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HydrocarbonProcessing.com | APRIL 2013
®
PETROCHEMICAL
DEVELOPMENTS
Shale gas provides a renaissance for North American
petrochemical producers and downstream chemicals
HPI FOCUS
When does it make sense to build a new unit instead of revamping an existing facility?
REFINING DEVELOPMENTS
Upgrading heavy crudes creates new hurdles to be solved with catalysts and better processing methods
The TOYO Group companies work 24/7 to engineer the right
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their vast regional knowhow and cutting-edge technologies.
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Cover Image: In 2006, Technip began construction of the Map Ta Phut Olefins facility located in Thailand. The facility uses seven of Technip’s proprietary GK6 naphtha-cracking furnaces and one SMK furnace for ethane naphtha-cracking. The olefins facility was successfully started up in March 2010.The GK6 units are the largest in operation, with an ethylene capacity of 175,000 tpy per furnace.
SPECIAL REPORT: PETROCHEMICAL DEVELOPMENTS
33
Shale energy resources driving resurgence for ethylene industry M. Eramo37
North American olefin producers riding the shale gas wave R. Klavers and M. J. Tallman43
Use model-based temperature control for fixed-bed reactors D. Weatherford and J. Ford47
High-pressure polyethylene:Reemergence as a specialty chemical or not? L. Farrell and J. Virosco
HPI FOCUS: NEW VS. REVAMP
51
New vs. debottlenecking projectsfor the hydrocarbon processing industry BONUS REPORT: REFINING DEVELOPMENTS
55 Evaluate challenges in meeting clean-fuel specifications
with heavier crudeS. Al-Zahrani, S. Roy, and E. Bright
61 Improve coker efficiency with reliable valve automation
B. Deters and R. Wolkart65 Optimize value from FCC bottoms
J. Paraskos and V. ScalcoGAS PROCESSING DEVELOPMENTS
73
Take a quicker approach to staggered blowdown M. Sufyan KhanTURBOMACHINERY DEVELOPMENTS
77
Select the right shaft-riding brushes for turbomachinery T. Sohre and H. P. BlochGLOBAL TURNAROUND AND MAINTENANCE—SUPPLEMENT
T-85
Overcome barriers to proper planning and schedulingJ. Wanichko
SAFETY/LOSS PREVENTION
99
Conceptually, accidents are a fallacy M. Sawyer DEPARTMENTS4
Industry Perspectives6
Brief9
Impact15
Innovations102
Marketplace105
Advertiser index COLUMNS23
ReliabilityFact-checking list from recent reliability conferences
25
Integration Strategies Industrial considerations for BYOD27
Boxscore Construction AnalysisEthylene in evolution: 50 years of changing markets
and economics
106
Water Management Update: Online measurement of oxidizing biocides32
4APRIL 2013 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
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Are Arctic projects safe?
Do global energy companies have sufficient safety protocols in place to deal with the challenges of Arctic projects? The answer, according to hundreds of votes cast in a recent Hydrocarbon Processing industry poll, is an old cliché: it depends.
Nearly half (48%) of readers surveyed believe practices vary enough throughout the industry that a single standard has not been adopted, making it dependent on the company in question. Another 28% said they believed the industry does have sufficient safety protocols, while 25% said it does not.
The topic became newsworthy after recent incidents involving Shell. That company, for its part, is postponing its planned summer drilling in the Arctic Ocean after a troubled 2012 drilling season marred by bad weather, mechanical failures and regulatory challenges. Shell had been widely expected to push back its contentious, multi-billion-dollar Arctic program after it announced that its rigs needed to be repaired and analysts said replacements would be hard to find.
“We’ve made progress in Alaska, but this is a long-term program that we are pursuing in a safe and measured way,” said Shell president Marvin Odum.
The Kulluk, a drilling ship owned by Shell and operated by Noble Corp., ran aground on an uninhabited island about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage on Jan. 1 after ships towing it to Seattle for the winter lost control of the rig during a storm (FIG. 1). It suffered damage to the hull and electrical systems.
The Noble Discoverer drill ship, which Shell was leasing, had an engine fire in December when it was on its way to Seward, Alaska, prompting a US Coast Guard inspection.
Investors and government officials are closely watching Shell’s Arctic plans. The company has spent nearly $5 billion on permits, personnel and equipment over the past six years to assure regulators and native Alaskans that the first drilling in the Arctic Ocean would be safe and environmentally benign.
—Additional reporting by Dow Jones Newswires
FIG. 1. Shell Kulluk drilling rig in the Arctic.
Key industry officials answer a poll question from HydrocarbonProcessing.com
IT’S SAF
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| Brief
LyondellBasell plans to expand
North American ethylene capacity
LyondellBasell will raise its ethylene capacity in North America by 18% in coming years through several debottlenecking projects. Locations where ethylene capacity will be expanded include crackers in Corpus Christi, La Porte and Channelview, Texas, according to the company. The projects are scheduled to be finished in 2014 and 2015.
Jim Gallogly, CEO of LyondellBasell, made these remarks at the company’s annual investor day in New York. He said the company aims to finish its projects two to three years earlier than industry competitors building new plants, all at a lower cost.
Mr. Gallogly said he expects ethane to stay price-advantaged in the US for at least the next five years. He noted that natural gas producers are still incentivized to produce wet gas and, as a result, LyondellBasell plans to raise its ability to crack natural gas liquids (NGLs) from 85% to 90%.
LyondellBasell also said it was “in the early stages” of evaluating a 1 million lb/year polyethylene plant in North America by 2016.
