Kwinana Waste to Energy plant is the first waste to energy plant that will be constructed in Western Australia. The plant will aim to process up to 400,000 tons of waste per year and produce the equivalent of 36MW of electricity, enough to power 50,000 average homes.

Project

Scaftec were requested to provide design services by Paragon Scaffold Services for the main boiler in the new Energy to Waste plant that has been constructed in Perth Western Australia. The initial conceptual design phase included utilising various 3D revitt models to minimise the collisions with the internal pipework of the boiler over the life of the construction as well as providing access for welding and fixing works.

The scaffold was designed using the clients pre-existing stock of Layher system scaffolding with additional traditional tube & fitting components added where required.

The design of the internal scaffolds had 3 distinct phases;

1. Temporary support of the low level structure prior to final placement and welding
2. First pass scaffold to allow wall welding and internal fit-out
3. Second pass scaffold to allow works as per First pass scaffold

Solution

Due to the complex nature of the internal structures and load bearing capacity of the combustion grate the vertical support points had to be designed in conjunction with the on-site engineers.

The initial design for the low-level structure support compromised of a beamed tube & fitting scaffold that spanned between gaps in the combustion grate tiles. The scaffold was designed to support the total self-weight of the steel structure along with an additional 500kg load for men and materials.

The 1^st pass scaffold consisted of a Layher scaffold that provided access to all faces of the boiler to allow fixing and welding works. To comply with AUS standards and client requirements an internal stair was provided to aid and rescue plans in case of an emergency. Due to the loading capacity of the combustion grate tiles and the want to complete them as the 1^st pass scaffold was being utilised the low level support for the scaffold compromised of steel UB section and RMD superslim soldiers.

The 2^nd pass scaffold was the simplest design of the 3 as it consisted of narrow width Layher towers build between the vertical ‘fins’ of pipes. The low level support utilised similar arrangement to the 1^st pass with steel UB sections supporting the scaffold.