Urea plant life study

Can I use my plant for another 10 to 15 years ?

Paper 20

By:
M. Scheer, Sr. Mechanical Service Engineer
G. Notten, Manager Corrosion Engineering Department
Table of contents

Page:

1. Abstract 1

2. Introduction 2
2.1 What does it take to improve the reliability of the plant and
make it run for another 10 to 15 years? 2
2.2 Is there a minimum capacity below which it is not viable to 2
run the plant?
2.3 Can I increase the capacity? 2
2.4 Can I improve on the effluent figures? 2
2.5 Can I improve the consumption figures? 3
2.6 Is the technology still up to date? 3
2.7 What to do first? 3

3. Considerations 4
3.1 Revamp 4
3.2 Influences on the status of the equipment 5
3.3 Maintenance cost 5
3.4 Environment 6
3.5 Consumption figures 6
3.6 Equipment 6

4. Inspections 7
4.1 Visual inspection 7
4.2 NDT inspection 7
4.3 Corrosion hazards 7
4.4 Possible corrosion spots 7
4.5 Techniques 8
4.6 Program 9
4.6.1 HP stripper 9
4.6.2 HP carbamate condenser 9
4.6.3 HP scrubber 10
4.6.4 Reactor 10
4.6.5 HP lines 11
4.6.6 Low pressure equipment 11
4.7 Duration of inspection 11
4.8 Number of inspectors 11
4.9 Experience with life studies 11
4.10 What did we find 12
4.10.1 Typical failure modes 12
 4.11 Advice 15
4.12 Estimated cost for inspection of the stationary equipment
(Life study) 15

5. Conclusions 16

All technical and other information contained herein is based on general Stamicarbon/
DSM experience and within this limit is accurate to the best of our knowledge. However,
no liability is accepted therefor and no warranty or guarantee is to be inferred.
1. Abstract

When a urea plant has been in operation for many years there will come a point when
the plant management will ask themselves what the rest life of the plant is. This paper
discusses the various considerations one has to make in deciding how to proceed
further.
The question will be asked if the plant is still up to date, economically, capacity wise,
and environmentally. If one wants to operate for say 10 – 15 more years the equipment
should be in a good condition. Stamicarbon performs a plant life study to determine the
condition of the stationary equipment such as heat exchangers, vessels and lines.
Corrosion can attack from various sides.
HP and LP equipment is checked by different techniques in order to find corrosion in
the past and possible corrosion in the future. With this information Stamicarbon is able
to give advise on preventive steps to minimise corrosion in future and on the rest life of
the inspected equipment.

1.
2. Introduction

Stamicarbon is licensing urea plants now for about 40 years. Over the years we
collected a wealth of information on plant behaviour and plant improvements. With this
information we were able to improve the process continuously over the years.
The first plants were small and many of them are not in operation any more. Quite a
number of the older plants however are still in use. In many of these plants depreciation
costs are low. In many of the older plants consumption and effluent figures are high
while instrumentation is outdated and reliability is low. A number of our clients come to
the point that they ask themselves can I run this plant for another 10 to 15 years.

If I want to run the plant for, say, another 10 years I have to find an answer to the
following questions:

2.1 What does it take to improve the reliability of the plant and make it run for another
10 to 15 years?

The building, the stationary equipment, the rotary equipment, instrumentation and
electrical equipment should be able to last for another 10 to 15 years with normal
maintenance. It should be possible to find spare parts for the equipment if required.

2.2 Is there a minimum capacity below which it is not viable to run the plant?

The economics of scale make it attractive to operate large units. The older plants are
generally small in size. The number of operators is as high or even higher than in a
modern plant and also other fixed costs will be high per ton product. In countries with
low labour costs however a small sized plant may still be able to operate competitively.
The plant management will have to check at which plant capacity it is not economically
possible to run the plant.

2.3 Can I increase the capacity?

If I come to the conclusion that, to stay profitable, I have to increase the plant capacity, I
have to check if this is possible. It is obvious that the people who designed the plant are
the best to find out: They know the process, the changes that have been made and the
possibilities. In the chapter about revamp we will highlight some possibilities regarding
revamps.

