Unusual Cooling Solution
An unusual solution to a cooling problem
- The Challenge
Cool rising diesel temperatures after the usual fixes had failed
- The Solution
400-tonne chiller with water discharge sent back to the cooling water tower
- The Impact
Diesel was cooled, shutdown avoided and an ongoing problem solved
Client:Southern US refinery
Location:USA
Sectors:Petrochemical and refining
The challenge
Diagnose and reduce rising fuel temperatures
A US refinery found one of their diesel products was not being adequately cooled, and their initial assumption was that the last heat exchanger was fouled. They wanted to avoid shutting down the entire plant to swap out the exchanger and they didn’t want to reduce the amount of diesel going through the exchanger, as that would affect their production schedules.
They reasoned that extra cooling power would help and asked us to bring in a 400-tonne closed-loop chiller. However, even that couldn’t solve the problem.