News Updates

Specialized Concrete Hydro Demolition

Hennigan responds to customer’s request to remove 7 inches of overhead concrete from an intake bay under critical path schedule.  Hennigan completes 1st bay 7 days ahead of schedule, safely and under budget.

Hennigan Engineering Co., Inc. was called in to perform a concrete demolition operation at a Nuclear Power Plant after 21 days of jackhammering by another contractor failed to achieve the specified results.  The failed pneumatic demolition effort during this outage caused a work stoppage and steel reinforcing beams needing to be installed to allow the plant to operate an ICW pump bay.

Because of live electrical lines and numerous pipe interferences and other obstructions in the work area, robotic concrete demolition technologies could not be used.  Hennigan was hired to design a concrete removal system to remove overhead concrete material and allow the plant to make the necessary structural repairs to satisfy both the Nuclear Plant and NRC.

Hennigan Engineering designed a remote cleaning system that allowed individual tool operators the ability to hand control the path of the water jets, 40,000 psi was used to remove the concrete at high rates of production.

high pressure waterjetting
Before Hydro Demoliiton

In  addition to the ceiling removal, Hennigan personnel removed a thrust beam that housed pump bracing.

Hennigan Engineering was able to map out electrical lines using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and safely hydrolase concrete to the desired depth without incident.

hydro demoltion
After Hydro Demolition Rebar Remains Intact

 

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Industrial Cleaning, Maintenance & De-Commissioning

Hennigan Engineering has been providing professional services that have included industrial cleaning, maintenance, and decommissioning for a  major technology-based company that applies chemical and material science to develop emulsion polymers, specialty chemicals, and functional/decorative surfaces that enhance the performance of products around the globe. With sales on the order of 1 billion USD per year (2015) and approximately 2,300 employees, this company’s manufacturing facility in Georgia, USA, produces approximately 135 million wet pounds of latex for the North American tire, carpet and paper industries.

This client is in the process of converting the Georgia site into a distribution, quality control and technical service center that will continue to serve the carpet industry and other regional customers.

For over six years, Hennigan Engineering has provided staff and targeted industrial cleaning services to the Georgia facility for daily maintenance and cleaning activities throughout the facility and for its critical manufacturing equipment.

Hennigan further supported this client at this facility for the decommissioning and clean-up of their large evaporating ponds (shown below) where manufacturing waste products were collected and treated for collection and off-site disposal.

before industrial cleaning
BEFORE
after industrial cleaning
AFTER

Hennigan Engineering has the diversity of equipment and skills to support our clients under long-term service agreements for day-to-day normal operation and through transition periods in all phases of industrial service maintenance and cleaning needs.

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Hennigan Engineering Performs Tritium Groundwater Release Mitigation at Nuclear Facility

video drain inspection
Tunnel Vision is a division of Hennigan Engineering

Hennigan Engineering was called upon to be part of the mitigation and “Root Cause Analysis” for a tritium release into the groundwater that occurred at a nuclear power station in the Eastern United States.  Hennigan was a key participant in daily meetings with facility management at all levels as well as shareholders. Hennigan was responsible for drain system investigations, drain system clearing and the development of a detailed Report of Findings that was included in the facility’s Root Cause Analysis report to the NRC.

Radioactive hydrogen is called tritium (³H).  The NRC takes any release of tritium from a nuclear facility very seriously as does the Environmental Protection Agency. Naturally occurring tritium is rare and is created by the interaction of the earth’s atmosphere and cosmic rays passing through the atmosphere.  Significant amounts of tritium are generated by human activity, including the operation of nuclear power plants.  Tritium contains up to 5 times more biological change per unit of radiation than gamma radiation. The NRC closely investigates any nuclear facility tritium release incident to ensure that Operators take immediate and appropriate action to mitigate the cause of any release (or potential release).

Subsequent to the discovery of a tritium release into the groundwater from the facility; Hennigan was engaged by the facility and immediately deployed a full crew and the equipment necessary to investigate the drain systems, identify defects, clear the drain systems and perform the necessary tasks to minimize the potential for a future release due to the same “Root Cause”.  This included system mapping and the development and use of specialty tools including video inspection equipment, high pressure hydrolase tools and mechanical methods.

