Overview of Fired Heaters
Fired Heaters, often referred to as furnaces (direct fired heaters), are pieces of equipment often used in processing facilities to heat gases or liquids up to a desired temperature. Fired heaters in the petrochemical and refining industry are critical pieces of equipment that can have a major impact on process unit safety, reliability, and economics. They are complex pieces of equipment, where tubes and other pressure boundary components might fail due to relatively short periods of upset conditions.
Fired heaters come in two configurations: direct fired heaters and indirect fired heaters. Direct fired heaters utilize a burner to produce hot gasses that transfer their heat energy to a process liquid or gas flowing directly through furnace tubes installed inside the vessel. Indirect fired heaters utilize burners to heat a heat exchanger, over which cool air is circulated and heated. U
The construction and design of fired heaters are governed by the API STD 560 or ISO 13705 standards. Their inspection is covered by API RP 573.
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May/June 2019 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Garic at Stress Engineering Services, Inc.
This is the first of a two-part column on “Creep”. It presents an engineering overview of the phenomena, answers the question: “What is Creep?”, and provides readers with foundational knowledge for evaluating and managing remaining equipment life.
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November/December 2018 Inspectioneering JournalBy Tim Hill at Quest Integrity Group
This article provides an overview of the key components in establishing IOWs, the levels of IOW limits, and the basic principles and application of API Recommended Practice 584 to achieve reliable fired heater performance.
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November/December 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy James R. Widrig at Quest Integrity
In-service equipment failures present a considerable challenge to reliability engineers. This article presents a case study of a convection tube failure in a furnace and the analyses that were performed to understand the root cause and determine the remaining tube life.
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September/October 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Arun Sreeranganathan at Stress Engineering Services Inc., and John Norris, P.E. at Stress Engineering Services
Fired heaters are among the most critical equipment in refineries and chemical plants. This article provides an overview of what a fired heater tube mechanical integrity program should include.
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March/April 2016 Inspectioneering JournalBy Tim Hill at Quest Integrity Group
Achieving fired heater reliability in conjunction with meeting performance standards can be a challenging feat. Performance is a measure of the degree to which the fired heater is in an operable condition at any given time.
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May/June 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Jeremiah Wooten at Inspectioneering, LLC.
The following interview with Rich Roberts provides answers to some of the questions our readers have about small, specially designed pigs carrying NDE technologies that can inspect nearly every area of a tube from the coils interior surface.
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May/June 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Richard D. Roberts at Quest Integrity Group
Refineries and chemical plants own and operate numerous process heaters (e.g. gas reformers, CCRs, etc.) as part of the standard assets throughout the facilities. Many heater coil configuration designs are flanged at both ends; however, there are also coil designs which contain common headers, linking the individual coil passes together at the inlet, outlet, or even at both ends in some cases.
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May/June 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Fernando Vicente at ABB
Industrial furnaces are used extensively throughout the entire oil and gas industry, as well as other process industries such as pulp and paper, metals and mining, chemical, and petrochemical. An industrial furnace, or direct fired heater, is a piece of equipment used to provide heat for processing or can serve as a reactor which provides heat for the reaction.
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November/December 2012 Inspectioneering JournalBy Richard D. Roberts at Quest Integrity Group
Various fired heater designs in refineries and chemical plants contain common headers (e.g. Arbor coil configurations, CCRs, etc.) as part of their overall serpentine coil design. Accessing the interior of individual coils through the common header is challenging; however, advanced engineering firms and mechanical decoking companies have developed unique common header snorkel delivery systems.
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Remote Inspection Tool Developed to Provide Inspection for Complex Furnace Tube Configurations - Part 2 of 2May/June 1998 Inspectioneering JournalBy Richard D. Roberts at Quest Integrity Group, and Tim Cowling
Part 1 included a review of current tube inspection practices in convection and radiant sections of heaters/furnaces in the refining and chemical industries. The authors also presented a new inspection device combining laser image mapping of the internal surface of tubes and ultrasonic thickness mapping.
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Sponsored Video Published on February 22, 2018This webinar discusses the particular aspects involved in obtaining accurate and repeatable infrared temperature measurements of fired heater tubes, as well as a wealth of diagnostic information that may be used to evaluate the performance and reliability of major fired heater parts (e.g. tubes, tube supports, burners, refractory and structural systems).
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