New Approach to Improving Reliability of Crude Heaters

Paper from the AFRC 2016 conference titled New Approach to Improving Reliability of Crude HeatersCrude Heaters are at the heart of any refining complex. All processing facilities depend upon atmospheric units for their feed. Most of the refiners are generally running their crude heaters at the maximum charge rate. The heaters are generally combined with a number of upstream exchangers to preheat the feed. The inlet temperature of the heater goes down due to fouling of the exchangers and as a result the heaters are over fired to compensate for the loss of the preheat duty. One of the common issues we experience during over firing is the high tube metal temperature in the radiant section. ; We worked on a vertical cylindrical crude heater with an air preheating system. The heater was experiencing high tube metal temperatures. The client was also experiencing non uniform firing and draft limitation.; FIS carried out the CFD Modeling of the heater and reviewed the flame patterns. FIS recommended installation of new burners using the patented inclined firing technology. The plenum had a very complicated duct arrangement. FIS simplified the plenum design and carried out CFD Modeling on the plenum to ensure all burners receive equal amount of combustion air. FIS recommended to replace the existing FD fan with a higher capacity fan to ensure that the heater does not run short on combustion air. In this presentation, we are showing the key findings and how they are helping improve the reliability of the crude heaters. FIS also worked on duct modification to improve performance of ID fan