(78c) Olefin Plant Turnaround Optimization

Maintenance of olefin plant equipment causes a significant contribution to the total cost of plant ownership; however, the money invested in maintenance activity also delivers value by ensuring the plant remains available for operation in accordance with business needs. Some plant maintenance is possible with the plant in normal operation, but the plant has to be shut down periodically in order to allow maintenance of equipment items that are essential to plant operation and not spared. These periodic shutdowns are commonly known as plant Turnarounds (T/As), and these T/As are of major significance in the determination of olefin cracker performance.

The HSB Solomon Associates LLC (Solomon) Worldwide Olefin Plant Performance Analysis (Olefin Study) and Solomon International Study of Plant Reliability and Maintenance Effectiveness (RAM Study) provide information that can be used to help companies optimize T/A performance. Using information from Solomon’s extensive Olefin Study and RAM Study performance databases, this paper summarizes:

• Industry trends in T/A cost, interval, and duration.
• Strategies for minimizing annualized T/A production loss.
• The relationship between effective T/A scoping and execution and plant reliability between T/As.

Insights into the characteristics and practices that lead to improved T/A performance will also be covered.