Method of decoking a cracking plant

US4376694A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Linde GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Bernhard Lohr · Riegelsberg, DE
• Peter S. Hesse · Bradenton, US
• Robert Schuster · Munich, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 8, 1981
• Grant date: Mar 15, 1983
• Expiry date: Jul 8, 2001

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S585/95
• WIPO field: Basic materials chemistry
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A method of decoking (decarbonizing) surfaces of a cracking plant in which the cracking furnace is connected to a heat exchanger for cooling the cracked gas mixture, in which steam and air are admitted as a gas mixture to the cracking furnace and then the gas mixture is conducted through the cooler. The cooling medium is thus passed through the cracking gas cooler during the decoking operation while in a first stage the mixture is fed through the device at such a mass flow rate that the temperature of the deposits on the heat exchange surface is approximately at the temperature corresponding to cracking operations while, in a second stage, the gas flow rate is increased to raise the temperature of the deposits on the heat exchange surfaces of the cooler.