AMMONIA II FM

TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS

One week stay at Plant I AMMONIA II FM provided me with an opportunity to work alongside a very able and dedicated team of engineers and technicians who taught and helped me throughout while diligently working on some of the most critical jobs ever encountered at Plant I. This document highlights the various tasks I was assigned and the major jobs that I observed during my stay. The purpose was to document what I had learnt and in a way, compile a history of major jobs conducted to assist any future maintenance jobs carried out at the same equipments.

ABSTRACT
In an attempt to address the hot spots issue occurring at the furnace, when the operators at the north of the furnace observed a fire in the pigtail. On closer examination, the tube number suggested for leakage are 290-310 causing the entire assembly to slip-down. Immediately, the operation department called upon the process gas removal from the radiant tubes & steam is inserted for proper circulation & to avoid any damage. Maintenance department was called for emergency situation Through technical coordination with FFBL as well as the Enven , it was decided to replace the leaked tube along with the inspection of the other pigtails for safety aspect in future . Through the course of the job, various setbacks had to be faced-difficulties in gouging ,welding equipment , man power, identification of cracks on end of the pigtails are to name a few. Through strict compliance with the inspection indicated points, regular meeting and dedicated hard work of the team, the job was executed without a single injury. Precise root cause for the supports failure is yet to be known; however, there is high probability that the reason is either of them : material failure because of thermal shock occurring due to large number of plant loads and shut downs, extra load on the pigtail because of uneven expansion of tubes.

AUGUST

2012
Prepared by:

F-2501 PIGTAILS REPLACEMENT

AAB

Reviewed by:

KMK SP AUF ADM ZAA

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO FURNACE ....................................................................................................................... 1 FURNACE SECTION MODULE ........................................................................................................................ 1 HISTORY OF MATERIALS .............................................................................................................................. 2 HISTORY ....................................................................................................................................................... 2 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION ............................................................................................................................... 3 PRE-ARRANGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................... 3 JOB SCOPE .................................................................................................................................................... 3 FURNACE HANDOVER ................................................................................................................................... 3 PRE-CHECKS ................................................................................................................................................. 3 OBSERVATIONS ............................................................................................................................................ 3 INSPECTION.................................................................................................................................................. 4 INSPECTION ROOM ACTIVITIES ..................................................................................................................... 4 1ST DAY ACTIVITIES ....................................................................................................................................... 4 MEETING ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 NEAR MISS ................................................................................................................................................... 6 ACTIVITIES DURING NIGHT ........................................................................................................................... 6 2ND& 3RD DAY ACTIVITIES............................................................................................................................... 6 DEFECTS LOCATION OF LONG TUBES FROM TUBE SIDE........................................................................... 7 WARE HOUSE 12 MEETING 12 PEEP HOLES 12 MISCELLANEOUS JOBS 12 TEAMS 13 SUMMARY 11 RECOMMENDATIONS.15 BENCH MARKING.16 APPENDIX/ ATTACHEMENT17 INSPECTION RESULTS 17 PROCESS DEPARTEMNT ANALYSIS .... 20 FW COLD & HOT BOTTOM DESIGN 21 VESSEL BOXUP ..22 SIGNED MEMORANDUM FOR PEEP HOLES ..26 STRESS COLLAR MIV ..27 TUBE REPLACEMENT CHART SHEET ....28

Introduction to Furnace
Furnace, also known as the primary reformer, has multiple process applications i.e. heating of process air, boiler feed water, natural gas and generating KS steam. Primarily, it comprises of two sections: radiant and convection. Burners installed in the radiant section initiate cracking of feed gas in the catalyst lined tubes running vertically in the section. Convection section, on the other hand, receives hot flue gases from the radiant section and heats the process fluid travelling in horizontally running coils. The flue gases are exhausted with the aid of ID fan installed at the top of the furnace.

