Applications of Refractory Lining Materials

API TECHNICAL REPORT 979 FIRST EDITION, OCTOBER 2018

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Copyright © 2018 American Petroleum Institute

Foreword

This report is the second in a series of three American Petroleum Institute (API) reports covering the use of refractory concrete (castables), plastics, and ramming mixes for applications for the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI). Its content is complimented by the two other reports in this series:

• API TR 978, Monolithic Refractories: Manufacture, Properties and Selection

  
  

• API TR 980, Monolithic Refractories: Installation and Dryout

These API technical reports update and add to the original reports written by Committee 547 of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) in 1979 and 1989. The ACI reports are ACI 547.R-79, State-of-the Art Report: Refractory Concrete, and ACI 547.1R-89, State-of-the Art Report: Refractory Plastics and Ramming Mixes.

ACI Committee 547 was organized in 1969 to provide a reliable and comprehensive source of information on monolithic refractory technology. In subsequent years, participation in the ACI refractory technical community waned. At the same time, participation increased on the API committee that was drafting refractory content. The API committee currently runs a certification program for refractory practitioners based on API Standard 936, Refractory Installation Quality Control—Inspection and Testing Monolithic Refractory Linings and Materials. To facilitate use of the updated content in the API certification program, ACI allowed API to use the material from the two above- mentioned ACI publications, no longer maintained by ACI. This enabled API to create new technical reports by updating and adding to the material from the ACI reports.

API formed the Vessel Refractory Task Group in the late 1980s with the objective of providing a standard for the inspection and application of quality controls for monolithic refractories used in refining applications. In response to demands for greater reliability and cycle life objectives, refiners had already developed their own company specifications for refractory installations for the highest-value applications, where unit availability is critical. A cottage industry of supporting quality control experts and inspectors evolved has have helped owners reduce this gap in the last few decades. Up until that time, however, manufacturers and installers largely had little say in this development, and uniform industry standards were never developed or adopted.

To address this issue, a broad representation of all the stakeholders gathered as part of the API’s spring and fall Refining Equipment Standards Meetings. Addressing the standards gap and noting the many similarities in owner- and equipment manufacturer–developed specifications, the API task force undertook the task of identifying useful industry practices and/or negotiating to agreement best fits for standards application. API’s Refractory Installation Quality Control Guidelines—Inspection and Testing Monolithic Linings and Material was first issued in 1996 as a recommended practice. After a number of subsequent revisions, it was approved as API Standard 936 in 2006, with a certification program that began in 2004.

In addition to maintaining API 936 and overseeing the certification program, the task force reorganized in 2014 under the API Committee on Refinery Equipment (CRE) and became the Refractory Project Group. As a project group, work expanded to writing ceramic fiber and brick quality control standards and unit-specific applications, such as sulfur recovery units and hydrogen furnaces, as well as drafting technical reports (such as this report). In response to this broadening recognition of the need to advance this technology for HPI applications, the API CRE reclassified the group as a full subcommittee in 2016, and it now works under the title of Subcommittee on Refractory Materials (SCRM).

