Let Ice Pigging Save You Water
Cleaning a pipe usually means moving a lot of water through it to flush out debris.
Flushing works by speed and volume: a mains flush can send many times the pipe's own volume down a pipe to lift sediment. Ice pigging takes a different approach, so it often needs far less water.
Conventional flushing depends on fast, sustained flow to scour the pipe wall. However conventional flushing often doesn’t generate the turbulence required to generate forces on the pipe inner wall. Because water takes the path of least resistance, it can often pass over deposits in bends, dead ends and larger-diameter sections, compounded by a lack of turbulence.
Operators often have to then repeat the flush to finish the job, and each repeat adds to the total amount of water being used.
In Ice Pigging, the slurry of fine ice crystals in water that we pump through the pipeline fills the whole bore and forms a plug, maximising contact with the pipe wall. It scours the pipe wall using much less water and because it conforms to bends and changes in diameter, it often only needs one pass rather than several flushes.
The ice slurry is pushed with a short water push to ensure that all ice and additives are removed from the line. Water consumption is far less than when using long duration flushes.
“Ice pigging achieves effective cleaning using a fraction of the water required for conventional flushing, while helping operators reduce invasive interventions. From an engineering perspective, sustainable practice means extending asset life and reducing chemical and water dependency.”
Martin Herbet, Engineering Director