Subsection 1.

6
Firesides and Watersides

Keeping firesides and watersides clean INDEX OF MEASURES

does more to keep boilers efficient than any 1.6.1 Clean firesides at appropriate intervals.
other routine maintenance activity. Deposits
that accumulate on these surfaces impede heat 1.6.2 Install soot blowers in boilers that burn
sooting fuels.
transfer, forcing more of the heat of the
combustion gases to be lost to the flue. The 1.6.3 Optimize soot blower operation.
Measures in this Subsection maintain the 1.6.4 Clean watersides at appropriate intervals.
cleanliness of heat transfer surfaces and reduce
1.6.5 Avoid leaving waterside deposits when
the cost of doing so. deactivating boilers.

RELATED MEASURES
• Measure 1.8.1, water treatment to minimize
waterside deposits and erosion
• Measure 1.9.3, fuel oil additives that reduce
fireside fouling

© D. R. Wulfinghoff 1999. All Rights Reserved.

110 1. BOILER PLANT
RATINGS
New Facilities Retrofit O&M
MEASURE 1.6.1 Clean firesides at appropriate
intervals. A
Deposits on fireside surfaces insulate the tubes from SUMMARY
the combustion gases, forcing more heat energy to
Important routine maintenance that tends to
escape into the stack. Even modest fireside fouling can
waste a significant fraction of fuel energy. be neglected because it involves dirty work.
Preserves boiler life as well as efficiency.
Types of Fireside Deposits SELECTION SCORECARD
The most common fireside deposit is soot. Soot Savings Potential ...................
consists of unburned carbon and various dirty carbon
compounds that are products of partial fuel combustion. Rate of Return .......................
Many of these intermediate products adhere to boiler Reliability ...............................
tubes. Soot has a high insulating value because it forms
as a porous layer, with a large amount of dead space. Ease of Initiation ....................
Soot can be formed by any type of fuel that contains
carbon. This includes all conventional fuels and most
unconventional fuels. Soot forms immediately and Flue gas temperature is easy to track with on-off
rapidly when combustion is not complete. and two-stage burners because they always have the
Once deposits are lodged on the tube surface, the same heat output. Flue gas temperature is more difficult
cooling provided by the tubes keeps the deposits from to track if the boiler has a modulating burner, because
burning off, even if they are combustible. The heat of the flue temperature varies with load. To account for
the furnace may bake some of the deposits on the tubes. this, prepare a table of flue gas temperature versus load
Some noncombustible impurities contained in the fuel, when the boiler is clean. To determine the load, use a
such as the mineral particulates called “fly ash,” may fuel flowmeter, a steam meter, or a BTU meter. Another
melt and stick to the boiler tubes. method is to install a position indicator on the fuel
control linkage and calibrate it for load.
How Often to Clean Firesides
Cleaning Techniques
Gas fuels can burn so cleanly in many boilers that
little soot accumulates, provided that the air-fuel ratio Firesides are cleaned with mechanical methods.
is kept within proper limits. At the other extreme, heavy With firetube boilers, a cylindrical brush is pushed
oils and coal produce soot in virtually any boiler, through each tube at the end of a rotating cable.
requiring periodic cleaning of firesides, perhaps several Removing heavier deposits may require a cutter head.
times per year. Boilers burning light oil accumulate Some machines have a vacuum cleaner attachment that
fireside deposits more slowly, typically requiring disposes of the soot as it comes out of the tubes. Figure 1
cleaning about once a year. shows how this type of equipment is used. Most firetube
boilers allow relatively easy access to the entire fireside
surface.
How to Monitor Fireside Fouling
Cleaning watertube boilers is more tedious. Hand
Visual inspection is the only reliable method of
wire brushes and scraping tools typically are used.
gauging fireside fouling. Most types of watertube and
Access to tubes behind the first row can be a frustrating
firetube boilers allow easy inspection of most of the
challenge. Particularly difficult cases may require air
fireside surface. Take the opportunity of inspecting the
lances, sandblasting, or other messy procedures. Don’t
firesides whenever the boiler is shut down after an
wear your Sunday clothes for this job.
extended period of operation. Inspecting firesides does
not require a great deal of analytical skill. Anything Of course, you can hire contractors to clean your
that is deposited on the tube surfaces should be removed. boilers, but you still need to monitor them. Make sure
that the contractor is thorough and does not harm the
You can use gas temperature to monitor soot
boiler.
accumulation between boiler shutdowns. A rise in
temperature indicates fouling, although it does not With fuels that deposit soot at a high rate, consider
distinguish between fireside and waterside fouling. Take installing soot blowers. See Measures 1.6.2 and 1.6.3,
the combustion air temperature into account when you below, about soot blowers.
take flue temperature readings.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY MANUAL

