MTU Emergency Diesel refurbishment

Emergency Standby Power.

In recent years due to the unreliable Eskom electric grid supply, power has become an issue for most industries in South Africa. The mining industry is particularly at risk in the event of a power failure which apart from reducing production capacity poses a danger to human life. Large industrial diesel generation on the scale that a mine would require, is unfortunately a huge capital investment. Against this background, WD Power tackled a project to refurbish 3 x 5MW MTU engines for our client. These engines had low running hours and were in various states of repair. One of the engines was recovered from a mine scrap yard. The refurbishment project provided a major cost saving vs the purchase of new generators to make up 15MW of emergency power.

Refurbishment

The brief from the client was to restore the engines to a reliable condition. The MTU engines are well designed and powerful, but of an older generation. The first obstacle was to locate available genuine spares at a reasonable price. The next step was to assess the engines and fully refurbish all wearable parts and effectively zero hour the engines supplying and fitting new parts where required. During the initial inspection our NDT / quality control department were active in implementing a program of ultrasonic, dye penetrant and other testing methods on the various components to establish their suitability for reuse.

A detailed strip down inspection revealed a hidden blockage in the lube oil cooling system, that would have been a major problem under high load conditions. All the jacket water cooling passages had to be opened and cleaned. Parts and components were replaced / refurbished and retested prior to assembly. A detailed data pack was compiled for each engine with refurbishment details.

Ancillaries

Due to the age of the engines (1984 Vintage), not all ancillaries were available, and these were replaced with new. As an additional cost saving, it was possible to redesign and manufacture silencers and air intake systems locally. Instrumentation and control components were also replaced with newer technologies.

On completion of the rebuilds two engines have since been delivered to site by road transport for installation, while the third is expected to be completed during November 2020.

Before Refurbishment
After Refurbishment
Refurbishment