Posted by Joe Lambert on January 02, 2002 at 06:44:57:
In Reply to: sootblower erosion posted by operator on December 24, 2001 at 01:09:07:
I have run into this problem with my customers many times. I think the main cause is condensate in the blower steam. This could cause both physical erosion of the tubes and chemical attack if the water hits the often acidic soot on the tubes.
Do EVERYTHING possible to assure dry steam into the sootblowers. Use a bypass as close to the blowers as possible with a steam trap or purge. One of my customers did not want to invest in re-piping the the sootblower steam lines and instead spent ten times as much putting stainless sleeves on the boiler tubes.