Author:
Manabendra Maity | Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) | Saudi Arabia
Fired heaters, furnaces, reformers, reactors, incinerators, and boilers are essential assets in hydrocarbon process industries (HPI) including oil-gas refineries, petrochemicals, fertilizers, and allied industries. Refractory linings and components play a significant role in managing structural integrity, process safety, and operational reliability of these assets. There are several factors over the life cycle that affect the performances of refractory systems. Further, the complex service conditions and operational upsets often make them vulnerable to the risk of premature failure. Refractory performance and degradation left unchecked or undetected could cause a serious impact on the plant reliability, safety and run-length. Over the years, refractory quality, design, installation, and maintenance practices have been enhanced progressively with operational experiences and technological developments. However, premature refractory failures still occur. Many of these problems could have been avoided by implementing a systematic on-stream and off-line inspection and monitoring program in order to timely detect faults, predict degradation and take corrective measures before loss of integrity or functional capability of refractory systems beyond safety margins.
Standards and codes for refractory integrity inspection and monitoring are very few or non-existent. Further, each individual process furnace is unique to its operational environment and performance demand. Therefore, strategies should be formulated for a more proactive and tailored approach towards refractory integrity management backed and driven by experiences, appropriate technologies and techniques. This paper discusses important aspects of refractory lining and structural inspection, performance monitoring, and integrity management best practices that serve to increase reliability for assets in HPI.