MechChem Africa March-April 2021

⎪ Innovative engineering ⎪

equipment to minimise waste,” he notes. Brimis has set up a partnership with the Swiss entity, Distran, the OEM for Ultra Pro ultrasound cameras for detecting partial discharges such as steam or gas in the power generation, oil and gas or chemical fields. “As a valve specialist, we have operators trained in the use of Distran ultrasound cameras to monitor gas leaks from critical equipment. For any plants using steamor gas, finding and fixing leaks has a huge impact on energy and production efficiency, as well as on costs and profitability,” Mpotu points out. These cameras, he says, can detect a leak from20maway, making them ideal for use at power and chemical plants immediately prior to a shutdown. “They enable every leaking valve, steam trap, gauge or pipe connection to be identified and repaired during the shut - down, before restarting the plant. Another potential beneficiary of ultra- sound leak detection is thewater industry. “It is estimated that 15 to20%of thepotablewa- ter from our treatment plants goes to waste due to leaks. Modern leak technology can go a longway to reversing this situation,” headds. Mpotu believes that the South African end-user mindset towards localisation also needs to shift a little. “End-users don’t yet believe in our local capability and expertise in valves andpumps. At Brimis, wehavemany ex end-userswithahugeamount of accumulated experience around the valve and pumping problems that occur on site. This gives us the unique ability to deliver a highly customised and targeted set of engineering solutions for our local power, mining and water industries. “Brimis is capable, agile, responsive and we are in a far better position to meet South Africa’s needs in this area than any importer of overseas products,” Mpotu concludes. q

The valve testing bay at Brimis’ workshop facilities in Middelburg, where all custom engineered and refurbished valves are tested.

which, when shut, must prevent steam leaks to thewater drains. Explaining further, he says these are the valves that are opened on plant warm up to get rid of standing water in the steam lines. “One of the big risks to a plant on start-up is that standingwater and condensa- tion in theHPsteamline causewater hammer. Globe valves are usedon start up topurge the steam lines of anywater orwet steam, so that only dry steam is allowed to pass through the HP turbine. “OurBrim500valvewill be100%local and we knowwhat the needs are for these valves and some of the problems associated with the imported versions currently in service,” he notes. With a more urgent current focus on power plantmaintenance, Brimis Engineering is presently involved in several large onsite projects. “Our biggest project right now involves some 80 Brimis artisans and engi- neers at a power station in Standerton, doing maintenance and lot of reverse engineering on branded older valves, along with site sup- port services. We also have between 30 and 50 of our people onsite at Kriel and 10 to 15 at Hendrina, all doingmaintenance on critical valves and pumping systems,” he adds. Brimis’ workshop facilities inMiddelburg, where all of the custom engineering, in- house machining, valve testing and reverse engineering is done, are also very busy. “We are not coping with all the work we receive at the moment, so are having to outsource significant amounts of welding and hot work to entities in Johannesburg, for example. We are currently engaged with the SAIW, however, to get our ISO 3834 accreditation for high integritywelding, whichwe hopewill enable us to become more responsive to our Mpumalanga client,” he says. Energy efficiency and preventative maintenance With respect to energy efficiency, Mpotu suggests that heavy industry in South Africa

is typically using tools from the 1970s and there is very little about their operations that can be described as energy efficient in the modern context. He cites a recent visit to a chrome produc- er, which has been smelting at its Steelpoort facility for 35 years. “They recently demon - strated a mindset shift by deciding to invest in energy recovery technologies, which will enable recovery of some 20 MW of power, simply by capturing energy that has always been there for the taking. “A similar project was proposed in 2010, but only now that we have serious power constraints has it emerged as a priority. Nowadays, I think all of us need to be looking at our own internal energy use. We can all findways of using electricitymore efficiently, reusing waste heat and fixing leaks. Energy efficiency is not all about buying expensive energy efficient pumps and motors, it’s often simply about properly maintaining existing

Brimis has a huge amount of accumulated experience around the valve and pumping problems that occur on site.

March-April 2021 • MechChem Africa ¦ 43