2.4 Can I improve on the effluent figures?

When the first Stamicarbon urea plants were built, there was only one desorber to
process the evaporation condensate. The effluent with ammonia and urea went to the
sewer. Environmentally this is nowadays not acceptable. If you want to run your plant
for another 10 – 15 years you will have to improve your desorber system in such a way
that the effluent can be re-used as boiler feed water or cooling tower make up water.

2.
The state of the art waste water treatment of Stamicarbon contains 2 desorbers, a
hydrolyzer and a reflux condenser. Stamicarbon also improved the draining procedure
in such a way that losses during and after draining of the synthesis are minimised.

2.5 Can I improve the consumption figures?

In old plants an ammonia consumption of 580 Kg/ ton of urea was acceptable.
In new plants ammonia losses via the 4 bar absorber are a few kg/hour only.
The same for losses via the atmospheric absorber. Therefor in older plants
considerable reductions of the losses can be made.
Older plants have high steam consumptions. Especially in conventional plants
considerable steam savings can be made by installing for instance a pool condenser.

2.6 Is the technology still up to date?

Over the years many improvements in the process have been made. The LP absorber
on the LPCC level tank has been deleted and there are other examples where
improvements resulted in a more stable and more efficient operation.

2.7 What to do first?

If the plant is to be kept in operation for another 10 – 15 years I have to make a study to
find out, if applicable, if the process can be made up to date, including a revamp, or I
have to check if my equipment will last for another 10 – 15 years.

3.
3. Considerations

3.1 Revamp

· First the requirements of the client are listed.

After this a revamp study can be made in order to find out to what capacity the plant
can be upgraded and which consumption figures and effluent figures can be achieved.

As an example following changes to the plant could be made:

- Installation of high efficiency reactor trays

By installing high efficiency reactor trays the CO2 conversion in the reactor can be
improved resulting in a lower steam consumption.
This possibility exists for conventional and stripping plants

- Installation of an N/C meter

In stripping plants installation of an N/C meter will stabilise the plant operation resulting
in a more efficient and stable operation.

- Installation of APC
Modifying instrumentation to an Advanced Process Control will further stabilise
operation in a stripping plant

- Installation of a pool condenser

By installation of a pool condenser and stripper the steam consumption of conventional
plants can be dramatically improved.

- etc.

· Check equipment for revamped capacity.

In the revamp study will be checked if the existing equipment can handle the revamp
load. This will in some cases lead to a modification or replacement of the equipment. In
case we intend to re-use the equipment we need to know:

· Status of equipment and piping

If we want to operate the plant for another 10 – 15 years at the same or even higher
load we will have to check the equipment and piping for corrosion, cracks etc. both
inside and outside.

4.
3.2. Influences on the status of the equipment

It is possible that some equipment suffered from corrosion from process side but,
depending on atmospheric conditions, also from outside.

· Atmospheric conditions
Is the plant located in a moist climate, near the sea side or in the desert. Are there other
plants in the same location. In a moist climate steel parts may be strongly corroded,
although a lot will depend on proper maintenance. A sea side location will give a
possibility of chlorides in the plant and a chance of chloride stress corrosion cracking.
In a desert location also sand (with salt) could introduce chlorides in the plant. Nitrates
in the atmosphere could result In stress corrosion of carbon steel.

· Quality of cooling water

Corrosion from cooling waterside could attack carbon steel equipment but also
stainless steel equipment depending on whether the cooling water is seawater or
conditioned cooling water on which chemicals are used. A list of analysis is helpful here
to get an idea about possible problems.

· Quality of steam
Important for the possibility of attack from the steam and condensate side are the
quality of the steam and condensate system, the pH, chemicals used, etc.
A list of analysis will help to get an idea about possible problems.

· Age of equipment
Some equipment suffer little over the years, others have to be replaced after a number
of years (high pressure heat exchangers after about 20 years). The age of the
equipment and a corrosion rate in the past will give an idea about the rest life of the
equipment.

