Originally appeared in:

1998 issue, Pgs 119-125 Reprinted with publishers permission.

PTQ Autumn

HEATING THE PROCESS AND FLUID FLOW

Revamping Vacuum Heaters

With crudes becoming heavier, a number of refineries are carrying out deep cut revamps to improve cutpoint. In most cases vacuum heaters can be revamped to handle increased capacity, with the bonus of improved efficiency and longer life.
Ashutosh Garg Furnace improvements Vacuum units are the backbone of any refinery. Next to the atmospheric unit, the vacuum unit is the most common unit in the refining industry. In the past decade, it has acquired extra significance due to the fact that crudes are becoming heavier. There is a continued requirement world-wide for heavy distillate feedstock, which places much emphasis on the need to cut deeper into atmospheric residue. Attention is therefore focused on the operation of vacuum distillation unit. With heavier crudes now being processed, the vacuum units are becoming overloaded. The price differential in crudes is also forcing refiners to switch to heavier crudes, and to this end a number of refiners are revamping their vacuum units. The two most important items of equipment in the vacuum unit are the vacuum heater and the vacuum tower. This article concentrates on vacuum heater revamping, which in most of the cases results in increased capacity, improved efficiency and longer life. Vacuum Heaters The typical vacuum heater is a single cell or twin cell horizontal tube cabin heater. The radiant
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tubes are laid out on both sidewalls in a horizontal manner. The flow of fluid is generally from top to bottom. The burners are provided on the floor and are spaced for providing uniform heat distribution. Some of the older designs of heaters have burners firing horizontally on both end walls. The arch of the heater is either flat or sloped. Sometimes, radiant tubes are also installed in the arch section. The convection section is mounted on top of the radiant section. It consists of bare and extended surface tubes. Finned tubes are used in the gas-fired heaters and studded tubes are used in the oil fired heaters. The convection section absorbs 20-30 percent of the total heat duty. Most modern vacuum heaters have provisions for adding two extra rows in the convection section, which are useful during debottlenecking. The flue gases are cooled within o 150-250 F of the inlet fluid temperature. A number of vacuum heaters are provided with steam superheating coils in the convection section for superheating column steam. The stack is mounted on top of the convection section to provide draught and dispose of the flue gas safely.

The industry is slowly moving towards vertical tube designs of vacuum heaters. Vertical tube heaters are compact, require less plot space, and are more economical than horizontal tube heaters. The vertical tube radiant box could be a cylinder or a box with tubes design allows the use of larger and fewer burners. The draught available in vertical tube designs is mostly higher than box heaters. Vertical tube designs are generally limited to 60 ft. tube length due to tube handling limitations. The size of vertical tube cylindrical heaters is limited to 150 MMBtu/hr although larger heaters have been built using a multi-cellular concept. Heater Outlet One of the distinct parameters is the operating condition at the vacuum heater outlet. The vacuum tower operates under the vacuum conditions in order to recover the high boiling components from the atmospheric distilled oil. While the thermal instability of the oil limits the operating temperature in the system, the distillates yield is maximized by injection of live steam to reduce the hydrocarbon partial pressure. A part of this steam is

