Heat Exchanger Cleaning - Offshore Rigs and Chemical Descalers

Any drilling rig is a complex structure including drilling machinery, power and control, and instrumentation working in concert for efficient drilling. Every Offshore Drilling Rig requires an extensive, integrated power, instrumentation and control and communication system operating under the most demanding working conditions. With a huge network of heat exchangers, cooling and heat transfer operations can form insulating and difficult to remove scale deposits in offshore platforms. Chemical evaluation of descalers for use on rigs typically include types that incorporate (1) Safety (2) Biodegradability (3) Small package sizes (possibly as small as 5-gallon packages) which facilitate ease of use and easy removal of empty containers. Operations can also escalate up to use the same types of inhibited acids/descalers in larger volumes for matrix acidizing to stimulate oil production.

“SCALE DEPOSITS IN CRITICIAL SYSTEMS LIKE HEAT EXCHANGERS CAN DAMAGE COMPONENTS AND INCREASE RISKS FOR SAFETY OF EQUIPMENT AND PERSONEL”

Multiple heat exchangers on rigs require the use of specialized descalers. Use of commodity acids, condensate or other methods for descaling can and will damage systems components as well as adding safety risks. Besides restoring heat transfer, successful application of a particular descaler must absolutely preserve safety for rig personnel and the platform itself as well as protecting the environment. Goodway’s ScaleBreak products do just this. With biodegradable chemistries combined with inhibited safe acids to restore heat transfer in critical heat exchange equipment, Goodway’s ScaleBreak products and chemical delivery systems are currently used in a variety of offshore applications:

• Semi-Submersibles
• Floating Production platforms
• Drill ShipShips/drilling platforms
• Jack-Up Units
• Storage Units
• Workover Rigs
• Exploration platforms
• Offshore Production Platforms
• Offshore Rigs
• Oil Platforms
• Oil Rigs

Scale in SSSVs in wells and master, wing and choke valves, flow lines, other water systems, separators, flair drums, and hydrocyclones because scale build-up presents pervasive problems in these areas as well. Inhibited acids are also used also for matrix acidizing to stimulate oil production.