Cleaning heater convection tubes
Fired heater tubes are difficult to clean, but a sequence of operations can remove
unwanted material from the tubes’ external surfaces and raise the heater’s efficiency
BYUNGMOON JEONG and SEOKRYONG JEON
SK Energy
A
lmost every refinery and pet-
rochemical company in the
world suffers from lower
efficiency than the design condi-
tion after long, continuous opera-
tion. There are many attempts to
increase the turnaround cycle these
days, and the continuous operation
period is getting longer, with 3-5
years being common. The mechani-
cal integrity of equipment is impor-
tant for long periods of continuous
operation, but it is equally impor-
tant to maintain the efficiency of the
plant’s design.
The fired heater is a typical item
of equipment that becomes less effi-
cient as time goes by. One of the
main reasons for a decrease in the
efficiency of a heater is that foreign
substances build up between the
tubes, little by little over the long
term. Because the gap between fins
is narrow, foreign substances are
likely to stick in a structural fashion.
In particular, the burning of liq-
uid fuels is more likely to produce
incomplete combustion than gas
fuels, resulting in much higher lev-
els of unburned hydrocarbons and
ash. Ash and unburned hydrocar-
bons deposited in the heater’s con-
vection tube disturb effective heat
transfer between hot flue gas and
the convection tube surface (see
Figure 1). Subsequently, this makes
the heater’s efficiency lower than
the design condition.
Fired heaters are among the most
fuel consuming items of equip-
ment in refineries and petrochemi-
cal plants. If their efficiency is low,
higher fuel costs cannot be avoided.
In addition, other risk factors can
arise, such as overheating of the
tube by increasing the load of the
burner to maintain output.
Generally speaking, radiant
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1002414
Figure 1 Convection tube status after
three years’ operation
tubes absorb more heat (60~70%
of total fired heat duty) than con-
vection tubes (30~40%) in heaters.
Therefore, a radiant tube may be
more important than a convection
tube in terms of heat absorption.
However, a radiant tube can be eas-
ily accessed and cleaned by workers
using scaffolding during a turna-
round. Therefore it is relatively easy
to maintain the designed heat trans-
fer from the outside surface of the
tube. But this excludes heat transfer
inside the tube. Radiant tubes are
exposed to relatively high temper-
atures, creating coke in the tubes,
which leads to low heat transfer
efficiency.
The structure of convection tubes
makes them difficult to access for
cleaning, but it is important to clean
the convection tube effectively to
improve the heater’s efficiency.
Normally, heaters consuming liq-
uid fuel should be fitted with soot
blowers which should be operated
periodically to prevent foreign sub-
stances from accumulating between
the tubes. Even so, if the equipment
operates for a long time (usually 3-5
years), these substances will none-
theless accumulate.
In addition, environmental regu-
lations make it necessary to reduce
NOx, hence selective non-catalytic
reduction is often installed in fired
heaters. This equipment is installed
as a nozzle between the radiant sec-
tion and the convection section, and
the chemical sprayed through the
nozzle flows directly to the convec-
tion tube. Such chemicals make for-
eign substances in the convection
tube become more firmly fixed. As
a result, this makes tube cleaning
even more difficult.
Even if foreign substances accu-
mulated during operation are una-
voidable, it is necessary to find a
way to completely clean them from
the tube by opening up the equip-
ment during a maintenance period.
More than 100 fired heaters are
in operation in our plant; the larg-
est among them was selected to
PTQ Q1 2020 67
 the middle was almost impossible
23174 to clean.
Convection
396 mm In addition, the space between
tube convection tube bundles is too nar-

6725
725 mm
row (minimum 396mm) to provide
approach space for cleaning work-
Manifold 2450

924 mm ers, and the length of a convection

tube (23m, 75ft) makes it difficult for
P–H2504R 725 mm
workers to access them.
P–H2508R P–H2501R Following long-term operation,
P–H2502R 396 mm more than 50 years, a project to

