Pre -Cleaning out Oil Coolers With Chemical?

[Gavintheriddler]

Hi All,

At our large Ammonia Plant here on Site we have some Water Tube-shelled Oil Coolers on our Compressors that get absolutely jammed up full of calcium deposits to the stage where our Oil Temps go from a comfortable low 40s to up to the mid to there limit of 65 degrees C in a few days without much warning as we have limited capacity and time to keep cleaning them out which takes anything up to 4-5 hours per cooler on a 40 degree summer day isn't ideal either.

I was wondering if chemical treatment i.e. hydrochloric or an Acidic rinse would help to speed up the process if left soak first for an hour as some of the ports are so jammed up that rodding them is nearly impossible and tapping one in with a hammer is bad practice in case the pipe becomes fractured then your in all sorts of trouble.

[HVACRsaurus]

Hi Gavin,

We regularly use chemical cleaning - I think it's sulfamic acid that our guy uses.

Not much good on tubes that are blocked though, the acid needs passage through the tube before it can do its business - so probably rod the tubes first then follow up with chemical cleaning.

Sometimes there is underlying causes of this kind of problem, elevated levels of dissolved solids coming from the cooling tower / evaporative condenser or chemical dosing units not working properly?

After you get the coolers clean, regular chemical cleaning or dosing with dispersant might be useful preventative measures.

Happy tube cleaning.

[Gavintheriddler]

Thanks for that its something we would like to keep on top of here even though it is quite hard when production is running 18 hours a day the water in this area is quite hard as it is, so as far as I know we are soon upgrading our dosing pump set up so hopefully that helps a bit:

Cheers for the Help

[passandscore]

I have had success using a 1/4" x 12" drill bit to clean the tubes. This is on Mycom W series Compressors.

[Magoo]

start at the beginning and get an effective water treatment system in place, to control and reduce the calcium build up.

[hookster]

Thanks for that its something we would like to keep on top of here even though it is quite hard when production is running 18 hours a day the water in this area is quite hard as it is, so as far as I know we are soon upgrading our dosing pump set up so hopefully that helps a bit:

Cheers for the Help

Upgrading your dosing pump set will only improve chemical treatment for bacterial growth. As it has been pointed out you need to increase your water softening pre fill treatment and maximise tower bleed rates in a hard water area. regular monitoring of TDS levels should be performed preferably daily check.