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Tube leaks cost money, and just as importantly, time. Tube failures and related emergency shutdowns can cost you millions of dollars per day. Front End Engineering Design with CTI Tube Liners for your critical heat exchanger equipment must be considered.
CTI Full Length Tube Liners™ are thin-walled tubes that are hydraulically expanded inside heat exchanger tubes. They can be fabricated from a number of different erosion/corrosion resistant alloys and custom sized that allows a proper fit into your parent tubes. Corrosion problems now have a solution.
Everyone has problem heat exchangers, ones that are targeted for replacement every turnaround. If you can’t get more than a few years without a replacement, it’s a prime candidate for tube liners. If it’s process equipment that could result in the complete shutdown for a tube leak, it too is a prime candidate for tube liners.
Although this technology was first developed by CTI nearly 35 years ago to repair existing, damaged tubes, in 2006 the BP Carson Refinery was the first plant in the United States to have CTI Full Length Tube Liners installed into new carbon steel tubes in two of their air finned coolers.
On the type of exchanger and the application, customers can select alloys such as 316 Stainless Steel, Alloy 825, C276 to name a few material options.
Rather than wait for these failures and related production losses to occur, the decision was made by BP to take a proactive approach and hire CTI Industries to install 389 liners, manufactured from C276 material, into each of the two bundles in-situ.
The major factors that prompted BP’s metallurgist and team of reliability engineers to utilize this technology were the historical problems experienced with these units in previous years, including the following:
• Excessive corrosion rate of the parent tubes in a very short time period.
• In-service tube failures leading to unscheduled shutdowns.
• Undersized water wash and unequal water wash distribution.
• Non-desaltable (phantom) chlorides.
• Chemical inhibition program could not manage the corrosion issues.
The installation process begins by inserting liners into previously cleaned parent tubes with their ends protruding from the tubes (and header boxes on air finned coolers). A hydraulic expansion chuck is connected to CTI’s pneumatic powered hydraulic liner pump and is attached to one end of the Liner. An air bleed hydraulic chuck is affixed to the opposite end. The liners are filled with water and pressurized by the pump until full length expansion and a contact fit with the tube ID’s is achieved. When the hydraulic expansion process is completed, liner ends are cut and trimmed flush to the tube ends, then roller expanded to a predetermined AWR at the tube ends at both tubesheets.
The installation of 778 Full Length Tube Liners was successfully achieved working alongside BP engineers and maintenance personnel. CTI field crew completed the project ahead of schedule, enabling the refinery to return the air fin coolers ahead of schedule.
Since that time, major oil companies across the globe in the USA, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Dubai, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Qatar, UK, etc. have utilized this technology to increase reliability and extend the service life of their heat exchanger tubes through proactive planning. CTI has installed over 50,000 Liners in more than 200 different heat exchangers (in both existing and new tubes) in over 20 countries in the last 15 years.
The split tube above highlights a CTI tube liner that was one of 726 installed during a turnaround nearly 5 years ago. As the turnaround was in its final week, one of the last group of exchangers to be inspected was the newest. IRIS testing detected deep pits throughout the entire length of the finned tube ID and with time running out, options were limited. CTI was able to secure C276 liners from two different tube mills to ship to the gulf coast. The 0.028” wall tube liners were manufactured, shipped by dedicated flatbed trucks and installed around the clock in less than one week.
the most recent turnaround, January 2019, IRIS inspection showed no signs of corrosion or defects. Curiosity lingered, they wanted to get a better understanding on what was going on in the tube and liner. A plan was made to remove one tube from service and be split in half for further examination. They were pleasantly surprised with their findings, the liners “looked new” after almost 5 years in service.
Benefits of installing CTI Full-Length Tube Liners™ include:
• Increased reliability with Liner material selected to combat specific corrosion mechanism
• Greater fouling resistance in comparison to carbon steel tubes
• Eliminate unexpected tube leaks in between scheduled turnarounds
Extend service life beyond a single turnaround
For more information, please visit CTI’s website at www.cti-ind.com or call toll-free at (800) 446-0060. CTI has worldwide offices and agents that can assist you.