Automated Inspection,

Fitness for Service, and

Remaining Life Assessment
of Reformer Heater Tubes

The 2009 API

Inspector Summit
Reformer Tube Inspection and
FFS Assessment

Speaker: Tim Hill

Over 25 years experience

in the FFS evaluation of
process equipment.

10 years as Fired Heater

Reliability Engineer in
Major USA Refinery.
 Background

Plant reliability has an enormous

impact on profitability.
• Huge cost of plant downtime.
• Safety requirements.
The primary reformer is the most
critical asset in a Hydrogen plant.
Reformer tube failure due to Creep presents a
particularly high risk of unplanned outages.
Trend to longer run times between turnarounds
increases the value of confidently understanding
tube condition and remaining life.
Reformer Tube Inspection and
FFS Assessment

Opportunities:
 A reliable methodology for
remnant life assessment of
reformer tubes minimizes the risk
of unplanned shutdowns due to
tube failures.

 Tube harvesting/replacement strategies can be based on

sound principles rather than arbitrary criteria.

 Confidence in the remnant life predictions may allow

reformers to be operated more aggressively, resulting in
increased production and profitability.
Reformer Tube Inspection and
FFS Assessment
Challenges:
 HP Alloys used in reformer tubes are
not amenable to standardized creep
condition assessment procedures
such as those in API 530 and API 579.

 Temperature and stress vary through the tube wall and

along the axis of the tube.

 Due to variability in creep properties a detailed database

of alloy behavior is required.
Quest Integrity Advancements in Inspection
and FFS Assessment Technology
 Quest TruTec
 Laser-Optic Tube Inspection System
LOTIS ®
 Since 1998 has been employed in
Reformer Tube Condition Assessment.
 Originally developed and utilized for
inspection of marine boiler.
 Internal tool covers 100% of the
reformer tube (Top flange to bottom
below floor ).
 External Crawler developed for
measurements between catalyst
changes.
 Highly accurate and repeatable profile.
 Hundreds of thousands of data points
recorded in a typical inspection.
 Very fast inspection process, reducing
furnace downtime.
 Quest Reliability
 LifeQuest Reformer - Engineering
 Analyze 100% of LOTIS data following
inspections.
 Assessment technology backed by
extensive in-house materials testing of
HP alloys.
 API RP579 Level III Fitness-for
Service and Remaining Life
Assessment.
 Quantify and Predict both total Creep
Damage and degree of Creep
Cracking through wall.
 Provide deterministic and probabilistic
life assessments for each tube.
 Provides feedback on impact of past
and future operating conditions.
 Case Study

USA Refinery Example Reformer Furnace

~300 Mbpd Placed into service in
4 H2 Producing Plants 1993
Over 100 mmscfd H2 First On-line Tube
Plant Ages Vary from
Plant Failure in 2000
37 to 3 Years 3 More Failures between
Over 500 Reformer 2002 and 2006
Tubes
 Plant Data
LOTIS® Inspection
Creep Behavior of HP Alloys

Macrocracking

STRAIN 1 2 3

1. Primary Creep Microcracking

2. Secondary Creep
3. Tertiary Creep
Aligned
Cavities
Stead y-State
Creep Rate

Isolated
Cavities

TIME

Cavities and Microcracks only display themselves near end of life of

tubes. They do not allow remnant life predictability.
Inspection Technology Comparison

Other technologies
are useful only at or
very near Tube
Failure. This is often
too late to predict
Remnant Life or to
provide useful tube
replacement strategy
LOTIS® Data for a Single Tube

Shutdown Inspections for 2000,

2004 and 2006 are shown
LOTIS® Data for a Single Tube

Possible Over Grind Area

Demonstrates the Importance of
Fabrication Inspection for Quality Control
The LifeQuest Reformer Model

 Idea similar in principle to the

Omega approach (API 579- Fitness
For Service) Creep Material Properties
10

MA As-cast
 Based on knowledge of strain and 8 MA Aged

strain rate 6

%Strain
4

 Omega model not well suited to HP 2

alloy creep curves
0
0 400 800 1200 1600

Time hrs
 Void formation model developed to
more accurately describe creep
behaviour of HP reformer tube
alloys.
The LifeQuest Reformer Model

 Finite element module

captures through-wall
gradients in creep strain
and damage.
 The stress and hence
strain distribution
changes at startup,
shutdowns and trips
 FEA model captures
areas of maximum strain
The LifeQuest Reformer Model
Principal Output- Remaining Life
 Example- Grouped into 5 year blocks aligned with
scheduled outages – individual tube retirement dates are
specified
Steam Methane Reformer F-501
40

35
32
30

25
Tube Count

22
20
20

15

11 12 11 12
10 10 9
10 8

5 3

0
Pr

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/
20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20
ev

07

12

17

22

27

32

37

42

47

52

57
io
us

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to
ly

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/

9/
re

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20
pl

12

17

22

27

32

37

42

47

52

57

60
ac
ed

Predicted Creep Failure Date

Tube Retirement Plan
Steam Methane Reformer F-501
50
Life Quest Analysis Actual Replacement

4343
40
40
Tube Count

30

22
20 1918
16
13 14 1312
11 11
10
9 9
5

0
0
9/2005 9/2007 9/2012 9/2017 9/2022 9/2027 9/2032 9/2037 9/2042

Retirement Date (every 5 yrs)

 Output- Temperature
 Prediction of temperature
• Allows direct comparison of future plant conditions with individual
tube remaining life.
• Effective temperature accounting for creep damage from
shutdowns/trips and normal operation.
 Output- Damage
LifeQuest model is based on development
of voids and creep damage
Affect of operating transients are shown

Impact of significant operating transient

on creep damage and cracking
 Summary

 A reliable methodology for reformer tube inspection and

FFS assessment has enormous economic benefits.
• Minimizes risk of unplanned shutdowns due to tube failure.
• Allows reformers to be operated more aggressively.
• Wealth of diagnostic information.
 The LifeQuestTM – Reformer methodology has a sound
technical basis.
• Material database and advanced creep model capture the
unique behavior of HP alloys.
• Finite element module captures stress & temperature gradients
as well as cyclic effects.
• The analysis is calibrated to LOTIS® inspection data.