Sabp A 077

Best Practice
SABP-A-077 16 March 2017

Cleaning of Plate Heat Exchanger used in Diesel Hydrotreaters
Document Responsibility: Process Engineering Committee
Contents
1 Introduction……………………………………. 2
2 References……………………………………... 2
3 Definitions…………………………………….. 3
4 Purpose and Scope………………………….. 3
5 Responsibilities………………………………... 3
6 Process Description…………………………… 5
7 Types of fouling seen in Plate Heat

Exchanger……………………………………….5
8 Chemical Cleaning…………………………….. 6
9 Mechanical Cleaning………………………….. 9
10 Blow-Off Cleaning Method………………….. 10
11 Effluent Side Strainer………………………... 12
Previous Issue: New Next Planned Update: 16 March 2017

Page 1 of 13
Contact: Salahdine, Elidrissi (idrisssx) on phone +966-13-8808060
©Saudi Aramco 2017. All rights reserved.

Document Responsibility: Process & Control System Department SABP-A-077
Issue Date: 16 March 2017
Next Planned Update: 16 March 2020 Cleaning of Plate Heat Exchanger used in Diesel Hydrotreaters
1 Introduction
Saudi Aramco is using plates heat exchanger (HX) technology in the Diesel Hydrotreater
(DHT) Reactor Feed/Effluent. Although, this equipment has proven its efficiency to
recover the maximum heat energy from reactor effluent stream, it has also shown
limitations with regards to fouling and quick pressure drop build up. The fouling problem
that was experienced in Saudi Aramco DHTs was in both HX sides (feed and effluent)
which suggests different root-causes and proactive measures to mitigate the problem. The
purpose of this best practice is to establish general guidelines which provides specific
measures and systematic steps that an operating facility should carry out in case a pressure
drop show up in the plate HX.
2 References
This Saudi Aramco best practice is based on the latest edition of the references below,
unless otherwise noted.
2.1 Saudi Aramco References
Saudi Aramco Engineering Procedures

SAEP-1662 Cleaning of Heat Exchangers and Unfired Plant
Equipment
SAEP-603 Process Design Guidelines – Hydrotreating
SAEP-327 Disposal of Wastewater from Cleaning, Flushing,
Dewatering Piplines and Vessels
Saudi Aramco Engineering Standards

SAES-A-004 General Requirements for pressure testing
SAES-W-010 Welding Requirement for Pressure Vessel
Saudi Aramco Materials System Specifications

32-SAMSS-019 Manufacture of Plate and frame Heat Exchanger
Saudi Aramco Best Practices

SABP-A-022 Sainless Steel Fabrication, Testing and Installation
Saudi Aramco: Company General Use
Page 2 of 13
2.2 Industry Codes and Standards
American Petroleum Institute

API RP 582 Recommended Practice Welding Guidelines for the
Chemical, Oil, and Gas Industries
3 Definitions
Exchanger manufacturer: The Company responsible for the design/manufacturing of

plate heat exchanger.
Cleaning Contractor: The company which will carry out the cleaning.
Reactor Feed/Effluent Exchanger: The plate heat exchanger combining feed and
effluent of the reactor.
Feed Side: The side of the Plate heat exchanger receiving the fresh feed.
Effluent Side: The side of the Plate heat exchanger receiving the reactor outlet stream.
4 Purpose and Scope
4.1 Purpose
The purpose of this best practice is to provide guidance for refineries having plate
heat exchanger for diesel service of how to carry out cleaning after pressure drop
build up in exchanger feed side or effluent side.
4.2 Scope
This document provides best practices and recommendations of how to clean plate
heat exchanger and achieve an efficient chemical cleaning.
5 Responsibilities
5.1 Refinery Operation Engineer
The refinery operation engineer is in charge of the plate HX cleaning activities.

He will work with refinery maintenance group and get the necessary support. The
refinery operation engineer will prepare the cleaning procedure, will advise plant
foreman during the cleaning and will act as facility technical representative. The
facility operating department is also responsible for conducting all safety job
assessments to insure that the cleaning will go smoothly.
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5.2 Exchanger Manufacturer
Heat Exchanger Manufacturer is responsible for designing, supplying and/or

manufacturing the plate heat exchanger and its main components. He is
responsible for setting the guidelines of the cleaning procedure and is requested
to endorse any design change. He is also required to witness the cleaning.
5.3 Process and Control Systems Department (P&CSD)
P&CSD SME is responsible for reviewing, evaluating, and approving overall plan
for the cleaning. He is validating the mitigation mesures selected to address the
fouling issues.
5.4 Diesel hydrotreater Licensor
The unit licensor is the designer of the unit. He is responsible for supporting Saudi
Aramco to identify the root causes of the plate heat exchanger plugging and
suggesting the mitigation plan. He is also reviewing the final procedure before
implementation.
5.5 Cleaning Contractor
The cleaning contractor is responsible for developing the detailed cleaning

