Refinery Energy Conservation Experience with Enhanced Surface Reboilers

Abstract

Examples of refinery services where existing reboilers were retubed or replaced with enhanced High Flux tubing to better utilize or conserve energy are reported. (1) Retubing an existing toluene column reboiler permitted the use of low cost 115 psig s team rather than 400 psig. An annual steam cost saving of $1,200,000 with less than two month payback was realized. (2) An MEK dewaxing evaporator was retubed to reduce its steam pressure from 150 psig to 15 psig. The resulting annual steam cost savings was$719, 000 with less than one month payback. (3) A large existing propane-propylene splitter underwent a major conversion to reduce energy consumption. By replacing the existing reboilers with High Flux and converting the system to a vapor recompression cycle over $2,000, 000 in annual steam cost savings were realized