Refinery industry heat exchangers

Fig. 8. Combustion turbines with process heat recovery (a) represents direct use of exhaust gas for process heating where industrial process includes refinery, chemicals, food processing, and ethanol production and (b) exhaust-to-water heat exchanger where industrial process includes material drying,...

Murphy, G. and Campbell, J., 1992, Fouling in refinery heat exchangers Causes, effects measurement and control, in Bohnet, M. et al, eds. Fouling Mechanisms. Editions Europeenes Thermique et Industrie, Paris. 

Another flowsheet is in Fig. 2-4. The distillation column is complemented by two heat exchangers which makes possible preheating of the feed by the contact with hot bottom product. In practice, especially in refinery and petrochemical industries, we can meet even with much complicated heat exchange systems consisting of dozens of heat exchangers which make processes economically viable. 

Most of the water used industrially removes heat from production processes. It is one of the major applications for water and is a major factor in siting plants and processes. Cooling systems suffer many forms of corrosion and failure. The diversity of attack stems from wide differences in cooling water system design, temperature, flow, water chemistry, alloy composition, and operation. An almost endless variation of process stream chemistries may be involved in cooling water systems. Refinery and chemical process industries can employ hundreds of heat exchangers at a single plant, each with a different process stream chemistry [14]. 

Industrial chemical cleaning involves the use of reactive chemicals to remove unwanted deposits from the surfaces of various pieces of process equipment. Included are components of power-generating units such as boilers and condensers, heat exchangers in refineries and petrochemical plants, and other industrial equipment such as digesters in paper mills. The chemical removal of unwanted surface deposits is conducted for many reasons. The first reason is to eliminate scales that contribute to increased corrosion. Examples of these types of deposits include iron oxides and copper found on the watersides of many types of process equipment. The second reason is to increase heat transfer. While steel may have a thermal conductivity of... 

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