We create, maintain and improve our specialist machinery and associated equipment through in-house design and fabrication. The workshop teams are in constant communication with operators and feedback from site continually informs the design and build of our machinery. This communication is vital to drive innovation and ensure Cokebusters machines are the very best in the field.
By manufacturing our equipment in-house, supply chain dependency is significantly reduced achieving greater flexibility and improved control of production processes.
‘Pig’ is a generic term for a device which can be propelled inside a pipe to carry out a variety of functions. These functions may involve proving passage, unblocking, cleaning, or inspecting. The pigs maybe simple mechanical devices or contain complex arrays of instrumentation (intelligent or smart pig). Propulsion may be provided by fluid flow or by onboard power.
Decoking is our foundation going back to the 1990s. We also undertake:
Outside of the hydrocarbon sector we are increasingly engaging with other process streams and cleaner energy systems (renewables), including:
Our heritage is primarily decoking of heaters/furnaces and subsequent inspection in refining operations. We have over 20 years of experience working for numerous Tier 1 and 2 operators in this field on a vast range of sites around the globe.
Cokebusters has already transferred its technology to steam generation packages and pipeline systems. We are engaging in the wider petrochemical sector, midstream operation, utilities and renewables.
As we provide cleaning, inspection and integrity solutions to small diameter pressure containing equipment there are no real limitations to where we can work and in what industrial sector.
Please also refer to the prior question.
Yes. There is evidence of this across our portfolio.
Sometimes this can be a specific client request to support an incumbent operation, typically with our patented inspection solution.
We may choose to strategically bid with another partner or provider as this may offer the best overall proposition for our customer.
As Cokebusters is a combined service business there is no particular motivation for us to sell or rent equipment.
There have, however, been instances where we have supplied our pumping units and mechanical pigs to partner entities as part of a strategic market offering.
Fundamentally our business operations serve to lower the fuel usage and emissions of our customers, supporting their Stage 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol commitments. We achieve this by improving heat transfer efficiency, often dramatically. Through inspection management we can assure the integrity envelope and reduce leak frequency. Specifically:
We have established and maintain a number of successful partnerships nationally and internationally. These can fall into several categories such as technical, business development or on the basis of project ventures and framework support structures.
If you are interested in exploring a business relationship and believe you have something of mutual interest, we are open to a discussion. Please address messages to enquiries@cokebusters.com
With over 20 years in business, we have been pioneers in our niche industry. Cokebusters has broken new ground in technology, which others have endeavoured to emulate. We remain within the broad confines of our core business and do not dilute or distract ourselves.
Uniquely we offer a truly combined service. That means all aspects of cleaning, verification, water handling and inspection are conducted by our own teams on site. This removes the need for complex procurement or additional interfaces.
We design, manufacture and maintain our own equipment. This also allows us the freedom to modify design to suit new challenges.
Cokebusters has steadily increased the number of competent partnerships and alliances, globally. As well as operations from our two primary centres we continue to increase our reach and engage locally.
Local engagement is not only essential from a language and cultural perspective, but it also serves to improve our responsiveness and lower our environmental footprint.
We are increasingly looking at ways to be more effective in the areas where we have our greatest workload and opportunity. We have our machinery placed in a number of strategic international locations already which reduces the time and cost of our mobilisation.
Cokebusters is willing to engage in arrangements which cement such deployments in country and we have working evidence of this model already.
Our presence on a site is not considered to significantly affect the risk profile of operations. We work with site operations teams to safely connect at the equipment boundary. We typically work with water (not gas) pressures in the range 200-300 psi and we operate at ambient temperatures.
Cokebusters’ pressure containing equipment is annually tested and certified by a third party.
Once set up our operations are essentially self-contained. All our personnel have annual medicals and are trained/certificated in accordance with ECITB safety training standards. We follow a robust risk assessment process.
Many operational sites are, however, inherently hazardous by their nature. We are often working in a turnaround situation meaning the area is typically hydrocarbon free.