 1.6 FIRESIDES AND WATERSIDES 111

Clean Firesides Upon Shutdown

Clean firesides as soon as you shut down a boiler.
During shutdown, moisture may condense on the tube
surfaces. Moisture reacts with the sulfur that exists in
any remaining soot to form sulfuric acid, which corrodes
the tubes. For this reason, cleaning at shutdown needs
to be especially thorough.
Unfortunately, the areas where soot is hardest to
remove are the areas where corrosion can cause the most
trouble. In firetube boilers, take special care to remove
any soot that collects around the outside of the tube
where it projects through the tube sheet. In watertube
boilers, concentrate on the areas where tubes enter the
steam and mud drums. Rear rows of watertubes are
especially difficult to reach.

ECONOMICS
SAVINGS POTENTIAL: 0.5 to 10 percent of fuel cost,
depending mainly on the type of fuel and how well the
air-fuel ratio is kept adjusted.
Goodway Tools Corporation COST: The cost of typical rotating brush cleaning
Fig. 1 Cleaning the firesides of a firetube boiler This job equipment for firetube boilers ranges from $1,500 to
is dirty, but not too difficult. The vacuum cleaner attachment, $4,000, depending on size and features. If you hire a
at right, is the largest part of the equipment. cleaning service, the cost is proportional to the size of
the boiler and to the difficulty of reaching all the fireside
How to Minimize Fireside Deposits surfaces. A medium-sized firetube boiler with moderate
Preventing deposits is better than removing them. sooting can be cleaned in one day.
The way to minimize fireside deposits is to keep the
PAYBACK PERIOD: Several months to several years.
air-fuel ratio adjusted properly, as recommended by
Measure 1.3.1. Make sure that the boiler’s air-fuel TRAPS & TRICKS
controls keep the ratio in the proper range at all times.
Even a brief period of operation with insufficient air DILIGENCE: Cleaning firesides is dirty, tedious, and
can deposit a significant amount of fouling. uncomfortable, which motivates people to quit the job
The condition of burners has a major effect on before it is finished. Inspect the work to make sure that
fireside deposits, especially with heavier liquid fuels and all fireside surfaces are cleaned. Deposits that are not
with solid fuels. A partially clogged burner may cause removed will cause maintenance problems later. Be
some of the fuel to burn incompletely, creating heavy careful to avoid damaging tubes and brickwork.
residues. For this reason, clean your burners regularly, SELECTING THE EQUIPMENT: If you buy your own
and without fail. Follow the procedures recommended cleaning equipment, select equipment that makes the
by Measure 1.4.1. job as easy and pleasant as possible. The tools should
not be so aggressive that they risk damaging the metal.
Get a vacuum cleaner attachment to collect the dust.

© D. R. Wulfinghoff 1999. All Rights Reserved.

112 1. BOILER PLANT

RATINGS
New Facilities Retrofit O&M
MEASURE1.6.2 Install soot blowers in boilers that
burn sooting fuels. A C
If you wait until shutting down the boiler to clean SUMMARY
firesides, the deposits will reduce the boiler’s efficiency Primarily for boilers that burn heavy oil and
for the entire time it is operating. Soot blowers allow coal. Retrofit is tricky, and is more likely to be
you to remove deposits while the boiler is operating, at
feasible in firetube boilers than in watertube
any interval you choose. With dirty fuels, soot blowers
cannot eliminate the need for mechanical cleaning, but boilers. Restrictions on soot discharge into
they may substantially reduce the drop in efficiency the environment may be an obstacle.
between cleanings. SELECTION SCORECARD
Savings Potential ...................
Whether to Install Soot Blowers
A certain amount of sooting is virtually impossible Rate of Return, New Facilities
to prevent. With gas and light oil, soot may deposit on Rate of Return, Retrofit .........
firesides so slowly that it burns off before it can
accumulate. With all the heavier grades of fuel oil and Reliability ...............................
with all grades of coal, soot accumulates as long as the Ease of Retrofit ......................
boiler is firing. Heavier grades of oil build up soot much
more quickly than do lighter oils. Soot accumulation in
coal-fired boilers depends on several factors, especially enough soot to accumulate to seriously reduce efficiency.
the grade of coal, the burner design, and the tube design. Fortunately, soot can be kept under control while the
With heavy oils and coal, significant soot boiler is in operation by using soot blowers. These are
accumulates within a few hours. A boiler may operate devices that blast soot loose with jets of steam or
without interruption for thousands of hours, allowing compressed air. Soot blowers are available for both
watertube and firetube boilers.

