Beginning in the second half of 2020, Decsa was engaged by Galbani, a multinational food/dairy company, to supply new evaporative condensers, replacing existing ones, to serve their cooling plants.
The following units have been supplied:
- No. 3 1,700 kW evaporative condensers serving the Central Chiller Plant;
- No. 4 evaporative condensers of 1,700 kW serving the Clauger Power Plant;
- No. 6 complete exchange sections for revamping other units not produced by Decsa already in use for several years.
Features and peculiarities required by the customer
Besides requesting a guarantee on the condensation performance, the Customer highlighted to Decsa some essential requirements before proceeding with the project.
Indeed, the capacitors had to meet the following characteristics:
- A compact and size-conscious solution: as a replacement, the available space for positioning the evaporative condensers was already pre-defined. It was, therefore, necessary to provide a solution that did not require any change to the allocated areas for the units;
- Plant equalization/balancing: the system used by the Client involved the use of many condensers in parallel; therefore, it was necessary for the new units to be communicating with each other in order to maintain a water balance between the basins;
- A customised solution for the installation: since the central Chiller plant, where three units are to be installed, is located in the middle of the factory, the Customer required a solution that would enable the already assembled condensers to be moved, as the usual on-site assembly operations would not be possible in this case;
- Durability and ease of maintenance: the plant and the evaporative condensers had to be designed to guarantee an operating lifetime of at least 20 years and to minimize ordinary maintenance.
Decsa's solution
With the aim of consistently and incisively responding to the identified needs of the Customer, the Technical and Sales Departments of Decsa - after an in-depth analysis - selected and proposed the supply of the following units:
- No. 7 evaporative condensers CFR-A-140 series;
- 3 complete exchange sections for CFR-140;
- 1 complete exchange section for CFR-159;
- 2 complete exchange sections for CFR-184.
Therefore, the solution proposed by Decsa fell on the CFR-A series evaporative condensers, which are distinguished, among other things, by their coils higher number of rows (24). This peculiarity allowed maximizing the thermal performance with respect to the occupied floor area. In addition, this configuration of equipment, would have ensured the required thermal performance for the Client, respecting the dimensional constraints present in the plant, thus meeting the demand to adapt the performance of the units to the climatic conditions of the area different from those originally planned (20 years ago).
As for the heat exchanger sections, Decsa's choice was made starting from the dimensional and surface analysis of the sections, resulting in a solution that perfectly matched the one originally designed.
Decsa also proposed to equip all the new evaporative condensers with additional connections on the basin to guarantee a perfect water balance between the units. In addition, a special execution with a shared basin (2 by 2) of 11m was proposed for the 4 units serving the Clauger plant, supplied with a basic structure for easier handling.
Finally, Decsa developed the following three solutions to guarantee the durability and ease of maintenance required by the customer:
- first, the use of the same condenser model for the two thermal power plants. This ensured uniformity on interventions and replacement parts;
- To provide the installation of a davit arm at the top of the tower to simplify extraordinary maintenance operations on the mechanical equipment
- To further protect the Z-725 galvanised sheets by adding the special DecsaCOATING Plus epoxy powder coating in addition to the standard Z-725 galvanisation.
Lastly, Decsa also suggested the use of counter-frames directly supplied with the units, to simplify installation operations, so that the already assembled CFR units could be lifted and installed in the Chiller area.
Project development
Decsa's proposal was found to be complete and comprehensive. The Customer thus placed the order for:
- Supply of 3 condensers CFR-A-140complete with:
- Basin heater + thermostat;
- Oversized basin and equalizing connections;
- DecsaCOATING Plus painting;
- Minimum level switches;
- Counterframe for lifting;
- Arm for chain hoist.
- Supply of 3 condensers CFR-A-140complete with:
- Basin heater + thermostat;
- Oversized basin and equalizing connections;
- DecsaCOATING Plus painting;
- Minimum level switches;
- Counterframe for lifting;
- Arm for chain hoist.
- Supply of 4 condensersCFR-A-140 complete with:
- Basin heater+thermostat;
- 2-to-2 butt-joined tanks;
- DecsaCOATING Plus paint;
- Minimum level switches;
- Counterframe for lifting;
- Chain hoist arm.
- Supply of 6 complete exchange sections:
- 3 x CFR-140;
- 1 x CFR-159;
- 2 x CFR-184;
- All complete with DecsaCOATING Plus Painting.
- Delivery at the place;
- Disassembly of existing sections
- Mechanical assembly and positioning assistance;
- Supervision at first start-up.
Notes on project timelines
The project was acquired at the end of Q4 2020.
The units were made in Q1 2021.
The towers are being installed and will go live by early Q2 2021.