injected into vacuum heater tubes. However, this is achieved at the expense of considerably higher volumetric flow rates, which require a larger flow area of the tubes in order to limit the pressure drop. Heat absorption rate and the pressure determine the process temperature profile inside the tubes. A lower pressure drop will help in lowering the operating temperature. A fine balance of these parameters is essential for the optimum design of a vacuum heater. The radiant coil is characterized by the presence of increasing tube size towards the outlet. Typically the last three or four tubes in each pass are gradually increased in size to keep the fluid velocity below the sonic velocity. Fluid velocity at the furnace outlet should be as high as possible, without exceeding 80 per cent of critical velocity. The tube size at the outlet is generally limited to 1012 in. diameter. Larger tube size present problems of supporting and handling inside the heater. Steam Injection Another distinct feature of the vacuum heater is the steam injection in the heater coils. The use of live steam helps to maximize the distillates yield in the vacuum distillation unit. However, excessive use of steam will lead to higher motive steam for the ejectors and cooling water in the condensers. Generally, optimization of the vacuum level and the steam rate will ensure a maximum yield of distillates at the highest allowable operating temperature. As mentioned above, a part of this steam is injected into the heater tubes. The presence of steam in the heater serves to reduce the hydrocarbon partial pressure. It
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induces vaporization at the lower temperatures and therefore the peak film temperatures are reduced. Steam injection in the vacuum heater gives rise to extra vaporization of the charge. Injecting steam often means that the pressure drop across the heater increases substantially. Steam can be injected at the heater inlet, at the radiant inlet, at the point of vaporization or at the point where charge reaches the cracking temperature. Steam injection is also beneficial in reducing coking of the tubes in a limited way. Some vacuum heaters are designed and operated without any steam injection and are known as dry vacuum heaters. Transfer Line Transfer line is used to connect the furnace outlets with the distillation tower. For most furnaces, the transfer line design is based on reasonable pressure drop, mechanical flexibility, and consistency with the process design. However, vacuum heater transfer line requires special considerations due to the high specific volume of the fluid at the tower conditions. Even with a very low fraction vaporized, dispersed flow conditions exist in the outlet tubes and transfer line due to the low-pressure level and high specific volume of the vapor. Working back from the vacuum tower towards the furnace, charge pressure increases, thereby reducing specific volume. This permits the use of a progressively smaller diameter transfer line without exceeding the critical velocity. Fluid velocity in the transfer line is also limited to 80 per cent of critical velocity, although at the outlet of transfer line the

fluid achieves the critical velocity. If the transfer line is too small, a high pressure drop will be created, causing the temperature of the stock to drop in the transfer line as it vaporizes. Consequently, the charge outlet temperature will have to be increased to maintain the desired design flash zone temperature and cut points for the downstream processing column. Coking and cracking the furnace will also increase. The maximum allowable pressure drop in the transfer line should be chosen so that the required flash zone conditions will be obtained without excessively high furnace outlet temperatures. Design Considerations Appropriate changes and modifications can be made to a vacuum heater to allow heavier residues to be satisfactorily processed. The heater debottlenecking basis must be such as to fully and adequately exploit degrees of freedom available. The two main degrees of freedom, which can be exploited in a vacuum heater revamp are the outlet temperature and pressure. Outlet Temperature: The maximum temperature to which the oil can be subjected is limited by the need to control the extent of thermal cracking. The cracking of oil can be regarded as being a first order reaction and the degree of reaction, or thermal breakdown, is a direct function of time and temperature. Another phenomenon occurring in the vacuum heater outlet tubes is the peaking of fluid temperatures. This happens due to pressure drop in the tubes and fittings and it suppresses vaporization of charge and results in fluid temperature

