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I hv naphtha cracker wherein there is an issue of fouling in cracked gas compressor and it's intercoolers also. What is exactly the fouling material . Is it styrene and butadiene most of the time ? Customer is doing wash oil at 2 percent rate continuously and wash water with batch mode only . What is the role of wash oil? Wash oil can not act as antifoulant right ? Can you please explain. What are treatment options for fouling in such equipment ? Also let me know red oil formation in caustic tower ? What is composition of red oil ??
 
Answers
08/04/2020 A: Manoj, Lummus Global Pte. Singapore, parasharmk@yahoo.com
Fouling in the Cracked gas compressor is due to styrene ,diene,13BD etc.
Wash oil is used to reduce the polymer adhering to internals and reduce the temperature to reduce fouling.
Wash oil flow at 2% is also high; it should be 0.1 - 0.5wt%. The EBP of wash oil should be more than 250C and the aromatic content should be high enough (80%).
Use wash water flow to reduce the temperature and use wash oil as per spec.