MECHANISMS OF STEAM SOOT BLOWER EROSION

There are many mechanisms that can cause steam soot blower erosion of boiler tubes at various heat transfer sections. Knowing the way these mechanisms contribute to erosion will help to prevent loss of availability of boiler.

Soot blowers are provided in boilers at various locations like water-walls, superheaters, reheaters, economizers and air pre-heaters. Steam soot blowers have specific advantage and disadvantages over other types. The advantages being mainly their low capital cost, operating cost and the effectiveness of cleaning in areas like furnace, superheaters and reheaters.

The major disadvantages are they need a higher level of maintenance; effectiveness is low in oil firing mainly in air pre-heater area. They need warm up and condensate draining before startup. The mechanisms of steam soot blower erosion of heat transfer tubes can be a single factor or multiple factors acting individually or in unison. There are much more than hundred soot boilers in boilers generating and supplying steam for a 500 MW and above plants.

Possible mechanisms

• All blowers are set to be set at the right steam pressure recommended by the designer if this is not done then it leads to poor cleaning or higher rate of tube erosion due to high steam pressure. This is true for all soot blowers in the boiler starting from furnace to air pre-heater.
• The alignment of the blower with respect to the furnace walls, superheater tubes, reheater tubes, economizer tubes and air pre-heater tubes or elements is very critical and not maintaining this leads to erosion of the tubes and subsequent metal wastage. The thinning of the tubes finally leads to pinhole failures and many secondary figures due to this depending upon the orientation of the leak.
• It is required to ensure at least 50 degree centigrade of super heat in the steam being used for blowing. If the super heat in the steam is lower than required then during blowing wet steam impinge the tubes at high velocity and the impact force damaging the heat transfer tubes. This can be identified by the typical spit like metal wastage on the tubes surrounding the blower’s area of effectiveness.
• The duration of operation of blowers is another main reason for erosion of the heat transfer tubes. Even if you maintain the correct pressure and temperature the erosion will take place at a slow phase if duration is more than required.
• In coal fired boiler if alignment is not correct then the ash deposits being cleaned can get entrained and cause erosion of tubes. However in oil fired boilers it is not a mechanism that can happen due to the fact that the ash in oil is not significant at all.
• The higher frequency of operation of the soot blowers than needed also leads to tube erosion.
• Optimizing the soot blower operation is important as operating those blowers where deposits are not there or very low will lead to metal wastage over a period of time.
• Failure to drain the condensate in the soot blower steam pipes is also contributing mechanism of tube erosion. The condensate gets entrained in the steam while the blower operates and has a much higher damaging effect than the lower degree of superheat in steam.

It has been seen in many boilers, mainly coal fired boilers, the soot blower erosion is one of the main contributing factors for loss of boiler availability. In the case of chemical recovery boilers also the soot blowers attribute to the loss of availability of boiler in a significant way

Soot blowers keep the heat transfer surfaces in a boiler clean. A brief description of the working of soot blowers is given in this article.

Chimney Sweeps have been legendary characters in English literature from Hans Christian Anderson to Charles Dickens. In the earlier days when houses had fireplaces, the Chimney Sweep did the function of cleaning the soot from the chimney. In the modern day boiler, the soot blower does the same function.

In oil fired boilers, over a period of time the heat transfer tubes get covered by a layer of soot or fine carbon deposit. This reduces the heat transfer from the hot gases to the water and reduces the efficiency of the boiler.

In coal fired boilers, the furnace area gets covered by slag which is molten ash. The ash also sticks to the heat transfer surface in the other heat transfer areas. These ash accumulations reduce heat transfer and increase the tube metal temperatures leading to failure of the tubes.

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Tube cleaning is done periodically to remove the ash or soot deposits. Steam is the medium used for cleaning. The steam is taken from the boiler itself.

The soot blower consists of a lance tube with a nozzle at the end. When it is operated, the lance is extended into the boiler and steam is admitted through the lance. The steam comes out as a high velocity jet through the nozzles, which cleans the ash deposited on the surface. When the lance moves into the boiler it is also rotating so that it cleans the sweeping area covered by the circular travel of the nozzle. The lance is then retracted back.

There are two types of soot blowers.

• One with a very long lance called the “long retractable soot blowers.” This is normally used to clean the ash deposit from between the coils of superheaters and economisers.

• The other type is the shorter lance type called the “wall blowers.” These are used to clean the furnace walls. The lance extends a short distance around 200 mm from the furnace wall. The nozzle direction is such that the steam impinges on the walls cleaning the surface. During operation, the lance rotates cleaning the radial area covered by the steam from the nozzle.

The deposits on the walls are due to the chemical constituents of ash, and the amount of combustion air. If the ash contains more of Ferrous Sulphide, then the melting temperature of the ash is low which makes the ash melt and stick to the walls.

A large coal fired Thermal power plant will have around two hundred soot blowers of both types arranged to cover all the area of the boiler. This will be programmed to automatically operate to a required sequence.

Intelligent soot blower systems calculate the trends in the temperature increase in different sections of a boiler. The program then decides which soot blowers have to be operated and at what frequency.

High-pressure water lances are also used in some units where the slagging is very heavy.

see also previous article "What is the black liquor?"

May be useful.

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