Improving Catalytic Reformer Heaters Duty Using New Technologies

Catalytic Reformer Units are one of the most important units and are always being run at the maximum capacity. The multi stage heater used in the unit is one of the critical equipment. It is supposed to be heating the charge going to the catalytic reforming reactor. The reactor is multi stage and the reaction is endothermic. The charge is again reheated in the first stage, second stage and third stage inter heaters. In most of the units, we find that the charge heater is fired very hard and is generally limited. The inlet temperature to the heater is generally lower than the design leading to unit being limited. Furnace Improvements has developed a split flow process for increasing capacity of these heaters by as much as 30%. We use the convection section to preheat the process instead of generating steam. This increases the heat duty of the heater at a very low cost. We are presenting two case studies illustrating substantial improvement in the heater capacity.