increase. Therefore, in most of the cases, the maximum bulk temperature in the heater is generally higher than the outlet temperature. This differential needs to be controlled, especially during the revamps. It is necessary to limit oil degradation by adhering to a suitable time/temperature relationship. In the vacuum heaters, a restriction on the maximum, bulk oil temperature and heater outlet temperature is often placed to control the cracking. Excess cracking will increase the tendency for coke laydown. Maximum permissible bulk oil temperature is very much a function of crude composition. For revamp purposes, it is frequently necessary to ensure that the temperature limit is fully exploited. Full benefit from such temperature increase results only when the appropriate vaporization can be handled in the heater. High heater outlet temperatures, with transfer line permitting gives higher column temperature. Outlet Pressure: For a given maximum temperature limit, the production of distillates becomes a direct function of pressure. There is a considerable incentive to ensure that the column pressure is as low as can be economically justified. This gets carried on to the vacuum heater outlet. The transfer line pressure drop becomes very important. It is essential to have the pressure drop in the transfer line as low as possible. This will result in a low pressure at the heater outlet. Using the right size of tubes at the heater outlet will provide the correct vaporization without exceeding the maximum temperatures. Debottlenecking concentrates on improving existing vacuum heaters.
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Hence, before the debottlenecking scheme is finalized the current performance of the vacuum heater must be thoroughly evaluated and analyzed. Revamp Considerations Any revamp of a vacuum heater must start with flash zone conditions. Typically the column inlet temperature is in the range o of 700-750 F and the pressure is in the range of 2-4 in Hg. For heaters used in lube oil manufacture, colour and stability of the charge also come into play. These heaters are designed with lower heat fluxes and with steam injection to the coils to reduce the outlet temperature. In the area of deep cut, where refiners are trying to extract the maximum from the atmospheric tower bottoms, the designers are shooting for highest flash zone temperature and lowest pressure. An o increase of 25-70 F in the heater outlet temperature is not unusual. Once the flash zone conditions are firmed up the engineer should move backwards towards the vacuum heater. Among the first items that need to be checked are the pressure drop and temperature drop across the transfer line to fix the vacuum heater outlet conditions. This check will also reveal the adequacy of the transfer line and any need to revamp it. What is the acceptable pressure drop across the transfer line? It varies according to the operating conditions and the cracking temperature. A good recommendation is to have the pressure drop across the transfer line equal to the flash zone pressure. A high furnace outlet temperature would cause

cracking and it will lead to coking in the column. The transfer line size may have to be increased if the pressure drop across the transfer line is leading to very high outlet temperature. Case Study Frequent coking was happening in a vacuum heater. Analysis of the problem revealed the following: flash zone o temperature 725 F; vacuum heater outlet temperature o 777 F. There was a temperature o drop of more than 50 F across the transfer line. In this case, increasing the transfer line size was the first step towards debottlenecking. The client ended up increasing the transfer line from 12 to 24 in. This reduced the temperature drop across the o transfer line to 15 F. One of the important criteria in vacuum heater design is the radiant heat flux. It is usually limited to 10,000-11,000 Btu/hr2 ft . Radiant heat flux is one of the important parameters. It is defined as heat transferred per unit area. Vacuum heaters are generally designed with lower heat flux as compared to atmospheric heater. Lower heat flux keeps fluid temperature below the cracking temperature of the fluid. In dry vacuum heaters, heat fluxes are even lower than the wet vacuum heaters. Flow distribution in a multipass heater is very important. Maldistribution of flow can cause coking in some passes. The number of passes in a vacuum heater is designed considering the available pressure drop across the heater and the outlet velocity. The numbers of passes are generally kept even to ensure uniform heat transfer.

Vacuum heaters are conservatively designed with low H/D ratio. The height of the radiant section is generally limited to between 2.0 and 2.5 times the radiant section width, or diameter in the case of a vertical cylindrical heater. Lower flux rates are desirable but these can be regarded as a reasonable maximum when debottlenecking a heater. Another parameter used in the industry is the residence time in the coil. Although no specific numbers are available, the recommendation is to heat the fluid as fast as possible, while minimizing the residence time of fluid in the zone where the film temperatures are above o 800 F, to minimize cracking. Other factors which are equally important in a revamp are flow distribution, mass velocity and flame impingement, among others. Debottlenecking Schemes Several debottlenecking schemes can increase vacuum heater capacity. The major ones are: Increasing the heat transfer area in the convection section Changing the number of passes. Increasing the radiant coil tube size. Installing forced-draught burners. Installing an air preheating system. Increasing Convection Surface It is much easier to add a heat transfer surface in the convection section than in the radiant section. Convection section absorbs 20-30 per cent of the total heat duty. Increasing the heat transfer surface can
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reduce the flue gas temperature leaving the convection section. Flue gas temperature leaving the convection section can be reduced by the addition of convective heattransfer surface. The flue gas temperature approach can be reduced to o 150 F of the charge inlet temperature. This can be done in several ways, some of which are as follows: Adding tubes Replacing bare tubes with extended surface tubes Substituting finned tubes for studded tubes Change of service Case Study The convection section of a vacuum heater was designed to minimize the convection section surface. Since the original design, the vacuum feed preheat temperature had o o increased from 650 F to 700 F. Currently, the flue gas leaving the convection section was o more than 1100 F. High flue gas temperature was loading the air preheater and ID fan. It reduced overall system thermal efficiency by about 5 per cent. The flue gas temperature leaving the air preheater was higher by almost o 150 F. High flue gas temperature to air preheater was also leading to higher air preheat temperature. Higher preheat meant more air pressure drop across APH, ducting and burners; and the FD fan started limiting. Higher air preheat temperature led to an increase in the radiant heat flux. The high rate of radiant heat transfer was accelerating coking in the tubes.

