Targeted Boiler Cleaning Using Smart Sootblower

A Smart Sootblower has been developed to meet the increasing demand for advanced boiler cleaning equipment. Utility plants are challenged to burn coals with severe slagging tendency. Slagging condition may be significantly different from pendant to pendant across the boiler. Conventional retractable sootblowers cleans superheat and reheat pendants with even intensity, resulting in over cleaning of some pendants and “clinker” buildup in others. Modern instrumentation such as SuperHeat Fouling Monitoring (SHFM) systems and Video Cameras is able to locate the exact spot where the slag is accumulated. With the help of these detention systems, the Smart Sootblower, a multi-mode soot blower, is able to target and adjust clean intensity based on slagging condition, thus minimizing tube leakage and clinker formation. The Smart Sootblower has two motors that independently control translation and rotation motion. This allows the sootblower to change helix for different cleaning in different sections of the boiler. Operators can select zones require aggressive cleaning and zones need less or no cleaning. Integration of SuperHeat Fouling Monitoring (SHFM) system would provide operators the knowledge of fouling condition and enable automatic control of sootblowers for optimal performance. Actual installations and data are presented.