The spiral heat exchanger solves a difficult fouling problem
One of the great features of the Spiral heat exchanger is its ability to handle media containing suspended solids without clogging. Mitteldeutsche Erdoel-Raffinerie GmbH (MIDER) in Leuna, Germany took advantage of this feature when they replaced their existing bottoms product coolers in the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit with spiral plate heat exchanger , and in this way drastically reduced the down-time and maintenance cost. MIDER’s Leuna-refinery is a totally new grass-roots facility replacing an older refinery that was located on the same site. The new refinery which is owned by Totalfina Elf, started up in 1997. Originally the installation included two double-pipe exchangers in carbon steel - one in operation and one as stand-by - to cool the bottoms product from the main fractionation column. Reduced down-time and maintenance costs Only two weeks after start up of the FCC unit the double-pipe exchanger plugged up on the product side and had to take out of operation