During the past several years Whiting Refinery has experienced three unusual corrosion failures in hydrotreater units. The first failure occurred in a furnace-to-reactor line in an old distillate desulfurization unit. This failure was caused by localized high temperature sulfidic corrosion in an unexpected location. Another failure occurred in an air cooler outlet nozzle in a unit which desulfurizes feed to catalytic cracking units. This failure was an example of ammonium bisulfide corrosion that was enhanced by unusual operating conditions. The third failure occurred in a product stripper vessel on a unit that desulfurizes diesel. This failure was by deposit formation beneath the top tray of a tower. This paper reviews the circumstances which led to these failures and highlights the lessons
learned from each failure.