Hydrocarbon Processing | APRIL 20137 BILLY THINNES, TECHNICAL EDITOR / [email protected]
Brief
Enterprise Products plans to develop a new270-mile pipeline header system that will deliver ethane
to petrochemical plants in the US Gulf Coast region. The Aegis pipeline will originate at Enterprise’s liquids storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas, and have the capacity to transport purity ethane to multiple petrochemical facilities in Texas and Louisiana. The final design, including capacity and delivery points, will be determined at the conclusion of the project’s open commitment period. Aegis is expected to begin commercial operations in 2014.
Lanxess plans to temporarily shut down its butyl rubber plant in Belgium and its ethylene-propylene-diene
monomer (EPDM) production in Texas.
“Soft underlying demand in the second half of 2012 has continued into 2013 across most businesses, against the usual seasonal trend,” the company said in an unscheduled earnings update. “In order to counter the current soft demand, the com-pany is applying its proven flexible asset management strategy.” Lanxess said it expects demand to pick up during the year and “is strategically well positioned to benefit from the ex-pected recovery in the global economic development.”
Russia’s OAO Lukoil has agreed to sell its refinery in Odessa, Ukraine, to Vetek Group. The refinery has a
capacity of 3.9 million tpy and has been idle since the end of 2010. The decision to sell is part of a plan by Lukoil to restructure its international refining assets, the company said. The deal is expected to be closed before June 1, after both sides fulfill a variety of conditions.
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) issued a statement following the withdrawal of
its petition for waiver of the 2012 Cellulosic Biofuel Volumetric Requirements:
“We appreciate the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) prompt action to rescind the 2012 cellulosic renewable volume obligation (RVO) following a US Court of Appeals’ decision to vacate the 2012 cellulosic RVO. As a result of the EPA’s response, AFPM has withdrawn its waiver petition, since our members are no longer required to purchase credits for fuel that doesn’t exist. We believe that the EPA should re-consider proposed 2013 volumes, which suffer from the same shortcomings, and finalize a 2013 cellulosic biofuel RVO that reflects the Court’s directive to aim for accuracy.
“While EPA’s decision on the 2012 cellulosic RVO is the right one, it doesn’t alleviate the waste of resources and time spent correcting just this one example of an impracticable re-newable fuel standard (RFS). A more immediate problem with the RFS is the fast-approaching blendwall, where the EPA is mandating the consumption of ethanol in quantities that
ex-ceed the technological limitations of certain engines and refu-eling equipment. The result is a dramatic increase in the mar-ket price of ethanol renewable identification numbers (RINs), which has risen nearly 1,000% since early January. AFPM en-courages the EPA to reevaluate the amount of ethanol that will be used to meet thresholds set as part of the RFS.”
Technip will form a jointly-owned company with State Corp. Russian Technologies (Rostec) to provide
engineering, design and turnkey construction for oil refinery, petrochemical and gas chemical production projects in Russia. The joint venture agreement, aimed at improving the construction and renovation of refining and petrochemical units in Russia, was signed with Rostec subsidiary Rustechexport. The deal includes facilities required for offshore oilfield operations. The two companies are also aiming to establish a joint venture to manufacture flexible pipelines and umbilicals in Russia. These would be used in the Russian Arctic and Black Sea for use in water depths up to 3,000 meters. The agreements were signed during an official meeting between French President François Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
An international court has awarded Dow Chemical $318 million as a resolution to its dispute with Petrochemical
Industries Company of Kuwait (PIC) related to the K-Dow transaction. This is in addition to the partial award of $2.16 billion announced last May.
“Payment of these damages of nearly $2.5 billion will allow Dow to accelerate its priority uses for cash by further strength-ening our balance sheet,” said Andrew Liveris, Dow’s chair-man and chief executive officer. “Dow and Kuwait share a long history and strong partnership, and this award ruling brings suitable closure to the arbitration process. The Dow team ful-ly expects, and we are resolved to ensure, that PIC honors its contractual commitments in a timely manner.”
A survey published by OilCareers.com and partner Air Energi declares that oil-related salaries will increase
in the future. The increase is attributed to heightened safety concerns, economic instability and strong oil prices, along with the ongoing skills shortage. While economic instability currently ranks as the highest concern for those surveyed, the shortage of skilled labor in the industry is a major consideration with far-reaching consequences for safety and security within the industry. Increasingly high levels of activity currently underway have contributed to a strong candidates’ market, the authors said, though rates remain stable and the trend toward permanent hires versus contractors observed in 2012 continues. The authors said they surveyed more than 170,000 oil and gas professionals worldwide.
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Beijing, PR China, 13 - 16 May 2013Hydrocarbon Processing | APRIL 20139
Impact
BILLY THINNES, TECHNICAL EDITOR / [email protected]
Asia-Pacific natural gas
market transformation
Amid the Asia-Pacific region’s grow-ing reliance on imports, a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) identifies obstacles and opportunities for establishing a gas market that reflects sup-ply/demand fundamentals. Asia-Pacific is expected to become the world’s second-largest gas market by 2015. And yet this market is dominated by long-term con-tracts in which the price of gas is linked, or indexed, to that of oil. In recent years, this has helped keep Asian gas prices much higher than those in other parts of the world (FIG. 1), leading to serious questions
about the sustainability of the system and its effects on Asian competitiveness.
“Natural gas has the potential for im-proving energy security and yielding economic and environmental benefits in Asian-Pacific countries,” said IEA Execu-tive Director Maria van der Hoeven. “Asia is already home to the world’s fastest-growing gas market. But expanding the role of gas in Asia will depend on regional market conditions that allow the fuel to compete autonomously in local energy markets that are themselves connected to global energy markets. The future role of gas in Asia will depend considerably on
how the pricing of natural gas is tied to the fundamentals of supply and demand in the region.”
