The Hamon Group is a global leader in engineering, contracting and project management for cooling systems, heat exchangers and pollution control. Philip Yorke looks at the impressive growth of this international group and its pioneering contribution to waste heat recovery and cooling systems for some of the world’s largest power-plant projects.
OPTIMISING POWERPLANT EFFICIENCY T
he Hamon Group is based in Mont-StGuibert, Belgium and is a global leader in the field of engineering, contracting, design and project management. The company’s diverse activities include the design and manufacture of critical components, as well as the installation and after-sales servicing of cooling systems, process heat exchangers, air pollution controls and industrial chimneys employed in power generation projects. This market sector includes oil and gas installations, as well as other heavy industries such as metallurgy, glass and chemicals. The Hamon Group is committed to the sustainable development of its processes and manufacturing activities, as well as to providing its customers with innovative systems and cutting-edge technology at the most competitive prices. The Hamon Group
is divided into five distinct business units: Cooling systems, Heat Exchangers, Air Pollution Control and Industrial Chimneys.
Advanced, power-saving cooling towers Back in the early 1980s many of the world’s large power plants were equipped with tall natural draft cooling towers (NDCTs). At that time they were wrongly associated with nuclear power plants and very few were constructed in the west because of the lack of large power plant projects and obvious visual impact constraints. However, this trend is now reversing due to the significant power saving that modern NDCTs can generate. In addition to the benefits of power saving, NDCTs offer silent operation as there are no cooling fans employed, and offer greatly reduced maintenance costs. Furthermore, they are compact and provide
greater operational longevity, often much longer than plant life expectancy. Hamon has designed and built more than 300 NDCTs worldwide and has unparalleled expertise in this field. This includes specialised installation projects in hazardous and seismic risk areas as well as in locations exposed to severe weather conditions. Hamon is also committed to offering the most cost-effective solutions for the entire lifetime of field-erected cooling towers and has a wide range of heat transfer media suitable for any industrial water and seawater installations, as well as those requiring low pH solutions.
Pioneering air-cooled condenser technology Thanks to the Hamon Group’s ranking as a leading world-class supplier of dry cooling systems, the company recently received one
