Reactor cooling makes savings
Client: Gulf Coast refinery
Location: USA
Sectors: Petrochemical and refining
The Challenge
Save costs with faster reactor cooling
A Gulf Coast oil refinery needed to swap outa spent hydrotreater catalyst. During this process the hydrotreater reactor vessel needs to be cooled from 200°F to 80°F, and every moment spent cooling the vessel costs our customer money.
On previous turnarounds, the refinery had used liquid nitrogen to cool the vessel. But nitrogen is expensive and takes several days to cool the vessel down to 80°F. We were called in to find a better cooling process.
Key Facts
Weight of reactor vessel
+900,000 kg
Weight of catalyst
+450,000 kg
Speed of cool-down
11 hours
(93°C) Initial temperature
200 °f
(27°C) Cooled-down temperature
80°f
“The speed of our cool-down and the money saved were both huge wins for the refinery.”
Aggreko