Heat Exchanger In- Service Damages

1. Excessive mineral deposits on the cooling water side of ammonia reactor effluent gas cooler.



2. Ice and fouling in a condenser tube.



3. Shell-side bacteria growth in cooling water heat exchanger



4. Fin Cooler tubes severly corroded



5. Deposits build-up on the inside of a heat exchanger tube



6. Plugged exchanger tube



7. Scaling on the inside diameter of a cooler tube



8. Deep Pitting in Exchanger Tubes



9. Cluster Pitting from Sour Glycol



10. Shell-side Pitting



11. Cooler Tube Rupture



12. Tube Failure Due to Thinning



13. Shell-side ruptured tube



14. Wall thinning led to this catastrophic failure of an exchanger tube



Image Source: Maverick Inspection

Book on Heat Exchanger Fouling: Heat Exchanger Fouling: Mitigation and Cleaning Techniques