YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Fouling in the feed/effluent exchangers to our naphtha
hydrotreater is at unacceptable levels. The feed is straight-
run naphtha. Solutions please.
A Shone Abraham, Senior Naphtha Specialist,
Honeywell UOP, Shone.Abraham@Honeywell.com
Preheat exchanger fouling can be a persistent
problem in some naphtha hydrotreaters (NHT).
Listed below are the most common foulants
that are observed in NHT feed/effluent (F/E)
exchangers which include NHT units that only
process straight-run naphtha:
• Gums (feed-side fouling)
• Corrosion products (feed-side fouling)
• Salts (effluent-side fouling)
Gums
The primary cause is polymers forming due to
olefins in the naphtha that are exposed to oxy-
gen during transport or storage. This leads to
the formation of combined oxygen compounds,
such as peroxides. When heated in process units
these combined oxygen compounds form pol-
ymers which cause fouling of heat exchangers.
The most effective means of preventing the prob-
lem is to prevent the exposure of the olefins to
oxygen. This is done by feeding the hydrotreater
directly from an upstream processing unit rather
than route the naphtha through intermediate
storage. If that is not feasible, the next best pre-
ventative measure would be to ensure that any
intermediate storage tank is effectively blan-
keted with nitrogen. These methods work by pre-
venting the exposure of olefins to oxygen. Where
these approaches are not adequate or practical, it
is possible to use additives such as antioxidants
and dispersants to mitigate the rate of fouling.
However, the use of dispersants while the unit is
online has a risk of dislodging material from the
exchangers, creating pressure drop issues in the
downstream reactor.
The most severe fouling problems typically
occur in units where the naphtha has been
imported to the hydrotreating unit. There is
an increased chance that the naphtha will be
exposed to oxygen during transit and the time
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1002525
that elapses between exposure and processing
increases the total amount of peroxides formed.
In these cases, a reboiled oxygen stripper is
the preferred means of preventing excessive
exchanger fouling. The purpose of the oxygen
stripper is to break down the polymer forming
combined oxygen compounds and to provide suf-
ficient vapour and liquid contact for strip-
ping free oxygen from the naphtha. Typically,
only hydrotreaters designed to directly pro-
cess imported naphtha have such oxygen strip-
pers. Those that attempt to process such naphtha
without first oxygen stripping inevitably have
exchanger fouling problems.
Corrosion products
Corrosion products like iron oxides (Fe2O3) or
iron sulphides (FeS or FeS2) can also contrib-
ute to fouling of F/E exchangers. Scale flakes off
the metal surfaces and is entrained in feed flow.
This could happen either from the seals of float-
ing roof storage tanks scraping rust from the tank
walls or corrosion products from the crude unit
itself. Filtering the feed can be helpful in such
cases. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of having a
feed filter will depend on the relative size of par-
ticles to feed filter mesh size (microns). FeS parti-
cles can be as small as 5 microns, and not all may
be captured by a typical feed filter.
Salts
Effluent side fouling in F/E exchangers is typ-
ically caused by ammonium sulphides. The
more nitrogen in the feed, the greater the risk.
Ammonium chloride could also be the cause of
fouling if feed contains organic chlorides. This
type of fouling is typically observed in the last
two bundles where the temperature falls below
the desublimation point. The most effective way
to reduce the effluent side fouling is by intermit-
tent wash water injection to dissolve the salts.
PTQ Q3 2020 1
 There should be a water wash injection point
LINKS
towards the last set of exchanger bundles. Wash
water can temporarily be injected at this loca- More articles from: Honeywell UOP
tion to dissolve salts and a higher than normal
rate of injection (typically 7-10 lv% of feed rate) More articles from the following categories:
Corrosion and Fouling Control
would be required to maintain at least 25% of
Heavy and Sour Feedstocks
the injected water in the liquid state (due to the
higher process temperature).

2 PTQ Q3 2020 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1002525