When the acid rushes at night
Lobbe cleans oversized "immersion heater" with industrial chemical cleaning
Leuna. Brightly lit, the expanded boiler coil of the waste heat exchanger of the modern methanol plant at the TOTAL Leuna refinery rises five meters into the night sky. Its winding coils are reminiscent of an oversized immersion heater. Lobbe removes the deposits inside the pipelines by means of chemical industrial cleaning.
TOTAL produces a variety of fuels from crude oil. The refinery - "TRM" (Total Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH) - is one of the most modern in the world. However, methanol is also produced in Leuna. Among other things, it is used as a solvent for resins and dyes and is an indispensable basic material for the chemical industry. As a precursor to methanol synthesis, crude gas is extracted from vacuum visbreaker residue (VVR) at temperatures of approx. 1300°C. The VVR is then used to produce methanol. The necessary cooling of the raw gas takes place via heat exchangers. The heat dissipated in the process generates steam which is used internally. Due to the deposition of particles and metals contained in the raw gas in the boiler coil, the efficiency of the plant continuously decreases. As a result, the raw gas is no longer cooled to the required extent. Accordingly, there is a lack of heat for steam generation, and the productivity of the plant falls.
The parameters for when the efficiency falls below the economic limits are clearly defined by TOTAL. For example, an intervention was due in February 2020: The boiler coil of one of the heat exchangers (technically: "waste heat exchanger") had to be chemically cleaned. The processes used in industrial chemical cleaning are highly specific. At TOTAL, the configuration was factory-specified down to the last detail: external pumping station with closed mixing tank and high-performance gas scrubber. The latter scrubs the hydrogen sulfide from the atmosphere that is produced when the residues are dissolved from carbon and sulfur compounds. The mixing tank was also designed as a separator. This allowed the dissolved solids to be removed from the cleaning circuit. For safety reasons, the entire equipment had to be located in a mobile catch basin. Lobbe has been providing this service for many years. Thanks to its technology, experience and know-how, Lobbe is a leader in the chemical industrial cleaning sector and covers this market niche very successfully.
Every half hour, all parameters of the cleaning process had to be checked in the mobile laboratory on site. During the three-day operation, Lobbe employees worked around the clock in shifts. When all analysis values were within the specified range, the goal was achieved. Now the plant could be put back into operation and run effectively. This was also in the interest of the environment, by the way, because the substances that TOTAL and other refineries recycle in their production processes are nothing other than resource conservation. Good for the climate, good for the environment as a whole.
Info box: Components of industrial dry cleaning
The mobile chemical cleaning system includes some basic components, which can be optionally extended by other elements. The container for the cleaning solution, the pump and the distribution beam for the hoses are always located in a specially coated trough. From the distribution beam, the cleaning solution can be fed into the respective container, apparatus, heat exchanger or pipe via several hoses and, after passing through, can be returned to the cleaning solution via hose. In Lobbe's mobile laboratory, the parameters required for the respective cleaning process (acid concentrations, metal concentrations, pH values, refractive indices, conductivities, etc.) are tested from or by the cleaning solution at close intervals to assess the treatment progress. The already used cleaning solution is collected in suitable containers, pre-treated on site if necessary and disposed of properly. When cleaning larger containers or tanks, one or more chemical tank washing heads can be used to minimize the amount of chemicals used and to avoid driving over the containers. If a specific reaction temperature is required for the work, a heat exchanger can be used to bring the solution to the desired temperature. If gaseous pollutants are released during industrial chemical cleaning, they are scrubbed out of the resulting exhaust air via high-performance gas scrubbers. For oily product residues or solids, receiver tanks specially designed as separators can be used to prevent the discharged contaminants from being reintroduced into the cleaning cycle.
Background info: Chemical industrial cleaning
Chemical industrial cleaning is based on the principle of cleaning parts of a production plant or complete production plants with a cleaning solution precisely adapted to the contamination. Heat exchangers, tanks, boilers, piping systems, columns or entire production plants can be made operational again with chemical industrial cleaning. This service covers a range of very different tasks:
The surface treatment
- Pickling of stainless steels, carbon steels as well as special alloys (copper, nickel, aluminum, etc.)