The client was experiencing short run lengths of the vacuum heater. In the redesigned convection section, heat absorption in the convection section was maximized. This minimized the heat load in the radiant section, kept tubes cool and improved the overall operation and efficiency of the system. The original convection section consisted of studded tubes suitable for oil firing. Since oil was no longer fired, studded tubes were replaced with finned tubes, which are suitable for gas firing. Finned tubes are cheaper, offer more efficient heat transfer and lower flue gas pressure drop. The original convection section consisted of two bare rows and four studded rows. Two additional rows of tubes can be installed in the convection section of most vacuum heaters without making a major change. Most of the vacuum heaters have a provision for the addition of two future rows. The inlet-piping terminals need to be relocated. In this case, space for the installation of sootblowers was used to install an extra row of tubes and three additional rows were added to the existing convection section layout without extending the current convection section. The new convection section consisted of two bare and seven

finned rows, which were accommodated in the existing convection box. While changing stud tubes with fin tubes, it is important to match the outer dimensions of finned and studded tubes. The flue gas temperature exiting the new convection dropped to o approximately 800 F. The performance before and after the modification is compared in Table 1. Additional heat transfer surface increases the flue gas pressure drop. Lower stack gas temperature reduces the draught availability. This requires rerating the stack for new operating conditions. One alternative is to make the stack taller or add an induced-draught fan at the top of convection section. A check of the heaters existing foundation and structure is required to ensure that the additional loading can be safely borne by the foundation. Sometimes foundation load limitations may not allow either option. In such a case, one possibility would be to install a grade-mounted stack or to place the convection section and stack on a separate foundation. More space will be taken up if an outboard convection bank (one mounted on an independent external structure) is added to the heater. In addition, the fluid pressure drop across the vacuum heater will go up. Sometimes a new feed pump may be required to offset the additional tube side pressure drop. In most of the cases involving convection section revamp, it has been found that prefabricating the convection section and replacing part or complete convection section is economical on an installed costs basis. Prefabrication reduces
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the downtime significantly. Prefabrication also eliminates constraints associated with tubesheets, refractory etc. Fieldwork is also minimized. Changing Number of Passes Generally, the feedstock to the vacuum heater increases in quantity substantially as heavier crudes are processed in the units. This often results in a high-pressure drop in the existing coil configuration and high mass velocities. The vaporization in the vacuum heater also changes due to the properties of the reduced crude. Where heavy crude is being processed, vaporization at the heater outlet is much less than as compared to a lighter feedstock. However, subjecting the charge at higher temperature and lower pressure restores some of the vaporization. In most of these cases, the radiant coil needs to be checked and rerated. If the number of heater passes is doubled as has been done in some revamps, the pressure drop in the revamped coil becomes almost one-eighth of the original pressure drop. The change in the number of passes needs to be done carefully. In one case, a vacuum heater was revamped from four passes to eight passes, to handle 50 percent more throughput. This reduced the pressure drop across the heater significantly. Simultaneously, the mass velocity was reduced. This, combined with an increase in outlet temperature, led to reduction in heater run lengths and high tube metal temperatures. The heater had to be completely rerated.

