New Approach to Optimizing Fired Heaters

Ashutosh Garg, Furnace Improvements

Sugar Land Texas, USA

Energy Consumption
Petroleum Refining 7.5% of the total energy consumption in USA
0.40 MMBtu/ BBL of oil Total Energy consumed in refining- 7.1 Quadrillion BTU/yr Energy cost -$6/MMBtu Total Energy Cost- 42 Billion /yr Fired heaters -40-70% of the energy

Energy Consumption
A Typical refinery process 100,000 BPD Consumption of 0.40 MMBTU/BBL $6 per MMBTU Energy bill of $ 87.6 million per year. Potential Saving

1% Efficiency improve

$876,000/Year

Fired Heaters
Essential component in Petrochemical and Chemical Plants Each refinery has 20-50 fired heaters Design efficiency - 70-90%
Operating efficiency is even less than design.

Maintaining Design Operation

Maintain the design conditions (very difficult)

In the field, heater loads change constantly due to variations in:

Feed flow rate Feed temperature Fuel composition Ambient temperature

The heater will be operating a non-optimal conditions Requires optimization 24/7

How to Maintain the Design Efficiency?

When the heater conditions change, adjustments in the heater are required. Manual adjustments are provided- not adequate Optimizing the fired heater will: Reduce Energy Consumption Increase run length Minimize maintenance FIS has proposed two prong approach Software based- Heater Performance Index Hardware based- Draft & Excess O2 Control

Fired Heater
Heat liberated by the combustion of fuels is transferred to fluids contained in coils Fired Heater:
Radiant Section Convection Section Stack

www.heatflux.com

Typical heater efficiency

Natural Draft- 70-84% Balance Draft-90-92% Natural Draft heaters in Industry- 86% Balanced Draft heaters in Industy-12% Typical stack temperature 500-800 F Typical stack Oxygen- 2-10% Target Oxygen-2-3% Plenty of room for optimization

Combustion
Combustion Requires
Air ( 0.21O2 + 0.79 N2) Fuel Ignition source

Complete Combustion
Excess air

Incomplete Combustion
Energy Loss CO and H2 are released

Draft
Pressure inside the heater
Combustion air is drawn inside the heater through the burners air register Hot Flue gas flows out of the heater through the stack

Types of Draft
Natural Draft (ND) Forced Draft (FD) Induced Draft (ID) Balanced Draft > 80% < 1% 10% 10%

Draft
Stack Dampers helps control the draft Arch is the highest pressure point in the heater Excess or shortage of draft is not acceptable
STACK EXIT LOSS
STACK ________

(SE)a STACK EFFECT IN STACK Pc

CONVECTION SECTION

(SE)c

NEGATIVE PRESSURE 0.05"- 0.1" W.G. AT TOP OF RADIANT SECTION

RADIANT SECTION

0.05"- 0.1" W.G. DRAFT DRAFT AT RADIANT SECTION OUTLET, R0

Pb

(SE)r Pa
BURNERS

NEGATIVE POSITIVE PRESSURE PRESSURE 0

Burner Operation
Correct combustion in firebox include:
The firebox is clear No smoky appearance Burners flames are steady and well-formed

Check burners regularly

Adjusting burner registers to control air intake

Air Leakages
Air entering in to furnace from a number of places:
Peepholes Header box doors Tube guide opening Feed tubes entering and exits Not pressure tight structure

Heater Optimization
Target set 2-3% O2 in the flue gas. Operating conditions fluctuates :
Manual control /adjustments Operators Number going down Experience going down Need training

Optimisation Case Study -1

FIS performed a tuning job for a refinery. Heater: Depentanizer reboiler heater Horizontal tube box Absorbed heat duty - 87 MMBtu/hr 15 up fired burners The stacks is connected to a large common stack Two off take ducts provided with manual dampers