procedure, conducting the cleaning and issuing final cleaning report.
5.6 Consulting Service Department (CSD)
Consulting Service Department is responsible for validating the chemical

cleaning procedure and the welding requirements.
Page 4 of 13
6 Process Description
Figure 1: Diesel Hydrotreater Reaction Section Flow diagram
The fresh feed is a mixture of cold fresh feed which is first sent to coalescer drum V-001 (Figure
1), and straight run gas oil. Thus fresh feed is filtered in feed filter and preheated by stripper
bottom product heat exchanger E-007/008 and then sent to feed surge drum V-002.
The feed is pumped by feed pump P-001 and mixed with the recycle gas preheated in recycle gas
preheater E-004. The mixture is preheated by the reactor effluent in reactor feed/effluent heat
exchanger E-001 (plate heat exchanger) and brought up to the reaction temperature by reactor
feed heater F-001. In reactor R-001 the desulfurization, de-nitrification and aromatics saturation
reactions occur on the catalyst.
At the outlet of the reactor the effluent is used to preheat the reactor feed. The effluent is then fed
into Separation section.
7 Types of fouling seen in Plate Heat Exchanger

 In decreasing order of frequency, Saudi Aramco has seen the following types of fouling
developed inside the plate HX bundle over years:
1- Solid migration from Reactor effluent to HX effluent side
2- Heavy hydrocarbons or gums fouling in HX feed side
3- Corrosion by-product fouling in HX feed side
Page 5 of 13
 There is a different fouling damage mechanism between feed and effluent side of the
packinox HX. The feed side mostly gets plugged by gummy materials in the diesel feed while
fouling of the effluent side is caused by chips of ceramic balls and catalyst debris coming
from reactor. Therefore, it is important that the cleaning approach takes into consideration
the nature of the fouling material to make the cleaning successful.
8 Chemical Cleaning
8.1 Genaral
 HX plate exchanger chemical cleaning consists of the following main steps; these
steps are comprehensively described in SAEP-1662:
 Soda ash neutralization
 Solvent cleaning
 Chemical decontamination
 Permanganate treatment
 Acid cleaning and neutralization
 Soda ash neutralization
 There are two possible methods to chemically clean the plate HX:
 Fill and drain method: shell and feed sides are filled and drained
independently.
 Circulation method: this method involves circulating fluid through heat

exchanger to clean the exchanger bundle. The feed and effluent sides
along with shell are connected in parallel.
 It is recommended to apply the circulation method to efficiently complete each step.
 Fill and drain method will be recommended for Soda ash whenever proponenent
needs to open the plate HX exchanger to atmosphere for other activities ( inspection,
mechanical cleaning, blow-off)
 It is important that shell and combined feed side pressure must be kept higher than
effluent side pressure
 Always fill shell first, then the combined feed side, and effluent side last
 Always drain effluent side first, then feed side, and shell side last
 Even if only the effluent or feed side has to be cleaned, the shell side also must be
filled with soda ash solution for pressure balance.
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 During chemical cleaning, the differential pressure between shell and plate bundle
sides shall be kept less than 7 psi.
 Besides the requirement for establishing a circulation loop in the SAEP-1662, below
are additional measures to be added for plate heat exchanger cleaning:
o Pump should have 50 m3/hr minimum capacity for RTR and Riyadh DHTs;
this capacity is to achieve parallel circulation cleaning for Feed and Effluent
circuits.
o Pump should have 100 m3/hr minimum capacity for Yanbu Refienery and
Jazan Refinery DHTs, this capacity is to achieve parallel circulation cleaning
for Feed and Effluent circuits.
o Pump should have minimum 10 barg discharge pressure.
o Hoses and connections must satisfy the required volumetric flowrates.
o Manifolds and connections should be able to achieve reverse flow rate.
o Pump filters should have 100 to 250 microns mesh.
Figure 2: Installation for circulation method
 Connections:
o Combined feed inlet (E1):
Page 7 of 13
The combined feed inlet nozzle (E1) shall be equipped with a blind flange
fitted with:
 A 3 to 4” diameter nozzle for filling and draining of combined feed
side, and a valve V4.
 A ¾ to 1” diameter nozzle for nitrogen injection and a valve V11.
 A ¾ to 1” diameter transparent plastic tube (liquid level tube), and a
valave V8 connected to the auxialiary nozzle A1.
o Shell drain (U2):
A 2” diameter (or bigger when possible) pipe (or hose) will be connected to
the shell drain (for the filling and draining of shell side), and a valve V5.
o Effluent Outlet (S2):
The effluent outlet nozzle (S2) will be equipped with a blind flange fitted
with:
 A 3 to 4” diameter nozzle for filling and draining of effluent side and
a valve V6.
 A ¾ to 1” diameter nozzle for the nitrogen injection and a valve V10.
 A ¾ to 1” diameter transparent plastic tube (liquid level tube) and a
valve V7 are connected to auxialiary nozzle A4.
o Combined feed outlet (S1)/ Effluent inlet (E2):
Must be connected to circulation tank by 4” A2 and A3 auxiliary nozzles.
o Shell vent (U1)
Shell drain must have a valve (V16).
8.2 Monitoring and effectiveness
 Chemical cleaning monitoring shall be tracked and representative samples must be

