There are not many environments that are as challenging as the delayed coking process. Temperatures reach upward of 1000°F and coke valves have to maintain reliability while managing the abrasive and erosive coke by-product and undergoing extreme thermal cycling.
A good coker valve ensures stability, safety, and profitability throughout the delayed coking process, which means a bad coke valve can lead to disaster.
Industry wisdom says that to be safe, a coke valve has to be reliable, and to be reliable, it has to be safe. Coker valves should also require little to no maintenance between turnarounds, self-clean, and stay fully sealed even if there is a power failure.
How Bad Coker Valves Cause Problems
Fire, serious injury, and even death are all consequences of bad valves, along with the economic and productivity issues of downtime and unwanted outages. A delayed coking unit has the potential to bring the most profitable operations to a refinery, and other operations rely on it. That means valve failure can shut an entire refinery down. Here is how the domino effect of a bad valve plays out.
Coke drum isolation is incredibly important, and the coke valves involved encounter the most severe situations along with 4-way switch valves and overhead vapor valves.
When the delayed coking process relies upon cheap or badly designed valves, residue escapes into the seating or stem areas and, ultimately, valve seizure. This same action can also cause valve erosion, or jam up the valves enough to increase cycling time and reduce productivity.
Worse, if the process medium escapes, the situation can quickly turn dangerous and even lethal. When coke drums are switched, and especially during coke drum head removal, there is a higher risk of exposure to hot water, steam, coke, and toxic fumes if valves do not hold up.
It is clear that well-made valves, designed to stand up to the roughest, most severe conditions, are vital to the delayed coking process.
The Benefits Of Everlasting Coker Valves
Our valves are a favorite in the petroleum refining industry for the delayed coking process and other severe service conditions. It does not matter how hot, abrasive, corrosive, or challenging things get — Everlasting Valve products handle it all every day, meeting every condition for decades. In an industry where most valves are cycled often and replaced on a regular basis, these unstoppable coke valves are a valuable asset.
Our Everlasting valves are in use at oil refineries around the world, being put through their paces without letting anyone down. Refineries who switched to our coke valves are seeing better production, reduced maintenance requirements, and an overall boost to the bottom line. How can one valve do so much? The answer is simple.
When we say that our valves are unstoppable and everlasting, that’s an accurate description. Unlike weaker valves that leak, seize, or fail in the face of delayed coker process challenges, these valves are built to perform better and better in the worst conditions.
Our metal seated valves are open bodied, with a self-lapping design and a rotating disc. Any particulate or process material moves freely around the open body, ensuring there is no accumulation that can jam or damage the valve. If anything does manage to stick, the rotating disc mechanism shears it all away evenly and consistently. This action also works to polish sealing surfaces, ensuring even wear and a tighter seal every time the disc rotates. The more you use our coker valve, the better it gets.
Everlasting Valve Company products fit into every part of the delayed coking process, replacing other process valves. Our highly experienced, skilled engineering team is also available to visit your plant and find out your specific valve needs if something custom-built would best suit your purposes. We are confident that our valves have a place in your refinery, much like they have a place in other major refineries.
Investing in our valves means your company is putting safety, productivity, and reliability first. It’s true, our valves really are an investment, and will take more out of your budget than cheaper valves. But when you look at the overall value of our valves compared to those cheap valves that fail regularly and cause expensive problems in your plant. Our valves, on the other hand, will last for decades without requiring maintenance or replacement, nor introducing other costs of shutdowns, overtime, or lost production.
Everlasting Valve Company will transform your delayed coking process for the better. For a quote, to get more information, or to learn more about our products, we invite you to get in touch with us. Call us at 908.769.0700, email info@everlastingvalveusa.com, or send us a request for quote form online.