(106d) Steam Cracking Furnace Transient Operation: Condensate Safety Challenges

Steam cracking furnaces routinely experience transients for offline decoking and startup/shutdown operations and are typically designed with heat integration to produce high pressure steam. During transient operation, furnace effluent lines and high-pressure steam systems can inadvertently be filled with hot condensate due to steam leak-by. While furnace technicians and engineers are typically well versed in fired heater safety hazards, condensate safety hazards are not highlighted as often. For example, atmospheric vents and steam silencers may be at risk of collecting condensate and overfilling. Industry events in the last decade include condensate burns to personnel, and worst case, higher personnel exposure risk and mechanical damage by steam BLEVE from pooling hot condensate. In this paper we will review the risks associated with transient operation condensate, covering inherently safe design as well as procedural and equipment strategy mitigations to prevent event escalation.