- Passivation for the production of corrosion-resistant surfaces for stainless steels, carbon steels, special alloys
The surface treatment
- Inorganic adhesions and coatings such as metal oxides (copper, nickel, chromium, arsenic, cadmium, etc.), metal sulfides (iron, nickel, etc.), carbonates, and other hardness formers.
- organic adhesions and coatings such as oils, greases, tars and vacuum residues
The special applications
- Hot passivation of systems carrying butadiene before commissioning and after plant opening
- Decontamination and rinsing of plants in preparation for decommissioning and plant opening, incl. waste gas treatment by means of gas scrubbers
- Pretreatment of plants within the scope of initial commissioning
- Use of low-pressure tank washing heads to avoid plant collapses and reduce treatment chemicals
To cover all areas of application, Lobbe works with mobile equipment that can be flexibly adapted to the specific requirements on site - right up to the use of external heat exchangers to heat the cleaning solutions and can be removed from the work area immediately after the work is completed.
Classic cleaning processes in the industrial service sector (e.g. high-pressure water cleaning) are often associated with a high level of preparation and post-processing, disassembly and assembly work. Especially for complex plant systems, chemical industrial cleaning offers a decisive advantage: plant components do not necessarily have to be dismantled. Without time-consuming disassembly or assembly work, the equipment is quickly available again, and downtimes are reduced to a minimum. Thanks to a closed circuit of cleaning solution and product residues, the release of gaseous or liquid pollutants can be almost completely avoided. If gaseous pollutants are produced, they are extracted directly from the circuit and cleaned from the exhaust air stream by means of high-performance gas scrubbers.
Particularly in the case of plant decontamination prior to opening or product-specific deposit removal, it is important to use a cleaning solution that is optimally adapted to the problem. Before the actual work begins, the experienced Lobbe team takes samples. In Lobbe's own laboratory, various chemical approaches are tested for their effectiveness. In this way, problem-solving begins long before on-site use - in the laboratory. Only when the right chemical composition of the cleaning solution has been found is the assembly of the mobile plant begun.
The mobile equipment also includes the mobile laboratory for success control. In this way, all parameters that enable an assessment of the cleaning progress are checked on site.The effectiveness of the cleaning solution is checked at close intervals. If all important process parameters are within the specified target range, the cleaning process is complete. To protect the metal surfaces of pipelines, heat exchangers or tanks, inhibitors are added to the cleaning solution (acid) during ablative cleaning processes (pickling). The effectiveness of these inhibitors is essential for safe and quality-compliant work and is also ensured by on-site laboratory controls.
Lobbe offers a special industrial chemical cleaning process for plants in which butadiene is processed. The intermediate product for rubber synthesis reacts uncontrollably in contact with oxygen to form so-called "popcorn". This "wild" polymer can cause damage to plant components over large areas. Hot passivation is the method of choice for initial commissioning of butadiene plants, after plant openings for shutdowns or other cleaning services where oxygen penetrates the system or corrosion (rust formation) cannot be prevented, in order to create material surfaces that are inert to popcorn formation.
About Lobbe
Lobbe is a medium-sized, family-run company in the technical services sector based in Iserlohn. The successful company comprises the areas of industrial services and waste disposal. Nationwide, Lobbe has 2,700 employees at 58 locations and currently has 138 trainees. Lobbe generates 360 million euros annually (as of 2020).
Contact
Lobbe Entsorgung West GmbH & Co KG/
Lobbe Industrieservice GmbH & Co KG
Sabine Günther
Public Relations
Stenglingser Weg 4 - 12
D-58642 Iserlohn
Phone: +49 23 74 - 504 - 349
Fax: +49 23 74 - 504 - 353
sabine.guenther@lobbe.de
www.lobbe.de
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