The Armour brand ceramic packing is a sub-brand of Standard Ceramic. Armour Packing aims to create structured packings with exceptional resistance to extreme chemical corrosion at temperature up to 1000℃.
The Armour Silicon Carbide (SiC) ceramic is world's first full Silicon Carbide ceramic structured packing with wire mesh format, and therefore bearing similar performance as the stainless steel wire mesh packing.
Technical Specifications
Physical
Density: 3.1–3.2 g/cm³
Hardness: 9–9.5 (Mohs scale)
Thermal
Thermal conductivity: 47 W/(m · K)
Melting point: 2,700°C
Thermal expansion: 4.0–5.0 × 10⁻⁶/K
Chemical
Corrosion Resistance:
SiC is highly resistant to chemical attack, particularly in acidic or alkaline environments, making it suitable for harsh environments.
Oxidation Resistance:
While SiC is highly resistant to oxidation at lower temperatures, it can oxidize at elevated temperatures, especially above 1,000°C, forming a protective SiO₂ layer.
Chemical Stability:
It remains stable under many aggressive conditions, including exposure to various gases, molten metals, and corrosive liquids.
Mechanical
Compressive strength: 60 MPa
Young’s modulus: 380 GPa
Fracture toughness: 3-5 MPa · m1/2
Applications
Medium Summary
and common issues with traditional packing
Case Study 1
Atmospheric and vacuum distillation tower
Naphthenic acid medium
The acid value of crude oil is not directly linked to the naphthenic acid content because the chemical structure of naphthenic acid in different crude oils is often different, as a result they also come with different corrosivity. It is generally believed that when the acid value is greater than 0.5 mg · KOH / g, the crude oil can be very corrosive to most metals.
The corrosion of oil refining equipment caused by high acid value oil has now become a major concern of oil refineries. Among them, the high acid value crude oil represented by Russian, Middle East and Northern China oil has shown particularly high corrosive abilitity on tower internals such as column packing.
Case Study 2
Terephthalic acid (PTA) production
Solvent dehydration system towers
Acetic acid generally does not corrode the stainless steel packings. However, as the bromine ion concentration in the acetic acid solution increases, the corrosion rate of tower packings starts to accelerate.
During the production of PTA, bromide is added to tetrabromoethane according to the production process and is present in the material. When the concentration of acetic acid is increased to 85% -95%, it becomes more corrosive, and the temperature also plays a role in accelerating the corrosion.
As a negtive active ion, Bromine can stick on the surface of stainless steel and destroy the protective passive film, and forms pitting corrosions. Then Bromine ions are further concentrated in the pit, which results in deeper pitting corrosion.