FCCU reliability and mechanical integrity

FCC reliability and mechanical integrity contribute strongly to profitability.

Efforts to improve these have resulted in a signficant increase in run lengths
D F Shaw, R E Walter and S Zaczepinski Exxon Research and Engineering Company

luid catalytic cracking continues to play a

key role in a modern refinery as the primary
conversion process. The process has maintained this role for the past 50 years since it was
first commercialised by Exxon in 1942 with the
startup of PCLA-1 at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
refinery. Exxon is the owner/operator of 22 FCCs
around the world and licensor of over 50 additional units. These range from several Model IIs

up through the most recent Flexicracking IIIR

design.
The company maintains a strong commitment
to continued evolution and development of the
process and enhanced long term process reliability. Improvements in the reliability of the units
result from robust mechanical design features
developed in conjunction with successive process
improvements.

Figure 1 FCCU mechanical hardware improvements

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PTQ Q2 1997 1

Unit design integrity is evident in both new

and existing plants. As a result, run lengths in
excess of 60 months have been achieved, there
has been greater than a 50 per cent reduction in
the unplanned feed outages, a 30 per cent reduction in planned turnarounds, and nearly flawless
startup and operating experience of new as well
as SCT revamped units.
Exxon FCC technology has developed into a
highly reliable mechanical design as well as an
efficient processing unit. The latest unit design is
referred to as a Flexicracking IIIR, which incorporates
design
features
developed
and
continuously improved through process and
mechanical teamwork. This recognises that process and mechanical design are closely tied
together, and an optimal design must integrate
both aspects in order to achieve a reliable, low
maintenance unit.
The key mechanical features incorporated in
the latest Flexicracking IIIR unit are summarised
in Figure 1.
The layout of the reactor and regenerator
vessels and the relative vessel elevations are
arranged so as to eliminate expansion joints in
both the regenerated and spent catalyst circuits.
The complete elimination of expansion joints in
the catalyst circulation circuits improves reliability and reduces maintenance.
All vessels, catalyst transfer lines, and slide
valves are internally refractory lined and feature
cold wall construction. Cold wall transfer lines
and and slide valves improve reliability, reducing
costs and susceptibility to failure. The low stresses
achieved with a cold wall slide valve design permit
the use of easy to build and maintain carbon steel
materials. A more significant benefit, however, is
the total elimination of stainless steel, which can
crack due to sensitisation, sigma formation or
polythionic stress corrosion cracking.
Only one throttling slide valve is utilised in the
spent catalyst standpipe. The flow between the
two vessels is controlled by the relative pressures
in the reactor and regenerator vessels and the
density in the standpipes and risers. Due to the
low differential pressure taken across the one
dense phase valve, minimum erosion occurs,
thus the need to rebuild the slide valve each
turnaround may be eliminated.
The feed injection system is designed not only
for process performance but also for maximum
mechanical reliability with an objective of a

PTQ Q2 1997

minimum onstream erosion which could deteriorate process performance. The low delta P
operation, coupled with the application of metallic hardsurfacings as well as refractory linings,
provides a robust mechanical injector design.
The mechanical design of the regenerator grid
completely eliminates the exposure of the grid
components to the erosive, high temperature
conditions. The air passage holes are designed so
that erosion of the grid is minimised. Controlling
the grid delta P also maximises unit capacity
while further reducing erosion and minimising
catalyst attrition.
The oil feed riser inside the reactor is close
coupled to the primary cyclones in a patented
configuration that captures virtually all the
hydrocarbon vapours, thus reducing gas leakage
into the reactor vessel where overcracking will
occur. The transition between the riser and the
cyclones is configured to minimise turbulence at
the entrance to the first stage cyclone while
preconditioning the solids/gas mixture for maximum cyclone efficiency.
Erosion is controlled by setting limits for velocity and differential pressures while employing
refractory and hardsurfacing materials at critical
locations.

Technology and tools

Over the past 15 years, Exxon has been involved
in a focused program to improve the mechanical
reliability of FCC units, which has led to continuous improvement of hardware components, thus
extending unit run lengths and reducing maintenance. Key aspects of this program include:
Surveys to identify root causes of unscheduled
shutdowns.
A feedback system, through close ties with the
operating plants, to capture operating or equipment problems. This system benefits greatly
from plant visits during operation and inspections during unit shutdowns. These also provide
valuable data regarding opportunities to improve
service factors and to share experience among all
the FCCs.
Hardware developments to mitigate or eliminate identified problems or limitations.
Integration of FCC practical expertise with
advanced analytical tools such as finite element
stress analysis (FEA), cold flow modelling of
gas/solids flow and erosion testing of refractory
systems.

