Reformer Tube Inspection:

An Inclusive Approach
R. D. ROBERTS
Quest TruTec, LP
1012 Central Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032, USA

J. BRIGHTLING
Johnson Matthey Catalysts
PO Box 1, Belasis Avenue
Billingham, Cleveland, UK. TS23 1LB

Providing plant operator / owners the ability to substantially extend tube life in steam reformers is
essential in maximizing use of capital investments in methanol, hydrogen, and ammonia plants.
With the price of nickel at an all time high, the cost of installing a single reformer tube can be
upwards of $20,000 USD. However, in today’s highly competitive markets the effect of the
unplanned downtime in reducing the plant on-stream factor is far greater than the installed cost of a
single reformer tube.
The plant engineers need to have data which will allow them to better manage the reformer tubes
and where circumstances allow them to safely extend the tube life expectancy beyond the typical
100,000 operating hours, as generally defined by their creep-based design by furnace designers [1].
Over the last 6 years over 100 plants around the world have applied the Laser-Optic Tube
Inspection System LOTIS™ “internal” laser-based reformer tube testing technique to obtain
invaluable tube creep information as it relates to tube damage in the early stages as well as allowing
the determination of when a tube should be retired from service.

INTERNAL LOTIS EXAMINATION METHOD

The LOTIS process collects millions of data points from the internal surface of the reformer tube
which can be modelled to provide powerful visual aids necessary to make operational, mechanical,
or design changes to increase the efficiency and performance of a steam reformer.

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 R. D. Roberts, J. Brightling

The internal inspection is carried out quickly during a turn around when the reformer catalyst is
being changed and takes less than three minutes per tube. Access is only required from the top of
the tubes where the catalyst is discharged/loaded and no access to the reformer box itself is
necessary.
The equipment utilized for this examination consists of the compact LOTIS Model-400M system in
conjunction with the appropriate laser mapping probe (Fig. 1). This laser-based surface mapping
system is based on the principle of laser optical triangulation2.

FIG. 1. TYPICAL LOTIS PROBE

The LOTIS probe projects a small laser beam (typically 0.5mm in diameter) onto the target surface,
this provides precise radius measurements to 0.05mm of the inside surface of the tube at each
sample point, which for a typical 100mm ID tube means creep strain is quantified to within 0.05%.
The laser source, optics, and photo detector are housed in the forward section of the probe. The
optics housing rotates at 1,800 rpm and is drawn through the tube so that a helical sampling pattern
is generated (Fig. 2).

FIG. 2: HELICAL PATH SCAN ILLUSTRATION

QUALITY OF DATA OUTPUT

One of the key differences between the LOTIS technology and previous tube inspection methods is
the fact that the complete tube surface is inspected (Figures 3 and 4). This significantly improves
the quality of data and allows for detailed reformer analysis as well as tube condition to be assessed.

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 Reformer Tube Life Extension: An All-Inclusive Approach

Not Inspected

60.00°

Typical Eddy INTERNAL &

Current and/or
External Crawler External
Ultrasonic
Coverage = ~66% LOTISLOTIS
Coverage = 100%
External Crawler Coverage =
Coverage = 66% 100%

60.00°

Not Inspected
= Not Inspected Region of Tube
= Inspected Region Of Tube

FIG. 4: INSPECTION COVERAGE OF TUBE CIRCUMFERENCE

FIG. 3: INSPECTION COVERAGE OF TUBE LENGTH FIG. 5: FURNACE 3D PLOT

With this degree of tube inspection it is widely acknowledged that the 3-Dimensional (3D)
graphical modelling images allow a much better interpretation of the creep damage to the reformer
tubes and will allow identification of issues such as flue gas maldistribution or flame impingement
caused by faulty burners as shown in Fig. 5.
In a number of different instances, detailed inspection data coupled with the visualization provided
from LOTIS has been able to help positively validate unusual phenomena within furnaces. In many
cases furnaces have been rigorously modelled using modern simulation tools4 to investigate the root
causes of tube failures. Two of these case studies are discussed in further detail below showing the
excellent correlation between the physical measurement of tube creep in comparison to the physical
models and process parameter measurements.

