Abstract
The economic, environmental and safety consequences of fouling are the key reasons for industrial and research interest in heat exchanger fouling and cleaning. The implication of fouling in crude oil refineries has changed in the recent decades due to better monitoring tools, use of fouling mitigation devices, optimization of the use of antifoulants, optimization of process conditions, better blending of crudes, better design of heat exchangers and selection of exchanger tube materials. This brings a need for the economic impact of fouling in crude refinery preheat train to be revisited. The estimation of the cost of fouling in crude preheat train is discussed via updating the assumptions previously used in literature. The updated fouling cost estimate for the crude preheat train in the US refining sector is likely to be in the range of 1–1.2 B US$ per year for 2019. It is shown that the cost of fouling needs to be associated with a relevant refining profit or a crude refining margin as it is possible for the refinery to processes crudes with higher fouling problems after compensating the fouling cost with the price of the crude.
Published Version
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