Waga Energy has conducted three-yearly maintenance on the WAGABOX® unit installed at the Suez site in Saint-Maximin (Oise). Around ten engineers and technicians spent a week fully servicing this facility that has been providing 100% automated injection of biomethane 24/7 since June 26, 2017.
“Three-yearly maintenance, in addition to annual maintenance, is necessary for ensuring that the unit’s long-term operability. We prepare and plan it meticulously to minimize equipment downtime. In Saint-Maximin, we only needed to shut down the machine for 72 hours in order to complete all tasks“, explains maintenance manager, Emmanuel Astier.
While maintenance was taking place, an expert from Apave, an independent body specializing in risk control, performed a regulatory inspection of all pressurized components in accordance with the European Pressure Equipment Directive (PED). As every year, all the facility’s safety systems were also audited.
Continuous improvement of WAGABOX® units
This scheduled downtime was used to install the new version of the remote-control software implemented in the latest generation WAGABOX® units. This software developed by Waga Energy is used to control the facility remotely and ensure constant automated optimization of settings through daily processing of some 300,000 data transmitted by over 200 sensors deployed at each stage of the biogas purification process.
“We take all necessary steps to ensure full operability of the WAGABOX® units we exclusively design and operate. Consequently, we are able to guarantee our customers and partners high performance levels, a high level of facility availability, and optimal recovery of biogas resources,” explains Guillaume Piechaczyk, Waga Energy Operations Director.
In recent months, several improvements have been made to the Saint-Maximin facility: optimization of the condensate recovery system, deployment of a new hydrogen sulfide (H2S) elimination system, and installation of a new-generation gas analyser.