Plate heat exchangers in the refineries - Krashin-Shalev Metal Industries

Background

It was not until the early 2000 that the conservative process professionals in the petrochemical plants in Israel agreed to 1implement a plate heat exchanger for oil refining processes. This is after extensive reviews of similar systems abroad and after consulting with the local engineering companies. No wonder that the first heat exchangers for these processes were mainly Krashin-Shalev heat exchangers. But not all heat exchangers in refineries are for the oil refining process. Many heat exchangers are designed for cooling the auxiliary circuits of the faacilities, such as compressors cooling, boiler hot water cooling, etc.

Conventional heat exchanger in a refinery facility. The cost of the entire facility is billions of shekels. Cooled water from the heat exchangers refrigerates extremely expensive equipment. Reliability of equipment in refineries is a key requirement.

The objective

The supply of conventional heat exchangers for cooling petrochemical installations auxiliary circuits. Heat exchangers for these applications are simple, but failure of this heat exchanger can cause millions of Shekels damage, due to the collapse of an expensive machine.

The challenge

To manufacture for Clients of petrochemical equipment with the highest level of reliability. This is in compliance with all thermodynamic requirements.

The Project’s Solution

Most plate heat exchanger required for auxiliary refrigeration circuits in refineries, are designed to separate a cooling tower circuit from a clean closed consumer refrigeration circuit, such as a compressor, or other critical equipment. Conventional Krashin-Shalev heat exchangers, meet the demands of these applications - high reliability, robustness of the structure, asymmetrical plates that can handle contaminated water on one hand and water with variable flow regimes on the other. The first "simple" heat exchanger was provided by us in 1989. In 2019, we were involved in the debate about whether to replace or overhaul the heat exchanger that was in reasonable condition after 30 years of operation. Finally, it was decided to replace the equipment, while it was necessary to produce a new heat exchanger that would completely fit the existing flange locations without changing the piping - another important issue where our factory meets the Client’s requirements.

The outcome

Full Client satisfaction and loyalty to the produce of his "Krashin-Shalev."