Failure analysis in heat exchanger tubes from the top system of the regeneration tower of the hydrotreatment unit in an oil refinery: a case study

This paper presents a failure analysis performed on tubes of a heat exchanger. Heat exchangers are among the most common equipment in an oil refining industry, as heat transfer is one of the most important and common processes in chemical and petrochemical industries. The equipment analyzed was the condenser of the top system of the diethanolamine regeneration tower of the naphtha hydrotreating unit of an oil refinery. The tubular bundle consists of 78 tubes in the ASTM A213 Grade 316L specification, with 19.05 mm in diameter and 1.65 mm in wall thickness. The tubes are subjected to the aqueous flow of H2S and diethanolamine on the outside and cooling water on the inside. After a scheduled general shutdown in July 2011, after six years of continuous operation, the loss of thickness in several tubes was observed. The result of the failure analysis indicated that, through visual inspection, the corrosive process occurred from outside to inside the tubes. The eddy current test indicated an active corrosive process with a corrosion rate of 0.16775 mm / year. The ultrasonic inspection performed through the internal rotating inspection system (IRIS) confirmed the loss of thickness and the presence of perforated tubes, with consequent loss of containment. Amine corrosion in the presence of H2S was identified as the basic failure mechanism, aggravated by DEA concentration higher than 20 wt.% in the analyzed equipment. In October 2019, the tubes of this exchanger were replaced and the proposed solution to mitigate the problem was to dilute the solution with washing water, to obtain amine solution concentrations below 5% by mass in the beam tubes of the heat exchanger.Keywords: Failure analysis; Oil refinery; Heat exchanger; Hydrotreatment; Dietanolamine regeneration tower.