Furnace Section Module

Since the current issue of leaked pigtails has occurred at the outlet section of the radiant tubes, specifications of the same are given below: Section Coil No. E-203-1 Furnace Manufacturer/Type Foster Wheeler/ Terrace Number of casted & welded parts 6 Length of Tubes 55.625m Tube Type Staggered Inlet Temperature(oF) /Pressure (PSIG) 990/520 Outlet Temperature(oF) / Pressure (PSIG) 1438/445 Tube Material ABEX TX-63(35Ni-25Cr) Tube Max Temperature (oF) 1919 Tube O.D/I.D (mm) 4.7/ (3.7, +-0.01) Tube Weight( without Catalyst) 1320 Lbs. PIGTAIL Material/Length INCOLOY 800HT/(1112-1120mm) Stress collar Material/Type INCOLOY 800HT/Tapered Bottom/Top Blind flange Carbon steel/2.25Cr ,1Mo Lug Material SS-304

H CASTING HEADER

PIGTAIL

SOCKET RAD. TUBE LUG CHANNEL

History of materials Furnace part Outlet header Inlet header Inlet pigtail Outlet pigtail Tube top flange Bottom top flange Top blind flange Tube Bottom flange Stress collar HISTORY
Year

OLD MATERIAL in 2005 INCOLOY 800H 1.25 Cr -0.5Mo 1.25 Cr -0.5Mo Incoly800h 1.25Cr ,0.5Mo , 8 Bolts Carbon steel 1.25 Cr -0.5Mo Carbon steel A297-HP40-sp cast

NEW MATERIAL (2012) INCOLOY 800HT SS-304H SS-304H Incoly800ht 2.25Cr ,1Mo, 12 Bolts Carbon steel 2.25Cr ,1Mo Carbon steel INCOLOY 800ht

Problems/ works

1992

1995 1997 1998 2000 2001 2002 2005

23 august 2010 2011 2012

All radiant tubes + inlet & outlet pigtails + outlet header + new refractory transfer line + radiant & convection section renewed + 10 tubes in convection section added + 28 new supports addition Sealing basket angle iron change to material SS-310 + anchoring modification Hot bottom reformer Pigtail blow out resulting in fire + pressure trip 20 tubes addition in convection section with 18 % increase in output + 7 % firing increase 240 burners window application to improve combustion efficiency 3 pigtails failure in startup , 35 thermal cycles 5 pigtails failure All outlet pigtails replaced + taper stress collar addition + material change of pigtail + counter weight increased to 105 % + outlet header support refurbished #296 pigtail failure with bulk of fire as per six thermal cycle due to the reason of the 7 day before partial failure 01 tube failed in 2009 was removed from furnace July, 1tube nipped & & 42 pigtails replaced against UFD results + Jan 2 tubes nipping

Problem Description
Pigtail failure causing fire is the problem ever since the commissioning of the plant from 1967. All catalyst tubes & pigtail replacement along with the material brought no food but the problem continues to increase year by year till 2010 causing a huge fire in August. Continuing, the problem awakens again & again till July 2012 pretending that root cause hasnt been called yet.

Pre-Arrangements
Installation of scaffolding Gouging and welding machines are brought to the west side of furnace Rods are to there as to support the bottom plates during removal

Job Scope
Detection of fire from Peep holes Removal of bottom plates as numbers indicated by operation department Inspection of tubes to detect leakage Making an arrangement of appropriate fabricators, welders etc. Mechanical maintenance activities on tubes along with the inspection of weld pigtails Handover to Operation Department Startup

Furnace Handover to Ammonia-2 Field Maintenance

Before handling over the furnace, it has been assured from the operation department that it has removed any process explosive gases. While the steam flow rates as per operation department are as follows
DATE TIME PRC-101 PSIG D2503 VENT FEL FRC-101 (KSCFH) FRC 104 KPPH STM/HR FRC-105 STM/HR SG RATIO

01/08/12 02/08/12

03/08/12

04/08/12

00:00N 08:00 16:00 00:00 08:00 16:00 00:00 08:00 16:00 00:00 08:00

466.3 465.9 467.7 487.0 471.7 467.6 468.0 491.9 521.1 524.9 524.2

569.9 571.3 571.3 578.2 576.7 574.9 574.7 510.9 232.2 1.5 3.7

140.6 10.7 142.8 142.1 140.9 141.9 141.6 74.3 1.0 0.4 0.4

2088.1 2089.5 2091.1 2120.7 2110.7 2092.7 2102.0 1102.6 14.2 5.5 6.0

108 109 109.1 111.8 112.2 109.9 110 91 19.4 13.5 12.6

108 109 109 111.8 112.2 109.9 110 90.6 13.2 7.0 6.9

2.53 2.54 2.52 2.53 2.56 2.53 0.24 ---* ---* ---* ---*

---*LESS Than expected KSCFH = 1000 standard cubic feet per hour. SG ratio= steam to Gas ratio PSIG=pound per square inch gauge FEL= frond end load

PRE-CHECKS
Explosively was checked by area operator to be zero through explosively meter and also assured by the operation.

