MechChem Africa talks to Moeketsi Mpotu, executive director of Brimis Engineering, about localisation and the young company’s approach to next-generation valve and pump services for South Africa’s power, petrochemical and water sectors.
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Brimis Engineering was founded in 2013 by its current MD, Andile Nqandela, to plug a gap in the market for engineering solutions in South Africa’s Middelburg area, begins Mpotu.
“We started off doing general engineering: repairs, refurbishments and customisations, but we quickly developed niche expertise in valves, pumps and compressors. In Middelburg, we sit at the doorstep of our target clients, which include 10 power stations and about 50 coal mines, along with steel, ferrochrome, paper and petrochemical plants. Agility was a key selling point for us and, from the start, we have succeeded in offering quick response and turnaround times,” he informs MechChem Africa.
Mpotu describes Brimis Engineering’s first ever project as an ash crushing and slurry pumping line refurbishment project for a local power station. “We have had a heavy onsite presence from the beginning, with our first project involving resolving problems on an ash handling line, refurbishing the sump for an ash pump and slurry line and optimising the flow to prevent clogging and shutdowns at the power station,” he continues.
Significant amounts of Brimis Engineering’s current work still involves project teams doing onsite maintenance and refurbishment work. “We typically manage teams of up to 100 people on a single site from our headquarters and workshop facilities in Middelburg, where we have an in-house engineering and workshop team doing refurbishments, fabrication and the remanufacturing of various components.
“Clients come to us with valve or pump part problems, for example, when local spares of older equipment are obsolete, unavailable or no longer supported by the OEM. The units we see often date back to the 1960s, and we are able to reverse engineer replacement parts and/or whole units to create an equivalent or better product using more advanced materials and more precise workshop equipment,” Mpotu tells MechChem Africa.
“Over 50% of our business is for the power industries, followed by the local mines that support this industry. Increasingly, though, we are involved with water boards such as Rand Water and Magalies Water along with several municipal water boards. We are also currently involved on the operating side of the Kusile Power Station, on the valve side for the water treatment plants, recalibrating some of the feedwater safety valves,” he says.
Brimis Engineering’s current niche specialism is on valves and pumps, particularly those used in critical applications such power station steam. “We have a very successful partnership with KSB on some of the imported valves and we are very proud to be an accredited KSB repair facility. Together with KSB, we are also able to deliver several new valves that meet the designated local content requirements for critical valves such as these,” he adds. “For these valves the forgings are still imported, but smaller parts and all of the machining and assembly is done here to meet minimum local content requirements.
“We have an excellent relationship with KSB, which is one of the most supportive and ethical companies we do business with,” Mpotu adds.
Also, though, Brimis Engineering is in the final stages of designing its own high pressure globe valve, the Brim 500. “We are currently at an advanced stage of engineering development, finalising the detailed design. We expect the first 100% locally designed and manufactured Brim 500 HP Globe Valve to be under trial at one of our South African power plants before the end of this year,” he says proudly.
“No other local manufacturer manufactures these and, while valves are designated by the dti as a sector for local production and content, a dispensation is typically granted for importing any critical valve that is not locally available, which includes HP globe valves and many of the other control valves used in the power industry,” he advises.
Describing the use of HP globe valves, he says they are critical for the safe operation of a steam turbine. Globe valves are steam-line drain valves which, when shut, must prevent steam leaks to the water drains. Explaining further, he says these are the valves that are opened on plant warm up to get rid of standing water in the steam lines. “One of the big risks to a plant on start-up is that standing water and condensation in the HP steam line cause water hammer. Globe valves are used on start up to purge the steam lines of any water or wet steam, so that only dry steam is allowed to pass through the HP turbine.
“Our Brim 500 valve will be 100% local and we know what the needs are for these valves and some of the problems associated with the imported versions currently in service,” he notes.
With a more urgent current focus on power plant maintenance, Brimis Engineering is presently involved in several large onsite projects. “Our biggest project right now involves some 80 Brimis artisans and engineers at a power station in Standerton, doing maintenance and lot of reverse engineering on branded older valves, along with site support services. We also have between 30 and 50 of our people onsite at Kriel and 10 to 15 at Hendrina, all doing maintenance on critical valves and pumping systems,” he adds.
Brimis’ workshop facilities in Middelburg, where all of the custom engineering, in-house machining, valve testing and reverse engineering is done, are also very busy. “We are not coping with all the work we receive at the moment, so are having to outsource significant amounts of welding and hot work to entities in Johannesburg, for example. We are currently engaged with the SAIW, however, to get our ISO 3834 accreditation for high integrity welding, which we hope will enable us to become more responsive to our Mpumalanga client,” he says.
Energy efficiency and preventative maintenance
With respect to energy efficiency, Mpotu suggests that heavy industry in South Africa is typically using tools from the 1970s and there is very little about their operations that can be described as energy efficient in the modern context.
He cites a recent visit to a chrome producer, which has been smelting at its Steelpoort facility for 35 years. “They recently demonstrated a mindset shift by deciding to invest in energy recovery technologies, which will enable recovery of some 20 MW of power, simply by capturing energy that has always been there for the taking.
“A similar project was proposed in 2010, but only now that we have serious power constraints has it emerged as a priority. Nowadays, I think all of us need to be looking at our own internal energy use. We can all find ways of using electricity more efficiently, reusing waste heat and fixing leaks. Energy efficiency is not all about buying expensive energy efficient pumps and motors, it’s often simply about properly maintaining existing equipment to minimise waste,” he notes.
Brimis has set up a partnership with the Swiss entity, Distran, the OEM for Ultra Pro ultrasound cameras for detecting partial discharges such as steam or gas in the power generation, oil and gas or chemical fields. “As a valve specialist, we have operators trained in the use of Distran ultrasound cameras to monitor gas leaks from critical equipment. For any plants using steam or gas, finding and fixing leaks has a huge impact on energy and production efficiency, as well as on costs and profitability,” Mpotu points out.
These cameras, he says, can detect a leak from 20 m away, making them ideal for use at power and chemical plants immediately prior to a shutdown. “They enable every leaking valve, steam trap, gauge or pipe connection to be identified and repaired during the shutdown, before restarting the plant.
Another potential beneficiary of ultrasound leak detection is the water industry. “It is estimated that 15 to 20% of the potable water from our treatment plants goes to waste due to leaks. Modern leak technology can go a long way to reversing this situation,” he adds.
Mpotu believes that the South African end-user mindset towards localisation also needs to shift a little. “End-users don’t yet believe in our local capability and expertise in valves and pumps. At Brimis, we have many ex end-users with a huge amount of accumulated experience around the valve and pumping problems that occur on site. This gives us the unique ability to deliver a highly customised and targeted set of engineering solutions for our local power, mining and water industries.
“Brimis is capable, agile, responsive and we are in a far better position to meet South Africa’s needs in this area than any importer of overseas products,” Mpotu concludes.
