Careers Best Practices for Maintaining Heat Exchangers Between Turnarounds
Between scheduled turnarounds, heat exchangers are expected to operate continuously under demanding conditions. Over extended run lengths, even well-designed systems can experience gradual performance loss, often without immediate alarms or obvious failures.
Maintaining heat exchangers between turnarounds is not about major repairs. It is about preserving thermal performance, protecting pressure-retaining components, and avoiding unplanned downtime while production continues.
Drawing on field experience across refining, petrochemical, and power facilities, this article outlines best practices for sustaining heat exchanger performance between turnarounds – and answers common questions operators face during long runs.
Why Heat Exchangers Degrade Between Turnarounds
During extended operation, several mechanisms contribute to declining performance:
- Fouling that reduces heat transfer efficiency
- Airflow restrictions in air-cooled heat exchangers (ACHEs, ACCs) and fin-fans
- Corrosion and erosion at tube sheets, weld seams, and nozzles
- Localized metal loss that progresses unnoticed until inspection
These issues rarely occur all at once. Instead, performance degrades gradually, often showing up as higher energy consumption, reduced cooling margins, or increasing process instability.
Maintaining Asset Vitality Between Turnarounds
Maintaining heat exchangers between turnarounds is not about pushing equipment beyond its limits, it is about preserving performance, managing risk, and maintaining operational control during long runs. By combining performance monitoring with targeted online maintenance, operators can sustain reliability, protect critical assets, and enter turnarounds with fewer surprises.
