Hydrocarbon Processing - 2010 - 11

BOILERS FOR PEOPLE WHO KNOW AND CARE
We aint bluffin. Looks can be deceiving.

Chickens cant really fly. And not all boilers are made
Texas-tough to operate reliably and efficiently in a variety of industries. The RENTECH team and its
boilers will earn your trust and respect because each boiler is custom designed and engineered to
withstand your most demanding environment. So dont be tempted to saddle up with a greenhorn.
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Heat Recovery Steam Generators | Waste Heat Boilers | Fired Packaged Watertube Boilers | Specialty Boilers
Select 58 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS
www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com
NOVEMBER 2010
HPIMPACT SPECIALREPORT BONUSREPORT
PLANT SAFETY AND
ENVIRONMENT
Methods to mitigate
CO
2
and other air
emissions
LCFS impact oil sands
refiners
US demand for
lubricants increasing
HEAT TRANSFER
New designs foster
efficiency and uptime
BOILERS FOR PEOPLE WHO KNOW AND CARE
We aint bluffin. Looks can be deceiving.
Chickens cant really fly. And not all boilers are made
Texas-tough to operate reliably and efficiently in a variety of industries. The RENTECH team and its
boilers will earn your trust and respect because each boiler is custom designed and engineered to
withstand your most demanding environment. So dont be tempted to saddle up with a greenhorn.
Insist that your boiler be built Texas-tough by the skilled people at RENTECH.
WWW.RENTECHBOILERS.COM
Heat Recovery Steam Generators | Waste Heat Boilers | Fired Packaged Watertube Boilers | Specialty Boilers
NOVEMBER 2010 VOL. 89 NO. 11
SPECIAL REPORT: PLANT SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

31
Stretch in technology and gaps in process safety
for the hydrocarbon industry
Industry faces challenges to prevent and control hazards
M. S. Mannan
33
Better water management:
A crucial and growing requirement
Technologies for water reuse and recycling needed now
G. Messina
35
Water among causes for storage tank explosion
Reinvestigation uncovers true accident events
M. Ferjencik and B. Janovsky
41
Consider new analysis for flares
Applying dynamic models in designing safety systems can reduce capital costs
Z. Urban, M. Matzopoulos, J. Marriott and B. Marshall

49
Designing the correct pressure-relieving system
Use these relief rate calculations for gas thermal expansion as a cause for overpressure
S. Rahimi Mofrad
55
Customize operator training for your thermal oxidizers
This case history shows the benefits of site-specific programs
in new equipment installations
T. Gilder, D. Campbell, T. Robertson and C. Baukal
61
Emergency response planning
start at the plant design stage
Follow these guidelines for a safer facility
R. Saini
65
Optimized fired heater control
Residual oxygen measurement principle lowers emissions and improves efficiency
A. J. Mouris
69
Consider real-gas modeling for turboexpanders
New visualization methods expose problems with traditional designs
K. Kaupert
73
Predictive emissions monitoring
helps reduce stack air emissions
New technology reduces compliance costs while optimizing operations
R. Hovan
79
Consider switching to Internet protocol surveillance
Heres a checklist to make the jump
M. S. Wilson
Cover The Krst gas processing plant on
the west-coast of Norway is the largest
of its type in Europe. The installation
plays a key role in the transportation
and treatment of gas and condensate
(light oil) from important areas on the
Norwegian continental shelf. Thirty fields
are linked to Krst via pipelines. Every
day millions of cubic meters of gas and
non-stabilized condensate flow into the
plant, where the heavier components are
removed by separation. The remainder,
known as dry or sales gas, is exported by
pipeline to the Continent.
HPIMPACT
17 LCFS will adversely
affect oil-sands
crude refiners
17 US demand for
lubricants to reach 2.25
billion gallons in 2014
17 Linde supplying
hydrogen technology
to US BMW plant
18 Oil and gas reserves
increased 3 percent
in 2009
COLUMNS
9 HPIN RELIABILITY
Wire mesh vs. wire
size for temporary
strainers
11 HPIN EUROPE
Consultants stand
by need for
swingeing cuts
13 HPINTEGRATION
STRATEGIES
Future of the
collaborative process
automation system
15 HPI VIEWPOINT
Weighing on dual-
temperature control
86 HPIN WATER
MANAGEMENT
Utility water boot
camp for process
engineersPart 3
ENGINEERING CASE HISTORIES

81
Case 59: Heat-up rates and thermal cracking
A good analysis is usually better than speculation
T. Sofronas
DEPARTMENTS
7 HPIN BRIEF 23 HPINNOVATIONS 27 HPIN CONSTRUCTION
29 HPI CONSTRUCTION BOXSCORE UPDATE
82 HPI MARKETPLACE 85 ADVERTISER INDEX
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4

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I

7

BT@HydrocarbonProcessing.com
BILLY THINNES, NEWS EDITOR
HPIN BRIEF
Better gas
storage via MOFs
Natural gas-powered vehicles may
soon be able to travel double the dis-
tance on a single tankdue to metal
organic frameworks (MOFs). BASF
research scientists have developed an
innovative method for the solvent-
free industrial-scale manufacture of
those materials for better gas storage.
MOFs produced by the new method
are currently being trialed for natural
gas storage in heavy-duty vehicles.
With their special structure and
large surface area, MOFs open up new
opportunities for alternative propul-
sion systems, in catalysis, as nano-
reactors, and in drug delivery, mak-
ing them hugely interesting both for
industry and university research.
This substance class opens up
new areas of applications in mate-
rial science. We are delighted at this
significant advance in industrial-
scale production, which is a crucial
requirement for the commercial use
of these fascinating materials, said
Dr. Friedrich Seitz, head of research
chemicals at BASF.
BASF has been working toward
industrial-scale synthesis of metal-
organic frameworks for the past 10
years. MOFs are highly crystalline struc-
tures with nanometer-sized pores that
allow them to store hydrogen and
other high-energy gases. The larger
specific surface area and high porosity
on the nanometer scale enable MOFs
to hold relatively large amounts of
these gases. The pores are adjustable
in terms of size and polarity and so can
be fine-tuned for specific applications.
Used as storage materials in the
natural gas tanks of municipal util-
ity vehicles, MOFs offer a docking
area for gas molecules, which can
be stored in higher densities as a
result. The larger gas quantity in the
tank increases the vehicles range. An
advantage of the production method
developed by BASF is that it uses no
organic solvents. The simple method
gives a higher material yield from an
aqueous medium and is suitable for
existing BASF production plants.
MOFs were discovered toward the
end of the 1990s by US chemist Omar
M. Yaghi. HP
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has waived a
limitation on selling fuel that is more than 10% ethanol for model year 2007 and
newer cars and light trucks. The waiver applies to fuel that contains up to 15% etha-
nolknown as E15and only to model year 2007 and newer cars and light trucks.
This represents the first of a number of actions that are needed from federal, state and
industry towards commercialization of E15 gasoline blends. A decision on the use of
E15 in model year 2001 to 2006 vehicles will be made after EPA receives the results
of additional Department of Energy testing, which is expected to be completed in
November. However, no waiver is being granted this year for E15 use in model year
2000 and older cars and light trucksor in any motorcycles, heavy-duty vehicles or
non-road enginesbecause currently there is no testing data to support such a waiver.
Since 1979, up to 10% ethanol or E10 has been used for all conventional cars and
light trucks, and non-road vehicles.
GE has snapped up Dresser for a cool $3 billion. The deal includes
all of the Dresser businesses that provide products and services for compression, flow
technology, measurement and distribution infrastructure for customers in more than
150 countries. Dressers extensive, global-installed base of products generate aftermar-
ket service revenues in excess of 40% of total revenues. Morgan Stanley acted as the
exclusive financial advisor to Dresser on this transaction.
Strong Petrochemical Holdings Ltd. has entered into an exclusive
marketing agreement with Eurocontrol Technics Inc. Eurocontrol will appoint Strong
as the exclusive sole agent to market and sell Eurocontols Petromark fuel authentica-
tion system to potential customers in China, Hong Kong and other defined target
markets throughout Asia. This exclusive agreement is contracted for an initial period
of three years and is renewable for further periods of three years. Strong will act as the
exclusive sole agent, responsible for the marketing and sale of the products in the terri-
tories and Global Fluids International S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Eurocontrol,
will be responsible for the design and technical support to the consortium. Strong will
bring to the consortium its extensive business connections in the target markets with
participants in the petrochemical complex.
Petrofac has a contract with the government of Sharjah, UAE, to
take over operational responsibility and facilities management of the Sajaa gas plant
and related assets, located approximately 30 km from Sharjah, UAE. The five-year
contract was awarded following a competitive open bidding process and is worth
in excess of $250 million. The government of Sharjah, acting through the Sharjah
Petroleum Council, holds a 60% participating interest in the Sharjah gas and associ-
ated liquids concession.
Marathon Petroleum Co. LP (MPC) is selling most of its downstream
assets in Minnesota to ACON Investments, LLC, and TPG Capital, LP. ACON and
TPG formed Northern Tier Energy LLC to operate the assets as a stand-alone com-
pany. Included in the transaction will be the 74,000 bpd St. Paul Park refinery and
associated terminals, 166 SuperAmerica convenience stores (including six stores in
Wisconsin), SuperMoms LLC, SuperAmerica Franchising LLC, interests in pipeline
assets in Minnesota and associated inventories. The total sales value is approximately
$900 million, including Northern Tier preferred stock with a stated value of $80 mil-
lion. Approximately $300 million of the total sales value is for the inventories associ-
ated with these operations. The agreement also contains earnout and margin support
components where Marathon could receive up to an additional $125 million over eight
years or may be required to provide up to $60 million of margin support to the buyers,
subject to certain conditions. HP
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to Dubai is a good thing.
True.
Very true.
All of the above.

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HEINZ P. BLOCH, RELIABILITY/EQUIPMENT EDITOR
HPIN RELIABILITY
HB@HydrocarbonProcessing.com

I

9
Even an experienced reliability professional may find some
customary terminology dealing with wire gauge and wire mesh
to be confusing. Our HPIn Reliability column of April 2009
mentioned pump suction strainers made of 20-gauge wire mesh
and a few words about wire gauge will be helpful.
Wire gauge (also known under the alternative spelling wire
gage) is indicative of electrical wire diameter, with primary impli-
cations for allowable electric-current flow (amperes). According
to working tables published for Standard Annealed Solid Copper
Wire,
1
20-gauge wire has a diameter of 0.032 in. and, at about
40F, has a resistance of approximately 11 ohms per 1,000 ft of
length. While this months column has nothing to do with electric
current, we want to assume that the 20-gauge stainless-steel wire
we would like to see inside the three-mesh guard screen would be
woven from wire that has a diameter of 0.032 in.
The terms wire mesh and wire cloth are often used interchange-
ably. They denote a metal wire weave with its various implications
regarding available flow-through area as a percentage of the total
square inches of wire cloth area. Our April 2009 column meant
to recommend placing a wire mesh made from 20-gauge wire inside
a three-mesh guard screen.
So, to clarify: While wire mesh made from
1
32-in. wire is to be
placed inside a three-mesh guard screen, no 20-mesh wire cloth is
involved. The three-mesh guard screen is usually recommended
for temporary strainers to reinforce a finer mesh.
Three-mesh means wire cloth (or guard screen in the illus-
tration published in April 2009). On a piece of paper, that would
be three wires per in. in the x-direction (left-to-right) and three
wires-per-in. in the y-direction (up-and-down). Similarly, eight
mesh would be eight wires in the x-direction and eight wires in
the y-direction; or 200 mesh would be 200 wires in the x-direction
and 200 wires in the y-direction, etc.
In a three-mesh screen there are, therefore, 3 x 3 = 9 openings.
In a three-mesh screen, the distance from the center of one
wire to the center of an adjacent wire is
1
3 in., or 0.333 in.
One manufacturer
2
of wire cloth offers three-mesh cloth
made with wires ranging from 0.031 in. to 0.162 in.in each case,
there would be nine openings and the distance from the center of a
wire to the center of an adjacent wire would always be 0.333 in.
If one were to pick the 0.162-in. thick wire, one would have
greater strength than if one picked the 0.031-in. wire.
Likewise, if one picked the 0.162-in. wire diameter, the
resulting open area would only be 26%; whereas, if one selected
the 0.03-in. wire diameter, there would be an 82% open area.
For temporary strainers in process pump piping, one would
pick a three-mesh guard screen with a wire diameter of about
0.135 in. To reiterate, the wire-to-wire center distance would be
0.333 in. and there would be nine openings. The wire-cloth manu-
facturers tables (obtained from the Internet
2
) for this diameter give
an opening width of 0.198 in. (remember that opening width plus
wire diameter equals 0.333 in.). The tables also tell us that we have
~35% of the area open for liquid flow and ~65% of the area would
be taken up by the 0.135-in. diameter guard screen wires.
Next, one would determine the wire mesh utilizing the
20-gauge wires. That particular wire cloth, to be placed inside
the three-mesh guard screen, should use 20-gauge wire. Reference
2 shows the related wire diameter (0.032 in.) in the middle of a
six-mesh table. The openings are 0.1347 in., and adding the two
numbers gives us 0.1667 in.six squares per in.
Using the above information and Fig. 1 will equip us to ask
a draftsman to design a pointed conethe three-mesh guard
screenwith a surface area about three times that of the pipe or
spool piece cross-sectional area. The six-mesh metal cloth would go
on the inside of the cone and only then could we call it a strainer.
On any permanent strainer installation, it would be wise
to monitor the delta-p (the pressure drop) between the mesh
upstream and downstream sides. Clogged strainers can cause seri-
ous machine malfunction and costly damage. HP
LITERATURE CITED
1
Marks Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, 7th Edition (1969),
McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, New York.
2
www.mcnichols.com/products/wiremesh.
Wire mesh vs. wire size for temporary strainers
The author is Hydrocarbon Processings Equipment/Reliability Editor. A practic-
ing consulting engineer with close to 50 years of applicable experience, he advises
process plants worldwide on failure analysis, reliability improvement and main-
tenance cost-avoidance topics. He has authored or coauthored 17 textbooks on
machinery reliability improvement and over 470 papers or articles.
90
Identication tab at
top for raised-face
anges. Mount on
ange bolts.
Mount mesh made from
20-gauge wire inside
a three-mesh guard
screen and stagger the
longitudinal seams.
Both sides of strainer
ange must be free of
gouges, weld spatter
or other imperfections
that might impair proper
gasket sealing.
Install gasket on each
side of strainer ange.
12-gauge x 1-in. wide
identication tab.
12-gauge
ASTM A
167 type
316
1-in.
-in.
-in.
See detail A
Preferred ow
direction
Strainer assembly
Screen section
Detail A
Strainer screen
Screen seam
Spool piece
Temporary strainer for pump suction piping. FIG. 1
For more information about UOP, visit www.uop.com
2010 UOP. All Rights Reserved.
rening your prot
UOP helps you exceed your goals with innovative technology,
catalysts and optimization solutions specically designed to
meet your needs.
UOP hydroprocessing solutions and optimization services are designed to help
you maximize your return on investment and grow your business. As regional
market demands shift, we provide the process technologies, catalysts and
services that will meet your changing business needs. Our experts work closely
with you to meet your desired yields and product specications including
ultra-low sulfur diesel standards while improving your operational efciency.
Backed by over 50 years of hydroprocessing innovations, UOP offers the best and most advanced solutions
to keep your business one step ahead.
TIM LLOYD WRIGHT, EUROPEAN EDITOR
HPIN EUROPE
tim.wright@gulfpub.com

