From refining to chemical production processes, heaters play an essential role in hydrocarbon processing applications.
Whether it is heating process fluids to achieve enough temperature in crude atmospheric and vacuum distillation units, or reaction temperatures inside furnace tubes to produce ethylene, vinyl chloride monomer, synthetic gas and continuous catalytic reformer reactors, or simple process heating (thermal fluid), process furnaces play a critical role in refineries and petrochemical complexes.
Ethylene is a precursor to many chemicals, fibers and plastics that are used in daily life.
Refineries cannot afford a sudden boiler failure (FIG. 1). Regularly assessing the condition of boilers is vital.
If you have ever sized or selected a pressure safety relief valve (PSV) using vendor sizing programs or hand calculations, you have probably run into a strange anomaly.
In the recent past, many US refineries have been reconfigured to process heavy opportunistic sour crudes.
One of the most misunderstood and misused components of conductive steam tracing systems is heat transfer compound (HTC).
This work is a follow-up article to “Automate furnace controls to improve safety and energy efficiency,” which was published in the June 2014 edition of Hydrocarbon Processing.
Genç, M.,
Dalgıç, E.,
Karani, U.,
Emiroglu, I.,
Er, I.,
Gül, A.,
Avcilar, S., TÜPRAŞ;
Ventham, T., Johnson Matthey Process Technologies
Sulfur oxide additives are typically based on hydrotalcite or magnesium aluminate spinel-type structures. Magnesium alumina is the pickup agent present in the most effective SOx additives on the market; therefore, to optimize SOx reduction, it is critical to maximize the amount of the critical magnesium component in the fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) in an efficient and cost-effective way.
It is never a good sign when a piece of equipment exhibits unsafe behaviors—such as large, unexpected vibrations, or cracks forming around instrument ports—particularly in the thermal reactor of a sulfur plant, where high-temperature gaseous streams chemically react as part of the process that produces elemental sulfur.