Boiler waterside deposition

Power (15-Sep-04)
Boiler waterside deposition has long been recognized as a cause of
boiler tube failures. A widely used way to identify the amount and
chemical composition of deposition in a suspected area of the
furnace is to extract a tube section and measure its deposit weight
density (DWD). This test method is less than ideal, for two reasons.
It is destructive, requiring the removal and replacement of a tube
that may be in a critical area of the furnace. And operators rightfully
question the validity of considering a single tube specimen indicative
of the entire furnace's deposition buildup. How much information,
they ask, can you get from a single tube when deposition might be
occurring on its neighbors at a very different rate?
To answer this question, Nalco Co. (Naperville, Ill.) last year
conducted an extensive set of DWD analyses on the lower furnace of
an industrial heat-recovery boiler. Rather than pick one or a few
tubes for laboratory analysis, an attempt was made to determine
tube DWD values across an extended area of the furnace and at
multiple elevations on the same tubes. The goal of the study was to
gain more insight into the deposition process.
No deposit, no return
Mild steel is the material most commonly used for steam generating
tubes in industrial boilers. Its heat transfer and thermal stability
benefits have been recognized for many years. But failures of mildsteel tubes can result if waterside deposits accumulate and cause
metal temperatures to exceed 850Fa process called long-term
overheat failure. See Figure 2 for a detailed illustration and
explanation of the effects under heat transfer conditions.

2. Effect of waterside deposition and scaling on boiler tube heat

transfer. Under clean heat transfer conditions on the internal tube

surface (left), the tube metal temperatures are about 50F to 75F
above the saturation temperature. (The threshold for an overheating
failure is about 850F.) The middle drawing shows what might happen
when a waterside deposit or "scale layer" is present. If the same
amount of heat is applied to a scaled tube to maintain a constant
tube metal temperature (T1), the boiler water temperature (T0) will
be lower as result of the heat transfer resistance caused by the
deposita phenomenon not seen in utility boilers. In reality (right),
at the same steam header pressure, the boiler water temperature
must be held at a constant to the clean tube condition, the T1 value
shown. The resistance to heat transfer caused by the deposit
requires that the boiler be fired harder, and as a result the metal
temperature is higher than under clean-tube conditions. If the final
tube temperature (T4) under the scaled condition exceeds 850F, the
potential for an overheating failure exists. Source: Nalco Co.

There are two points worth mentioning here. One is that the primary
danger of a waterside deposit is an overheat failure, not the loss of
heat transfer efficiency and the associated fuel value lost. Many large
industrial boilers have sufficient heat transfer surface area so that
the heat not collected in the radiant zone does get into the water
phase at some other part of the boiler. Accordingly, it is the
possibility of tube failure that we are concerned with here, not fuel
efficiency.
Although it is also known that deposition may induce a number of
corrosion failure mechanisms, the primary issue is overheating
failures. Even a moderate temperature rise due to internal surface
deposition can promote fireside corrosion and tube wall thinning in
heat-recovery boilers. Guidelines have been developed to help
determine the need for chemical cleaning based on the amount of
deposition measured on the hot side internal surface of tubes, and
those guidelines depend on operating pressure and the type of boiler.
The second point is that all deposits do not retard heat transfer
equally. One typical type of waterside deposit is formed mostly of
metal oxides, which are returned to the boiler in the condensate
flow. If a makeup water quality excursion results in a silica-bearing
deposit, the resulting elevation in tube metal temperature can be
much higher for the same deposit mass or thickness. Even as we
quantify the amount of deposit present as a DWD value, it is also
necessary to consider the deposit composition to be sure that a
substantially different resistance to heat transfer is not occurring.
Knowing the composition of the deposit also is essential to the
development of an appropriate cleaning procedure to successfully
remove the scaleif required.
Test setup
Testing was conducted on the No. 2 heat-recovery boiler at the
Smurfit-Stone Mill in Panama City, Fla. The 30-year-old unit is a
Combustion Engineering V2R design that typically operates at 450
psi and generates 375,000 lb/hr of steam. According to the mill, the

