A Method for On-Line Cleaning of Heat Exchangers to Significantly Increase Energy Efficiency in the Oil, Gas, Power & Chemical Process Sectors

Objective

Fouling of heat exchangers in refining industry crude oil preheat trains is a chronic operating problem that reduces heat transfer and energy recovery in these systems costing the industry $4.5 billion per annum. Eight percent of industrial plant operating costs may be attributed to heat exchanger fouling. Despite enormous costs associated with fouling, the industry relies on off-line cleaning because there are no on-line systems capable of operating under high temperature, low velocity conditions with chemically reactive fluids. The cost of taking plant off-line inevitably means that the heat exchanger operates at significantly less than peak efficiency. Our proposed solution is to develop an innovative projectile based on-line cleaning and injection system that will work under the required operating conditions to mitigate foulant build-up throughout the heat exchanger. Achieving our objectives will require research to formulate accurate correlations of foulant deposition rate as a function of geometry and operating conditions, the development of a composite projectile material to achieve the required mechanical properties and chemical stability as well as a projectile trajectory control system to deliver a uniform distribution of projectiles over the heat exchanger tube-face. Furthermore; ensuring that projectiles are propelled through the heat exchanger tubes in a low velocity regime will require us to devise a means to temporarily increase flow velocity through selected heat exchanger tubes. Research will concentrate on characterizing foulant deposition mechanism, structure and rate, projectile tribology as well as gaining a detailed understanding of heat exchanger fluid flow and its control. The proposed solution will provide the industry with significant energy savings of over 10% and reduce the CO2 foot print across a wide range of industrial sectors.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering control systems
• natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics geometry
• engineering and technology mechanical engineering tribology

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

• Cleaning Projectile
• Electromagnetic
• Fouling Cleaning
• Fouling Mitigation
• Heat Exchanger Fouling
• High Temperature
• Projectile Injection
• Selective Variable Flow

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-ENERGY - Specific Programme "Cooperation": Energy

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• ENERGY.2008.8.1.1 - Energy efficiency of industrial heat exchangers and boilers

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-ENERGY-2008-1
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP - Collaborative project (generic)

Coordinator

Participants (4)