Case study 1 - Tunnel port effect

Correct sizing of tunnels and ports is essential to
balance flue gas flows within the box.
Flue gas maldistribution will contribute to the variation
in tube temperatures and lead to reduced furnace
efficiency and limited firing rates. Also, in some
circumstances, poor design of the tunnels and ports can
have a much more dramatic effect; it can lead to
premature tube failure. The failure is caused by local-
ised creep damage at the bottom of the tubes and is
shown schematically in Fig. 6. The area of damage is
typically 100 to 150 mm (4 to 6 inches) long, with the
tube above and below the failure showing no damage. FIG. 6: TYPICAL FURNACE TUNNEL ARRANGEMENT

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 R. D. Roberts, J. Brightling

FIG. 7: HYDROGEN REFORMER INSPECTION FIG. 8: REPRESENTATION OF PHOTON PATHS IN THE

EARLY STAGES OF SIMULATION

For a large hydrogen plant reformer the 3-D image following a LOTIS inspection clearly shows the
symmetrical damage pattern in-line with the arrangement of flue gas extract ports on this furnace
(Fig. 7).
The key to understanding this effect is that the tunnel forms an almost complete enclosure, with
only small exits (through the ports) back into the box. The radiation within the tunnel is therefore
approximately black-body, doubling the effective emissivity of the gas and producing a higher
incident radiation flux on the tube wall opposite each port.

As a service offer for this KATALCO™ catalyst user, Johnson Matthey investigated the effect in
detail using a Monte-Carlo simulation (packets of radiant energy [“photons”] are tracked, with
reflection and absorption / emission at surfaces). Figure 8 shows the early stages of the simulation,
with a relatively small number of photon paths.
1.25

1.2

1.15

1.1

1.05

0.95
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Distance from floor, m

FIG. 9: INCIDENT RADIATION AS A FUNCTION OF HEIGHT ABOVE FURNACE FLOOR

The steady-state radiation flux at the tube wall is obtained by averaging the arrival rate over a
sufficiently large number of photons. Figure 9 shows the incident radiation flux as a function of
height above the furnace floor, with well-defined peaks corresponding to the positions of the ports.
The tunnel port effect and this modelling work are described in detail in references 3 and 4.

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 Reformer Tube Life Extension: An All-Inclusive Approach

FIG. 10: TWT PROFILE

Case study 2 - Cross furnace profiles

This phenomenon was noted during a reformer survey on a large primary reformer using KATALCO
catalysts. An unusual tube wall temperature profile was noted (Fig. 10). During an on-site
reformer survey in which Johnson Matthey Catalysts assisted the operator in detailed investigations
significant maldistribution was confirmed in the furnace by injection of dry powder to track the flue
gas flows patterns from the site test. It could be seen that the flue gas near the wall was flowing
upwards.
The furnace was modelled by Johnson Matthey using Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to
determine theoretically whether this up flow at the reformer walls would be expected. The result of
this model is shown Fig. 11.
As can be seen, the model predicts that there is up flow at the walls and there is cross flow from the
outer lanes to the inner lanes at the top of the furnace. The root cause of the problem was a
mismatch between the burner capacity, outer lane sizing, and the outer coffin sizing.
As can be seen, the flow patterns predicted by the CFD model match that seen at the plant. Johnson
Matthey offered a range of solutions to resolve this problem5.
The pattern of damage for this style of furnace, in respect to tube creep strain measured, is
consistent from the LOTIS inspection helping to cross validate the inspection and modelling
capabilities (Figure 12).

FIG. 11: CFD GAS VELOCITIES FIG. 12: TOP-FIRED PRIMARY LOTIS RESULTS

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 R. D. Roberts, J. Brightling

Predicted TWT
Looking in more detail at the characteristics of an individual
tube from the centre of the furnace there is a once more an
excellent correlation between the maximum TWT predicted by
REFORM [6] and the LOTIS result showing maximum creep
damage at the bottom of the tubes (Fig. 13).
COMPARISON WITH OTHER
TECHNIQUES
Since reformer tube inspections are only possible at shut-
downs, typically occurring every four to five years, it is
important that the inspection technique generates accurate and
repeatable results. The following sections detail a summary of
the advantages and disadvantages of the various techniques
880 890 900 910 available1,7.
Temperature (degC)
Destructive testing
This is the most rigorous method and the most costly since it
FIG. 13: TWT PROFILE VS, CREEP DAMAGE
requires that tubes are removed from the reformer and then cut
up to allow for the amount of creep damage to be determined.
The cost of this is prohibitive and a representative sample of 10% would be needed, then the
complication of the decision on where to take the samples, top or bottom of tubes.

Visual inspection
This is the most basic technique and is often not utilized regularly enough to highlight operational
problems. Checks should be made for bulging and distortion, which is an indication of excessive
creep, as well as glazing which indicates overheating due to flame impingement. This technique is
not sensitive and will not identify damage within the tube material and is very much dependant on
the experience of the inspecting eye! Nevertheless, always useful combined with other methods.

