The sludge in the tube bundle of the crude oil deslagging heat exchanger in the petrochemical industry causes severe coking; how can this coking be mitigated?
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The image below shows the tube bundle of the crude oil deslagging heat exchanger in a petrochemical atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit. Model: FB1000-265-40-4; Material: 10#. Operating conditions: Shell side – slag removal, temperature 272°C, pressure 1.6 MPa. Process: Medium, crude oil; temperature 239°C, pressure 0.43 MPa. The outer wall of this tube bundle suffers from severe coking; is there any way to address this issue?
Coking problems are generally caused by factors such as high temperatures and the composition of the oil. The following methods can be tried to alleviate coking: 1. Reduce the operating temperature: Lower the operating temperature of the heat exchanger appropriately to prevent it from reaching the thermal cracking temperature of the oil. 2. Regular cleaning: Clean the heat exchanger periodically to remove any fouling on the tube bundles and maintain good heat transfer efficiency. 3. Improve flow design: Optimize the fluid flow pattern within the heat exchanger to ensure uniform flow of the oil and reduce areas of high local temperature. 4. Use anti-coking additives: Adding a certain proportion of anti-coking additives to crude oil can alter the thermal stability of the oil, thereby reducing coking. 5. Material replacement: Consider using materials that are more heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant for manufacturing the tube bundle. Based on actual operating conditions and business requirements, the above methods can be considered comprehensively to select the most suitable approach for addressing coking issues. .
There is a stainless steel technology that provides corrosion and scorch resistance, involving surface strengthening of the stainless steel through chemical and electrochemical methods to achieve high scorch resistance.