Asia-Pacific supply/demand balance. Since 1990, the natural gas market in the Asia-Pacific region has undergone re-markable growth, to about 560 Bcm in 2010. Natural gas consumption has grown by more than 350% since 1990, represent-ing an average year-on-year increase of 6% over two decades. Japanese consumption represented the mainstay of Asian natural gas demand, especially in liquefied natu-ral gas (LNG), until 2010, when China surpassed Japan as the largest natural gas market in Asia.
Since 1998, total natural gas produc-tion in Asia-Pacific has lagged behind re-gional consumption. A few countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, were net ex-porters providing LNG for import-depen-dent countries such as Korea and Japan. In 2010, natural gas production in the region fell around 93 Bcm short of consumption, a shortfall that is expected to increase to about 200 Bcm in 2017, despite a consid-erable increase in regional production.
Dependence on natural gas imports from outside the Asia-Pacific region in-creased by 12% annually throughout 2000–2010. It is expected that this import
dependency will grow by 5% annually over the period 2011–2017 (FIG. 2). The
relatively moderate increase reflects in-creasing gas production projected for Chi-na and Australia. Overall demand in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to follow global demand trends, growing at around 3% per annum to reach 875 Bcm in 2017. Key findings. Long-term contracts can play a beneficial role in providing invest-ment security, but their current pricing does not accurately reflect gas market fun-damentals or the competitiveness of gas relative to other fuels. Moreover, without a competitive spot market for natural gas, there is little incentive and little scope to change current commercial practices. This leaves both consumers and producers with insufficient room to explore different options, and limits the degree to which natural gas can serve as a flexible source of energy for both growing and mature econ-omies. Among the report’s key findings and recommendations are the following:
• Current market structures discour-age gas consumption and impact Asian competitiveness vis-à-vis more flexible markets in the US and even Europe
• OECD experience suggests that the single biggest obstacle for an effective gas market is a lack of infrastructure access
US (Henry Hub) Europe (German import) Japan (LNG import) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 $2012/MMBtu
FIG. 1. Relatively high gas prices lead to a competitive burden on Asian economies. 0 10 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Bcm
Gas consumption, Asia-Pacific Gas production, Asia-Pacific IEA 2012 forecast IEA 2012 forecast
Impact
10
• The role of governments must change: Instead of focusing on price regulation along the value chain, gov-ernments must maintain and supervise competitive market conditions
• Credible state commitment to re-gional gas market competition can instill confidence, encourage new market partic-ipants, and promote the use of transpar-ent hubs to balance producer portfolios
• Transport and commercial
activi-ties should be separated and prices de-regulated at the wholesale level
• Singapore holds the best initial prospects for gas hub development, with Japan, Korea and China as likely compet-itors in the future.
“The prospects are there, but even the prime candidates will need to do more,” said Ms. Van der Hoeven. “China’s fast-growing domestic gas network is still underdeveloped, and the entire
produc-tion chain remains heavily regulated. Singapore’s small domestic market means that, to grow as a hub, it must rely on re-exports, which are hindered by regula-tion. Last but not least, Japan has a great potential to act as a hub, but it will have to take some important steps.”
Promising forecast for the
US re-refining industry
With a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) exceeding 23% over the next five years, the future of the US re-refined basestocks market looks prom-ising, according to a recent study by Kline & Co. Given that all announcements per-taining to expansions and new capacities go as planned, it is anticipated that the re-refining industry will see a robust growth to an estimated 1,390 kilotons by 2016, suggesting a “golden decade” for many in the industry. However, this is contingent upon the successful and timely ramp-up of operational facilities.
Key drivers fueling this growth include enhanced technology and infrastructure, legislative imperatives and rising crude oil prices. The improving quality and viabil-ity of re-refined base oils, coupled with increased and more consistent collection rates due to stronger regulations enforce-ment, are helping the industry assert its largely untapped potential.
An emerging trend observed in the US re-refining industry consists of an influx of foreign re-refiners who, having identified the expanding opportunities within North America, are consequently establishing plants in the country. These include leading re-refiners from Western Europe and India.
Despite the encouraging potential, the report also identifies impediments con-cerning the otherwise strong re-refining business. These primarily include access to used oil and consumer acceptance of re-refined lubricants. To better ensure used oil access and supply, re-refiners are forming alliances or acquiring collectors and subsequently also reinforcing the general consolidation trend within the industry. The acceptance of re-refined lubricants is likely to be an incremental phenomenon assisted by more brands (especially major oil brands) entering this market, a more omnipresent avail-ability and a greater emphasis upon in-trinsic value with little or no compromise.
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How Can KBR Answer
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Impact
12
Driven by China, global
methanol demand rises
23% in two years
According to a new IHS Chemical global market study, global methanol de-mand increased 23% during the two-year period of 2010 to 2012, primarily driven by Chinese demand.
Annual demand for the product is expected to increase by more than 8%,
from 61 MM metric tons in 2012, to an unprecedented level of 137 MM metric tons in 2022. These rapid demand in-creases are significant, particularly when the numbers are compared to the eco-nomic downturn of 2008 to 2009, when annual global methanol demand slowed to just 4% and 2%, respectively.
“Methanol is a key option for mone-tizing gas or coal,” said Mike Nash, global director of Syngas Chemicals at IHS.
