Production • Processing • Handling
Smart engineering: sustainable solutions with economic benefits
Femke Schaefer outlines how companies to perform better technically and financially.
E on CO2
ven after almost a century, the oil and gas market still faces enormous challenges. Demands are ever increasing, new resources are more difficult to reach, prices fluctuate because of political
instability and environmental interests conflict with economic interests. Politics is involved as well: the EU set regulations emissions, which force industries to become
2 per cent more energy efficient every year. Oil and gas processes do indeed offer room for efficiency improvement; in terms of energy, maintenance, amount of material used and also process design. Te four solutions below may facilitate companies to perform better technically and financially.
Less material Shell and tube heat exchangers with extreme high pressure on the tube side, normally require a voluminous and exceptionally strong construction requiring a lot of material. Tis all adds up to volume, energy and raw materials. Reasons for Bronswerk to develop a special design known as the Compact Header Design which only needs a fraction of the material normally required. Tis translates into substantial weight reductions for the complete super structure of an offshore-rig and or floating platforms. Managing director Sjaak Remmerswaal says:
“We supplied Petrobras with this solution and by doing so not only save weight (and energy) but additionally made their maintenance process a lot safer and simpler, since the compact header heat exchangers are easier to clean”.
Fouling prevention outside the tubes Fouling of heat exchangers has an enormous impact on the production capacity. Shutdown for cleaning costs a lot of money and effort. In close co-operation with Te Royal Dutch Shell, Bronswerk developed the EM-baffle. Tis specially designed Shell and tube heat exchangers has several advantages for all sorts of applications. Tis design guarantees clean tubes on the outside resulting in
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reduced pressure drop over the shell which, for example, is particularly important in gas cooling. Other improvements are:
● Better prevention of tube vibration. ● Design optimisation resulting in less material. ● Less cleaning and maintenance costs. ● Less pumping power over the shell side.
Fig. 1. Compact Header: The design only needs a fraction of the material normally required which results in substantial weight savings.
In the case of crude oil trains it has been demonstrated at a site in Pernis Holland, that fouling on the shell side of these exchangers is drastically reduced. Te interval period between cleaning processes is doubled and the heat transfer is notably higher than conventionally. Half the number of cleaning periods means that the operating time of the installation is much better and also diminishes environmental pollution due to the reduction in cleaning chemicals. Additionally, a more efficient heat exchanger in a crude train, also yields better energy efficiency since no additional heating is required.
Fouling prevention in the tubes If fouling occurs inside the tubes, this can be prevented by another product of Bronswerk, the Klarex heat exchanger. Due to small metal particles injected at the flow inlet and removed at the flow
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