Lummus Technology Heat Transfer Helixchanger™
RCR Stelform is a licensed supplier of Lummus Technology Heat Transfer (LTHT) Helixchanger™.
Licensed supplier of
LTHT Helixchanger™
Helixchanger™ Applications
Lummus Technology Heat Transfer (LTHT) offers the HELIXCHANGER™, an advanced helically
baffled shell & tube heat exchanger for applications where shellside fouling
and pressure drops are primary concerns and also where new expansions or plant upgrades
are targeted on lean budgets and limited plot space.
Conventional shell & tube
heat exchangers with segment baffles are often power guzzlers and have to be brought
down from service for frequent shellside cleaning to maintain the desired performance.
High operating costs and loss of production during downtimes can add up to many
more times the capital costs.
In HELIXCHANGER™, the shellside flow configuration
offers a very high conversion of pressure drop to heat transfer. Effective bundle
penetration leaves no stagnant areas where fouling may accumulate. Quadrant shaped
baffle plates in a HELIXCHANGER™ can be spaced to reduce unsupported tube spans without
affecting pressure drop or heat transfer characteristics. Tube bundles in a HELIXCHANGER
are safer against flow-induced vibrations.
More than 1800 helixchangers are now
in service globally in applications ranging from crude preheat trains and feed-effluent
exchangers to quench water coolers and secondary transfer exchangers. The HELIXCHANGER™
advantage has been demonstrated by both pilot plant studies as as as well as by industry feedback on operating units.
A recent scheduled maintenance shutdown at Slovnaft Refinery in Czech Republic showed
very little fouling on the shellside of 38 helixchangers employed in the crude preheat
train for over six years. Several helixchangers were supplied for a residue gasification
project at the API refinery in Italy, which have demonstrated performance exceeding
specifications. At a major refinery in California, the client has reported achieving
30 month run length using helixchanger tube bundle in a critical reboiler service
whose conventional unit was fouling up every 10 months requiring one hundred percent
spare to keep the plant operating. Feed/Effluent exchangers in several plants have
reported twice the run length with helixchangers as compared to that achieved with
conventional heat exchangers.
HELIXCHANGER™ can offer an optimum solution for your
requirements in many refining processes such as crude preheating, residue processing
or conversion, platformer units, feed-effluent heat exchange, distillate hydrocracking,
LC fining, gasification or solvent deasphalting services. Many ethylene and EBSM
processes find HELIXCHANGER™ a cost effective alternative.
Consider the Helixchanger option when you are investigating the following:
- Plant upgrade with replacement tube bundles.
- Capacity expansion with limited plot space.
- Reduce fouling problems and frequent downtime.
- Energy survey suggests power saving requirements.
- Debottlenecking an existing process.
- New installations with limited capital budget.
Next Page: Helixchanger™ Cost Benefits
