Side-fired primary reformer

Montedison Low-Pressure Process. The Montedison low-pressure process [940], [1036], [1128], [1129] involves a split flow to two primary reformers. About 65% of the feed-steam mixture flows conventionally through the radiant tubes of a fired primary reformer followed by a secondary reformer. The balance of the feed-steam mixture passes through the tubes of a vertical exchanger reformer. This exchanger reformer has a tube sheet for the catalyst tubes at the mixed feed inlet. There is no tube sheet at the bottom of the tubes, where the reformed gas mixes directly with the secondary reformer effluent. The combined streams flow on the shell side to heat the reformer tubes in a manner similar to that described for the M. W. Kellogg KRES reformer, see Sections 4.1.1.8 and 5.1.4.3). The process air flow is stoichiometric. Synthesis is performed at 60 bar in a proprietary three-bed indirectly cooled converter with am-... 

The Primary Reformer is a steam-hydrocarbon reforming tubular furnace that is typically externally fired at 25 to 35 bar and 780°C to 820°C on the process side. The reformer tubes function under an external heat flux of 75,000 W/m2 and are subject to carburization, oxidation, over-heating, stress-corrosion cracking (SCC), sulfidation and thermal cycling. Previously SS 304, SS 310 and SS 347 were used as tube materials. However these materials developed cracks that very frequently led to premature tube failures (see Table 5.10)88. 

The primary reformer is a steam-hydrocarbon reforming tubular furnace that is typically externally fired at 25 to 35 bar and 780°C to 820°C on the process side. From the 1950s through the 1960s SS 304, SS 310, SS 347,... 

Today contractors and licensors use sophisticated computerized mathematical models which take into account the many variables involved in the physical, chemical, geometrical and mechanical properties of the system. ICI, for example, was one of the first to develop a very versatile and effective model of the primary reformer. The program REFORM [361], [430], [439] can simulate all major types of reformers (see below) top-fired, side-fired, terraced-wall, concentric round configurations, the exchanger reformers (GHR, for example), and so on. The program is based on reaction kinetics, correlations with experimental heat transfer data, pressure drop functions, advanced furnace calculation methods, and a kinetic model of carbon formation [419],... 

---