CHAPTER 5

SOOT BLOWERS
1.0 SOOT DEPOSIT

Whenever fossil fuels are burnt they leave a combustion residue broadly known as ash.
As the flue gas comes out of the boiler furnace, it brings along with it a major portion of this ash.
As the gas moves over the heat transfer areas of the boiler, the ash deposits on the heating
surfaces. This is known as soot deposit.

1.1. TYPES OF SOOT DEPOSIT

The soot deposits are broadly classified as

- Fused slag deposits
- High Temperature bonded deposit
- Low Temperature deposits.

1.1.1 FUSED SLAG DEPOSIT

They are formed on furnace walls and other surfaces exposed to predominantly radiant
heat

1.1.2. HIGH TEMPERATURE BONDED DEPOSIT

This type of deposit occurs on convection heating surfaces, which are not exposed to
radiant heat from the furnace, mainly on convective superheaters and re-heaters.

1.1.3 LOW TEMPERATURE DEPOSITS

Formation of deposits in the low temperature zones such as the economisers and air
heater is usually associated with condensation of acid or water vapour on cooled surfaces.

1.2 EFFECT OF SOOT DEPOSITS

The ash deposits if allowed to build on the heat recovery surfaces of the boilers, they
have detrimental effects on the boiler performance as follows.
- As the deposits are poor conductor of heat, there will be reduction in heat transfer
ultimately resulting in increase of flue gas temperature leaving the boiler and hence
reducing boiler efficiency
- Deposit accumulation block flue gas path thereby increasing draught losses and so
high ID fan power.
- Accumulation of deposit on tubes may result in fall of sections due to increased
weight.
- The deposits bonded to the tubes also lead to corrosion.

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2.0. ON LOAD CLEANING

It is obvious from the above that it would be uneconomical to run the boiler without
cleaning the heat recovery surfaces. Frequent shut down of boilers would reduce considerably
the boiler availability and hence it is essential to go for cleaning the heating surfaces of the
boiler under the working condition. This is known as on load cleaning.

2.1 TYPES OF ONLOAD CLEANING SYSTEM

Many methods are available to clean the heating surfaces of the boiler on load. Some of
them are
- Hand lancing
- Water lancing
- Shot cleaning
- Vibration method
- Soot blowing

Any one of the above methods or combination can be used based on the type of deposits
and frequency of cleaning required. However soot blowing the most commonly used method
of on load cleaning.

3.0 SOOT BLOWING

In soot blowing the soot blowing medium is injected on the heating surface at high
velocity by a device called soot blower for a short time. The blowing medium strikes the
deposit and dislodges it from the heating surface. The soot-blowing medium can be steam,
water or compressed air. Though all the three can effectively clean the deposits they have their
own merits and demerits based on their system requirement in a particular installation. More
commonly steam is used as blowing medium in Indian boilers though water and air are also
used in some installations.

4.0 SOOT BLOWERS

Soot blowers are the devices, which admit the blowing medium over the heating
surfaces. Soot blowers are made according to the surface they have to clean. The soot blowers
for water walls are called wall blowers or deslaggers. Long Retracts and half retracts are used
for super heaters, Re heaters and economisers. Rotary air heaters are provided swivel blowers.
The exact mechanism of a blower depends on the manufacturer. The working of some typical
blowers are explained below.

4.1 WALL BLOWER

The wall blower consists of a stationary body and rack housing, and a travelling
gearbox to which the swivel tube is attached. The swivel tube is supported by sleeve type
bearings at each end of the body casting. The horizontal guide rods are used to assure proper
alignment of the travelling gearbox.

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 A stationary electric motor is situated on the right side of the blower. This motor
through a gearbox operates a pinion, which drives a horizontal rack, the outer end of which is
fastened to the travelling gearbox. When the travelling gear box approaches the fully extended
position, a ramp attached to the free end of the rack contacts a bearing surface which is an
integral part of the valve head operating lever.

When the blower is started, the rack pinion moves the rack and rotary gearbox toward
the boiler. Operation of the travelling gear causes rotation of a shaft extending

Fig.5.1.

out from the rack gear housing into a switch enclosure. Located in this enclosure are two cam
actuated limit switches. One cam holds limits switch (LS 1) in the open position when the
blower is fully retracted. Extending of the blower then is under its own control.

