many cases by as much as 25-30%. One plant is now handling 40% more waste after a conversion that includes the new wear zone technology.
Reducing maintenance costs by reducing refractory volume
Our water-cooled wear zone was developed to reduce the area of uncooled refractory in the furnace of our waste-to-energy boilers. The disadvantage of uncooled refractory is that because of high surface temperature it tends to build up large volumes of slag. This will often disturb the plant’s operation and in some cases, even shut down the plant. Reducing the refractory volume also reduces maintenance costs.
Constructed to ensure stability and withstand pressure
The wear zone is fully welded construction with relatively thick-walled tubes and plates. This is primarily to ensure structural stability, but also to provide a large allowance for erosion in the wear zone.
Extra energy
More heat absorption in the water-cooled wear zone can reduce the total amount of surface area in the radiant portion of the boiler, providing additional plant output.
Less down-time
The water-cooled wear zone replaces the refractory lining in the system’s most heavily used area and experience shows that a water-cooled wear zone has a longer life than refractory lining. If you have an existing waste-to-energy plant, we can build in a water-cooled wear zone during a standard maintenance outage.
Project / case feature Item
Installation of wear zones at the existing waste-to-energy facility, in Thorshavn, Faroe Islands
Operational problems due to slag deposits in the furnace are critical in small plants with narrow grates as the waste flow is hindered by even small amounts of slag deposit. The WTE plant in Torshavn is an example of this type of system. The plant had problems with capacity and operating time and it was often necessary to stop the plant to remove slag from the furnace.
In 2006 B&W Volund installed a water-cooled wear zone. After the installation the plant owner experienced an increased accessibility of 100%, an overall improvement in the working environment without dust at the ash conveyor, and down time for cleaning was reduced by 50% from two weeks to one week.