Fouled plate heat exchanger

[petrock]

Hello everyone.
I have a fouled plate heat exchanger condenser which I would like to chemicaly clean in position. The cooling water quality is not very good as the unit is operating in a zinc mine, about 1.5 K underground. I'm suspecting fouling is being caused by calsium build up.
Anyone out there with knowlage on how to chemicaly clean these suckers,??. I have been told that citric acid will get rid of the calsium but I'm not sure of the concentrations required or how user friendly it is. Especialy when it comes to disposing it on completion.
Hope someone can help me.
Cheers

[cmorris69]

We've used a product called RYDLYME with good results. They offer a small pump package which would connect into the heat exchanger and provide circulation. I'd add a short-cut but I haven't adequate posts to do so yet, so just Google "Rydlyme"...

Good luck!

[Josip]

Hi, Petrock

Hello everyone.
I have a fouled plate heat exchanger condenser which I would like to chemicaly clean in position. The cooling water quality is not very good as the unit is operating in a zinc mine, about 1.5 K underground. I'm suspecting fouling is being caused by calsium build up.
Anyone out there with knowlage on how to chemicaly clean these suckers,??. I have been told that citric acid will get rid of the calsium but I'm not sure of the concentrations required or how user friendly it is. Especialy when it comes to disposing it on completion.
Hope someone can help me.
Cheers

I will suggest you to ask manufacturer about CIP of your PHE .... for some PHE is not allowed to use some acids, be careful

Best regards, Josip

[absrbrtek]

Cleaning the htex out chemicaly will not remove all the scaling. Only way to clean it properly is pull it apart and brush it down. JMHO

[petrock]

Hey everyone,, I think I'm on a winning thing here, thanks to you cmorris. I have been in touch with Rydlyme, and it's looking good. I think in my mind,, I have to give this a go first. Then,, as a last resort, if it does'nt work,, I will have to remove the plates.
I'll let you all know how it goes.
And to you Josipe,!!,, hehee,,, kako si mi,? thanks for your reply, good to hear from you.
Cheers all and thanks again
Peter

[cmorris69]

No sweat, Petrock. One of the claims made by the Rydlyme representative was that a plate and frame could be cleaned in place without disassembly by circulating his stuff through it. I am in the process of outfitting several small water cooled shell-and-tube heat exchangers with access taps for routine maintenance rather than opening them up and cleaning by hand. The stuff isn't cheap, but what is?

Jossip said it best, though. Research for risk to your heat exchanger plates and seals and be doubly sure about environmental considerations before you jump in.

[Josip]

Hi, Petrock

.......I'll let you all know how it goes.
And to you Josipe,!!,, hehee,,, kako si mi,? thanks for your reply, good to hear from you.
Cheers all and thanks again
Peter

.... hvala na pitanju "so far so good", naravno moglo bi i bolje kao i uvijek...

....drago mi je ako sam pomogao....

take care Peter,

Best regards, Josip

[josef]

Hi, Josip
your vulgar tongue everywhere, is world's, and I have no need dictionary

[petrock]

Hello again everyone.
Well things are looking really good. The original quote from APV to carry out chemical cleanning came to 40 thousand. For each clean !?. I have just received a quote from Rydlme that will reduce costs to 1/10th.
Now that is CHEAP,!, (hmm, now where are thoes smiley icons.?)..And I also found out, the product is already being used on this site and disposal methods have already been approved.
Now apparently its smell is a bit like roasted almonds which,,, now I'm thinking,,, hmmm,, maybe I'll add it to my Rakija to smoothen the flavour,!! *Hick,#!!,, Yummm,!!
Adio,,,

[cmorris69]

Super! Let us know how well it does on the plate and frame.

[petrock]

Well Hello everyone.
Latest update on my plate heatexchanger cleaning using Rydlyme is as follows:
Rydlyme will only attack alluminium and rust. My heat exchanger being of a stainless steel construction was imune to all of these things,,,,, except one.
This exchanger is a condenser for the system and as such needed constant make up of water in the cooling tower circuit. Due to the poor quality of water found on this application (Being a Zinc mine and deep underground) there were high quantities of water bacteria found in the tower and consinquently had to be treated with high doses of chemicals.

To cut a long story short,,,, After applying Rydlyme and allowing it to circulate overnight.... I came back in the morning and found all my refrigerant GONE,!!... The whole 800kg's plus I had a 50% level in the receiver of Rydlyme solution... Following that,, the other thing that was GONE,!!!,,, was my MIND,!!!!,, as I quickly realised that even though I was trying to save my client cleaning costs from $40K to $4K, I have just created a $100K cost... F#@K.!!!

After removing all the plates and getting them inspected. The cause of the problem was found to be the errosion or corrosion of the stainless steel plates by the anti bacteria chemicals added to the cooling tower water circuit... and thats one thing that Rydlyme likes to attack.... Corossion...

NOTE: To all who are using Rydlyme on condenser plate heat exchangers... Do not use it if excessive water chemical treatment has been used.
If you still deside to use it,,, make sure your covered with the right insurance.
Unless you have exray vision and you can see the condition of the plates inside,,,,, Son,,,,,,,
Your on your own,,,,,,,

Take care all. I'm going now to try and find my mind again...

