Reducing exchanger fouling

Journal Article · Sat Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1987 · Hydrocarbon Process.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6108787

Crittenden, B D; Kolaczkowski, S T

This article points out that fouling from hydrocarbon streams leads to enormous financial penalties in terms of additional energy consumption and debits in thruput. A typical 100,000 bpsd oil refinery might incur total fouling related expenses of around $10 million per annum. About half of this cost can be attributed to deposit formation in the network of heat exchangers used to preheat crude oil from storage conditions to around the 350/sup 0/C necessary for operating the crude distillation unit (CDU). An example preheat train is shown in Fig. 1. More than one category of fouling may be responsible for the overall deposition process. For example, the high inorganic contents of CDU preheat exchanger deposits suggest that crystallization, particulate, corrosion and hydrocarbon degradation mechanisms are all contributors. Inevitably, therefore, no single simple solution to the hydrocarbon fouling problem is available.

• Research Organization: School of Chemical Engineering, Univ. of Bath, Bath
• OSTI ID: 6108787
• Journal Information: Hydrocarbon Process.; (United States), Journal Name: Hydrocarbon Process.; (United States) Vol. 66:8; ISSN HYPRA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020400* -- Petroleum-- Processing
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CORROSION
CORROSION PROTECTION
CORROSIVE EFFECTS
COST
CRYSTALLIZATION
DEPOSITS
DISTILLATION EQUIPMENT
ECONOMICS
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
EQUIPMENT
FOULING
HEAT EXCHANGERS
HIGH TEMPERATURE
HYDROCARBONS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARTICLES
PARTICULATES
PETROLEUM REFINERIES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS