The first “episode” of this important milestone dates back to May 2020 with the publication of the call for tenders by The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) through the agency for the sustainable management of persistent organic contaminants (POPs) in response to the obligations of the Stockholm Convention.

www.popsegypt.com

The tender, financed by the World Bank / GEF, was entitled: Decontamination of PCB-Containing transformer oil – Supply and installation of equipment, and training of local operators, for dechlorinating and purification of 1000 tons of PCB contaminated oil, which will produce clean oil suitable for reuse in electrical equipment (transformers).

Main milestones:

• July 2020, Sea Marconi responds to the tender
• November 2020, Sea Marconi receives the official award following the opening of the envelopes and the analysis of the proposals
• June 2021, shipment of materials and accessories from the Sea Marconi headquarters in Collegno, Turin (Italy) to the port of Alexandria in Egypt
• July 2021, shipment of the decontamination plants from the Sea Marconi headquarters in Collegno, Turin (Italy) to the port of Alexandria in Egypt

At the moment the lifts are sailing towards Alessandria with expected arrival on Monday 9th; the next steps, presumably in October 2021, are commissioning, the on-site demonstration of the technological capacity of the plants with the training of local operators aimed at autonomous use.

In this case, Sea Marconi has created and deployed a winning technology: BAT and BEP, mobile and modular, which allows to perform the treatment in situ, in a closed circuit, without emptying the transformer, in on-load mode, i.e. maintaining the transformers in service during PCB decontamination. The latter feature was particularly successful in a scenario, such as the Egyptian one, which will focus on transformers used in national electricity production and transmission. The Sea Marconi solution will therefore make it possible to move the treatment plants in the vicinity of the transformers to be decontaminated and to treat them without putting them out of service.

The plants by Sea Marconi (together with the patented reagents and the operating methodology, i.e. the CDP Process® system) will allow the Egyptian ministries of the Environment and Energy to meet the obligations of the Stockholm Convention on the sustainable management of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
At the end of the project, that is when all the transformers will have a stable contamination below 50 mg/kg of PCB, the plants produced by Sea Marconi can still be used for maintenance activities aimed at extending the life cycle of oils and electrical equipment.

As part of the PCB/UNDP/GEF project, Sea Marconi has been invited to present its solutions at the workshop on PCB/POPs treatment (decontamination and disposal), which will be held on 21st and 22nd July 2015 in Brasilia (Brazil).

The event will see managers and technical experts gathered together from the energy, industrial, transportation, health, agricultural and other sectors, which all use electrical equipment with contaminated insulating fluids, or which are responsible for the environmental management of PCB waste (or other persistent organic pollutants). Members of the audience will include representatives of the federal states of Brazil, with an estimated attendance rate of approximately 200 participants.

The workshop will be technical, Sea Marconi and other potential suppliers of services for the decontamination/disposal of dangerous waste will have the opportunity to present their treatment, highlighting the technology and relative performance, just like the advantages and disadvantages of onsite processing.

After the event, we will be able to provide more details on the potential suppliers, the technologies proposed and make a comparison with that proposed by Sea Marconi.

We are particularly proud to be able to recount another positive update in the “PCBs free Program for Japan” project: the arrival of the first order for the development of a system (DMU) for the dehalogenation of oils and transformers contaminated by PCBs.
To completely understand the extraordinary nature of this news, we need to take a look at the previous “episodes” (see link at bottom of page).
Very briefly. Sea Marconi welcomed the challenge posed by the public and private Japanese sector: first of all, the laboratory detection of infinitesimal contaminations of PCBs in oil (never before detected), subsequently pushing Sea Marconi technology to the max, with the objective of decontaminating oil up to a rate of PCB < 0.5 mg/kg. Today we are proud to say that we have reached both objectives. Our laboratory has been confirmed as an extraordinary international point of reference, and the PCB decontamination technology by Sea Marconi, CDP Process + DMU, has been officially validated by Japanese authorities.

