Lee, S.
SK Energy, Ulsan, South Korea
Sang-Mo Lee has more than 26 yr of experience as a Fixed-Equipment Engineer at SK Energy. His main tasks include root cause analysis (RCA), troubleshooting, fitness-for-service (FFS) evaluation, maintenance procedures and technical support for the refining and petrochemical business. He earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering, and is qualified as a professional engineer for welding and metallurgy by the South Korean government.
Multiple defects were found in pressure swing adsorption (PSA) vessels during an outage of one of four PSA process units.
During the end-of-run (EOR) period of the authors’ company’s residue hydrodesulfurization (RDS) process in early February 2019, some hot spots occurred in the catalysts of the reactors.
The sulfur recovery unit (SRU) separates sulfur from sulfur compounds.
In refineries and petrochemical plants, ring-type joint (RTJ) flanges have been applied to high-pressure processes or sensitive areas that are susceptible to leaks.
Many end users are trying to use feedstock with higher sulfur content for their refineries to increase profitability, but numerous unknown or plausible bottlenecks exist.
The use of spiral-wound gaskets on flanges has resulted in good sealing performance. However, most gaskets do not perform well when the flange is improperly installed.