Fuel Efficiency, Inc.

Fig. 1 Soot blower for firetube boiler This model uses compressed air. The four valves at right blow different
groups of tubes in sequence.

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 1.6 FIRESIDES AND WATERSIDES 113
If a boiler does not already have soot blowers, the blast reaches all the area around the blower pipe. In
estimate the potential benefit by noting how much soot a typical boiler, a number of units are needed to provide
accumulates between maintenance intervals. If soot complete coverage of the tubes. Figure 2 shows the
accumulates rapidly enough to reduce efficiency typical external hardware for a steam soot blower.
significantly between manual cleanings, consider soot Soot blowers are customized for each model of
blowers. Soot blowers do not eliminate the need for boiler. They may be made by the boiler manufacturer
periodic manual cleaning, but they may extend the or by specialty companies. Each orifice or nozzle must
cleaning interval dramatically. line up properly with the adjacent tubes. Installing a
Soot blowers are especially important with soot blower assembly may be difficult or impossible in
economizers that have gill rings or other components boilers that were not originally intended to have them.
that trap soot. If an economizer has aluminum gill rings,
soot accumulation can cause a thermite fire, which is Steam or Compressed Air?
intense and virtually impossible to extinguish. High pressure is a key to soot blowing. In firetube
In calculating the economics of adding soot blowers, boilers, a minimum pressure of 125 PSI is
include the savings in fuel cost and labor. Expenses recommended, for both steam and air. Therefore, if the
include the cost of installation and the cost of the steam boiler does not produce this much steam pressure,
or compressed air that is consumed. (Minimizing the compressed air is the only alternative. Slightly less
cost of soot blowing steam or air is covered by Measure pressure may be permissible if the soot is easily removed.
1.6.3, next.) The cost of maintaining the soot blower Measure 1.1.5 recommends reducing the steam
itself should be minimal if the unit is well designed. pressure to reduce system leakage, and for other possible
benefits. In some cases, this may conflict with steam
Soot Blowers for Firetube Boilers soot blowing.
Soot blowers for firetube boilers consist of nozzles With firetube boilers, the equipment that must be
that are located just beyond the end of each tube. The installed in the boiler to blow soot with steam is more
nozzles are fed from manifolds that are located inside
the ends of the boiler, where the combustion gases turn
around to go from one pass to the next. Figure 1 shows
a typical installation.
The nozzles are usually located at the burner end of
the boiler. This is because the combustion gas at the
end of the first pass, at the rear of the boiler, is too hot
for the equipment. Therefore, the steam or compressed
air will be blowing in a direction opposite the second
pass (or fourth pass) of the boiler, and in the same
direction as the gas in the third pass. To keep from
interfering with the combustion gas flow, the nozzles
are controlled in groups, so that only a fraction of the
tubes in each pass are being blown at a time. This
complicates the steam or air manifolds, and requires an
array of valves and a sequencing controller.
The nozzles and manifolds take up a lot of space,
which may interfere with gas flow. Because of the
potential for problems, check on the performance of the
soot blower before purchase. Compare notes with
someone who has installed the same type of soot blowers
in your model of boiler.
Soot blowers for firetube boilers typically are made
by specialty companies.

