The Acidizing Process: 6 Situations to Prepare For

What is Acidizing
Boiling water eventually produces a scale deposit in the teapot. If this deposit is objectionable, you may either buy a new teapot or “acidize” it by boiling table vinegar in the pot. This cleaning activity is usually successful, but the smell remaining in the house may be unpleasant. The small cost of buying a new teapot may persuade you not to acidize it.
 
This same type of water scale deposit occurs in steam boilers. However, in the case of the boiler, it is a lot less expensive to acidize than buy a new one.
 
Perhaps obtaining a few drums of acid, dumping the acid into the boiler, and allowing the acid to soak for a few hours or overnight may sound like a cheap resolve. You may be able to find a contractor that will do this for you. But it may not work out as well as you expect.
 
Beware of these situations:
 
–          Having drums of acid stored and handled in your building can be a nuisance and a potential pollution liability that could be avoided by use of a bulk tank truck outside.

–          When you receive the drums in your building, you may unknowingly become the owner of the acid and therefore completely responsible for any mishaps, damage, or pollution. A suggestion would be to have the contractor keep the drums or bulk acid on his truck outside and have a signed contract that states that the contractor will be responsible for the acid or any waste stream at all times.

–          Remember stinking up the house when cleaning the teapot? Perhaps vacuum containment and a method of scrubbing these fumes would be of benefit.

–          If a leak is encountered during the acidizing, where will this large volume of acid and water mixture go? There should be an empty container on site that is large enough to contain the entire solution volume. Transferring the leaking solution to this container would give enough time to make repairs, and/or properly neutralize the solution.

–          If and when the acid leaks out and there is no container available, at least two problems occur. First there is a pollution problem and then you find that the boiler is not clean yet. The contractor will advise that he must go obtain more chemical and try another day at additional cost! This type of work should be done on a firm price basis with guaranteed clean results.

–          The contractor may tell you that there is no need to haul this solution away for legal disposal. He may advise that neutralizing on site is all that needs to be done. The Federal Law states that the cleaning site must possess a hazardous treatment facility that is licensed and permitted to do such neutralization.