Efficiency centered maintenance for preheat trains of crude oil distillation units

Abstract

This paper presents the efficiency-centered maintenance method to plan the maintenance intervention of the heat exchangers of a preheat train, taking into account the economic-energy improvement and maintenance cost. An appropriate cleaning schedule is needed to preserve the key performance parameters (KPPs) throughout the operation, if possible, nearest to the design values. The results of this work show that it is possible to schedule maintenance activities based on KPPs such as effectiveness and determine the time of execution and the type of maintenance that is most cost-efficient, without affecting and complementing the criteria for maintenance schedules based on reliability/risk.