Transient analysis of fired heater coils to estimate safety time

Sultan Ahamad is a Senior Fired Heater Specialist at Bechtel Corp. in Houston, Texas. He has more than 20 yr of experience in the design, engineering and troubleshooting of fired heaters and combustion systems for the refining, petrochemical and LNG industries. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, India with a degree in chemical engineering. He is a member of the API subcommittee on heat transfer equipment and contributes to the development of API standards and recommended practices. He is also a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Mr. Ahamad has published and presented several papers on fired heaters and related subjects.

Mohit Thakur is a Senior Process Engineer at Bechtel Corp. He has more than 12 yr of experience in process and equipment design, engineering and dynamic simulations in the oil, gas and chemicals industries. He graduated with a thesis in chemical engineering from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

At the time of this writing, Mahmood Izadi was a Senior Packaged Equipment Specialist at Bechtel Corp. in Houston, Texas. He has more than 15 yr of experience in the oil, academia and manufacturing sectors. He earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. He has published articles on fouling mitigation in heat exchangers, power plant optimization and heat exchanger design.

Rimon Vallavanatt is the Senior Principal Engineer at Bechtel Corp. in Houston, Texas. He has more than 40 yr of experience in the design, engineering and troubleshooting of fired heaters, thermal oxidizers, boilers and flares. He graduated from the University of Kerala in India with a degree in mechanical engineering. He also received a degree in industrial engineering from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Vallavanatt is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Texas, and has served on the American Petroleum Institute’s subcommittee on heat transfer equipment for the past 30 yr.