I

11

In November 2009, I wrote about how the worlds down-
stream consultants seemed almost to be vying to ring up the
most pessimistic prognosis for refinery closures. A year on,
theres little to suggest they were off the mark. Talking to one of
them today, theyre just as bearish as they were then. You may
recall that JBC Energy in Vienna told me last year that 2.8 mil-
lion bpd (MMbpd) of European refinery capacity must close.
By February of this year, they increased that estimate by nearly
600,000 bd.
How much to cut? From its work for OPEC, the US consult-
ing group, Ensys said that 10 MM bpd of cuts would be required
to bring global utilization rates up to 85% by 2020. Energy Mar-
ket Consultants (EMC) in London, part of Facts Global Energy,
had perhaps the most dire warning, putting the level of necessary
reductions at 11 MMbpd by 2020.
This was when I asked Leif Nilsson, the canny trading man-
ager at Preem, by then specializing in storing up oil for better
times ahead, for his advice for refiners. Margins are going to be
bleak, he said. Just try and sit it out.
Margins are still bleak. Margins have come back some
since the depths of the economic crash last year, but theyre still
way below the pre-crash glory days. EMCs variable cost FCC
margin is hovering around $1.50/bbl, and, with some cuts of the
barrel, it is heavily negative. Refiners have clearly concluded that
they need to take action to reduce their exposure.
Shell has announced the closure of one site, albeit at the far
extent of the Atlantic Basin in Montreal. It has successfully con-
cluded the sale of a German site, Heide, to a private investor, and
is said now to be in exclusive talks to sell its Gothenburg, Sweden
refinery to a Finnish company with fuel retailing interests.
In its most recent results presentation to analysts, Total
reiterated its plans to reduce its refining output by 500,000
bpd by 2011. There was, however, no new information on its
long-standing effort to sell the UK Lindsay refinery, or its UK
retail network. Meanwhile, Totals abortive attempt to negotiate
redundancies and the closure of its Dunkirk, France, refinery are
thought to be what has given some potential investors in Europes
downstream industry pause for thought.
I hear that Essar of Indias team, which has been looking
over key assets like the 246,000-bpd Shell Stanlow refinery, got
itchy feet after watching, as on June 30, a French court ordered
Total to restart its Dunkirk refinery within 15 days, or face a
100,000 fine.
Hope floats. There are some small signs of light at the end
of this dark tunnel. For one thing, a key distillate market is in
flux. Heating oil futures have been in contango since the massive
demand destruction that accompanied the 2008 money supply
crisis. With no buyers now, futures markets have consistently
reflected premiums for oil delivered in the future. Its a bearish,
rather than optimistic, signal, suggesting a belief that things can
only get better because theyre so bad now.
In just the last few days, as I write, that structure has flipped
around, although just for the coming months before winter. Sud-
denly and admittedly compared to a very low baseline, Europe
is the top destination for surplus cargoes of distillate. A surge
of opportunistic vessel fixtures this week indicated that US and
Asian traders and refiners, as predicted in my October column
incidentally, are attempting to capture some of a $17/metric ton
spread between European ULSD/50-ppm heating oil and spot
prices in the US.
Reflecting the improved demand, the OPIS Spot Northwest
Europe Gasoil Cargoes to Brent Crude crack averaged $11.24/
bbl for the first three weeks of September this year, compared to
$5.74/bbl for the same three weeks a year earlier.
Still too much spare capacity. So when I spoke to Roy
Jordan at EMC this week, I asked if he thought the reversed
market structure was indeed a sign that things are on the up for
European refiners. Unfortunately, youve got to see it in the con-
text of a structural surplus of gasoline and an inability to export
to the US, he said. Yes, that heating oil crack is improved, but
you have to see it against very weak fuel, gasoline and naphtha
cracks. Jordan says that the heating oil market, itself driven to a
great extent by diesel demand, is Europes essential oil. Take that
profitable cut away from European refiners, and they might as
well shut up shop altogether, he suggests.
EMCs view of the recent backwardation? Weve got it
down to the refinery maintenance season, he says. And so, as
EMC prepares new figures for a forthcoming refining outlook,
I asked Jordan if EMC is sticking to its guns on the need for
cuts. When I last spoke to EMC, they were estimate a need for
7 MMbpd of reductions by 2015, with a further 4 MMbpd
necessary by 2020.
Theres no retreat since then, says Jordan. Were more con-
firmed than ever. The spare capacity is enormous and margins
are not recovering. HP
The author is HPs European Editor and also a specialist in European distillate
markets. He has been active as a reporter and conference chair in the European
downstream industry since 1997, before which he was a feature writer and reporter
for the UK broadsheet press and BBC radio. Mr. Wright lives in Sweden and is the
founder of a local climate and sustainability initiative.
Consultants stand by need for massive capacity cuts
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I

13
Larry OBrien is part of the automation consulting team at ARC covering the
process industries, and an HP contributing editor. He is responsible for tracking the
market for process automation systems (PASs) and has authored the PAS market stud-
ies for ARC since 1998. Mr. OBrien has also authored many other market research,
strategy and custom research reports on topics including process fieldbus, collaborative
partnerships, total automation market trends and others. He has been with ARC since
January 1993, and started his career with market research in the field instrumentation
markets.
dwoll@arcwb.com
DAVE WOLL AND LARRY OBRIEN, CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Future of the collaborative process automation system
ARC conceived the Collaborative Process Automation Systems
(CPAS) in 2002 in response to DCS end users requests for us to
provide a vision of how process automation systems should evolve.
Clients and others continue to ask ARC where the automation
market is headed. The DCS came on the scene in 1975 and smart
field devices arrived about five years later. Since then, ARC has
observed incremental innovation, but nothing revolutionary.
With this in mind, we recast the request for ARCs view into the
future as an effort to identify innovation we think the market
needs to consider in the near future.
*
Smart field devices are not smart enough. At present,
50% to 75% of field-device downtime is caused by lack of confi-
dence in the measurements. The current generation of smart field
devices is capable of communicating basic device diagnostics along
with the measurements. While this has been acceptable in many
industries, we would also like to see quantitative measurements
of the relative health of a device and, if there is an issue, how long
the device will continue to operate dependably.
When will distributed control become truly distrib-
uted? Manufacturing challenges are changing, and automation
must change to stay in control. We now deal with a high degree of
uncertainty in an increasingly dynamic environment. Manufactur-
ing assets continue to become more costly to purchase. Expansions
to existing manufacturing assets are expensive, and existing assets
almost impossible to replace. While automation can be viewed as
a solution to a certain degree, these systems could provide more.
What have been dubbed distributed control systems in the past
are really not all that distributed, since, to a large degree, they still
tie functional requirements to architectural constraints.
Future requirements need intelligent agents. Manu-
facturing challenges continue to change, and the current IEC
61131-3 standard will not be able to satisfy the execution seman-
tics and new requirements for a truly distributed and flexible
automation system.
The Technical Committee 65 received a new work proposal
(NWP) to standardize application of function block software
modules in distributed industrial-process measurement and con-
trol systems. The resulting standard, IEC 61499, will facilitate
the manufacturing agents that will shape the next-generation
automation systems.
Multi-vendor control. The technology exists (or is certainly
feasible) to make the basic control system a multi-supplier struc-
ture. For example, if the control system LAN were based on
FOUNDATION fieldbus HSE, then just like field instruments
can come from different suppliers, the process controllers could
also come from different suppliers.
Online version upgrade. Process automation system sup-
plier has at least one major version release every year. Unlike a
maintenance release, a version release usually requires the system
to be taken out of service (thus interrupting production).
With most of todays systems, its possible to perform a two-
step version hot upgrade without shutting down by loading the
new version into the redundant side, then committing the new
software to the primary side of the system and the process. We
feel that this is unreasonably risky and only marginally practical.
We feel a three-step approach where the changes can be validated
is reasonable.
Business-to-operations integration. Normally, integrat-
ing two different systems, especially systems as diverse as a business
and manufacturing system, can be complex and difficult. This is
where Reference Standards can make a major contribution. Their
primary value is that they contain well-understood and well-doc-
umented work processes that lead to handing off proper informa-
tion. Several years ago, several senior practitioners on the business
and manufacturing sides recognized the value of integrating Supply
Chain Management Consortium reference model (SCOR) with
the manufacturing reference model, ISA-95, and have began to
address the problem.
Application executive of the future. The application
executive, a core CPAS function, monitors the health of applica-
tions running in a collaborative and synchronized manner with
other applications, the system itself, and the personnel using the
system. Today, this is accomplished largely in an environment
combining proprietary structures, de facto standards and enabling
technologies.
One potential scenario for the future of the application environ-
ment is to have this completely based on standards such that no
single supplier has to own the environment or platform for it to
function properly. In this future vision, the user would purchase
applications from the supplier that provided the best fit for the
required functions. It would be loaded into the system and would
auto-configure to adapt to the operating system, communications
protocols, and whatever hardware requirements are present. HP
*
Note: Readers can visit www.arcweb.com/res/cpas for more
information on ARCs latest research into CPAS.
Larry OBrien is part of the automation consulting team at ARC covering the
process industries. He is responsible for tracking the market for process automation
systems (PASs) and has authored the PAS market studies for ARC since 1998.
Dave Woll is a vice president of consulting at the ARC Advisory Group. He has
been associated with defining and applying process automation for over 35 years.
Mr. Woll is currently focused on assisting major users developing their process auto-
mation system strategies.
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Tim Lloyd Wright is HPs European Editor and has been active as a reporter
and conference chair in the European downstream industry since 1997, before
which he was a feature writer and reporter for the UK broadsheet press and BBC
radio. Mr. Wright lives in Sweden and is founder of a local climate and sustainability
initiative.

