For as long as heat exchangers have existed, industrious engineers have been seeking ways to overcome fouling’s negative impact on efficiency.
The standard response to fouling is to flush the exchanger with aggressive chemistries or scour the unit with pressurized water or steam. While these approaches often restore performance to some degree, they also cause serious difficulties. For instance, cleaning a heat exchanger is disruptive, and the results are frustratingly temporary even after heavy cleaning.
An alternative technology worth considering is Exchanger Industry Limited’s proven antifouling coatings.
Fluoropolymer coating applied to the tube-side of a heat exchanger decreases the unit’s susceptibility to fouling – in essence, preventing material deposition before it happens. This solution eliminates the need for aggressive cleanings; however, there are a few things to consider before committing to the upgrade.
The direct costs to resolve heat exchanger fouling are evident, as they’re either related to cleaning or prevention. It’s the indirect costs—the inefficiencies, quality impacts and safety implications—that, while every bit as real, are more challenging to nail down.
These indirect costs include, but are not limited to, the following:
Determining the total cost of exchanger fouling for your heat transfer process isn’t straightforward. However, partnering with an industry specialist makes calculating both direct and indirect costs easier.
Working hand-in-hand with your engineering, operations or maintenance team, Exchanger Industries Limited will help quantify the return on investment (ROI) for your solution.
A wide variety of industries, including oil production, food processing and desalination, regularly deal with heavy fouling. The typical response is to clean-in-place (CIP) with diminishing returns or forego CIP altogether in favor of regular mechanical cleaning.
Hydroblasting or wire brushing physically removes scale, algae, solids and salts from heat exchanger tubes and generally returns the unit to a near-clean condition. The downside, of course, is that the unit must be opened up to access the tubes, meaning heavy equipment and extended downtime. On top of this, there’s the inherent risk of equipment damage, inevitable tube wall loss and accelerated wear and tear on the unit that all act to shorten the expected life of your assets.
Chemical cleanings dissolve and flush foulant from heat exchanger tubes. The solvents span the extremes of the pH spectrum, with both highly caustic (ex. sodium hydroxide) and highly acidic (ex. hydrochloric or hydrofluoric acids) solutions seeing common use. This type of cleaning involves aggressive chemicals with their associated safety risks and hefty disposal costs, not to mention downtime.
As long as fouling is addressed with cleaning (which only eases the severity of the problem), the issue will never be truly “solved.” Instead, consider a strategy that prevents the situation in the first place.
Exchanger Industries’ leading-edge antifouling coating is effective, long-lasting and – thanks to its unique fluoropolymer chemistry – imparts antifouling properties to the heat exchanger itself by repelling substances at the molecular level.
This proprietary technology has proven itself over multi-year testing in heavy-fouling oil sands applications, allowing heat exchangers to function at their initial efficiency from day one onward.
Additional advantages include:
| Increased Uptime | Environmental Benefits | Improved Safety | Operational efficiency | Capital savings |
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| Production isn’t halted for cleanings. | Disposal of cleaning waste is reduced or eliminated. | Less handling of harsh cleaning chemicals. | Consistent exchanger performance. | Downsizing to smaller units while maintaining efficiency and elimination of redundant swing units. |
Exchanger Industries’ antifouling coating is an initial design consideration alongside unit sizing, process flow characteristics and calculated fouling factors. The onetime, upfront cost of coating is easily justified with its rapid payback period.
After investing so much in the design and fabrication of your heat exchanger, why should you still have to deal with heavy fouling? From day one onward, why should you expect production losses and additional fuel consumption when these costs could be avoided?
While a coated heat exchanger will always cost more than a conventional unit, the avoided cleaning costs and consistent unit efficiency create a strong business case to invest in Exchanger Industries’ fluoropolymer coating.
Exchanger Industries Limited has been innovating heat transfer solutions for more than 60 years. Contact us to learn how our antifouling coating returns a rapid ROI and addresses heavy fouling head-on.
140 Quarry Park Blvd SE, Suite 120, Calgary, AB, T2C 3G3
T: (403) 236 - 0166 F: (403) 279 - 8242We'd be happy to get back to you and discuss how we can provide a superior heat transfer system solution.
