Controlling film temperature in fired
heaters
Film temperature control is critical to the sucessful design of fired heaters,
especially for heaters employed in upgrading heavy feedstocks
JINYU JIAO, YURIY MORAYKO, MORTEN THEILGAARD and MICHAEL HO
WorleyParsons Canada
D
irect-fired heaters have
been widely used in the
oil refining and chemical
process industries to heat the
crude oil contained in tubular
coils by the combustion of fuel
within an internally insulated
enclosure. A successful fired
heater design relies on many
factors. Film temperature
control is one of the key factors
that play a crucial role in fired
heater design, particularly for
units processing heavy feed-
stocks that are thermally
unstable, such as Canadian oil
sands-based feedstocks.
Film temperature determines
the susceptibility of a process
fluid towards coking. Bulk oil
temperature plus a temperature
rise across the oil film sets the
film temperature. In most
applications, it is the oil film
temperature, not the bulk oil
temperature, that limits the
heater duty and the oil life.1
Film temperature is an impor-
tant factor in fired heater
design for many reasons.
Firstly, oil degradation starts in
the fluid film, since this is the
hottest place for the bulk oil.
Fluid life is shortened because
of degradation, which can lead
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000715
to a costly result. Secondly, if
the film temperature exceeds
the limitation, the stationary
fluid film on the inside tube
surfaces is subject to thermal
decomposition, which results
in coke deposition at that loca-
tion. Coke deposits increase
resistance to heat transfer and
raise the tube metal’s tempera-
ture. Once the tube wall
temperature reaches the design
temperature, the heater must
be shut down for decoking
to avoid coil damage. Thirdly,
overheating of the fluid film
accelerates the fouling rate.
380
360
Film temperature, ºC
340
320
300
280
260
240
From inlet to outlet
Figure 1 Effect of steam injection on film temperatures
Fouling requires more heat
input and a hotter tube metal
temperature to maintain the
same heater outlet temperature.
These factors cause heaters to
shut down much more
frequently and eventually
reduce the whole plant’s
profitability.
Due to the importance of the
film temperature, its control has
become a hot topic for fired
heater designs, especially for
crude heaters, vacuum heaters
and coker heaters. In this article,
some feasible methods of
controlling the film temperature
With steam injection
Without steam injection
PTQ Q1 2013 1

420
410
Film temperature, ºC
400
390
380
370
360 6.625 in tubes
4.5 in tubes
350
From inlet to outlet
Figure 2 Effect of tube size on film temperatures
for fired heater design are heater at a design duty of 63
presented. Methods including MW with diluted bitumen as
steam injection, reducing tube the process feed. The simula-
size, using double firing and tion was performed with a
lowering the average heat flux commercial fired heater rating
are discussed, and some meth- program, FRNC-5PC, which
ods are presented with has been widely used and has
accompanying examples. been proven to be reliable in
predicting heater performance.
Steam injection Selecting the correct location
Steam injection is one of the and amount of steam injection
best options for lowering the is critical. It must be injected
film temperature, as long as upstream of the heater tubes
there are no unintended conse- with the highest film tempera-
quences downstream of the ture, yet far enough
units. Steam reduces the oil downstream in the radiant
residence time by increasing section to minimise incremental
the fluid velocity. High fluid pressure drop to ensure charge
velocity improves heat transfer pump capacity is not
in the film layer, which lowers exceeded.2
the differential temperature Steam injection can also
between the tube wall and the change the flow regime for
bulk fluid. Figure 1 shows the two-phase flow. The problem
effect of steam injection on associated with slug flow can
film temperature for one crude be mitigated by steam injection.
heater. The horizontal axis However, it is not the intention
represents the radiant coil of this article to discuss the
growth from inlet to outlet. It effect of steam injection on the
can be seen that the film flow regime because it is not
temperature drops around related to the topic. Caution is
20°C after injecting 1 wt% of advised in selecting a suitable
steam into the fluid. The steam condition to match the
results shown in Figure 1 arise process fluid condition, to
from the simulation of a crude make sure that no condensation
2 PTQ Q1 2013
occurs after steam injection into
the process fluid.