boiler has not received a waterside chemical cleaning in more than

20 years. The boiler water treatment program currently in use is
coordinated pH/phosphate control, with control maintained within
the target range about 98.5% of the time. The quality of feedwater is
considered excellent, with typical metal oxide concentrations of less
than 5 ppb as both iron and copper.
The repair project entailed removing two tube wall panels, one from
the right sidewall and the other from the rear wall. The panel from
the right sidewall included five adjacent tubes numbered Tube 86 to
Tube 90. The panel from the rear wall included 15 adjacent tubes
numbered 76 to 90. The furnace waterwalls consist of 2.5-inch
outside diameter tubes fusion-welded together with a 3-in. spacing.
Tube sections were removed from two elevations on each panel and
identified as top and bottom. The elevations were separated by about
12 ft on the right sidewall panel and by about 8 ft on the rear wall
panel. DWD values were measured on each sample using the glass
bead blasting method of deposit removal, a procedure detailed in
NACE Standard TM0199-99.
Tubular results
Figure 3 shows the DWD values measured on the hot side tube
surfaces of samples removed from the rear wall panel. The values are
generally between 2 and 10 g/ft2. A slight trend to higher DWD
values is apparent from Tube 80 to Tube 76 at both elevations. The
DWD values from the right wall panel are shown in Figure 4. These
DWD values generally range from 6 to 12 g/ft2. The differences
between measurements at different elevations on the same tube are
generally less than 4 g/ft2.

3. Heavy metal. A deposit weight density reading from the boiler's

rear wall panel shows a reasonably consistent deposition rate.

Source: Nalco Co.

4. Deposition rates on the right wall panel were also consistent. That
tends to confirm that a single tube specimen is indeed indicative of
deposition across the entire furnace. Source: Nalco Co.

The deposit layers on the internal surfaces were generally thin, hard,
and dark-colored. A thin, tenacious oxide layer was present
everywhere beneath the deposit layers. Some samples were covered
by friable, spotty red deposits in a few places. Material on the
internal surfaces of some tube samples was analyzed using a
scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive
spectrometer for compositional analysis and by X-ray diffraction for
compound identification. The results indicated that the deposits
primarily consisted of iron as iron oxides. Some locations, especially
on the cold sides of the tubes, had areas with appreciable
contributions of copper in the deposits, as elemental copper and
copper oxide.
In addition to chemical analysis on the internal surfaces of some
samples, metallographic specimens were removed from these
sections and prepared for microscopic examinations. The
microstructures of the tube metal on all specimens did not show
evidence of overheating.
The internal surfaces of some samples were covered in places by
moderately thick layers of deposits that consisted of agglomerated
elemental copper and iron oxide particles (Figure 5). Other samples
had deposit layers containing mottled oxide particles, but no copper
particles (Figure 6). The surfaces of all samples were covered by a

very thin, dense magnetite layer in most places. The thickness of the
oxide layer was typically less than 0.0005 inches.

5. Spread thickly. A moderately thick layer of spotty deposits

containing elemental copper particles on the hot side internal surface
of the bottom elevation of Tube 81 can be seen at a magnification of
200X. Courtesy: Nalco Co.

6. Spread thinly. A thin deposit layer containing iron oxide particles

on the bottom elevation of Tube 76 can be seen at a magnification of
200X. Courtesy: Nalco Co.
Summing up
The primary conclusion of the Nalco study is that waterside
deposition in the lower furnace of this particular boiler was quite
consistent, both across two tube panel sections and at multiple
elevations along each tube length. Examination of 57 tube sections
produced the same results: Even after an extended period of no
chemical cleaning, each tube specimen indicated no need for a boiler
waterside cleaning. The conclusion is that even a single tube sample
and DWD analysis will yield sufficient information on boiler

cleanliness, as related to a general area surrounding the sample.

However, deposition rates can vary significantly between distant
locations in a boiler, and judicious selection of sampling locations
such as high heat input areasthat are most susceptible to
deposition is still needed. Within these areas, the results should not
be expected to vary considerably.
There were some variations in waterside deposit accumulations,
even in this unit. These were likely due to variances in flow velocities
and fireside conditions, each of which can play a major role in
waterside deposit build-up rates. Differences in measurements may
also arise due to surface irregularities on the samples.
The authors would like to express their appreciation to the
management team and operating crews at the Panama City mill for
taking the time and making the effort to make this project a success.
Contributed by George Totura and Paul Desch, Nalco Co