Improving Heat Exchanger Monitoring

By Steve Pagani
Sep 29, 2013

Heat exchanger monitoring is critical to driving optimal refinery performance

by reducing operating cost and maximizing refinery yields. By focusing on the
basics and utilizing every piece of data available process engineers can
improve heat exchanger monitoring.
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Heat Exchange, just like Distillation, is the bread and butter of refinery

process engineering. Heat exchanger monitoring should be one of

the top Process Monitoringproperties of everyone at the refinery.
Why is heat exchanger monitoring so important? Heat exchange is
the refinerys recycling program, so for those yuppie hipster engineers out
there this should get you all excited! (just kidding around)
When crude oil is shipped into the refinery its normally around 60F, but then it
must be heated up to several hundred degrees. This initial heat input isnt free
- it cost money in the form of natural gas fired furnaces. Over the course of a
year that is worth tens to hundreds of million dollars.
Heat exchanger monitoring allows us to measure the efficiency of heat
transfer over time. One trick I wish someone would have told me earlier in my
career was that heat exchanger monitoring is more about precision that
accuracy.
In school we get all jazzed up calculating exact heat transfer coefficients. But
in reality in a refinery, its not quite that simple. Most of the refinery process
streams arent simple single component streams, so their physical properties
already start off as assumptions. At best case refinery heat exchanger
monitoring is an estimation to start, so dont sweat the small stuff focus on the
big stuff- temperature and flow rates.
Heat exchanger monitorings primary purpose is to understand heat transfer
as a function of time, so precision is more important than accuracy. Another
way of thinking about it is that heat exchanger monitoring is measuring the
heat transfer efficiency over time. The heat exchanger efficiency changes over
time usually as a function of fouling.
Heat exchanger fouling is important to understand because it reduces the
heat transfer efficiency causing increased costs to the refinery in the form of

extra fuel-energy, pumping-energy (due to reduced hydraulic efficiency), and

downtime costs.

Heat exchanger monitoring can help process engineers understand the heat
exchanger fouling. Macro or micro materials laying down on heat exchanger
components cause fouling. Macro fouling can be imagined as obstructions
such as pieces of cooling water towers or organic debris getting into cooling
water systems.
Micro fouling, distinctions are made between:

Scaling from crystallization of solid salts

Particulate fouling

Corrosion fouling from corrosion deposits

Chemical reaction fouling

Solidification fouling

Biofouling

Heat exchanger monitoring is understanding the heat transfer coefficient over

time. Critical to these equations is understanding as many heat transfer
parameters as possible.
Ideal information for precise heat exchanger monitoring:

1.

Cold fluid inlet and outlet temperature

2.

Hot fluid inlet and outlet temperature

3.

Hot fluid and cold fluid mass flow rate (not just volume!)

4.

Pressure change hot and cold fluid across the heat exchanger

In the past engineers were limited to the temperature readings operators

made once a shift during their daily rounds. Over time the refining industry
added electronic temperature indicators allowing continuous tracking of
temperatures through IT systems. However, during this initial phase the cost
of data was expensive, and to the disbelief of process engineers everywhere
not all the data was measured in the IT systems.
Now the cost of data is miniscule compared to the benefits of energy refinery
efficiency. With the introduction of hand held systems, wireless monitors, and
infrared tools, process engineers can close all the holes preventing precise
routing heat exchanger monitoring.
Heat exchanger monitoring tips:

1.

Understand the data available through temperature, flow, and

pressure indicators.

2.

Find out what temperatures, pressures, and flows are taken by the
operators on their routine duties. If that data isnt going into an IT system
work with your refinery to get this data into some sort of IT system. A
stack of old daily plant reading papers in the corner of a control room are
worth no more than a roll of toilet paper. If the data is already going into
an IT system make sure you have access to them in the heat exchanger
monitoring package.

3.

Pressure doesn't lie! Differential pressure (DP) tracking on the

tube and shell side of the heat exchanger can offer valuable
information. If DP builds up over time is a sure sign that flow is
being restricted by something.

4.

Utilize a hand held temperature gun to close any temperature data

information. Hand held infrared temperature guns cost less than a video
game. I truly believe that before you hand each process engineer that
company phone and laptop they should be given a holster, belt, and an
infrared temperature gun.

5.

Know the mass flow rate and pressure drop on both sides of the heat
exchanger. This can be a little trickier if your other data systems dont
have this information. Be creative and use wireless technology to help
close this gap.

6.

NORMALIZE the data! Here is where the value of that chemical

engineering degree should start coming in handy. Do something to help
yourself understand if the change in heat transfer efficiency is due to
change in the process or because of true fouling. Remember somewhere
along the way youll recommend to have a fouled heat exchanger opened
and cleaned during a turnaround. Nothing is worse that being wrong on
those cleaning recommendations.

7.

Use an infrared camera to understand temperature gradients inside the

heat exchanger. Obviously this is impossible if the exchanger is
thoroughly insulated. But if it is possible, the time and effort required to
take an infrared picture once a quarter is well worth the valuable
information provided.

Heat exchanger monitoring doesnt have to be rocket science. Just use as

much technology as possible to track as much heat transfer data as possible.
Simple calculations can allow you to improve heat exchanger monitoring and
save your refinery millions of dollars a year.