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PBF Chalmette Coker Restart Lessons Learned

Presented By

Scott Richard - PBF Energy - Chalmette Refining, LLC

Marie Wright - PBF Energy - Chalmette Refining, LLC

Conference:

chalmette refinery

At the end of August 2019, we had a small fire coming from one of the nozzles on top of one of our coke drums. It was later determined that the damage mechanism that led to the fire was corrosion under insulation (CUI). Due to the uncommon nature of CUI on coke drums and the lack of CUI in equipment strategies/CCDs, it was suggested that I present my investigation into this failure–in part to better understand why CUI on coke drums is generally disregarded across the coking industry as a potential coke drum damage mechanism despite both the guidance provided in API 571 and API 583 and empirical data showing that parts of the coke drum operate in the CUI temperature region for some time in between cycles and even while the drum is “hot.”

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