This study is a case study about three high temperature sulfidation failures found in equipment containing naphtha and kerosene products in just one year. The first failure is heat exchanger tube leakage due to accelerated corrosion from changes of operating condition and scale deposits in process condition with high reactive sulfur contents. The second and third cases are fired heater tube leaks caused by rising reactive sulfur contents and increasing tube metal temperature by vulnerable flow regime. The simulation data in each case were used to analyze the cause of increased metal temperature and corrosion rate. The review of the three failures suggested the corrosion rate of high temperature sulfidation can be accelerated by increasing temperature only 10°C(50°F) or changing the flow regime in a fired heater if the process stream contains vulnerable sulfur species like sulfide, disulfide, mercaptan in kerosene and naphtha streams especially. Finally, a correlation between corrosion rate and temperature was analyzed by conducting autoclave tests about each light crude and condensate oil samples.

Subject
Sulfur, Corrosion rate, Heaters, Tubes, Leaks, Condensates, Naphtha, Corrosion scales, Reboilers, Sulfidation, Crude, Oil, High temperature
Keywords:
High Temperature Sulfidation, Naphtha, Kerosene, Light Crude, Condensate, Reactive Sulfur, Scale, Flow Regime
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2021
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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