Sustainable solutions Hamon Group

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

The Hamon Group is a global leader in engineering, contracting and project management for cooling systems, heat exchangers and pollution control. Industry Europe 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.

The 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.

Growth through acquisition

In 2011, the Hamon Group completed its acquisition of Deltak, a global leader in the design and construction of waste and heat recovery solutions, as well as heat recovery steam generators for the power and process industries. Since it was founded in 1972, Deltak has developed a blue-chip portfolio of clients that rely on its innovative solutions to meet their energy needs.

This acquisition created significant added value for the Hamon group, which is already recognised as a world-leading supplier of cooling systems. Synergies between the two companies are being fully exploited as the Deltak customer base is the same as that of the Hamon Group. Furthermore, the acquisition has allowed the group to become more active in the combined gasfired generation, cycle-power industry, which is expected to see substantial growth in the years to come.

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

With the P4 and M4ACC gear units, fully customized to the specifi c needs of the cooling tower industry, Hansen Industrial Transmissions (HIT) offers truly functional solutions for wet cooling towers and air cooled condensers.

The overall design of these gear units fully complies with the Cooling Tower Institute specifi cations.

For the wet cooling tower drives, HIT now offers a range of 11 bevel helical Hansen P4 gear unit sizes up to 108 kNm, which allows a more accurate selection. They are all well protected for operation in a very humid environment. The increased distance between the propeller and the high speed input shaft reduces vibrations. A motor can be connected to the outside of the cooling tower using an all-metal disc coupling at the high-speed shaft.

Based upon the P4 technology, a dedicated design for the Hansen M4ACC gear units with 6 helical unit sizes from 24 to 66 kNm has been developed. Applying the same high quality standards, this gear unit range offers a cost effi cient solution with optimised gear geometry for lower noise levels.

The monobloc concept ensures higher stiffness of the housing. As a standard, these units come with a lantern housing that allows for connection of a motor on the top of the gear unit.

This model is used mainly in air-cooled steam condensation plants which are ideal in dry environments where water resources are scarce. The cooling fan’s motor is located in the air stream of the air-cooled refrigerant condenser.

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 hundreds of NDCTs worldwide and has unparalleled expertise in the 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.

Success in the US

In August last year (2013) Hamon Research-Cottrel US, a US subsidiary of the Hamon Group, received full notice to proceed with the engineering, procurement and installation of a Regenerative Activated Coke Technology (ReACT™) system for a US coal-fired power plant. This Air Pollution Control project is the largest project ever booked by Hamon in the USA.

HRC holds the license for the ReACT™ technology from Japan Power, the main Japanese power producer. ReACT™ is an integrated multi-pollutant control technology that removes SO2, NOx and mercury from coal-fired plant flue gases to achieve greatly reduced emission levels. The advantages of this process, developed and already used in Japan, are its very high efficiency, its cost competitiveness and its very low water consumption compared to wet scrubbers.

The project is expected to be completed and in-service by 31 December 2016. HRC provides innovative clean air technologies to a wide array of industries including power generation. This break-through new order – the first utility-scale project based on the ReACT™ technology outside Japan – confirms again that Hamon is among the major world players in air pollution control. n