From refining to chemical production processes, heaters play an essential role in hydrocarbon processing applications.
The plate-and-shell (P&S) heat exchanger has three significant advantages over the shell-and-tube (S&T) type traditionally used in refinery processes.
It is always a challenge to reconfigure and resize existing reboilers, especially vertical thermosiphon ones, for the revised design and operating conditions of a brownfield project, since hydraulics external to the reboiler must match the reboiler hydraulics under the revamped conditions to ensure trouble-free operation.
Much has been written in recent years about the need for refineries to embrace the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
The energy transition is gathering momentum as pressure from society leads policy makers and investors to demand faster and deeper cuts to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from all industrial sectors.
It is difficult to revamp an existing air-cooled steam surface condenser (ACSSC) for higher throughput, since most ACSSC suppliers have changed to a single-tube row design and have discontinued their multi-tube row design.
While the ultimate purpose of operating a refinery is to produce gasoline, diesel or asphalt, key objectives include improving return on investment (ROI), net profitability and cash flow.
Plate-and-frame (P&F) heat exchangers were first manufactured 100 yr ago for use in the dairy industry.
According to API Recommended Practice (RP) 521, 4.4.13.1, “Fire exposure on equipment can result in overpressure due to vapor generation and/or fluid expansion.
Fired heaters are designed with castable refractory in various sections of the heater.