Improve Refinery Energy Efficiency with a Cooling Water Fluid Flow Study

Fluid flow studies of refinery cooling water systems will be presented and how they can accurately quantify flow for each exchanger in the system to identify exchangers that are running below their design flowrate. Once these low flow exchangers are identified, cost effective solutions can typically be developed to balance out flow in the system and minimize the occurrence of low flow exchangers. This can have a significant, positive impact on overall refinery energy efficiency by avoiding elevated cooling water discharge temperatures that are known to escalate exchanger plugging on the process side. The impact of low cooling water flow on condenser heat exchanger capacity, column capacity, and increased frequency of turnarounds and the resulting effect on overall refinery efficiency will be shown.