Silicon Dioxide Boiler Fouling

We supply sonic horns for a wide range of applications but one of the most common is to deal with boiler fouling. The actual process of dealing with boiler fouling is generally known as boiler deslagging. You can read more here on the subject.

One challenging type of boiler fouling is that of silicon dioxide fouling of boiler tubes in waste heat boilers.

The problemLarge amounts of silicon dioxide (SiO2) can readily build up on the surface of bare tubes within a waste heat boiler section. This in turn reduces plant efficiency and can cause downtime resulting in significant cost.

The solution
According to reports from clients who have used compressed air soot blowers and steam soot blowers, these do not work well in this application because the SiO2 is difficult to remove whilst the boiler is in operation and the tubes are hot. Admittedly, an air lance used during boiler shutdown can remove buildup but, overall, soot blowers do not offer a 100% satisfactory solution.
So can sonic horns provide a better solution? We believe so - we have installed our units on both waste heat boilers and heat exchangers. Silicon Dioxide to us is a very suitable material to benefit from the use of sonic sound waves to prevent particulate precipitation. In the past we have also worked with silica plants in respect of ID Fans and Silos. For the higher temperatures we would use a special stainless steel alloy, perhaps Inconel, depending on the pH of the gas stream.