Changing Radiant Tube Size In some cases, to handle increased throughput and vaporization, the outlet tubes in the vacuum heater need to be increased in size to avoid choking of flow. In such cases, the designer needs to make sure the critical velocity is not exceeded in any of the tubes. In one instance, the client had 5 in, 6 in and 8 in tubes at the heater outlet, and 6 in, 8 in and 10 in tubes were used to replace them. In this case, additional heat transfer surface was also provided in the radiant section. Two tubes per pass were added towards the inlet of each coil. Installing FD Burners Replacing natural draught with forced draught burners is of immense benefit for vacuum heaters, which have very tight fireboxes. Increasing the capacity will require harder firing. This generally results in flame impingement. In such cases, forced-draught burners provide short flame and increased capacity. Flame size is reduced and the firebox temperature becomes uniform. Before replacing natural draught burners, check the heater floor elevations, because forced-draught burners require ductwork and deeper windboxes. Space should also be available for installation of ducts and fans.

Case Study A horizontal tube cabin type vacuum heater was plagued with short run lengths due to flame impingement and tube failures. On inspection, it was found that the heater had a very narrow box width and the burner flames were touching the arch of the heater. Natural draught burners have long flame lengths. The air pressure drop available across the burners was limited to 0.3 WC. The combustion air into the burners was being induced at very low velocities. Good mixing of air and fuel oil was not taking place. Flame lengths of these fuel oil burners were almost 1314 ft, and excess air was running at 40 per cent. The client was recommended to change the burners to the force-draught type. Force-draught burners used air pressure to induce high air velocity. High air pressure created a lot of turbulence in the firebox. This led to a uniform heating of tubes in the firebox. The flames were short and stable. In forced-draught burners, air pressure energy promotes intimate mixing of fuel and air, with excess air limited to 10 per cent for fuel oil firing. Table 2 shows the comparison of heater operating conditions before and after the revamp. Sour gas burning in a vacuum heater results in poor firing conditions. It is generally available at a very low pressure and has a high calorific value. This often results in flame impingement. It can become a limit in achieving the maximum heater capacity. Installation of a correct design of sour gas tips in

the main burners can help the problem. Forceddraught firing can also help in improving combustion of sour gas. Installing Air Preheating A vacuum heater built in 1956 was revamped to increase the capacity. An air preheating system was added and the heat duty of the vacuum heater was increased by 16 per cent. The charge throughput was increased by 30 per cent due to change in operating conditions and improved preheat of the charge. Adding an air preheater has remained one of the most popular ways of debottlenecking vacuum heaters. Typically the flue gas temperature leaving the vacuum heater convection o section ranges from 650 F to o 850 F, which makes vacuum heater ideal candidates for installing air preheaters. The installation of air preheater recovers the heat from the stack and introduces it into the radiant section in the form of the preheated air. The preheated air combined with forced draught burners introduces turbulence in the firebox. At the same time, the flame size is reduced. With the addition of a preheater, the heater must be rerated because air preheating boosts the radiant heat absorption. This raises the radiant heat flux and tubewall temperatures. Besides the capacity increase, the air preheating system offers a huge energy o saving potential. Every 35 F

drop in the exit flue gas temperature boosts thermal efficiency by 1 per cent. Total fuel savings in this case were about 14-15 per cent. Installing an air-preheating system is a major revamp. It entails installing forced-draught burners, forced-draught, and induced-draught fans, hot and cold air and flue gas ducts, and the air preheater. Space must be available for the air preheater, fan, ducts and dampers. The performance of vacuum heater before and after revamp is compared in Table 3. To conclude, exploitation of vacuum heater potential will become vital in the optimization of refinery operation. Vacuum heaters offer a great potential for debottleneck if done properly.

Ashutosh Garg is a thermal engineer at

Furnace Improvements, Sugar Land TX, USA, and has over 24 years experience in design, engineering and troubleshooting of furnaces and systems for refining and petrochemical industries. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from the Indian institute of technology, Kanpur.

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*Reproduced with the permission of PTQ Autumn.