Heeeeere mind,mind,mind,,,,, who's your dady,,, tza tza ,,, come here baby,,,,,,

[US Iceman]

The cause of the problem was found to be the erosion or corrosion of the stainless steel plates by the anti bacteria chemicals added to the cooling tower water circuit...

Erosion and corrosion are two different animals.

Are you sure the corrosion was not due to effects where the corrosion occurred under the scale? This is fairly common...

On the other hand, bacteria have been know to do some weird things also.

[absrbrtek]

All I can say is refer to my previous post!!!!

Well Hello everyone.
Latest update on my plate heatexchanger cleaning using Rydlyme is as follows:
Rydlyme will only attack alluminium and rust. My heat exchanger being of a stainless steel construction was imune to all of these things,,,,, except one.
This exchanger is a condenser for the system and as such needed constant make up of water in the cooling tower circuit. Due to the poor quality of water found on this application (Being a Zinc mine and deep underground) there were high quantities of water bacteria found in the tower and consinquently had to be treated with high doses of chemicals.

To cut a long story short,,,, After applying Rydlyme and allowing it to circulate overnight.... I came back in the morning and found all my refrigerant GONE,!!... The whole 800kg's plus I had a 50% level in the receiver of Rydlyme solution... Following that,, the other thing that was GONE,!!!,,, was my MIND,!!!!,, as I quickly realised that even though I was trying to save my client cleaning costs from $40K to $4K, I have just created a $100K cost... F#@K.!!!

After removing all the plates and getting them inspected. The cause of the problem was found to be the errosion or corrosion of the stainless steel plates by the anti bacteria chemicals added to the cooling tower water circuit... and thats one thing that Rydlyme likes to attack.... Corossion...

NOTE: To all who are using Rydlyme on condenser plate heat exchangers... Do not use it if excessive water chemical treatment has been used.
If you still deside to use it,,, make sure your covered with the right insurance.
Unless you have exray vision and you can see the condition of the plates inside,,,,, Son,,,,,,,
Your on your own,,,,,,,

Take care all. I'm going now to try and find my mind again...

Heeeeere mind,mind,mind,,,,, who's your dady,,, tza tza ,,, come here baby,,,,,,

[petrock]

Sorry mate,,
I disagree..This mishap would have happened even if I did do it your way. Just as bad.
I would have removed them, cleaned them, put them back in. pressure tested them only to find I have a leak. Removed them again.. and so on.
I'm no expert on these things but, I think what was happening was due to excesive chemical dosing to rid the water of bacteria, coupled with pre-long stopages of this plant which occured at times due to various underground problems (and I'm talking about 1 to 2 Months). The water/chemical solution sitting in the plates were having an electrolithic effect which was causing the closest points of the plates to fuse together. The plates were becoming one with each other. Once that seal was broken....... End of Story.
So hence my logic..... Even if we did separate the plates and cleaned them "The convential method".. We would still be in the same boat...

With regards to not removing all the scaling. You are right (though it wasnt scaling it was tannins, mud, calsium,,)..
There are areas at the bottom and top of the plates which seem to be dead areas. Rydlyme didnt touch them. The areas that it did touch was about 85% of it. The mater (Crap) had turned into what I would call whipped cream and I am sure that,,,, If the cleaning process was completed satisfactorly and that once I started the main water flow at 70 L/s.. All that muck would have been flushed out. Sure,, it wouldnt be totaly clean but hey.... Good enough.

Anyway... I have found my mind again and now..... I'm going to loose it again because,,, I have a nice bottle of red,,,, I have my guitar,,,, nd I'm going to jam to my favourite artist.... Tim Buckley..

Hey Hey,!!! Get on Top of me Womannnn,!!

Ciao for now.

Cleaning the htex out chemicaly will not remove all the scaling. Only way to clean it properly is pull it apart and brush it down. JMHO

[casstrig]

I have been operating plate and frame condensers for ten years and have been succesfully chemicly cleaning them with three steps 1.copper sulphate{removes any algi and bacteria)2.citric acid 5% (to remove calcium and iron deposits)3.detergent PH 11. (to neutralise and remove colloidal matter) between each stage to be flushed to remove chemicals.
But before you proceed further I would sugest you properly analize your water and the type of corrosion.Stainless steel is not suitable for water with high concentrations of bacteria and is proneto piting in this case you really need titanum plates,and I susspect you will experience this problem with your other condensers.Also I dont know of the chemical you metioned but a contact time of 24hs I susspect is too much with citric acid a contact time of one hour is suffient.

[RANGER1]

I have used rydlyme on sabroe recip heads(mk1) and they were 99% blocked with calsium build up.It cleaned them out in about 10 minutes.I guess every thing is easy in hindsight, but with PHE and similar application you could isolate that equipment from system while you are doing it in case of leak contaminating whole system.
Its like a shell and tube condensor,i would drain out water before removing refrigerant in case of any leak you dont know about.

[mctavara]

Hey Guys,

just a few guide whenever you work with PHE;
1. for environmental concerns, observed casstrig phrases
2. Know the chemicals you're going to introduced to your unit, take Material Safety Data Sheets(MSDS) from the supplier
3. Check gasket materials compatibility from the main supplier of the unit
4. know the plate mateials
5. water analysis first before dosing chemicals to the system for corrosions probable result/cause
6. Ask the component supplier(PHE) for treating these ****s before go in contact with other suppliers(chemicals) for appropriate solution

mctavara