A Practical Method for Clean Cycle Optimization

It is common that field data quality could be a problem and not all exchanger temperatures are measured online. To resolve these issues, data reconciliation is developed. First, field data are reviewed by engineers and some critical temperatures that are not measured are estimated by engineers. Then the least squares error minimization is applied to make estimation of the rest of the temperatures. It is an interactive procedure and the estimated temperamres are subject to further data reconcUiation. 

This standardized simulation covers the process and the heat exchanger network with all streams modeled based on standard physical properties. The standard simulation can determine the nominal network terminal temperature. The U values for the standard case are calculated from the online measurement and estimated temperatures as discussed above. 

When a heat exchanger is severely fouled, one needs to know the root causes. For example, it could be caused by low velocity or type of crudes or else. Identification of root causes lead to determination of the most appropriate fouling mitigation and cleaning method. 

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