White Nile Sugar Corporation — Turbine Services

The White Nile Sugar Corporation operates one of Sudan's largest sugar manufacturing facilities, where industrial steam turbines are the core drivers of the production process. These turbines operate under demanding conditions — high loads, continuous duty cycles, and an environment where sugarcane processing generates significant thermal and particulate stress on rotating machinery.

The facility experienced a series of interrelated turbine issues that demanded urgent expert intervention. The turbine governor — the critical component controlling speed and load — had malfunctioned. Simultaneously, bearing temperatures were rising beyond acceptable thresholds, indicating potential failure in lubrication, alignment, or bearing condition. Most concerning, rotor axial displacement had been detected, suggesting possible issues with thrust bearing integrity or changes in steam path geometry.

Each of these symptoms, if left unaddressed, risked escalating to catastrophic turbine failure that would halt the entire production line. The facility needed a partner who could not only repair the immediate faults but conduct rigorous root cause analysis to prevent recurrence and inform long-term maintenance strategy.

MIMAH deployed a specialist turbine engineering team to the facility and followed a structured diagnostic methodology across all three failure modes. For the governor, our team diagnosed the failure mechanism, sourced replacement components, and completed the repair and recalibration to restore precise speed and load control.

For the bearing temperature anomaly, we conducted thermal analysis, lubricating oil quality testing, and alignment verification to isolate the root cause. The axial displacement investigation involved precision rotor position measurement, thrust bearing condition assessment, and review of operational parameters against design baselines.

In addition, we performed a full inspection, disassembly, and replacement of the Jacking Oil Pump (JOP) oil house assemblies at both the drive end (DE) and non-drive end (NDE) bearings — a critical intervention to ensure adequate bearing lubrication during startup and low-speed operation, where hydrodynamic oil film has not yet formed.

All turbine issues were successfully diagnosed and resolved. The governor was repaired and recalibrated, restoring precise speed and load control. Root causes of the elevated bearing temperatures were identified and corrected, with temperatures returning to within normal operating parameters. The axial displacement issue was investigated and addressed, with the thrust bearing system verified as sound.

Both JOP oil house assemblies were replaced, ensuring reliable jacking oil supply for all future turbine startups. The facility returned to full, safe operation with comprehensive root cause analysis documentation provided to the client for their ongoing maintenance planning and records.