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I have been told recently that if an exchanger tube were to plug completely by coking shut that the coke will harden with time and expand, rupturing the tube. Has anyone seen or heard of this property of coke, that it will expand and harden with time at high temperature?
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Anonymousyou are talking about heater or exchanger ?what kind of exchanger ? which are the fluid tube and shell?
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AnonymousCoker feed preheat exchanger, vac resid on tube side, hot oil on shell
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Where did the tubes break?
Regards
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AnonymousI know of 1 example where coke formed due to di-olefin polymerization of naphtha on the shell side causing the bundle to swell significantly. However, the tubes did not fail as a result. Therefore, it may be possible in an extreme case but is seems unlikely. You would likely need a shut-in condition of the resid side with heat input (HKGO) still flowing for a long time to cause a tube failure.
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