Major Indonesian power plant reduces CO2 emissions with alternative for steam soot blowers (Paiton/Jawa)
Soot blower steam consumption reduced by 65% — back-pass flue gas temperature reduced by 10 °C with saving of 13,000 t coal/yr
About the plant
PT Jawa Power owns and operates Units 5 and 6 of the Paiton power complex in East Java, Indonesia, two 660 MW coal-fired units that have been supplying power to the Java-Bali grid since 2000.
Challenge
Fouling in the back-pass section of these large coal-fired boilers was limiting heat transfer efficiency and driving up coal consumption, emissions, and reliance on steam-based soot blowers.
Application
Back-pass cleaning across four separate manhole levels on each boiler.
Installation
Eight PWG-S units are installed in total, four per boiler: Paiton Unit 5 was commissioned in August 2022, and Unit 6 followed in September 2024, giving P-Wave a rare direct before/after comparison across two sister units.
P-Wave solution
Each unit produces a non-detonation pressure wave up to 750 bar, run on an automated schedule (Unit 5 currently every two hours, Unit 6 one to two times an hour), extracting real-time performance data throughout.
Result (before/after)
This is one of P-Wave's strongest documented results. On Unit 5, continuous back-pass cleaning removed over 22 tonnes of ash and debris in the first 12 hours alone, and has sustained ash removal at roughly twice the rate seen before installation. Soot blower operation dropped by 67%, and back-pass temperature fell 10°C from its prior baseline, a reduction that has held since a major shutdown and cleaning in October 2022. Jawa Power's own estimates put this at roughly 18,000 tonnes of coal and 37,000 tonnes of CO2 saved per year. On the reliability side, the Cockpit shows over 32,000 combustion blasts fired with a 99.9%+ success rate.
Customer feedback/satisfaction
Jawa Power's willingness to extend the installation from Unit 5 to Unit 6 two years later is itself a strong signal of satisfaction with the first unit's performance.
Further improvements/collaboration
With both units now running, this site is well positioned as P-Wave's flagship coal power reference, and the two-year gap between installations gives a genuine like-for-like before/after story other prospects can relate to.
Pictures/Drawings
Scheme:
Source: https://www.jawapower.co.id/the-power-station/production-process
PWG:
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