Cleaning Heat Exchangers with High- and Ultra-high-pressure Water
Figure 1: Peinemann IBC-5 (Five Rigid Lances) and Three-lance Trans Line Exchanger (Three Flexible Lances) at a Cleaning Area in Australia
Figure 2: 40-tonne Aerial Bundle Extractor at Work
Figure 3: 20-tonne Aerial Bundle Extractor at Work
Figure 4: Peinemann Bundle Lifter
Table 1: Various Pressure and Flow Rate Requirements Petrochemical Industry
Contamination • Solvents
• Synthetic rubber • Soft polymers • Latex
Operating Pressure • From 800 bar upwards
• External cleaning: 200–250l/min • Plastics
• Pharmaceuticals • Processed foods
Refineries
• Crude oil • Viscose
• Petroleum
(petroleum • Oil derivatives)
• Up to 3,000 bar 15–30l/min per lance • External cleaning: 200–250l/min
Table 2: Designated Shell and Tube Bundle Sizes Standard bundle
• Diameter: 0.5–1.6m • Length: up to 7m
• Weight: up to 20 tonnes • Tar • Asphalt • 600–800 bar 25–50l/min per lance • External cleaning: 200–250l/min • 800–900 bar
• Flow rate for inner diameter cleaning: • Flow rate for inner diameter cleaning: • Flow rate for inner diameter cleaning: • Flow rate for inner diameter 25–50l/min per lance
cleaning: 25–50l/min per lance • External cleaning: 200–250l/min
• Petrol
• Diesel oil • Fuel oil
• Petroleum • Coke
Large bundle
• Diameter: up to 2.5m • Length: up to 9m
• Weight: up to 45 tonnes
The inside and outside of the bundles are sometimes so badly contaminated that no spaces between the tubes are visible and the tubes are fully plugged (see Figure 6). When bundles are badly contaminated the heat transfer becomes negligible and a lot of energy goes to waste for equal results. Only by applying specialist methods of cleaning can these problems be solved.
26 How
Even though there are other ways of cleaning heat exchangers, the most popular method used is with high-pressure water. Water under pressure can be very effective in removing matter out of place. Worldwide, the two most popular ways of high-pressure cleaning of heat exchangers are manual and semi-automatic. Due to the sometimes unknown dangers
HYDROCARBON WORLD – VOLUME 6 ISSUE 1
Very large bundle
• Diameter: up to 3.5m • Length: up to 20m
• Weight: up to 100 tonnes
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84