Soot Blowers for Watertube Boilers

A typical soot blower unit for a watertube boiler
consists of a pipe that extends across the width of the WESINC
boiler, passing either among the tubes or in front of them. Fig. 2 Soot blower for watertube boiler Rotating the tube
Orifices are located in the pipe to blast steam or air manually, using the chain and gear, opens a cam-operated
through the bundle so that all tubes are cleaned. The steam valve under the gear, allowing steam to flow through
soot blower is usually rotated during operation so that the elbow into the blower tube.

© D. R. Wulfinghoff 1999. All Rights Reserved.

114 1. BOILER PLANT

expensive than the equipment needed to blow soot with ECONOMICS

air. However, if a separate air compressor is needed for SAVINGS POTENTIAL: 0.5 to 10 percent of fuel cost,
soot blowing, the total equipment cost is about the same depending on the rate of soot accumulation. Using soot
for steam and air. blowers may substantially reduce the cost of manual
Steam is more expensive than compressed air, unless fireside cleaning, and it may reduce repair costs.
the steam is being produced with a very cheap fuel. The
loss of steam in soot blowing requires additional makeup COST: Compressed air soot blowers for firetube boilers
water, but you might not notice the difference unless cost about $5,000 for 100 tubes, to about $12,000 for
the steam system has low water loss. 300 tubes. The corresponding range for steam soot
blowers is about $8,000 to $18,000. Air compressors
Compressed air starts out at room temperature and for soot blowing cost from $1,000 to $5,000, depending
it cools by expansion as it comes out of the soot blower
on the size of the boiler.
orifices, so there is a large temperature difference
between the air and the boiler steel. In firetube boilers, PAYBACK PERIOD: 1 to 10 years, depending primarily
the air is discharged into the end of the tube, where it on the size of the boiler, the type of fuel, and fuel costs.
fits into the tube sheet. This area is sensitive to thermal
stress. Whether air blowing can cause thermal damage TRAPS & TRICKS
is an issue that is not well documented. SELECTING THE EQUIPMENT: Retrofit installation of
soot blowers is not common, so performance is not well
Soot Discharge Into the Environment documented. The equipment must be designed to fit
Soot is dirty and corrosive, so soot blowing can the particular model of boiler, to avoid interference with
create a serious problem in the vicinity of the boiler gas flow, and to survive without maintenance. Ask
plant. For example, automobiles parked near boiler vendors for references, and talk with purchasers who
plants become covered with pinhole rust spots from soot have used the equipment for several years.
blowing. INSTALLATION: As a rule, let the vendor install the
If soot discharge is a potential obstacle, your choice equipment, because it is specialized. Do-it-yourself
is to give up soot blowing or to install flue gas cleaning installation may void the warranty or weaken later
equipment. damage claims.

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 1.6 FIRESIDES AND WATERSIDES 115
RATINGS
New Facilities Retrofit O&M
MEASURE 1.6.3 Optimize soot blower operation.
A
Soot blowing commonly is controlled on the basis SUMMARY
of time, for example, 30 seconds every four hours. Such
Refining soot blowing practice to minimize
a rote procedure may result in unnecessary usage of
steam or compressed air. On the other hand, inadequate energy consumption while keeping
soot blowing wastes fuel and increases the effort needed tubes clean.
to clean firesides. Soot blowing does not use a large SELECTION SCORECARD
amount of energy, but it uses enough to make it
Savings Potential ...................
worthwhile to optimize the procedure.
The prudent rule is to err on the side of cleanliness, Rate of Return .......................
but not to use more soot blower operation than is Reliability ...............................
necessary to maintain a safe margin of cleaning.
Ease of Initiation ....................
How to Schedule Soot Blowing
Start with the recommendation of the soot blower ECONOMICS
manufacturer and/or the boiler manufacturer in
SAVINGS POTENTIAL: A fraction of one percent of
scheduling soot blowing. Using this as a baseline, refine
fuel consumption, typically.
the schedule over the long term by inspecting the
cleanliness of firesides whenever the boiler is cold. COST: None. The purpose of this Measure is to reduce
You may hear that soot blowing should be done the cost of steam or compressed air.
when a rise in flue temperature becomes apparent. This PAYBACK PERIOD: Immediate.
is wrong. Too much soot can accumulate before you
see an increase in flue temperature. Blow soot on a TRAPS & TRICKS
firm schedule, and adjust the schedule based on EXPLAIN IT: Train operators to use the equipment and
experience that you gain from inspecting the firesides. to recognize trouble. Establish a written schedule for
If different parts of the boiler have different soot soot blowing.
blowing requirements, develop an appropriate soot MONITOR PERFORMANCE: Include a column in the
blowing schedule for each soot blower. For example, plant operating log to record the time of soot blowing,
an economizer may have different soot blowing the stack temperature before blowing, and the stack
requirements than the tubes in the firebox. temperature afterward. It may take months or years of
operation to find the optimum soot blowing schedule,
adjusted for firing rate and hours of operation.

