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Are there any methods to reduce coker furnace fouling through chemical injection in furnace tubes .

If yes, how was the experience?

Jun-2024

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TARIQ MALIK, CITGO, tmalik@citgo.com

Let us know though this forum if something works. The best way to find out is to inject the juice in one of the the two or four passes of the coker heater and let the other pass(es) remain blank. My real world experience has been that the blank passes did better than the passes with the chemical. One can easily measure the skin temp rise as degrees F/day over a 30 days trail.

If you inject the chemical in the common header or in all the passes, then what are you comparing with? The previous run? that is apples and oranges comparison.

Aug-2024
sam lordo, Becht, salordo@comcast.net

It is rare to get one chemistry to work for all coker furnaces.. the key to whether a chemical additive will work is the how far above design heat flux is the furnace operating at .. anything above 30% the potential for bulk phase coking increases and chemical wont help

Before trying a chemical approach
- Where is the fouling? convention section may be due to too high of vaporisation, Radiant may be due to too high of heat flux.
- Balance the flows to minimise too high of vaporisation in any tube.
- What is the fouling... it may be coming in with the feed.
Jul-2024
Imran Malik, www.Qchem.com.qa, immalik@qchem.com.qa

For cracker furnaces, typically using DMDS Dimethly DiSulfide in concentration range of 50ppm or plus. There are non Suplhur technologies as well, like NALCO's COKELESS.

Jul-2024
Alexander Vartapetyan, ARBADOX CHEMICALS, alexander.vartapetyan@arbadox.com

Of course it exists! Many refineries use coke formation and polymerization inhibitors ("high-temp antifoulants") based on polyisobutylene succinimide chemistry (search "PIBSA" in google). Try to find ARBADOX chemistry on the Internet. As a result of the use of a coke formation inhibitor, the growth of coke is prevented and, as a result, the increase in pressure drop on heat exchangers is reduced. It is advisable to start the supply of reagents on clean equipment (after start-up). This is a very standard chemistry for visbreaking, thermal craking and DCU processes. Normal dosage rates for such chemicals is 20-30 ppm.

Jun-2024