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Twisted Tube Heat Exchanger Returned to Bare Metal

Brown fin twisted tube heat exchanger cleaned with innovative technology

Summary

A Middle Eastern refinery had installed Koch brown fin twisted tube heat exchangers. 18 months after installation performance had deteriorated such that both shell and tube side required cleaning. The Koch Brown Fin tube exchanger is designed with “cleaning lanes” to allow high pressure water jets to travel in one side of the exchanger and out the other, whilst penetrating and cleaning away any fouling.

Challenge

Shell Side fouling as well as tube side deposits are not always removable using either traditional High Pressure Water Guns nor chemicals, especially if the cleaning lane / passage way is blocked.
Koch Brown Fin Tube Exchanger cleaning lanes are so small it does not allow any traditional high pressure water jetting equipment to physically travel down the cleaning lanes of the twisted tubes i.e. in one side and out the other, due to the narrow restriction which can be as little as 6mm
Cleaning had to be completed quickly as plant downtime costs were $50,000 per day.
Traditional water jetting contractors had attempted to clean the Koch Brown Fin heat exchangers using traditional hydro blasting and water jet gun popping techniques at 1000 bar (12500 psi)
Their attempts took 8 days, using 3 men and barely achieved a 20% cleanliness according to the client

Solution

Liaising closely with both the client and by visiting the manufacturers of the Koch brown fin twisted tube heat exchangers in Italy, Tube Tech designed a new and unique, patent pending cleaning technique.
Shell side cleaning was subsequently performed using a remote technology that travelled the full length of all the cleaning lanes and channels, penetrated the scale and also removed all blockages from deep within the tube bundles.
Cleaning of the internally twisted tube bore was performed using a technology that expanded during cleaning, to the given diameter and tube twist configuration.

Tube Tech comment

Mike Watson, Technical Director: “Koch brown fin twisted tube heat exchangers are becoming popular within the refining and petrochemical industry but are notoriously difficult to clean. We are pleased to announce that we now have a unique method to clean both the shell AND tube side of the exchangers.”

Clients can be contacted via Tube Tech for references.

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