Avoid unnecessary costs by understanding process problems before taking action

When a piece of process equipment starts experiencing problems and producing off-spec product, every engineer’s reaction is to make a change to “fix” the problem and get it back on-spec. yet, many plants lack adequate instrumentation to completely diagnose the cause of the poor performance. Without a more complete understanding of the root cause of the problem, “corrective action” could have little effect or make the problem worse. Gathering supplemental ...

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 ...

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 ...

Making the invisible visible

In FCC Units (Fluidised Catalyst Cracking Units) the atmospheric residue from the distillation is cracked to LPG, naptha and other components. This sometimes leads to “invisible” deposits inside the Riser. This article features Tracerco’s ThruVision™ scans to illustrate how the technology helped the refinery to identify these deposits at an early stage. Bayernoil operates two FCC Units to convert heavy hydrocarbons. In the FCC Unit the feed is injected ...

Moving gamma scanning forward — quantitative analysis of tray capacity

Improving process operating margins can include maximising production of higher value products and/or minimising production costs. Process plants depend heavily on fractionation towers to produce products meeting customer specifications. Tower gamma scanning is well established in the process industries as a qualitative tool to help troubleshoot fractionation towers. Using new measurement detector technology and innovative analysis of gamma scanning data Tracerco is now able to ...

On budget, on time, offline

Flawless project execution will not prevent a unit shutdown due to selecting the wrong metallurgy for a challenging crude slate. No matter how well it is fabricated and installed, a shell and tube exchanger with cold, high viscosity vacuum resid on the tube side will have poor heat transfer performance. On-time shipping and installation of a too-small desalter will not prevent crude column overhead corrosion if the centerline velocity is overly optimistic for the design crude. A ...

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 ...

PackView™ - quantitative analysis of packing mal-distribution

The last issue of Tracerco Insight (Vol 6 Ed 1) featured our patent pending FrothView™ technology illustrating how using Tracerco’s new measurement detector technology and analysis of gamma scan data provides quantitative information about the useful capacity of trayed towers. In this article you will learn how applying this technology to packed towers can determine the % liquid fraction providing a measure of the maximum useful capacity of the packing. Enhanced ...

Tracerco Diagnostics™

Providing real time measurement technologies to assist with critical decision making. Tracerco Scanning Services TRU-SCAN® Application. Do you have problems with the operation of your stripper/absorber or fractionation tower? Is this limiting production? Do you want to reduce your operating costs? Do you want to reduce your shutdown time? Tracerco’s Tru-Scan™ technology, utilizing FrothView™, is used to evaluate the mechanical integrity and hydraulic performance ...

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 ...

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 ...