AM-14-14 Distillation Heater Operation While Processing Tight Oil

Description:

Pasadena Refining started processing domestic tight oil in early 2012. Since then, this period has proven to be a learning experience dealing with the impacts of the crude’s properties in the refinery process units. The crude assay data informed us about the higher vaporization, but issues caused by filterable solids, basic solids, waxes, crude compatibility and paraffin’s cracking were not fully appreciated until later. As the tight oil was progressively added to the crude blend processed, an accelerated rate of increase in skin temperatures was noticed in the crude distillation unit’s atmospheric heater. This fact required the refinery to reduce charge rates and heater outlet temperature to maintain the skin temperatures below maximum design. This report discusses causes contributing to high tube skin temperatures, tools used to evaluate heater performance and actions taken to minimize fouling rates.