Slagging and fouling of furnace and boilers' convective pass top the list of costly coal plant O&M problems. Although sootblowing is a tried and true solution, running sootblowers too often can erode boiler tubes. Lehigh University's Energy Research Center has developed an "expert" sootblowing system that has outperformed experienced operators' "seat of their pants" sootblowing procedures on two head-to-head field tests.