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Failure of Heat Exchanger Cooling CO2 from a Pre-Combustion Unit

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About a month after commissioning, a decrease in pH of the cooling water in the plant was observed. This meant that CO2 has leaked into the cooling water in one of the coolers. Two months after commissioning, about 15% of tubes in one cooler downstream of the reactor were plugged after inspection results showed that they have leaked.

Product Number: 51323-19402-SG
Author: Sivuyile Funani, Abhijit Saha, Abdulaziz Al-Meshari
Publication Date: 2023
$20.00
$20.00
$20.00

A stainless steel heat exchanger failed within two months of operation indicating that the material of construction was not compatible with the process. The heat exchanger cools CO2 (containing minor impurities and moisture) on the shell side using cooling water (portable water) on the tube side. This article presents the results of failure analysis studies done to understand the issue. Temporal and permanent solutions to the problem and their effectiveness are also presented. Tube leaks were attributed to chloride stress corrosion cracking. HCl corrosion was also found to be active on both tubes and shell. The heat exchanger is particularly affected because of condensation that occurs in it which possible leads to concentration of corrosion agents. The temporal duplex stainless steel heat exchanger tubes did not perform well. A titanium alloy with palladium coating performed satisfactorily.

A stainless steel heat exchanger failed within two months of operation indicating that the material of construction was not compatible with the process. The heat exchanger cools CO2 (containing minor impurities and moisture) on the shell side using cooling water (portable water) on the tube side. This article presents the results of failure analysis studies done to understand the issue. Temporal and permanent solutions to the problem and their effectiveness are also presented. Tube leaks were attributed to chloride stress corrosion cracking. HCl corrosion was also found to be active on both tubes and shell. The heat exchanger is particularly affected because of condensation that occurs in it which possible leads to concentration of corrosion agents. The temporal duplex stainless steel heat exchanger tubes did not perform well. A titanium alloy with palladium coating performed satisfactorily.

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