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Overheating and Failure of Ore Drying Equipment

Coking and Fire in a Refinery Hydroprocessing Vessel

Failure of a Cyclone Separator in a Mining Operation

A hot-gas cyclone separator used in a mining operation overheated and failed. The separator, installed downstream of a fluidized bed furnace, was operating in a 1300°F environment. APTECH was retained by the mine's insurance company to find the root cause of the failure. A site inspection revealed that the outlet (four-foot diameter) of the separator had deformed so much that it was almost completely closed. We found that this outlet had been fabricated with carbon steel, which was unable to withstand the system's operating temperature.

Satish Almaula		Plant failure and root cause analysis; process and design engineering analysis; process technology development and testing; plant engineering, operations, maintenance and safety management; plant and process control system management.

Kimble Clark, Ph.D.		Failure analysis, heat transfer & thermodynamics, process plant equipment failures & explosions, fuel science, combustion, industrial fires and explosions.

Richard Schreiber, P.E.		Machinery and mechanical device failure analysis, mechanical testing, combustion and heat transfer, industrial fires and explosions, gas appliances.

Michael Cronin, P.E.		Stress analysis, design evaluation, engineering mechanics

Eric Sullivan, P.E.		Metallurgy, welding, failure analysis, fire and explosion investigations, equipment, piping.