Repair of High Temperature Flue Gas Line in Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Service

Abstract

A typical Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) generates high temperature flue gas in the process of regenerating the catalyst. This flue gas is diverted to a stack after removal of catalyst fines and excess heat using a Waste Heat Recovery Unit (WHRU) or CO boiler. This flue gas line is a large diameter (1.2 m /2 m) piping and is a combination of Hot Wall (bare SS304H piping with external insulation) upstream of Orifice Chamber and Cold Wall (Carbon steel piping with internal refractory lining) for the downstream side. In a major revamp project, large portion of flue gas line was replaced with some dimensional and design changes. A crack was noticed at the SS304H side of hot wall to cold wall transition joint downstream of Orifice Chamber after approximately 2 years in operation. The line operates around 700 °C and 0.15 Bar(g) at the location of the crack. The initial crack was measured to be approximately 250 mm to 300 mm and grew to a full circumference crack in a short time resulting in minor flue gas leaking with catalyst fines. This paper discusses the details on how the issue was addressed on site and a temporary repair (i.e. welding of a box on high temperature piping) was carried out online safely, while the unit remained in operation. Further, the paper presents the root cause assessment and design modifications implemented for hot wall to cold wall transition joint during a scheduled turnaround.