Installing Hydrolox Screens Saves North American Refinery $330,000+ Per Year in Maintenance

Customer Objectives

The chain-driven screens at one large North American refinery were failing regularly. They frequently jammed and also enabled significant carryover and bypass. Plus, the screens didn’t meet the requirements of section 316(b) of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act. While converting their water intake system to comply with 316(b), the refinery wanted to improve upon their current system’s high maintenance cost and lack of reliability.

Hydrolox Execution

After evaluating numerous options, the North American refinery decided to replace nine existing chain-driven debris screens with fish-friendly Hydrolox™ Series 6000 traveling water screens. Hydrolox screens offer a low total cost of ownership and can significantly reduce maintenance at the screen house while operating 24/7. Working with a team of engineers, aquatic biologists, and refinery staff, Hydrolox experts designed screens to replace the existing screens without any civil modifications. The plan was executed over the course of three years, replacing the screens in groups of three annually. Once the screens’ installation was completed, work on the fish return system began.

Results

All screens have continued to operate with little more than routine maintenance, bringing the refinery’s yearly maintenance costs down from $334,300 to $4,110 and allowing staff to attend to other tasks around the plant. The screens are fully compliant with 316(b), and the Hydrolox solution also allowed the refinery to return any captured aquatic life to the source water body with one of the longest fish recovery and return systems in the U.S. Additionally, the Hydrolox screens can run 24/7 without problems, compared to the refinery’s previous chain-driven screens that could only run two to three times per shift and saw carry-over during debris events.