kept for few weeks after completing chemical cleaning to help in conducting
investigations if the chemical cleaning was not successful.
 A clear log sheet with detailled steps shall be issued and provided in the final cleaning
report.
 The success of each step should be measured through gauging effectiveness of

cleaning contractor to follow control parameters and set targets. Generally, the
analysis results are the coverning parameters to end chemical cleaning steps and not
solution residence time.
 It is mandatory that cleaning contractor and facility operating engineer documment

each step results and list reasons why it was ended up.
 It is highly recommended to apply visual and video boroscope inspection at the end
of the chemical cleaning to check its effectiveness.
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9 Mechanical Cleaning
9.1 General
 Mechanical cleaning shall be applied after conducting a soda ash neutralization.
 Mechanical cleaning shall be applied after inspecting the HX plate channels with
video boroscope. The decision to go for mechanical cleaning should be governed by
the level of pressure drop and the quatity of loosened scales/debries that can be
recovered using this cleaning method.
 Depending on the size of the plate HX bundle distributor, one window or two side
windows should be opened to get adequat access to channels.
Figure 3: Example of two windows marking

Figure 4: Example of one window marking
 The mechanical cleaning shall be conducted using only stainless steel hook.
 It is important to keep enough distance from other welds while marking a window in
the distributor.
 Generally for austenitic stainless steel type 321, there are no restrictions on number of
cuts and re-welding at same location, as long as the welds are inspected each time with
non-destructive testing (minimum Peneterant Testing). Re-welding shall be carried out
using approved welding procedure specification. Saudi Aramco procedures P8-1A or P8-
2A may be used, and purging shall be considered if practially feasible.
9.2 Mechanical Cleaning Effectiveness
 The effectiveness of mechanical cleaning can be only gauged through visual

inspection. it is normal that some debris will remain stuck in between plates HX as
long as the majority of debris are removed
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Figure 5: Example of channels before Cleaning Figure 6: Example of channels after Cleaning
10 Blow-Off Cleaning
10.1 General
 Blow-off cleaning should be considered when there is a potential solid migration into
plate HX due to strainer perforation for instance. Generally it applies more to plate
HX effluent side because reactor catalyst and ceramic balls may slip into exchanger
channels.
 Generally, if the effluent side of the HX is getting a high pressure drop due to a sudden
operation upset, mechanical cleaning will be enough to clear the pressure drop.
 If the pressure drop build-up required extended time, then there is high possibility that
solid particles have slipped deeply inside plate HX channels and are stuck. It is then
recommended to apply blow-off cleaning method to bring solids to the top of
channels.
 Generally after a blow-off cleaning, mechanical cleaning is required to remove

entrained solids.
 It is proven that using only chemical or mechanical cleaning to clean the effluent side
of the plate HX may not be successful. This is why it is strongly recommended to
apply the blow-off cleaning procedure to expel the stuck particles from the exchanger
effluent side channels.
 Mechanical cleaning can be effective after carrying many blow-offs. Chemical

cleaning can be also added or not applied to effluent side cleaning depending on visual
inspection.
 It is recommended to not exceed the burst pressure of 5 barg due to HX expansion

bellows limitation. If facility operation want to apply higher burst pressure, it is then
Page 10 of 13
required to conduct a job safety analysis (JSA) and get approval from HX
manufacturer.
 To optimize blow-off cleaning, it is recommended to use adequate bursting disks in

order to avoid wasting time in trials when using fiber gaskets
 Generally it is recommended to apply the blow-off cleaning method for at least 4

