THE FOULING PHENOMENOM IN THE SHELL-TUBE HEAT EXCHANGERS OF ALGIERS REFINERY

Abstract

Crude oil fouling in refinery preheat exchangers is a chronic operating problem that compromises energy recovery in these systems. Progress is hindered by the lack of quantitative knowledge of the dynamic effects of fouling on heat exchanger transfer. Generally, crude oil flows through the tube side while various other hot streams and pump-around streams flow through the shell side in the heat exchangers. Fouling in heat exchangers has been the subject of intensive research by several groups of investigators. For that, in this study, we will consider the fouling phenomenon of the heat exchangers tubes for the preheat circuit of the Algiers refinery E101 CBA and FED, which are used for the heating of the crude oil before its division, are exposed to the problem of fouling at the tube side of heat exchangers