US 6,485,578 B1Granted

Chemical cleaning process for removing fouling

AssigneeSK Corporation

InventorsSam-Ryong Park, Young-Kyoung Ahn, Sung-Gu Oh, Ki-Hyun Lee, Sung-Joong Kim

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Abstract

Disclosed is a chemical cleaning process for removing fouling from process lines of oil refining or petrochemical plants. The process lines are in an on-line state and a chemical cleaning agent is circulated through the process lines to remove the fouling. It can effectively recover the thermal efficiency in oil refining processes or petrochemical processes within a short period of time, so that significant energy consumption is reduced. Furthermore, the chemical cleaning process requires a shorter cleaning period and therefore allows for a longer operating time. It can also dislodge fouling without opening heat exchangers or other equipment thereby preventing the release of VOCs. As a result, environmental pollution is not generated. The present invention is also ecconomically favorable as it extends the time between periodic maintenance.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A chemical cleaning process for removing fouling from process lines of oil refining or petrochemical plants, in which the process lines are in an on-line state, comprising:

introducing a cleaning agent into the process lines with discharging of crude oil already filled in the lines, said cleaning agent comprising 2 to 20 vol. % of a cleaning composition comprising 0.01 to 1 wt % of a C8 aromatic compound, 75 to 85 wt % of a C9 aromatic compound and 14 to 24 wt % of a C10 aromatic compound, and 80 to 98 vol % of a light cycle oil (LCO) or a light gas oil (LGO);
circulating the cleaning agent through the process lines and increasing the temperature of the cleaning agent by use of a heating source to remove fouling in the process lines;
and
monitoring the light transmittance of the circulating cleaning agent with the aid of a near-infrared analyzer to determine whether the cleaning of the process lines is completed.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.