Study of the fouling deposit in the heat exchangers of Algiers refinery

The calculation of the calender-and-tube heat exchanger is based on empirical models validated on the laboratory scale. However, when doing an extrapolation at industrial scale, errors become significant because of the non-linearities of the thermophysical properties and the transfer coefficients along the heat exchanger. For that, a follow-up on the fouling resistance in heat exchangers of tube-calender type in Algiers’ refinery is presented in this study. These exchangers are used to preheat the crude oil before its passage to the atmospheric column. The results obtained from the two cells of exchangers, which were studied, showed that the resistance and the deposit fouling increases with time following an exponential curve with the existence of the fluctuations caused by the instability of the flow. Bad cleaning of the exchangers involved the absence of an induction time, and consequently, caused high values of the resistance and the deposit fouling during a relatively short time.