· History of equipment, repairs

Maintenance logbooks often give information on problems encountered in the past and
can point to weak points. Special attention should be paid to equipment with a history
of trouble. Corrosion can be a source of trouble but also vibration is found to be a
possible cause of equipment failure.

3.3 Maintenance cost

Certain items may cause high maintenance cost. It could be attractive to change the
material of such an item or choose a different process step. Example: replace
crystallisation by evaporation if clients do not ask for low biuret figures.
Another example: If an equipment in say BB.01 material gives problems in some
equipment it can be wise to change to a better material such as BC.01 and BC.05

5.
3.4 Environment

The old plants had relatively high ammonia and urea contents in gaseous emissions
and liquid effluents. At present it is not acceptable and not necessary to have high
effluent or emission figures, but the plant will have to be modified in certain area’s.
Examples: Atmospheric absorber, 4-bar absorber, desorber/ hydrolyzer system,
draining system etc.

3.5 Consumption figures

Developments over the years enabled us to reduce consumption figures without

complicating the plant too much. The ammonia consumption went from about 580
kg/ton (1977) to about 566 kg/ton product (1999, based on loss measurements). The
steam consumption went from 1050 kg/ton (1977, 24 ata, 290 °C) to 830 kg/ton ( 1999,
21.5 bar and 330 °C)

3.6 Equipment

If we want the plant to run another 10 – 15 years in a reliable way we want to know the
status of the equipment.
About 7 years ago for the first time Stamicarbon was asked to perform a life study of a
plant. Could the plant be operated for another 10 to 15 years?
We thought about it, studied what had been done in DSM plants in this respect and
came to the conclusion that we needed to inspect:

- Stationary equipment
- Rotating equipment
- Instrumentation
- Electrical equipment
- Civil structure

We looked for a group of specialists in each of these fields in our organisation, and
made a time and cost estimate.
To limit the costs it was decided to use only Stamicarbon’s inspection group for the
inspection of the stationary equipment. The other subjects were to be checked by the
contractor, manufacturer or client themselves. Our expertise is the corrosion aspect and
its effect on the stationary equipment.

6.
4. Inspections of stationary equipment

A program was made for the scope of the inspection of the stationary equipment:
High pressure vessels, heat exchangers and lines. Low pressure equipment and lines
were incorporated in the inspection program. The high pressure equipment was to be
inspected in a similar way as we perform in our normal Urea plant inspections. The
inspection would concentrate on:

4.1 Visual inspection

The selected vessels and heat exchangers were going to be inspected visually for
corrosion at process side and if required on the outside to check for atmospheric
corrosion. Inspection of selected lines from the outside was programmed. From
experience we know which spots in a line have the most likely chance of corrosion.

4.2 NDT inspection

Of selected heat exchangers 20 tubes each were programmed to be measured for wall
thickness by eddy current methods.
Of selected vessels at random the wall thickness was programmed to be measured by
ultrasonic methods.
Selected lines were programmed to be measured for wall thickness by ultrasonic
methods. For these lines the insulation had to be removed locally. The spots to be
cleared of insulation were indicated on the line isometrics.

4.3 Corrosion hazards

Lectures to be given on corrosion hazards from process side. In the lectures also
corrosion from atmosphere and cooling water side as well as steam side were to be
highlighted. During plant trips it is explained where the potential failure modes are likely
to occur. Awareness of possible problems are explained such as stress corrosion of
stainless steel due to chlorides and stress corrosion cracking due to nitrates.

4.4 Possible corrosion spots

The inspection is focussed on corrosion from various origin:

· from the process side the stainless steel walls are checked for corrosion.
Especially the welds are inspected but also discolorations or cracks are checked.
Cold spots might have initiated corrosion.

· from the process side the tube walls could be attacked, showing up as a wall
thickness decrease or sometimes discolorations.

7.
· Corrosion by the cooling water on the stainless steel is checked especially on
spots where deposits are likely to be formed. In this respect it is important to have
the availability of the analysis of the cooling water.

