High-Efficiency Heat

Exchangers in Refineries
Alfa Laval
- Efficiency

Corrugated plate design promotes:

High turbulence

• Efficient heat transfer

– 3-5 times higher heat
transfer coefficient

• Minimised fouling
– 5-10 times higher
wall shear stress

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 Alfa Laval
- Operation
Designed for:
Temperature-cross and close temperature approach

Close In T1
temperature
approach: Out
down to 3°C Temperature
T1
T2 cross
Out

In
T2

• High efficiency in Heat recovery

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High-Efficiency Heat Exchangers Save Space

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 Compabloc
The all-welded compact heat exchanger

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Compabloc - welded and accessible

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 Compabloc Advantages
Over Gasketed Plate and Frame (GPHE):
• 1.0 – 1.2mm thick welded corrugated plates (up to 3x thicker)
• no inter-plate rubber gaskets (lowers leakage risk, allows handling of
aggressive/high temperature media)
• Plate gap of 5 mm (up to 2x the gap of GPHE)
• Full accessibility on both sides (inspection and cleaning)
Over Shell & Tube (S&T):
• Higher thermal performance - 3 to 5 times higher heat transfer values
than S&T
• 25+% more heat recovery (Based on crude unit preheat services)
• Compactness – 1/10 the floor space of a S&T (no bundle extraction
area)

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Compabloc® Mechanical Cleaning

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 Compabloc® Mechanical Cleaning
Compabloc CPK75-250 in Lean/Rich Amine Service
• Startup in late 2008
• Upset in April 2009 caused rapid fouling
• Cleaned May 2010; still operating well (as of January 2011)

Corrected Fouling Factor LMTD

0.006 60.0
Cleaning
Cleaning
0.005
Fouling Factor, ft2_h_F/BTU

50.0

0.004
40.0

0.003
30.0
0.002
20.0
0.001
10.0
0
10/29/2008 3/28/2009 8/25/2009 1/22/2010 6/21/2010 11/18/2010 0.0
-0.001 9/9/08 12/18/08 3/28/09 7/6/09 10/14/09 1/22/10 5/2/10 8/10/10

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 Crude units
Over 400 Compabloc units in Crude/Vac

• Overheads vs. crude

• Every Stage of Crude preheat

• Final product cooling

•Pump-around cooling

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 Crude Preheat
Four Compablocs in titanium
(two in parallel + two in series)

Condensing of C1-C9
“Virgin naphtha toppings”

1st stage
Toppings 124 to 101°C
by pre-heating boiler feed
water to 95 °C

2nd stage
Toppings 101 to 77 °C
by preheating of crude
feed 25 to 71 °C

Total heat load: 16500 kW

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In operation since 1997
 US Refinery Revamps with
Compabloc
• Revamp for expansion and energy efficiency
• Important to analyze Pinch at FEED stage to maximize energy
recovery
• 6 Services (9 Units) changed to Compabloc
– Crude Tower Overheads to Crude
– Crude OVHDS reflux vapor to Crude
– Kerosene to Crude
– Upper Pumparound to Crude
– “Cold” VTB to Crude
– “Hot” VTB to Crude

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 US Refinery Revamps with
Compabloc
• Results:
– Crude Temperature to Heater increased by 110F
– 40MMBTU/hr saved. @ $7/MMBTU this is
$2.4MM/year in energy alone. More when
considering heater emissions reduction
– Heater inlet temperature maintained

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 Atmospheric distillation unit

Atmospheric residue 300 000 kg/h 165→90 ºC, PD 80 kPa

Boiler feed water 140 000 kg/h 148←50 ºC, PD 60 kPa

Two Compabloc CP75

in stainless steel, each
with a h. t. area of 320 m2

In continous operation
since beginning of 2002.

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 Vacuum Tower Bottoms Steam Generators
Major Mid-West Refinery

Vac Tower residue Generating Steam at 225PSIG (1st Stage)

Generating Steam at 125PSIG (2nd Stage)

Two Compabloc CPK75

in Hastelloy C2000, each
with a h. t. area of 3500 ft2
In operation since February 2007

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 New RFCC unit

Fractionator o’heads condensers

Distillate (diesel alt gasoline) cooler

In operation since 2002 www.alfalaval.com

 References – Middle fraction
cooling

Duty:
Middle distillate fraction
255  165 °C
River water

Two Compabloc units in

titanium

Start up in 2003

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Catalytic processes
200 Compabloc units in operation

• Hydrotreatment (HDT / HDS)

• Alkylation

•Reforming and isomerisation

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Hydrotreater Stabilizer Feed/Effluent
Texas Refinery
• Single Compabloc replaced three F-Shells*
Stripper Bottoms 472172 F, ∆P 12 psi
Stripper Feed 410 100 F, ∆P 13 psi
9-12-08
Design Operating Data
Duty, MMBTU/hr 38.94 43.08
Theta 4.6 4.5
U-Value (Service),
BTU/ft2 Hr F 173 190
• Three F-Shell & Tubes required to perform above Duty.
• Compabloc Startup June 2008
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 PENEX Unit
US Refinery
• Single Compabloc Increased Heat Recovery 42%
• Eliminated Downstream cooler
• Saved ~$600k/yr in energy costs

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 Reforming and isomerization:
Australia

One CP50 for interchanging

light reformate / splitter o’head
vapour
One CPK40 for reformate
splitter o’heads condensing

One CP75 installed as reboiler

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 Alkylation plant

Two Compablocs in Alloy C276

replaced S&Ts for heating of
alkylation mix (iso-butane +
gasoline) by means of:

1. Gasoline
2. Steam condensate

Alkylation mix contains 15%

H2SO4

In operation since 2001

 Treatment processes
Over 300 units operating

• Amine treatment in HDT/HDS

• Sour water stripping

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 Refinery in Delaware
• Compabloc in 316L
800 gpm Lean solvent 218.3129.1 F, ∆P 13.5 psi
800 gpm Rich solvent 186 100 F, ∆P 14.9 psi

Q=31.76 MMBtu/hr
U=385.9 Btu/ft2-hr-F
A=2751.3 ft2
- In operation since 2000
- Never cleaned

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www.alfalaval.com/refinery

Visit our website and read more about our time,

money and energy saving products for Crude Oil
Refineries.
You’ll find information on sensitive refinery processes,
customer stories, FAQs, and much more.

www.alfalaval.com