Sukpo Zinc Refinery – Young Poong Corporation Co

Date: 2010-2011
Location: Sukpo Zinc Refinery – South Korea
Product: 9x Q3 (120 Hz) (3x Q3 2010 6x Q3 2011)
Principal: Primasonics International Limited
Problem: Scale build up in ESP causing blockages in the gas flow resulting in decline in efficiency.

Material: Ash burned in boiler
ESP Height: 15,000mm
ESP Width: 10,000mm
ESP Discharge: Discharged through a conveyor from the bottom of the vessel

In order to break Korea’s heavy reliance on imported zinc ingots, Sukpo Zinc Refinery was established by Young Poong Corporation Co Ltd in 1970. Sukpo Zinc Refinery were previously using a rapping system as their method of cleaning their ESP’s, however, due to the minimal coverage of the equipment the scale build up was only removed in limited areas. As a result they had to shut down to allow site personnel to manually remove the scale, this was an inefficient use of plant engineer’s time and costly in down time and the decline in site efficiency. Sukpo Zinc Refinery decided to investigate more reliable and cost effective cleaning methods and discovered Quattrosonics Sonic Soot Blowers were just what they had been looking for.

After contacting Primasonics Korean representative, Artronix System Co Ltd, a consultation meeting was arranged with key plant personnel to discuss in more benefits and capabilities of Sonic Soot Blowers and obtain the relevant application information and drawings to allow Primasonics to establish the most suitable model of Sonic Soot Blower and installation locations.

Primasonics staff worked together with Artronix System Co to produce a proposal and quotation for submission. It was decided that initially the worst affected areas would be targeted and in 2011 the first order was received for 3x Q3 (120 Hz) model Sonic Soot Blowers.

Once the units were installed the 360 cleaning capability of Sonic Soot Blowers was obvious, the scale no longer built up, the ESP efficiency increased and manual cleaning was no longer necessary. Based on this an order was placed for a further 6x Q3 model Sonic Soot Blowers in 2012. Primasonics Technical Director, Alex Bergus, attended for installation and commissioning together with Artronix System Co Ltd.