Refinery sitewide PMI program in California, USA.
During the site’s Positive Material Identification program, calcium silicate was found wet and badly degraded — 50% too damaged to reuse. Pyrogel® XTE replaced it for its hydrophobicity, CUI mitigation, and crucial post-inspection reusability.
PMI-driven insulation removal revealed widespread cal-sil damage.
Wet or dry, the cal-sil came off broken — and the mineral wool below it stuck to the pipe.
- Sitewide PMI exercise. Piping, solvent deasphalter, catalytic cracker all in scope.
- 50% of cal-sil too damaged to reuse. Wet and dry sections both unsalvageable.
- Mineral wool stuck to pipes. Below the cal-sil, the underlying system had failed too.
Pyrogel® XTE replaces cal-sil and survives future inspections.
Hydrophobicity addressed the moisture-driven failure mode; reusability addressed the recurring PMI workflow.
- Hydrophobic and mitigates CUI. Two of the most important reasons for the spec change.
- Hot spots disappeared post-install. Surface-temperature mapping confirmed performance.
- Reusable after PMI removal. Pyrogel® comes off intact and goes back on — cal-sil could not.
- Single material across the site. Piping, SDA, and Taylor cat cracker all switched.
Wet & degraded, or dry & degraded had the same results. Calsil would break apart and mineral wool sticks to the pipes.
Site-wide replacement for both performance and PMI reuse.
Pyrogel® XTE’s reusability turned a recurring PMI removal from a sunk cost into a routine inspect-and-reinstall task. The site reported hot spots disappearing post-install and confirmed the spec change across sitewide PMI scope.
Running a sitewide PMI program?
Pyrogel® XTE is reusable across inspection cycles — Aspen can quantify the discard-cost reduction.