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Shell and tube heat exchanger cleaning

Whether the bundle comes out is the decision that sets the price, the downtime and how much of the exchanger gets cleaned. Send the tube count, the service and the deposit, and a specialist will come back to you.

  • CleanedTube bore, tube sheet, shell side
  • MethodsLancing, jetting, brushing, circulation
  • ReturnsBores gauged, bundle inspected, unit tested

Submit a cleaning request

Four steps: unit, deposit, postcode, contact details.

  1. 01Unit
  2. 02Situation
  3. 03Site
  4. 04Contact
What needs cleaning?

01The unit

Bundle extraction is what separates a partial clean from a complete one

Shell and tube heat exchanger cleaning is really three jobs that happen to share a shell. The tube bores take the process-side deposit and are cleaned by lancing. The tube sheet face collects its own deposit and is the part that tells you how bad the bores will be. The shell side is the difficult one, and whether it gets cleaned at all depends entirely on whether the bundle is withdrawn.

01

Tube bores are lanced, and the deposit decides whether water alone will do it

High pressure water through a rigid or flexible lance is the standard route through a tube bore, with rotating heads used where the deposit resists a straight jet. Where the deposit is hard enough to resist water at any practical pressure, coke, set polymer, heavy scale, mechanical methods take over: rotating brushes, scrapers, or drilling on a bore that is fully plugged. Tube length and bore diameter set what tooling can physically reach, and a long, small-bore bundle is a slower job than the tube count alone suggests.

Cleaned by
Rigid or flexible lancing, rotating heads, brushes, drilling
Limited by
Tube length, bore diameter and how straight the run is
Watch for
Wall thinning under deposit, which lancing will find under a lance
02

The shell side is only properly reachable with the bundle withdrawn

With the bundle in place, the outside of the tubes can only be circulated, and circulation reaches the free-flowing paths, not the places deposit collects. With the bundle out, the tube exteriors, the baffle windows and the shell floor can be jetted directly. That is the only way to shift the sludge in the bottom of the shell and the deposit packed into the baffle windows. Nearly always, the shell side is worse than the tube side and gets less attention.

Bundle in
Circulation only. Reaches the flow path, not the settled deposit
Bundle out
Direct jetting of tube exteriors, baffle windows and shell floor
Needs
Extractor, laydown area, crane time and somewhere to work on it
03

Fixed tube sheet construction removes the option entirely

A fixed tube sheet exchanger has the bundle welded into the shell and cannot be pulled at all, so the shell side is chemical cleaning or nothing for the life of the unit. Removable bundle designs, U-tube and floating head, can be withdrawn, so they are specified for fouling service. Knowing which one is on site changes the conversation completely, and it is the single most useful thing an enquiry can carry after the tube count.

Fixed tube sheet
Bundle cannot be pulled. Shell side is chemical cleaning only
U-tube
Pulls, but the bends limit what tooling can pass through the tubes
Floating head
Pulls, and the tubes are straight through. The easiest to clean fully

02What has built up

Tube-side deposits and shell-side deposits are rarely the same material

The two sides carry different fluids at different velocities, so a bundle can be clean on the inside and packed solid on the outside.

DepositWhere it comes fromHow it is removed
Coke and carbonThermal cracking at the tube wall on hot hydrocarbon service. Tube side, and hard.Ultra-high pressure jetting, or drilling where the bore is fully plugged.
UHP / mechanical
ScaleCooling water side, on the hot end of the bundle and wherever velocity drops.Inhibited acid circulation, or lancing where the layer is thick and hard.
CIP / lancing
Sludge and siltSettling in the bottom of the shell, where nothing circulating will ever reach it.Bundle out and jetted. There is no in-place answer to this one.
UHP, bundle out
Biofouling and shellRaw water intakes. Shell and mussel lodge in tube inlets and block bores completely.Mechanical removal by projectile or lance. Blocked tubes leave the duty entirely.
Mechanical
Baffle window packingSolids accumulating where the shell-side flow turns, reducing the effective flow area.Direct jetting with the bundle withdrawn. Invisible until it is out.
UHP, bundle out

03What happens next

Four steps take a fouled unit from enquiry to a tested return

The enquiry goes straight to a contractor who cleans that unit type. There is no qualifying call in between.

  1. You send the unit details, the deposit and the postcode.

  2. The enquiry goes to a specialist set up for that unit type and that fouling.

  3. They come back with method, timescale and price.

  4. The clean is carried out in place or off site, and the unit is tested before it goes back.

04Questions

Bundle type, tube geometry and access decide how a shell and tube is cleaned

Does the bundle have to come out?

Only if the shell side needs cleaning, or if the bundle needs inspecting. Where the fouling is tube-side and the unit's history is known, lancing through the channel heads cleans the bores without pulling anything, and that is a much shorter job.

Pull it when the shell side is fouled, when the deposit is unknown, when the unit has never been opened, or when you need wall thickness data. On fouling service the shell side is usually the worse half, so the assumption should lean towards pulling rather than away from it.

What does bundle extraction need?

An extractor, clear space in front of the exchanger equal to at least the bundle length, crane or lifting capacity, and a laydown area to work on it. On a congested plant the space in front is often the binding constraint and not the lifting.

It also needs time in the programme. On a turnaround the pull, the transport, the queue at the cleaning bay and the rebuild usually exceed the cleaning itself, so bundle count drives shutdown planning more than deposit type does.

Can U-tube bundles be cleaned all the way through?

Not with rigid tooling. The bend at the far end stops a rigid lance, so U-tubes are cleaned with flexible lances that follow the curve. There is a practical limit to how far and how well they reach.

It is one reason U-tube designs are less favoured for heavy fouling service. Where a U-tube bundle is badly fouled at the bend, the answer is sometimes that full cleaning is not achievable and retubing or replacement is the better investment.

Will cleaning find damage?

Frequently, and that is a benefit instead of a problem. Deposit sitting on a thinned tube can be part of what is holding pressure, and tubes have failed on start-up after a clean because the wall loss was already there.

Which is the argument for inspecting while the bundle is clean and accessible. Eddy current or IRIS on a clean bundle finds the tubes likely to fail next, and plugging them at a planned shutdown is far cheaper than an unplanned one.

How long does a bundle take to clean?

The lancing is often the shortest part: a bundle in a cleaning bay is typically hours to a day depending on tube count, bore and deposit hardness.

Elapsed time is set by everything around it. Isolation, breaking joints, the pull, transport, the bay queue, inspection, rebuild and test. On a multi-bundle turnaround the cleaning bay capacity is usually the constraint, never the lance.

What does shell and tube cleaning cost?

Tube count, deposit hardness and whether the bundle is pulled, in that order. Lancing a clean-service bundle in place and pulling a coked hot-end exchanger for full internal and external cleaning are different orders of magnitude.

Bundle type is worth stating too. Fixed tube sheet rules out shell-side mechanical cleaning entirely, which changes both the scope and what can be promised.

A specialist who cleans that unit type answers the request

Unit, deposit and postcode are enough to start. Your details go to a specialist who cleans that unit type. No obligation.

Arrange a clean