Spray Dry Absorbers (SDA)
Gecko Robotics helped a power plant find hidden damage to maintain operational availability and extend asset life cycles.
Challenges
- The spray drying absorption process can create a highly corrosive environment
- A power plant suspected that holes were developing in the walls of its two large SDA vessels
- The walls inside the vessels had a thick buildup of limestone slurry, making it impossible to locate and analyze any potential holes or damage in need of repair
- The plant previously utilized manual UT inspection methods, which left major gaps in coverage with large spans of the vessels unassessed
Solutions
- Full-coverage Rapid Ultrasonic Gridding (RUG) inspection using the TOKA® 4 inspection platform
- Gecko Portal® Software for 2D & 3D corrosion maps with color-coded thickness measurements
Results
- The wall-climbing robot saved the plant four weeks of inspection and scaffolding time
- More than 63 million UT readings were obtained between the two vessels
- Based on Gecko Robotics’ recommendations, the plant repaneled targeted sections of the SDA vessels and applied protective coatings for added protection
- The plant proactively identified and addressed extensive damage to avoid operational errors, equipment failures, and unplanned outages
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