Project Objective

When the use of chromate corrosion inhibitors was banned in the early 1980s, industrial cooling water systems faced new challenges: scaling, fouling, and deposit-driven corrosion. By the early 1990s, a Gulf Coast refinery turned to thin film tube ID coatings as a value-added solution for its replacement carbon steel cooling water exchangers.

The coatings created two key benefits:

  • Improved scale release during operation
  • A durable barrier against deposit and MIC corrosion

Since that first application, the refinery has coated more than 200 exchangers across the site. Nearly 15 years later, performance data confirmed significant long-term reliability and cost savings.

Project Summary

The refinery, a large integrated complex with multiple cooling towers, identified specific “bad actor” exchangers for coating. These included:

  • Bundles suffering from excessive fouling that impacted unit duty
  • Carbon steel exchangers operating at high inlet temperatures with short service lives
  • Units with deposit corrosion and MIC, leading to frequent tube leaks

Uncoated exchangers required monthly maintenance and repair, with tube cleaning and leak repairs costing about $5,000 per bundle per event, not including lost production.

Over a decade of installing coated in-kind replacements, the refinery achieved widespread improvements. Today, nearly 25% of the refinery’s cooling water exchangers are coated, with major benefits in reliability and operating efficiency.

Proven Results

The refinery’s reliability team measured the following improvements across coated exchangers:

  • 6X increase in mean time between tube leaks
    • From an average of 6.5 leakers per month (uncoated) to virtually none
  • 15+ years of leak-free service
    • Compared to 2.5 years for uncoated “bad actor” bundles
  • 3X longer run lengths between maintenance
    • Minimizing downtime and extending operating life

Case Highlights

Overhead Cooler – High Temperature Reliability

  • Operating at 390°F shell-side inlet temperatures, this exchanger required cleaning every six months.
  • Annual O&M costs averaged $190,000.
  • A coated replacement recovered its installation cost in just two months.
  • After 10 years in service, only minimal cleaning of cooling tower debris at the tubesheet was needed.

Hydrocarbon Condensers – Eliminating Outages

  • Cat Cracker condensers previously required 10 outages per year for tube cleaning and leak repair.
  • Frequent fouling caused unit cutbacks and reduced throughput.
  • Coated in-kind replacements ran 10 years without leaks or tube cleaning.
  • The investment paid back in just one year.

Conclusion: $2 Million in Annual Savings

When comparing coated exchangers to historical maintenance data, the refinery identified:

  • Nearly 200 fewer cleaning and repair events per year
  • $2 million in annual savings from reduced O&M costs and avoided production losses

For this refinery, thin film tube ID coatings transformed chronic “bad actor” exchangers into long-term performers. After more than 15 years of proven service, coatings remain a sitewide reliability strategy—protecting critical assets, reducing downtime, and delivering measurable financial impact.