Stringent legislations combined with rising fuel costs are making it increasingly important for refineries, chemical, and petrochemical plants to ensure that their critical equipment is performing at maximum capacity and efficiency. A 1-2% decrease in efficiency in fired heaters can consume an additional $1m in fuel across a 12-month period, placing additional pressure on plants to ensure that the correct solutions are in place to prevent equipment deterioration.

Radiant Section Efficiency: Efficient combustion is integral to reducing fuel consumption

Tube Scale

High temperature oxidation takes place on the outer surfaces of the radiant process tubes. Layers of scale will develop over time and act as an insulator, hindering conductive heat transfer to the process and consuming tube wall thickness.  As process tube oxidation continues to develop, radiant efficiency can decline by up to 15%, costing the site millions per year in lost production or excess fuel cost and environmental emission penalties.

Low Emissivity Refractory Lining

Conventional fired heater refractory linings have low emissivities, which provide a poor efficiency of radiant heat transfer from the linings to the process tubes.  Additionally, ceramic fiber refractories will crystallize over time and the flue gases will carry the friable, crystallized debris downstream, where it will foul convection section tubes and SCR units.

Cetek High Emissivity and Thin-Film Coatings

Cetek Ceramic Coatings will prevent process tube oxidation and carburization and maintain heat transfer to the process. High Emissivity Cetek Coatings for refractory surfaces will increase radiant absorbed duty and encapsulate fiber surfaces. The application of Cetek Coatings will maximize radiant absorbed duty and optimize heater operation alleviating bottlenecks and decreasing fuel usage and CO2 & NOx emissions.

Contact your local IGS representative to book a free technical evaluation of your fired heater to determine your benefit.