Fired Heaters Inspection & Maintenance Training Course

Course Overview

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the design, operation, and critical role of fired heaters in process plants and the consequences of fired heater failures on Day 1.
• Identify fired heater types and components, including radiant and convection sections, coils, return bends, supports, refractory, burners, stacks, dampers, and air preheaters.
• Apply widely used API recommended practices and standards for fired heater design, tube thickness calculation, inspection, burners, and protective systems.
• Analyze fired heater damage mechanisms, including creep, coking, carburization, oxidation, sulfidation, metal dusting, thermal fatigue, flame impingement, overheating, and dew point corrosion.
• Apply online inspection and monitoring techniques, including infrared thermography, tube skin temperature monitoring, flame and firebox observation, and draft and excess oxygen monitoring.
• Apply offline inspection techniques, including visual inspection, ultrasonic thickness measurement, diameter and creep strain measurement, intelligent pigging, hardness testing, and metallurgical replication.
• Assess tube remaining life and apply fitness-for-service principles to fired heater components.
• Develop risk-based inspection plans and integrity operating windows for fired heaters.
• Plan and execute maintenance activities, including decoking, tube and fitting repair and replacement, refractory repair, and burner maintenance and tuning.
• Optimize combustion, draft, and excess air to improve efficiency, reduce emissions, and protect heater integrity.
• Apply burner management system requirements and safe purge, light-off, and shutdown practices to prevent explosions and fires.
• Plan fired heater turnarounds and develop an inspection and maintenance improvement plan by the end of Day 5.

Who Should Attend

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
• Explain how fired heaters work and why they are high-risk equipment.
• Identify the main components of fired heaters and their functions.
• Apply relevant API practices and standards to fired heater integrity.
• Recognize fired heater damage mechanisms and their operating causes.
• Use online monitoring to detect overheating and abnormal conditions early.
• Select appropriate offline inspection techniques during shutdowns.
• Estimate remaining tube life and assess fitness for service.
• Develop risk-based inspection plans and integrity operating windows.
• Plan and supervise decoking, tube, refractory, and burner maintenance.
• Improve combustion efficiency while protecting heater integrity.
• Apply safe light-off and shutdown practices.
• Plan effective fired heater turnarounds.

Course Outline