· corrosion from the cooling water side on carbon steel is checked especially on
spots where deposits are found. Again the analysis of the cooling water can be
very helpful.

· corrosion from steam and condensate side on carbon steel is checked. In some
plants the pH of the steam and condensate is low resulting in corrosion of vessels
and lines. An analysis of the condensate is in such cases a must to be able to
advise on corrosion prevention.

· atmospheric corrosion on tubes and equipment is checked. Experience in DSM

has shown that in moist places and in between certain temperatures atmospheric
corrosion can progress very rapidly. A lot depends on air pollutants of course.

To be able to study possible corrosion from cooling water side, detailed information
about the cooling water system (minimum, maximum and average values) will have to
be provided by client.

Detailed information from client is also required about:

- The steam condensate system.
- The boiler feed water
- The boiler water

Conductivity, pH, oxygen content and other values of the steam condensate system ,
boiler feed water and boiler water are important for corrosion behaviour and the
formation of deposits in the systems. This information will enable us to prepare for the
life study.

It is also required that client sends us in advance drawings and data on for instance
construction material of various LP equipment. This information will be used in
preparing the life study.

4.5 Techniques

The following techniques are used to check the equipment for corrosion:
- Visual inspection
- Eddy current wall thickness measurements of tubes
- Ultrasonic wall thickness measurements of lining and vessel walls
- Penetrant test of linings and walls
- Magnetic particle inspection of carbon steel vessel walls

8.
4.6 Program

A possible scope of a life study can be:

4.6.1 HP Stripper

· Top and bottom chambers (including the cover)

- Visual inspection of corrosion resistant surfaces.
- Thickness measurements of liner and/or overlay welds.

· Tubes
- Eddy Current measurement of all the stripper tubes for the remaining tube wall
thickness in the top part (over the first 2-3 m).
- Determination of thickness of oxide scaling in bottom part of the tubes.

· Tubesheets
- Visual inspection of all tube to tubesheet welds.
- Checking the tubesheets to determine defects in the C-steel below the cladding
by NDT (Non Destructive Techniques).

4.6.2 HP Carbamate Condenser

· Top and bottom chambers (including the cover)

- 100% Visual inspection of corrosion resistant surfaces & random PT (Penetrant
Test) examination of liner/overlay welds (Surface preparation may be required)
- Assessment of knife line attack.
- Thickness measurements of liner and/or overlay welds.
- Visual inspection of liquid divider, measurement of divider holes.

· Tubes
- Eddy current measurements over the full length for remaining wall thickness of
all tubes between the tubesheets.
- Eddy current measurement of all the condenser tubes for the remaining tube
wall thickness in the top part (over the first 1-1.5 m in and just below the
tubesheet area).
- Eddy current measurement of all the tubes in top and bottom tubesheet over the
height of the tubesheet plus about 0.3 m for stress corrosion.

· Tubesheets
- Visual inspection of all tube to tubesheet welds.
- Checking the tubesheets to determine defects in the C-steel below the cladding
by NDT (Non Destructive Techniques).
- Checking of ferrite on rewelds & heat affected zone.

In case of finding indications of stress corrosion cracking removal of a tube for

metallurgical test by M/s STAMICARBON may be required.

9.
4.6.3 HP Scrubber

· Top and bottom chambers (including the cover)

- 100% Visual inspection of corrosion resistant surfaces and random PT
(Penetrant Test) examination of liner/overlay welds (Surface preparation may
be required.
- 100% PT of all welds in pall ring chamber to be carried out.
- 100% PT of all welds in the corrosion resistant surface of bottom cover to be
carried out.
- Thickness measurements of liner and/or overlay welds.
- Special attention shall be paid to the pall ring chamber and hole size in gas
distributor.
- At random ferrite check at repaired surfaces.
- Visual inspection and wall thickness measurement of corrosion resistant surface
in the bottom cover of the Scrubber after removal of the gas divider.
- Visual inspection of the upper part of the HP Scrubber.

