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How Merus Rings are used in a cooling water system in a refinery in the Middle EastEXPECTED RESULTS AND ACHIEVEMENTSPHASE 1 NO FOULING IN THE HEAT EXCHANGERS Today the Merus Rings are installed at the feed line of several Heat Exchangers itself. By installing more Rings in the loop, the job for each Ring installed ahead of the Heat Exchangers will be more tactful. To further explain, today a Merus Ring has to treat all the water from 0 to 100. Once there is another Ring installed at the common header of the section, the water now being already treated, this Merus Ring from the common header will support the job of the Merus Rings at the Heat Exchanger thereby multiplying the expected optimization rates. Having Merus Rings upstream of all Heat Exchangers either directly on the feed line or at the common feed line will keep the inner surface free or almost free of any fouling or deposition.This will lead to better heat transfer, higher Heat Exchanger efficiency, less maintenance, extended cleaning cycles and safer operation.
During the recent inspections of the Heat exchangers, there was only little or no corrosion found in the inner surfaces. By equipping the entire system, it can be thought to bring down or completely stop the corrosion in all pipes and machines. Having no corrosion in the machines and pipes of the cooling loop will lead directly to a longer lifetime/shelf-life of all these assets. No leaking, no replacement of pipes or machines during regular operation, will lead to a more constant operation of the refinery.
By getting rid of the algae and bio-mass in the cooling towers, there will be no risk of getting the system contaminated by Biofilm or Biofouling. The efficiency of the cooling towers will increase, which will lead to less water consumption. In the best case scenario there will be no need of bio agents added to the system. PHASE 2 REDUCING THE DOSAGE OF CHEMICAL INHIBITORS Once the cooling system is operating at stable and the improvements have been observed, documented, evaluated and confirmed by the customer, the improvement of the added chemicals can start. Here step by step the dosing of the chemicals, such as corrosion inhibitors, biocides or scale inhibitors, will be lowered and cross checked against the performance of the system. The goal would be to run the entire cooling system without any chemicals added. If this can be achieved in the end only could be told after another 12 month of optimization.
REDUCING CONSUMPTION FOR THE COOLING WATER Merus Technology is able to increase the solubility of the soluble minerals in the water by several times. Experience shows Merus Technology is able to run a cooling system with approximately 2 to 10 times higher TDS than an untreated system. Latest results from an effluent treatment plant in India shows a system with more than 100,000 TDS is running without any problems of scaling. The last step in optimization period of the cooling system will be to step by step increase the threshold of the blow down requirement in the cooling system. The cooling water system is now running with approximately 5.000 TDS. This value will be slowly increased and always cross checked against the performance of the system. If the system could be run in the end with 10.000 TDS, there would be a saving of fresh water of approximately 20%. See also calculation sheet.
INCREASING THE CLEANING CYCLES OF THE HEAT EXCHANGERS After the next regular shutdown of the refinery, once the equipment is opened, and the results are inline the exceptions, it can be considered to extend the cleaning cycles of the heat exchangers being today every 3 years to a prospected every 5 years or more only. This would reduce the work load during a shut down a lot and maybe the total time of the shutdown could be reduced by some days.
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