Reducing tube size
Depending on the allowable
pressure drop, fired heater coils
are usually divided into multi-
ple passes to accommodate the
total flow and to meet pressure
drop requirements. For a given
flow rate and the number of
flow passes, oil mass velocity
increases with reducing tube
size. A higher oil mass velocity
reduces the oil residence time
and increases the film heat
transfer coefficient, therefore
lowering the film temperature.
Figure 2 shows the effect of
tube size on film temperatures.
The horizontal axis represents
the heater coil growth from
radiant inlet to radiant outlet.
The results come from the
simulation of a small heater
with a design duty of 15 MW.
The heater is a vertical cylindri-
cal type with four-pass flow.
To demonstrate the effect of
tube size on the film tempera-
ture, the radiant tube size is
changed from 6.625in to 4.5in,
with no change in the size of
the convection tubes. More
radiant tubes have been added
to the radiant section to
compensate for surface loss
caused by the reduction in tube
size, to keep the same heat flux.
Case 1 is for the heater with all
tubes sized at 6.625in, while
case 2 is for the same heater
with tube sizes changed from
6.625in 4.5in, for the radiant
coils only. It can be seen that
the film temperature in the
radiant section has been
decreased because of the reduc-
tion in tube size.
Reducing the tube size
increases the heater pressure
drop, which requires a much
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higher pump head upstream of
the heater. Since film tempera-
ture control is basically
intended to control the peak
film temperature, it is advisable
to reduce tube sizes for tubes
with peak film temperature
only, to minimise the increase
in pressure drop caused by
reducing tube sizes.
Double fired vs single fired
A fired heater can be single or
double fired. The heat flux on
the tube’s circumferential
surface is not uniform because
of the shading of radiant heat.
The single-fired heater receives
radiant heat on one side of the
process tubes (directly from the
burner flame), while the other
side of the tubes, facing the
heater wall, gains radiant heat
from the refractory. The portion
of the tube facing the burners
has a higher local heat flux,
while the side facing the refrac-
tory is much lower. For a given
fired heater with nominal two
diameter tube spacing and a
very uniform longitudinal heat
flux distribution, the local peak
heat flux (qm) is approximately
1.8 times the average heat flux
(qa) for single-fired heating. In
contrast, the double-fired heater
has radiant heat on both sides
of the tubes, which greatly
reduces the peak flux to about
1.2 times the average heat flux.3
The correlations mentioned
above for single and double
fired can be simply represented
in the following equation:
qm = Xqa
where X represents the time
factor, which is approximately
equal to 1.8 and 1.2 for single
and double fired, respectively.
The local film temperature
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380
360
Film temperature, ºC
340
320
300
280
260
240
220
200
From inlet to outlet
Figure 3 Comparison of the film temperature between single and double firing
can be calculated by the follow-
ing equations:4
Tf = Tb + ∆Tf
qm Do
∆Tf = ( )
Kf Di
where Tf and Tb are film
temperature and oil bulk
temperature, respectively. ∆Tf
is the film temperature rise and
Kf is a film heat transfer
coefficient.
From the equations, it can be
seen that it is the localised heat
flux, not the average heat flux,
that directly governs the film
temperature. For a heater with a
given average heat flux, a
double-fired heater has a lower
localised heat flux distribution
than a single-fired heater. A
lower localised heat flux reduces
(1) the film temperature at that
location. Figure 3 shows a
comparison of the film tempera-
ture between single and double
firing for the same heater with
the same average heat flux. The
results are from the simulation
Single fired
Double fired
of a vacuum heater with a
design duty of 50 MW. It can be
seen that using double fired can
greatly reduce the film tempera-
(2) ture of the radiant coil for the
heater.
