Boiler tubes are encased units that allow combustion heat to be transferred into water until it becomes heated water or steam. These vital parts of your HRSG system make the hot water or steam usable for transferring heat to a process.
The boiler tubes within your HRSG are arranged in racks that form boiler modules. Each module is categorized as either economizers, evaporators, super-heaters or reheaters and can be positioned vertically or horizontally within your system.
As mentioned above, there are two types of tubular boilers — firetubes and watertubes. In a watertube boiler system, water travels through the tubes and is heated until it becomes high-pressure steam. Firetube boilers are surrounded by water, and hot gases travel through the tubes.
Regular industrial boiler tube cleaning will improve your boiler’s economic and technical performance, lower operating costs and fuel consumption and promote longer heating system life.
Annual boiler tube cleaning will dissolve and remove the rust, magnesium, calcium and other deposits while keeping your boiler’s components safe.
How frequently you need to clean your boiler tubes depends on several factors, including how heavily you use your HRSG system, which types of tubes you have and the quality of your water or fuel.
Watertubes develop scale when water is heated and the suspended solids in the water precipitate out, adhering to the heating surface. A well-managed water treatment system can minimize these scale deposits and reduce how often you need to clean your boiler tubes. Similarly, firetubes can develop greater scale deposits more quickly with waste heat fired on lesser fuels. If your system runs on these lower-quality fuels, you may need to have your system cleaned more often.
The best way to determine how often you need to clean your boiler tubes is to conduct regular boiler tube efficiency testing and monitor your results.
Because built-up soot and scale can greatly impact your boiler’s efficiency, regular efficiency testing is critical to your maintenance program. These tests can help monitor multiple values from your system to indicate when your boiler needs a thorough cleaning.
Electronic combustion efficiency testers are considered the standard for a boiler maintenance program, though there is a wide range of models available to test many different values, including carbon dioxide, oxygen levels, net stack temperature, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and excess air.
Monitoring and comparing data from these tests can help you pinpoint maintenance requirements and ensure your boiler is clean and operating at maximum efficiency.
Regularly cleaning your boiler will help you get the most out of its performance. Doing so can ensure it continues operating at maximum efficiency for as long as possible.
If you’re interested in industrial boiler tube cleaning services, look no further than EAI. Reach out to us online to learn more about our boiler tube cleaning methods or get yours serviced today.
