Howden has been supplying submerged blowers for almost 50 years, starting in the late 1950s with the United Kingdom Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor programme. These blowers are fully submerged in the process cooling gas, and thus overcome the twin problems of process contamination and maintenance associated with the use of running seals.

Our unique expertise and experience in submerged blowers started with the development of the submerged circulator concept. This was carried forward into the development of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor power stations in the UK, where we supplied upwards of one hundred 6MW circulators over a twenty year period. These circulators were designed for both horizontal and vertical arrangement. They operate submerged in CO2 at 4 bar pressure, with oil bath or pressure fed bearings, and gas flow control by variable inlet guide vanes. The later units including external pressurized lubricating oil system, were seismically qualified.