Incorporating Deposit Ageing into Visualisation of Crude Oil Preheat Train Fouling

Abstract

Fouling is an acute problem in crude oil preheat train heat exchangers as it affects the thermal and hydraulic performance of individual units as well as the network. Ageing of fouling deposits complicates these interactions and effective tools for visualising these effects are needed. The modified temperature field plot construction, devised by Graham Polley and co-workers in 2002, allows the impact of fouling on pressure drop and heat duty across individual units and the preheat train to be presented in a systematic way. The simple deposit ageing model of Ishiyama et al. (2010) was incorporated into the analysis of a simple preheat train based on that presented by Panchal and Huang-Fu (2000) to calculate the impact of ageing on fouling dynamics and network performance. The modified temperature field plot is shown to be effective in communicating the impact of fouling and ageing, allowing a designer or operator to be able to interpret correctly what might otherwise be conflicting trends or unexpected behaviour.