· Tubes
- Eddy current measurements over the full length for remaining wall thickness of
the tubes.
- Special attention shall be paid to the corrosion of the tubes in the outer
circumference

· Tubesheets
- Visual inspection of all tube to tubesheet welds.
- Checking the tubesheets to determine defects in the C-steel below the cladding
by NDT (Non Destructive Techniques).

4.6.4 Reactor

- Visual inspection of all corrosion resistant surfaces, especially the welds &
supports & internal piping to be carried out.
- Ultrasonic thickness measurements of the liner in top, middle and bottom
section and all along horizontal and vertical welds both sides including pad
plates
- Assessment of knife line attack.
- Thickness measurement of radio active source well
- Ultrasonic thickness measurement of the downcomer in top middle and bottom
and of nozzles in reactor bottom and detailed visual inspection.
- In the Reactor a scaffold has to be installed in order to enable
access to all welds and access behind reactor trays for a thorough inspection of
the corrosion resistant surfaces.

10.
4.6.5 HP lines

Wall thickness measurement of HP lines. A list of lines to be inspected will be compiled.

Of these lines isometrics will have to be at hand so that Stamicarbon can advise about
removal of insulation.

4.6.6 Low pressure equipment

Of LP equipment (heat exchangers and vessels) the following inspections can be

carried out:
- Eddy current measurement of about 20 tubes per heat exchanger
- Ultrasonic wall thickness measurement of lining and vessel wall.
- Detailed Visual inspection of corrosion resistant surfaces and PT examination at
random on liner welds (Surface preparation required).
- Check on atmospheric corrosion and corrosion from cooling water side.
About 30 to 40 LP vessels and heat exchangers will be inspected. Before the life study
a list will be prepared of equipment that will be inspected

4.7 Duration of inspection

In the first inspections about 3 hours per LP equipment and per inspector were
estimated. Depending on the problems found, this figure proved often to be too short. If
many problems are found, each equipment will require 4 hours.
Including in the hours is however the time needed to prepare the final inspection report.

4.8 Number of inspectors

At least 2 inspectors are required. In some inspections 3 inspectors tackled the job.
One inspector will be a corrosion specialist, while the other inspector is a non
destructive testing specialist

4.9 Experience with life studies

In the mean time we performed life studies in 5 plants:

Shriram
Mangalore
Fertil
Police
PIC Kuwait

In most of the life studies the inspection went into much detail, in one study a limited
number of LP equipment was inspected.

11.
4.10 What did we find

Going by the past performance and going by the time onstream an estimate is made of
the rest life of the equipment. This part is very difficult and tricky as it is often not known
how exactly the plant was operated in the past and will be operated in future. A
complication is that the life study is often combined with a revamp whereby the plant
load using the same equipment is increased.
Generally it can be concluded that the equipment in the low pressure section has a life
time which is exceeding 20 years and in most cases even 30 years or more.

Although the problems found differ from plant to plant a few area’s caused problems in
several plants:

4.10.1 Typical failure modes

· Atmospheric corrosion

- Overall corrosion; crater like attack in carbon steel.

In some cases quite serious corrosion was found in insulated pipeline systems. This
corrosion did mainly occur in areas of supports of vertical piping and bends at the lower
end of vertical piping.

Figure 1. shows a ruptured HP carbon steel CO2 pipe.

In plants located in coastal areas quite severe corrosion did occur at steel structures
and platforms.

12.
- Nitrate stress corrosion cracking in carbon steel.
In a few cases severe cracking was found in the top area of the Urea reactor. This
corrosion phenomenon is likely to occur in case of presence of nitrate in the
atmosphere at locations of damage in the (aluminium) cover sheeting of the insulation
system.

Figure 2 and 3 show an example of nitrate SCC in a Urea reactor.

- Chloride stress corrosion cracking in stainless steel.

Chloride stress corrosion cracking can occur in chloride containing atmosphere as can
be expected in coastal areas.
In one case chloride stress corrosion cracking did occur in the bottom (starting from
outside) of a stainless steel Urea storage tank.
In one case cracking (SCC) was found in a circumferential stainless steel patch strip
around the liquid inlet line on the top cover of a HPCC.

