Hardox® HiAce withstands 60% moisture content at biomass district heating plant

At this biomass power plant in the tiny town of Trosa, Sweden, Hardox^® HiAce fights wear and corrosion in critical equipment used in an energy chain stretching from the forest to the town’s homes and businesses. Trosa Energi, owned by Statkraft, Europe’s biggest generator of renewable energy, receives wood chips in a loading bay that are then transformed into thermal energy. The heat is efficiently pumped and delivered through miles of pipes in a climate-smart district heating network. 
 
But these wood chips have quite a high moisture content – about 60% – which produces corrosive conditions in the plant’s loading bay. Previous solutions in concrete and conventional AR steel wore out quickly and needed to be replaced, often. So when Trosa Energi wanted to get tough on wear, it turned to Hardox^® HiAce.

In acidic corrosive environments like those often found in waste-to-energy plants, mining, recycling or other process equipment, the acidity oxidizes the steel’s surface. This makes it more prone to wear even if the equipment is made from a hard material. But Hardox^® HiAce is specially designed to drastically slow the oxidation process, providing a service life up to 3 times longer, compared to a conventional 400 HBW steel. In Trosa Energi’s new loading bay, Hardox^® HiAce successfully fights a combination of acidic corrosion and moisture that would otherwise eat away at the floor and cause premature wear.

When Jonas Allebert, senior wear specialist at SSAB, brings out his ultrasonic measuring device, he can confirm that there is almost no wear to the Hardox^® HiAce plates in the loading bay. The bay now has an expected service life of 12 years. It looks like Trosa Energi found the right solution for its corrosive wood chips. And the company is already looking at other areas in the district heating plant where it can use Hardox^® HiAce. 

Jernforsen Energy is Trosa Energi’s supplier of the loading bay equipment at the heating plant. The company has been using Hardox^® wear plate for at least 40 years now and knows the steel’s qualities well. Since Jernforsen specializes in equipment for heating plants and sawmills, it is no stranger to corrosive environments. 

“We have specified Hardox^® HiAce when there is both corrosion and wear, and it has shown excellent performance in those applications. In this case, we used it for the loading bay, but we’re also looking to use Hardox^® HiAce in other applications that will benefit from the steel’s corrosion resistance. The fact that it’s as easy to bend and weld as Hardox^® 450 makes for an easy switch to Hardox^® HiAce,” says Henrik Fransson, after sales coordinator at Jernforsen Energy.  “The maintenance costs for our customers are substantially lower with Hardox^® HiAce, such as for Trosa Energi, which doesn’t have to replace the floor of its loading bay as frequently.”