Radiant tube
Figure 2 Convection tube layout
Figure 3 Portable tube cleaning machine
apply a new cleaning method. This
heater consumes $60 million worth
of fuel annually (heat duty of 179
MM kcal/h). It is a CCR heater for
the aromatics plant in which four
heaters share one convection section
(see Figure 2).
1000 mm
17440
396 mm
132 mm
725 mm
Manhole
396 mm
Figure 4 Simulation test
Previously, only simple cleaning
was carried out by spraying chem-
icals onto the surface of the tubes,
followed by cleaning with spray
water. This was not very effective;
in particular, when the tube con-
sists of several lines the tube in
396 mm
increase capacity has been carried
out, but this meant that the fired
heater was becoming short of heat-
ing capacity. To overcome these
difficulties, we tried to apply two
types of cleaning equipment. The
first of these was a portable tube
cleaning machine (see Figure 3).
This machine is specially designed
for cleaning convection tubes and
is commercially available. It moves
along a rail and cleans the tube by
orienting in four directions (for-
ward/backward/right/left). It can
be operated with a maximum pres-
sure of 1000 bar and is designed to
physically separate foreign sub-
stances from the tube by means of
a high pressure water spray. The
machine has several small noz-
zles and each nozzle has a particu-
lar spray angle to enable it to clean
large surfaces.
A simulation test was conducted
to identify problems and to check
the machine’s effectiveness at clean-
ing before application in the field.
Scaffolding and temporary tubes
were used to make a structure simi-
lar to a convection tube (see Figure 4).
The tube fin of the fired heater is
sufficiently thick to avoid the risk of
deformation or damage caused by
high pressure water.
The water jet machine cleaned

300 mm
725 mm the tubes well. High pressure water
spraying can reach between the
924 mm tubes, so the lower tube also had a
cleaning effect. However, it seems
to be difficult for the water jet to
725 mm
have more than three rows of clean-
396 mm ing effects past the tube. Observing
the surface of the cleaned tube, the
725 mm
scale was completely removed and
looked almost like a new tube.
132 mm
725 mm
In addition, the machine is only
396 mm about 300mm high, so it can move
in a narrow space (see Figure 5).
Thus, the operator can do the clean-
Figure 5 Cleaning plan for a portable tube cleaning machine ing by remote control without

68 PTQ Q1 2020 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1002414

having to enter the narrow space
between tube bundles.
Because the convection tubes to
be cleaned were over 23m long,
this made it impossible to install
all of the rails at once, so some sec-
tions were cleaned first, then the
rails were moved to clean the rest
because of the limited length of
the rails.
The second machine selected is a 924 mm

hand jet cleaner, which can spray

water jets at 2700 bar (see Figure
6). This machine can be operated
by cleaning workers and cleans
the surface of a tube by inserting it
between tubes (see Figure 7). Since
the worker must perform the work
by hand with very high pressure
water, individual skill is called for.
This machine can compensate for
the poor cleaning effect of the port-
able tube cleaner for the tube in the
middle of the bundle.
The tip of the hand jet cleaner
is designed to rotate while water
is injected at high pressure, so the
tubes can be cleaned effectively. The
total nozzle length should be long
enough to reach the centre of a tube
bundle to enable all of the tubes to
be cleaned.
The cleaning sequence was
designed to maximise the cleaning
effect and to perform the operation
efficiently. The key to this cleaning
strategy is to clean the inside of the
bundle after removing large debris
at the outset. When using portable
and hand jet cleaners, low concen-
trations of chemical should be used
first, followed by higher concentra-
tions. The cleaning method and pro-
cedure are summarised in Table 1.
First, a tent was installed to pro-
tect the internal refractory before
cleaning began (see Figure 8). Tents
should be installed between the first
tubes next to the refractory. Since
they may be damaged by high pres-
sure water, they are installed in two
layers to prevent water from pen-
etrating. To collect then treat the
wastewater used for cleaning, a sep-
arate tank should be installed and
operated next to the heater.
The operator should always be
by the water tank beneath the con-
vection tube. As the cleaning pro-
gresses, always check for leaks
caused by damage to the tent. In
Figure 6 Hand jet cleaner
Figure 7 Cleaning skim
addition, the condition of the water
should be checked to determine
whether cleaning is complete.
Initial inspection was performed
immediately after opening the
heater; a large amount of foreign
substances and sulphur had accu-
mulated. In the first cleaning oper-
Cleaning processes and order of operations
Operation Cleaning process Remark
1 Preparatory work Refractory protection and water gathering
2 Portable tube cleaning (chemical)
3 Hand cleaning (chemical)
4 Chemical pouring
5 Water cleaning (water only)
6 Inspection (endoscopy)
Table 1
ation, the portable cleaner was
used to remove foreign substances
from the tube surfaces. Inspection
of the tubes after portable cleaning
revealed that substances such as ash
and sulphur condensate were com-
pletely removed from the surface
(see Figure 9).
If substances caused by com-
bustion are stuck between the fins
of tubes, simply cleaning with
water is not effective. By inject-
ing water with a little chemical,
the substances can be dissolved
to increase the cleaning effect.
Mechanical cleaning and chemical
cleaning can be carried out at the
same time. The portable machine
was applied sequentially in the
spaces between the tube bundles
at the top of the convection section
to clean up and down the surfaces

