Remote monitoring for ABB drives and their environment

DART H2S case study

DART nails corrosion in a WWTP

Corrosion kills converters. It eats them alive, and H2S is a classic example. Created by the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter in wastewater, it’s an acid gas, often identified by the blackening of conductive, non-coated metal. It results in electrical failures, increased maintenance costs, reduced reliability of vital processes, safety risks and a vast reduction in the life span of equipment. Conventional wisdom has been to apply a silicone coating to appliances. This has limited effect as the sulphur in H2S can readily permeate through.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The first problem is to identify that H2S is an issue in your plant. And to discover this BEFORE it starts to cause problems. So, it’s ‘game on’ for DART.

H2S can be readily identified and its levels charted by DART, our IoT device designed for the variable speed drive industry with remote monitoring and ambient sensing capabilities.

The problem: 5 significant breakdowns within 1 year.
The challenge: Can DART identify the cause? But of course...

The installed DART unit started monitoring 24/7. A maximum range was set for the ambient H2S readings, after which a fault alarm was triggered and an alert sent to the engineer. 

DART monitoring H2S levels in a water treatment plant room

 


DART remote monitoring device was used to remotely monitor H2S, temperature, particulate and humidity readings which provided 24/7 insights to the site.
It showed a temperature reading of 19°C, humidity at 30.95%, particulate matter at around 6000 and H2S at 10ppm.

•    A previous case study has shown H2S levels as low as 0.6 ppm can cause corrosive effects on printed circuit boards and power electronics over a period of 60 days.
•    H2S levels inside the vsd cabinets as high as 10 ppm were recorded at this plant
•    A massive peak particulate value of 6000 ppm was recorded during the test.

This proved conclusively that a high level of H2S was the cause of the variable speed drives failing. Measures could be undertaken to mitigate this (as below) and the plant manager would now receive an alert when H2S levels were increasing to levels detrimental to the drives.

DART had identified (and proved) the cause of the plant's numerous breakdowns and information could now be provided on how to improve the situation, aiding efficiency, cutting repair costs and significantly extending the life of the asset.