Nowadays maintenance is based on the synergistic integration of operational reliability and timely maintenance, which guarantees the required availability and optimal cost. Operational reliability implies producing more, better performance, longer life, greater reliability and greater safety. Timely maintenance implies less time out of service, less maintenance costs, less operating costs, spending less money. In this work, we study the preheating train of a crude distillation unit of a refinery, which processes 994 m^3^/h, which presents a formation of a fouling layer inside it. Among the impacts of fouling are: the reduction in the effectiveness of heat transfer, the increase in fuel consumption, the increase in CO~2~ emissions, the increase in maintenance costs, and the decrease in the profit margin of process. An appropriate cleaning program of the surface of the heat exchanger network is necessary, in order to preserve its key performance parameters preferably close to the design values. This paper presents the maintenance method centered on energy efficiency, to plan the intervention of the preheating train equipment maintenance, which takes into account the economic energy improvement and the cost of the type of maintenance. The method requires the calculation of the fouling evolution from which the global heat transfer coefficient is obtained and the heat flux is determined as a function of time. It was observed that, as time passes, the resistance provided by fouling increases and that the overall heat transfer coefficient decreases. The energy efficiency centered maintenance has an indicator of economic justification (factor *J*) that relates the economic-energy improvement that is achieved when performing maintenance taking into account the economic effort invested. Depending on the type of maintenance to be performed (its cost), a threshold must be chosen, from which the maintenance activity is justified. This must be a managerial decision, taken taking into account market fluctuations and company policies. The effectiveness values ​​of the heat exchanger (ε) and the *J* indicator are used to form a criticality matrix, which allows prioritizing maintenance activities in each equipment. The planning of the implementation dates of the maintenance of each heat exchanger, from the maintenance method centered on energy efficiency applied to the preheating train of the crude distillation unit constitutes a contribution in this specific field. The conceptual design of the maintenance method centered on energy efficiency presented in this work, is feasible to apply to other heat transfer equipment, used in oil refineries and industry in general. The procedure developed uses real operation values ​​and with its implementation, a saving of 150000 US dollars was achieved


Efficiency Centered Maintenance of Preheat Train of a Crude Oil Distillation Unit

Division / Sponsors: 
Aerospace, Bioengineering, Applied Mechanics, Design Engineering Division, Advanced Energy Systems, Manufacturing Engineering Division, Noise Control and Acoustics, Nondestructive Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Prognosis (NDPD), Nuclear Engineering Division, Process Industries Division, Fluids Engineering, Heat Transfer, Materials, Microelectromechanical Systems, Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis, Computers & Information in Engineering


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2020/volume/84478

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