Water side fouling of WHSG?

[deloresbx18]

Does anyone have any experience with a rapid fouling mechanism in a newly retubed waste heat steam generator?   We retubed the hot pass of our SRU reaction furnace waste heat boiler due to excessive corrosion on the tube side.  We did not do any internal cleaning of the boiler, shell side, prior to restarting the unit.  We have since lost about 10% duty on the boiler, and it appears to be shell side fouling.  Has anyone else run into this or failed a WHSG because of similar circumstances?  Do you have a recommended cleaning/startup procedure for your steam generators after retubes or repair?

[Jeanne rameau]

Was the waste heat steam generator cooled down evenly, with blowing down the system well to get all the sludge out? It doesn’t take much scale to compromise the heat transfer ability of the system.

I would follow your manufacturer’s Boiler recommendations for shutdown and start up.

[Pete Bisila]

“Was the waste heat steam generator cooled down evenly, with blowing down the system well to get all the sludge out? It doesn’t take much scale to compromise the heat transfer ability of the system. ”
 
We cool down evenly, but I’m not so sure about any blowdowns.  We have room for improvement (to say the least) in our management of non fired steam generators in our facility.

[Author]

Posts