The on-stream time of cracking furnaces is limited by the
formation of coke on the internal skin
of the reactor tubes. Rigorous simulations of an ethane cracking
furnace, coupling reactor and
furnace models with the kinetics of coke formation, prove that the run
length of the furnace can
be augmented by more than 40% by replacing the cracking tubes of
circular cross section by
cracking tubes of elliptical cross section. The increase of
furnace heat-transfer efficiency and
the more uniform circumferential heat fluxes and temperatures favor the
run length of the
furnace with tubes of elliptical cross section.
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