Descaling Marine Plate Heat Exchangers to Restore Heat Transfer Efficiency

A heavily scaled marine plate heat exchanger, removed from a cargo vessel’s cooling system, was submitted for cleaning validation. The Keertek test restored flow capacity and heat transfer efficiency to near-original levels.
Seawater scaling and biofouling had reduced the exchanger’s thermal efficiency by an estimated 35%, forcing the vessel operator to run auxiliary cooling at higher fuel cost. Keertek’s lab applied high-power ultrasonic cavitation combined with a mildly acidic descaling chemistry — aggressive enough to dissolve calcium and magnesium scale, yet safe for the stainless steel plate material.
After a 30-minute cycle, all scale deposits were removed from the narrow plate channels. The customer reported that the test results directly informed their purchase of a Keertek ultrasonic cleaning station for their dry-dock maintenance facility.
Process: High-power ultrasonic + descaling chemistry | Substrate: Stainless Steel | Contaminant: Seawater scale & biofouling