The Operational Reliability of a (e.g.) refinery can be predictively improved for new projects methodologically.

1. 1
HELLO,
from Aliaga-
Turkey!

2. Improving Reliability through
Automation Projects
Ömer Haluk Yılmaz
Tüpraş İzmir Refinery
Reliability Superintendent

3. I. RELIABILITY and AUTOMATION
1. Reliability
2. Automation
3. Automation Project: Theory vs Practice
4. Reliability vs Automation
II. EXAMPLES and CONCLUSION
1. Basic idea for control automation
2. Examples
3. Reliability implications of automation
4. Multidisciplinary knowledge
5. Epilogue
6. Orchestration
Presentation Plan

4. Statement of the presentation:
Automation Projects
can
improve
Operational Reliability
4

5. • A refinery may seem a very
peaceful place, when things go
steady.
• ..but it’s not always the case
that things go steady.
• There may be a voltage sag, a
compressor trip, an exchanger
leak etc.
• ...and you never know if it’s day
or night, summer or winter.
• Neither the spec nor the
continuity can be maintained.
How can automation projects
contribute to risk control?
Refinery

6. Reliability vs Automation
• Reliability: On spec operational continuity
• Automation: Self controlled operation
Why not a successfull On Spec Self
Controlled Operational
Continuity?
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7. 7
• Reliability engineer investigates the root cause.
• He has to understand the physical cause first,
and asks:
• ‘How did it fail?’
• In order to answer that, he has to understand:
• ‘How it works’
• This is exactly the same question that an
automation engineer is building his automation
on.
o How should it work?
Reliability

8. • Knowing how ‘it’ works, we can control ‘it’, and
automate the control job.
• Potential problems can then be made visible to the
operator.
• Visible problems can be acted upon!
• The knowledge we need is a multidisciplinary
knowledge. A team work is necessary indeed.
• Multidisciplinary knowledge makes automation work.
Do we always integrate
multidisciplinary knowledge into our
automation projects?
Reliability thru automation

9. Automation Project
• Integrating multidisciplinary knowledge needs effective
communication.
• Automation engineer will facilitate workshops to understand
the operational and maintenance procedures, operation
principles of equipments, history of problems.
• He will exercise ‘what if’ scenarios with the team, to find out
the threats, opportunities and priorities.
• The results will integrate in a meaningful project specification.
• If the team believes in it, then journey to the target may start.
Can we guarantee to reach the target?

10. Project: Theory vs Practice
10
Be careful with the
communication accidents

11. • Automation needs reliable equipment to
be effective.
• In return, automation helps keep the
equipment reliable and operating within
design boundaries.
11
Reliability vs Automation

12. The pyramid of operational reliability
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13. 1. Instrument Air Compressor failure
2. Propane pump seal fire
3. HC Reactor temperature control
4. Emergency Power Supply Automation revamp
5. CCR Emergency Power Supply
6. Antisurge control CCR recycle gas compressor
7. Venturi scrubber frequently leaking
13
Examples

14. o It was reported that the running compressor was
oscillating and change of running compressor with the
spare caused overspeed trip.
o Instrument technician, and then the engineers ran to
explore the cause, and fix the problem.
o Not being able to propose a solution to the mechanical
engineers, instrumentation guys readjusted the reset
rate of the speed controller from 5 to 2 r/min.
o The problem was apparently solved for a WHILE!
..but, what was the ROOT CAUSE?
14
Example-1 Instrument Air Compressor
failure

15. Instrument Air Compressor failure
When the system behavior changes, the need of change in the
controller tuning parameters, may tell you to investigate deeper
into the problem.Problem:
Speed
oscillatio
n High pressure
loss between
compressor
stages Fouling in
the air side
of
aftercooler
Corrosion
Condensati
on
CW circulation
during std by
causes T<Td
Why
?
Why
?
Why
?
Why
?
Why
?
1
2
3
4
5
Root cause
Solution:
Revise operation
procedure
Root
Cause

16. 16
Instrument Air Compressor – aftercooler
fouling

17. Example-2 Pump seal fire
1- LIC had too
responsive PID
parameters
2- Low flow from T-
1202.
P-1203 pumps lower
than minimum
allowable flow
Propane De-asphalting Plant High Pressure pump
Operation not possible because of seal leak and consequent
fire. WHY?

18. 18
Example-3 HC Reactor temperature
control
284 mm ID
Short TW
290 mm
82TE047
14’’ Pipe
Sch 160
OD=
356mm
ID =
284mm
TW = 300
mm
Actual
Installation
The Reactor inlet temperature controller 82TIC047 has not
functioned well in cascade mode since the unit start-up.
Hence, the Quench Gas flow to Reactor inlet 82FIC010 has
been operated in automatic with local set point...WHY?

19. The emergency power system was
revamped after 23 years for HC load,
although its historical performance was
not brilliant. A typical FAILURE on
DEMAND case!
Example-4 Emergency Power Automation
revamp
During commissioning it was found out that
there were two mistakes built in the project:
1- Low CW pressure trip, instead of hi
bearing temp.trip.
2- The CW pump was subject to
blackout, and could not pump during a
black out.

20. 20
‘Ready to take load’ signal was ’1’ only after speed up (13 secs.)
AND no voltage condition , which then triggered ‘close’ command to
supply CB’s.
Never forget that a contactor will drop below say U*60% in a
Example-5 CCR Emergency Power
Suppply
The
beautiful
emergency
power
supply
system
didn’t
function if
the power
loss or dip
lasted for a
short period,
i.e. A few
seconds.

21. 21
Example-6 Antisurge control CCR recycle
gas compressor
Surges if HV-022 (red valve) mech. stop not maintained and the valve
closes. ('Fail close valve')
The main risk is the
antisurge control
valve itself!
Install a fast fail
open valve
bypassing HV-
022.

22. 22
Example-7 Venturi scrubber frequently
leaking
Erronous
control
target:
PH=8
Conseque
nce
PH=5.7
Control:
MAN
Reaction gases including HCL and
Cl2 flows thru venturi scrubber.

23. Reliability implications of automation
problems
o The need of changing tuning parameters of the controller
may tell you that the system behavior has changed, and a
deeper investigation into the problem is needed.
o Wishfull thinking is not the best method for automation
projects.
o Automation projects fail according to Murphy’s rules, if we
can not integrate multidisciplinary knowledge into the
project.
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24. Maintenance
They know how it fails.

25. 25
Operations
They know what the consequence will
be.

26. Multidisciplinary Knowledge

27. Epilogue
• Take the necessary time to develop the IDEA.
• Discuss, challenge and test it. (Is there an equally good way of
doing it without automation?)
• Exercise ‘what if’ queries with experienced process engineer,
operator, maintenance engineer etc.
• Build the idea into the project realistically. Don’t assume that
what you cannot solve at the table, can be solved at the field.
• Build a robust control model based on sound knowledge of the
physical reality of the system
• Be systematic with alarm management.
• Develop self diagnostic procedures specific to the application, in
addition to system diagnostics.
• Develop the documentation in parallel, with clarity.
• Perform a satisfactory FAT.
• Systematically prove the systems via pre-commissioning and
during the shake-down phase on first commissioning to validate
the models used.
• Encourage the project team for professional satisfaction.
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28. 28
...hence the Orchestration
Thanks! Questions please?