Inside offshore hull structures, the void tanks can experience condensation and are highly susceptible to corrosion. To prevent this, a humidity control system using a desiccant dehumidifier is used to detect and prevent corrosion. In this blog, I’ll discuss protecting production platforms with dehumidification.
Operating Environment
Our customer was building a new offshore production platform for the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the heat and humidity in the Gulf, the void tank spaces inside the hull structure will sweat. Eventually, this will lead to corrosion and possibly even structural failure.
A humidity control system utilizing a desiccant dehumidifier is the best way to keep humidity levels low to prevent sweating. Eldridge partnered with Innovative Air Technology (IAT) to design a marine grade dehumidifier for this customer’s application.
Air Flow Challenge
Picking a location for the dehumidifier unit and then designing the duct runs to deliver the process air was a challenge. Given the size of each of the four legs for the production platform, each duct run from the unit would be extremely long to get to all of the void tanks. The problem with long duct runs is the static pressure that it adds to the system. To overcome the static pressure, we designed the duct runs to have centrifugal fans as booster fans. The advantage of using centrifugal fans versus axial fans as booster fans is that they also function as volume control dampers so that each downstream area gets the exact volume air that is required to control the humidity.
Conclusion
Eldridge and IAT successfully completed the commissioning of all four marine grade desiccant dehumidifier units. The customer is pleased with the system design and resulting air flow to each of the humidity-controlled areas.
Taking on the design of any type of marine grade or explosion proof desiccant dehumidification unit is very challenging. At Eldridge, not only do we have the knowledge and the experience to design the unit to strict explosion proof requirement, but we will guarantee the performance of the unit.
Regardless of whether you have a dehumidification application that needs to be explosion proof or not, contact a ventilation expert at Eldridge and we will design the right system to meet your needs.