STUDY FOR TREATMENT & REMOVAL OF SALTS/SOLID DEPOSITION FROM E-300 TUBING/HEAT EXCHANGER

Abstract

Refining of crude oil is thorough and intricate process involving hundreds of steps in order to produce usable products. At the heart of every refining process on any level, heating of streams is one of the major unit operations involved. In most cases, this is done using utility streams through the use of heat exchangers. However, fouling of heat exchangers still persists as one of the biggest problems faced by industries. This issue is especially relevant to shell and tube type heat exchangers that have a higher chance of fouling as compared to some of its alternative designs like the plate and frame exchanger. In high temperature applications with considerable number of salts and other fouling factors, scaling is justifiable with measures in place to limit this phenomenon. While this is the case for highly impure feed, other plants use a much cleaner type of crude oil which allows for a far less extensive pretreatment process. In such settings, when fouling develops over time, integration of harsher pretreatment equipment may turn out costly and time consuming. A simple yet effective method for such plants is the design and installation of desalters in order to separate salts and other foulants from the process stream which results in a considerably lower risk of fouling and reduces the maintenance cost of the heat exchangers used.