· Condensation corrosion

Condensation corrosion is a serious problem in gas phases of the high pressure

equipment like reactor, top hemihead of stripper and HP carbamate condenser and the
sphere or top dome of the HP scrubber. In some cases this condensation corrosion
resulted in stress induced intergranular cracking. Since this cracking might occur below
the oxide layer the damage can hardly be detected nor by means of visual inspection, nor
by means of NDT technique. In that case local removal of the oxide layer by means of
grinding is necessary.
Incidently condensation corrosion was also found in low pressure equipment like
nd
separator of the 2 stage recirculation stage, rectifying column and desorber.

13.
· Corrosion in HP piping

The LTE studies revealed that in HP gas piping also quite severe condensation can
occur in case of damaged insulation and/or cover sheeting. In some cases urgent
replacement appeared to be necessary.
Special attention should be focussed on gas lines like
- gas line from top stripper to top HPCC
- gas line between bottom HPCC and bottom reactor
- gas line from top reactor to HP scrubber
- gas line from sphere HP scrubber to bottom HP scrubber.
After about 20 to 25 years on-stream severe decrease in wall thickness also might
occur in HP liquid lines. Drain lines should have special attention.

· Erosion - corrosion in steam systems

Serious erosion-corrosion was observed in risers and downcomers of the steam drum.
Incidently also erosion-corrosion did occur in the steam outlet nozzles of the HP
carbamate condenser. To minimise the risk of chloride stress corrosion cracking in the
tubes of the HPCC, starting from steam/condensate side, it is advantageous to add an
oxygen scavenger; a very low oxygen content is however detrimental to build up a
protective magnetite layer on unalloyed carbon steel to avoid erosion-corrosion in
steam/condensate.

· Stress corrosion cracking in steam/condensate systems

In many cases chloride stress corrosion cracking was observed in the austenitic
stainless steel tubes of the HP carbamate condensers. Cracking started from
condensate/steam side in the gaps of the tube/tubesheet.
st
Incidently also cracking was found in heat exchangers in the LP section like the 1
st
stage heater of the 1 stage recirculation section (conventional plant).

· Corrosion in cooling water systems

In stainless steel as well as carbon steel heat exchanger tubes pitting was observed.
The pitting attack is due to fouling in the tubes in most cases as a result of a too low
cooling water velocity.
In several interstage coolers of CO2 compressors stress corrosion cracking, starting
from cooling water side, was detected.

· Baffle hammering heat exchanger tubes

In several heat exchangers baffle hammering was observed. In most cases this failure
mode did occur in U-bundle heat exchanger type (like LP carbamate condenser), most
probably as a result of increase of vibration after debottlenecking the plant.

14.
Figure 4 shows the damage of baffle hammering in a heat exchanger tube.

· Stress corrosion cracking at sealing faces of flanges

In several cases stress corrosion cracking was observed at sealing faces of stainless
steel flanges. These failure modes are due to presence of chlorides in either the gasket
or in the glue (or Molykote) possibly used for fixing the gasket.

4.11 Advice

Based on the problems found a proposal to repair, replace or inspect certain items with
a certain interval are made.
Depending on the findings HP equipment is advised to be inspected more frequently
compared to the normal interval of 2 to 3 years.
LP equipment generally is advised to be inspected after 10 years of operation or less
depending on the findings.

4.12 Estimated mandays cost for inspection of the stationary equipment

(Life study)

Costs of life studies are related to the mandays spent for preparation and inspection. A
typical inspection took about 20 inspection days, 4 travel days and some 3 days
preparation, per inspector. A typical extensive inspection requires
3 inspectors.

15.
5. Conclusion

If plant management likes to operate the plant for another 10 – 15 years after
considering plant modernisation, Stamicarbon can perform a life study of the stationary
equipment.
With this life study the plant management knows the condition of this equipment and
will know if the equipment is good for another 10 – 15 years or if equipment has to be
repaired or replaced. The life study shows the corrosion phenomena and gives advise
on how to avoid corrosion in future as much as possible.

16.