Optimisation Approach
Check draft
Adjust using off-take dampers

Check excess O2
Adjust burner register

Check burners
Light up all burners Check Flames/Firebox

Draft
0.7 0.6

Draft , in H2O

0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 10:48

12:00

13:12

14:24

Time (7/22/09)

Excess Oxygen
6.0

Excess Oxygen, %

5.5 5.0 4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 10:48

12:00

13:12

14:24

Time (7/22/09)

Stack Temperature
Stack Temperature, F
645 635 625 615 605 595 10:48 Stack Temp. A Stack Temp. B

12:00

13:12

14:24

Time (7/22/09)

Thermal Efficiency
83.0

Thermal Efficiency, %

82.0 81.0

80.0 79.0 78.0 10:48

12:00

13:12

14:24

Time (7/22/09)

Crude Heater Tuning Case Study -2

Natural Draft Crude Heater
Horizontal tube Up-fired burners 11 burners

Fuel gas Flow and Pressure Before & After Tuning

3440 3420 3400 20 18

Fuel gas pressure, psig

16 14 12 10

Fuel gas flow, MSCFD

3380 3360 3340 3320 3300 3280 3260

11:15 AM 11:30 AM 11:45 AM 12:00 PM 12:45 PM 1:00 PM 1:15 PM 1:30 PM

Flue Gas Flow, MSCFD Fuel Gas Pressure, psig

8 6 4 2 0

Before & After Tuning

760 740 720 700

Tube Skin Temp

T Skin, F

680 660 640 620 600 580

11:15 AM 11:30 AM 11:45 AM 12:00 PM 12:45 PM 1:00 PM 1:15 PM 1:30 PM

Observations in Refineries
Furnace working off design conditions Poor quality of dampers Lower number of operators Operator without sufficient training

Recommendations
Software
Heater Performance Index (HPI)

Hardware
Draft control system Excess O2 control system

Heater Performance Index

Analyzes the performance of Fired Heater 24/7 Built into DCS Generates guidelines Built in intelligence Customized modeling
Thermal Efficiency Fuel gas rate, Draft, Excess O2, Tube skin temperatures, Feed flow rate,

Pressure drop,
Coking rate, Air preheater performance

Crude Flow Rates

TAG No. PROCESS 57FC0009.PV 57FC0001.PV 57FC0002.PV 57FC0003.PV 57FC0004.PV 57FC0005.PV 57FC0006.PV 57FC0007.PV Average Total Crude Flow Crude Flow to Pass 1 Crude Flow to Pass 2 Crude Flow to Pass 3 Crude Flow to Pass 4 Crude Flow to Pass 5 Crude Flow to Pass 6 Crude Flow to Pass 7 BPH BPH BPH BPH BPH BPH BPH BPH BPH 4337.6 542.2 542.2 542.2 542.2 542.2 542.2 542.2 542.2 5249.1 709.5 676.5 670.8 729.1 729.1 695.1 737.4 706.7 4807.3 711.6 725.0 671.1 731.1 731.2 710.1 743.8 717.7 4637.7 668.0 725.0 635.6 686.3 686.3 680.2 711.8 684.7 SERVICE UNITS SET POINT
8/15/2009 8/16/2009 8/17/2009

Data 1

Data 2

Data 3

Coil Inlet Pressure

TAG No. SERVICE UNITS

SET POINT

8/15/2009

8/16/2009

8/17/2009

Data 1

Data 2

Data 3

PROCESS 57PI0054.PV 57PI0055.PV 57PI0056.PV 57PI0057.PV 57PI0058.PV 57PI0059.PV 57PI0060.PV Average Crude Inlet Pressure (Pass 1) Crude Inlet Pressure (Pass 2) Crude Inlet Pressure (Pass 3) Crude Inlet Pressure (Pass 4) Crude Inlet Pressure (Pass 5) Crude Inlet Pressure (Pass 6) Crude Inlet Pressure (Pass 7) psig psig psig psig psig psig psig psig 147.9 147.9 147.9 147.9 147.9 147.9 147.9 147.9 278.9 296.0 275.9 286.0 281.7 283.8 298.2 285.7 287.4 309.6 282.8 294.8 290.4 292.4 310.0 295.3 286.0 309.8 284.8 293.0 288.7 290.2 306.8 294.1

Fluids Cross-over Temperatures.

