The case of acoustic cleaning of industrial boilers at Sasol Synfuels power station in Secunda

This paper is a review of boiler maintenance technologies currently used in the main power generation plants in South Africa, Sasol (coal fired plants). The poor maintenance of the boilers at these plants has been the main cause of shortage of power due the boiler breakdowns, while the demand of energy usage remains a necessity for households and businesses. At Sasol Synfuels power station in Secunda, the use of soot blower cleaning technology has contributed a lot to failure resulting in unplanned outages, with high cost of maintenance. A recently published paper discusses the design of an acoustic horn and its beam as an alternative technology that may be a better solution either to be used along with the current soot blower technology or independently for new design of boilers. In this paper the regulations for maintenance of pressure vessels in South Africa governing the maintenance of pressure equipment are reviewed for the case of the boilers at these power plants. South African National Standards (SANS), American Standards of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) and American Petroleum Institute (API) are the used international standards in supporting pressure equipment regulations (PER) and Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSACT).