Proffessional Marine & Offshore

Working principle

On a seagoing vessel there is a large amount of cooling required. This traditional method used is seawater. By bringing the water into the vessel through the sea chest the water is then used for cooling. In principle, a Boxcooler is a Pipe Bundle, these are also known as Tubular Heat Exchangers, which in turn sits directly in the seawater. The seawater can be used directly for cooling different processes on a vessel. These pipe bundles are installed in special compartments that are open to the sea, so it follows that at all times seawater surounds the tubes of the box cooler. The process results in huge amounts of seawater entering the vessel and because of this, the boxcooler will be at risk regarding fouling. Barnacles, mussels, algae and many other types of shellfish grow on the tubes of the boxcooler. This directly affects the units heat transference function.

Details

Classical methods, using chemicals to avoid scale, growth etc, is not a relistic solution, as chemicals would have to be put directly into the seawater. It follows that, this will never work due to the large amounts of seawater. The other major restictions definitely posing a problem for the vessel owners, are the strict regulations and the relevant authorities that monitor activeties like this. After a chemical or heat treatment, the bio-film starts to grow back immediately. So as can be seen, the procedure as regards the cooling systems cleaning is not sufficient and as result facilitates the removal of the boxcooler. It has to be cleaned, replaced and then brought back into operation. During the cleaning process the vessel can not be used or operated. The nett result of this laborious process is that it's an expensive exercise for the owners and basically as soon as everything is put back in place fouling starts again. The well known cathodic protections, are expensive and don’t always offer the required no growth warranty. The vessel still needs to go into the dry dock for cleaning or repairs due to fouling. Harsonic ® for Boxcoolers protects 24/7 operating on low voltage. The sea-chest and the cooling tubes remain free of growth and biofilm