“An abundant supply of low-cost North American shale gas resources is driving methanol capacity additions in the US. The shale gas revolution is a major game-changer; mothballed methanol units have started back up, and one Methanex unit has been relocated from Chile to Louisiana with considerations of mov-ing another unit. Coal supplies in China are also driving projects there, as well, particularly as it relates to using cheap methanol supplies derived from coal to produce olefins.”
Geographically, China remains the growth center for methanol demand, with an average annual growth of slight-ly more than 12%, while the rest of the world is growing at just below 3%. China methanol consumption will triple from 31 MM metric tons in 2012 to 97 MM metric tons in 2022.
Traditional uses for methanol include derivatives such as formaldehyde, ace-tic acid and methyl methacrylate. With China at the epicenter of global growth, fuels applications are one of the primary demand drivers. Methanol demand in the gasoline pool is expected to increase from nearly 5 MM metric tons in 2012 to just over 11 MM metric tons in 2022, representing a penetration of nearly 12%. At blend ratios of 15% and slightly increased gasoline consumption trends, methanol consumption could rise to 15 MM metric tons.
China has become by far the larg-est methanol producing country in the world, representing 54% of world ca-pacity and 43% of world methanol pro-duction in 2012. The global methanol industry is now reaching the end of a significant wave of capacity expansions. Since 2007, capacity has been added at the rate of 14.3%/yr, in an industry where demand had been growing at around 8.6%/yr.
However, Chinese capacity utilization is only around 50%, since China adjusts operating rates accordingly to “balance” world supply and demand. China is near-ing the end of a major capacity expansion wave, with only an additional 7.5 MM metric tons of new capacity for the mer-chant market expected to come onstream through 2022. This leaves well over 40 MM metric tons of new China metha-nol capacity integrated to methametha-nol-to- methanol-to-olefins/methanol-to-propylene coming online during the forecast period.
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Hydrocarbon Processing | APRIL 201315
Innovations
ADRIENNE BLUME, PROCESS EDITOR
Flowmeter uses Coriolis
force in measurement
The Sitrans FC430 flowmeter from Siemens AG is capable of measuring liq-uids and gases using the Coriolis princi-ple. Flows can be measured with a preci-sion of 0.1%, and different sensor sizes are available to address various applications.
The technical solution of state-of-the-art flow devices based on the Coriolis force uses two vibrating tubes. The tubes are forced to vibrate using a magnetic driver, which is controlled by an electronic driver circuit and the appropriate software. Two electromagnetic transducers measure the velocity of the tube deflection between in-put and outin-put. The driver and the trans-ducers are part of a closed-loop control system that continuously causes the tubes to vibrate at their resonant frequency. The resonant frequency depends on the con-struction of the tubes and on the density of the fluid. The tube temperature is mea-sured to compensate for changes in the material stiffness of the tubes.
The phase of the two velocity signals is proportional to the mass flow of the fluid, and the frequency of the velocity signal is equal to the density of the fluid. Volume flow is calculated based on the mass flow and density. The measurement calcula-tions (software) are processed using a modern digital signal processor (DSP).
The Sitrans FC430 software is modu-lar, with small blocks that provide struc-tured and well-defined functions. This makes it easier to supervise and monitor the correctness of each of the smaller units. The various blocks are protected by advanced safety integrity measures to detect dangerous errors. For example, the result of a calculation in the algorithm is evaluated using well-defined and tested plausibility checks to ensure that the re-sult is the expected one. Additional diag-nostic software secures each block so that the software runs correctly and reliably.
The Sitrans FC430 flowmeter complies with safety standard IEC 61508. It can be used in safety circuits up to Safety
Integri-ty Level 2 (SIL 2) in a single-channel con-figuration and up to SIL 3 in a redundant configuration. No additional measures are required from the application side.
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Oil evaporator system
ideal for shale oil analysis
JM Science’s AQUACOUNTER AQL-22320 automated oil evapora-tor system (FIG. 1) is an automated Karl
Fischer titrator system consisting of the AQ-2200 (coulometric titrator) and the EV-2000L (oil evaporator) units. This ti-tration system has been designed for ana-lyzing moisture in difficult samples such as shale oil, grease, heavy lubricants and other materials.
Using an azeotropic distillation sol-vent, like toluene or xylene, moisture can be evaporated at a lower temperature, sav-ing on expensive Karl Fischer reagents and lowering maintenance costs, since the titration cell remains clean and free of contaminants. This automated system al-lows the analyst to load the samples into glass vials and then place the vials on the sample tray of the system. The operator only needs to push the “start” button once to begin the analyses.
The sample changer holds up to 20 vials and can process large numbers of samples. It is equipped with the auto-matic Karl Fischer reagent exchanging function, reducing the cost of Karl Fisch-er reagent and waste disposal. Wide tem-perature settings cover the full range of azeotropic points.
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Compressor technology
will enhance CCS project
MAN Diesel & Turbo is providing compressor technology for Shell Cana-da’s Quest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project, located in Alberta, Can-ada. Quest will be the world’s first com-mercial-scale CCS project to tackle car-bon emissions at an oil sands operation.
Quest will capture more than 1 million metric tons per year of CO2 from Shell’s
Scotford Refinery upgrader near Edmon-ton, Alberta, and permanently store the gas deep underground at an injection site north of the facility. Quest will begin in-jecting CO2 underground in 2015. Shell ordered an integrally geared centrifugal compressor from MAN Diesel & Turbo for delivery in 2013.
