PROCEDURE

OF BOILER ACID CLEANING

The cleaning activities will be executed after the unit has accomplished its leak
test and flushing. All utilities, instrumentation, and equipment support has been
check out and ready for the service. De-aerator is needed to heat-up the
demineralized water by contacting with auxiliary steam.

The overall cleaning procedure contains two steps as follows: Acid Cleaning
and Flushing & Passivation.

An additional WET LAY UP PROCEDURE should be applied if after acid cleaning,

the boiler is not operated.

I. ACID CLEANING

1.1. Objective

The objective of acid cleaning is to remove the deposits, mill scale,

and other minerals scale remain in the boiler, its needs to be acid
cleaning using Citric Acid base cleaner and Acid corrosion inhibitor.

1.2 Procedure

1) Run the de-aerator unit to heat up the Boiler feed water to get
120 oC of water temperature.
2) Fill up the boiler with de-aerated (hot) water to the normal
water level through the feed pipe normally used during
operation.
3) After reach the normal level, Confirm the water temperature in
the Boiler less than 98 OC, if the temperature higher than 98 C,
run the cooling system.
4) Circulate the Boiler water by (temporary) Chemical injection
system facility, provided by Nalco.
5) Add the Citric Acid and inhibitor to the mixing tank, to get the
complete circulation (by temporary Injection system).
6) Circulate the Boiler by permanent circulation pump.
7) Confirm the pH is in the range of 3 – 4, (adjust using Ammonia
to increase the pH and citric acid to reduce the pH).

8) Analyze and Monitor the following parameter once/hour:

 PH,
 Free Mineral Acidity,
 Turbidity,
 Soluble Iron,
 Temperature,
 Conductivity.
9) Run the circulating pump continuously.
10)If two or three successive iron test give the same concentration,
this time is considered complete.
11)Confirm the iron stability by adding the citric acid (increase the
acidity) and the iron level should be remain constant.
12)The acid solution should be drain from the Boiler.
13)Acid clean step complete.
II. FLUSHING AND PASSIVATION

2.1 Objective
The objective of this step is to avoid flash corrosion from the active
metal surface (after acid cleaning) and passivate the metal surface.
Ammonia and sodium nitrite is required in this step.

2.2 Procedure
a. After the acid cleaning finished, drain the water/acid inside
the boiler and fill the boiler with de-aerated boiler feed water
at 120 oC.
b. Circulate for 30 minutes, and check for iron concentration.
c. If the iron concentration is higher than 200 ppm make up
and blow-down the water to reduce iron concentration, after
the soluble iron is less than 200 ppm then add amonia to the
boiler to rise the pH to 9-11.
d. Add 0.5 % Sodium nitrite to the boiler, keep the water level
on the normal level.
e. Continuous circulation for 8 hours to get sufficient contact
time and satisfactory passivation step.

f. When the above step has completed, drain all the water in
the boiler.
g. Rinse the boiler using De-aerated water until all drain had
cleared.
h. The boiler is ready to be inspected.
III. WET LAY UP PROCEDURE

When a boiler is to be stored dry, the superheater section must be

thoroughly dried out. When using the wet method, the procedure selected
depends on whether or not the superheater can be drained adequately.
Superheaters that are completely drainable may be flooded with boiler
water that has been treated as described for wet lay-up, provided that
there is very little sludge in the boiler water. When a drainable super-
heater is to be flooded, it is good practice to drain the boiler first and refill
it with the best quality water available.

In flooding superheaters that cannot be drained properly, use the

following guidelines:

1. Use only high purity water (distilled or demineralized) for filling the
superheater section.
2. Treat the deionized water only with chemicals that do not leave a solid
residue when the water is evaporated.

Ammonia: 3 lb /1000 gal water (approximate 200 ppm ammonia)

enough to raise the water pH to at least 10.0.

Hydrazine: 200 ppm versus holding volume is sufficient to protect the

boiler from oxygen attack.

3. Circulate the water in the superheater sec-tion to distribute the chemical

thoroughly. This may be done by pumping or carefully controlled firing. It
may be necessary to overflow the superheater outlet during this
procedure.

4. Test the water each week for pH and Hydrazine content (when possible)
to make sure treatment levels are being maintained. As in the wet lay-up
procedure, the unit must be kept completely full of water to prevent air
pockets.