In today's refinery business, there is an increasing emphasis on expanding capacity; while at the same time reducing energy consumption and maintaining a positive environmental profile. The use of compact welded plate heat exchangers (CPHEs) can enable refiners to meet or exceed their goals in this key agenda. The inherent flow properties of CPHEs make them a very efficient, compact alternative to traditional shell-and-tube heat exchangers. CPHEs make it possible to achieve increased throughput in a smaller space, while significantly increasing energy intensity and lowering heater emissions. Maintenance can also be reduced by limiting deposition fouling with a CPHE. In order to gain the maximum benefit from CPHE, the performance of our equipment needs to be integrated into the heart of the process design. Often times, a simple replacement or the use of conventional Pinch Technology falls short of successfully exploiting the gains of CPHE. Therefore, during a revamp or energy project, the CPHE needs to be laced into the process to give the maximum benefit. In a crude preheat train revamp, energy reductions of 25% or more are possible when CPHE are strategically used alongside existing S&T exchangers. This discussion will show examples of how refiners have integrated CPHE in specific unit operations and how their process energy intensity has improved as a result.

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