Cleaning of an air-colled heat exchanger

[mariovalenti]

We are doing a maintaning of an air-colled heat exchanger, which had been working in a oil refinery for years.
It have 11 meters length, a width of 3,5 meters and 370 tubes (1" diameter x 1,7 mm of thickness -1/16"-).
The tubes and heads are very dirty with residual oil and organic deposits stuck to the walls of the tubes.
Due to this it have a loss of efficiency (low heat exchange and loss of pressure in the piping).
We think to do an internal cleaning using a mixing of Soduim Hidroxide (soda)with water to remove the dirt and oil.
Is somebody able to tell me if this process is adapted to do that (the steel of tubes is SA179 and heads steel is SA516)?
What proportion soda-water (dilution) is correct?
How much time can we mantain this solution into the tubes/heads?
Thank you in advance.
Mario Valenti

 

[ash9144]

Many of the industrial cleaning companies can do this for you. They will mix a dilute solution usually citric acid and a surfactant with corrosion inhibitor. They then use that solution to hydroblast the tubes. We did that a the plant I'm at in 2007 with good success.

 

[EdStainless]

Hire it done.
Pressure blasting heat exchanger tubes is a common practice.

You might also want to clean the outside of this unit.

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Plymouth Tube

 

[MikeMet]

I agree with Ed that you should have this hired out. You can hydroblast or chemical clean. However, I recommend you get samples of the sludge or deposit and determine which chemical cleaning agent is best to remove them. Too many times I have been fooled that a simple citric acid or sodium hydroxide cleaning would work, and it didn't. A little up front work will save big bucks later.

 

[0707]

IF I WAS YOU I WILL MAKE A HIGH PRESSURE WATER JET BLASTING


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