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 Audits of individual units

with emphasis on performance evaluation of individual
components against state-ofthe-art
designs
and
identification of opportunities
to reduce risk of unscheduled
shutdowns or costly repetitive
maintenance.

Design improvements
The company has developed
an inventory of improved
mechanical designs which can
be applied to any FCC as
appropriate. This includes the
following:
Regenerator
air
grid.
Current designs are virtually
immune to distortion, erosion,
or polythionic stress corrosion
cracking (PSCC). The latest
grid designs have been
enhanced through the use of
advanced stress analysis tools
allowing the grid to be
designed for a variety of Figure 2 Short contact time riser termination
conditions including startup,
normal operation and upsets, such as a bed tools for evaluating the full range of expected
slump due to loss of the air blower.
operating conditions, including short time
Cold wall equipment. Cold wall designs are temperature excursions.
preferred for the vessels, slide valves, and cataFeed injectors. Current designs employ a
lyst transfer lines. Specifications have been combination of refractory linings and metallic
developed for cold wall slide valves, and tech- hardsurfacing to avoid deterioration of the procniques have been developed, based on mockup ess performance during extended runs. Also,
testing, for the design of cold wall piping systems flow model testing is employed to improve injecwhich take into account the stiffening effect of tor process performance and their mechanical
the refractory lined transfer lines on stresses in reliability.
the piping, inline valves, and vessel nozzles.
SCT terminations. Reliable short contact time
Application of this technique avoids cracking in mechanical designs ensure sustained process
these components due to piping loads.
performance. Similarly, FEA stress analysis methRefractories. Application of erosion resistant ods and flow modelling have been employed to
refractory systems, which use monolithic, metal provide a robust design, illustrated in Figure 2.
fibre reinforced linings, coupled with tight speciDesign parameters. Criteria have been estabfications for installation, has significantly lished which affect component reliability, e.g.,
reduced the incidence of excessive erosion as cyclone velocity limits, acceptable velocities in
well as hot spots. Development and application transfer lines, differential pressure limits for
of material qualification testing, such as ASTM C slide valves and gas distribution systems.
704 has been a significant factor in these
improvements.
Cold wall reliability
Cyclone systems. The complete system of An ideal FCC is one that has no hot wall prescyclones and plenum chamber design uses FEA sure-containing components. All pressure

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PTQ Q2 1997 3

Figure 3 Enhanced grid smooths metal temperatures

vessels, catalyst transfer lines, reactor and regenerator overhead lines and slide valves are
designed using an erosion resistant, heat insulating refractory system. Also, ideally, no expansion
joints should be used to accommodate thermal
expansion in the piping systems.
While this is achievable in new units such as
the Flexicracking IIIR, this highly recommended
configuration is not always achievable in units
that are being revamped or modernised due to
constraints imposed by existing vessel layouts.
Each revamp or modernisation should undergo a
comprehensive mechanical study to eliminate
both hot wall pressure containing components
and expansion joints. Often, selective use of hot
wall piping sections allows the elimination of
expansion joints, and normally this is preferred
to the use of an expansion joint.
The key benefits of cold wall construction are
twofold. First, it eliminates cracking due to both
high temperature creep and, especially for stainless steel, sigma phase formation and PSCC.
Second, it avoids the potential problem with hot
wall sections (including hot wall slide valves)
when they are deployed in conjunction with
stronger cold wall refractory lined piping.
In such a system the stored-up elastic strain
energy is very slowly relieved as the hot component undergoes creep strain. Consequently, the
hot component experiences much more strain
than typically occurs in a system designed in
accordance with the existing piping code. The
piping code mentions this phenomenon, called
elastic follow-up, but the code does not give

PTQ Q2 1997

specific guidance on how to

design
such
unbalanced
systems. Experience often indicates that cracking of hot wall
slide valves, vessel nozzles, or
hot wall piping components is
caused by elastic follow-up and
a system redesign is necessary
to prevent a recurrence of
cracking. Exxon has developed
special design procedures for
installations experiencing this
problem.
A major reliability improvement has been realised in FCCs
through the use of metal fibre
reinforced, cast, monolithic
refractory in catalyst transfer
lines, replacing the troublesome and expensiveto-maintain hexmesh anchored dual layer
linings. However, the monolithic linings require
special consideration when performing piping
flexibility calculations since these systems reinforce and stiffen the piping, thereby significantly
increasing the piping loads on slide valves, vessel
nozzles, and unlined piping segments.
Ignoring these effects can also cause cracking
in piping components or overloading pressure
containing components. As with elastic followup, there is limited code guidance on how to
design these systems. The literature offers guidance on stiffening straight piping segments but
does not provide guidance for elbows and mitre
bends, which often provide a significant portion
of the flexibility to handle thermal expansion.

