Currently, the Codelco – Andina Division concentrator plant uses industrial water for its different facilities and processes. This resource is distributed from tanks located at high altitudes, without further treatment (see Annex 1a: Chemical Characterization of Industrial Water), so it contains a significant amount of ions and impurities that generate incrustations that clog the pipes of the water transport system. These pipes are mainly made of steel and have diameters ranging from 2 to 30 inches. This causes problems associated with variations with respect to the original design in terms of flow rates, pressures, hydraulic losses, among others, affecting the availability of water for proper operation of the different plants.

Identify technological solutions or products to meet one or more of the following objectives:

• Internal inspection and monitoring of piping.
• Internal cleaning of piping with incrustations.
• Prevention of contamination in water supply tanks.
• Prevention of incrustations in piping.

The scouting process could lead to the identification and selection of suppliers for a competitive procurement or purchase process, whose scope will be defined according to the maturity level of the proposals that apply to the open innovation process, which could lead to a pilot validation test, or to an implementation if they are relevant and meet the evaluation and selection criteria defined by Codelco.

• Do not generate adverse effects on the Copper/Molybdenum concentration process and its parameters (pH, ORP, %Rec, etc).
• Minimum maintainability requirements, high availability and Heavy Duty constructability characteristics in the case of physical equipment.
• The monitoring systems must provide information and alerts online and in real time, identifying incrustations through variables such as flow, pressure, velocity, temperature, internal diameter of piping.
• Industrial water must maintain a minimum quality so as not to affect treatment, flotation and recovery in the concentrator plant.
• Minimal operational interference and minimum intervention times for solutions for inspection, cleaning and prevention of contamination and incrustations.
• Comply with Codelco División Andina’s safety and communications standards.
• The maturity level must be higher or equal to TRL 7, i.e. it must have at least one prototype tested and validated in an operational environment.

•  Consultancies, advisories and engineering studies.
• Proposals that require a change in the design and/or materiality of the water conveyance system.
• Proposals that only perform chemical analysis or water quality monitoring.

Minimize or inhibit the formation of incrustation inside the piping of the industrial water transport system.

• Lower availability of water in the plant due to the reduction of pipe diameter.
• Higher operation and maintenance costs.

Permanently (accumulative over time).

• Visual inspections and cleaning with pressurized water through open windows in the piping.
• Installation of by-pass for cleaning or repair.

No new technologies have been tested.