Observations
Insulation has been found in the spring supports along with the condition of mid-level reading between cold & hot condition as temperature is still 250 degree C. After removal of the bottom plate ES-9,10,11 it is found that # 300 tube has impingement on the tube. But as per visual view the leakage was not much obvious. Lugs distance from the bottom channel.( PROJECT DEPARTMENT) Some of the spring support slip & load plates were found to be mis-aligned to some extent. Distance between LUGS & channel top are found as follows

Inspection
After proper temperature maintenance of around 100 degree C, UFD was initiated. After inspection & controlling the flow-rate of steam leakage was clear This tube was handed over to the maintenance department & other bottom plate tubes of named ES-6,7,8,9,12,13,14 is inspected with UFD. Recommendation from the inspection section came for replacement of 7 pigtails while the work on the leaked tube is under process by maintenance.

Inspection Room Activities

The following tubes of last shut-down was brought back & UFD test were done for to replace #300 tube in RT room & following tubes were accepted after UFD. S. No 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tube number 335 93 214 228 225 UNKNOWN* UFD Rejected Rejected Rejected Rejected OK OK Fretting check Not performed Not performed Not performed Not performed 14 % 14%

UFD Testing

fretting Testing

Visual inspection defects

* Visual inspection of unknown tube number has resulted in hindrance to use. #225 tube is machined to the required length of 45 inch minimum Also the tube implementation sides are reversed to even the stresses in working. Tube side indication marked

1st Day Activities

The gouging operation were started 10:30 A.M The following characteristics of gouging machines were used. Two machines Of 250 Ampere Of 300 Ampere were used to reach the current capacity to 500 AMPERE. 12-14 inch long carbon electrode with carbon coating and usage mark indicated.

 Upto 5000 degree C was the temperature limit Gouging was done from bottom to top After removal of tube the crack found as follows #300 tube crack Then the tube #225 (from old shut-down) was brought from workshop after cutting down the proper length & welding work was initiated.

For

For w e

Length measurement

Length reduction

Beveling of end for welding

for welding GTAW welding was used which have the following specifications Inconel-182 bare wire Gas type Cylinder pressure(PSIG) Torch pressure(PSIG) Oxygen gas 1450 60 Argon gas 195 10 During implementation of the pigtail there was a proper distance between the socket head & tube end of 1/8 inch.

Operations on #300 In the welding process, a weld mark of 2.5mm on #301 tube happened which was later weld buildup.

Weld mark
Meeting
Meeting of executives was called & decided to get tubes for pigtails from FFBL.so proper arrangement was done & FFBL deported the tubes from KARACHI at evening hrs. On 3/8/2012. These tubes reached in E-FERT around early morning

Near-Miss
During welding process at about 00:30 Afternoon, due to the leakage from the plant an 990 PPM AMMONIA puff comes along with the steam that causes the fire. so proper arrangements are done to avoid any mishap.

Activities during night

Inspection team demanded more bottom plates removal & Following 7 tubes are successfully gouged + welded with DPT test clearance 288 290 292 302 304 306 318

2ND & 3rd DAY ACTIVITIES

On 4/8/2012, inspection team further show 21 more tubes for the replacement point of view. Out of which 9 were long tubes while other were short which all were from bottom of furnace East cell. Tube type Long Tubes Short Tubes Tube numbers 273,281,321, 323, 325, 351,353, 359,363, 272,274,280,330,340,344,346,348,352,354,360,362

In order to fasten the work, Morning MEETING decided to remove these pigtails & get more welding equipment & Man power from contractor. so following was the list along with other discussion. Equipment /man power Welding machine Argon set Welding leads Fabricator Quantity 6 4 12 3