© D. R. Wulfinghoff 1999. All Rights Reserved.

116 1. BOILER PLANT
RATINGS
New Facilities Retrofit O&M
MEASURE 1.6.4 Clean watersides at appropriate
intervals. A
Deposits on the insides of boiler tubes reduce SUMMARY
efficiency in the same way as deposits on the outside, Important long-term maintenance that tends
by reducing heat transfer from the combustion gases to to be neglected because it is difficult, dirty,
the water. and out of sight. Preserves boiler life as well
In extreme cases, waterside deposits may reduce as efficiency.
boiler efficiency by as much as ten percent. A boiler
with deposits this severe is on the verge of failure. In SELECTION SCORECARD
more typical cases of neglected waterside maintenance, Savings Potential ...................
a boiler suffers an efficiency loss of several percent.
Rate of Return .......................
Cleaning watersides is important to protect the
boiler. The combustion temperature inside a boiler is Reliability ...............................
high enough to destroy the steel of boiler materials. Ease of Initiation ....................
Damage does not occur in normal operation because
the boiler water cools the steel enough to keep its
temperature at a safe level. However, the insulating tenacious. Especially in watertube boilers, the agitation
property of waterside deposits inhibits this cooling. If of the water washes off softer deposits, which sink to
the deposits are not prevented from forming, or if they the bottom of the boiler or float to the top.
are not cleaned out, they can accumulate to the point
that a tube will fail from overheating. Failure is most Scale and other waterside deposits conduct heat
likely to occur while the boiler is under heavy load, much less efficiently than boiler steel. The most
which maximizes the damage and the hazard that results. common types of mineral deposits have thermal
conductivities that are only two to four times higher than
the conductivity of the insulating brickwork used in
Characteristics of Waterside Fouling boilers. Silicate scale, the least conductive, has ten times
Deposits on the watersides of tubes are mostly of a the insulating value of firebrick. The causes of waterside
type called “scale”, because they typically are hard and scaling are covered in Measure 1.8.1.

When Do Watersides Need Cleaning?

Visual inspection is the only accurate way to
determine the thickness of waterside deposits.
Unfortunately, some boilers make it difficult to see the
watersides. For example, a watertube boiler with small
drums may require an inspection mirror, which can
provide a look only into the ends of the tubes. Scrape
some of the deposit down to bare metal to see how thick
it is. The thickness will suggest the cleaning methods
needed.
Flue gas temperature is not a reliable indicator of
waterside deposits. The deposits accumulate too slowly
to be noticeable, and the resulting increase in flue gas
temperature is masked by changes in boiler load.
However, it is educational to note the difference in flue
gas temperature immediately before and after waterside
cleaning.

Cleaning Techniques
Goodway Tools Corporation
Mechanical and chemical methods are used to clean
Fig. 1 Mechanically cleaning the watersides of a large
watersides. Both methods involve a lot of dirty work
watertube boiler This is dirty, noisy, claustrophobic work,
but it is essential. The steam drum must be large enough to and both involve a risk of damaging the boiler. Unless
give a man and his tools access to the tubes. Otherwise, the the boiler plant operators have the skill and the
tubes must be cleaned chemically. equipment required, leave this activity to a specialist.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY MANUAL

