What are good ways to deal with biological sludge in heat exchangers?
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Dear experts: As is well known, various chemicals are added to circulating water in order to control its parameters. At present, scaling in heat exchangers has been eliminated, so that problem has been solved. However, the issue of biological sludge and biofilms in heat exchangers remains unresolved. No matter what chemicals or disinfectants are used, how much impact does this layer of sludge on the heat exchanger have on its performance? Is there any way to completely eliminate it?
The presence of such a layer of sludge on this heat exchanger will certainly affect its heat transfer efficiency. To address this: 1. Install strainers and electric filters in the circulating water inlet pipeline to remove sediment and impurities; the electric filters can be automatically backwashed based on pressure differences； 2. In the case of a single-pass heat exchanger (such as a condenser), installing a rubber ball cleaning device is very effective at scrubbing away sediment ； 4. Sludge is, after all, a colloid; where conditions permit, a coagulation system should be installed in the raw water fed into the circulating water to remove these colloids from the raw water ； 3. It is possible to install an ultrasonic cleaning device under certain conditions, but the cost is relatively high.
It seems that in the atmospheric and vacuum heat exchangers of refineries these days, there is always a layer of sludge due to bacteria, and it seems impossible to get rid of it completely
The main cause of fouling in heat exchangers is insufficient flow velocity; when the flow velocity exceeds 1.5 m/s, it helps to prevent the formation of particulate fouling, and when it exceeds 2 m/s, it helps to prevent the formation of biological fouling. Of course, increasing the flow velocity requires additional investment in power equipment, and in some cases it is necessary to switch from a single-pass design to a multi-pass design.
By using Shanghai Yuzhen water treatment technology, it is possible to prevent scaling on heat exchangers as well as the formation of biological sludge. We are using this technology currently, and the results are satisfactory
You can try adding mud-removing agents or cleaners to the circulating water~~We’ve used them, and the results were pretty good~~
Are there heat exchangers that don’t need to be cleaned?
This post was last edited by Catalyzing a Grain on 2016-1-20 at 16:20. Adding a sludge removal agent and carrying out cleaning to remove pollutants; paying attention to the use of fungicides and side filtration in later stages should help improve the situation.
In actual operating conditions, the water quality is too poor; once the flow channels become blocked, the flow rate decreases which leads to scaling – it’s truly a vicious cycle
Add a sludge-removing agent for removal; biofilm algae need to be completely penetrated in order to be effectively killed, after which an appropriate bactericide should be used. It’s very important to maintain good quality control of the raw water.:)