Expansion Joints for Continuous Catalyst Regeneration

A Senior Flexonics Pathway Specialty

The continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) process that is licensed by UOP has been sold around the world. This octane improvement process requires the use of expansion joints to protect rotating equipment and vessels from thermal growth of ducting that contains a chlorine rich gas stream at temperatures up to 1,000 degrees F. Since chlorides can be very detrimental to austenitic stainless steel, the ducting and expansion joints are generally made from high nickel alloys such as alloy 800 or alloy 600.

The welding of these materials requires great care. The proper design of the expansion joint hardware also requires an understanding of how to minimize thermal stress between the hardware and the pipe to avoid cracks in the pipe wall at the hardware connection points during operation.

Senior Flexonics Pathway’s engineering manager comments, “We know what it takes to construct CCR expansion joints. Our designs have been optimized through our experience in building more than a dozen CCR ship sets over the last several years”.

For more information about Senior Flexonics Pathway custom designs for FCC expansion joints, contact: Senior Flexonics Pathway.