Avoid fired heater coking

For many refiners, heater coking in Crude and Vacuum Distillation Units (CDU/VDUs) is a common occurrence. Many units around the world are shut down every two years, every year, or even every six months to deal with chronic heater coking. However, with the right design features driven by a solid understanding of heater coking mechanisms, fired heater run length can be extended beyond five years, even with relatively challenging crudes. The two primary drivers of heater tube ...

CATACEL SSR tailored catalyst technology

CATACEL SSR technology. Introduction. CATACEL SSRTM is an innovative and industry leading technology that delivers a sharp improvement in the catalyst technology that is available to the operators of steam reforming units. CATACEL SSR technology allows unique and unexpected combinations of heat transfer properties, reactive surface area and pressure drop characteristics within tubular steam reformers. These enhanced catalyst performance parameters can be tailored and targeted ...

CeraLine elbows, pipe & spool linings

Specifically designed for the harsh environments within mining, power generation and other heavy industrial processing industries, Blasch’s new CeraLine family of products exhibits exceptional wear and abrasion resistance which results in unparalleled life. Elbow diameters ranging from ½” up to several feet can be lined with Blasch pre-cast tight tolerance shapes available with engineered joints and smooth bore that eliminates premature wear and interrupted flow. Available ...

Condensate is crude

Ultra-light crudes and condensates are here to stay. These streams have flooded the market in recent years, and many of them are deeply discounted against reference crudes. Refiners have been processing increasing percentages of this light material through their Crude Distillation Units (CDUs) up against unit naphtha handling limits. On the surface, processing condensate and other ultra-light crudes with high API gravity and low sulfur should be easy. In reality, many refiners ...

Designing deepcut vacuum units that really work

Every barrel of vacuum gas oil (VGO) you can save from being reduced to coke in the delayed coker unit is a barrel more that can go to the FCCU. That’s a good reason to raise HVGO cutpoint. But how to do it? Some people think the job can be done just by running computer models in the engineering office, relying on vendors and their data sheets for a clue to true equipment performance. Experience, however, shows it just ain't so. For either a grass roots project or a revamp, ...

Eliminate heat exchanger fouling with Watlow’s HELIMAX technology

Fluctuations within the heat exchanger to either the operating temperature or the mass flow rate are common causes of coking, which can lead to system failures and expensive downtime. Some heat exchanger design methods, like segmental baffles, have known dead zones where hot spots can occur, accelerating the coking process. Watlow’s HELIMAX ultra-efficient heat exchanger was designed to eliminate temperature-related failures. Leveraging our proven, patent-pending continuous ...

High performance packed tower solutions

Engineered to Innovate: GTC Technology is a global licensor of process technologies and mass transfer solutions with the core mission of creating value for our clients. Refining, petrochemical and chemical companies around the world rely on our advanced technology to optimize production capacity and efficiency. We combine unparalleled technical expertise and innovative thinking to solve complex processing problems. GTC has earned a reputation of excellence by designing and delivering ...

HYDROSAFE® Heat Exchanger

HYDROSAFE®, Watlow’s new indirect electric heat exchanger for dry gas seal applications, has been designed as a standardized thermal solution that minimizes custom engineering requirements because it can be adapted to a variety of conditions. The HYDROSAFE provides very flexible heating capabilities (12 to 31.2 kW) to compensate for changes in gas flow rates, or changes in gas composition, when interconnected to our purpose engineered WATCONNECT® control panel. Multiple ...

Is pinch enough?

Back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when fuel gas prices were high, energy utilization assumed major importance. A new method of calculating heat exchanger networks was developed. It was called Pinch Technology. Today pinch has been rediscovered by engineers who have access to fast computer simulation models. But as occurs with any older method that is rediscovered by a newer generation, enthusiasm generated by the rediscovery tends to obscure the deficiencies ...

ITW Online Cleaning

Will revolutionize turnaround operations and operational excellence by optimizing: productivity, operability, safety health and environment, reliability, product quality, energy efficiency, CO2 SOX NOX VOC emissions, maintenance and repair and operational requirements. An entire Unit can be ITW Online Cleaned in as low as 24 hours on an oil-to-oil basis, including all the equipment and not only the relevant one, without the need of opening it. ITW Online Cleaning a Unit in ...

Johnson Matthey licensed processes

A portfolio of advanced process technologies for global markets. Johnson Matthey (JM) develops and licenses proprietary process technologies. We also offer collaborating companies an extensive range of technology development, process design and engineering skill. For over thirty years JM has been engaged in innovative DAVY™ licensing development. Our comprehensive expertise of catalysis and reaction engineering has been tailored to the production of a wide range of chemicals ...

Maximize reliability in grassroots crude units

Crude unit operators are far too familiar with a long list of crude unit reliability problems including fouling in heat exchangers and fired heaters, poor desalting, corrosion of piping and equipment, and coking in the vacuum column wash zone. Many millions of dollars have been spent fighting these problems, yet they continue to force unplanned shutdowns with depressing regularity. Revamps must address reliability issues, but project scope is hindered by the limitations of existing ...

