Stabilizer Reboilers Fouling Preventive, Mitigation and Enhancement Efforts

Condensate stabilization unit is designed to produce condensate mainly C3+ by processing HC liquid separated from gas and water through three phase separators (slug catchers and separators). There are two identical trains, each with design capacity of 78 MBD. The condensate is stabilized to achieve the export true vapor pressure specification of 50 psig. Each stabilizer column consist of two identical thermosiphon reboilers with 100% design margin. At a point in time, these reboilers experienced fouling due to salt accumulation on reboilers’ tube surfaces. This fouling may affect the plant throughputs and product specification, which mandating frequent mechanical cleaning. As a result, the plant maintenance and power cost may increase in addition to extensive operational activities with frequent startup and shutdown of the stabilizer units. The root cause was identified and number of enhancement efforts were implemented to boost up the unit performance, manage to operate the unit smoothly and overcome the salt accumulation issue. This paper will highlight the approach taken to identify the source of the salt fouling including evaluating the upstream gas producing. Several path forward also shared to further mitigate this challenge in future.

Keywords: Hydrocarbon (HC), thousand barrels per day (MBD).