ProDecon® Case Studies

Over a period of years the engineers on the sour water stripper (SWS) had noticed that the overhead fin-fans were becoming heavily fouled and losing efficiency despite the regular water cleaning programme. The reduction in exchanger performance had led to excess steam containing ammonia being sent to the sulphur units, leading to operational difficulties and increased corrosion of pipe work. During the clean, the refinery would need to keep the overheads on the SWS online to allow the process fluids to keep circulating. Conventional methods such as water jetting would have cooled the circulating medium in the tubes, thereby causing the deposition of ammonia salts and potential ammonia blockages should the temperature in the tubes reduce.