Alkali Boil Out

INDEX
What is Alkali Boil out
Importance of Alkali Boil out
Which part are alkali boiled out
Alkali Boil out Procedure
Practical approach for Alkali Boil out

Alkali Boil out

Alkali Boil out- To remove mill scale, rust, oil
& grease from new tubes to get clean
passive surface.
Or to prepare surface for next chemical
activities such as Acid cleaning and
passivation.

When is it neededAs a pre-commissioning activities- Even

when the tubes are new, Alkali boil out is
done to ensure surface on water side of new
tubes are clean and passive & free from oil,
grease, loose mills, rust and other debris.
If there is large number of tube replacement10-20%, then Alkali Boil out is desired.

Different heat flux

Boiler parts
Economiser

Heat flux, KW/M2

15.75

Water walls
157.5-472.5
Reheater
18.9-31.5
Superheater
31.5-78.75,
So water wall tubes is most critical by virtue
of high heat flux.
Economiser tubes are least critical.

Importance
Dirt, scale, rust will decrease the life of
tubes.
Deposits on tube surface can lead to
accelerated corrosion during operation.
Alkali cleaning will remove some silica
and loose deposits.

Procedure Sufficient amount of Tri-sodium phosphate

is added manually in the Boiler drum
through its manhole so that the drum has
appox. 1000ppm of phosphate in drum
sample.
Drum is filled with DM water, so that the
drum level is -15cm level

 Boiler is lighted up and pressure is raised

slowly to 40 kg/cm2
The temperature of flue gas should be
around 150 deg C
Every 4 hours Low point drain are operated
one by one for 30 second each.
Fire to be killed before each such blow down.
Sample of boiler drum to be checked for
Silica, alkalinity, phosphate, oil/grease
,turbidity, pH.

 The decrease in phosphate concentration is

restored by dosing tri sodium phosphate by
HP( Phosphate) pump.
Boiler to be kept in this condition for 20-24
hours
After 24 hour, the fire to be killed and boiler
is allowed to cool naturally( Drum vents are
opened)
When pressure is around 1.5 kg/cm2, boiler
is hot drained.