I

15

Id like to weigh in again on the continuing debate regarding
distillation column control.
14
Attention has now turned to the
practicality of dual temperature control,which is the simultaneous
control of temperature on both the overhead and bottoms of a dis-
tillation column, typically with top temperature cascaded to reflux
flow and bottom temperature cascaded to reboiler heat input.
My short answer agrees with Zak Friedman: Beware, all ye who
wander here! Attempting dual-temperature control is most often
undertaken by those oblivious to its perils. Industry is littered
with its wreckage in the form of columns configured for dual-
temperature control, but with one of the controls abandoned
either the reflux or reboiler is operated in automatic or manual
mode, not cascaded. This is unfortunate from both composition
control and energy conservation points of view.
The lesson from all the wreckage (and from this debate) is that
successful dual-temperature control takes more preparation than
most casual control strategy reconfigurations get. Appropriate
preparation in this case would include a rigorous simulation of the
several variables that affect overall separation because dual-temper-
ature control really means controlling one temperature plus overall
separation (think -temperature between the top and bottom).
For practical purposes, separation is usually considered con-
stant. When Mr. Shinskey or Mr. Friedman points out that a one-
degree change in bottom temperature will result in approximately
a one-degree change in the overhead (-temperature remains the
same), this is another way of saying the same thing. If separation
is constant, it cannot be controlled, and therein is the problem
that many people fail to realize, at least initially. To the extent that
overall separation does vary, it is usually due to uncontrollable fac-
tors, such as feedrate and quality, rather than controllable ones.
That said, if you have the luxury of controlling feed or a feed
analyzer, responsive pressure control, which affects vapor veloc-
ity and tray efficiency, ) excess stages, a reliable simulation, good
operators and economic or equipment limitations that prohibit
doing the split in two columns, then perhaps dual-temperature
control is worth a try. Thats my long answer, which more agrees
with Shinskey, and which can be shortened to: if it must be done,
it might be possible!
A third answer worth mentioning is that the traditional solu-
tion (or compromise) to this dilemma is to put one temperature
control on the top or bottom (whichever purity is the higher prior-
ity or harder to achieve) and operate the other end of the column on
ratio control. This results in good stability, depending on feed and
other variables, and keeps energy consumption in check. The ratio
is usually reboiler heat-to-feed (when top temperature is controlled)
or reflux-to-feed (when bottom temperature is controlled).
The latter option (reflux ratio) has a couple material balance
risks. If all the light material is not removed with the distillate, it
can accumulate in the overhead and lead to erratic pressure and
temperature behavior. Its possible to run the reflux drum empty.
There are no such limitations with the former option (reboiler
ratio), and indeed, it is probably the single most common (success-
ful) column control configuration in the industry. Its not as good
as the grail of stable dual-temperature control, and is a good mea-
sure better than running the reflux or reboiler at a fixed setpoint,
both in terms of constant separation and energy conservation.
Yet another answer is special cases. On columns that have
side-draws, additional boil-up does not ultimately return as reflux,
so dual-temperature control can work well. This is well known on
main fractionators that often have several temperature control-
lerstop, bottom and side-draws. Occasionally, side-draws are
found in other processes on true distillation columns, as well.
Another special case, although its also a trick answer, is dual-
temperature control where the would-be-ratio controller is replaced
with a proportional-only temperature controller with feedforward
signal. This provides for minor adjustment based on temperature
deviation, but without the integral action that leads to wind-up
and instability (although it is still easy to get instability if gain is
set too large). The feedforward signal serves the role of the original
ratio control. In my experience, this does not improve matters
noticeably, but it can please other stakeholders (who dont get
the limitations) to see the controller at least make an effort, and
it makes it easy to switch between top and bottom ratio control,
especially without impacting data historians, documentation and
graphics, since the temperature control tags persist either way.
A final point in the debate has been model-based multivari-
able control (MPC) and whether it changes the game. Arguably,
where dual-temperature control is feasible, model-based control
has a better shot of keeping it in the window, based on its aware-
ness of all the variables affecting separation (not just the relative
gains of the two temperature controllers). But my experience is
that neither MPC nor inferentials (which are essentially tempera-
tures) change the (un)likelihood of success and many late-model
MPCs exhibit similar modern day wreckage in the form of the
reflux or reboiler MVs that are clamped or out-of-service.
Some things never change! HP
LITERATURE CITED
1
Friedman, Y. Z., Distillation column dual-temperature control,
Hydrocarbon Processing, MarchApril, 2010, (letters, August
2010).
2
Kern, A. G., More on APC designs for minimum maintenance, Hydrocarbon
Processing, December 2009.
3
Friedman, Y. Z., APC designs for minimum maintenance,Hydrocarbon
Processing, JuneAugust, 2009 (and letter by P. R. Latour, October 2009).
4
Greg, F., Multivariable control of distillation, ControlGlobal.com, MayJuly,
2009.
Weighing on dual-temperature control
Allan.Kern@yahoo.com
ALLAN KERN, GUEST COLUMNIST
HPI VIEWPOINT
The author has 30 years of process control experience and has authored sev-
eral papers on inferentials, expert systems, advanced controls and decision support
systems, with emphasis on practical process control effectiveness. Mr. Kern is a
professional engineer (inactive), a senior member of ISA, and a 1981 graduate of
the University of Wyoming.
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HPIMPACT
LCFS will adversely affect
oil-sands crude refiners
Purvin & Gertz, Inc., has released
a report on the effect low-carbon-fuel
standards (LCFS) will have on oil sands.
The report notes that LCFS programs
are being implemented in California,
Oregon and British Columbia. They
are under consideration in many other
states and provinces and are becoming
regional in nature. LCFS programs dif-
fer by jurisdiction, but have in common
mandated reductions in the carbon inten-
sity of transportation fuels. By targeting
petroleum-derived gasoline and diesel and
promoting low-carbon alternative energy
forms such as electricity, hydrogen, natu-
ral gas and next generation biofuels, LCFS
programs are intended to reduce overall
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on a
well-to-wheels basis.
In effect, LCFS programs contribute to
an off-oil strategy, said Tom Wise, who
directed the study.
The energy needed to produce oil
sands crudes is higher than for most con-
ventional crudes, so the resulting carbon
intensities of refinery-produced gasoline
and diesel from oil sands are also higher.
Tom Wise points out it is a mistake to
paint all oil sands crudes with the same
brush because there are different oil sands
crudes, such as synthetic crude oil and
bitumen blended with various diluents,
and each has a different pathway and car-
bon intensity.
Contrary to widely held perceptions,
our study concludes that some oil sands
diluted bitumen does not have high carbon
intensity under the California regulations
and should not carry an LCFS penalty,
Mr. Wise said.
The Purvin & Gertz study estimates
the well-to-wheels carbon intensities of
refinery-produced gasoline and diesel from
various oil sands and conventional crude
oils. The study estimates the impact on
consumer product prices, refinery mar-
gins and oil sands crude prices, for a range
of LCFS carbon costs. In market regions
that implement LCFS programs, consumer
product prices will increase and refinery
margins will fall.
Some of the oil-sands crudes would
require price discounts to compete with
conventional crudes due to a reduced incen-
tive to refine or upgrade heavy crudes, said
Mr. Wise.
Further, reduced crude runs in market
regions with LCFS programs could result
in refinery closures and displace oil sands
crudes to other markets. For instance,
LCFS programs in the US Midwest would
cause leakage of oil sands crudes to the US
Gulf Coast or Asia-Pacific.
US demand for lubricants
to reach 2.25 billion
gallons in 2014
US demand for lubricants is forecast
to expand 1.3% annually to 2.25 billion
gallons in 2014, valued at $22 billion.
This represents a significant improvement
over the performance of the 20042009
period, when lubricant demand declined
5% annually. A turnaround in motor
vehicle production, along with an accel-
eration in the number of automobiles in
use, will support demand for automotive
lubricants. Additionally, increased manu-
facturing output will drive demand for
industrial lubricants. However, total lubri-
cant consumption is not expected to reach
pre-recession levels. This will largely be
due to the greater use of longer-lasting,
higher-performing synthetic lubricants
that extend drain intervals, therefore
reducing overall lubricant requirements
in volume terms. Average price increases
will continue to be significant due to
expected growth in crude oil prices and a
shift in product mix toward higher-value
lubricants. These and other trends are pre-
sented in a new study from The Freedonia
Group, Inc.
Engine oils accounted for more than half
of total US lubricant demand in volume
terms during 2009. A significant rebound
in motor vehicle output following the dou-
ble-digit annual declines of the 20042009
period will propel engine oil demand in
the factory-fill segment. However, this rep-
resents only a small fraction of engine oil
demand, and the overall outlook for these
products will be restricted by lengthening
oil change intervals and the use of high
performance synthetic lubricants. As such,
aftermarket demand will decline, with the
do-it-yourself segment continuing to lose
out to do-it-for-me services, a trend that
stalled in 2008 and 2009 as drivers sought
out more economical alternatives for their
vehicle service needs during difficult eco-
nomic times.
Process oilsincluding white oils,
rubber oils, electrical oils, ink oils, agri-
cultural spray oils and defoamer oilsrep-
resent another leading lubricant category.
Demand for these products is forecast to
advance at the most rapid pace, promoted
by rebounding manufacturing activity fol-
lowing the real (inflation-adjusted) declines
of the 20042009 period. In particular, an
improved outlook for food and beverages,
chemicals, plastics and rubber will offer
good growth opportunities. However, pro-
cess oils will continue to encounter chal-
lenges brought about by changing environ-
mental and regulatory standards.
Linde supplying
hydrogen technology
to US BMW plant
The Linde Group will provide the
BMW Manufacturing Co. plant in Spar-
tanburg, South Carolina, with a hydrogen
fueling system for its material-handling
fleet. An according agreement was signed
in mid-August 2010. More than 85 pieces
of material-handling equipment are hav-
ing their lead acid batteries replaced with
hydrogen fuel cells. The trucks deliver
process parts to assembly areas throughout
the plant. After the conversion, this part of
BMWs internal logistics will be completely
emission-free.
This is one of the largest hydrogen
applications of its kind, said Dr. Andreas
Opfermann, head of innovation manage-
ment of The Linde Group. We are proud
to work together with BMW, supplying
both a high-efficiency fueling system and
hydrogen with almost no carbon footprint.
This project clearly shows the potential that
hydrogen offers for internal logistics.
Refueling at the six indoor dispenser
stations will be facilitated by Lindes ionic
compressor fueling system, combining
efficiency and high throughput with low-
HPIMPACT
18
maintenance costs and low noise compres-
sion. The hydrogen supplied to BMW, a
byproduct from a chemical plant, is puri-
fied, compressed and liquefied by Linde
using electricity produced from renewable
hydropower.
We have a clear vision and we are deter-
mined to reach our goal of using renewable
energy as much as possible throughout the
plant site, said Josef Kerscher, president of
BMW Manufacturing. We realize this is
an ambitious goal and the hydrogen fuel
cell project puts us another step toward ful-
filling our vision.
BMW is able to boost productivity
in two ways: Refueling these trucks with
hydrogen takes an operator less than three
minutes, compared with about 20 minutes
to change out a battery. These units, when
full, run on 2 kilogram fuel tanks and oper-
ate for 810 hours. Also, fuel cells do not
lose power over time, as lead-acid batteries
do toward the end of a shift. BMW is also
able to reduce its total electricity demand,
since no battery recharging is required, and
eliminate the environmental disposal costs
for lead acid batteries.
Oil and gas reserves
increased 3 percent
in 2009
The worldwide upstream investment of
224 oil and gas companies decreased 23%
to $378 billion in 2009, according to a
report released by IHS Herold. Although
development spending fell nearly 20%, the
first decline in a decade, total hydrocarbon
reserves increased 3% as both oil and gas
reserves grew for the first time since 2005.
Production also increased 1%, driven by a
2.2% increase in natural gas output.
We were very surprised at the strength
of reserve additions given the weak eco-
nomic conditions and tightness in credit
markets during 2009, said Nicholas Cac-
chione, director of IHS Herold and author
of the report. As an industry, we spent
fewer dollars, but they went further in
terms of purchasing power.
Oil reserves reversed a two-year decline,
rising 3% to 164 billion barrels. The main
driver was 8.6 billion barrels in positive
reserve additions, but extensions and dis-
coveries in the Canadian oil sands and
South and Central America also added
a record 7.9 billion barrels. Natural gas
reserves climbed 3.7% despite a record 11.4
trillion cf in negative reserve revisions, as
development of unconventional plays in
North America and liquefied natural gas
(LNG) resources in Asia accelerated.
The decline in capital spending was led
by a 40% reduction by E&P companies,
while the integrated oil companies cut
investment by just 9%. Exploration spend-
ing was most resilient, dropping just 12%
to $62.7 billion. In contrast, unproved
acquisition costs were down 71%, and
a 2% dip in proved acquisition outlays
would have fallen 50% were it not for the
$20 billion Suncor/Petro-Canada merger.
With the recession and ongoing uncer-
tainty in the market last year, companies
put acreage acquisition on hold and seemed
to focus on their in-house development
opportunities, said Mr. Cacchione. This
decision, I think, reflected their desires
to monetize known holdings that can be
brought into production much more rap-
idly than something with a less certain pay-
out several years down the road.
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Lower capital spending and higher
reserves resulted in a near 50% decrease in
reserve replacement costs (to $11.41/boe)
and lowered finding and development costs
to $12.23/boe. Strong natural gas reserve
additions led reserve replacement rates to
the highest levels in five years.
Despite the strong performance metrics,
upstream profits plunged 47% as a 13%
decline in pre-tax expenses did not offset a
30% reduction in revenues. The integrated
oil companies accounted for 85% of the
universes profit with the E&P companies
accounting for the balance. Reserve write-
downs slashed net income for the large E&P
companies and drove the mid-sized and
small E&P companies to a loss. However,
the industry generated free cash flow due to
the steep decline in capital investment.
The IHS Herold report found that
dividends rose modestly to another record
level, which it noted is remarkable given
the turmoil in the financial markets and
the generally miserable results in the indus-
trys downstream operations. Dividends
exceeded $100 billion, but common share
repurchases were 23% lower, falling for the
first time since 2004. Capital constraints
brought about by reduced revenue and ris-
ing costs have almost completely eliminated
share buybacks as a viable use of funds.
Key regional findings of the report
include:
Strong drill-bit additions aided
improving results for reserve replacement
costs and rates in the US. Unit profitabil-
ity declined for the fourth consecutive
year. Mineable bitumen reserve additions
in Canada offset weak natural gas reserve
additions. Profits were down sharply in
Canada as well.
Oil and gas reserves in Europe con-
tinued to decline as companies redirect
cash flows to other regions. The reserve
replacement rate reached a five-year high
through improving reserve additions,
but the region was still below full reserve
replacement figures.
Capital spending in the Africa and
Middle East regions was down 14%, which
was much less than the worldwide average.
This drop in spending is due to regional
dominance by the integrated oil compa-
nies, that tend to spend through the com-
modity cycles.
Asia-Pacific reserves gained 3% as nat-
ural gas extensions and discoveries surged.
Reserve replacement rates in the region
were well above full replacement levels.
Capital spending in South and Cen-
tral America increased since regional play-
ers have strong development portfolios to
exploit. Total reserves in the region increased
3%, the first gain in several years.
An uptick in proved acquisition spend-
ing limited total capital spending decline to
17% in the Russia/Caspian region, while
drill-bit spending outlays fell 22%. Pro-
duction in the region increased 18%, with
strong results from both oil and gas output.
IHS Herold anticipates a modest global
rebound in upstream capital spending in
2010.
In North America, E&P investment
increased 30% in the first half of 2010,
which was higher than expected, Mr.
Cacchione said. We think this should
drive a global investment increase of more
than 20% for the year. Outside of North
America, where spending declines were less
severe, we foresee upstream investment ris-
ing about 10%. HP
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HPINNOVATIONS

I

23
SELECTED BY HYDROCARBON PROCESSING EDITORS
editorial@gulfpub.com
New FCC catalyst announced
Grace Davison has released a new fluid
catalytic cracking catalyst technology called
Alcyon. This catalyst reflects Graces con-
tinuing commitment to delivering a broad
portfolio of FCC catalysts and additives.
Alcyon is designed for applications that
require maximum activity and controlling
coke make.
Alcyon catalyst contains a proprietary
zeolite modification that delivers the high-
est activity of any catalytic technology
with a low surface area per kinetic conver-
sion. An added benefit of the new zeolite
is superior activity retention that has been
verified in field performance. At constant
surface area, Alcyon is more active than
a traditional catalyst; thus it requires less
catalyst-to-oil (C/O) ratios to achieve
desired conversion levels and products.
This new FCC catalyst uses improved
access to active sites with increased crack-
ing rates per active site.
It is the latest of 11 new refining prod-
ucts introduced since 2008 by our research
and development group, commented
Shawn Abrams, vice president and general
manager of Grace Davison Refining Tech-
nologies. Like all our FCC catalysts and
additives, Alcyon catalysts revolutionary
technology and performance are supported
by our strong technical service and flexible
manufacturing system.
Alcyon is particularly well suited for
refiners looking to reoptimize unit opera-
tion to maximize profitability, yet remain
within operating limits. For any given coke
yield, Alcyon catalyst achieves higher con-
version, maximizing total FCC barrels to
the refinery gasoline pool.
Collaboration improves
emergency valve performance
ABB, the leading power and automa-
tion technology group, announced that it
will collaborate with Dresser Masoneilan,
a global leader in process control valves,
on an integrated process to monitor, test
and manage emergency shutdown valves
(ESDVs) during all operational condi-
tions, from normal plant operations to
abnormal situations. These valves are cru-
cial process elements for the oil, gas and
petrochemical industries, as well as for
many other industrial processes.
Our collaboration with industry lead-
ers like Dresser Masoneilan helps us to
offer our mutual customers best-in-class
safety solutions that will protect the integ-
rity of their processes and the surrounding
community, said Luis Duran, Americas
business development manager for Safety
Systems, ABB.
The combined solution leverages the
capabilities of ABBs 800xA high-integ-
rity safety instrumented system (SIS)
and Masoneilans SVI II emergency shut-
down device (ESD) and PST controller to
improve overall plant safety and increase
the availability of ESDVs for optimal
response of the isolation valve in emer-
gency situations. This integration also sim-
plifies safety compliance by automatically
recording partial stroke test results and
emergency shutdown events, saving time
and money while increasing efficiency.
By taking advantage of System 800xAs
unique integration capabilities and open
standards, the user has immediate access
to the health diagnostics and status of the
emergency shutdown valve. This access
also provides proactive management of
this critical device, for instance, enabling
remote triggering of partial stroke tests,
to ensure that it is ready to perform when
needed, said Kristian Olsson, manager of
ABBs Safety Center of Excellence. This
immediate readiness is vital to the protec-
tion of the process, the environment and
the surrounding community in the event
of an abnormal situation.
As an integrated object within System
800xA, Masoneilans SVI II ESD device
can be configured to perform scheduled
partial valve stroke tests while remotely
monitoring and maintaining the emer-
gency shutdown valves during normal
plant operations. This minimizes the need
for outages and downtime to evaluate the
health and readiness of these critical pro-
cess elements. This also provides easy-to-
understand alerts and recommendations
regarding valve status, as well as required
partial stroke test and emergency shutdown
signatures and documentation.
While open standards offer great ben-
efits for end users, it is the collaboration
between automation vendors that provides
for an out-of-the-box solution capable
of generating instant results, said Sandro
Esposito, global marketing manager of dig-
ital products for Dresser Masoneilan. The
SVI II ESD provides an excellent return on
investment with its combined shutdown
function, partial stroke test function and
shutdown event blackbox into a single
SIL3-certified device.
The SVI II ESD is the latest technology
in emergency shutdown valve automation
and in-service valve partial stroke testing.
The SVI II ESD is the only SIL3-certi-
fied ESD certified at 4mA with stainless
steel housing. The device can be imple-
mented using a 4/20mA signal (analog
safety demand), 0-24Vdc (discrete safety
demand) or a combination of both. Stan-
dard on the device are an LCD display
and explosion-proof external pushbut-
tons. This design architecture offers a
sophisticated platform while being Type
A (simplex device) compliant. System
800xA high integrity is ABBs next gen-
eration safety system. This SIL 3-rated SIS
provides the highest level of integration
of safety and control on the market and
a unique embedded diverse technology
architecture that provides superior protec-
tion of the process, plant, personnel and
the environment while it optimizes overall
process efficiency.
Gasoline benzene reduction
alkylation catalytic technology
Today, more stringent regulation is
challenging refiners to meet the tighten-
ing gasoline specifications for benzene at
As HP editors, we hear about new
products, patents, software, pro-
cesses, services, etc., that are true
industry innovationsa cut above the
typical product offerings. This sec-
tion enables us to highlight these
significant developments. For more
information from these companies,
please go to our website at www.
HydrocarbonProcessing.com/rs and
select the reader service number.
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HPINNOVATIONS