iii

Contents

Page

1. Scope 1

2. Referenced Documents 1

3. Terms and Definitions 1

4. Hydrocarbon Processing Applications 4

   1. Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units 4

   2. CO Furnaces 22

5. Applications Outside of Hydrocarbon Processing 26

   1. Iron and Steel 26

   2. Nonferrous Metal Production 38

   3. The Ceramic Industry 39

   4. Glass Production 42

   5. Mineral Processing 42

   6. Power Generation and Incineration 44

   7. Aerospace Technology Applications 45

   8. Nuclear Applications 46

   9. Miscellaneous Applications 46

References 48

Figures

1. Example of a Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit Showing Key Components 5

2. Cyclone Dipleg Trickle Valve with Hexmetal Retained Refractory Lining

   to Prevent Erosion Damage to Steel 6

3. Example of FCCU Showing Types of Refractory Lining Materials Used

   by Component Location 8

4. Standard Lance Grid Hexmetal Used in Cyclones Applications 9

5. A Typical Two Stage Cycles in Regenerator Showing Primary (Green) and

   Secondary (Yellow) Stages for Each of 9 Pairs in the Vessel 10

6. Typical Cold Wall Slide Valve 11

7. Cold Wall Refractory Lined Expansion Joint with Bellows Protected

   and With Erosion-resistant Refractory and Hexmetal on Steel Sleeves 11

8. A Typical Third Stage Separator 12

9. The Revised ASTM C704 Test Replaces the Old Style Aluminum Body

   Sand Blasting Nozzle Using a Taped Open Trigger with a Precisely Dimensioned

   Stainless Steel Nozzle Machined Specifically for Testing 13

10. A Typical Sulfur Recovery Unit 15

11. A Vendor System of Interlocking Shapes 17

12. Hexhead Ferrules Installed on a Thermal Reactor Tubesheet 18

13. Example of a Continuous, Infrared Temperature-measuring Device for Fired Heaters 19

14. A Typical Oil Refinery Fired Heater 20

15. A Typical Delayed Coker 23

16. A Typical Gas Fired Rotary Kiln Used for Calcining or Complete Combustion

    of Coke From Delayed Coker of Fluid Coker Operation 24

17. Typical Blast Furnace Showing Some of the Possible Application Areas for Refractory Concretes 28

18. Typical Basic Open Hearth Furnace for Producing Steel from

    Blast Furnace Iron and Scrap Steel 30

19. A Typical Electric Arc Melting Furnace 31

    v

    Contents

    Page

20. Cross Section of a Direct Arc Furnace 35

21. Channel Induction Furnace 36

22. Coreless Induction Furnace 37

23. A Typical Reverberatory Aluminum Melting Furnace 41

24. A Nose Ring of a Rotary Cement Kiln 43

Tables

1. Characteristics of Different Types of Gasification Processes 25

2. Typical Operating Temperatures for Iron and Steel Plant Furnaces 33

vi

Application of Refractory Lining Materials

1. Scope

   
   

   This technical report focuses specifically on the information on the applications of refractories contained in two American Concrete Institute (ACI) refractories documents:

   
   

   • ACI 547.R-79, State-of-the-Art Report: Refractory Concrete;

     
     

   • ACI 547.1R-89, State-of-the-Art Report: Refractory Plastics and Ramming Mixes.

   
   

   The original content of these ACI reports was focused primarily on steel- and glass-making applications, which represent the largest refractory markets. API, in tailoring the revision of this content to the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI), has greatly expanded the text pertaining to the specialized oil refining and petrochemical processing applications. At the same time, API has retained and updated the information covering applications outside of the HPI (see Section 5) because of the similarities and applicability that this information has for refractory professionals in these other industries.

   
   

2. Referenced Documents

   
   

   API Standard 560, Fired Heaters for General Refinery Service

   
   

   API Standard 936, Refractory Installation Quality Control—Inspection and Testing Monolithic Refractory Linings and Materials

   
   

   API Technical Report 978, Monolithic Refractories: Manufacture, Properties, and Selection 1

   
   

   API Technical Report 980, Monolithic Refractories: Installation and Dryout 1

   
   

   ACI SP-34, Handbook on Concrete Reinforcement and Detailing

   
   

   ASTM C71, Standard Terminology Relating to Refractories

   
   

   ASTM C638, Standard Descriptive Nomenclature of Constituents of Aggregates for Radiation-Shielding Concrete

   
   

   ASTM C704, Standard Test Method for Abrasion Resistance of Refractory Materials at Room Temperature

   
   

3. Terms and Definitions

NOTE See ASTM C71 and API 936 for additional information on definitions.

3.1

abrasion resistance

The ability to withstand the effects of eroding particles for an extended period without significant loss of material or other damage.

NOTE 1 Often referred to as “erosion in fluid solids units,” such as FCC units, which is technically incorrect, but commonly understood in refining jargon.

NOTE 2 For refractory materials, abrasion resistance is measured in the form of eroded volume loss in accordance with ASTM C704/C704M.

EXAMPLE A vapor stream containing solid particles.