MAN Diesel & Turbo Berlin will con-struct and hand over the RG90-8 frame size for the first time. Four pinions are en-gaged with a different gear ratio, leading to diverse rotating speeds. Each pinion mounts two impellers in a back-to-back arrangement. The CO2 is compressed in eight stages to a discharge pressure of 130 bar. This integrally geared centrifu-gal compressor handles 80,000 cubic meters of CO2 per hour. It will be con-structed of familiar components that have proved reliable in different frame sizes over many years.
The discharge pressure of 130 bar is sufficient to send the compressed CO2 about 60 kilometers (km) via an under-ground pipeline to a wellhead, and to in-ject the dense-phase CO2 2.3 km below the surface into a saline rock formation for permanent storage (FIG. 2).
Select 3 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS
Alarm/bypass solution
enables real-time risk
management
Invensys Operations Management has enhanced its Triconex critical con-trol and safety offerings for industrial op-erations. The new Triconex Safety View
FIG. 1. The AQUACOUNTER AQL-22320 automated oil evaporator system analyzes moisture in difficult samples, such as shale oil.
C O M P R E S S O R S Q T U R B I N E S Q G L O B A L S E R V I C E
EBARA CORPORATION
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Customers:
Global oil and gas producers.
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Changing compression requirements as fields mature and production peaks.
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From Aberdeen to Rio de Janeiro, Calgary to Jakarta, Elliott compressors, turbines, and expanders deliver the reliable, efficient performance that producers and processors require. And every piece of Elliott equipment is backed by our unmatched global service network. Customers throughout the world turn to Elliott for critical turbomachinery and service because our resources are global and our execution is local. Who will you turn to?
The world turns to Elliott.
Hydrocarbon Processing | APRIL 201317
Innovations
solution is the world’s first software for alarm and bypass management certified by TÜV Rheinland to IEC61508 Sys-tematic Capability 3 for use in applica-tions up to Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL 3). Additionally, the company’s Triconex Trident and Tricon general-purpose safe-ty instrumented systems (SISs) now sup-port OPC Unified Architecture (UA) for greater communications connectivity.
Triconex draws attention to changes in process conditions that require imme-diate attention, giving operators, mainte-nance engineers and shift personnel bet-ter visibility into the process so they can take actions that reduce risk, optimize the total cost of ownership and increase over-all asset performance. It is built on the company’s ArchestrA System Platform and Wonderware InTouch HMI software, which have been adapted specifically for use in safety applications.
Invensys has also embedded OPC UA communications with its industry-leading Triconex, Trident and Tricon general-pur-pose SISs. OPC UA maximizes interoper-ability between systems and streamlines connectivity through open-platform ar-chitecture and future-proof design. The new communications interface module contains an embedded OPC UA server that supports up to 10 concurrent clients, delivering high-performance and secure, reliable communication of real -time data, alarms and historical events.
OPC UA provides a single commu-nications solution from the device level to the enterprise level, maintaining plat-form independence without sacrificing performance. It provides better interop-erability (complete with certification), reliability by design, access via firewalls
FIG. 2. Flow diagram of the Quest CCS process. Image courtesy of Shell Canada Ltd.
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Innovations
and across the internet, and reduced con-figuration time with built-in information and security models.
Select 4 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS
Laser-scan point cloud
simplifies pipeline
construction
Intergraph has released CloudWorx for SmartPlant Isometrics 2012 R1, an add-on to its SmartPlant Isometrics solu-tion that allows users to quickly create ac-curate, as-built piping isometrics directly from a laser-scan point cloud.
CloudWorx for SmartPlant Isometrics 2012 R1 leverages Leica Geosystems’ in-dustry-leading Cyclone software technolo-gy to efficiently display the laser-scan point cloud and navigate through it in a window with measured piping data overlaid graphi-cally, a revolutionary method of creating as-built piping asset documentation.
CloudWorx for SmartPlant Isomet-rics supports the rapid creation of piping isometric documents, using Intergraph ISOGEN. The easily understood sketch-ing functionality and automated drawsketch-ing creation means computer-assisted design (CAD) and 3D skills are not required, but it also allows experienced piping de-signers to be highly productive in creat-ing as-built pipcreat-ing data.
The software is complementary to 3D model-based solutions based on Smart 3D, Plant Design System or CADWorx, since the same ISOGEN software is used to produce the deliverable. Results are consistent, and underlying data can be used to create documentation for inspec-tion of piping systems, including the au-tomated, rule-based placement of inspec-tion locainspec-tion points.
When used in conjunction with SmartPlant Enterprise for owner/opera-tors (SPO), the comprehensive, as-built documentation can be managed to en-sure the integrity of the piping asset. SPO adds change-management and audit ca-pabilities when the piping documents are published to the plant engineering data store and maintained through time.
With the new SPO TruView integra-tion capability, CloudWorx for Smart-Plant Isometrics can use the same point-cloud data to create piping documentation as needed for operating and maintaining a facility, or to document the as-built asset in line with industry regulations.
Select 5 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS
Pulse input flowmeter ideal
for hazardous locations
Precision Digital’s PD6830 ProtEx-RTP Pulse Input Rate/Totalizer flowme-ter (FIG. 3) has a rugged, explosion-proof,
NEMA 4X enclosure and is designed for quick and easy display of local or remote flow information in hazardous areas or in the harshest safe area applications. The SafeTouch through-glass buttons allow operation without removing the cover.
Flowmeter K-factor units are auto-matically converted to the desired display units; this means that no conversion fac-tors are needed. The pulse input accepts a wide range of flow transmitter signals, including millivolt input from a magnetic flowmeter, as well as high-frequency sig-nals. The PD6830 flowmeter includes backlighting and two open-collector out-puts as standard.
