Aspen Fired Heater

Maximize process throughput through more efficient design and operation of your fired heaters
Aspen Fired Heater is the latest generation of thermal design software for the simulation and rating of process fired heaters. Fired heaters are found on almost every process unit in a petroleum refinery and are widely used in petrochemical and bulk chemical production. Correct design and operation of heaters is vital for achieving overall plant operational objectives in terms of efficiency and achievement of desired product slate. The Challenge: Reduce Risk, Gain More Control of Fired Heaters
Ninety percent of the energy consumed in a typical refinery is associated with fuel burned in fired heaters. Heaters are vital to the operation of distillation and conversion units. These devices are highly complex heat transfer units involving combustion, radiation, and convective heat transfer, often interacting with several streams in a process. Changes in feedstock or crude composition must be considered carefully in terms of the local process conditions within a heater. Without careful control, heaters can suffer from excessive coking and even tube failure, with serious consequences to safety and plant availability.

The AspenTech Solution: Flexible Modeling to Adapt to Changing Conditions

The sophisticated modeling of Aspen Fired Heater allows designers to explore a wide range of heater configurations. For many designers, Aspen Fired Heater brings modeling flexibility and ease-of-use with full integration of firebox and convection section processes, combined with draft calculations. It offers the reliability of Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating models for process heat transfer and pressure drop along with the well-stirred or long-furnace models of firebox radiation. Aspen Fired Heater simulations provide heater operators with insight into local process conditions to facilitate optimal operations, maximizing throughput and energy efficiency without impairing safety or reliability. It also allows users to examine local heat flux and tube metal temperatures in the firebox and convection section, thereby avoiding unstable flow regimes in two-phase operations and bringing a better balance of throughput, firing rate, and where applicable, steam injection to the process.

Aspen Fired Heater reports range from thermal summary screens to comprehensive incremental output.

Aspen Fired Heater

Wide Range of Applications
Aspen Fired Heater: Key Technical Features Combined modeling of firebox and convection section Up to 10 process streams in a single heater Handles cylindrical and cabin fireboxes Firebox well-stirred and long-furnace radiation models Firebox wall tubes (vertical horizontal and helical coil) Central tubes and cell-type fireboxes Up to 9 process convection section tube banks and processes Tubes can be plain or finned Convection section tubes with high round fins, serrated fins, circular fins, and rectangular fins Flexible, easy-to-use user interface Full process thermal and hydraulic calculations using Exchanger Design and Rating methods Combustion calculations for up to 4 fuels in the firebox Fuels can be selected from a standard set of 5 common fuels or specified by gaseous composition or for liquid fuels by ultimate analysis Outputs include the heater overall thermal performance in addition to many detailed reports Evaluation of local process conditions, temperatures, and pressures Flagging of conditions that exceed expected limits Flagging of unstable flow regimes Import of process and property data from Aspen HYSYS Aspen HYSYS Thermodynamics COM Interface and Aspen B-JAC property databanks Fired heater design involves balancing the thermal and hydraulic requirements for the main process stream and the subsidiary streams in the unit, while avoiding excessive capital cost. The complexity of the interactions and the wide range of possible configurations necessitate the use of a powerful tool like Aspen Fired Heater. Its detailed modeling capabilities provide an accurate assessment of local metal temperatures, allowing users to select the most appropriate tube materials. In modern plant operation, profitability is highly dependent on how well heaters are running. If feedstocks change or pre-heat trains foul up, the appropriate firing rate is not easy to determine. Similarly, if fuel changes are required, an accurate model is most important. Aspen Fired Heater helps operators achieve maximum efficiency while avoiding operating regimes that may jeopardize the run-time of the unit (due to excess coking), or that may even impair the integrity of heater pressure parts. By modeling a heater in the program, operators gain insight into local conditions, which goes far beyond that revealed by instrumentation. Three major physical property databases are included in Aspen Fired HeaterAspen HYSYS Thermodynamics COM Interface, the leading package in oil & gas processing, Aspen B-JAC standard properties package, which handles many common industrial fluids, and Aspen Properties. These databases provide access to more than 1,100 components and include a range of industry-standard VLE methods and mixing rules. Aspen Fired Heater has a utility to import process data and stream properties from Aspen HYSYS. This allows users to quickly set up studies of heater performance from the Aspen HYSYS process flowsheet.

An extensive selection of graphics makes Aspen Fired Heater easier to use.

Aspen Fired Heater

Thermal Output
Aspen Fired Heater uses the power and flexibility of the Microsoft Windows environment to allow you to explore unit geometry and performance detail. In addition, Aspen Fired Heater is designed to support drag & drop interfacing with Microsoft Excel, as well as high-level communication with other software. Thermal output includes: Overall heater thermal performance summary, including details of the heat load and the thermal efficiency of the unit Extensive warning and error reporting, alerting you to potential operational problems Overviews of thermal performance of each part of the heater, firebox, and tube bank Thermal overview of each stream in the heater Combustion information and fuel details, including calculated flue gas composition for individual fuels and fuel mixtures Comprehensive incremental output, including local temperatures, pressures, and heat flux Radiation information including zonal analysis

A number of program defaults helps minimize the required user input.

Graphing is available for enhancing your visual interpretation of output information.

Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating

Aspen Fired Heater is a part of the Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating family of products. Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating products offer state-of-the-art heat exchanger simulation and design based on over 30 years of industry-leading research. Our aim is to enhance the value of heat transfer solutions by providing the most integrated product offering across the widest range of technologies. This enables our customers to use the most advanced physically-based modeling, from unit design and overall process design, through to optimization and operational monitoring.

Worldwide Headquarters
Aspen Technology, Inc. 200 Wheeler Road Burlington, MA 01803 phone: +1-781-221-6400 fax: +1-781-221-6410 info@aspentech.com

EMEA Headquarters aspenONE Process Engineering

Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating family of products is a key component of aspenONE Process Engineering for chemical, refining, and E&P companies. aspenONE Process Engineering is an integrated lifecycle solution from conceptual design through to plant startup and operations supportenabling our customers to build and operate safer, competitive and more reliable process plants. Companies are able to reduce capital and operating costs, increase engineering efficiency and quality, and accelerate time-to-marketwith payback in months instead of years. AspenTech Ltd. C1, Reading Intl Business Park Basingstoke Road Reading UK RG2 6DT phone: +44-(0)-1189-226400 fax: +44-(0)-1189-226401 ATE_info@aspentech.com

About AspenTech
AspenTech is a leading provider of award-winning process optimization software and services. AspenTechs integrated aspenONE solutions enable manufacturers to reduce costs, increase capacity, and optimize operational performance end-to-end throughout the engineering, plant operations, and supply chain management processes. For more information, visit www.aspentech.com.

APAC Headquarters
AspenTech - Shanghai 3rd Floor, North Wing Zhe Da Wang Xin Building 2966 Jin Ke Road Zhangjiang High-Tech Zone Pudong, Shanghai 201203, China phone: +86-21-5137-5000 fax: +86-21-5137-5100 apac_marketing@aspentech.com

2008 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech, aspenONE, and the Aspen leaf logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 1319-05-0808