THE PROBLEM

Hydrogen Furnaces are at the core of many plants used in the production of ammonia, methanol, syngas, acetic acid, and refined hydrocarbons.

These critical units operate under extreme temperatures and pressures requiring the use of high alloy materials. These materials are subject to long term degradation due to stresses caused by fatigue, thermal, creep, and residual issues.

Reformer tubes normally used in the refining, petrochemical and fertilizer industries are manufactured by the centrifugal casting process, of heat-resistant austentic alloys such as HK-40, HP-40 and HP-Niobium modified materials.

A design life of 100,000 operating hours has been the normal time-based criteria for considering retirement of tubes. Many operators of furnaces using these tubes desire to change their maintenance philosophy for tube retirement to condition-based assessment rather than time-based assessment.