Page 23 - Chemical Technology

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Chemical Technology • January 2013
on pumps, valves and actuators
FOCUS
A new type of gland packing that elimi-
nates high pressure valve leakage is set
to save the petrochemical industry billions
in high-value product lost to atmosphere.
The packing, scheduled for launch lat-
er this year, will replace a highly success-
ful product already in use and developed
specifically to minimize high-pressure
valve leakage at power stations.
This existing product, an installation-
and maintenance-friendly live loading
stack, was formally adopted as Eskom’s
preferred packing for high-pressure
applications after successfully passing
exhaustive tests early in 2012.
Eskom’s adoption of the stack is
significant for petrochemicals produc-
tion, where valve leakages of chemicals
and petrochemical end products are
many times more costly than leakages
of steam, and where refineries also face
increasingly strict emissions legislation
regarding the potential threat to health
posed by products and processes.
Developed specifically for high-pres-
sure valves, the Eskom stack was the
result of a year’s development by me-
chanical seals manufacturer AESSEAL,
and eighteen months of trials at Tutuka
Power Station, where AESSEAL’s success
in dramatically reducing valve leakages
was formally recognized by the com-
pany’s being named as Eskom Tutuka’s
top contractor for 2012. AESSEAL ap-
proached Eskom almost three years ago
New packing will save billions
Eskom’s Contractor of The Year award
For more information
contact Rob Waites (managing director)
on tel: +27 11 466 6500;
or email:rwaites@aesseal.co.za.
to discuss the leaks, and flew in specialists
from Europe to examine the problem.
The solution was developed and per-
fected by Peter Wicklmayr, chief executive
officer of AESSEAL’s German-based gland
packing subsidiary, ProPack, and a recog-
nized specialist in the development of new
packing products.
Wicklmayr visited Tutuka Power Station
on three occasions, eventually proposing
not only a new type of packing, but also an
installation- and maintenance-friendly live
loading stack comprising a particular ar-
rangement of carbon bushes, packing rings
and the gland packing itself.
Exhaustive and successful trials fol-
lowed, culminating in Eskom’s specifying
the AESSEAL solution as a stock item at
Tutuka, and introducing it to other power
stations as well.
AESSEAL is now working closely on a
collaborative venture to develop a further
type of packing that will completely seal
any type of high pressure valve.
This advanced product, which reduces
emissions to atmosphere to zero, is cur-
rently on trial in underwater valves on oil
rigs, and is expected to become available
in South Africa towards the end of 2013.