Originally Posted by mohandes

Dears,

Removing slurry sedimentation from pipe iss very difficult

and cause the plant out of work.

As used compressed air (pulse jet) for breaking bulk material,

is it possible using for slurry pipeline?

We can make a connection to pipe wall and connect compressed air.

is there any experience for this solution?

Sobh Be Khery Mohandes!

Pulse jets work better for wells as the jetting vessel is

centered within a vertical well.

You can go about cleaning your pipeline a number of ways;

a. pipe balls

b. pipeline pigs

c. towed pipeline pigs

d. a reel mounted pushed sewer tape mounted on a towed trailer

e. a small pipeline sewer jetting system

So much of this depends onn your pipeline layout as you are

expereincing heavy siltation.

The fastest way to have this problem solved is to contact

one of the pipeline pigging companies that works in Asia or

North Africa and they can help you with an efficient solution

where either a towed pipeline pig or a jetting sled will solve the

build up issue for you.

One company that does business in your area is

www.transasiapipelines.com



I am sure they could offer you an efficient cost effect solution

with your slurry pipeline siltation issues as it may be as simple as installing

a pipeline pig launching point at the begining of the slurry pipeline

and a pipeline pig reciever at the end of the slurry pipeline to scrub

the pipeline every week with a passive(mild scrubbing) or an

aggessive(towed spring scraper) pipeline pig.

lzaharis ■

Originally Posted by mohandes

thanks lzaharis,

but why we can not use compressed air to clean pipeline?

In this way, we can clean the pipe during operation and it

doesn't need to shut down the plant.

Hello Mohandes,

The compressed air will become

inneffective as the water and slurry

in the pipeline will be carrying the

gas bubbles away rendering them useless

as the flowing slurry and water will absorb

the energy released by the air bubbles as they

enter the fluid.

The pipeline pig in one form or another

or a sewer jet rodding system is what

you need, and to establish a cleaning schedule with

the pipeline pigs or sewer jet rodder when your conditions warrant

the use of several periods of cleaning to break up the siltation

on the bottom third of the pipe and allow effective cleaning.

Mohandes, the pipeline pigs will allow you to simply pump water without

solids in the pipe to wash and scrub the pipeline quickly and return

it to service the same day after a few hours.

The pipeline pig will travel as fast as the water is pumped after it is launched from

the pig launching chamber and it will travel as fast as the water is pumped to the

pipeline pig recieving gate where it is captured and cleaned or disposed of.

The nice thing about pipeline pigs or pipe balls is that they are not expensive to own

for what you want to do.

The installation of the pig launcher and pig reciever will be installed once and only once and

it will allow you to run pipeline pigs every day to keep the slurry line free of heavy build up and

you could launch pigs several times a day to assure the pipeline stays clear as your pipe elbows

always absorb the brunt of the forces created by slurry pipelines as the elbows will be a

major point of any silt build ups. ■

Before you can clear the blockage you have to find it.

There once was a pneumatic system which had permanently connected air bypass points relying on orifice back pressure to divert the air into the main line when a plug developed. It was notably employed in cracking catalyst recycling where it was an abject disaster and hasn't been considered since.

You will have a similar experience with hydraulics. Pigging might shove a bed layer along but it might eventually shovel the sediment into a fully developed plug. Are you actually using steel pipe? Any lining?

Find your regular blockage points and connect the air to sequentially erode the downstream end of the plug. ■