times to insure good results.
Figure 7: Bursting disk after blow-off
10.2 Blow-Off installation Set-up
 Feed side should be kept under positive pressure (min 0.5 barg)
 Effluent side with Shell side should be connected as follow:
Page 11 of 13
Figure 8: Set up prior Blow-off
 The Nitrogen pressurization of Effluent side will be done through Shell side.
 The pressurization rate should be 1 bar/min (maximum)
 It is mandatory to carry a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) to ensure that all safety
requirements are met.
11 Effluent Side Strainer
 Plate HX Manufacturer has specified a conical line strainer to be used to protect the
equipment. It is in most cases installed between 18” flange faces downstream of the
reactor and upstream of the plate HX. It constitutes of a perforated plates on which a
fine mesh is added as overlay. The exchanger manufacturer has only specified the
1000 µm as maximum opening to protect the heat exchanger inlet channels.
 The weakest part in the plate HX system is the reactor effluent strainer which has
failed many times and caused unscheduled shutdowns in all Saudi Aramco Diesel
Hydrotreater. This equipment is not properly designed. It is strongly recommended to
Page 12 of 13
upgrade the strainer to be more resistant and stop effectively migration of the ceramic
chips.
 The size of the perforated plate holes and the mesh opening are not similar in all Saudi
Aramco Diesel Hydrotreaters which explains the different issues that each refinery
has faced. Riyadh Refinery plate HX effluent side is more prone to plugging with
ceramic balls migration because of the perforated plate wider holes installed by the
EPC.
Refinery Perforated plate Mesh opening Length Remarks

Hole size * Pitch *thickness In mm (mm) (mm)
RTR (18”) 8 * 10 * 2 0.422 1100
YR (22”) Holes size less than 4 mm 1 1135
RR (18”) 15 * 20 * 3 1 1100
Table 1: Strainers design within SA operating DHTs
 As long as particles/debris having a size less than 2 mm can pass the plate HX
channels, constraining the mesh opening to smaller size will be risky and can cause
frequent plugging of the strainer. This is why P&CSD proposes to maximize the mesh
size to 1 mm opening while reducing the perforated plate hole size to minimum
(3.17mm) as a safe guard in case the mesh is eroded. P&CSD has reviewed the
optimal configuration for effluent strainer upgrade and recommends applying the
following new specifications:
o Perforated plate: 3.175 mm× 4.76mm × 3mm (holes * Pitch * thickness).
o Mesh screen: mesh 20, wire diameter 0.3048 mm and Opening 0.970 mm.
o Keep the same geometry as the current one.
o If plot area allows, add a parallel strainer to the existing in order to double
strainer open area.
Page 13 of 13

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Best Practice

SABP-A-077 16 March 2017

4 Purpose and Scope………………………….. 3

7 Types of fouling seen in Plate Heat

10 Blow-Off Cleaning Method………………….. 10

11 Effluent Side Strainer………………………... 12

Previous Issue: New Next Planned Update: 16 March 2017

©Saudi Aramco 2017. All rights reserved.

2.1 Saudi Aramco References

Saudi Aramco Engineering Procedures

Saudi Aramco Engineering Standards

Saudi Aramco Materials System Specifications

Saudi Aramco Best Practices

2.2 Industry Codes and Standards

American Petroleum Institute

Exchanger manufacturer: The Company responsible for the design/manufacturing of

4 Purpose and Scope

5.1 Refinery Operation Engineer

The refinery operation engineer is in charge of the plate HX cleaning activities.

Heat Exchanger Manufacturer is responsible for designing, supplying and/or

5.3 Process and Control Systems Department (P&CSD)

5.4 Diesel hydrotreater Licensor

5.5 Cleaning Contractor

The cleaning contractor is responsible for developing the detailed cleaning

5.6 Consulting Service Department (CSD)

Consulting Service Department is responsible for validating the chemical

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

Figure 1: Diesel Hydrotreater Reaction Section Flow diagram

7 Types of fouling seen in Plate Heat Exchanger

1- Solid migration from Reactor effluent to HX effluent side

2- Heavy hydrocarbons or gums fouling in HX feed side

3- Corrosion by-product fouling in HX feed side

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Circulation method: this method involves circulating fluid through heat

 It is recommended to apply the circulation method to efficiently complete each step.

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

Figure 2: Installation for circulation method

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

8.2 Monitoring and effectiveness

 Chemical cleaning monitoring shall be tracked and representative samples must be

 The success of each step should be measured through gauging effectiveness of

 It is mandatory that cleaning contractor and facility operating engineer documment

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Mechanical cleaning shall be applied after conducting a soda ash neutralization.

Figure 3: Example of two windows marking

9.2 Mechanical Cleaning Effectiveness

 The effectiveness of mechanical cleaning can be only gauged through visual

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Generally after a blow-off cleaning, mechanical cleaning is required to remove

 Mechanical cleaning can be effective after carrying many blow-offs. Chemical

 It is recommended to not exceed the burst pressure of 5 barg due to HX expansion

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 To optimize blow-off cleaning, it is recommended to use adequate bursting disks in

 Generally it is recommended to apply the blow-off cleaning method for at least 4

Figure 7: Bursting disk after blow-off

10.2 Blow-Off installation Set-up

 Effluent side with Shell side should be connected as follow:

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

Figure 8: Set up prior Blow-off

 The pressurization rate should be 1 bar/min (maximum)

11 Effluent Side Strainer

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

Refinery Perforated plate Mesh opening Length Remarks