The PD6830 flowmeter features an upper display that is 0.7 inches high and shows five digits of flowrate or total. The lower display is 0.4 inches high and shows a combination of flowrate, total, grand to-tal or a tag with seven alphanumeric char-acters. The meter is easy to read from a distance, under various lighting condi-tions and from wide viewing angles.
Unit conversions are automatically performed by the PD6830 flowmeter. This means that no math or conversion factors are needed. The meter is capable of data logging up to 1,024 records in real time. Each record contains the date, time, rate, total, grand total and log number.
The flowmeter is designed to handle a wide variety of high-speed inputs and outputs. Inputs can be discerned with pulse widths as small as 5 microseconds.
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FIG. 3. The PD6830 ProtEx-RTP flowmeter is designed for display of local or remote flow information in both hazardous and safe areas.
Innovations
20
Two open-collector outputs are individu-ally programmable for rate, total or grand total alarms; rate, total or grand total pulse outputs; retransmission of pulse inputs; quadrature paired output; or con-stant timed pulse output. Operating tem-peratures range from −40°C to 75°C.
Select 6 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS
Portfolio update improves
rod, valve monitoring
The Smart Machinery Health portfo-lio from Emerson Process Management now provides an integrated protection and prediction solution for critical recip-rocating compressors. Common com-pressor issues can be predicted before they cause a process upset, greatly reduc-ing lost production and repair costs.
Reciprocating compressors are of-ten mainof-tenance-inof-tensive machines at a production facility and are critical to production uptime. With Emerson’s inte-grated approach for reciprocating assets, rotating and reciprocating machines can now be monitored through one mainte-nance management system.
Emerson’s reciprocating compressor solution includes standard protection functionality as specified in American Petroleum Institute (API) 670 and API 618, and it adds powerful predictive monitoring to identify a user’s most troublesome issues: valves, pressure packing, rider bands and rod faults.
Emerson’s CSI 6500 Machinery Health Monitor with PeakVue technology moni-tors ultrasonic emissions to determine valve health, which is reported as the No. 1 maintenance issue by users. Transient monitoring of rod position identifies ab-normal or excessive changes in rod posi-tion before they impact pressure packing; it also monitors vertical rod position to track rider band wear. Advanced asset-management capabilities enable users to view rod position via 2D plots, illustrat-ing piston rod dynamic motion that can be viewed live, paused and replayed.
Emerson’s integrated solution also de-livers compressor frame vibration shut-down protection as specified by API 618, and piston rod monitoring as specified by API 670. AMS Suite provides additional
performance and machine condition in-formation through monitoring parame-ters such as adiabatic efficiency, volumet-ric flow, rod tension and rod compression. Combining shutdown protection with predictive diagnostics delivers the infor-mation that users need to protect their equipment health while avoiding produc-tion downtime.
Select 7 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS
SiGNa Chemistry acquires
Jadoo Power H
2assets
SiGNa Chemistry Inc. has acquired the hydrogen (H2) storage and fuel-cartridge assets of Jadoo Power Systems. The purchase includes all of Jadoo Pow-er’s portable H2 products, including the company’s well-known N-Stor cartridge, as well as associated H2 storage materials and patents, and supporting laboratory and analysis assets.
Since its founding in 2005, SiGNa has commercialized a range of sustainable chemistry products that are based on the company’s core competency in trans-forming reactive alkali metals, which his-torically have been dangerous to use and store, into safe, free-flowing powders. The resulting stabilized materials enable improvements in safety, efficiency, cost and environmental sustainability across a number of chemical processes in power generation, pharmaceuticals, petrochem-icals, enhanced oil recovery and other widely used products.
SiGNa works with a number of fuel cell integrators and OEMs to develop cus-tomized H2-delivery cartridges. SiGNa’s H2 cartridges enable energy-dense, light-weight and wearable power systems and can be designed for any proton-exchange membrane fuel cell system. In partnership with Swedish-based myFC, SiGNa was responsible for the release of the world’s first fuel cell product certified by the In-ternational Electrotechnical Commission. SiGNa anticipates several new prod-uct releases in 2013 and continues to seek new development partners interest-ed in commercializing fuel cell-powerinterest-ed products for portable military power, emergency and disaster relief, backup and standby power, outdoor power and consumer electronics.
Select 8 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS
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Hydrocarbon Processing | APRIL 201323
Reliability
HEINZ P. BLOCH, RELIABILITY/EQUIPMENT EDITOR
[email protected]Fact-checking list from recent reliability conferences
Whenever HP editors attend technical conferences, their pri-mary goals include observing industry practices, finding facts and spotting trends.
Fact or fiction. Unfortunately, presenters sometimes relate
mere anecdotes of questionable veracity. So, technical colum-nists must come to grips with snippets of information. Should the reporters relate the snippets as amusing anecdotes, or should they withhold the snippets because they add no value? Most professionals use reasonable judgment and try not to allow er-roneous information to go unchallenged.
Here are a few recollections, claims, counterclaims and is-sues amassed from several 2012 reliability conferences attended by HP editors:
1. In best-of-class (BOC) plants, use of nonpolluting closed oil-mist systems is increasing. These systems include electric motor drivers and all standby equipment at BOC plants. Find-ing: Fact.
2. Oil mist can cause motor insulation to degrade. Finding: True for motors made in the 1940s and early 1950s. Not true for motors with epoxy insulation, typically made from 1965 to the present.
3. Pump vendors always use the best available lube applica-tion; therefore, oil rings and constant level lubricators should not be questioned. Finding: Not 100% factual.