25
the lowest cost and without significant
octane loss. For instance, the US Environ-
mental Protection Agencys most recent
clean fuels regulations (Mobile Source
Air Toxics II) require refineries to reduce
benzene to less than 0.62 vol% (on an
annual basis) in gasoline by 2011, from
its current level of 1.0 vol%.
The limits apply to both reformu-
lated and conventional gasoline. Sources
of benzene in the gasoline pool vary for
each refinery; the predominant source for
most is reformate. Benzene reduction in
reformate can be achieved by either the
removal of benzene precursors before they
are converted to benzene in the reformer,
or by post-removal of benzene in the
reformate product by chemical conver-
sion of benzene or by removal with frac-
tionation.
EMRE developed BenzOUT, a refor-
mate alkylation technology, to convert
benzene into high-octane alkylaromatic
compounds (such as isopropylbenzene)
for gasoline blending by reacting a ben-
zene-rich stream with light olefins such
as propylene in low-value olefin streams.
This patented technology avoids the
octane loss and hydrogen consumption
associated with the alternative option of
benzene saturation.
BenzOUT is a refining process based on
ExxonMobils ethylbenzene and cumene
technologies, which have been widely
used in the chemical industry with over
80 worldwide commercial applications.
In addition, EMREs BenzOUT tech-
nology was commercially demonstrated
at a North American refinery. BenzOUT
reduces benzene by reacting a benzene
concentrate stream with a light olefin-
containing stream such as LPG over a
proprietary catalyst. Typically, a benzene
concentrate ranging from 10% to 50% is
processed.
Key features of the process include:
Fixed-bed catalyst technologyThis
process uses a simple fixed bed reactor.
In revamp projects it is possible to ret-
rofit existing polygas tubular/chamber
reactors or spare reformer reactors for this
application.
CatalystThis process utilizes a pro-
prietary solid acid catalyst with long cycle
lengths. It possesses high catalyst activity
and allows long catalyst cycle life. In addi-
tion, the catalyst is completely regenerable
ex-situ to further extend catalyst life.
Feed requirement This process requires
conventional feed pretreatment for the
olefin streams to remove potential contami-
nants such as sulfur and nitrogen species.
Some process advantages include:
Benzene reductionReduction of ben-
zene content in the gasoline pool to meet
new benzene regulation. High benzene
conversion can be achieved.
Gasoline volume swellUpgrading of
light olefins and benzene into high-octane
gasoline blend stock also results in a vol-
ume swell of the gasoline volume. The
specific volume swell will be dependent
on the feed composition and level of ben-
zene conversion.
Octane gain25 numbers of (R+M)/2
increase is typical. The specific octane gain
depends on the feed composition.
Reformer flexibility for increased hydrogen
production.
Do all safety valves open
simultaneously?
Dynamic Simulation following the API
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accounting for the real transient beha-
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or scheduled blow-downs.
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emergency and blow-down behaviour for:
Dynamic flare load calculations
Dynamic blow-down / depressuring calculations
Flare System debottlenecking
Recalculation of safety systems / HIPPS
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Gran Via de Carles III, 86 - Torre Est, 9-1a 08028 Barcelona. Spain 1el. +34 933 308 205 lux. +34 933 308 206
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SIMULTANEITY EFFECTS OF A NUMBER OF PROCESS UNITS
Sum (t)
FCC
CDU 2
Coker 1
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PERIMETER DETECTION VIDEO ANALYTICS CENTRAL COMMAND & RESPONSE K-RATED & HYDRAULIC GATE ENTRY

I

27
TREND ANALYSIS FORECASTING
Hydrocarbon Processing maintains an
extensive database of historical HPI proj-
ect information. Current project activity
is published three times a year in the HPI
Construction Boxscore. When a project
is completed, it is removed from current
listings and retained in a database. The
database is a 35-year compilation of proj-
ects by type, operating company, licen-
sor, engineering/constructor, location, etc.
Many companies use the historical data for
trending or sales forecasting.
The historical information is available in
comma-delimited or Excel
and can be cus-

tom sorted to suit your needs. The cost of
the sort depends on the size and complex-
ity of the sort you request and whether a
customized program must be written. You
can focus on a narrow request such as the
history of a particular type of project or
you can obtain the entire 35-year Boxscore
database, or portions thereof.
Simply send a clear description of the data
you need and you will receive a prompt
cost quotation. Contact:
Lee Nichols
P. O. Box 2608
Houston, Texas, 77252-2608
Fax: 713-525-4626
e-mail: Lee.Nichols@gulfpub.com.
HPIN CONSTRUCTION
North America
Flint Energy Services Ltd. was awarded
a contract extension for work on Suncor
Energys Firebag SAGD projects near Fort
McMurray, Alberta, Canada, for site-wide
construction and commissioning services.
The contract extension of approximately
$78 million will increase the companys
total contract scope to just over $110 mil-
lion. Work on the contract will be com-
pleted by Flints Facility Infrastructure
Division and will employ over 700 workers
through early 2011.
KP Engineering, LP, recently com-
pl eted a 13, 000-bpd FCC gasol ine
hydrotreater for Wynnewood Refining
Co. in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. The proj-
ect, which was executed through an engi-
neering, procurement and construction
management (EPCM) contract, achieved
mechanical completion in September.
The hydrodesulfurization unit utilizes the
Prime-G+ process, licensed from Axens
North America, Inc. The unit is designed
to produce FCC gasoline with a sulfur con-
tent of less than 50 ppm and is a key com-
ponent of Wynnewoods overall strategy for
clean transportation fuels. Unit startup is
scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2010.
Gulf Coast Fractionators, a partnership
among ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy
Corp. and Targa Resources Partners LP,
announced plans to expand the capacity of
its natural gas liquids fractionation facility
located in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The maxi-
mum gross fractionation capacity of the
facility will be expanded by approximately
42% (43,000 bpd) to 145,000 bpd.
ConocoPhillips, as the operator, will
manage the expansion project and exist-
ing operations are not expected to be dis-
rupted during the construction phase. The
expansion is expected to be operational
during the second quarter of 2012, subject
to regulatory approvals. The total capital
expenditures of approximately $75 million
are expected to be significantly lower than
a greenfield fractionation facility since the
new capacity will be integrated with the
existing fractionation capacity, utilities,
infrastructure and footprint already at
Mont Belvieu.
BlueFire Renewables, Inc., has final-
ized and signed an engineering, procure-
ment and construction (EPC) contract
for its planned cellulosic ethanol facility
in Fulton, Mississippi. The facility will be
engineered and built by Wanzek Con-
struction, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary
of MasTec, Inc., for a fixed price of $296
million which includes an approximately
$100 million biomass power plant as part
of the facility.
The contract is negotiated in a manner
to be appealing for non-recourse project
bank financing and, more importantly,
serves as the final key project contract agree-
ment to move forward with both the DOE
and USDA loan guarantee programs.
The project will allow BlueFire to uti-
lize green and wood wastes available in the
region as feedstock for the ethanol plant
that is designed to produce approximately
19-million gpy of ethanol.
Technip has two lump-sum contracts
with Valero Refining Co. and Diamond
Shamrock Refining Co. for two hydrogen
plants at the companys refineries in Mem-
phis, Tennessee, and McKee, Texas. The
two 30 million standard cubic feet per day
hydrogen plants will produce high purity
hydrogen and export steam. The plants
will use a high efficiency top-fired steam
methane reforming process and utilize the
latest nitrogen oxide reduction technology
thereby ensuring minimum emissions.
The contracts cover basic engineering,
project management, detail engineering,
fabrication, supply and installation, pre-
commissioning and startup assistance.
Technips operating center in Claremont,
California, will execute these contracts.
Technip is partnered with Performance
Contractors Inc. for the installation
of both hydrogen plants. The project is
scheduled to be completed in the first half
of 2012.
Willbros Group, Inc., has been selected
by Diamond Shamrock Refining Co. to
provide engineering, procurement and con-
struction (EPC) of the new flare gas recov-
ery facilities at the Valero McKee refinery
located in Sunray, Texas. The project is val-
ued at approximately $14 million.
South America
GE Oil and Gas has been awarded a
$32 million contract by PlusPetrol Peru
Corporation SA to supply compression
and reinjection upgrade equipment to boost
the output of the Malvinas natural gas liq-
uid (NGL) processing plant, located 400
km from Lima at the southern section of
the Peruvian Amazon rainforest.
Under the contract, GE will upgrade two
existing GE gas turbine modules with GE
technology to reduce emissions and other
technology to reduce outages and extend
the life cycle of the equipment. In addition,
three existing modules will be upgraded in a
different fashion. The equipment was man-
ufactured in Florence, Italy, and shipped to
Peru in March 2010. With the use of trucks
prohibited in the environmentally sensitive
region, GE overcame the logistical challenge
of on-time delivery by taking advantage of
seasonal swelling of the Amazon and Uru-
bamba rivers to transport the two 60-ton
modules to the Malvinas plant.
Foster Wheeler AGs Global Engineer-
ing and Construction Group has been
awarded a contract by YPF SA for a new
delayed coking unit to be built at YPFs
Complejo Industrial La Plata in Argentina.
Foster Wheelers scope of work includes
TREND ANALYSIS FORECASTING
Hydrocarbon Processing maintains an
extensive database of historical HPI proj-
ect information. The Boxscore Database is a
35-year compilation of projects by type, oper-
ating company, licensor, engineering/construc-
tor, location, etc. Many companies use the his-
torical data for trending or sales forecasting.
The historical information is available in
comma-delimited or Excel
and can be cus-

tom sorted to suit your needs. The cost of the
sort depends on the size and complexity of
the sort you request and whether a custom-
ized program must be written. You can focus
on a narrow request such as the history of a
particular type of project or you can obtain
the entire 35-year Boxscore database, or por-
tions thereof.
Simply send a clear description of the data
you need and you will receive a prompt cost
quotation. Contact:
Lee Nichols
P.O. Box 2608, Houston, Texas, 77252-2608
Fax: 713-525-4626
e-mail: Lee.Nichols@gulfpub.com
HPIN CONSTRUCTION
28

detailed engineering, procurement services
and support to construction and plant
startup. The unit will use Foster Wheelers
delayed coking technology. The planned
new facility will have a capacity of 28,000
bpsd, and will produce anode coke to be
used in the aluminum industry.
Europe
Avantium has started with the construc-
tion of a pilot plant at the Chemelot site in
Geleen, The Netherlands. The pilot plant
will produce building blocks for making
green materials and fuels. Avantium has
developed a proprietary catalytic process to
convert carbohydrates into furanic build-
ing blocks under the brand name YXY.
The pilot plant is expected to become
operational in the first quarter of 2011.
It will demonstrate the process developed
in Avantiums labs on a larger scale. Fur-
thermore, it will produce several tons of
furanic building blocks per year to support
product development. Avantium is col-
laborating with industrial partners such as
NatureWorks (a subsidiary of Cargill) and
Teijin Aramid to develop novel materials
on the basis of its furanic building blocks.
Avantium collaborates with DAF Trucks
(a Paccar company) on the development of
furanic building block fuels.
The pilot plant is partly funded by a 1
million grant from the Dutch Ministry of
Agriculture.
Middle East
Siirtec Nigi S.p.A. has been awarded
two contracts by Saipem S.p.A. to design
and supply eight packages, each including
a burner, reaction furnace, steam drum,
waste heat boiler, and 20 sulfur condensers.
This equipment represents the core of the
sulfur Claus unit. It will be installed at the
Shah gas field in the UAE. The field units
will process around 1 billion scfd of sour
gas to produce around 540 million scfd of
gas suitable for consumption.
Siirtec Nigis scope of work includes the
supply of know-how, design and supply of
the equipment together with the relevant
process guarantees. In addition, Siirtec Nigi
will provide site services and specialists for
commissioning and startup.
Asia-Pacific
Toyo Engineering Corp. has a con-
tract for an ethanolamine (ETA) produc-
tion plant to be constructed in Jiaxing,
Zhejiang Province, China, by Honam
Petrochemical Corp. (HPC). The plant is
scheduled for completion in the first quar-
ter of 2012.
The ETA project is the third contract
that Toyo has received from HPC, follow-
ing a polypropylene plant project awarded
in 1977 and an ethylene plant project in
1989. The past successful projects and sup-
ports from Toyo Group, including Toyo-
Korea, have led to the award. The plant
will produce ETA. As a result of bidding,
Toyo-China has won the engineering, pro-
curement and construction (EPC) contract
after successfully competing against other
contractors in China and Korea.
China Petroleum and Chemical Corp.
plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG)
receiving terminal in Maoming, Guangdong
Province, China. The construction project
will include an oil and gas wharf, an LNG
receiving terminal and 500,000-cubic-
meter LNG storage tanks. HP
This bench top analyzer tops all others in its price range for
features and performance. Its equipped with an intuitive user
interface, full-color touch screen and on-board Windows XP
computer. Ethernet electronics that permit remote access for
calibration, diagnostics or service support. Plus, the Phoenix II
has a large sample compartment that accommodates spinners
and special holders yet requires little or no sample preparation.
It all adds up to the lowest cost of ownership, backed by
AMETEKs reputation for reliability and world class customer
support. Visit: ametekpi.com
HYDROCARBON PROCESSING NOVEMEBR 2010

I

29
HPI CONSTRUCTION BOXSCORE UPDATE
Company City Plant Site Project Capacity Unit Cost Status Yr Cmpl Licensor Engineering Constructor
AFRICA
Algeria Sonatrach Algeries Algeries Refinery RE 60 Bcfd 908 M 2013 Technip
Kenya Kenya Petroleum Refineries Mombasa Mombasa Refinery RE None H
Nigeria NNPC Kogi Kogi Refinery TO 750 bpd 23000 E
ASIA/PACIFIC
Australia Santos\PETRONAS JV Queensland Bowen-Surat Basin LNG EX 1.5 Mtpy 750 P 2011 Total
China CNPC Anning Kunming Oil Refinery Offsites TO 200 Mbpd 3400 U 2012
China CNPC Anning Kunming Oil Refinery Refinery TO 200 Mbpd 3400 U 2012
China Sinopec Zhanjiang Zhanjiang Refinery EX 350 bpd 7600 U 2014
India HMEL Bhatinda Bhatinda Refinery TO 9 m-tpy 189 U 2011
India Indian Oil Corp Ltd Panipat Panipat Hydrocracker EX 1.7 MMtpy 950 U 2010 UOP EIL EIL
India IOCL Paradeep Paradeep LPG Terminal EX 15 m-tpy 900 P 2012
India HPCL Visakhapatnam Visakh Refinery Refinery TO 300 bpd 10000 U 2014
LATIN AMERICA
Bahamas AES Corp Ocean Cay Ocean Cay Desalination 500 Mgpd P 2012
Bahamas AES Corp Ocean Cay Ocean Cay LPG Terminal None P 2012
Bahamas AES Corp Ocean Cay Ocean Cay Storage, LPG 40 Mm3 P 2012
Brazil Petr Brasileiro SA Pernambuco Pernambuco Refinery TO 230 bpd 12000 U 2011
Colombia Ecopetrol Barrancabermeja Barrancabermeja Hydrogen 19 MMscfd 30 C 2010 Technip KTI Axens Sadeven|Ismocol
Colombia Ecopetrol Barrancabermeja Barrancabermeja Sour Water Stripper 500 gpm 21 C 2010 Tipiel|Axens Tipiel|Axens Sadeven|Ismocol
Colombia Ecopetrol Barrancabermeja Barrancabermeja Treater, Tail Gas 110 t/a 17.4 C 2010 Prosernat Axens Sadeven|Ismocol
Colombia Ecopetrol Cartagena Cartagena Refinery EX 165 Mbpd 2600 P 2013 KBR|KBC|EMRE|UOP|Lummus Technology Technip|CB&I CB&I
Jamaica Petrojam Ltd Kingston Kingston Gas Plant TO 7 Mbpd 1300 F 2013 UOP
Mexico Pemex Minatitlan Minatitlan Refinery RE 240 bpd 318 P 2011 Tecnicas Reunidas Constr N. Odebrecht
Venezuela PDVSA Jose Anzoategui Jose Anzoategui Methanol 850 m-tpy 7 C 2010
MIDDLE EA ST
Qatar Shell Royal Dutch Ras Laffan Ras Laffan Gas to Liquid TO 140 bpd 24000 U 2012 Descon Eng JGC|KBR|McDermott
Saudi Arabia Doosan Ras Az Zawr Ras Az Zawr Desalination TO 228 MIGD 1460 U 2014
Saudi Arabia Saudi Aramco Yanbu Yanbu Hydrogen 262 Mcfd 450 U 2014 Air Liquide
Saudi Arabia Al Rajhi Petrochemical Yanbu Yanbu Silicones 6 t/a 1100 P 2014
Turkey Petkim Petrokimya Hldg Yarimca Yarimca Refinery TO 10 m-tpy 10000 U 2015
UAE Takreer Ruwais Ruwais Refinery EX 1271 bbl 623 P 2014 GS E&C GS E&C
UAE Takreer Ruwais Ruwais Refinery (2) EX 127200 bpsd 3110 E 2014 Bayer|Lummus Technology|Axens|Shaw S&W GS E&C GS E&C
UNITED ST ATES
Illinois Citgo Lemont Lemont Hydrotreater, ULSD 42500 bpd 451 C 2010 Mustang Turner
Indiana Clean Coal Refining Corporation Wabash Wabash Coal Liquefaction (CTL) TO 2.5 m-tpy 3000 S 2011
Texas Arabian American Development Beaumont Beaumont Isomerization EX 600 gpm 1 C 2010
Texas Valero Refining Co Sunray Sunray Steam Methane Reformer EX 30 Scfd 14 U 2012 Technip
See http://www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/bxsymbols for licensor, engineering and construction companies abbreviations,
along with the complete update of the HPI Construction Boxscore.
THE GLOBAL SOURCE
FOR TRACKING HPI
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY
BOXSCORE DATABASE ONLINE
For more than 50 years, Hydrocarbon Processing
magazine remains the only source that collects and
maintains data specically for the HPI community,
publishing up-to-the-minute construction projects
from around the globe with our online product,
Boxscore Database. Updated weekly, our database
helps engineers, contractors and marketing personnel
identify active HPI construction projects around the
world to:
Generate leads
Market research
Track trend analysis
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HPI VIEWPOINT

