4 Rules of Fired Heater Operation

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Title 4 Rules of Fired Heater Operation
Creator Baukal, C.
Contributor Johnson, B., Newnham, R.
Date 2015-09-10
Spatial Coverage Salt Lake City, Utah
Subject 2015 AFRC Industrial Combustion Symposium
Description Paper from the AFRC 2015 conference titled 4 Rules of Fired Heater Operation
Abstract Four commonsense "rules" have been suggested for operating fired heaters that are easy to remember and can help focus attention on principles that are critical for safe, efficient, and environmentally-friendly operation while minimizing unplanned shutdowns. Rule one is to keep the flames in the firebox. While this may seem obvious, examples exist where that rule is violated. A common violation is for flames that periodically come outside the heater, for example, due to furnace pulsations usually referred to as huffing. Rule two is to keep the flames off the tubes. This refers to flame impingement which can cause serious operational problems if not corrected. Initially, flame impingement causes the hydrocarbon process fluids to coke on the inside of the tubes. This insulates the tube metal from the cooling of the process flow causing the metal to overheat and eventually can lead to a tube rupture which is both dangerous and costly. Rule three is to keep the process fluid in the tubes. This is related to rule two where flame impingement can cause a tube rupture. This can lead to large quantities of hydrocarbon fluid pouring into the heater, generating fires and thick black smoke. The lack of sufficient oxygen to burn all of the hydrocarbons leaking into the heater makes this very dangerous as those hydrocarbons may burner uncontrollably outside the heater. Rule four is to keep flammables out during light-off. This refers to purging the heater prior to light-off to avoid igniting a flammable mixture in the heater that could be present without proper purging. Since most heater incidents occur at light-off, this is an important rule for safe operations. The paper describes these rules in more detail and includes examples of what happens when the rules are not followed.
Type Event
Format application/pdf
Rights No copyright issues exist
OCR Text Show
ARK ark:/87278/s6vf18dt
Setname uu_afrc
ID 1387844
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6vf18dt
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