Fouling Control
Our fouling control programs minimize total fouling cost by avoiding unscheduled production slowdowns or shutdowns and limiting emissions. This saves energy, maximizes conversion, maintains throughput, and increases run lengths. Our laboratory analytical capabilities, problem-solving skills, and experience enable understanding of the fouling mechanism in a given system. We work together to develop cost-effective, technically appropriate total-fouling control solutions.
Process-side fouling occurs in most refinery units, causing operating and maintenance problems. Fouling that limits unit throughput or forces downtime for cleaning are the most expensive problems. Excess furnace firing from lost heat transfer increases fuel cost. Other cost is increased maintenance and equipment failure. Fouling has increased as refineries use more difficult-to-process and heavier crude oils.
The increased use of hydrotreaters to comply with new regulations is an additional challenge.
Determine underperforming equipment
Our predictive maintenance techniques determine underperforming equipment. Catching equipment problems early results in less expensive repairs and downtime. Our simulation programs optimize heat exchanger maintenance schedules to avoid unscheduled production slowdowns or shutdowns. We calculate economic impact of performance degradation, prioritize equipment maintenance, and target cleaning for critical heat exchangers. Our programs minimize operating cost and maximize throughput. We determine which exchanger causes capacity limits when cleaning and its impact on lost throughput. We can also evaluate the effectiveness of fouling inhibitors and optimize their use.
Optimize visbreakers
Baker Petrolite VisTecTM visbreaker technology program expands the operating visbreaker envelope to maximize conversion rates and extend run lengths. Our program combines VisTec additives and monitoring to control fouling and stability so severity can be increased.
Address delayed cokers
Baker Petrolite MILESTONETM heater-fouling control technology interrupts fouling mechanisms identified for specific delayed coker operations and feedstock types. MILESTONE applications extend heater run lengths and increase unit throughput, while reducing the frequency of coil decoking procedures.
We're here to help
Scott
Bieber
Baker Hughes Representative
+1.800.231.3606
Contact Scott via email
We're here to help
Bruce
Wright
Technical Representative
+1.800.231.3606
Contact Bruce via email
Associated Information
Additional Resources
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Planning Ahead for ...
Executive Brief Heavy conventional and bitumen-based crudes from Canada represent a significant volume increase in feedstocks for North American refineries, as production and ...
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Achieving optimal ...
This article discusses the case of extending a complex visbreaker unit cycle to more than two years without requiring a shutdown and without compromising conversion. A significant ...
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Fine-tune processing ...
Heavy crude oils are often appealing feedstocks for refineries, due to their lower cost. The availability of these heavy crudes is improving as production rates ...
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Mitigate fouling in ...
The global supply of high-quality crude is decreasing and, at the same time, the requirement for clean sulfur-free products is increasing. During the last decade, ebullated-bed ...
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Simulation model ...
In today’s refining climate, the economics of a visbreaking unit are mainly related to the conversion levels achieved. Conversion is limited by the impact of cracking ...
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LIFESPAN Exchanger ...
Process-side fouling occurs in many refinery units, particularly crude units, hydrotreaters, and FCCUs. It reduces throughput and causes unscheduled unit shutdowns, and maintenance ...
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MILESTONE Heater Fouling ...
MILESTONE heater fouling control MILESTONE™ heater fouling control is a multi-component fouling control solution from Baker Hughes that increases thermal conversion unit ...
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VisTec Visbreaker ...
Achieve the right balance The Baker Petrolite VisTec™ visbreaker technology program controls fouling and maximizes both conversion rate and unit run length, while ...