I

31

Stretch in technology and gaps in process safety
for the hydrocarbon industry
Oil and gas are contributing enormously to the quality of our
lives in the 21st century, just as they were throughout the 20th
century. With the economies in the various parts of the world
expanding significantly, more energy sources are required by our
society, and in the previous several decades, people have switched
to offshore deepwater hydrocarbon reservoirs. Besides politics,
current exploration and production are limited by the technol-
ogy, for deeper wells, higher pressure reservoirs or crudes that are
difficult to recover because of higher viscosity.
Innovative offshore technology must be developed to carry
out deepwater production and operations. At the same time,
these hazardous operations (i.e., deeper wells and higher-pressure
reservoirs) are creating new and unique hazards. Along with the
current attention on the Transocean Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill,
the development of advanced technologies to ensure the process
safety and operational reliability of offshore facilities is becoming
extremely important.
Hazards offshore. At present, we face the challenge of how to
prevent or control hazards of deepwater exploration and produc-
tion. Process safety is always an essential part of the oil and gas industry
and a core value that requires continual improvement. Regulations
should be dynamic and ready to be modified based on occurring
industrial issues. Accordingly, the government and offshore opera-
tors should develop comprehensive management programs or regu-
lations that assess process safety and environmental hazards.
It is well known that offshore operations have a very special
environment, involving drilling, production and transport, as
well as emergency response to incidents. Offshore employees are
faced with many different factors that increase their exposure to
injury, such as poor weather conditions, high-pressure operations,
chemicals and confined space. Due to the dangerous nature of off-
shore operations, employees typically have very demanding work
schedules. Research and technology developments for operation in
deep waters and high-pressure reservoirs are urgently needed.
The industry must develop theories, analytical techniques
and technologies to improve the current offshore infrastructures
from all sources of failure, including design, operations, manage-
ment, natural disasters and intentional acts such as terrorism.
The research should focus on theories and techniques that apply
to the many process safety issues, such as structural integrity, lay-
ers of protection, offgas handling, drilling, risk assessment and
consequence analysis, human error and safety culture. Test beds
may include processing facilities and complex structures within
the offshore infrastructure, transportation vehicles (e.g., ship,
helicopter) and the marine environment.
The goals of offshore safety research include integration of
the concepts of process safety into the design and operation of
offshore platforms and to use this to improve safety performance
such that the unit/process is not vulnerable to certain failures.
Also, by identifying aspects of the system that are vulnerable (not
resilient), the speed and efficiency of response to failures could be
improved. Some relevant areas of research include:
Structural integrity of risers/pipelines. Risers and pipelines are
subjected to different types of corrosion due to continuous loadings
(fatigues) and their exposure to the marine environment. Research is
needed to study corrosion behavior underneath the coating layer, to
assess the integrity of particular structures and to develop coating/
corrosion assessment criteria for service under extreme conditions.
Layers of protection. Many US offshore rigs are equipped
with blowout preventer (BOP) casing shear rams to seal off an oil
or natural gas well being drilled or worked on. However, the BOP
is currently the only layer of protection within the system and it is
vulnerable to single-point failure. Thus, research efforts are needed
for developing/identifying multiple layers of protection.
Risk assessment and consequence analysis using CFD.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has gained widespread
recognition as a powerful tool for risk assessment and consequence
analysis. The very nature of infrequent and highly diverse disasters
can make prediction of the likelihood and consequences of such
events very difficult. The multitude of systems and structures
Dr. M. Sam Mannan, PE, CSP is a Regents
Professor in the Chemical Engineering Depart-
ment at Texas A&M University and director of
the Mary Kay OConnor Process Safety Center
at the Texas Engineering Experiment Station.
The mission of the Center is to improve safety
in the chemical process industry by conducting
programs and research activities that promote
safety as second nature for all plant personnel
in their day-to-day activities. Before joining
Texas A&M University, Dr. Mannan was vice president at RMT, Inc., a
nationwide engineering services company.
Dr. Mannan is a registered professional engineer in the states of
Texas and Louisiana and is a Certified Safety Professional. His experi-
ence is wide ranging, covering process design of chemical plants and
refineries, computer simulation of engineering problems, mathemati-
cal modeling, process safety, risk assessment, inherently safer design,
critical infrastructure vulnerability assessment, aerosol modeling, and
reactive and energetic materials assessments.
Dr. Mannan co-authored the Guidelines for Safe Process Operations
and Maintenance, published by the Center for Chemical Process Safety,
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He is the editor of
the 3rd edition, Lees Loss Prevention in the Process Industries; he has
published 137 peer-reviewed journal publications, two books, seven
book chapters, 142 proceedings papers, 12 major reports, and 143
technical meeting presentations.
Dr. Mannan is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions
including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Service to Soci-
ety Award, the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students
Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching, the Texas Engineering
Experiment Station Research Fellow, the Texas A&M University Dwight
Look College of Engineering George Armistead, Jr. 23 Fellow. In 2007,
he was elected Fellow of the AIChE. In December 2008, the Board
of Regents of Texas A&M University System recognized Dr. Mannans
contributions in teaching, research and service by naming him Regents
Professor of Chemical Engineering. Dr. Mannan received his BS degree
in chemical engineering from the Engineering University in Dhaka,
Bangladesh. He obtained his MS and PhD in chemical engineering from
the University of Oklahoma.
HPI VIEWPOINT
32

I

NOVEMBER 2010 HYDROCARBON PROCESSING
involved requires a very broad multidisciplinary team to under-
stand, evaluate, compare and plan for disastrous failures. Research
is needed with regard to fluid-structure interaction (vibrations of
risers, motions of floating platforms), flow around vessel hulls in
the presence of current and wind forces, wave loads (slam and
impact), tank sloshing and BOP (impact) facility siting.
Recovery of H
2
S. Hydrogen sulfide (H
2
S) is corrosive for
carbon steels used in offshore structures and can lead to nervous
disorders and acid rain. To remove H
2
S, a process called gas sweet-
ening and amine sweetening has been used for onshore processing
facilities. This process removes H
2
S from the feed and redirects it
to other processes in the plant, where it is converted into elemen-
tal sulfur or sulfuric acid. However, the present process is limited
by the operating conditions and requires additional units to be
built, which makes it insufficient for the offshore facilities. Given
the compact size of the offshore structures, there is a need to opti-
mize the gas-recovery process for offshore facilities.
Resilient operation of deepwater drilling. During
drilling, all materials drilled out need to be removed, i.e., trans-
ported to the surface, a process that is referred to as hole cleaning.
Often, some material remains in the well. Due to the number of
parameters influencing hole cleaning and the complex mecha-
nisms involved, the phenomenon has not yet been fully under-
stood. Integration of the concept of resilience to the drilling and
hole cleaning processes is needed.
Human error and safety culture. Both human error and
safety culture have been identified as contributing causes in indus-
trial accidents, including offshore facilities. Assessment of the
safety culture in every aspect of work in the organization, and
development of a systematic approach to apply safety culture in
the organization will lead to reduction of human errors.
Spills clean-up. Mechanical containment should be the pri-
mary line of defense against oil spills. However, this method is
not effective in clearing a large spill area. Chemical and biological
methods can be used in conjunction with mechanical means for
containing and cleaning up oil spills. Dispersing agents are the
most useful in helping to keep oil from reaching shorelines and
other sensitive habitats. Biological agents have the potential to
assist recovery in sensitive areas such as shorelines, marshes and
wetlands. In this regard, research for new dispersants, including
nano-surfactant technologies, is needed.
Meeting the challenge. Deeper wells, higher pressure reser-
voirs and crudes with higher viscosity have introduced hazardous
operations in offshore facilities, thus creating new and unique haz-
ards. Efforts should be made to expanding the current focal point
from that of drilling and utilization of BOPs to include a more
encompassing proactive prevention program requirement for all
offshore operations. There are many possible ways in which disas-
ters equal to or greater than Deepwater Horizon could occur in off-
shore operations. Comprehensive programs that include inherent
safety considerations, multiple layers of protection, consideration
of human factors, analysis of worst-case scenarios and emergency
response planning are needed. Finally, major efforts that explore
new technologies in various areas should be a high priority. HP
Engineering advanced
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HPI VIEWPOINT

I

33

Water touches every industry and every sector, impacting lives,
livelihoods, global industries and local economies. But the world
is facing growing water scarcity challenges, both in developed and
developing countries.
Industry accounts for 20% of all water consumed globally.
Refineries and petrochemical facilities, in particular, tend to be
large water users, both for cooling purposes and in production
operations. The hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) can play a
key role by adopting comprehensive water-management strategies
and water reuse practices on a widespread basis.
As the global economy slowly recovers, refineries can expect to
see a shift in demand for finished petroleum products in mature
markets and growing demand for fuels by developing regions.
Globally, refining facilities will continually seek ways to increase
production and profit margins, while reducing or eliminating
unscheduled shutdowns and the subsequent untimely cost of
cleaning and replacing equipment. Building a robust water-man-
agement strategy should help refineries to run safer, and more
efficiently, and to be more profitable.
Technology as an enabler. From a technology perspective,
water recovery, treatment, recycling and discharge solutions exist
right now not only to enable conservation, but also to improve
the productivity, efficiency, safety and overall economics of water-
intensive industrial processes. Water technology companies offer
technical services, knowledge and practical experience.
For example, optimizing the performance of open recirculat-
ing cooling systems used in refineries and petrochemical plants
represents an enormous opportunity to both lessen the impact on
freshwater supplies, as well as to reduce costs, increase productiv-
ity and protect assets.
These cooling systems rely on chemically treated water to
reduce water consumption, to prevent deposits from compromis-
ing heat transfer in critical process equipment, to mitigate the
effects of corrosion that threatens capital asset life, and to manage
microbial growth, which, in addition to having a negative impact
on production, can adversely affect human health. But the treat-
ment and control process requires constant monitoring and fine-
tuning, which until now has been cumbersome and inefficient.
Advanced technology is altering that status quo. New technol-
ogy gives users the ability to monitor, measure and adjust multiple
chemicals in the cooling water in an online mode and more pre-
cisely than traditional methods. The result is a better-performing
cooling system with significantly lower operating costs, and at the
same time, it saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual fresh
water acquisition costs for a large system.
Another area where advanced water-management technology
plays a key role is to enable the increased use of wastewater in
industrial processes. A case in point is a large refinery in southern
Italy, which had to curtail its use of city water during a drought.
If a second source couldnt be found, the refinery would have
had to shut down. A nearby municipal wastewater plant could
provide the needed volumes, provided the water could be treated
adequately. Mobile membrane-based reverse osmosis (RO) filtra-
tion technology was the solution.
Once the municipal wastewater was run through the refin-
erys own clarifier and filtration system, it was further treated by
multiple RO filtration units until it was clean enough for refinery
processes. Because these units were mobile and could be trucked
to the site, they were able to be installed quickly. As drought con-
ditions and demand continued to grow, the flexible nature of the
system made it easy to add another unit without interrupting the
production of treated water or refinery operations.
Intimate technical understanding needed. A deep
technical knowledge of process chemistry is required to solve
many of the difficult water-management issues faced by HPI
facilities. For example, a Gulf Coast refinery was experiencing
poor dehydration in the processing of heavy Venezuelan crude.
Water carryover and salt content had increased to unacceptable
levels. Although caustic had been injected to control overhead
chlorides, desalter performance was impacting furnace-fuel usage,
unit pressure drop and overhead corrosion control. A compre-
hensive analysis was done, and the ultimate solution was a new
emulsion breaker that was injected into the crude charge.
As time went on, the chemical injection rate was reduced to
about 60% of the historical chemical injection dosages. Total
chlorides were cut by 50% and more consistent corrosion control
in the crude overheads was achieved, even with a reduction in
caustic injection of nearly 30%.
Tomorrow is upon us. Refining crude oil into high-value
fuels and other refined products requires careful coordination and
precision of many complex and expensive systems. Profitability
depends on maintaining the quality and efficiency of these key
process units, controlling operating costs, meeting environmental
requirements and improving efficiencies in every step of the pro-
duction process, while ensuring final product quality.
We have reached the point where the HPI can no longer assume
the availability of adequate, uninterrupted freshwater supplies.
Fluctuating water demand and supply increasingly will become the
norm and the HPI must address growing environmental challenges
and regulations. Partnering with suppliers who understand and
can address concerns with sound water and process solutions will
result in safer, more efficient, more profitable and more environ-
mentally responsive operations. HP
Better water management:
A crucial and growing requirement
Glen Messina is global business leader, chemi-
cal and monitoring solutions water and process
technologies for GE Power and Water. In this role,
he is responsible for setting the strategic direction
of the chemical and monitoring solutions business
as well as overseeing global execution. Mr. Messina
leads the commercial and product management
organizations as well as supporting functions. Pre-
viously, he was chief financial officer for water and process technologies
and was responsible for leading the companys finance function.
PLANT SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT SPECIALREPORT

I

35
Water among causes for
storage tank explosion
Reinvestigation uncovers true accident events
M. FERJENCIK and B. JANOVSKY, University of Pardubice, Pardubice, Czech Republic
A
n explosion occurred inside a bitu-
men storage tank. An abrupt inter-
ruption of the purging steam dis-
charge from the tank preceded the accident.
The suspected ignition sources alone would
not be able to cause the observed explo-
sion. An additional impulse must have been
present. Careful analysis of the event led to
the conclusion that the explosion was prob-
ably preceded by water that was introduced
inside the tank. Iron sulfides were present
under the tank roof and combined with
the injection of water (causing the fresh air
suction and atmosphere movement inside
the tank) and this explained the explosion
under actual conditions.
Introduction. Trevor Kletz wrote an
anecdote in which he exaggerated the dan-
gerous properties of water.
1
Nevertheless,
he still described water as an extinguish-
ing agent. However, in the accident that
occurred, a situation encountered showed
that water played the opposite role. Even
introducing a relatively small amount of
water into a large bitumen tank seems to
have triggered the accident that resulted in
an explosion and a fire.
This article will present the accidents
reinvestigation. It is based on a report
that was prepared by a plant investigation
committee. However, the original report
ignored the necessity to explain an abrupt
interruption of purging steam discharge
from the tank which preceded the accident.
The reinvestigation concentrates on this
event and makes it the focal point to shed
light on why the accident occurred.
Installation. The accident occurred more
than five years ago in a plant that processed
heavy-oil hydrocarbons. The event involved
an almost 40-yr-old bitumen storage tank.
The tank was an insulated, carbon-steel,
vertical cylinder with a fixed roof. It was
standing in a concrete emergency sump. The
tank communicated with the surrounding
air via a couple of vents which were placed
at the southern edge of its roof. The total
tank volume was 1,200 m
3
height 10 m,
diameter 12.4 m (Fig. 1).
The tank was equipped with openings
and pipe connections. One hatch and seven
pipe connections were in the bottom part of
its wall. There were two connections of the
steam heating system that kept the bitumen
inside the tank hot and liquid. The second
hatch and seven other openings were in
the roof of the tank, and one blind nozzle
was in the upper part of the tank wall. Fig.
2 only shows the roof openings that were
considered to play a role in the accident.
The steam inlet (50-mm diameter) was
located close to two vent nozzles (200-mm
diameter each). A steam pipe with a 25-mm
diameter was inserted into the steam inlet.
Its end piece inside the tank was used for
steam purging. It was less than 1.5-m long;
its mouth was blind and its wall was perfo-
rated. The bitumen circulation inlet pipe
nozzle (125-mm diameter) position was
across the roof at the northwest edge. The
bitumen circulation inleta carbon steel
pipe, 100-mm diameter was insertedwas
the newest tank opening. It was welded dur-
ing a scheduled outage of the tank, roughly
six weeks before the accident. The second
most recent opening was two years old.
Chronological order. Operational
records showed that during the last four
days before the accident, the bitumen level
inside the storage tank was relatively low
(maximum 330 cm) and the temperature
was between 150C155C. Steam heat-
ing was operated permanently and steam
purging was inactive. It was in accordance
with operational instructions: steam purg-
ing was to be used only when the bitumen
temperature inside the tank was higher
than 190C. More than one day before the
accident, the bitumen level was 65 cm and
at 155C. These parameters were kept for
more than 24 hr. Conditions inside the
tank started to change again approximately
3 hrs 40 minutes before the accident.
At that time, 120 ton batch of bitumen
was transported into the storage tank. Since
the temperature of the influent bitumen was
higher than 200C (up to 250C), steam
purging was commenced. The transport
was finished 40 min before the accident
the bitumen level was 180 cm and at 205C.
Steam heating and steam purging were left
in operation; steam pressure was about 4.5
bar and temperature about 140C. The fill-
ing pipeline was emptied into the storage
tank by pressurized air. All manipulations
connected with the transport were finished
25 min before the accident.
About 25 min later, an explosion
occurred inside the bitumen storage, blow-
ing off the tank roof. After the explosion,
the tank contents started to burn. The roof
fell beside the emergency sump and leaned
against the southwest wall. The explosion
did not damage the tank wall, but a subse-
quent fire destroyed the south-southwestern
part. A layer of coke sediments were prob-
Bitumen storage tank, front view. FIG. 1
36

