Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) boilers suffer from rust deposits on the finned tubes. This can happen particularly when a plant is situated near the coast and is exacerbated by repeated start-ups and shut-downs.

Normal cleaning methods such as CO₂ blasting or chemical cleaning require long shut downs and with significant costs and lost generation income.  Chemical cleaning has significant issues with waste clear up and safe disposal. CO₂ (dry ice blasting) tends to have the greatest cleaning effect on the outer two rows of tubes, so in a deep tube bank which may be 9 -12 tubes deep, there is little cleaning effect in the middle of the tube bank. Furthermore, this process may require the erection of scaffold for full access, which can significantly extend the job duration.

Pressure Wave Technology or Bang&Clean® can quickly and effectively clean all the finned tubes within a tube bank in HRSGs. The cleaning operation is carried out much faster than these conventional methods of cleaning mentioned above, as the process is dry and without the need for full scaffolding access.

The tubes are cleaned by a series of shock waves, which penetrate throughout the tube bank, and by selecting different lances any area within the boiler can be accessed.

Removing the Iron Oxide and sulphur debris is simple and fast; it is simply vacuumed up and removed from the site for safe disposal.

Bang&Clean® has been applied successfully in over 20 HRSGs throughout Europe with excellent results in terms of material removed in a short time, pressure drop across the whole boiler being reduced and in one notable case after an intensive cleaning programme, plant output was recovered from 495MW to 660MW.

Contact us to find out how a Bang&Clean® can help improve your HRSG efficiency

(Photo courtesy of Dublin Bay Power)