Water Stripper Reboiler Corrosion and Fouling

One of the questions that 1 am often asked is what can be done to mitigate reboiler tube failures in sour water strippers and the consequent steam leaks into the stripped sour water  

One helpful suggestion is to avoid the use of kettle reboilers or once-through thermosyphon reboilers, in favor of circulating thermosyphon reboilers. That is, feed the reboiler directly from the bottom of the stripper and design for about a 10% to 20% vaporization rate (see Fig. 47.3). This will reduce, but unfortunately not eliminate, the reboiler tube failures by maintaining more liquid flow across the tubes. 

1 have a simpler suggestion, if you can meet the following process limitations  

The stripped water flows to the crude unit desalter and/or the hydrotreater effluent washwater makeup. 

External water is required to supplement stripped sour water to the above units. That is, the plant s sour water stripper bottoms is not sufficient for the total washwater requirements. 

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