I

ably burned at relatively high temperatures.
The fire was localized and extinguished in
less than 5 hr. It did not cause material dam-
age outside the bitumen storage tank nor
any fatalities or injuries. Unburned bitumen
had to be placed in barrels and reprocessed.
No anomalies were found in the unburned
liquid during its removal and reprocessing.
Additional observations. The south-
ern part of the tank roof, with vent nozzles,
was within the scope of one camera belong-
ing to the plant security system. Relevant
record analysis provided interesting addi-
tional information about what happened
a few minutes before the accident. Records
confirmed that emptying the filling line was
performed within a 15-min time period,
ending 25 min before the accidentper-
formed in accordance with operational
instructions. Records showed that a per-
manent and stable steam discharge from
tank vents occurred 3 hr 40 min before the
accident and finished abruptly 47 s before
the explosion. During the last 47 s, no
outflows from vents were visible. Also, the
course of the explosion was recorded. The
lifting of the roof was visible, followed by
a rising fireball and flames. Evidently, the
tank roof was blown off by the explosion
of a flammable mixture in the tank atmo-
sphere. The investigations after the accident
showed that the vents were free and that the
steam pipeline to the steam-purging inlet
was open and free, too.
Searching for accident causes. The
fire triangle describes three requirements
that have to be fulfilled for a fire/explo-
sion of a gas mixture: an oxidant, a fuel and
an ignition source.
2
Accident causes com-
bine the three requirements. Identifying
the direct accident cause was not possible
without identifying the specific oxidant,
fuel and ignition source that were present
inside the bitumen storage tank.
Oxidant. For at least four days before the
accident, steam purging had been inactive
on the tank. Its gaseous volume commu-
nicated freely with the atmosphere outside
vent openings. Tank space above the liquid
level undoubtedly contained mainly air
at the start of steam purging 3 hr 40 min
before the accident. Sweep steam purging
was used to make the atmosphere of the
tank inert, but it was not able to perfectly
mix the whole gaseous volume when the
liquid level was low.
2
Steam is much lighter
than air (and hydrocarbon vapors). The
arrangement of the steam inlet pipe did not
make the steam move into the lower parts
of the tank. Only the upper part of the tank
(about 20% of its total volume, according
to an estimation made by plant personnel)
is believed to have been filled with a steam
blanket. Lower parts of the gaseous volume
probably still contained mainly air during
the explosion.
Large volumes of bitumen in the storage
tank were used from time to time as ter-
minal volume to empty various connected
pipes by air. These emptying operations
brought additional oxidant into the tank.
Fuel. Flammable, gaseous substances had
to be present in the atmosphere inside the
tank in a concentration above the lower
flammability limit for the explosion to
occur. The bitumen itself releases a certain
amount of light hydrocarbons, but mea-
surements indicate that the total content
above the bitumen level is one order below
any conceivable lower flammable limit
(LFL). The bitumen present inside the tank
before the accident was of standard quality;
therefore, the fuel source for the explosion
had to be found elsewhere.
The filling pipeline came into the tank
from a manifold to which pipelines from
a few other storage tanks were also con-
nected. Analyzing operational records
showed that asphalt varnish was pumped
through a pipeline that was connected to
the manifold, more than two days before
the accident. The asphalt varnish repre-
sented a mixture of bitumen (identical
with the stored one) and lacquer diluents.
If a check valve in the pipeline that was
used for pumping asphalt varnish had
not worked properly, a certain amount of
varnish would have entered the manifold.
Insufficiently closing the check valve in its
closing direction is a rather frequent defect
that cannot be excluded.
The liquid amount that would have
entered the manifold in this case might
have easily reached many liters. Undesir-
able liquid containing light hydrocarbons
would then have been transported into the
bitumen storage tank as soon as any of the
pipelines connected to the manifold would
have been emptied into it. Other potential
sources of fuel such as catalytic cracking on
steam heating pipes or steam reforming are
not considered to be probable since tempera-
tures inside the tank were not high enough.
Observed explosion outcomes enabled
estimating the amount of light hydrocar-
bons that had to be present in a flammable
cloud inside the tank. The light hydrocar-
bons originated from lacquer diluents, the
boiling interval was 135C220C, LFL
is 0.8% vol. and upper flammable level
(UFL) is 6.5% vol. To assess the minimum
amount of light hydrocarbons necessary to
have lifted the tank roof off, it was neces-
sary to start with the overpressure, which
could have caused it. Overpressure at 12
kPa is enough pressure to lift a storage
tank roof off.
3
The question is, how large does the
flammable cloud have to be if it is capable
of generating 12 kPa of overpressure inside
the tank? From the state equation, it fol-
lows that if the vapor space volume inside
the tank is 989 m
3
, then an increase in
the vapor volume should be equal to 117
m
3
under normal pressure. This volume
increase is caused by generating hot com-
bustion products. The number of moles
inside the tank should not change during
combustion. Only the temperature differ-
ence between the initial and final states
could cause the volume increase. The sys-
tems initial temperature was supposed to
be equal to 478 K. The combustion prod-
ucts temperature was estimated to be 1,500
K. This temperature is in accordance that
the flame temperature at the LFL for meth-
ane is 1,498 K and approximately 1,573 K
for other lower paraffinic hydrocarbons.
4

Comparing these final and initial states,
an expansion factor equal to 3.14 was
obtained. The equation for the volume of
the explosive mixture capable of producing
the given pressure increase is:
V
expl
+ 117 = V
expl
3.14.
This results in 54.7 m
3
of the explosive
mixture, with a concentration equal to LFL.
The light hydrocarbons may be represented
by C9 fraction with a mean molecular
weight of 148.4 g/mol. Using the molecu-
lar weight, the evaporated flammable vapor
amount is 1.66 kg. It is certainly the lowest
possible amount, not taking into account
the product cooling and venting through
the two vent nozzles. Higher amounts of
S N
Bitumen
circulation
inlet pipe
Steam inlet
pipe
Vent
nozzles
Bitumen storage tank; an aerial
view with selected openings.
FIG. 2

I

37
evaporated flammable vapors (e.g., 5 kg and
10 kg) would lead to higher values of the
calculated overpressures (36.2 kPa and 72.4
kPa, respectively). Since these values are
well above the 12 kPa, neither cooling nor
venting through two vent nozzles would
have prevented the roof from lifting off.
Such an amount of flammable vapors could
have easily originated in the asphalt varnish
that entered the tank via the manifold. The
flammable cloud could have been formed
after the temperature increase during the
inflow of hot bitumen between 3:40 and
0:40 hr. Hydrocarbon vapors are heavier
than air so the operation of sweep steam
purging would not have removed them
from the tank with a low bitumen level.
Fig. 3 illustrates the situation that is
supposed to have been established inside
the tank after adding hot bitumen.
Possible ignition sources. Some igni-
tion sources may include hot work, static
electricity, hot surfaces, pyrophoric iron sul-
fides, pressure (compression ignition), fric-
tion and mechanical sparks, sudden decom-
pression and catalysts.
5
Some alternatives
may be excluded immediately.
There was no hot work carried out at
the tank weeks before the accident. A com-
pression or decompression sharp enough to
ignite the flammable vapors is not conceiv-
able under conditions inside the tank. No
moving mechanical parts that would be
able to cause friction or sparks were present
inside the tank.
Movement of nonconductive liquid into
the tank finished at least 25 min before the
accident; hence collection and discharge of
static electricity are not considered to be
probable to ignite the explosion. Hot sur-
faces, in the usual meaning of this term,
were not present inside the tank. However,
a layer of coke sediments were found on the
southsouthwestern wall, burning intensely
after the explosion. Suspicion arosethe
coke sediments had been smoldering even
before the accident and they ignited the
flammable cloud. The possible presence of
catalysts (e.g., coke particles with large active
surfaces) in liquid bitumen was considered,
too. The presence of catalytic surfaces could
cause a decrease in the auto-ignition tem-
perature of flammable vapors and lead to
ignition after an induction period.
2
Without
a catalyst, auto-ignition of lacquer diluent
vapors is not possible under 240C.
Pyrophoric iron sulfides form when iron
is exposed to hydrogen sulfide (H
2
S), or any
other compound that contains sulfur, in an
oxygen-deficient atmosphere. Pyrophoric
iron sulfide may form in heated bitumen
storage tanks as the result of a reaction
between H
2
S given off from the bitumen
surface and iron in the form of rust on the
tank roof.
6
H
2
S was present inside the tank.
Hence, the area of new bitumen circulation
inlet welds seemed to fulfill all conditions
for pyrophoric iron sulfide formation.
Examining the facts and formu-
lating hypotheses. Three possible
ignition sources were identified: smol-
dering coke, auto-ignition catalysts and
pyrophoric iron sulfides. Examination of
these three hypotheses with known facts is
necessary, and Table 1 represents the fact/
hypothesis matrix.
7
TABLE 1. Fact/hypothesis matrix. Legend: (+) compatible with hypothesis; () not likely
Temperatures inside tank No anomalies (coke particles, Abrupt interruption of Tank roof fell beside
between 140C and 205C, hot spots) were found in steam discharge 47 sec tank in south
Fact or condition/hypothesis steam blanket under roof unburned bitumen before the explosion southwest direction
Light hydrocarbon vapors + +
ignited by smoldering coke
on southsouthwest wall
Light hydrocarbon vapors + +
auto-ignited after
induction period
Light hydrocarbon vapors
ignited by pyrophoric iron
sulfides from new weld + +
Air with hydrocarbon vapors
Steam blanket, 140C
Bitumen, 205C
Steam
inlet
Steam
outlet
Situation inside the tank, 30 min before the accident. FIG. 3
Injection
of water
Position of
new weld
Bitumen circulation inlet pipe
Hydrocarbon vapors
raised by water
evaporation
Fresh air
movement
Shrinking
of steam
and air
Air
intake
Situation inside the tank during water injection. FIG. 4
38

