The fouling of heaters issue
In oil refineries and petrochemical industries, heavy fuel is often used to feed the furnaces burners. Its incomplete combustion leads to the formation of a corrosive deposit layer on the metallic tubes that reduces dramatically the heat transfert.
It can therefore be necessary to proceed to the cleaning of the tube bundles in order to maintain the performances and the good condition of the unit between two shutdowns.
The Neutramex® process
The Neutramex® process is a patented cleaning method for industrial fired heaters (in refineries and petrochemical industries) that enables to recover a high duty with no production shutdown.
The cleaning is carried out by spraying the Neutramex® directly onto the tube bundles. The deposit is thus removed by both a chemical and a mechanical action.
The Neutramex® process features :
- a high cleaning efficiency within a short period
- no abrasive action (no degradatio of the tubing)
- no residue (product 100% sublimated)
- no polluting emissions
- no hazard thanks to a biodegradable and non toxic formulation
- no EEC classification for transportation or storage
Results
Depending on the furnace initial fouling rate, the treatment of the radiation section with the Neutramex® process enables to reduce the arch temperature by up to 100°C. The gains in the convection section can be as spectacular with a flue gas temperature drop up to 150°C.
Such a fall in temperatures allows most of the time a return to close to design value throughputs.
The Neutramex® process is the outcome of more than 20 years of experience and continuous improvement of our processes.
More than 1000 successful on-line treatments carried out in more than 70 refineries all over the world have led us to a leading position on that market.
