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Success stories
Cokebusters Breaking new boundaries with a pioneering intelligent pig
James Phipps, Managing Director
How is Cokebusters thriving? Having dependably served the fired heater and power generation market for many years, Cokebusters was set an entirely new challenge to provide its trademark combined services solution to mechanically descale and intelligently inspect the ultra small diameter tubing within a vast solar steam array. The ability to successfully develop and deliver this service has unlocked a stream of new business opportunities in the increasingly narrow diameter networks associated with alternative energy markets. The challenge Established in 2005, Cokebusters has forged a reputation as the international go-to for petrochemical and power generating operators seeking to clean fired heaters, steam generation plants and associated pipelines with its mechanical cleaning pigs. As a highly effective cleaning device, the patented mechanical pigs have been the foundation and stalwart of the business and enabled it to operate sustainably for nearly two decades. Along its journey, the company found its customers asking for more. A challenge from Total to develop a pig which could ‘see’ how clean the surfaces really were triggered a chain of developmental events. Today, Cokebusters’ range of intelligent pigs not only
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EIC Survive and Thrive
enable customers to quantify how clean the process is, but they also provide full diametric and wall thickness profiling, thus enabling an essential insight into asset integrity. In 2021, a new opportunity was presented to the company from Oman operator, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) – to create a solution for the descaling and inspection of an equivalent 1GW solar steam array. The solution The assignment from PDO has opened the door for Cokebusters to enter a brand-new market, a crucial breakthrough that will be essential to the futureproofing of the business as the world embraces energy transition and net zero strategies. PDO’s Miraah plant converts water to steam by focussing solar energy. The steam is utilised for a variety of utility and process needs, including enhanced oil recovery. The array comprises some 100km of tubing, with each individual process loop being approximately 2km long. One hurdle for Cokebusters to overcome was that its latest third generation (Mark V) intelligent pig, whilst capable of navigating an internal diameter as low as 65mm, was in fact still too large for the solar tubing network. Undeterred, the company set about the development of a prototype intelligent pig that would be capable of inspecting internal diameters as low as 40mm. Key questions addressed during the design phase included how to create a robust exoskeleton which would house the ultrasonic detection sensors and be light enough to be sufficiently buoyant, as well as how to build a miniaturised
2023