(37g) Smart Instruments Provide Advanced Diagnostics and Early Event Detection to Improve Reliability and Availability of Refineries and Petrochemical Units
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2009
2009 Spring Meeting & 5th Global Congress on Process Safety
12th Topical on Refinery Processing
Process Control and Optimization
Monday, April 27, 2009 - 5:00pm to 5:30pm
The focus of this paper will be to present advanced industry oriented solutions in refining and petrochemicals that utilize the unique capabilities of smart instruments. Predictive intelligence, advanced diagnostics, wireless solutions and other latest functionalities embedded in the smart instruments can be utilized for ?Early Event Detection? of developing operational problems and provide solutions that improve reliability and availability of operating units. Some examples include applications for early detection of flooding in distillation columns, catalyst transfer problems in FCC units, flame instability detection in direct fired heaters, detection of high tube skin temperatures in ethylene crackers, and condensation detection in compressor inlet lines. The paper will also present results of some field trials that have been recently conducted. The preliminary results are quite encouraging and are expected to provide significant benefits that include operational enhancements, prevention of unit shutdowns, and improved profitability.