AM-15-16 Tight Oils – Design Approach for Improved Reliability and Performance in the Crude Preheat Train

Description:

In the past few years, refiners have maximized processing of tight oil in existing assets and have even constructed new crude units to take advantage of the spread that has existed for domestic tight oil compared to more conventional, benchmark crudes like West Texas Intermediate, WTI. Tight oil crudes are causing significant fouling in crude preheat exchangers and crude charge heaters as well as causing corrosion in the crude column and overhead system. The cause of the fouling is from various contributing factors including the paraffinic nature of the crude, filterable solids, and deposition in equipment when the crude is blended with high asphaltene crudes. Crude unit reliability can be increased in retrofits or in new units through approaches that include maintaining high fluid velocities in exchangers, proper desalter design and operation as well as in heat exchanger and crude charge heater design. Burns & McDonnell has significant experience in crude unit design for processing tight oil. This paper will highlight our latest experience and design know-how applied to the crude preheat train including heat exchangers, desalters, pre-flash drum, and fired heaters.