Careers Live Heater Maintenance Saves Methanol Complex $30 Million
Problem
Hot spots on the outer casing of two furnaces (unit 3 and 5) due to refractory failure.
Solution
IGS (Integrated Global Services) applied a Hot-tek Hot Refractory Repair solution on live furnaces back-to-back with applications carried out without impacting production.
Outcome
Eliminating the need for shutdown and any loss of production has saved the complex $30 Million.
World Largest Methanol Complex
Located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the largest methanol producing complex in the world had hot spot issues in two separate furnaces.
Furnace Hot Spots
Localized refractory failure leads to hot spots. In this case some hot spots on the external shell reached temperatures of 915°C. These hot spots present a Health & Safety hazard, energy
wastage, poor performance and even complete fired heater shutdown.
Solution | Hot Refractory Repair
HRR (Hot Refractory Repair) service Over 80 hot spots have been safely repaired on live heater units, 3 and 5, back-to-back, between September 1 and October 10 2022.
$30 Million in Savings
The only viable alternative to the Hot-tek solution would be to shut down the heaters and repair them offline.
Unit 5 produces $2.3 Million of methanol per day. Conventional repair would have taken 8 days to complete.
Unit 3 produces $1.2 Million of methanol per day. Conventional repair would have taken 10 days to complete.
Eliminating the need for shutdown and any loss of production has saved the complex $30 Million.
Hot-tek Services
