Refractories for the Chemical Industries

383 Pages·2020·20.021 MB·English

by  Prasunjit Sengupta

Prasunjit Sengupta
Refractories
for the Chemical
Industries
Refractories for the Chemical Industries
Prasunjit Sengupta
Refractories for the Chemical
Industries
Prasunjit Sengupta
Technical Director
SKG Refractories, Ltd.
Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
ISBN 978-3-030-61239-9 ISBN 978-3-030-61240-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61240-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Dedicated to my teachers who always
inspired, guided, and blessed me
Preface
I cherished the desire to write a book on this subject for long because no such book
is really available in English. The COVID-19 pandemic made it easier for me
because of the nationwide lockdown when we had to confine ourselves at home and
ample time was available to write this book.
It is needless to explain the importance of chemical industries in the modern
world. Can we think of a world without petrochemicals, fertilizers, pharmaceuti-
cals, different organic chemicals, cement, glass, detergent, and hundreds of other
chemicals? Almost all the industries mentioned involve high-temperature operation
at some stage or another. In fact, metallurgical process, for example, smelting of
iron in a blast furnace, is a chemical process and basically the blast furnace is noth-
ing but a high-temperature reactor where iron oxide is reduced to metallic iron in the
presence of carbon. Most of the metallurgical processes are, in reality, high-
temperature chemical processes. Those processes are not considered here because
they come under the domain of metallurgists. For controlling the high temperature,
refractories are an absolute necessity and one of the most important materials for the
construction of high-temperature reactors. Here it needs to be clarified that in chem-
ical industries, furnaces or kilns are used to carry out certain chemical reactions
only, for example, cement rotary kiln or glass tank furnace, and can be called reac-
tors as well.
Chemical industries, including cement and glass industries, consume more than
15% of the refractories produced. They consume all types of refractories and some
very high-end refractory products. Although refractory consumption per ton of fin-
ished products is low and the cost involved may be insignificant, the fact remains
that the high-temperature chemical processes cannot run without it and the refrac-
tory breakdown in such a plant is very expensive because of production loss, and it
requires quite a few days to replace the refractory lining and to restart the unit.
It is a pity that the refractory as a subject has never been taught in chemical engi-
neering curriculum. This book is written, firstly, with an aim to make the chemical
engineering students aware of the importance of refractory material as a material of
construction for designing and operating high-temperature reactors. This book will
provide them an idea about refractory raw materials and products, their properties
vii
viii Preface
and characteristics, manufacturing process outline, process of selection, and the
method of installation and maintenance.
Very scanty information is available in some journals and magazines about the
design, selection, application, and performance of refractories in chemical indus-
tries. For petrochemical industries, manuals and guidelines for refractory installa-
tion are available from API (American Petroleum Institute); however, no such
documents are available for other chemical industries. A second thought behind
writing this book was to compile information on the existing refractory practices in
different chemical industries.
This book is designed for chemical engineering students, who are going to run
chemical industries in the future. Chemical industries are of numerous types, and
they demand refractories with different thermo-chemical and thermo-mechanical
properties, depending on the chemical and physical process to be carried out in the
reactor or furnace. Wide variety of high-temperature chemical industries have been
selected including both organic and inorganic chemical, process industries. In oper-
ating under oxidizing and reducing environment, industries with solid feed, and
gaseous feed with solid and gaseous products and processes working under high
pressure, hydrogen and acidic gas atmosphere etc. for discussion, in this book.
Three inorganic chemical industries are chosen, namely Limestone calcination,
Portland cement manufacturing, and Glass manufacturing. The two organic chemi-
cal industries chosen are synthetic gas manufacturing and coal gasification, both are
very important for clean energy and for synthesizing heavy chemicals such as meth-
anol, Fischer-Tropsch liquid, and ammonia. Petroleum refinery is a complex inte-
gration of many different units, and out of that, process heaters, fluidized catalytic
cracking unit (FCCU), and sulfur recovery unit are chosen, which operate at high
temperature. Carbon black industry is a downstream industry of petroleum refinery
and is chosen as it is a heavy industrial chemical, and the reactors used operate at
very high temperatures. Steam is an important ingredient for many chemical pro-
cesses. Boiler is used to generate steam, and waste heat boilers are also used widely
today to utilize the waste heat energy from the industry, which saves the environ-
ment and improves the economic viability of the industry. A chapter of Refractories
is dedicated to discuss the operating condition, refractory selection, and require-
ment for boilers. There is a myth that refractory performance depends on refractory
quality only, but this is not true. The last chapter has discussed in detail the factors
that are responsible for refractory performance. It is shown that it depends more on
other factors besides quality. The influence of installation quality on the ultimate
performance of the refractory lining is addressed in detail. The steel components
used along with refractory undergo sigma transformation and are attacked by hydro-
gen gas at high temperature with the effect of reduction in its mechanical strength
and ultimately failure of refractories, which is discussed. The chapters dedicated to
address refractories for different industries mentioned are placed at random with no
specific sequence.
This book will be very helpful to process engineers working in chemical indus-
tries who use refractory in a routine way without knowing much about the reason
why a particular refractory is used for certain application. The important process
Preface ix
parameters of individual industries, mentioned earlier, are described. This will help