Ultrasonic attenuation (UT)

This technique transmits sound from the outside of the tube from a transmitter to a detector sensor.
Creep attenuates the signal and allows for identification of damaged areas. As the surface of the
tubes is rough and the material grain structure is coarse, this makes it difficult to apply normal
frequency ultrasonic signals. In practice, our experience shows this technique can falsely identify
areas of damage and in other instances it can pass tubes which then prematurely fail in service and
have to be replaced.

Eddy current (ET)

Like the ultrasonic attenuation tests, eddy current is applied from the outside of the reformer tube
and detects the variations in flux density generated by an induced electromagnetic coil. The
sensitivity of this technique is compromised when the tube material’s permeability changes. Due to
the environment in which the reformer tube is operated and the materials it is made of, there are
significant permeability variations down the tube’s length after the first day it is placed into service.
The eddy current technique also has a reduced sensitivity to damage located at the inside surface of
the tube wall. In some cases, this test method may provide false positives which will prompt a
perfectly good tube to be removed from service. Just the opposite may also happen, resulting in a
damaged tube being left in the reformer causing in tube failure, causing an unplanned outage to
make necessary repairs.
A summary of the abilities of the different inspection techniques to detect damage are shown in
Figure 14 effectively as the traditional techniques need a significant degree of structural deteriora-
tion (cracking) to be present before they can rate the tubes.

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 Reformer Tube Life Extension: An All-Inclusive Approach

FIG. 14: COMPARISON OF CREEP DAMAGE DETECTION CAPABILITIES OF VARIOUS NDT TECHNIQUES

USE OF INSPECTION RESULTS

Provided the inspection technique gives adequate discrimination, then the results of the inspection
can be used to determine residual tube life and therefore decide the time at which the tubes need
replacing.
Other techniques simply package the results into A, B, C type categories which does not provide
sufficient detail nor take into account the wide scatter within a furnace in respect of tube damage.
Unfortunately, in a reformer, when it comes to predicting which tube may fail first, variation in tube
life is a fact of life due to the following factors.
• Wall thickness variation within manufacturing specification and tolerance.
• Material variation in chemistry and macrostructure between separate tube
section casts.
• Temperature variation due to reformer design, flue gas flow plus uncertainty,
and errors in temperature measurement.
The last factor is particularly important as relatively minor differences in temperature have a big
impact on tube life, typically a 20ºC increase in tube temperature will reduce the life by 50%7.
So clearly, in order to carry out remaining life assessment of tubes in steam reformers, another key
piece of information is reliable temperature measurements. Most temperature measurements col-
lected today contain inaccuracies due to
1050°C
uncontrollable variables such as background
radiation, emissivity, and flue gas composition
900°C
as these are not taken into account, see Fig. 15.
Inaccuracies of >40°C are quite common.
Techniques have been developed which allow
the temperature readings to be corrected
removing these particular variables. Johnson
Matthey can also, in certain circumstances,
offer other measurement techniques for more
FIG. 15: CAUSES OF INACCURATE TEMPERATURE READINGS accurate measurement 8.

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 R. D. Roberts, J. Brightling

Range of Tube Life Expected Effect of Temperature Measurement

(330 tube furnace at design conditions) Uncertainty
14 14

12 12
Failures per year

Failures per year

10 10

8 8

6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Years in service Years in service

FIG. 16 FIG. 17

TUBE LIFE VARIABILITY

Even ignoring the variables in the tube operating environment, some tubes will fail before the
expected design life. Primarily this is because the design methodology utilises a probabilistic
approach based on analysis of controlled short term destructive testing of tube samples. In most
cases, 95% of tubes will actually exceed the design life – this does mean that 5% of the tubes will
not reach design life (Fig. 16) which has significant implications for long term plant reliability.
As previously discussed, often plant temperature measurements are an overestimate of the actual
tube temperature. This means that start of failures will be later than expected as the tubes in
practice may last much longer than their nominal design life based on the measured tube wall
temperatures.
This is illustrated and shown in Fig. 17. This is seen in practice with a number of inspections
having been recently completed on reformers with 20 year old tube sets which have been shown to
be only part way through their useful life as they have not subjected to any significant creep strain.
The output from a LOTIS inspection of a large reformer containing 680 tubes is shown plotted as
number of tubes (frequency) verses % creep strain (expansion) from this the normal distribution of
creep damage expected from the many variable factors with only a few outlying tubes (Fig. 18).

Fig. 18: Distribution of the Percentage Expansion of Reformer Tube

90

80

70

60
Frequency

50

40

30

20

10

0
3

9
6

6
0

6
5

5
9

7
0.

1.

3.

4.

5.

5.

6.

6.

6.
0.

2.

3.
1.

4.
0.

1.

