25 March 2013

Costain has been awarded a contract to refit two cooling towers at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station near Warrington on behalf of customer, SSE.

The power station has eight natural draught water cooling towers which help to improve the efficiency of the power generation process. However, the silted condition of the plastic heat exchange media inside the cooling towers had resulted in a significant decline in its cooling efficiency and a significant increase in weight imposed on the concrete support beams.

As part of the contract, which will be completed during an 18 week period during summer 2013, the site team will dispose of waste material and replace the existing plastic with 13,000m3 of an improved design which will result in less silt contamination. The team will also be installing new plastic spray pipes.

The plastic sheets will be fed along assembly lines that have been designed by Costain. A solvent-free adhesive will be mechanically applied to bond together the sheets into modules which will then be dried in racks.

In the course of the refit work on the water cooling towers, the new PVC modular cooling media will be assembled on site in order to minimise road transport and therefore reduce the carbon footprint associated with transporting equipment to and from the job.

Costain’s Industrial Cooling team has an unparalleled record in the UK market for executing full replacement cooling media refits in coal fired power station hyperbolic natural draught cooling towers.

“We are delighted to have won this contract with SSE. The use of environmentally friendly adhesive will ensure the welfare of on-site personnel and the power station’s owner-operator, SSE. In the past, using alternative solvent-based adhesives required respiratory monitoring, more exacting quality control of the assembled product and inclusion in the station’s emissions schedule,” said Mark Blackham, Costain’s Industrial Cooling Director.

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