The fouling of heat exchangers, reactors and catalysts remains one of the most urgent problems facing the process industries. Over the past ten years there has been limited research and investigation into the underlying mechanisms which give rise to this problem. For convenience, particularly in heat exchanger technology, the mechanisms involved have been subdivided into different subject areas. It is often the situation that individuals or groups of workers have concentra­ ted efforts in one or two of these specialist areas and there is a need to integrate the ideas across the whole spectrum of the subject. In addition, topics such as adhesion and surface phenomena have not been properly taken into account up till now in the assessment of the fouling processes. For this reason it was considered essential that the recognised experts from around the world, who are actively concerned with research, development and design in the fieId, should meet and exchange ideas and experience. Such a meeting was held at Alvor, Portugal, in May 1987, sponsored by the NATO Advanced St~dy Institutes Programme. In order to obtain a common basis for the work of the Advanced Study Institute, the whole technological field was reviewed right from the basic concepts to the frontiers of present knowledge. Each invited contributor was asked to make an overall presentation covering his or her area of expertise.

Inhalt

1. Fundamentals and Economics.- General Fouling Problems.- General Thermal Fouling Models.- The Economics of Fouling.- 2. Monitoring Equipment.- Liquid Fouling Monitoring Equipment.- Gas-Side Fouling Monitoring Equipment.- Monitoring Fouling using a Novel Technique.- 3. Adhesion.- Adhesion and Removal of Particles - I.- Adhesion and Removal of Particles - II.- Aspects of Cell Adhesion.- 4. Particulate Fouling.- Particulate Fouling of Heat Transfer Surfaces: Mechanisms and Models.- Stochastic Model for the Induction Step on Particulate Fouling.- Fouling by Aqueous Suspensions of Kaolin and Magnetite: Hydrodynamic and Surface Phenomena Effects.- Gas Side Fouling.- 5. Biological Fouling.- Biological Fouling: Basic Science and Models.- Effect of Design and Operating Variables on Biofouling.- Surface Bound Biocides - A Novel Possibility to Prevent Biofouling.- Experimental Investigation of Marine Biofouling and Corrosion for Tropical Seawater.- 6. Crystallisation Fouling.- Crystallisation Fouling - Basic Science and Models.- Deposition of Hardness Salts.- Crystallisation of Organic Materials.- Fouling of Cryogenic Liquids.- 7. Chemical Reaction Fouling.- Basic Science and Models of Reaction Fouling.- Chemical Reaction Fouling of Heat Exchangers.- Fouling from Light Hydrocarbons on Metal Surfaces.- Fouling of Catalysts: Industrial Examples.- The Fouling of Catalysts by Deposition of Filamentous Carbon.- Droplets and Filaments: on the Fouling of Metal Surfaces by Carbonaceous Material from Hydrocarbon Gases above 850K.- Carbon Limits in Steam Reforming.- Carbon Deposition in Steam-Cracking.- 8. Design and Operation of Heat Exchangers.- Basic Relationships for Heat Exchangers and Impact of Fouling on Design.- Selection of Heat Exchangers.- General Design of Heat Exchangers for Fouling Conditions.- Basic Concepts in Heat Exchanger Network Modelling.- The Fouling of Heat Exchanger Networks.- Compensating for Fouling in Heat Exchanger Networks.- 9. Food Processing Fouling.- Fouling by Milk and Dairy Product and Cleaning of Heat Exchange Surfaces.- On-Line Measurement of Fouling and Cleaning of Industrial UHT Exchangers.- 10. Fouling in Industrial Water Systems.- Effectiveness of Biocides.- Case Study-Clean-up of a Coke Oven Cooling System.- Corrision Fouling: Liquid Side.- Avoiding Fouling and Corrosion in Water Cooled Heat Exchangers: The Expert System Approach.- Fouling of Geothermal Energy Systems.- Geothermal Water Scaling in Heat Exchangers.- 11. Fouling in Furnaces.- High Temperature Fouling: The Nature of Deposits.- High Temperature Gas-Side Fouling Case Study.- 12. Discussions.- Cooling Water Fouling - Summary of Discussion.- Debate: Food Processing Fouling.- Cleaning of Fouled Surfaces: A Discussion.- Chemical Reaction Fouling Debate.- Debate on Gas-Side Fouling.