Fin Fan Cleaning

What are fin fans and why do they need cleaning regularly?

Fin fans are environmentally-friendly coolers that play a vital role in the energy, oil, gas and chemical industries … but they need experts such as Qualitech Environmental Services to ensure they run as efficiently as they possibly can.

These industrial processes generate heat from both liquids and gas and the fin fans – known as heat exchangers - cool this heat down before sending it into the air. They are a way more environmentally-friendly process than using water-cooled systems or giant cooling towers.

Even better, when Qualitech Environmental Services clean your fin fans to ensure the condensers inside them keep running at optimum performance they can do it while the industrial process continues so there is no need to shut down the plant and no disruption on production at all. If they have become dirty or clogged, once Qualitech has cleaned your fin fan you will see improved cooling and a much better overall performance.

Other companies use high pressure water jets or foam to clean the fin fans but powering water at them can damage the fins – some can be quite delicate - while foam will leave a lot of waste and mess to clean up.

Qualitech Environmental Services have perfected their own cleaning system that blasts the fin fans clean using low pressure air to get rid of all the debris from the fin fans. The system is in a mobile trailer which Qualitech’s expert cleaning operators simply park up and plug in so they can get straight to work.

The set-up is minimal and they can work in isolation with no need to come into contact with anyone else on site which is very important during the coronavirus pandemic. Qualitech have also been providing a vital frontline service to provide essential deep cleaning services during the Covid 19 crisis.

What are fin fans and how do they work?

A fin-fan is a type of heat exchanger that forces hot air over a set of coils to cool the process and is also known as an air-cooled heat exchanger.

They are used when an industrial process produces heat that can’t be reused so needs to be removed. It’s the same theory you see on your car radiator with hot air produced by the engine forced through a grille of fine tubes which dissipates the heat.

Of course, fin fans used in the energy, oil, gas and chemical industries can be on a massive scale and they need to be kept in good working condition at all times.

A typical air-cooled exchanger consists of a finned-tube bundle. A fin tube is a tube with small fins on the outside surface which act as a way to transfer heat generated during the process into the atmosphere. The air is forced across the tube bundle by fans powered by electric motors and the fins increase the contact area to make the process more effective and efficient.

Air-cooled heat exchangers make sure the hot air they are expelling is not hazardous to anyone or anything such as buildings or nearby equipment that could be damaged by the heat.

Air cooled heat exchangers are used widely in the oil and gas industries, particularly refineries and petrochemical plants, along with industrial processes involving corrosive fluids. These are industries that use high pressure and high temperature procedures in their processes.

Here are the other ways Qualitech Environmental Services can help your business

Fin fan cleaning is just one of number of industrial services provided by Qualitech Environmental Services with offices in St Helens, Merseyside (north UK); Newport, Wales (south UK) and Hartlepool (north east England).

Our other services include hazardous waste management and disposal (https://www.qualitechservices.co.uk/services/hazardous-waste), industrial tank and vessel cleaning (https://www.qualitechservices.co.uk/services/tank-cleaning), we have a fleet of tankers to remove liquid waste and we do a full range of waste management and recycling https://www.qualitechservices.co.uk/services/waste-management-and-recycling-solutions.

For friendly advice and a quote call us 24/7 on 01942 277277 or email sales@qualitechservices.co.uk

Before and after cleaning photos:

Before                                        After