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1002414 PTQ Q1 2020 71


Scaffold
Peep door
Figure 8 Preparation for cleaning water treatment
Figure 9 Tube surfaces after portable cleaning
Figure 10 Inspection result (endoscopy)
of the tubes. Inspecting the waste-
water tank showed that, as clean- formed, the surface area of the tube ciency. Heaters using gas as fuel
ing progressed, dirty water flowed had increased, then hand jet clean- are expected to accumulate less
in at first followed by clear water, ing was applied. Hand jetting also foreign material in the tubes so the
so cleaning should continue until used a chemical to clean the tube improvement in efficiency resulting
clear water emerges, signalling that surface. Using the portable cleaner from cleaning is lower than for heat-
cleaning is complete.
cleaning, so a low concentration of
chemical (1-2%) is required.
Next, in order to maximise the
chemical cleaning effect, apply a
high concentration of chemical com-
ponent to the whole tube. After the
reaction is complete, final cleaning
is performed with pure water.
Chemical used for cleaning the
tube was checked for any problems
such as corrosion by putting metal
of the same material as the tube in
the chemical before use. Detailed
inspection should confirm that there
is no abnormality. During the test,
checks were made to ensure that
foreign substances in the tube were
dissolved by the chemical. A total
of three chemicals were tested. The
chemicals with the highest decom-
position effect and no corrosion
problems were selected and used.
This completes the cleaning pro-
cess. Next, check inside the tube
bundle using endoscopy to see how
effective the cleaning is. The result
of the test was good, with dust and
sulphur at the middle of tube bun-
dle totally removed (see Figure 10).
After visual and endoscopic
inspection, operating data were
collected and analysed over three
months to see how much the effi-
ciency of the heater was improved
by cleaning. The change in efficiency
of the heater was calculated and
compared with the previous turn-
around. Total heater efficiency had
increased by 0.84%, equivalent to
an annual saving of $500 000 in fuel
costs. Compared to the cost of clean-
ing (about $100 000) the saving is
considerable. Although the economic
gain is expected to decrease from the
year after cleaning, the cost of fuel
saved is still much higher than the
cleaning cost, considering that the
cleaning effect is not permanent.
The exercise demonstrated that
cleaning a fuel oil consuming fired
heater using portable and hand jet
equipment results in significant fuel
savings. We conclude that this com-
bination of cleaning operations is
After portable cleaning was per- effective and increases heater effi-
and hand jet amounts to initial ers using oil.

72 PTQ Q1 2020 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1002414

 Heaters burning fuel gas need
to be checked to establish exactly
how their efficiency changes and
whether they are economical. If
there is plenty of time to work dur-
ing a turnaround, various cleaning
sequences can be applied to estab-
lish optimal cleaning procedures.
It is recommended that cleaning is
performed during every turnaround
since foreign matter will accumu-
late continuously after cleaning
and the cleaning effect is expected
to decrease gradually. It is also rec-
ommended that selection of items
for cleaning is important; a heater
with high fuel consumption or heat-
ers considered as bottlenecks in the
process could be more economical
to be cleaned.
All of the cleaning required 13
days, for eight hours each day, from
start to finish. In general, a turna-
round schedule allows for 30 days
for the operation, so the work can
be completed in a relaxed manner.
Installation of the tent took around
three to four days, but the clean-
ing process did not take long. Also,
cleaning in the convection section
does not interfere with working in
the lower radiant section because
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1002414
the water used is gathered sep-
arately by the protecting tent. In
conclusion, cleaning with a port-
able cleaner has no effect on the
working period.
Cleaning a fuel
oil consuming
fired heater using
portable and hand
jet equipment
results in significant
fuel savings
In refineries and petrochemi-
cal plants, a heater is a large and
important item of equipment that
requires a large investment. It is
very difficult to increase its capac-
ity through a revamp after the plant
is constructed. Lower efficiency
heaters not only consume a lot of
fuel, but also become an obstacle to
increasing the capacity of the plant.
Hence maintaining the plant’s
capacity through efficient cleaning
will be a big help.
External cleaning equipment of
heater tubes is not a long-estab-
lished process like heat exchanger
cleaning. Through this test, the per-
formance of equipment for cleaning
the outer surfaces of heater tubes
has been verified.
Byungmoon Jeong is a Stationary Equipment
Engineer with SK Energy in South Korea. He has
more than 14 years of petrochemical industry
experience, specialising in pressure vessel and
flange leak troubleshooting and maintenance.
He graduated with a BS degree in mechanical
engineering from Pusan University, South
Korea. Email: bugbear@sk.com
Seokryong Jeon is Leader of the stationary
equipment engineering team with SK Energy.
He has more than 24 years of experience in
the reliability and project management of
refineries and petrochemical plants. He holds
an MS degree in metallurgical engineering from
Hanyang University, South Korea.
Email: srjeon@sk.com
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Heat Transfer
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PTQ Q1 2020 73