Petroleum Heat Recovery Finned Tube Heat Exchanger

Petroleum Heat Recovery Finned Tube Heat Exchanger

The oil heat recovery finned tube heat exchanger is a heat exchange device that uses finned tubes as its core heat transfer elements. It is specifically designed for the petroleum industry's complex operating conditions, such as high viscosity, high sulfur content, high temperature, and high pressure. It is used to recover waste heat emitted during production/processing (such as flue gas, wastewater, high-temperature oil, etc.) and utilize it for preheating process media, heating, or power generation.

Working Principle:

High-temperature waste heat medium (such as crude oil, flue gas, or steam at 150-400°C) flows through the interior (or exterior) of the finned tubes, while low-temperature medium to be heated (such as cold water, air, or low-temperature crude oil) flows through the exterior (or interior) of the tubes; The fins increase the heat transfer area on the outside (or inside) of the tubes (3-10 times larger than smooth tubes), enhancing convective heat transfer efficiency, enabling heat to be rapidly transferred from the high-temperature side to the low-temperature side, thereby achieving waste heat recovery.

Waste heat sources in the petroleum industry are widespread, and finned tube heat exchangers are applied throughout the entire industrial chain:

Crude oil extraction phase

Associated gas waste heat recovery: Associated gas from the wellhead (temperature 80-150°C) flows through the finned tube heat exchanger to heat the low-temperature crude oil in the gathering and transportation pipelines (preventing solidification), replacing traditional electric heating or combustion heating, and reducing energy consumption by 30-50%;

Drilling fluid cooling waste heat recovery: During drilling, high-temperature drilling fluid (60-100°C) transfers heat to cold water through the finned tube heat exchanger, with the resulting hot water used for on-site heating or cleaning, reducing fuel consumption.

Crude oil gathering, transportation, and storage

Pipeline preheating: Utilize fin-tube heat exchangers to recover heat from diesel engine exhaust (300–400°C) at pumping stations to preheat incoming crude oil (from 20°C to 40°C), reducing crude oil viscosity and lowering transportation energy consumption;

Storage Tank Breathing Gas Recovery: The oil and gas emitted from storage tanks (containing a small amount of heat) is exchanged with a low-temperature absorbent through a finned tube heat exchanger to improve absorption efficiency, while recovering part of the heat for tank heating.

Refining and chemical processes

Flue gas waste heat recovery: High-temperature flue gas (250-500°C) emitted from furnaces and catalytic cracking units is passed through finned tube heat exchangers to heat air or process water, which is used for combustion assistance or process preheating, reducing furnace fuel consumption by 10-20%;

High-Temperature Oil Slurry/Residual Oil Waste Heat Recovery: High-temperature oil slurry (300–350°C) from refineries flows through finned tube heat exchangers to heat cold water and generate low-pressure steam for power generation or process steam use. A single unit can achieve annual energy savings of thousands of tons of standard coal.