Case History
US petroleum refinery gained over $2 million in additional production time when using FQE® products to decontaminate crude and vacuum distillation plants
Results Achieved
70% reduction in down time
Over $2,000,000 in
additional revenue
Over $150,000 in
maintenance cost savings
Chemicals Utilized
Award-winning asphaltene dispersant and anti-foulant
Rapid absorption and encapsulation of vapor-state hydrocarbons
H2S scavenger for the rapid and permanent elimination of H2S
Non-hazardous product for effective control of pyrophoric iron deposits
A petroleum refinery in the Southern United States used FQE Solvent-H, FQE LEL-Vapor, FQE H2S Scavenger and FQE Pyrophoric products to decontaminate and clean crude and vacuum distillation plants.
The cleaning in the units involved the towers and all associated piping and heat exchangers. The crude unit cleaning included two desalters. The rose unit cleaning included the resin settler tower and all heat exchangers. The crude unit towers, piping and exchangers were circulated using LCO and FQE Solvent-H to remove residual tars and asphaltenes during the normal cool down and flush procedure. The equipment was steam phase degassed following the heavies removal. The two desalters were circulated with FQE Solvent-H to solvate accumulated organic sludge.
After FQE Solvent-H application, the towers were drained. Degassing was completed after 12 hours of chemical injection into a steam sparge. All equipment was successfully cleaned and acceptable for hot work on inspection. The plant estimated that over $150,000 was saved over the conventional method of cleaning and over $2.0 million was gained in additional production by the time savings.
