Many cokers have high CCR and high heater fouling. As such, they limit their heater outlet temperature to a level where the fouling is manageable. The decision reduces yield below the optimum level.
What if you knew it was possible to have a 29% CCR feed and a 942F heater outlet AND less than 1 degF/day heater aging temperature. Many think this is impossible but today we heard that it is possible and being done. With a properly designed Foster Wheeler unit here in the Middle East and good process optimization, it has been possible to increase liquid yield to 5-7% over design.
Thank you to Essam Al Otaibi of SATORP for explaining at RefComm® Bahrain how they push the yield envelope. Congrats to the design and operations team…quite a story to be heard.
