Anticoking Coatings for High Temperature Petrochemical Reactors

F. Ropital (1) , P. Broutin (1) , M. F. Reyniers (2) , G. F. Froment (2)

1 IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles
2 UGENT - Universiteit Gent = Ghent University

Coke deposition is a major problem for several refinery and petrochemical processes, among which steam cracking for ethylene production. Decreasing coking rates will reduce decoking frequency and will also decrease heat transfer degradation. For these processes, a means of reducing coking phenomena is the application of anticoking coatings on the reactor walls. For this purpose a methodology was developed under a CEC Brite-Euram project with steam cracking as the main application. A first selection of the coatings and their techniques of deposition was performed according to their composition (non catalytic compounds), their resistance to carburization and oxidation and also according to the nature of the substrate. The feasibility of coating deposition was studied for small diameter furnace tubes and the techniques were perfected in particular with respect to the physicochemical characterization of the coatings and their resistance during thermal cycling and coking-decoking cycles. For the thermal cycling and the coking evaluation, industrial conditions were reproduced as closely as possible. For coking tests, a microreactor with complete mixing of the gas phase was developed for temperatures up to 950°C. The coking behavior of the coated samples was compared with conventional refractory alloys: reduction of the coking rate by a factor of 3 was measured with the most promising coating. This work was completed by the kinetic modelling of coking on uncoated materials.

Domaines: Chimie; Génie chimique

F. Ropital, P. Broutin, M. F. Reyniers, G. F. Froment. Anticoking Coatings for High Temperature Petrochemical Reactors. Oil & Gas Science and Technology - Revue d'IFP Energies nouvelles, 1999, 54 (3), pp.375-385. ⟨10.2516/ogst:1999034⟩. ⟨hal-02075809⟩