Our occupational hazards include: working at height, objects at height, hot surfaces, electricity, noise, manual handling and ambient temperature.
Yes. The primary equipment item is our Double Pumping Unit (DPU). This is a self-contained road trailer unit which is the nerve centre of our operation on site.
Cokebusters has designed, built and maintains a fleet of some 20 DPUs which are globally dispersed. We have a number of additional machines in construction and indeed we are accelerating our builds as a result of our diversification program.
We have now also designed and built our own water filtration units. We are aiming to build additional units in for international assignments.
Our own mechanical and inspection pigs are designed and manufactured in house. We have approximately 45 different sizes of mechanical pig and manufacture stock daily. Our inspection pig programming and analysis software is also purpose built.
Cokebusters maintain a number of patents on their machinery and equipment. We are immensely proud to be groundbreaking with our innovation and design.
The DPU has an operator control room, water tanks and independent high capacity engines, with associated water pumps and control systems.
The unit has its own fuel supply and carries all the associated equipment including hoses, valves, launchers and tool kits.
Units are dispersed internationally in, for example: UK, Europe, North Africa, Middle East, America, Central and South America. They are then deployed to site by road trailer and connected to the equipment and utilities.
Each job maintains a log sheet of any fault messages or comments. These are collated and managed by our workshops.
Most interventions are handled by the on site team. As Cokebusters builds its own equipment we are best placed to diagnose and repair. Comprehensive tool kits are carried on each DPU and the team mix is designed to include mechanical and electrical competence. On return to workshop more robust work may be required.
It is rare to experience major failure. In such an event Cokebusters has extensive in-house workshop skills which directly relate to mechanical/electrical features of these specialist machines. Such skills can be mobilised to site in prompt reaction to urgent demands.
Typically we work in the range of 2”-12” internal diameter. We can, however, operate outside this range.
Asset inspection baselining, especially during commissioning, provides the owner/operator with definitive and quantified knowledge of pipe/tube wall thickness.
Specified schedule tubing may not always be employed during construction and even if it is the wall thickness can be variable, as a result of tolerance effects.
The absence of such knowledge may result in a false sense of security and compromise the assessment of corrosion rates. This may lead to unexpected and premature failure. The same challenge is true during tube change out.
Yes they can and for a variety of reasons. Typically this can happen if there are unknown schedule changes in piping, excessive fouling, residual temperature sensors or other debris. A fundamental part of the job is the assessment of layout from detailed P&IDs and/or site survey.
Our patented mechanical pigs are designed to be both flexible as well as sufficiently hard to perform their task. We can modify the pig design to suit unusual systems.
Our patented intelligent pig design is uniquely single bodied to facilitate navigation.
If a pig gets stuck then the operator will deploy a number of defined routines to remove the pig. In the event this does not work, there are other interventions that can be performed.
Generally we work with a system ‘off-line’. We typically require 300# flanges to connect to. If such flanges are not available we may request spool pieces for transition. If no mechanical joints are available then it may be necessary to break containment and have them installed, either temporarily or permanently. We can provide advice and indeed support or solutions for such activities.
Our Header Bypass System can be deployed for managing access through more complex common header manifolds.
Cokebusters uniquely operates in the smaller diameter range of piping systems. We do not currently operate pigging in air/gas.
Pigging may not be possible with very complex manifold systems, unless extensive modifications are carried out. Our Header Bypass System can help but may not be a solution for every scenario.
It is essential to consider the piping circuit. Normally we return water. If return is not possible then other options such as one way pigging can be used.
There are limitations on operational temperatures, pressures and fluid chemistry. The pigs can operate in a variety of mediums, however, we need to assess the competency of that medium in terms of eg, corrosivity and flammability. This is not just in respect of the pigs but also the DPU tanks, pipes, impellers and exposure to operational staff.
It can and it has, however, there are limitations regarding corrosivity and flammability.
Cokebusters employ a number of personnel who speak a variety of languages. Where possible we try to include these skills on our jobs.