4. Some reciprocating compressor purchasers insist on metal-disc pack couplings. Finding: Some do, but they do so at their own risk. Mandating metal-disc couplings rarely serves the purchaser’s best interests. Elastomeric elements are usually (al-though not always) safer and more reliable in these machines.
5. Some coupling manufacturers know little about coupling stiffness under actual operating conditions. Finding: True, un-fortunately. Repeat failures have resulted.
6. Large electric motors are again being built in the US by at least one competent legacy manufacturer. Finding: True, and this is a pleasant development.
7. Plants that spend more money on maintenance are typi-cally those that don’t invest reasonable funds or resources on reliability improvements. Finding: True. The issue was neatly summarized by Alan Poling of Solomon Associates at the 2012 ARAMCO Global Reliability Forum, held in Houston, Texas; see TABLE 1.
8. Plants that have replaced traditional repair-thinking and now use reliability-thinking invest 5% of the actual equipment cost in up-front machinery quality assessment (MQA). Find-ing: True. Effective MQA has been successfully practiced since the early 1960s.
9. New formulations of polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) have joined proprietary formulations of polyimide resins as an
advantageous pump-wear part material. Finding: True, but be mindful of possible increases in axial load on the pump’s thrust bearing that can result from close-clearance PEEK wear rings.
10. The Southwest Research Institute has refined and vali-dated methods to better predict turbomachinery vibration. Ro-tor behavior modeling, often expressed as the log decrement in critical damping values, is now more accurate. Finding: True.
11. There is a narrowing of the gap in reliability perfor-mance and profitability of top-quartile companies (upper 25%) as compared to fourth-quartile (lower 25%) companies. Find-ing: Not true. Regrettably, the gap is widening.
12. As more maintenance money is spent, pump MTBF in-creases. Finding: The opposite is true, as shown in FIG. 1.
HEINZ P. BLOCH resides in Westminster, Colorado. His professional career began in 1962 and included long-term assignments as Exxon Chemical’s regional machinery specialist for the US. He has authored over 520 publications, among them 18 comprehensive books on practical machinery management, failure analysis, failure avoidance, compressors, steam turbines, pumps, oil-mist lubrication and practical lubrication for industry. Mr. Bloch holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering. He is an ASME Life Fellow and maintains registration as a Professional Engineer in New Jersey and Texas.
4
1 2 3 4 5 6
Year one7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Year two
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Per pump outlay, $ thousand
20 25 30 35 40 45 Pump MTBF, months
12 months per pump routine maintenance cost 12 months rolling pump MTBF, months
FIG. 1. As MTBF decreases, maintenance costs increase at this location.
TABLE 1. The relationship between reliability and maintenance
• Reliability and maintenance are inextricably linked • One cannot cost-cut one’s path to improved reliability • Maintenance costs are driven by reliability or the lack thereof • Best performers achieve high reliability at low costs • Poor performers have high costs with low reliability • Each 1% increase in mechanical availability can translate into
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Hydrocarbon Processing | APRIL 201325
Integration
Strategies
HARRY FORBES, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Industrial considerations for BYOD
With the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend begin-ning to take hold in the process industries, plant managers and IT groups are taking more interest. Not only do they have le-gitimate security concerns, but, in refineries and petrochemical plants, field devices must be certified to operate in hazardous lo-cations—a requirement that excludes most consumer devices.
Mobile computing. Mobility is the core value proposition of
the BYOD trend. Mobile computing is rapidly becoming the normal use-case for enterprise IT, rather than the exception. In processing facilities, most workers already own their personal mobile devices, which they often prefer to use. And in every industry, workers have distain over mandates forcing them to carry multiple devices.
Ubiquitous wireless Internet access enables BYOD systems. Carrier cellular coverage saturated the strategic areas in de-veloped economies many years ago. However, in recent years, carriers have rolled out higher-capacity 4G networks capable of much greater data rates to support the growing numbers of smartphones served by their networks. These service levels compare well with what was provided by wire-line enterprise networks only recently.
The huge volume of the consumer market has also revolu-tionized the price/performance of smart devices, especially smartphones. At the same time, there has been a convergence of the networks and platforms. Most smartphones support LTE carrier networks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth local network-ing along with GPS. There has been a huge convergence in terms of operating platforms toward Android and iOS, with the former champions BlackBerry and Symbian both losing market share, and Windows volumes remaining almost invis-ible. For industrial service, smartphones, tablets and other mobility devices require enhanced ruggedness, hazardous-location certification, and, in some cases, dedicated higher-performing interfaces for barcode scanning or other job-spe-cific capabilities.
Management is now the biggest challenge. While
ubiquitous connectivity and technological convergence have enabled the BYOD trend, it has been constrained by the lim-ited capability of enterprises to manage the more complex demands represented by mobile consumer devices operating within the enterprise. Like all management, network manage-ment involves the allocation of resources according to policies and rules to achieve enterprise objectives. Effective network management balances a number of objectives. One of these is to improve cost behavior. Enterprise total cost of ownership (TCO) will scale well when network management reduces the labor intensiveness of network operation as the network
grows. But TCO is only one of the attributes of BYOD requir-ing management attention. Other major factors are:
Policy. Organizations need to make policy decisions at the
outset of BYOD. These decisions include a set of supported devices and platforms—BYOD does not mean the same thing as bring any device. Likewise, a set of carriers must be selected and rules developed for network selection when multiple net-works are available. A set of applications must be supported. Finally, the policies for cost sharing between employees and the enterprise need to be developed, with a view to keeping the rules simple and understandable, yet comprehensive.