TAG No. PROCESS 57TI0583 Crude Inlet Temperature
o

SERVICE

UNITS

SET POINT

8/15/2009

8/16/2009

8/17/2009

Data 1

Data 2

Data 3

542

557.2

553.8

555.3

57TI0590
57TI0591 57TI0592 57TI0593 57TI0618 57TI0619 57TI0620

Cross-over Temp. (Pass-1)

Cross-over Temp. (Pass-2) Cross-over Temp. (Pass-3) Cross-over Temp. (Pass-4) Cross-over Temp. (Pass-5) Cross-over Temp. (Pass-6) Cross-over Temp. (Pass-7)

F
F F F F F F F

610
610 610 610 610 610 610 610.0

585.1
589.7 592.0 597.1 594.5 590.9 594.4 590.9

581.9
586.9 589.4 594.2 591.9 588.4 591.1 588.0

583.6
587.9 590.3 595.8 593.2 589.7 593.0 589.4

AVERAGE Cross-over Temp.

Coil Outlet Temperatures

TAG No. SERVICE UNITS SET POINT
8/15/2009 8/16/2009 8/17/2009

Data 1

Data 2

Data 3

PROCESS
57TI0633 57TI0634 57TI0635 57TI0636 57TI0629 57TI0630 57TI0631 Coil Outlet Temp. (Pass 1) Coil Outlet Temp. (Pass 2) Coil Outlet Temp. (Pass 3) Coil Outlet Temp. (Pass 4) Coil Outlet Temp. (Pass 5) Coil Outlet Temp. (Pass 6) Coil Outlet Temp. (Pass 7)
o

F F F F F F F F

730 730 730 730 730 730 730 730.0

686.8 678.6 680.2 678.5 683.4 670.1 683.0 679.9

687.0 678.3 680.6 678.6 683.5 670.0 682.2 679.9

687.4 677.5 679.0 679.9 683.7 670.9 683.3 680.1

AVERAGE Coil Outlet Temp.

Heater Performance Index. Remarks

RADIANT COIL TUBE METAL TEMP. CRUDE HEATER 537-F-001
Operating- Data 1 Operating- Data 2 Operating- Data 3 Operating- Data 4 Operating- Data 5 Operating- Data 6 Operating- Data 7 Design CLEAN Design FOULED Metallurgical Limit

1200.00

Temperature, Deg F

1100.00

1000.00

900.00

800.00

700.00
PASS1 PASS2 PASS3 PASS4 PASS 5 PASS 6 PASS 7 PASS 8

Heater Performance Index. Remarks

THERMAL EFFICIENCY CRUDE HEATER 537-F-001 90.60 90.40
Thermal Efficiency, (%)

90.32

90.25

90.20 90.00 89.80 89.60 89.40 89.20 89.00 88.80 88.60 Design Data 1 Data 2 Data 3 Data 4 Data 5 Data 6 Data 7 89.56 89.35 89.26 89.57 89.73 89.69

Heater Performance Index

Oxygen & Draft Control System

(Natural Draft Heater)

Draft Control System

Stack dampers
Reliable Correctly sized Pneumatically operated Opposed blades

Reliable Dampers
Opposed blades vs. Parallel Blades

Excess O2 Control
Control air supply to burners Pneumatically operated dampers or registers Provide proper control scheme Damper opening is provided based on Draft Excess O2 Firing rate Other parameters Savings realized through out the day

Summary
Manual controls are not adequate Energy prices are high Advanced Controls possible Use DCS based or PLC based Provide adequate safe guards Intelligent analysis of heater parameters Substantial savings can be realized Payout will be less than a year in most cases

Thank you very much

Questions and comments are welcome