After almost a year of trial runs under real conditions, the test section in Neumünster, where a forty-metre CarboSeal® liner was installed in March 2022, was opened. During the subsequent inspection of the pipe section, no changes or abnormalities could be detected in the condition of the liner or in other parameters relating to the installation. The manufacturer PPR Sweden AB and the sales partner PPR Deutschland GmbH are pleased about this success. AGFW and Stadtwerke Neumünster made the inspection and installation in the test section possible.
After cleaning the section of the above-ground bypass of the distribution pipeline that is constantly in operation, it was already apparent – the district heating liner in DN 200 “looks like it did on the day it was installed, despite the extreme stresses in a district heating system for inliner renovations,” says Sebastian Grimm, project manager at AGFW. And not only the appearance was right: in addition to the surface properties of the liner and the fit of the sleeves, the faults introduced before the rehabilitation, such as defective weld seams and simulated corrosion damage, remained unchanged, which clearly speaks for the tightness of the installed pipe liner. The water samples taken regularly were also inconspicuous.
“The result fully meets our expectations and we are sure that the liner will last for many years to come,” says Lars Quernheim, Technical Manager of PPR Germany. “For us, it’s a great opportunity to be able to demonstrate the quality of CarboSeal in a setting like this.” In addition to representatives of AGFW and Stadtwerke Neumünster, the experts from other district heating supply companies and engineering firms present on site were also able to see the excellent interim results for themselves.
“The carbon liner and the connection sleeves appear to be in excellent condition,” says Dr Stephan Richter, CEO of GEF Ingenieur AG. “With CarboSeal, there is an obviously reliable product for trenchless rehabilitation in the district heating sector. Experience shows that the effort and construction time can be significantly reduced with it. It offers a completely new design element for the rehabilitation of district heating pipeline sections.”
The test line installed on a brownfield site in the city of Neumünster was built as part of the “FW-Liner” research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection in Germany (FKZ: 03ET1457). It can remain in operation for the time being and the test run with the district heating liner can be continued.