Device management. Dozens of companies offer solutions
for mobile device management. This includes provisioning, configuring and updating devices, and deactivating devices as they are retired, as well as protecting/destroying (“zapping”) the content on devices that are lost or stolen. Some level of security and protection from malware is involved. Billing and network policies need to be implemented. These solutions can come from either the carrier or from a third-party enterprise solution.
Mobile application management. Effective mobile
ap-plication management is critical because the apps come from multiple sources. Besides managing the set of supported appli-cations, distribution of apps must be managed via the major online stores or other means.
Mobile identity management. For BYOD, identity
man-agement requires more rigorous authentication, authorization and accounting. Enterprises need an architecture for distribut-ed systems that enables control over user access to services and resources. Multi-factor user authentication is just the first step.
Mobile information management. The coexistence of
en-terprise and personal data on the same device is drawing atten-tion to the concept of managing device data through various means such as tracking, sand-boxing, encryption and automat-ed data time-outs.
Mobile expense management. This consideration is
non-technical, but nevertheless a pain point for real-world imple-mentations. Enterprises can hardly expect service providers to manage their costs optimally. They have to implement their own policies based on both cost and technical considerations.
HARRY FORBES is a senior analyst at ARC Advisory Group. His research focuses on the impact of industrial networking and wireless technologies on today’s manufacturing. He also covers smart grid and electric power vertical industries. His research topics include the smart-grid, smart-metering and smart-energy technologies. Mr. Forbes is a graduate of Tufts University with a BS in electrical engineering and has an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
platinum standard
For more information about UOP olefins solutions, visit www.uop.com/olefins. © 2013 Honeywell International Inc. All rights reserved.
UOP’s propylene production technologies outshine the rest
Low cost feedstocks, high yield products. There’s no better combination for generating petrochemical profits. As an industry leader in petrochemical process technology for more than 70 years, UOP continues to deliver proven, flexible solutions with high-yield returns. UOP advanced Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) and Oleflex™ processes provide a higher return on investment, smaller environmental footprint and innovation that is second to none. For advanced MTO, you can use alternative feedstocks such as coal, natural gas and more, and you can produce the high-value olefin of your choice, including propylene and ethylene. Recyclable, platinum-based Oleflex catalysts offer the best performance for environmentally friendly on-purpose propylene production. From low-energy solutions to eco-friendly innovations, UOP sets a standard that shines.
Hydrocarbon Processing | APRIL 201327
Boxscore Construction
Analysis
LEE NICHOLS, DIRECTOR, DATA DIVISION
Ethylene in evolution: 50 years of changing
markets and economics
Ethylene is the key building block for the petrochemical industry. This olefin supports 70% of petrochemical industry production and is used to manufacture a wide variety of products for industrial and consumer markets. Adhesives, chemicals, coatings, packaging, construction materi-als, textiles, rubber and plastics are based on this organic olefin.
The strength of the petrochemical mar-ket is directly related to the supply and de-mand for ethylene. Ethylene consumption is consumer product-driven. This funda-mental economic concept has dictated the cyclical nature of the ethylene market. When supply exceeds demand, petro-chemical profits decline, producers curtail construction plans and capital spending, inefficient plants are permanently shut down or mothballed, and global capacity declines. When demand outpaces supply, companies competitively build and ex-pand production capacity.
Supply and demand. Ethylene
wit-nessed double-digit growth rates in the 1960s and 1970s. Supply increased steadily throughout the 1970s, outpacing demand, which declined during the re-cession of the early 1980s. Demand then increased during the mid-1980s, holding steady at a growth rate of 3%–4% for the remainder of the decade. Global ethylene capacity increased from 46 million tons per year (46 MMtpy) in 1979 to 54 MMt-py in 1990.
By the mid-1990s, over 50% of new ethylene capacity was located in the Asia-Pacific region. The US and Western Eu-rope saw improved profits due to high product demand, low feedstock costs and capacity reductions. Some petrochemical producers closed older, inefficient plants, and other operators debottlenecked and upgraded plants with new technologies to reduce operating and maintenance costs, increase capacity, reduce wastes and
emis-sions, and improve reliability and safety. Most plants constructed during this time had a capacity of 400 thousand tons per year (400 Mtpy) to 900 Mtpy and a cost of $400 million (MM) to $800 MM. Global ethylene capacity increased to 92 MMtpy by the end of the decade.
The new millennium saw the continu-ation of the cyclical wave of demand chas-ing supply. Advancements in construction materials and technologies enabled the design and construction of larger ethyl-ene facilities. Global ethylethyl-ene capacity exceeded 140 MMtpy by the end of 2010, with the main wave of construction occur-ring in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions. The Middle East benefitted from low-cost natural gas feedstock that helped facilitate expansions to support global trade aimed at the European and Asian markets. China’s petrochemical industry
experienced incredible growth by produc-ing raw materials for the overall manu-facturing base, with the goal of exporting petrochemical-based goods.
Presently, demand is outpacing sup-ply, and new project announcements have dominated the petrochemical land-scape. Global ethylene capacity is expect-ed to rise 17% through 2016, reaching over 170 MMtpy. Ethylene plant capaci-ties now exceed 1 MMtpy at a cost of over $1 billion (B).
The majority of new capacity will be located in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. In China alone, domestic ethylene demand will spur a 50% rise in output by 2015, to 25 MMtpy. Mean-while, over the past five years, Middle Eastern ethylene capacity has doubled to over 26 MMtpy. Much of the new con-struction has taken place in Saudi Arabia,
