Our Products #4950854

Safe flow confirmation in Sulfur Recovery Unit rundown lines



For many years, refineries and gas plants have employed methods for viewing liquid sulfur flow through their rundown lines, including look boxes and various sight glass devices. Standard look box designs require the operator to open a hatch door to view the liquid sulfur running through the piping. This activity potentially exposes the operator to H2S vapor andor liquid sulfur spray. To limit operator exposure risks, many attempts at closed sulfur viewing devices using sight glass ports have been introduced. The common issue with those devices, however, is fogging of the sight glass which hinders visibility of the liquid sulfur flow.

Addressing issues with current technology, CSI has partnered with oil and gas industry leaders to develop a safe, reliable sulfur flow indication device. CSIs patent-pending SxView design ensures consistent, safe visual confirmation of liquid sulfur flow. Moreover, the SxView is backed by CSIs engineering expertise, expansive production capacity, and exemplary customer service. As such, CSIs SxView delivers the technical and commercial value youve come to expect from CSI for over 50 years.

The benefits of the SxView include:

Safe, visual confirmation of liquid sulfur flow
No sight glass fogging or solid sulfur freezing
Easy to install
Rod-out capability
Easy to maintain

For many years, refineries and gas plants have employed below-ground seal legs to prevent process vapor from entering the sulfur pit or collection vessel. While seal legs perform this function well, they are prone to water intrusion and mechanical plugging, which results in costly repairs and unplanned SRU downtime. To address issues with current technology, CSI has partnered with oil and gas industry leaders to develop an above-ground sulfur seal solution: the SxSeal 1000. CSIs patent-pending SxSeal 1000 design ensures reliable sealing performance while enabling continuous SRU operation. Moreover, the SxSeal 1000 is backed by CSIs engineering expertise, expansive production capacity, and exemplary customer service. As such, CSIs SxSeal 1000 delivers the technical and commercial value youve come to expect from CSI for over 50 years.

Over the past 40 years, we have been engineering, designing, and building steam tracing systems to heat piping, tanks, vessels, valves, pumps, and instruments. Our experience with steam tracing systems and specialty fabrication has led to recognized expertise in heat transfer, fluid flow, piping design, and the ASME Codes. Based on your thermal needs (thermal maintenance, freeze protection, or heat-upcool-down), we determine the right system for your steam tracing application, whether that be a weld-on or bolt-on jacketing solution. We offer the following products to solve your steam tracing needs:

Over the past 40 years, we have been engineering, designing, and building systems to heat (and cool) piping, tanks, vessels, valves, pumps, and instruments. Our experience with heated piping systems and specialty fabrication has led to recognized expertise in heat transfer, fluid flow, piping design, and the ASME Codes. Based on your thermal needs (thermal maintenance, freeze protection, or heat-upcool-down), we determine the right system for your application, whether that be a weld-on or bolt-on jacketing solution. We offer the following heated piping system products:

Since 1980, ControTrace bolt-on heating elements have offered significant economic advantage over fully jacketed piping while providing substantially more heating capacity and reliability than steam tracing. ControTrace also prevents cross-contamination between the heating medium and the process. For these reasons, ControTrace has grown to be the preferred solution for many heated piping applications. Today, over five hundred miles of ControTrace are in service in plants and refineries on every continent.

The basic configuration of a ControTrace element is a 2-in. by 1-in. rectangular tube formed of SA178 Grade A boiler tubing. One of the 2-in. sides is contoured to closely fit the outside diameter of the pipe or vessel onto which it will be placed. The standard wall thickness is 18 in., which gives ControTrace ample robustness and pressure-containing capability. Individual elements are fabricated to specific lengths. The ends of the tubing are closed, and inlet and outlet connections are added to enable heating medium transfer. When multiple elements are required, these are most often joined together in a panel configuration to minimize the number of inletoutlet connections. ControTrace is secured to the pipe or vessel with high-strength banding. Before banding, a thin layer of heat transfer compound is spread onto the ControTrace surface that will be in contact with the pipe or vessel.

