The photos 1 and 2 show a tube at half stage of a DESTRUCTIVE chemical cleaning process. The tube shows a high contamination with Platinum Group Metals (PGM) residues (The outer tube is made of mild steel and was the main boiler unit component. The inner tube is actually a skin formed by accumulated PGM over the years.)

The photos 3 and 4 show sections of stainless steel tubes after a DESTRUCTIVE chemical cleaning process and then introduced through work rolls to extract a stubborn scale with high contamination of PGM.

These plant items were straight tube bundles but the same situation can occur with coil type plant items.
 
The images show a typical example of what can happen when plant units are not cleaned at regular intervals.  We have also found heat exchangers like this when they have been improperly cleaned.
 
These units were brought back to R. S. Bruce Ltd and were systematically destructively treated through our plant to recover and return all of the PGM.
 
From our past experience, our advice to you would be to clean your main components at least every five years*.
 
A regular cleaning would…
 

• Give you regular PGM metal turnaround.
  
  
• Keep your components in a clean and process efficient condition.

 
*This is for a plant running full campaign i.e. 300 days per year at near to full capacity.