Effect of composition of coke deposited in delayed coker furnace tubes on on-line spalling

Delayed coking is one of the most widely used residue upgradation process in crude oil refining where vacuum residue is thermally cracked and converted into distillates and petroleum coke. During heating of vacuum residue in coker furnace, coke is continuously deposited in furnace tubes which is removed at regular intervals by one of the three methods namely (i) pigging, (ii) steam air decoking or (iii) online spalling (OLS). OLS is one of the preferred methods of coke removal from coker furnace tubes. We have noticed very effective as well as “not so effective” OLS in a commercial delayed coker furnace. In present article, the changes in composition and properties of furnace coke during effective and ineffective OLS were systematically analyzed by various analytical tools such as Dilatometer, TGA, HRSEM, SEM-EDX and XRD. Based on these analyses, it was found that inorganic deposits such as iron sulphides and tube metal corrosion products play a major role in failure of OLS. Higher total acid number (TAN) of vacuum residue may be promoting the formation of iron sulfide deposits in furnace tube.