During operation, the heating medium (typically steam or hot oil) flows through the ControTrace and transfers its heat through the heat transfer compound and into the pipevessel wall and into the process. The number of ControTrace elements required depends upon the design objective and the design conditions. Most ControTrace applications are designed to maintain a process temperature (to keep liquid flowing) or a minimum pipevessel wall temperature (to prevent vapor condensation). CSI utilizes finite-difference computer modeling to predict temperature profiles and heat transfer rates based upon process, ambient, piping, and insulation conditions. The computer model has been corroborated time and again with empirical field data.

The engineering of ControTrace bolt-on jacketing and panels is based on design details which have been burst tested in accordance with the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section VIII, Division 1. All welding is performed per Section IX. Each piece of ControTrace is pressure-tested per Section VIII. The standard pressure rating for ControTrace is 150 psig at 400F, but higher ratings are available if required.

Most process instrumentation is sensitive to temperature; not only must the instrument or meter be kept at a constant temperature for successful operation, but temperature uniformity can also be critical to instrument performance. ControHeat jackets are perfect for these applications, particularly since their unusual geometry can make heating via weld-on jacketing and tube tracing almost impossible.

Heat Transfer Compound, often referred to as heat transfer mastic, is a compound used to enhance the thermal performance of bolt-on heating products. The compound is applied to the bolt-on jacket at time of installation. Heat transfer compound consists of graphite and one or more binder components which are formulated for different applications. Graphite is a good heat conductor with half the thermal conductivity of aluminum and more than 100 times the conductivity of air.

For ControTrace heating elements and panels, CSI recommends its Grade-B ControTrace Thermal Compound. Grade-B is a non-hardening compound composed of a high-temperature petroleum derivative and graphite. Its maximum service temperature is 400F. At room temperatures, Grade-B has the consistency of heavy grease. Its workability decreases with decreasing ambient temperature, becoming very stiff near freezing temperatures. Grade-B is not soluble in water. It will dissolve in light mineral oils. It has an unlimited shelf life and is provided in one-gallon containers.

Since 1976, CSI has been a preferred provider of jacketed piping due to our designfabrication expertise, excellent quality, and in-depth understanding of heat transfer. Today, we are the largest provider of jacketed piping on the USAs East Coast, have strategic alliance agreements with several Fortune-500 companies, and have provided jacketed piping to customers as far away as China.

Jacketed piping features a core pipe which is completely surrounded by a jacket pipe. Process flows through the core pipe, while a heating medium (or cooling medium) flows in the annular space between the core and jacket pipes. We have experience in all of the four basic types of jacketed piping:

Specialty fabrication has been at the core of our business since we began producing jacketed piping in 1976. Unlike process (unjacketed) piping, jacketed piping presents a maze of potential problems that requires special knowledge and skill to navigate successfully. Most fabricators and contractors are ill equipped to resolve Code conflicts with design criteria, thermal stresses, heating medium routing and stresses, rigorous testing procedures, and complete documentation. Our vast experience with jacketed piping and various metals has enabled us to produce a wide range of specialty products, including:

ASME Code stamped pressure vessels
Precision manifolds
Single-pass stacked heat exchangers
Degassing columns
Modular equipment skids
Sulfur seal legs
SxSeal 1000 Sulfur Trap
SxSeal 2000 Sulfur Trap
Sulfur look boxes


Complex polymer manifolds are a good example of the type of specialty products we are capable of producing. During operation, polymer manifolds are subject to high pressures and high temperatures. They also go through regular "burn-out" maintenance cycles. These are tough conditions for equipment that should last for 20 years. Furthermore, all dimensions must be maintained within 132! This is a tall order, particularly considering the heavy wall thicknesses often required for these processes can lead to significant weld distortion. Through the use of precisely aligned fixtures and expert craftsmen, we ensure the high quality of workmanship for polymer manifolds. In fact, our reputation for high quality has led to our being an alliance supplier for several worldwide companies.