Cost+Associated+With+Fouling

**__ Cost Associated With Fouling __**
==== Since fouling is the inescapable consequence of heat transfer and would greatly influence the productivity and efficiency of crude oil heat exchangers, it is necessary to conduct regular fouling control in every heat exchanger, and the cost associated with fouling is tremendous.The total cost associated with fouling could be broken down to several categories: ====
 * ==== Capital expenditure, which is the cost for equipment design (i.e. taking fouling factors into account, the design should include excess surface area, stronger foundation, etc), transportation cost and installation costs. ====
 * ==== Extra fuel cost, which is unavoidable once fouling occurs. Fouling would lead to the increase usage of fuel burning the furnaces or boilers, and also secondary energy usage such as electricity or steam. ====
 * ==== Additional production losses during planned and unplanned plant shutdowns due to fouling. The process plant has to shut down frequently for regular maintenance; however, once fouling occurs unexpectedly, the system has to shut down in order to prevent damage due to fouling. ====
 * Cleaning cost is estimated to be 40000 to 50000 USD per heat exchanger annually.

[[image:cost_of_fouling.jpg caption="Figure15: Cost of Fouling"]]
Fouling is creating a big amount of operational losses which takes about 0.25% of in industrialized nations’ GDP. Cost associated with cruid oil fouling are approximatly estimated to be 4.5 billion worldwide. To effectively reduce the cost of fouling, we need to apply fouling control to minimize the total cost of fouling by decrease the rate of unwanted fouling accumulations. (see fouling controls) Typically operational cost losses in heat exchangers · Impaired heat transfer · Reduced flow · Corrosion damage · Increased pressure drop · Flow instabilities and blockages · Induced vibration · Loss of throughput · Use of costly chemical additives · Cleaning and disposing of toxic wastes