Tube type Long tubes Short tubes

Defected Available pigtails 9 2 12 1

To be plugged 7 6

The long tubes have to be shortened to 1115-1120 mm for the use along with the clearance from the inspection. Here is the list of tubes +inspection results. Tube number 325 359 353 363 351 323 321 273 281 DPT TEST OK OK OK OK Not performed Not performed Not performed Not performed Not performed DIMENSIONAL CHECK 42.1 ~42.3 42.1 ~42.3 42.2 ~42.3 42.2 ~42.3 Not performed Not performed Not performed Not performed Not performed UFD OK OK OK OK Not performed Not performed Not performed Not performed Not performed

The reason of rejection of tubes were described below TUBE NUMBER 323 321 273 281 351 REASON OF REJECTION rejected after visual inspection rejected after visual inspection rejected after visual inspection rejected after visual inspection rejected after visual inspection DUE TO ARC STRIKE DUE TO ARC STRIKE DUE TO ARC STRIKE DUE TO ARC STRIKE DUE TO PIN HOLE

Pin hole of #351

Defects (arc strike & pin-hole) of tubes

WAREHOUSE ISSUEANCE
Material Stress collar Order number 410000001703 Reservation number 643427

MEETING
Meanwhile in MEETING at afternoon decided to use the ENVEN PLANT FURNCAE pigtails which have a less I.D than the F-2501. Here was provided the list of diameter comparison for tube vendors Tube vendor Old tube FFBL Enven plant Outer diameter(mm) 42.6 42.6 42.6 Internal diameter(mm) 32.5 30 26

Also analysis was carried out by process department Which results in the following results, With outlet pigtail of reduced ID Process flow will decrease by 1 % TMT of tubes shall increase by ~ 10 degree F avg. Within the tolerable limits till the T/A, it were suggested to implement that Enven tubes. Also the west side tubes(w-8 , w-9) are removed & inspected & no flaw in indicated by UFD machine. PEEP HOLES ADDITION: The arrangement was performed at each cell for 2 more peep holes but only 1 peep hole were implemented during that duration. SUB HSE were also performed Now the quantity of peep hole were as follows N= NORTH Cell Peep holes quantity (old) Peep holes quantity (new) S= SOUTH East 1N,IS 1N, 2S West 1 N , 1S 2N,1S

Miscellaneous Jobs
All preparations were done to get the Box up certification All plates were placed on their cell location with the insulation entangling in the plate Box up signed from inspection , process departments Insulation were removed from the spring supports Proper oiling were done of the SS spring Housekeeping at the furnace basement were properly conducted

F-2501 operation were Handed over to the operation & process department at 10:00 A.M on 5/8/2012

Teams Team Lead: ADM/ZAA

Morning Shift
Supervisor: KMK Tech: Imran khan, M.ALI, SAHID NADEEM, AMJAD RASOOL, SHAMSHIR Welders: M.ATTAR, NAZIR

Night Shift
Supervisor: SP Tech: UZAIR, KHADIM, RAFIQ BHUTTO, IMRAN MANZOOR Welders: MUNAWAR, ANJUM

SUMMARY
S. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 29 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Tube No. 294 301 TUBE VENDOR Enven FFBL E-FERT plant 1 Tube No. 272 273 274 280 281 288 290 292 300 302 304 306 318 321 323 325 330 340 344 346 348 351 352 353 354 359 360 362 363 Tube vendor Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant FFBL FFBL FFBL Old tube FFBL FFBL FFBL FFBL Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant Enven plant FFBL Enven plant Enven plant FFBL Final DPT Test Clearance 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 3/8/12 N 3/8/12 N 3/8/12 N 3/8/12 D 3/8/12 N 3/8/12 N 3/8/12 N 3/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 5/8/12 D 5/8/12 D 5/8/12 D 5/8/12 D 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 4/8/12 N 3/8/12 D 3/8/12 D 4/8/12 N After applying all the activities of welding and Inspection, here is the list of the tube numbers & vendors. D = Day N= Night

Operation Done Nipped tube was plugged at inlet and outlet headers Grinding mark of 2.5 mm depth was weld buildup NUMBER OF TUBES 19 9 1

Root cause analysis & Recommendation:

If we ponder upon the history we will find out that major failures are associated with the pigtails occurred in the failure causing fire. Upon my root cause analysis i went through the history which recommends that the outlet pigtail should be looped to compensate the expansion & make it flexible to bear stresses. So ICI Methanol based suggestion is installed but not successful as it burst out also The major difference is that Engro has implemented although hot bottom design as following the ICI Methanol but the major difference are that

Specification Original construction year Reformer tube arrangement Reformer tube bottom Reformer tube counter weight Reformer tube pusher bars Outlet pigtail type

ICI Methanol FW reformer Engro FW reformer 1971 1967 Single tube row Staggered tube rows Converted from cold bottom design to hot bottom design Each counter weight supports 4 tubes Yes Horizontal pigtail with complete loop Original cold bottom pigtail Combination of load supporting Yes Horizontal straight pigtail

The failure is basically due to the circumferential stress or longitudinal. As per the results of analysis it is indicated that Failure is basically due to the stress cycle related rather than temperature driven Failure start from the taper stress collar design (highest stress area) Conclusion: So we can say that the given stress collar design is inherently wrong as it doesnt remove stresses but in fact shift it from tube collar end to the stress collar taper end & any concentration of stress at that point causes to propagate it to other parts & finally causing the failure of the outlet pigtail .Also local high temperature concentration at that taper collar causes the oxidation of the surface of pigtail along with the nitride formation. It appears that the fundamental pigtail design continues to be the root cause of the cracking problems. It can be seen that in the past that there have been a number of attempts to fix that problem, but no significant design change to eradicate it. The fundamental issue is the lack of flexibility in the pigtails amplified by the reformer staggered tube row induced distortion & the high reliance on the correct & functional reformer tube. In order to make it flexible, the tube arrangement has to be changed with single rows making the outlet pigtails more flexible (may with hot bottom design) Welded parts should be thin enough so that, upon cooling, the metal dissipates heat too quickly for chromium carbide to precipitate. The carbide formation at the grain boundaries of the chromium as per the research papers causes to initiate the crack then it further propagates Leaching is the standard reason for the carbide formation. Also oxidation at the surface is major reason as it goes deeper into the surface. The stress pattern may be due to The improper functioning of the supports, Possible support maintenance issues Fabrication & variation during firing,

Introduction of stresses at the start & shut down The proper maintenance plan has to be conducted as recommended by HASEEB & BILAL AWAN. If we ponder upon the TUBE REPLACEMENT CHART SHEET (in hard form), we will find out that the EAST cell is continuously getting worse with time although the pigtails are replaced with the new ones in July then the again problem occurs in the EAST CELL with some other tube replacement, this shows that EASE cell is not properly maintained as well as PM plans has to be properly worked upon. We replaced the pigtails of number majorly 197-250 majorly. Then in AUGUST it is shifted to 270+ tubes means this is a precaution for us to have an eye on 320+ tubes numbers

Best recommendation is the comparison of the west & east cells all values. Bench marking Bench marking has to be done with the ENVEN Plant for pigtail designing.

APPENDIX

INSPECTION RESULTS
S.No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

TUBE No. 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 101 102 103 104 105 106 107

272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294

UFD Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Grade C D D D C C C C C C C D C C C C C B C B C C C D C B B C C D C D D A C A N/A

REMARKS Changed D-C

Changed D-C Changed D-C Changed D-C Changed D-C

Changed D-C
Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2

Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2

Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL

Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL

Y Y N

A C N/A

Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL

Nipped tube was plugged at inlet and outlet headers

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68

295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 320 321 322 323

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

C D D D D A D B C A D A C D C D C D D D D D D A C B D C Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL Leaking Pigtail/ Tube replaced with OLD tube

69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85

324 325 326 327 328 329 330 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

D B C C C C A D D D C C C C A C C Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2

86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109

343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

C A C B D A C D B A A A C C C C B B C B B C C C Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL Tube Replaced with new one from FFBL Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2 Tube Replaced with new one from Plant-2

Summary: UFD Done : 108 at 100% (29 Tubes replaced 01 plugged .) Found Defective / Deseased : 29 out of 108 @ 27%