Gas Cooling Systems For Steam Reforming Plants

Power
Energy Recovery

Flue Gas Convection Section

Introduction ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery GmbH is a leading and highly regarded supplier of components and systems for the petrochemical, metallurgical, chemical, glass smelting as well as oil and gas exploration industries. Decades of experience in waste heat recovery systems for catalytic steam reforming processes for hydrogen, methanol and ammonia production have secured our position as a technology leader. Therefore, ue gas cooling systems in steam reforming plants are an integral part of the plant and must be adapted to meet all the process requirements while taking the site requirements and local codes into account. The ue gas leaving the reformer furnace is cooled as it passes through the following heating surfaces in the ue gas duct:
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After leaving the ue gas cooling system, the ue gas passes through the ue gas fan, silencer and stack before it is released into the atmosphere at todays standard temperatures. In case increased steam output is required there will be instead of the air preheater a boiler feed water preheater installed. Where higher air preheating is needed, the air preheater is divided into a hot and a cold part, with the hot part being arranged in the area of higher ue gas temperatures upstream from the steam generator. With smaller units, the steam generator on the ue gas side is usually designed as a shell and tube boiler with integrated steam space.
Steam Flue gas

Reformer Feed Superheater Tube bundle type Steam Superheater Tube bundle type Steam Generator Tube bundle type Combustion Air Preheater Tube bundle or plate type Economiser Tube bundle type
Fuel Feed

Steam Reforming Process Today hydrogen is mainly used to convert heavy feedstocks into lighter products, such as methanol, ammonia as well as oxo-products. It is also used to remove undesirable components such as sulphur. As environmental legislation places tighter restrictions on motor fuels emissions and as crude oil becomes heavier the demand for hydrogen is continuously growing.

Temperature Control

Flue Gas Convection Section The reaction and combustion processes in steam reforming plants generate waste heat which is recovered to generate process steam, superheat the feedstock and increase the thermal efficiency of the plant by preheating the combustion air, boiler feed water and fuel gas.
Typical ow diagram of a Waste Heat Recovery System 2

Air Synthesis gas BFW

Arrangement The ue gas duct itself can be designed as membrane wall or internally lined. Internally lined ducts are usually lined with refractory concrete. However to reduce weight especially in vertical arrangements, ceramic bre modules are used. Membrane wall ducts combine ducting and steam generating in one component, but require design experience and competence. Based on its long experience in many types of boiler design and processes, ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery GmbH, as a leading supplier of heat recovery systems for catalytic cracking plants, provides complete convection sections consisting of ue gas duct, heating coils, piping, steam drum, instrumentation and support structure. In order to minimize site erection, the systems are usually delivered modularized in already lined segments with pre-installed coils. The bundle manifolds are located outside the duct for inspection purposes even during operation and to avoid unnecessary thermal loads. The arrangement of the ue gas duct depends on the reformer furnace design and plant space availability. In reformers with ue gas outlet from the top only vertical arrangement is feasible resulting in smaller plot space requirement. The reformers with gas outlet from the bottom allow also a horizontal arrangement which allows easier erection and maintenance and results in lower steel structure and piping expenditure. Both alternatives have been supplied by ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery GmbH.

Vertical Convection Section

Preparation for shipment of Convection Modules

Process Gas Cooling System

Process Gas Cooling System The process gas leaving the reformer catalyst tubes and the secondary reformer respectively, enters the process gas boiler, where saturated steam is produced while cooling the gas. The water/steam mixture generated is passed to the steam drum for separation of the steam. Depending on the plant type, the gas downstream from the boiler is used to superheat steam, preheat BFW/feed or it enters the CO-shift converter. Our scope of supply and services includes the following:
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Process gas boiler HP-steam superheater HT-shift waste heat boiler Steam drum Interconnecting piping Accessories Steel structure Supervision of erection and start-up

3-D-model of a Process Gas Cooling System with HP-Steam Superheater for a 2000 MTPD Ammonia Plant in the Middle East 4

Process Gas Boiler The main features of the ALSTOM design are:
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Fire tube design, successful in operation since the end of the seventies. Single- or twin-compartment design. Refractory lined gas chamber. Thin, exible tube sheets. Tube inlet area protection by ferrules and refractory lining. Full penetration welding of the tubes to tube sheet to avoid crevice corrosion. Central hot or cold bypass design to control the gas outlet temperature. Steam drum supported by heavy walled risers (piggyback design).
Thermocolour painted Inlet Chamber

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Process Gas Boiler for a 2000 MTPD Ammonia Plant during erection 5

Boiler Construction Features

Flexible Tube Sheet Design The combination of high pressure, high temperature and process gas composition results in higher heat uxes in the tube inlet than in other boiler applications. This requires efficient cooling of the tubes and tube sheet which is accomplished by keeping the wall thicknesses as thin as possible. The thin exible tube sheet design of our boilers is the ideal solution to avoid excessive stress build-up in tube to tube sheet connection which results from differential thermal elongation between the tubes and shell. The differential elongation is the result of the combination of mean temperature difference between tubes/shell and tube length. Tube lengths up to 9.7 m have already been used. To support the tube sheet, which is subjected to water side pressure, our design uses the tubes which act as anchors between the tube sheets. The reinforcement of the tube sheet by the tube bundle eliminates the need to provide additional stiffening braces which would otherwise reduce the water volume in the area of the highest heat ux where the highest ow of cooling medium is required. Consequently, the tubes stay straight during operation thereby avoiding plastic distortions caused by buckling of the tubes as they compensate for the differential elongation between shell and tube.
Stiffened Tube Sheets