2.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Percentage Expansion

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 Reformer Tube Life Extension: An All-Inclusive Approach

With this degree of creep tube damage data resolution a process of tube harvesting can be
developed to the ultimate extreme. In such cases it becomes possible to operate the reformer from
one turnaround to the next without a tube failure.

EXTERNAL LOTIS TECHNOLOGY

An issue affecting the use of an internal LOTIS inspection to monitor creep strain life achieved with
modern reforming catalysts is increasing, thus limiting, the times in which the tubes can be
inspected.

Average Primary Catalyst Lifes

Improvements in catalyst mean that the average
6 run length between turnarounds has steadily
increased from about three to five years in the last
5
decade. This is illustrated in Fig. 19. Some
Years

4 leading operators are now operating KATALCO

primary reforming catalyst for 10 years. For
3
plants with the longest catalyst lives of around 10
2
years, this decreases the available inspection
1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 times to about 2-4 times over the lifetime of the
FIG. 19 tube, which obviously leaves significant gaps in
the inspection frequency.
Typically, access may be available to the tube
external surface twice as often as to the internal
surface as plants take intermediate shut-downs
where the catalyst isn’t changed. Based upon this
demand, an “external” LOTIS reformer tube
inspection technology has been in development.
During design of the external LOTIS crawler,
priority was given to its physical dimensions.
Since typically over 75% of the creep strain
damage seen in reformer tubes is located below
the top of the tunnel or coffin region, this is
where tube failures would be expected (Fig. 20).
The ‘external’ LOTIS technology has been
applied in parallel with the “internal” LOTIS
technology in a number of steam reformers to
confirm both the crawler and sensor design and
FIG. 20: CREEP DAMAGE IN THE TUNNEL REGION
also to confirm the validity of the results.
Final release of this new “external” LOTIS reformer tube inspection method has now taken place.
The newly released “external” LOTIS will compliment the already industry accepted “internal”
LOTIS laser reformer tube inspection process. Plant engineers now have the ability to collect tube
condition data any time the plant is taken off line, regardless if catalyst is in the tubes or not, to
determine the presence and extent of Creep Strain damage. The “external” system employs
numerous sensors (Fig. 21) similar to that of the “internal” system. High-resolution, 3-Dimensional
colour images are generated to continue with previous reformer tube management philosophy put in
place with the original LOTIS internal laser-based technique.
The crawler has the capability of traversing all the way to the bottom of the tunnel (coffin) and up
to the floor refractory. The external LOTIS crawlers’ sensors were also designed to extend out in
front of the crawler to enable data to be acquired right up to either the floor or roof refractory. This
is essential to maximizing the opportunity of detecting and quantifying creep strain within a tube,
which is filled with catalyst and does not have access to the interior bore.

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 R. D. Roberts, J. Brightling

The intent of the new external technique is not to

replace the internal “LOTIS” technique; however it
is intended to bridge the gap between internal
inspection frequencies, which can only be carried out
during catalyst change-outs.

CONCLUSION
There are a number of variables affecting reformer
tube life dependant on many operating factors,
design factors, and the degree of control on tube
manufacture.
The LOTIS technology provides highly accurate tube
condition measurement allowing tube lives to be
confidently determined and the tube’s life extended
beyond their nominal design life. LOTIS data
combined with the unique visualization software
validate phenomena within furnaces.
The reformer tube management program now
encompasses both internal and external inspection
capabilities. A client now has the ability of applying
either the internal or external technique, depending
upon the presence of catalyst. FIG. 21: EXTERNAL LOTIS CRAWLER

References
1. Brightling, J.: “Managing steam reformer tubes”. Nitrogen & Methanol 256 (Mar-Apr 2002).
2. Roberts, R; Tait, P.: “Laser profilometry applied to catalyst tubes in reformers”. 44th AIChE Ammonia
Safety Meeting, Seattle (1999).
3. Farnell, P. W.: “The tunnel port effect: validation by Monte-Carlo simulation” IMTOF (1999).
4. Davies, M.; Fisher, B.; Cotton, W.: “Advanced modelling tools for primary reformers”. 9th AIChE
Ammonia Safety Symposium, 2004, Denver, Colorado
5. Cotton, W: “Flue gas flow recirculation patterns in top fired reformers”. IMTOF (1999).
6. Foster, C; Cotton W: “REFORM – The worlds leading reformer simulation program”. Johnson Matthey
Catalysts (2003).
7. Brightling, J; & Cotton, W.: “Reducing stress & increasing throughput of reformer by good tube design,
49th AIChE Ammonia Safety Meeting, Denver (2004).
8. Cromarty, B. J.; Beedle, S. C.: “Tube wall temperature measurement in steam reformers”. AIChE
Ammonia Safety Meeting, San Antonio (1992).

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