REFINERY AND PETROCHEMICAL EQUIPMENT (CPE 671)

COURSE OVERVIEW : REFINERY AND PETROCHEMICAL EQUIPMENT (CPE 671)

Equipment related to refinery and petrochemical processes Conception of the overall plant and the equipment design

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Lesson objectives : By the end of the class, the students are expected to be able :
to identify the necessary and the most appropriate equipment for refinery and petrochemical plant. to understand the importance of safety in plant operation and equipment.

INTRODUCTION

What are the petrochemical plants that are available in Malaysia ?

..can you name some?

Petrochemical Plants in Pasir Gudang, Johor

Petrochemical Plants in Kertih, Terengganu

Petrochemical Plants in Bintulu Sarawak

Petrochemical Plants in Gebeng, Pahang

Major equipment in refinery and petrochemical plant

1. Heat exchange equipment : examples : heat exchanger, fired heaters, air-cooled exchangers, condenser, reboiler
phase change

- what are the fundamentals of heat transfer? - basic heat transfer relations ??

no phase change

Examples of common equipment in refinery and petrochemical plant

2. Separator Equipment fractionators (distillation column), absorbers (packed column), scrubber, vapor-liquid separator (knockout drum/ flash drum, knock-out pot, compressor suction drum or compressor inlet drum), filter separator, fixed bed separator.
types of phases

what are the fundamentals of separation process?

boiling point of component relative volatility pressure difference

Examples of common equipment in refinery and petrochemical pant

3. Reactor stirred tanks, packed tubes or vessels, shell-and-tube devices or highly specialized configurations (specially fabricated)
Chemical kinetics

what are the fundamentals of reaction process?

Stoichiometry of the participating reactions Heats of reaction, equilibrium data, rate of reaction,

Examples of common equipment in refinery and petrochemical plant

4. Transport and storage of fluids - pumps - compressors - storage tanks

Why accidents happen??

Accidents in petrochemical industry can be due to.. poorly designed, poorly operated, or poorly maintained

Poorly designed: A stripper column collapsed.

close-up of collapsed stripper column..

Why?? Due to improperly protected distillation system

the situation..
Column was flooded with water. Drain the water by pumping it

out thus creating vacuum condition Vacuum relief devices are not originally provided on the stripper
Corrective method

Installed vacuum breakers at the top of the column

 Vacuum relief devices: A pressure relief

device which is designed to allow fluid to enter a pressure vessel in order to avoid extreme internal vacuum. Vacuum breaker: A device used to relieve a vacuum formed in a water supply line to prevent backflow. Also known as backflow preventer.

Poorly operated: Furnace temperature safeguard is altereda major fire erupted

Situation..
a tube in furnace ruptured due to overheating : 1800 gallons (6800L) of combustible heat transfer fluid spilled and burned intensively. Witnesses stated flames were over 50-ft. (15m) high in approximately five seconds after fire started. in 25 minutes, four-level of structures and associated process equipment were damaged. estimated loss : > USD 1.5 mill property damage USD 4 mill - business interruption

What happen ?
The heater was designed to automatically shutdown and alarm in the control room in response to high heat-transfer oil pressure, high tube-wall temperature, low-pressure fuel gas, or flame failure. The shutdown setpoint was found to have been mistakenly raised to the maximum of the instrument's setpoint range, or 1,600 F (870 C). The tube metal high-temperature alarm should have been fixed at 850 F(454 C ).

The limited burner shutdown instrumentation had not been properly inspected and tested to ensure the necessary high degree of reliability.

Poorly designed material: Wrong material.

Caustic soda leaks due to an improper gasket used.

 Molten caustic soda at about 700oF

(370oC) sprayed and dripped for about 2.5 hours from elevated equipment in a well maintained unit. The blistering hot caustic soda leak discovered during the day shift - melted insulation on wiring and destroyed plastic electrical junction boxes and instrument control boxes.

 The situation was inadvertently created

when someone installed a compressed asbestos gasket (the nearly universal gasket for this chemical complex at that time) on a thermocouple flange in the vapor space. Specifications dictated a metallic nickel gasket, but the compresses asbestos was installed in error.

 Estimated 15 tons (13,600 kg) of caustic soda (about 98- percent strength) leaked out of the concentrator.
It cost about USD $40,000 to clean up and recover from the damages. Luckily, there were no injuries or environmental insults.

Poorly designed material: Another costly gasket error

A serious oil refinery resulted from the

installation of the wrong gasket on a heat exchanger. The unit was operating normally, processing a very flammable naphtha for about six week following an outage in which the heat exchangers were clean and tested A spiral-wound metal asbestos gasket was required by specification, but a compressed asbestos gasket was installed.

 The gasket failed causing a leak

followed by a fire. The heat from the initial fire caused an adjacent hydrogen exchanger flange to open. Vapors flashed and impinged on an 18inch (46cm) hydrogen-oil line which then ruptured. This piping failure released oil and hydrogen under 185 psig (1275kPa/ 12.6 atm) pressure.

 The fire was brought under control after

about two hours, but it was allowed to burn another hour and twenty minutes to consume the remaining fuel. The fire damages affected the electrical and instrument systems, piping and structural steel equipment.

Corrective action/ counter measure

Preventive measures included a review of

gasket installation and purchase specification procedures. Drawings appropriate for turnaround work were developed to conform to new facility practices and have flange ratings marked. A retaining program covering gasket installation procedures for craftsmen was conducted. Purchasing specifications for gasket now require color coding.

Flanges gasket

 In some plants, three or four types of gasket

services are needed where previously all pressure handled with compressed asbestos-type gaskets. For high temperature applications the relatively expensive flexible graphite-type gaskets can be used. For a wide variety of process services, such as petroleum-based solvents, oxygen, and chlorine, an expensive Teflon-like gasket may be required. Today, there exists a serious need to spend sufficient time to educate all maintenance personnel on details of gasket selection, installation, and the limitations of each type of gasket.

A water drain line is altered. a reactor exploded

 A supervisor of a solvents plant was concerned about trace

emissions of heat transfer fluid from a small diameter water drain line. He, no doubt, felt that with just about 30 ft, (9m) of small 1.5 inch (3.8cm) piping, a couple of valves, and a small conical bottom tank, this heat transfer fluid could be recovered. The aim was to reduce pollution potentials and wastewater treatment costs. The supervisor probably only focused on one area of concern. However, this small change in just a cooling water system contributed to the destruction of a 110 psig (760 kPa) rated 9ft (2.3m) in diameter pressure vessel. A short-lived fire ensued. The severe overpressure damage to this highly engineered nickel-clad reactor resulted in over $500,000 in property damages.

A water drain line is altered. a reactor exploded

 The modification involved the rerouting

of the discharge water from the barometric condenser . Rather than being discharged intoa chemical sewer via a sump, the water stream had been routed to a hopper that allowed the entrained heat transfer fluid droplets to drop out of solution and be recovered. Decontaminated water overflowed to the chemical sewer.

Other accidents

A fire in giant floating roof in crude oil tank.

After the top opened, the fire burned but the liquid was still contained.

Collapsed coker drum in a refinery.