Preventing Heat Exchanger Fouling with ATCS


Fouling is caused due to the minerals present in cooling water such as calcium and magnesium that can form a precipitate and get deposited on the heat transfer surfaces. The cooling water systems can also be affected by the biological growth of slime or algae especially on the heat transfer areas. All of these foulants happen to cause a reduction in the heat transfer efficiency, even when the  heat exchangers happens to be the best designed ones and can result in its failure over the shortest possible time.
To deal with fouling, ATCS can be used. It consists of a sponge-ball type automatic tube cleaning system that works because of the movement of the elastomeric balls right through the heat exchanger tubes. The balls are bigger than the tube diameter, and often prevent the accumulation of biofilm, scale, silt, or other foulants. During the process, the sponge balls are injected into the cooling water inlet lines which then move around the circular tubes.
The balls are made out of a material which is softer than the tubes themselves and can prevent tube erosion. The balls are then collected at the condenser outlet in a ball trap, which comprises of a strainer or screen with the help of which the water flow continues but does not lets the balls to get lost in the downstream. Earlier, mechanically actuated clamshell-like screens were used in these systems and were prone to mechanical failure which resulted in ball loss and resulted in the decrease of the condenser efficiency. The newer versions are designed in a manner that would prevent the ball from getting lost while flowing downstream that improves the efficiency automatically.
Once all the balls are accumulated in the ball trap, the balls go back to the ball collector with the help of the recirculation pump which applied the desired pressure to the walls. In the early designs, the balls could only pass through the recirculation pump, where they had the higher chances of getting damaged by the pump impeller but with the recent ATCS designs, the balls are kept away from the impeller which can improve the life expectancy of the tubes. With this, the power plant and several other commercial industries can make use of the ATCS to prevent fouling and safeguard the tubes from damage.

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