them to analyze and understand the process of selection of the refractory for a par-
ticular application. Monitoring refractory lining is a very important part of the
refractory management to avoid any untoward incident in the plant, and this book
has addressed that issue. The different techniques of monitoring the lining and its
maintenance, both in running furnace and after taking shutdown, are discussed. The
use of suitable insulation is very important to the economic viability of the process
and here the properties and characters of different insulation material are explained.
This book will help refractory product development engineers and refractory
marketing engineers to know about the operational parameters of respective chemi-
cal process industries which are absolutely necessary to develop or recommend a
product for certain application.
I do hope that this endeavor to make chemical engineers understand the impor-
tance of refractories in designing and maintaining the lining of reactors or furnaces
will be successful. The reader of this book will definitely benefit from the contents
of the book and will be able to form a concept about the different aspects and per-
spectives of the refractory lining requirements of reactors or furnaces.
I am indebted to many individuals who supported me to write this book, and it is
impossible to thank every individual who helped me make this attempt successful.
Nevertheless, some of them deserve special attention for their valuable help ren-
dered in its preparation. The illustrations and figures in this book are prepared by
Mr. S. Banerjee, to whom I am grateful. I could not have written this book without
the support of my life companion Mrs. Shyamali Sengupta. Mr. Debarpan Sengupta
and Mrs. Madhurima Mukherjee provided valuable editorial suggestions. Special
gratitude must go to Mrs. Bhadra Sengupta for her continuous inspiration. I am also
thankful to the management of SKG Refractories Ltd for providing me many inputs.
Nagpur, Maharashtra, India Prasunjit Sengupta
Contents
1 Refractory: Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Refractory Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Refractory Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2 Classification of Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1 Classification of Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2 Basis of Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2.1 By Basicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2.2 By Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.2.3 Insulating Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.2.4 Special Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3 Manufacturing and Properties of Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2 Shaped Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.1 Silica Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.2 Aluminosilicate Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.2.3 Basic Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.2.4 Fused Cast Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.3 Unshaped Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.3.1 Castables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.3.2 Phosphate-Bonded Castable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.3.3 Ramming Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.3.4 Plastic Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.3.5 Mortars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.4 Insulation Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.4.1 Insulation Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.4.2 Calcium Silicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.4.3 Insulating Castables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.4.4 Ceramic Fiber Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
xi
xii Contents
3.4.5 Microporous Insulation Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4 Design, Installation, and Maintenance of Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.2 Refractory Selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.3 Shaped Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.3.1 Features of Lining with Shaped Refractories. . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.4 Installation of Shaped Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.4.1 Basic Rules of Refractory Lining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.4.2 Vertical Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.4.3 Expansion Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.4.4 Roof design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.5 Installation of Monolithic Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.5.1 Conventional Castables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.5.2 Low Cement/Ultralow Cement/No Cement Castables . . . . 98
4.5.3 Shotcreting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.5.4 Gunning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.5.5 Pumping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.5.6 Monitoring and Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.5.7 Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.5.8 Choice of Installation Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.5.9 Anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.5.10 Anchor Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.6 Drying and Preheating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.6.1 Preheating of Refractories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.6.2 Preheating of Castable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.7 Pressurization and depressurization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.8 Carbonation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
4.9 Insulation Refractory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.9.1 Installation of Ceramic Fiber Lining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
4.10 FEA (Finite Element Analysis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
4.11 Refractory Lining Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5 Refractories for Lime Calcination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.2 Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.3 Vertical Shaft Kilns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.3.1 Single Shaft Kiln . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.3.2 Twin Shaft Kiln . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.3.3 Refractory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.4 Rotary Kiln . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.4.1 Refractory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.4.2 Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146