Near the fully extended position, the rack strikes the cam, operating the lever that opens
the valve head. The second limit switch cam strikes LS 2, which opens the circuit to the
traversing motor and closes the circuit to the rotary motor.

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 The rotary motor is attached to the rotary gearbox. When LS 2 closes, the motor rotates
the swivel tube through a gear train.

When the blowing sweep is finished the cam on the swivel tube contacts and rotates the
arm on the limit switch LS 3. The traversing motor begins to retract the blower. Near the fully
retracted position the cam again opens the switch LS1 to halt the blower.

The travel is only 12. The swivel tube will go into the wall for 1 and the nozzle
attached to the swivel tube cleans the surface.

4.2 LONG RETRACTBLE SOOT BLOWER

These soot blowers are normally employed, for cleaning the super heater, re heater zones
of the boiler, where the flue gas temperature would be more than 980 oC. The complete assembly
of the soot blower is enclosed in the supporting case. The main parts enclosed are power packs,
travelling carriage assembly, valve head and its controlling linkage.

The supporting case itself forms the base of the blower. It is connected with the wall box
through a lance and yoke bearing assembly.

The lance is attached to a travelling carriage, which runs on tracks inside the blower
housing. The carriage and lance are moved by means of a traversing chain operated by an
electric power pack. Rotary motion is applied to the lance through the travelling carriage by a
second chain driven by a separate electric power pack. Control of movement is by a stop and
reverse limit switches fixed on extreme ends.

The lance is flanged to the carriage and supported on the boiler end by a roller bearing.
The wheels on the travelling carriage run on tracks fastened to the inside of blower housing, side
ways motion is limited by a roller on each side of the carriage which use the housing sides as
guides.

The ends of the traversing chain are connected to each end of the carriage. The rotating
chain is continuous. It passes over sprockets on the carriage, and causes rotation through a worm
and gear train.

A valve head mounted at the rear of the blower controls flow of medium through the
lance. The feed pipe is attached to the outlet of the valve head. This feed pipe passes through the
packing gland in the travelling carriage and lies inside the lance tube, extending almost the entire
length of the blower. The electric power packs are mounted on the top or bottom of the blower.
Motion is transmitted from the power packs to adjustable jackshafts on each side of the blower.

Tension on the internal chains is adjusted by moving the slotted blocks, which hold the
inner sprockets on the out board or in board end of the unit. The adjustable bar on the
travelling carriage strikes a V shaped lever to cause the flow of blowing medium. The V
lever is connected by a turn buckle type trip rod to the DVT head linkage.

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 Fig.5.2.
Blowing pressures can be adjusted by positioning the screw attached to the DVT head.
In normal operations, as the start button is pressed the lance tube begins to extended and rotate.
There is a time lag between the start of the lance tube travel and admission of steam for
blowing. This is termed as dead feed. As the nozzles clear the boiler wall, the carriage strikes
the V shaped lever, opening the valve head and blowing commences. At the fully extended
position the travelling carriage strikes the reverse limit switch, which closes momentarily to
reverse the lance tube. As the carriage retracts it again strikes the V shaped lever closing the
D.V.T. head. The travelling carriage continues its rear ward travel until the cleaning nozzle is
retracted into the protection of the wall box at which time the stop limit switch is actuated to
stop the unit.

4.3 SOOT BLOWER FOR ROTARY AIR HEATER

This is a single motor non-rotating retractable soot blower patterned after the long
retractable soot blower. The soot blower lance normally is equipped with three nozzles
extended two thirds of the air heater basket radius. The soot blower is located on the gas outlet
side of the air heater.

When started the blowing medium valve is opened and the soot blower remains
stationary until the basket makes at least one revolution. The lance is then indexed
approximately 4 and remains in the second position until the basket makes another revolution
and so on until the lance has traveled the remaining one third of the basket radius. When the
full extended position is reached, the traversing motor is reversed and the soot blower lance is
retracted to its normal at rest position without indexing.

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