 1.6 FIRESIDES AND WATERSIDES 117

Goodway Tools Corporation

Fig. 3 Rotating cutter for watertube cleaning

is that the acid removes mineral deposits that have

plugged small leaks as they formed. The acid treatment
itself may worsen the leaks once they are opened up.
For this reason, be prepared to make repairs before
putting the boiler back in service. You may be able to
Goodway Tools Corporation repair minor leaks by re-expanding the tube end into
Fig. 2 Rotating brush for watertube cleaning the tube sheet or drum. In more severe cases, the tube
has to be replaced after the sealing surface is refinished.
Large watertube boilers can be cleaned
mechanically by passing a cleaning tool through each Prevention is Better Than Cure
tube at the end of a rotating cable. This method is Preventing waterside fouling is easier, more
possible only if the steam drum is large enough to allow efficient, and safer than cleaning it out. Also, it is usually
a cable to be directed into each tube. Figure 1 shows cheaper, especially when considering the higher average
how this is done. boiler efficiency. Prevent waterside fouling with an
In order of increasing scale removing ability, the effective water treatment program. This may radically
tools used are wire brushes, abrasive bead brushes, and reduce the need for waterside cleaning. See Measure
cutter heads. Cutter heads have teeth that are hard and 1.8.1 about water treatment.
sharp to break up the hard scale. Even in experienced
hands, it is easy for cutter heads to damage tubes.
Figures 2 and 3 show typical cleaning tools. ECONOMICS
Mechanical cleaning is difficult or impossible with SAVINGS POTENTIAL: 0.5 to 10 percent of fuel cost.
many types of boilers, especially firetube boilers, COST: The cost of typical rotating cleaning equipment
because it is impossible to reach all the tube surface. for watertube boilers ranges from $1,500 to $4,000,
Many firetube boilers have only a small handhole that depending on size and features. The time required for
exposes a small portion of the tube bundle. If deposits cleaning is proportional to the size of the boiler and to
are soft, you may be able to remove them with a high- the difficulty of reaching all the waterside surfaces. For
pressure water lance. Unfortunately, even a water lance a typical commercial-size boiler, cleaning can be
cannot reach most of the tube surface in many boilers. accomplished in one day. Acid cleaning requires
All types of boilers can be cleaned chemically. The specialists. Especially with acid cleaning, set aside
basic technique is to use acid to eat away the mineral additional funds to repair leaks that may appear when
deposits. To keep the acid from eating away the boiler scale is removed from leaky tube joints.
steel also, corrosion inhibitors are added to the acid. PAYBACK PERIOD: Several months to several years.
Even with inhibitors, careful control of the process is
required. TRAPS & TRICKS
Acid cleaning commonly opens up leaks at the joints SKILL AND DILIGENCE: By any method, waterside
between the tubes and the tube sheets, or between the cleaning is dirty and tedious. Skill is required to avoid
tubes and the drums. This is especially likely if waterside boiler damage. Make sure that the people doing the work
cleaning has previously been neglected. What happens are proficient. Inspect the work to make sure that it is
thorough.

© D. R. Wulfinghoff 1999. All Rights Reserved.

118 1. BOILER PLANT
RATINGS
New Facilities Retrofit O&M
MEASURE1.6.5 Avoid leaving waterside deposits
when deactivating boilers. A
Most of the solids that are dissolved in boiler water SUMMARY
decrease in solubility when the water temperature is
A procedure that reduces scaling at the end
lowered. Therefore, when a boiler is cooled down,
dissolved material deposits on the internal surfaces of of an operating period. Easy and free.
the boiler. Also, suspended material falls out of SELECTION SCORECARD
suspension. To prevent this, reduce the concentration
Savings Potential ...................
of solids in the boiler water while the water is still hot.
Do this by increasing blowdown for several days prior Rate of Return .......................
to shutdown. Reliability ...............................
Keep the water treatment chemicals at their normal
concentration while increasing blowdown. The purpose Ease of Initiation ....................
is to eliminate the products of water treatment, not the
treatment chemicals themselves. ECONOMICS
Do not drain the boiler while it is still hot, because
the heat of the boiler may bake any floating matter to SAVINGS POTENTIAL: The primary benefit is reducing
the waterside surfaces, and may solidify sludge in the the effort required to clean the firesides.
bottom of the boiler. As soon as the boiler is cooled and COST: None.
drained, wash it out vigorously. PAYBACK PERIOD: Immediate.
If the boiler is being put into storage, take steps to
prevent corrosion. If the boiler is stored with water in TRAPS & TRICKS
it, ask your water treatment specialist which chemicals PLANNING: The key to success is being ready several
to add during storage. days before boiler shutdown. Make this a permanent
item on your planning calendar.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY MANUAL