Extend equipment life, maintain throughput, increase operational flexibility

Corrosion can threaten the reliability and safety of critical refinery equipment, raise maintenance costs, reduce process runtime, and jeopardize product quality. And corrosion control is becoming more important as refiners around the world turn to lower-cost "opportunity" crude oil feedstocks, whose high acid levels can challenge conventional refining approaches. For example:

	Chlorides and related neutralization salts pose increased corrosion potential in fractionation towers and overhead condensers.
	High-temperature naphthenic acid corrosion can damage atmospheric and vacuum towers, furnaces, transfer lines, and side draws.

In addition, ammonium bisulfide and cyanides are playing an increasing role in aqueous-phase corrosion in downstream units such as the FCCU, HDS, and coker. The resulting high-pH environment can lead to corrosion damage in the form of hydrogen blistering, hydrogen-induced cracking, and general metal loss. These downstream units also are susceptible to fouling when corrosion by-products migrate to low points in the system, such as tower reboilers.

To help you meet these challenges, technical and service professionals from GE Water & Process Technologies have an arsenal of innovative products and tools available to detect, analyze, monitor, and resolve corrosion problems. The innovative Predator monitoring system, for example, is specially designed to address concerns about opportunity crudes. It complements a slate of other cost-effective products and treatment programs for corrosion control when refining crudes of more traditional composition.