The final report developed and submitted by Hennigan Engineering was satisfactory to the NRC and others, such that the issuance of impending fines and / or temporary facility shut-down was avoided. Hennigan Engineering continues to support the facility on this matter by assisting with the implementation of the recommendations made by Hennigan Engineering’s “Report of Findings”

In as much as it was critical to successfully solve the problem, it was also necessary to solve the problem under the constraint of a very tight schedule while at the same time minimizing costs. Hennigan Engineering efficiently completed the work within the required schedule and also within the budget available.  Much of this work took place in very challenging conditions including high temperatures, Locked High Radiation areas and in very tight difficult spaces. Despite these challenges; the work was completed safely; without injury of any kind to any person involved with the work.

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Maintaining Chillers’ Efficiency through Hydrolasing Results in Surprising Cost Savings

Hennigan Engineering Reveals Surprising Cost Saving Figures of Maintaining Chiller Efficiency

Facility Managers, Maintenance Personnel and Engineers recognize the problems caused by scale in water systems; increased maintenance, unplanned shutdowns, premature replacement of equipment and higher energy costs.

Thin layers of scale can form in a Chiller’s tubes, decreasing the efficiency (heat transfer) of the heat exchanger resulting in increased energy costs. The thermal conductivity of calcium carbonate is 4,000 times less than that of copper and therefore, even the thinnest coating acts as an insulator reducing the heat transfer, decreasing efficiency.

Scale in the Chiller tubes causes an increase in the head pressure, resulting in a substantial increase in energy consumption of the compressor. Chiller equipment manufacturers agree that just a 0.04inch (40 thousandths) thick scale buildup on the heat exchanger tubes of a 500 ton Chiller results in $37,000.00 extra on the electrical bill. The larger the Chiller, the more energy wasted: the same 40 thousandths scale thickness in a 1200 ton Chiller could add $90,000.00 to the electrical bill!

chiller tube cleaning savings
Table showing the costs savings for tube cleaning and maintaining chiller efficiency.

Most Chiller installations experience problems and have difficulty with peak demands during summer months. Unfortunately, most of these installations have no room to install a larger Chiller and therefore they have to accept that on days of high humidity, when cooling towers become less effective, the compressors are liable to trip off on high head pressure – stopping the function of the Chiller just when the need is the greatest.

Cleaning

 Historically, mechanical cleaning has been the means of tube scale removal. Unfortunately a thin layer of scale still coats the Chiller tubes and can also cause cathodic cells due to inconsistent cleaning leaving clean areas as well as dirty areas. The resulting cells cause corrosion and pitting leading to tube failure.

Solution:

 High Pressure Water Jetting (Hydrolasing) up to 20,000 psi has been shown to be extremely effective in FULL scale removal without streaking (clean area vs. dirty area) and without any damage to the tube substrate. We have seen head pressure reduction of 15psi to 20psi after cleaning with this method.

Since there is commonly only a 50psi differential between low load and full load, this pressure reduction after Hydrolase cleaning greatly reduces operating costs and increases the efficiency of the chiller.

In addition to the obvious energy savings and costs associated with inefficient Chiller operations, a substantial reduction of millions of tons of CO2 generation that is associated with refrigeration is also achieved.

With the experience and expertise of Hennigan Engineering in the utilization of Hydrolasing Chiller tubes a substantial savings can be achieved. We look forward to the opportunity to support your Chiller cleaning needs.

 

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Plate & Frame Heat Exchangers: Alfa-Laval Certified Service Reps

Frame Heat ExchangersHennigan Engineering was selected by the Emerson Swan Company to become certified service technicians for their Alfa-Laval Plate & Frame Heat Exchanger product line. The training program included intensive and technical classroom instruction as well as hands-on work at the Alfa-Laval factory located in Richmond, Virginia.
Alfa Laval is a Swedish company, founded in 1883. They began in the solution separation business and now manufacture a wide variety of specialized products and solutions for the industrial, power generation, marine, pharmaceutical and other industry across the globe. The company employs more than 18,000 people, the majority of whom are located in Sweden, Denmark, India, China, the US and France.
Emerson Swan is a nationally recognized, stocking manufacturer’s representative organization primarily serving the Northeastern United States and the Greater Toronto Area. Hennigan Engineering is now Emerson Swan’s primary service contractor for the Alfa Laval plate and frame product in the field.
Our training includes plate & frame heat exchanger inspection, troubleshooting and diagnosis, unit inspection, troubleshooting and diagnosis, unit assembly/dis-assembly, gasket replacement, plate inspection, plate cleaning and frame inspection etc.Heat Exchanger Cleaning
Most recently, our factory certified credentials allowed us to secure a plate & frame heat exchanger repair project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cogeneration power plant in Cambridge Massachusetts as our first Alfa Laval certified Project for 2016.

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