Considering In-Tube Crude Oil Boiling in Assessing Performance of Preheat Trains Subject to Fouling

Autor: Edward M. Ishiyama, Simon J. Pugh
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: Heat Transfer Engineering. 36:632-641
ISSN: 1521-0537
0145-7632
DOI: 10.1080/01457632.2015.954916
Popis: Oil refinery preheat trains can exhibit unwanted two-phase flow behavior. An example is boiling of crude oil inside heat exchangers, when the local pressure is not high enough to keep crude in a liquid state. This often arises when the pump is undersized. Understanding the two-phase behavior and assessing the boiling heat transfer coefficients would result in a better prediction and estimation of exchanger fouling. Where single-phase modeling is used under boiling conditions, the anomalous behavior leads to unrealistic estimates of fouling resistance, and can severely underpredict the increased pressure drop and consequent loss of crude throughput. There is little public information on fouling in two-phase flows as laboratory experiments are very costly, despite the importance of this in refinery heat exchangers and furnaces. Indeed, the importance of crude boiling is likely to increase as lighter crudes such as shale oils are processed. These lighter crudes are often blended with heavier crudes to mainta...
Databáze: OpenAIRE