An innovative boiler cleaning solution

A major domestic waste incineration plant operator contacted CTP environnement in order to identify and customise dry cleaning solutions for 2 fired heater boiler units, each with a capacity of 50 T/hour.

CTP environnement proposed a dry sand blasting method using a calcium silicate solution, which satisfied two key requirements:

• To adopt an environmental approach, which dramatically reduces the amount of water consumed by conventional wet cleaning methods.
• To guarantee cleaning in an almost equivalent length of time.

As calcium silicate does not contain any metals, it is an environmentally-friendly product, which does not pose a risk to humans and is inexpensive in terms of subsequent processing. Sand blasting with calcium silicate has proved to be very effective:

• As effective as traditional sand blasting with superior hardness
• No damage to boiler tubes (one of the client’s major concerns)
• Adaptation to a 3 x 8-hour shift pattern to reduce the period of work, because sand blasting is more physically demanding than wet cleaning.

The specification was completely fulfilled and the client was 100 % satisfied in terms of adherence to commitments:

• Rapid readiness of the boiler for cleaning
• Not a single drop of water used in any of the boiler’s component parts
• High-quality cleaning results while protecting facilities.

This is now a regular operation within the client’s facilities on the basis of a schedule that is renewed every year.