You are currently viewing: Q&A

---

---

• We have a new hydrogen production unit designed by Haldor topsoe. The outside temperature of reformer skin exceeds 350c in some point especially in locations close to burners. The contractor cool it down by directing low pressure steam to the outside surface by flexible hoses. Here I have two questions:

  1: Is it normal to have such a high temperature at the outside while it is designed based on Euro 5.

  2: Is it accepted to cool it down using LPS? Will that damage the iron structure or not?

  Nov-2024

---

Answers

---

• Marcio Wagner da Silva, Petrobras, marciows@petrobras.com.br

  This is a relevant question related to process safety and asset management.

  1: It's not normal to achieve this temperature outside the reformer, this probably is caused by a failure of the refractory material applied in the reformer fired heater. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon to hear about failures of refractory materials of process equipment, mainly during start up, caused by inadequate refractory baking and dry out procedures. It's important to understand if the high outside temperature was observed immediately after the reformer start up or after some days under operation, in the second case, it's necessary to carry out a detailed process investigation to identify sudden process variations which could cause failures in the refractory.

  2: Cooling the reformer shell with low pressure steam is a relatively common alternative to minimize the process safety risks associated with a failure of the process equipment caused by the hot point in the plating, but this should be faced as a temporary and emergency situation adequately registered in a change management system. The shut down of the reformer should be planned and the refractory failure corrected as soon as possible.

   

  Nov-2024