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We are facing high delts temperature rise in coker heater tubes which necessitates heater tube cleaning owing to high coke deposition. We are trying to correlate this with feed VR quality. Currently the parameters which are being closely monitored are SARA (saturates, Asphaltenes, Resins and Aromatics contents of feed), metal contaminants etc. Can anybody suggest what other feed characterization needs to be done to perfectly correlates the high temp rise in heaters? What others test can be carried on so as to limit those values to keep heater functioning for longer time?
 
Answers
21/07/2011 A: Sudhakara Babu Marpudi, Dangote Oil Refinery Company, m_sudhakarababu@yahoo.com
You may check the Sodium levels in the Vacuum residue. In case some Castic is injected in the down stream of Desalters in CDU, the sodium levels will be high in Coker feed. Sodium promotes premature coking inside the furnace tubes.
21/02/2011 A: Dipankar Phukan, Indian Oil Corporation, dipankarphukan79@yahoo.com
Are you testing the salt content in the desalter outlet stream? Literature also says that the presence of inorganics such as NaOH, iron sulphide etc in the feed affects coke build up.
I assume you are taking care of the heat flux distribution across the furnace, which needs to be uniform for a longer run length.