I

Coke smoldering can develop slowly
and gradually, so there would have been no
reason for an abrupt interruption of steam
discharge. If the explosion was ignited by
smoldering coke at the southsouthwestern
wall, then the final position of the blown
roof would have been expected on the
opposite side of the tank. Catalyzed auto-
ignition would require the presence of a
catalytic surface on the bitumen. However,
no corresponding anomalies were indicated
in the liquid. Auto-ignition develops slowly
and gradually, thus giving no explanation
for the abrupt interruption of steam dis-
charge. Pyrophoric iron sulfides spontane-
ously ignite after they dry out and come in
contact with air, but there was no indica-
tion that the steam blanket was replaced by
air at new welds. Again, the abrupt inter-
ruption of steam is not compatible with
the hypothesis.
Water injection. None of the consid-
ered ignition sources were able to explain
satisfactorily the abrupt interruption of
steam discharge 47 sec before the explo-
sion. Evidently, the interruption did not
result in any of the conceivable ignition
processes. It resulted from an additional
cause and probably contributed to the
ignition process. Closing or plugging the
steam pipeline or the outage of the steam
supply system would have caused a slow
decrease of steam discharge, not an abrupt
interruption. An event must have occurred
that caused an immediate pressure decrease
inside the gaseous volume of the tank. Such
an event could have been the steam pipeline
plugging with water.
Steam lines need to be equipped by
steam traps. A steam trap is a device used to
discharge condensate and non-condensable
gases while not permitting live steam escap-
ing. If the steam trap is not present or if it
fails, then a water plug may form inside the
pipeline. There are indications that a steam
trap was not present in the lower part of the
steam line to the steam purging inlet, so a
water plug formation seemed possible.
If one liter of water had penetrated into
the steam purging line it would have cre-
ated a water plug about 2 m long. The plug
would have been transported into the end
piece of the steam purging pipe. The water
would have been injected into the tanks
vapor space through tiny holes in the end
piece at 4.5 bar. The injection would have
abruptly cooled steam and gases inside the
space, causing the gases to shrink. This
results in under pressure inside the space,
reversing the flow through the vent nozzles.
The situation is illustrated in Fig. 4.
In Fig. 4, superheated water leaves
the holes in the end piece and some of it
evaporates immediately (approximately
7.9%). Flash evaporation of water creates
an expanding zone around the end piece
inside. The temperature decreases to the
boiling point of water (100C). The volume
of this zone is relatively small since one liter
of water creates 0.14 m
3
of flash evaporated
steam. Tiny droplets of boiling water fly
away from the expanding zone into much
warmer steam and/or air around and below.
The droplets are heated and evaporated. The
tank atmosphere cools down and shrinks.
Globally, 1.7 m
3
of steam will emerge from
1 L of water. Simple calculations show that,
in evaporation and balancing temperatures
in 100 m
3
of steam, the steam is cooled by
18.2C and shrinks to 4.4 m
3
. Analogously,
100 m
3
of air would be cooled by 24.8C
and shrunk to 6.2 m
3
.
This process leads to a movement inside
the tank atmosphere towards the expanding
zone around the end piece of the steam-purg-
ing pipe. Possible evaporating droplets on the
tank walls make this movement even stron-
ger. If some droplets fell on bitumen liquid
level, they would evaporate and raise hydro-
carbon vapors above the liquid surface.
The mixture of water aerosol and cold
steam is relatively heavy and tends to sink
into the air and hydrocarbon mixture.
Expansion in the steam-aerosol area and
turbulences caused by water evaporation
make the steam-aerosol area less permeable
for downward flowing gas, especially in the
vicinity of the end piece.
TABLE 2. Modified fact/hypothesis matrix. Legend: (+) compatible with hypothesis; () not likely
Temperatures inside tank No anomalies (coke particles, Abrupt interruption of steam Roof of the tank fell
between 140C205C, hot spots) were found in discharge 47 s before beside tank in south to
Fact or condition/hypothesis steam blanket under roof unburned bitumen the explosion south-west direction
Light hydrocarbon vapors ignited + + +
by smoldering coke on south
southwest wall after the
introduction of a small amount
of water
Auto-ignition of light hydrocarbon + + +
vapors occurred after the
introduction of a small amount
of water
Light hydrocarbon vapors ignited + + + +
by pyrophoric iron sulfides from
new weld after introducing small
amounts of water
Welding of the
bitumen
circulation
pipe inlet
approximately
6 weeks before
Return of
bitumen tank
back into
operation
Approximately
4 weeks before
Penetration of
light hydro-
carbons into
bitumen
inside tank
Approximately
2 days before
Bitumen level
65 cm,
temperature
155C
more than
1 day before
Start of steam
purging
At -03:40 hr
120 t of bitumen
added, level
raised to 180
cm, temp. to
205C between
-3:40 and -0:40 hr
Emptying of
pipe line, 10 m
3
of air introduced
inside the tank
between -0:40
and -0.25 hr
Introduction of
waste into
steam inlet pipe
at -00:00:47 sec
Interruption of
steam discharge
between
-00:00:47 and
00:00:00 sec
Penetration of
fresh air to
pyrophoric iron
suldes at
new weld
< 00:00:00
Spontaneous
ignition of
pyrophoric
iron suldes,
release of
sparks
< 00:00:00 sec
Explosion of air
and hydrocarbon
vapors mixture
at 00:00:00 sec
Development of the accident. FIG. 5
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PLANT SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT
The estimations confirm that after water
injection, the overall balance of water evap-
oration (with a positive influence on pres-
sure inside the tank) and steam/air shrink-
age (with a substantially higher negative
influence on pressure inside the tank) will
result in air intake through vent nozzles.
Cold and relatively heavy fresh air tends
to sink through the steam pad into the air
and to dilute the air and hydrocarbon mix-
ture. However, there was a zone consist-
ing of steam and aerosol that was denser
than steam and obstructive due to turbu-
lences. This, combined with the sinking
and shrinking movements inside the zone,
would have caused part of the inflowing air
to be sucked in a perpendicular direction
between the zone and the tank roof and
to move along the roof into the peripheral
parts of the tank (Fig. 4). Sinking fresh air
and the steam pad at the southern wall may
have also caused air movement at the oppo-
site side upward against the wall.
Possible ignition sources after
water injection. Three new hypotheses
on possible ignition sources represent the
interactions of sources that were selected
with water injection. The results of the
examination are summarized in Table 2.
If the source were smoldering coke on the
southsouthwest wall after the water injec-
tion, then the abrupt interruption of the
steam discharge is understandable. How-
ever, there is no new explanation of why
the tank roof fell in the opposite direction
than would be expected. Similarly, for cata-
lytic auto-ignition the presence of a cata-
lyst remains unexplained. The situation has
changed only for pyrophoric iron sulfides.
The preceding section explains that fresh air
could penetrate to a new weld after water
injection. Hence, conditions for sponta-
neous ignition of pyrophoric iron sulfides
would have been fulfilled. There is evidence
that such an ignition may produce sparks.
6
The immediate contact between the sulfide
and the flammable mixture is not necessary.
Consequently, the pyrophoric iron sulfides
at the new weld might have acted as an igni-
tion source after introducing small amounts
of water into the steam inlet pipe.
Conclusions. The analysis helped com-
plete the time line of events leading to
the accident (Fig. 5). Dashed borderlines
denote the events that cannot be proved.
Probably, the combination of four direct
causes led to the accident: the inefficient
sweep steam purging of the bitumen storage
tank; the penetration of light hydrocarbons
into the bitumen inside the tank; the cre-
ation of pyrophoric iron sulfides at the new
weld; and the introduction of water into
the steam inlet pipe. The accident would
never have occurred if a small amount of
water had not been introduced into the
steam purging inlet pipe. It is highly prob-
able that similar situations had occurred in
the tanks 40-yr history, but the necessary
causes never coincided. Fig. 5 illustrates
a probable multiple-root cause analysis,
which may lead to some lessons learned
from the accident while recommending
proper corrective measures. HP
LITERATURE CITED
1
Kletz, T. A., New Fire-fighting Agent Meets
Opposition, By accident ... a life preventing them in
industry, PFV Publications, London, 2000
2
Crowl, D. A., Understanding Explosions,
American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New
York, 2003.
3
Kletz, T. A., Myths of the Chemical Industry,
The Institution of Chemical Engineers, Rugby,
1985.
4
Lees, F. P., Loss Prevention in the Process
Industries, Second Edition, Butterworth-
Heinemann, Oxford, 1996.
5
IRP18 Committee, University of Calgary, Canada,
http: //www. firesandexpl osions. ca/hazards/
ignition sources.php, September 24, 2007.
6
Davie, F. M., T. W. Nolan and S. Hoban, Study
of Iron Sulfide as a Possible Ignition Source in
the Storage of Heated Bitumen, Journal of Loss
Prevention in the Process Industry, Vol. 6, Issue 3,
pp. 139143, September 1993.
7
Center for Chemical Process Safety, Guidelines for
Investigating Chemical Process Incidents,
American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New
York, 1992.
Milos Ferjencik studied nuclear
engineering at Prague Technical Uni-
versity and graduated in 1981. He
worked at Nuclear Research Institute,
and in various technical and research
positions. In 1991, Mr. Ferjencik concentrated on chemi-
cal risk analysis. In 1995 he started his own consultancy
profession. Mr. Ferjencik was an independent risk and
reliability consultant and an external teacher at University
of Pardubice. Most recently, Mr. Ferjencik has worked as
a full-time assistant professor of safety engineering at
the University of Pardubice.
BORSIG GROUP
Egellsstrasse 21
D-13507 Berlin/Germany
Phone: +49 (30) 4301-01
Fax: +49 (30) 4301-2236
E-mail: info@borsig.de
www.borsig.de
Pressure Vessels and
Heat Exchangers
Reciprocating and
Centrifugal Compressors
for Process Gases
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e.g. Emission Control Systems,
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Power Plant Technology
Industrial and Power Plant
Services
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O
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Leading
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Bretislav Janovsky received BS
and PhD degrees from the University
of Pardubice focusing on theory and
technology of explosives. He worked
in various technical and research posi-
tions at the University of Pardubice and a privately held
company, TLP Prague. Dr. Janovsky concentrated on
consequence analysis under risk analysis in the process
industries. He was a full-time assistant and associated
professor of safety engineering at the University of
Pardubice and started his own professional consultant
business in 1995. Today, Dr. Janovsky is the research and
development director at OZM Research Bliznovice and
teaches part-time at the University of Pardubice.

I

41
Consider new analysis for flares
Applying dynamic models in designing safety systems
can reduce capital costs
Z. URBAN, M. MATZOPOULOS and J. MARRIOTT, Process Systems Enterprise Ltd.,
London,UK, and B. MARSHALL, Softbits Consultants Ltd., Medstead, UK
A
pplication of dynamic modeling
for relief system design can sub-
stantially lower capital expenditure
(CAPEX) while simultaneously improving
plant safety. This article considers using
dynamic analysis to two areas: vessel depres-
surization (or blowdown) and flare net-
work design. New modeling methods can
accurately quantify relief loads and metal
temperatures to enable informed safety and
CAPEX decision support.
CASE HISTORY 1:
VESSEL DEPRESSURIZATION
Detailed dynamic analysis of the rapid
depressurization (blowdown) of high-pres-
sure vessels is a key element of the safety
analysis of oil and gas facilities and other
high-pressure installations.
Event description. Depressurization of
a vessel usually results in cold gas venting
into the flare system. The cold gas can sig-
nificantly lower the temperatures within the
process equipment metal walls and pipe-
work, as well as the relief system pipework
immediately downstream of the blowdown
valves (BDVs). Low temperatures can lead
to embrittlement of the equipment and
pipework metal walls, and the difference
in temperature between adjacent metal sec-
tions can result in high thermal stresses.
This condition has implications for the
integrity of process vessels, pipework and
sections of the relief system, as well as for
CAPEX. Accurate analysis of likely relief
scenarios is essential to determine:
Relief loads entering the flare net-
work. For new designs, accurate infor-
mation is needed to achieve an optimal
design that minimizes the piping diam-
eters required to meet Mach number and
back-pressure constraints. Minimizing the
piping sizes also provides benefits in terms
of reduced support infrastructure, which
can be particularly important in the case
of offshore platforms where additional
weight is heavily penalized. For revamps
or expansions to an existing process plant,
accurate data can help determine whether
the current flare system can handle the new
loads acceptably. In either design scenario,
CAPEX savings can be considerable.
Temperature throughout the pro-
cess and pipework metal walls to identify
areas of potential embrittlement, and where
(and when) unacceptable thermal stresses
are likely to arise. Such information can be
used to mitigate potential problems either
by controlling the relief rates or by rerout-
ing the relief flows.
Temperature of the relieving gas
streams (which may actually contain evap-
orating entrained liquids). This provides
essential information for choosing the
appropriate material of construction for the
critical sections of pipework immediately
downstream of the BDV.
The effects of low temperature can usu-
ally be addressed by using suitable materi-
als of construction. Unfortunately, in some
cases, such materials can be expensive, and
it is highly desirable to minimize their use
without compromising safety consider-
ations. This requires accurate quantifica-
tion of flowrates and temperatures of the
relieving stream, as well as the minimum
temperatures reached in the metal walls.
Complex phenomena. Depressuriza-
tion of a vessel involves a complex set of cou-
pled physical phenomena that must be char-
acterized accurately to understand behavior
and provide suitable design values.
Current depressurization modeling is
often performed with off-the-shelf process
flowsheeting simulators that use an equilib-
rium thermodynamic approach. The latter
provides some indication of the flow and
temperature, but by no means adequately
describe the complex thermodynamic and
kinetic phenomena occurring as a result of
rapid decreases in pressure. The fact that
multiple phases can form within the vessel,
and that these may not be in equilibrium
with each other or with the vessel wall, can
have a significant effect on both the relief
flows and metal temperatures of the vessel
and relief system pipework.
The sudden decrease in pressure in a
gas-filled vessel results in a rapid change in
the thermodynamic state of the gas within
the vessel. This can result in nucleation
of liquids within the gas bulk to form a
droplet phase as shown in Fig. 1. Some
of the nucleated liquid leaves as entrained
droplets in the high-velocity gas exit stream
(Fig. 2). Downstream of the vessel, and as
the pressure further reduces, this exiting
entrained liquid evaporates into the bulk
gas stream, lowering the temperature of
the cold exiting stream even further. This
creates a risk of brittle fracture of the flare
system pipework.
Some proportion of the liquid remain-
ing in the vessel drops to the vessel floor.
Nucleating liquid
droplets
Gas to relief system
Formation of droplet phase in
blowdown event.
FIG. 1
42

I

Initially, this evaporates instantly due to the
warm temperature of the metal it encoun-
ters. The effect is similar to a drop of water
falling on a hotplate. However, once the
metal has cooled sufficiently (typically
after a few tens of seconds), liquid begins
pooling (Fig. 2) and forming a continuous
liquid phase.
The pool boils vigorously, cooling and
reducing in size, and, in turn, reducing the
temperature of the metal beneath it. This
event can lead to significant temperature
differences between the metal immediately
below the pool and its surroundingspre-
senting a very real threat of brittle fracture
and rupture of the vessel base.
The effect of the phenomena can be
seen graphically in Fig. 3, which shows the
results of depressuring a vessel filled with
light-hydrocarbon gas at 120 bar. In the
initial phase of depressurization, the gas
temperature (black line) drops rapidly. The
temperature of the metal wall in contact
with the gas (green line) begins to drop, but
much more slowly because of the resistance
to heat transfer between between wall and
gas and heat conduction within the wall.
After about 80 seconds, a droplet phase
begins to form throughout the gas. Initially,
droplets in contact with the metal heat up
rapidly and vaporize (red spike). When cool
liquid droplets (at a temperature close to
that of the bulk gas) begin to pool on the
vessel floor, the liquid temperature increases
further above the bulk gas temperature as
the liquid is heated by the metal wall and
changes in composition. After a while, the
gas bulk temperature begins to rise because
of heat influx from the metal wall.
The items of most concern are the rap-
idly decreasing temperature of the metal
in contact with the liquid pool (blue line)
and the difference between the tempera-
ture of this metal and the adjacent metal
contacting with the gas (green line). The
metal temperature can be seen to drop
to nearly 30C, approaching the brittle
fracture temperature for carbon steel. The
temperature difference between vessel floor
and sides rapidly increases to over 20 and
is nearly 40 by the end of the blowdown,
which may give rise to unacceptable stress.
Because of the rapid change of condi-
tions, the three phases coexisting in the
vessel (gas, droplet and a pool of liquid,)
and the vessel walls are not in equilibrium
with each other throughout most of the
blowdown event. In comparison, the dot-
ted line shows the equivalent temperature
curve obtained using an equilibrium model
for the same blowdown, which predicts a
much less severe drop in temperature. This
model fails to identify the most significant
safety-related aspectthe cooling effect of
the liquid on the vessel bottom.
Fig. 4 shows the resulting vessel wall
temperatures and associated thermal stresses
for the vessel vertical walls as color tempera-
ture plots. This information would not be
available without rigorous modeling of the
nonequilibrium mass and energy transfer
between phases. This example describes
just one scenario. Other scenarios may
develop depending on the initial inventory
and state of the material in the vessel. For
example, there may be bubblet nucle-
ation in super-critical fluid, rather than the
droplet nucleation described here.
CASE HISTORY 2: FLARE NETWORK
Conventional flare header design tech-
niques use peak relief flows in steady-state
simulation to assess system capacities and
determine back-pressures downstream of
blowdown valves (BDVs) and pressure
safety valves (PSVs), Mach number in the
headers, and radiation at the flare tip.
This steady-state assumption is highly
conservative. While conservative approaches
may be desirable in safety system design,
they can nevertheless lead to gross overde-
sign throughout the system. Key areas of
over design include:
Oversized flare header. Sizing the
header for the sum of the maximum flows
takes no account of effects such as:
System packing, where the gas pres-
surizes the available volume in the flare
network
Condensed liquid droplets
pooling and evaporating
Entrained liquid
droplets leaving
with gas
Droplets exiting in the gas stream
and forming a continuous liquid
phase on the vessel bottom.
FIG. 2
230
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time, sec
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,

K
700 800 900 1,000 1,100 1,200
240
250
260
270
280
290
300
Bulk gas
Equilibrium
Metal wall in
contact with gas
Metal wall in
contact with liquid
Liquid
Formation of liquid
phase and pooling
Onset of nucleation
Three-phase
(gas, droplet,
liquid)
Two-phase
(gas, droplet)
Single-
phase
(gas)
Temperature profiles over the duration of the blowdown event. FIG. 3
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MERICHEM COMPANY
44

