Ethylene Furnace 1

[CaracasEC]

Hi All,
Can someone help me on critical maintenance issues of ethylene cracker furnace?
Thanks a lot in advance....

 

[rustbuster]

Insufficient question, what type of furnace, natural draft, balanced draft, forced? You need to be more specific if you need decent responses.

 

[hacksaw]

these are well known designs, and well known for their high maintenance

been some time since my own dealing with them, but tube failure & tube skin temperatures seem to stand out

the biggest concern is coke formation, but there is little you can do to avoid that

 

[europipe]

As hacksaw sais, coke formation is a big issue, and coils hanging out, at some point they need to be replaced (3-6 months).

 

[CaracasEC]

Hi All,
These are lummus furnace of SRT VI & 1.5 design.
What critical maintenance issues have you encountered
in addition to those mentioned above?
thanx...

 

[europipe]

Transfervalves fully cooked, no movement possible.
Very difficult to loosen them, mostly the stem breaks.
Decoking the lines is very hard.

 

[europipe]

Try to get on site to hear the maintenance/production crew to get some info

 

[CaracasEC]

Our transfer line valves is a three valve design; one for the main transferline valve, one small decoke valve and one large decoke valve. The small decoke valve is mechanically linked to the main transferline valve to ensure that the upstream pressure at the main transferline valve is higher than at the downstream. The design of the valve is Double Disc Through Conduit Gate Valve by Z&J Technologies.

 

[europipe]

Dow Chemical?