What looks like maintenance is often a material problem
Instead of continuing to manage recurring tube failures as routine maintenance, why not address the root cause? This is why refineries operating in highly corrosive environments are re-evaluating their material choices and turning to solutions like Sanicro® 35 to improve reliability and reduce lifecycle cost. Instead of a generic calculation, you can now evaluate your own costs together with an Alleima expert, free of charge, of course.
→ Contact a sales representative
In refinery heat exchangers, exposure to chlorides, acids and elevated temperatures drives localized corrosion such as pitting, crevice corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. When the material is not suited to these conditions, degradation continues until failure occurs.
Tube failures are often treated as part of normal operation – something to repair, document and move past. The unit is restarted, production continues, and the issue is considered resolved.
The less visible is where the cost accumulates
But when failures start to repeat, they are rarely random. More often, they indicate a mismatch between the material and the environment in which it operates.
Material decisions are often based on upfront price. In practice, most of the cost arises after installation – through downtime, maintenance interventions, repeated replacements and reduced efficiency. Over time, this often exceeds the initial material investment.
Evaluate material performance over time
A more effective approach is to evaluate material performance over time.
Sanicro® 35 is developed for highly corrosive refinery environments. It combines strong resistance to localized corrosion with the mechanical strength required for demanding applications, enabling more stable operation and reducing the need for repeated intervention.
The impact becomes clear in practice. In one refinery hydrogen cooler, 16 tube failures occurred within two years, each resulting in downtime and operational risk. After upgrading the material, the unit has operated without failures for almost three years. What was previously treated as routine maintenance was resolved at the root cause level.
Evaluate the impact in your own operation
The total cost of ownership depends on your specific process conditions and how failures develop over time.
An Alleima expert can help you evaluate how your current solution performs, and how alternative material choices could affect lifecycle cost, reliability and long-term operation. Let us go through the numbers together, to check, no strings attached.
Contact a sales representative through the form below to discuss your total cost of ownership: