Minimum turndown of DCU heater

[Anonymous]

This was first posted in the previous coker discussion forum
From: Coke operator
Category: Process
Date: 03 Jan 2005

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We plan to revamp our existing DCU to 120% capacity. We have two heaters and plan to add one additional heater. What will be the capacity of the new heater? If it is a heater with 50% total heat duty, it has advantage of higher capacity(100%) when one heater is shut down for decoking. But we have to run the three heaters at capacity of 40%/40%/40% during normal operation. If it is a heater with 20% total heat duty, it has disadvantage of lower capacity(70%) when one heater is shut down for decoking. But we could run the three heaters at its full capacity of 50%/50%/20% during normal operation. Which arrangement is better if do not consider capital cost?

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