Air distribution enhanced

An improved design for a flat plate type air
distributor has been developed and commercially
demonstrated. The design was primarily developed to eliminate the thermal and mechanical
induced stresses that can cause distortion and
cracking in conventional grid designs. The
enhanced grid also offers additional benefits of
reduced erosion and lower grid differential
pressure.
Figure 3 compares observed grid metal
temperatures for a conventional grid and the
enhanced design grid during normal operation.
Thermocouples installed on conventional regenerator grids at various locations across a
diameter provided the clue to the cause for

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distortion and cracking. These temperature

measurements indicate significant metal temperature differences at various locations. In some
portions of the grid, the metal temperature was
dominated by the high temperature above it
(1300F) while the metal temperature in other
portions of the grid were dominated by lower
temperatures below it (400F).
The enhanced grid design offers both process
credits and mechanical reliability credits as
summarised below:
The mechanical design thermally isolates the
grid plate and all the structural members from
the severe temperature and erosive conditions of
the fluidised bed. This ensures that during
normal operation the entire grid system is at a
relatively uniform metal temperature, thus eliminating distortion and cracking. Also, since the
metal temperature during normal operation is
below 500F, the grid can be constructed of
ferritic steel, which offers additional benefits of
lower cost construction and virtual immunity to
cracking mechanisms such as PSCC.
The grid design also reduces the velocity of the
air jet as it penetrates the catalyst bed. This
offers benefits of reduced erosion of the grid
components as well as reduced attrition of the
catalyst. Some units have reported up to 65 per
cent reduction in catalyst attrition with associated benefits of lower catalyst content in slurry
oil and lower catalyst losses in the regenerator
flue gas.

Systematic improvements
Reliability is the key to profitability. ER&E has
conducted a systematic analysis of FCC process
and equipment reliability over the past decade to
define the sources of both scheduled and
unscheduled outages. Experts in different disciplines, such as materials, mechanical, machinery,
instrumentation, computing, process engineering, process design, operation and maintenance,
have participated in reliability analysis and
studies.
Key sources of production losses were identified, eg, component unreliability, electrical/
instrument/computer failure, machinery limitations and process procedures. The sources were
then analysed to eliminate or mitigate problem
areas and thereby improve reliability. The benefit
was a significant improvement in capacity utilisation and increased profitability.

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FCC reliability improvemets

Units surveyed
Installed capacity, kB/SD

20+
~1000

Unplanned capacity lost, %:

Late 1970s
Late 80s/early 90s

Base
50% of Base

Table 1

This experience has been incorporated into the

latest Flexicracking IIIR unit design, as well as
into revamps and improvements in existing
FCCs.
Because of these efforts, significant improvements in reliability and on stream service factors
for Exxon designs have been achieved. Table 1
summarises FCC reliability improvements and
how these have resulted in a significant reduction in the capacity lost due to unplanned
shutdowns. Reliability analysis remains a very
high priority item.

Conclusions
Fluid catalytic cracking technology continues to
advance with process improvements to meet
ever-changing refinery objectives and with
mechanical improvements to meet the demands
for safer, more reliable, and longer-running
units.
Exxon not only develops new FCC technology,
but acts as an owner and operator of numerous
FCC units throughout the world. Systematic
access to the commercial feedback combined
with strong commitment to continuous process/
mechanical improvements is largely responsible
for the placement of ER&Es FCC technology at
the leading edge of refining industry advances.
D F Shaw and R E Walter are engineering associate and senior
engineering associate, respectively, and S Zaczepinski is
technology licensing manager, with Exxon Research and
Engineering Company, Florham Park, New Jersey, USA.

Links
More articles from: ExxonMobil Research and
Engineering
More articles from the following category:
Fluid Catalytic Cracking

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