Cracking Furnace/Heater’s Burners Control Narrative

Cracking Furnace/Heater’s Burners – Firing Control

COT1 COT2 COT3
Firing control is achieved by the following controls:
• Optimizing the operating condition by maintaining the furnace Coil
Outlet Temperature (COT), because COT over-firing leads to increase
in coking rate and the frequency of decoking hence loss of revenue.
COT controller is used to control this loss.
• The Burners’ Firing Duty Control which is achieved by multiplying
measured volumetric gas flow with measured Wobbe Index. This
compensation takes into account both changes in molecular weight
and heating value in the fuel gas for both the burners. This calculated
input is given to the Burner’s Firing Duty Controller. The output of the
COT controller is used to reset the Primary/Secondary Burner Firing
Duty Controller’s setpoint.

Burner Firing Duty Calculation = Wobbe Index* x measured volumetric

gas flow

* Wobbe Index = Heating Value x Specific density

Cracking Furnace/Heater’s Burners – Firing Control (Contd..)
COT1 COT2 COT3
• The gas heating value which is the major measurement needed for
Firing Duty Control for efficient Fuel Gas Firing Control.
• The Heating Value determines how much gas is needed to maintain
the required furnace temperature and hence to maintain minimum
COT and combustion excess air fluctuations during fuel composition
swings.

The heating value is essential to tell the Heater Duty Controller how much
fuel gas is necessary to maintain the required heat input. There are
several technologies such as Thermal conductivity, gas chromatography
and Wobbe index Analyzers available today to provide heating value of
the gas.

Wobbe index is calculated from heating value and specific density of the
flue gas, according to ISO EN 6976-2005.
Cracking Furnace/Heater’s Burners – Heater Duty Controller

The Fuel Gas flow measurement is compensated for pressure,

temperature and molecular weight. The fuel gas measurement
Wobbe Index
Analyzer is used to calculate the fuel heat rate using online Wobbe Index
Analyzer.

Cf = {(P + Po)/(Pb + Po) * (Tb + To)/(T+ To)}^0.5 (Metric)

Where,
• Cf= Compensating Factor
• Design Press = P
• Design temperature = T
• Reference Pressure = Pb (42.67 PSI-g)
• Reference Temperature = Tb (100Deg F )
• Absolute Temperature = To (273.15 Deg Farenheit)
Cracking Furnace/Heater’s Burners – Low Pressure Override scenario

In Low Fuel Gas Pressure Scenario, Burner Fuel Gas Pressure Controller
overrides Heating Duty Controller, opening the valve to allow minimum
firing rate of the burners.

Pressure Controllers are designed to provide Low Pressure Override

during normal operation and to prevent automatic controls from lowering
the fuel pressure below the burner low pressure trip setpoint.

Additionally, this pressure controller has been furnished with Burner Firing
Control during heater start-up and decoke, when the fuel flow rates are
less than the minimum turn down limitations of fuel flow meter.
Schematic and Control Narrative
Displayed on the screen are the tag IDs, controller and function blocks for the P&ID for your reference.

* OVHD – Overhead Gas Vessel