Opportunity or Annoyance?

Price differentials between conventional and opportunity crudes compel refiners to process increasing percentages of lower valued opportunity crude. However, as many refiners have learned the hard way, opportunity crudes are tied to unique processing challenges. Furthermore, existing crude unit configurations may limit high profit opportunity crude to a disappointingly small proportion of the total unit blend. Processing a changing slate of opportunity crudes of varying compositions ...

OPTIMAX® Heat Exchanger

Watlow® has over 40 years of experience designing and manufacturing heat exchangers, and we have the knowledge, experience and expertise required to create optimal heating solutions. Watlow has taken tried and true, critical design criteria and improved it to create a new generation heating technology — the OPTIMAX® heat exchanger. Watlow’s new OPTIMAX technology combines optimal fluid dynamics, efficient heat transfer, low pressure drop and a compact and reliable package ...

OPTIMAX® Heat Exchanger helps achieve a more efficient CAPEX

Watlow has over 40 years of experience designing and manufacturing heat exchangers, and we have the knowledge, experience and expertise required to create optimal heating solutions. Watlow has taken the tried and true, critical design criteria and improved it to create a new generation heating technology – the OPTIMAX® Heat Exchanger. Watlow’s new OPTIMAX technology combines optimal fluid dynamics, efficient heat transfer, low pressure drop and a compact and ...

POWERSAFE™ - Watlow’s medium voltage integrated heater and control system

POWERSAFETM is a fully integrated medium voltage control and heating solution that offers longer heater life, allowing you to confidently replace fossil fuel solutions with a clean electric solution. It also meets the necessary agency requirements to help make your process safe and reliable. Wattage size requirements for electric thermal equipment have been on the rise. This makes medium voltage solutions attractive because they reduce overall installation costs compared to ...

Process Heaters

The term ‘process heater’ is defined as any process plant unit that uses a controlled/monitored flame to heat process gas or liquid streams. Similar units operating at higher temperatures are also used, for example on ethylene production plants, to produce thermal breakdown (‘cracking’) of hydrocarbon process streams — generally referred to as ‘thermal crackers’. Both units are in widespread use on refinery and petrochemical plants and are major consumers of fuel ...

Unrivalled combustion expertise - Superior heat transfer solutions

XRG Technologies is an innovative engineering and procurement firm specializing in fired equipment for the refining, petrochemical, and power markets. We collaborate with our partners to solve complex problems and manage projects from concept to completion. Our staff of industry experts will partner with you and function as your outside engineering support team. We have brought together a team of burner, fired heater, boiler, flare, vapor recovery and thermal oxidizer experts ...

Unrivalled combustion expertise, superior heat transfer solutions

XRG Technologies is an innovative engineering and procurement firm specializing in fired equipment for the refining, petrochemical, and power markets. We collaborate with our partners to solve complex problems and manage projects from concept to completion. Our staff of industry experts will partner with you and function as your outside engineering support team. We have brought together a team of burner, fired heater, boiler, flare, vapor recovery and thermal oxidizer experts ...

VFF Products

VFF supplies a wealth of column-related products and consultation services for the most diverse applications e.g.: - Absorption - Desorption - Distillation - Extraction - Drying - Cooling - Humidification - Water treatment - Droplet separation (demisters) - Desalination - Heterogeneous catalyst reactors - and much more

WATCONNECT®

Watlow® is now offering WATCONNECT® standard control panels that are quickly configured to your specific application requirements and delivered within two weeks. WATCONNECT panels integrate Watlow’s high-quality heater, sensor, temperature controller and power controller products for a complete thermal solution. Normally, competitive custom panels require significantly longer lead times. The broad range of standard features allow customers to quickly configure panels ...

Welcome to Watlow

Watlow was founded in 1922 and was built on the family’s passion to “be the best.” This dedication created a steady stream of new products, a devoted and capable workforce and steady growth. Today, almost 100 years later, we continue to strive to “be the best” by following the principles of Lean, an organizational philosophy that promotes continuous improvement. We call it the Watlow Way. The Watlow Way takes us back to our roots because it is a people-centric ...

Why produce diesel from the vacuum unit?

Look ahead five years. The economy is likely to keep tightening and the rush to control pollution will inevitably be accompanied by demands for greater energy conservation. Consequence? A growing market for diesel which yields more energy per unit volume. Yet many continue to believe that producing diesel from the vacuum unit is poor design—that it should be produced only from the atmospheric column. Hence many refiners feed 20-30% diesel boiling range material to their ...

Xtend by XRG - A better technology for heat transfer

Fired Heater Fouling Costs Millions. A typical 100,000 barrel per day refinery loses $3-7 million annually because of fouling in fired heaters. Fouling overheats tubes, increases firing rate, reduces yields, and causes lost onstream days. Shutting down a crude, vacuum, or coker heater is extremely costly both in labor and throughput. To combat these issues, XRG Technologies developed Xtend - a tube-insert to reduce fouling and increase heat transfer. Xtend - A Better Technology ...