(3)
Lowering the average heat flux
The first step in designing a
fired heater is to set up the
allowable average radiant heat
flux. For a given heater, either
single or double fired, it is
helpful to control the film
temperature by lowering the
average heat flux. From
Equation 1, the localised heat
flux reduces with lower aver-
age heat flux, no matter
whether it is single or double
fired. Oil film temperature
depends on the heat flux and
oil mass velocity. Decreasing
the heat flux reduces the oil
film temperature at a fixed
mass velocity.5
The average radiant section
heat flux is defined as the total
radiant section absorbed duty
divided by the total radiant
section tube surface area. For a
given radiant duty of a fired
heater, the only way to lower
PTQ Q1 2013 3
 the average heat flux is to
increase the radiant section’s
surface area. It may be reasona-
ble to assume a relatively low
average heat flux to design a
fired heater with very tight film
temperature control. However,
it is also noted that oil resi-
dence time increases as the
surface area increases, which
may partially counteract the
benefit of decreasing the film
temperature by lowering the
average heat flux. A lower
average heat flux means more
capital cost in the heater coils,
which is another drawback in
controlling the film tempera-
ture by reducing the average
heat flux. Thus, the effect on
heater design of lowering the
average heat flux should be
carefully evaluated before a
decision is made.
Other design considerations
There are other design consid-
erations that should not be
neglected when designing a
fired heater with better film
temperature control. The radi-
ant section heat flux at any
point in the heater is controlled
by the temperature difference
between the hot flue gas and
oil in the tube. The heat trans-
fer rate increases with the
temperature difference between
the hot flue gas and the cold
oil.6 In a vertical up-fired heater,
it is not rare to see that heat
flux is low at the floor and
gradually increases along the
length of the flame. It
is highest at the point where
maximum combustion takes
place in the flame, then reduces
at the top of the fire box. Thus,
real fired heaters may encoun-
4 PTQ Q1 2013
ter more or less significant heat
flux imbalances. This heat flux
imbalance can cause high film
temperatures and high rates of
fouling formation. Efforts
should be made to optimise the
design parameters to minimise
the heat flux imbalance. These
design parameters include radi-
ant section height to width
ratio, burner to tube distance,
number of burners, flame shape
and dimensions, and radiant
section tube layout.7
Flame impingement can
cause extremely high localised
heat flux, which results in a
higher film temperature and
rapid coke formation. Flame
impingement occurs when a
flame actually touches or
engulfs the tubes. Vinayagam
has discussed the causes of
flame impingement for a fired
heater.8 Some precautions need
to be considered in the design
of fired heaters to prevent
flame impingement occurring;
for instance, an adequate fire
box to contain the flame, more
and equally spaced burners,
the correct type of burners, and
improved distribution of
combustion air flow.
Summary
Film temperature control is
critical to the successful design
of fired heaters, especially for
those heaters employed in
upgrading heavy feedstocks.
This article has discussed
several ways to control the film
temperature in the design of
fired heaters. These methods
have been discussed in detail
and have proved to be effective
means of controlling film
temperature.
References
1 Pelini R G, Heat flux and film
temperature in fired thermal-fluid
heaters, Chemical Engineering, Dec 2008.
2 Hanson D, Martin M, Low capital
revamp increases vacuum gas oil yield,
March, Oil & Gas Journal, 2002.
3 Romero S, Delayed coker fired heater
design and operations, Rio Oil & Gas
Expo and Conference, 2010.
4 API 530, Calculation of heater-tube
thickness in petroleum refineries, 6th ed,
Sept 2008.
5 Golden S W, Barletta T, Designing
vacuum units, Separations, Apr 2006.
6 Martin G R, Heat-flux imbalance in
fired heaters cause operating problems,
Hydrocarbon Processing, May 1998.
7 Nogay R, Prasad A, Better design
method for fired heaters, Hydrocarbon
Processing, Nov 1985.
8 Vinayagam K, Minimizing flame
impingements in fired heaters, Chemical
Engineering, May 2007.
Jinyu Jiao is a Mechanical Engineer
with WorleyParsons in Calgary, Canada.
He holds an MS degree in mechanical
engineering as well as a PhD in chemical
engineering.
Yuriy Morayko is a Mechanical Engineer
with WorleyParsons in Calgary, Canada.
He holds a BSc degree in mechanical
engineering.
Morten Theilgaard is a Mechanical
Department Manager for WorleyParsons
in Calgary, Canada. He holds a BSc in
mechanical engineering.
Michael Ho has eight years’ experience
in the oil and gas industry in an EPCM
environment. He holds master’s and
bachelor’s degrees in mechanical
engineering.
LINKS
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categories:
Automation & Process Control
Thermal Technology
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