Flamefront
Automotive
- Dec 29, 2004
- 34
Gentlemen
I'm new to the industry and working on a petroleum process system where I've been asked to upgrade the alloy of some 4" ID pipes to prevent "carbon fiber" growth, which occurs in the section seeing over 500ºC.
How big of an issue is this in process plants? How often are plants shut down to pig or remove deposits? I've been told that this petroleum plant shuts down every 18 months to remove these fibers, and I've been asked to find a better alloy for the pipe. Currently they are using 316 SS.
Thx for any comments on the problem - I'm curious about how much revenue is being lost due to this problem in the industry ...so I can justify a possibly expensive solution. This problem may also applies to chemical and water based process plants - not carbon fiber growth but scaling and deposits in general
(I've also posted this over in the petroleum engineering forum, but I figured you ChemEs would have something to say on the subject...)
I'm new to the industry and working on a petroleum process system where I've been asked to upgrade the alloy of some 4" ID pipes to prevent "carbon fiber" growth, which occurs in the section seeing over 500ºC.
How big of an issue is this in process plants? How often are plants shut down to pig or remove deposits? I've been told that this petroleum plant shuts down every 18 months to remove these fibers, and I've been asked to find a better alloy for the pipe. Currently they are using 316 SS.
Thx for any comments on the problem - I'm curious about how much revenue is being lost due to this problem in the industry ...so I can justify a possibly expensive solution. This problem may also applies to chemical and water based process plants - not carbon fiber growth but scaling and deposits in general
(I've also posted this over in the petroleum engineering forum, but I figured you ChemEs would have something to say on the subject...)