To satisfy the demands of this client, Sea Marconi performed an enormous job, redesigning itsdecontamination units (DMU), until finally defining an entirely new technological concept.
Basically this means lower weight and smaller dimensions, optimised fluid schemes, improved performance, optimised use of materials, which translates into improved performance, reduced impact of logistics, faster treatments and therefore an undeniable advantage for the end user. The development of the first system for Japan is without a doubt an extraordinary milestone, but we know it is just the beginning of a difficult path, which will nonetheless provide us with enormous satisfaction.

For this case, Sea Marconi has done a detailed study using multidetection diagnostic tools from which emerged the following critical factors:

1. PCBs above the threshold due to cross contamination caused by previous treatment performed by unskilled operator in a sensitive environment (water for cultivation)
2. Corrosion C2 (NON DBDS & Corrosive sulfur) with DBDS equivalent = 70 mg/Kg and CCD test result as corrosive without DBDS
3. corrosion C4 (NON sulfur corrosion & metal dissolution), due to presence of copper in organ metallic form
4. dielectric properties of oil non standard

there are no electrical faults, there are thermal defects but only a normal aging of the insulation solid

Sea Marconi proposed and performed and integrated treatment based on selective depolarization (Chedcos) and dehalogenation of PCB in oil (CDP Process). The treatment was performed on-site and on-load (transformer in service and under load) with a total duration of 22 days, of which 16 for the treatment part.

The solution Sea Marconi won and convinced primarily for the modularity of the treatment unit (DMU), with reduced weight and size and therefore extremely easy to handle in an area with extreme logistical constraints.
Not only, the service Sea Marconi was able to heal, with just one treatment, the problems of corrosivity and the problems of PCB contamination, both the poor dielectric oil.

	Before the treatment	After the treatment
Acidity TAN [mgKOH/g]	0,281	< 0,01
Interfacial tension [mN/m]	18,08	33,30
Moisture [mg/Kg]	6	2
Dissipation factor 90 °C	1.023	0,09211
Breakdown voltage [KV]	73,10	75
DBDS [mg/Kg]	< 5	< 5
Corrosive sulfur CCD test	corrosive	Non corrosive
Total corrosive sulfur (DBDS equivalent) [mg/Kg]	69	8
Copper [mg/Kg]	64	2
PCBs [mg/Kg]	71	25

The brilliant results achieved are the result of a mix of excellence:

• Innovation and technical treatment plants and transformer oil,
• the use of specific reagents patented,
• the competence of technicians Sea Marconi,
• certification of the analytical test results

This case brings together a number of peculiarities that make it unique worldwide. It has required a major effort to research, development and innovation. This has generated a series of advanced methodologies focused to multidetection; moreover this case has allowed us to study new treatment methodologies and instrumental configurations for monitoring entirely new.

Since this case is expected to publish some results in trade magazines from IEEE and Analitcal chemistry.

Nameplate data of transformer:

Trasformatore: grid transformer
Manufact: xxx
Year: 1970
Power [MVA]: 70
Voltage [KV]: 225
Oil mass [Kg]: 38.000

Dealogenazione (CDP Process®) treatment in order to remove the PCBs, performed on-load (this means that the transformer is in service and under load during the treatment)

Nameplate data of transformer:

Transformer: GSU transformer
Manufact: xxx
Year: 1974
Power [MVA]: 760
Voltage [KV]: 400
Oil mass [Kg]: 55.000

See analytical results of the oil before treatment (table below)

Solution: Dehalogenation treatment (CDP Process®) in order to remove the PCBs from the oil and transformer.

	Before treatment	After treatment
TAN [mg KOH/g]	0,029	< 0,010
Breakdown voltage [KV]	58,7	75
PCBs [mg/Kg]	57,2	9,6

Utility – Power transformer of generation (nuclear, thermal, hydro), transmission and distribution with a total of 1.093 transformers.

Namepale data of transformers:

Power max [MVA]: 760
Voltage max [KV]: 400
Oil mass [Kg]: 75.000 each
PCB max [mg/Kg]: 5.000
PCB target [mg/Kg]: < 20 (after 90 days)

Solution: Dehalogenation treatment (CDP Process®) in order to remove the PCBs from oils and transformers. The treatments were performed off-load and on-load (transformer fully load during the treatment).