Facility Washdown Systems: Performance, Safety, Compliance and Savings

The Automated Way to Greater Performance, Safety, Compliance and Savings

Bulk material handlers know that keeping the plant clean and dust-free can consume labor, time, and expense, especially if your conveying areas are being manually washed with a hose. Maintaining clean, dust-free workspaces concerns more than production: It also impacts operational compliance and safety.

Achieving steady production and compliance while observing best practices calls for removing the final 2%–5% of the dust that remains after the material is conveyed. The question becomes how you can achieve this with consistent efficiency.

Benetech Facility Washdown Systems

As experts in fluid engineering and spray control, Benetech develops facility washdown systems for diverse applications with different demands. You will find our washdown equipment at bulk material plants both in the U.S. and abroad.

Each day, Benetech’s automated washdown systems stay busy removing dust from:

If you are struggling with cleaning and dust control at your facility, we can support you with the solution that leads to greater safety and compliance, lower maintenance costs, less risk of fires and explosions, and longer-lasting equipment.

We will start by meeting with you to learn about how your operation in particular handles material; as you know, few plants are ever the same. After we assess your facility and your process, we will create a custom design for a washdown system that will adapt to your cleaning requirements. It will also minimize water usage and integrate engineered drainage, curbing, and water shielding.

Once you understand and approve our strategies and concept drawings, we will help you choose the right spray heads and nozzle arrangements for optimal washdown of beam pockets, walls, floors, and the roof truss.

We will then install your washdown equipment, including piping, hydraulics, instrumentation, and controls. We will also hydraulically balance and zone the system and assist you with commissioning and start-up. We will supply you with complete operational and maintenance manuals as well.

Facility Washdown Systems in Action

Benetech washdown equipment solves safety, compliance, and production challenges throughout the world. Just two examples of our systems in action in the U.S. involve a Powder River Basin (PRB) coal yard and a PRB coal off-loading building.

For the coal yard, a 1690 MW plant needed to eliminate dust build-up and the risk of explosion in handling the PRB coal. They had been cleaning the affected areas with a fire hose, which worked for them and taxed their time and resources: Cleaning just one of 13 buildings took several men and up to 1.5 days.

They turned to Benetech for a solution. We served them by engineering, procuring, and constructing a 200 GPM manual washdown system in all 13 buildings. The equipment solved every dust-removal issue from the rail car dumper to the unit trippers to the conveyor belts. We also engineered convenience and efficiency into each building by splitting the spray zones to allow system operation while reclaimed fuel.

The plant can now thoroughly clean each building in one hour with one employee. The facility washdown system also decreased O&M costs, and the plant uses up to 40% less water than it did with hoses. Installing the system even lowered its insurance expenses.

The customer had moved from a mine-mouth operation to PRB coal for the off-loading building. The switch required a high-speed rail car off-loading system to off-load a 120-car unit train in four hours or less. The off-loading building’s enclosure and hoppers could suit three cars at a time.

Because of PRB coal dust’s volatile nature, personnel had been washing down the building with fire hoses after the off-loading of each unit train. This could require up to three people and up to eight hours.

They consulted us to discuss a better method. As a result, we served them by procuring and constructing a semi-automated, permanently installed washdown system with zones that would operate for approximately one minute each.

The plant can now clean the whole facility with one employee in just one hour. Plus, as with the 1690 MW plant, the operation uses 30%-40% less water than fire hoses. It also cut O&M expenses and became much safer and cleaner.

Win the War Against Dust Starting Now

We are your partners in achieving your mission to eliminate dust from your material handling. If you are losing time and money and risking compliance and safety with your current cleaning system, we’re ready to help you master your challenge. Contact us at (630) 844-1300 to speak with a Benetech specialist.

Posted in Dust Control