Thin, Flexible Tube Sheets

Shell

sat

sat +

Straight tubes Shell

Deected tube sheet

Stiffeners

sat

sat +

Bended tubes

Flat tube sheet

Flexible versus Stiff Tube Sheet Design

Tube sheet Tube array Bypass pipe Shell

Temperature Prole of Inlet Tube Sheet 6

Inlet Channel Shell

Tube to Tube Sheet Connection Due to the high heat ux at tube inlet the conventional tube to tube sheet connection type (tubes rolled/ expanded and welded) shall not be used, as crevice corrosion may occur in the non-welded portion when water tends to evaporate and decomposition takes place in the gap between tube and bore hole. The only reliable way to avoid crevice corrosion is to use a crevicefree full penetration attachment of tubes which we have been using since 1976. Neither crevice corrosion nor mechanical deciencies have been reported. The backside tube to tube sheet connection we use is performed in accordance with all relevant national codes and is the only gapless weld type expressly implemented in ASME Code Section I.

Ferrules The tube inlet area is protected by refractory lining and ferrules. A number of ferrule types are available:
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Solid head ferrules Ceramic solid head ferrules afford lowest maintenance downtime, as the ferrules can be pulled out and reinstalled for inspection purposes without damages.

Metallic ferrules Provide least pressure loss due to thinnest wall thickness, best resistance to cracking.

All types of ferrules will extend into the tubes and will be wrapped with ceramic bre paper to increase the insulation effect.
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Ceramic ferrules Ceramic ferrules, embedded in the tube sheet lining, offer highest metal dusting resistance at reasonable cost.

Refractory

Tube sheet

Ferrule

Tube

Tube to Tube Sheet Connection executed as a full penetration weld 7

Temperature Prole of Tube Inlet Portion

Improved Boiler Design

Metal Dusting Phenomenon Metal dusting is a catastrophic form of high-temperature corrosion, generally occurring in reducing and strongly carburizing atmospheres with carbon activities greater than one (ac>1) in the approximate temperature range between 500 and 800C. The corrosion attack disintegrates the process gas boiler internals to a powder composed of graphite and ne metal particles as the reaction product. Several ways are used to avoid such failures:
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Cold Bypass Design The Cold Bypass design replaces the internally insulated bypass pipe with a control heating surface consisting of larger boiler tubes. The gas owing through the Cold Bypass is cooled down below the critical temperature range and mixed with cold gas leaving the main heating surface tubes. Therefore, the control valve is not exposed to critical temperatures and failures caused by metal dusting corrosion are eliminated. The control device collects the gas from the inner tube array in a conical channel and guides it through the central ap. Afterwards it is deected to be mixed with the stream leaving the main heating surface through outer aps. As the three aps are xed on a common shaft, only one actuator is required and the boilers outlet temperature is dened by a single control variable. As it prevents the metal dusting effect itself, this patented design is suitable to avoid any malfunctions, but it is applicable for boiler with lower outlet temperatures only.

Substitution of metallic by ceramic parts Limited to the ferrules only, as neither the bypass liner nor the control valve can be reliably manufactured from ceramics.

Provision of high chrome or nickel base alloys Increases resistance and lifetime, but does not eliminate the risk.

Thermal spray or diffusion coating Shows promising results, but implements high efforts to solve the manufacturing difficulties caused by distortion and buckling.

Avoiding of the metal dusting altogether The only possible measure is to avoid that the metal parts operate at wall temperatures in the temperature range where metal dusting can occur.
Typical tube arrangement 8

This design represents the latest state of technology and has been adopted as the standard and mandatory design requirement among our clients.

Bypass valve

Improved Metal Dusting Free Design

Conventional Design

838C

Gas leaving conventional bypass

Gas leaving cold bypass Mixed gas leaving PGB

431C

350C

Mixed gas leaving PGB Gas leaving main heating surface

350C 311C

304C

Gas leaving heating surface

Steam Superheater
HP-Steam Superheater Main characteristics:
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Installed downstream of process gas boilers. Designed as a vertical heat exchanger with U-tubes and baffle plates. The hot process gas never contacts the pressure vessel wall. Upper head designed as combined steam inlet and outlet chamber. Internal gas bypass valve used to control the gas outlet temperature.

For maintenance or repair the complete U-tube bundle together with the upper head can be pulled through the top.
Steam

Tube Sheet Detail

Process Gas

HP-Steam Superheater for a 650 MTPD Ammonia Plant (during manufacture) 10

Fired Heater
Fired Heater More and more large-scale methanol plants today, install direct-red heaters to superheat the process and turbine steam. Based on many years of experience in design and erection of red furnaces, we offer customized design solutions. Our standard and most reliable arrangement consists of a round type furnace which contains the radiation heating surface and followed by the convection section. The thermal range is from 1.5 to 150 MW. ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery GmbH is a full service supplier in this eld as our scope includes burners, fans, piping, instruments, instrumentation engineering, etc.

The right-hand picture shows a direct-red heater containing superheater coils for HP-, MP- and process steam as well as a nnedtube economizer to increase the plant efficiency. Either offgas or natural gas can be used as fuel; the max. thermal capability is 125 MW at a total thermal efficiency of > 90 %.
Fired Heater for a Methanol Plant 11

ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery GmbH Ellenbacher Strasse 10 D-34123 Kassel, Germany Phone +49-561-9527-0 info.shg@power.alstom.com www.SHG-SCHACK.com ALSTOM Power Energy Recovery GmbH Parsevalstrasse 9A D-40468 Dsseldorf, Germany Phone +49-211-4726-0 info.schack@power.alstom.com www.SHG-SCHACK.com
SR-WHS 09/2003