I

Potential for sequencing of flare
events. For example, depressurization ini-
tiated deliberately by an operator may be
complete well before a fire causes PSVs to
lift. Steady-state peak flow analysis, on the
other hand, assumes that all events occur
simultaneously.
Reducing the peak flows used as the
design basis by judicious analysis can signif-
icantly reduce pipe sizes and materials and
fabrication costs, which can be substantial
for large-diameter headers. Reducing the
size also creates knock-on savings related to
the support structure and flare stack size.
Oversized flare stack. The flare stack
sizing depends on radiation emitted by the
flame, which is a function of the volumetric
gas flowrate through the flare tip. Using
unrealistically high flowrates determined
from peak flows results in an over-long
stack, creating weight problems in offshore
facilities or adding stack support costs (or
unnecessary additional header length) in
onshore facilities. Similarly, a lack of accu-
rate temperature information leads to a wide
span between the minimum and maximum
design temperatures used for gas arriving at
the stack, resulting in unrealistic allowances
for thermal expansion and contraction.
Over-use of expensive alloys.
Although flare system pipework may be in
contact with gas at extremely low tempera-
tures, this typically occurs for a relatively
short duration. The use of steady-state
flows does not consider the duration of
such exposures to low temperature, which
may result in very conservative and expen-
sive application of alloys.
It can be argued that a good flare net-
work design is one that minimizes capital
expenditure while meeting all safety con-
straints. Overdesign should be avoided
wherever possible.
By making simple dynamic analyses
using data that is mostly already available
in some form, it is often possible to refine
network designs to arrive at systems with
a significantly lower capital cost while
demonstrably meeting safety require-
ments. Similarly, it is often possible to find
additional capacity during retrofits, thus
removing the need for additional capital
expenditures.
Typical examples of where dynamic
analysis can bring significant new informa-
tion that has an impact on capital cost are:
Peak flowrates. The actual relief flow
through any PSV is at the maximum only
for a short period. Using steady-state meth-
ods based on peak flows is equivalent to
making the assumption that all relief flows
start at the same time and go on forever. In
reality, it is often possible to take credit for
staged or staggered relief. Shifting depres-
surization of certain units by a few tens of
seconds can make a significant difference
to the peak flows through the systeman
effect that cannot be represented at all by
steady-state simulation.
Packing. Steady-state approaches make
the implicit assumption that the flare sys-
tem has no volumewhat goes in comes
out, instantly. For larger systems, the
impact of relief flows is partially absorbed
by pressurization of the flowing lines and
the dead volumes in non-flowing parts of
the system. This packing effect can reduce
both the calculated peak back-pressures or
Mach numbers and the peak flows seen at
the flare tip, allowing reduction in header
and tailpipe diameters and flare stack
lengths, respectively. Dynamic simulation
allows this important buffering effect to be
taken into account in the design.
Duration. Equally important, dynamic
simulation can be used to determine the
duration of peak flare loads. Engineering
judgment can then be used to assess the
risks of any infringements. For example,
a 5-second violation of back-pressure or
radiation constraints may well be accept-
able, especially given the capital costs of
oversizing the flare system to avoid such a
contingency.
Temperature. Relief system pipework
that is likely to encounter low temperatures
needs to be constructed from expensive
alloys such as Inconel to avoid the possibil-
ity of embrittlement and consequent frac-
ture. The true extent of pipework that truly
needs to be constructed of such materials is
impossible to gauge with steady-state simu-
lation, as low-temperature flows are con-
sidered to continue forever, ensuring that
calculated metal temperatures reach their
minimum. In reality, such flows may only
last for a few minutes; the thermal inertia of
the pipework metal and heat gain from the
environment prevent the pipework from
reaching the gas temperatures during this
time (a similar effect can be seen in the bulk
gas and metal temperature plots in Fig. 3).
It is frequently possible to reduce the usage
of alloy significantly based on the more
accurate information from the dynamic
analysis. One oil company reported saving
$1.5 million on a single vessel this way.
Flare-stack temperatures. Dynamics
can also help provide a true picture of the
temperature of gas arriving at the flare tip.
Proper calculation of the effect of low-tem-
4a. Wall temperatures at the end of the blowdown;
4b. Wall thermal stresses from the effects of pooling liquid.
FIG. 4 Example of a flare network showing active sources. FIG. 5
P: 847.285.3850 | E: mgtsales@merichem.com | www.merichem.com
Problem: Sour Gas
Sweetest Solution: LO-CAT

H
2
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46

I

perature gas over a short time taking into
account metal-thermal inertia and ambi-
ent heating provides much more accurate
minimum and maximum design tempera-
tures, allowing the designer to make sen-
sible decisions on stack length and support
mechanisms.
Example. Consider the flare system
shown in Fig. 5, where the header sizes are
set primarily by a depressuring scenario
from five units simultaneously, as high-
lighted in the figure. One of the key ques-
tions is the size of the long main-header
pipe leading to the flare stack. Typically,
such a system is designed by working back
from the flare tip, sizing all the lines based
on velocity constraints until reaching the
relief valves, and then confirming that
other constraints, such as back-pressure
constraints at the relief valves and limits on
noise, are not violated.
In this study, a system has been designed
using steady-state techniques using a veloc-
ity heuristic requiring a Mach number
between 0.25 and 0.35 in the main lines.
A conventional steady-state approach cal-
culates the Mach number using the sum of
the peak flowrates. The maximum Mach
number at the pipe outlet is represented
by the dotted line in Fig. 6. At 0.29, this
is well within the 0.250.35 range. The
back-pressures at the five blowdown valve
sources are listed in Table 1; these are well
below the limit.
For illustration, it is useful to do a
pseudo-dynamic run, using relief flow
curves but taking no account of the flare
system volume. This shows a Mach num-
ber profile over time that has the charac-
teristic sharp-peaked shape of relief flow
curves (red line in Fig. 6). As expected,
the peak Mach number from this run is
the same as for the steady-state case, at the
sum of the individual peak flows. Although
this case adds no new information to the
design, it does provide some indication of
the length of the blowdown event, allow-
ing judgment to be applied in the case of
constraint violation.
If a full dynamic simulation is done,
taking the volume of the system (both for
active and inactive branches) into account,
it can be seen that the effect of flare sys-
tem packing significantly reduces the peak
Mach number observed, to about 0.25.
It is evident from these results that there
may be potential to reduce the diameter of
the 24-in. header, as the Mach number is
nowhere near its limit.
A new series of calculations is performed
with a 20-in. header diameter to see the
effect of reducing the flare system line sizes.
As expected, the Mach number obtained
using steady-state peak flows (0.4) violates
the system design constraints, indicating
that the design is not viable (Fig. 7, dotted
line). The corresponding pseudo-dynamic
case shows (Fig. 7, red line) that the value
is out of range for about three minutes,
which is also unacceptable. However, a full
dynamic simulation taking into account
line packing shows that the peak Mach
number is within the 0.35 limit (Fig. 7,
black line); the back-pressures (Table 2)
remain well within the limits. The added
information provided by the dynamic
simulation thus indicates that the design
is indeed viable.
If further mitigation is required, it is pos-
sible to investigate the dynamic effects of
staggering the depressurization, so that units
depressure in sequence. The green line in
Fig. 7 shows the effect on Mach number of
delaying the blowdown of Unit 2 by several
minutes. Similar approaches can be applied
to retrofit cases, often demonstrating that
it is possible to accommodate additional
sources in an existing flare system that is
ostensibly operating close to its limits.
Conclusion. The dynamic simulation
capabilities of modern software tools
provide a number of options for analyz-
ing both the depressurization eventto
determine accurate relief flows and fluid
thermodynamic conditionsand the flare
header design itself. This enables engineers
to design systems that comply with safety
guidelines based on a much more realistic
representation of behavior than traditional
methods allow, and, at the same time, to
identify opportunities for significant capi-
tal savings.
In the case of depressurization, rigorous
dynamic simulation identifies potentially
dangerous situations. For new flare system
designs, it can leadamong other benefits
to a reduction in header size, resulting in
significant capital savings. For existing head-
ers, it provides a means to establish whether
there is sufficient capacity to accommodate
new sources, thereby avoiding the need for
a new header and flare. HP
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Time, sec
M
a
c
h

n
u
m
b
e
r
Mach numbers of 24-in. header in a flare system. FIG. 6
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Time, sec
M
a
c
h

n
u
m
b
e
r
Mach numbers of 20-in. header in a flare system using a
staggered blowdown.
FIG. 7
TABLE 1. Back-pressures for
24-in. header case
Inlet source Back-pressure, bar
Train_1_DP 1.63
Train_2_DP 1.75
Train_3_DP 1.63
Train_4_DP 1.79
Train_5_DP 1.68
TABLE 2. Back-pressures for
20-in. header case
Inlet source Back-pressure, bar
Train_1_DP 2.23
Train_2_DP 2.32
Train_3_DP 2.23
Train_4_DP 2.34
Train_5_DP 2.27

47
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Haque, M. A., S. M. Richardson, and G. Saville,
Blowdown of Pressure Vessels. IComputer
Model, Transactions of the Institute of Chemical
Engineers Part B: Process Safety Environmental
Protection, 70(BI), 1, 1992.
Mafgerefteh, H. and S. M. A. Wong, A numeri-
cal blowdown simulation incorporating cubic equa-
tions of state, Computer Chemical Engineering, Vol.
23, p. 1309, 1999.
Gruber, D., D.-U. Leipnitz, P. Sethuraman, M. A.
Alos, J. M. Nougues and M. Brodkorb, Are there
alternatives to an expensive overhaul of a bottle-
necked flare system? Petroleum Technology Quarterly
Q1, 2010.
Chen, F. F. K., R. A. Jentz and D. G. Williams,
Flare System Design: A Case for Dynamic
Simulation, Offshore Technology Conference, May
47, 1992, Houston.
Goyal, R. K. and E. G. Al-Ansari, Emergency
Shutdown devices and relief system sizing and design
in oil refineries, Hydrocarbon World, Vol. 4, No. 1,
Touch Briefings, 2009.
Speranza, A. and A. Terenzi, Blowdown of
Hydrocarbons pressure vessel with partial phase separa-
tion, Series of Advances in Mathematics, available
from http://www.i2t3.unifi.it/upload/file/Articoli/
animp_2004.pdf, 2005.
Szczepanski, R., Simulation programs for blow-
down of pressure vessels, IChemE SONG Meeting,
1994.
Zbigniew Urban is a principal consultant at Process
Systems Enterprise Ltd. He has 30 years of experience
in the application of high-fidelity modeling to complex
industrial processes, including areas such as reaction
engineering, gas-liquid separation, industrial crystal-
lization and depressurization to fuel -cell component
and system development. Mr. Urban is responsible for
development of PSEs novel modeling technology, and
is an acknowledged leader in these fields. He has an
MS degree in chemical engineering from the Warsaw
University of Technology.
Mark Matzopoulos is chief operating officer of
Process Systems Enterprise Ltd. He has 30 years of experi-
ence in the development and application of process sim-
ulation and modeling tools in steady state and dynamic
simulation, operator training, control system checkout
and plant optimization in the oil and gas, refining and
chemical industries. He has a chemical engineering
degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa,
and was a member of the winning team for the Royal
Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award 2007.
Brian Marshall has over 33 years of oil and gas
experience, including 10 years of process design in
onshore and offshore oil/gas and condensate produc-
tion facilities, 2 years of commissioning and operation
of major LNG facilities and 25 years in flare-system
design and operation. He is the managing director of
Softbits Consultants, a specialist supplier of process
simulation software and consultancy for flare system
design. Mr. Marshall is a graduate of Nottingham Uni-
versity, a former technical chairman of GPA Europe and
a Fellow of the IChemE.
James Marriott is head of applications engineering
at Process Systems Enterprise Ltd. He is responsible for
safety-business development and has 10 years of expe-
rience in industrial application modeling. Mr. Marriott
holds a degree in chemical engineering from University
College London, England, and a PhD in modeling of
separation systems.
Sweet Solutions.
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49
Designing the correct
pressure-relieving system
Use these relief rate calculations for gas thermal
expansion as a cause for overpressure
S. RAHIMI MOFRAD, Petrofac Engineering and Construction, Sharjah, UAE
T
he first step in designing a pressure-relieving system is to
specify all possible causes of overpressure that is applicable
to different equipment. The American Petroleum Institute
(API) standard 521
1
introduces the various emergency cases and
general guidelines for calculating relief rates. While liquid thermal
expansion is widely recognized as causing overpressure, gas ther-
mal expansion is rarely taken as a credible cause of overpressure.
Standard guidelines may be absent or it may be believed that gas
thermal expansion has negligible contribution to overpressure.
As a general practice for liquid thermal expansion, thermal relief
valves (TRVs) are normally provided for equipment operating full
of liquid. These can be blocked-in between inlet and outlet valves,
where sufficient heat may be applied to fluid, increasing the pres-
sure above the equipment design pressure.
2
The relief requirement
of a vessel under fire containing only gas (unwetted vessel) was
developed by API 521 and other reference materials.
3
This article
will present cases where gas thermal expansion is caused by heat
sources other than external fireincluding process hot stream,
solar radiation and ambient temperature variation.
Gas expansion fundamentals. Gas thermal expansion
occurs in all equipment and piping with the following conditions:
Line or equipment is isolated for operational or emergency
purposes
A heat source with temperature higher than gas temperature
exists.
For the described system, a relief valve is needed if:
Pressure increased since the temperature increased, exceed-
ing the system design pressure
No other overpressure protection device on the system, no
provision to prevent gas tight blockage such as a locked open (LO)
valve, leaking check valve or venting procedure before closing
isolation valves.
2
Figs. 1A and 1B show the pressure rise of blocked air, based on
the results of the SoaveRedlichKwong (SRK)
4
equation of state
(EOS) for different pressures and temperatures. As shown in Fig.
1A, the blocked-in gas pressure rise due to temperature changes
(P/T), is not significant in low to medium pressure applica-
tions. However, for high pressure gases it can reach 2 bar/C (Fig.
1B). The values given in Figs. 1A and 1B may be used to estimate
the potential pressure rise for other gases, but for gas mixtures
with a wide composition range, use the suitable EOS.
Figs. 1A and 1B illustrate that gas thermal expansion should be
considered as causing overpressure in the following systems:
0.00
-50 0 50 100
Temperature, C
1 bara
5 bara
10 bara
20 bara
30 bara
150 200 250 300
0.01
0.02
0.03
P
/
T
,

b
a
r
/
1
C
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.10
Gas expansion for low to medium pressure. FIG. 1A
0.00
-50 0 50 100
Temperature, C
100 bara
200 bara
300 bara
500 bara
150 200 250 300
0.5
P
/
T
,

b
a
r
/
1
C
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
Gas expansion for medium to high pressure. FIG. 1B
50

I

Systems with high operating pressure where P/T is
significant. This means that even small temperature changes may
cause catastrophic piping or equipment failure containing dense
gas. Example, a 300-bar air cylinder stored at 23C, the pressure
will increase 1.3 bar per each degree centigrade, as shown in Fig.
1B. Therefore, if the air condition fails and room temperature
increases to 40C, cylinder pressure can reach 322 bar. Another
example is a high-pressure pipeline with a possible blockage, along
with exposure to sun radiation.
System with high differential temperature between heat
source and blocked gas. A 20-bar cold fuel gas is superheated in
a gasgas heat exchanger using hot flue gas at 400C. If the fuel
gas is blocked, it can reach the hot gas operating temperature.
Although the gas expansion is small at 20 bar, the high differential
temperature can easily increase the blocked gas to pressure beyond
the design pressure.
Relief rate calculation. There is not a common approach
for gas thermal expansion relief studies that is applicable to all
systems. These systems should be reviewed case by case. What is
common among different systems is that pressure can be main-
tained at a safe level if the excess mass is released. Writing a mass
balance equation for blocked gas gives the required relief rate:

W(t )=
dm(t )
dt
(1)
Assuming:
Since the gas composition does not change during relief, gas
molecular weight is constant.
Hence, m(t) = MW n(t)
Enough heat is supplied to keep the blocked gas at relieving
pressure during relief (independent of time (P = P
R
))
n = PV/RT predicts gas thermodynamic behavior.
Eq. 1 could be rewritten as:
W(t ) =
P
R
V MW
R
d(1/T )
dt
(2)
Rearranging Eq. 2 results in Eq. 3, and can be solved if the
temperature variation with time is known.

W(t ) =
P
R
V MW
RT
2
dT
dt
(3)
Initial checking. An appropriate safeguard for gas thermal
expansion is equipment design pressure. Before starting the relief
rate calculation, it should be checked at which temperature the
design pressure will be reached using Eq. 4.
P
D
P
N
T T
N,ave
=Fig. 1value at P
N
andT
N,ave
(4)
A simplified form of the ideal gas law, T = T
N,ave
P
D
/P
N,
con-
sidering its limitations and applications can also be used.
If the calculated temperature, T, is higher than the heat source
temperature, no pressure safety valve is needed. In other words,
the pressure of blocked gas does not reach relieving pressure even
if the temperature increases from the initial temperature to the
heat source temperature. If not, there is a potential for the blocked
gas pressure to exceed the design pressure. The calculated tempera-
ture is the temperature where a relief valve opens for the first time
(the initial relieving temperature).
Relief rate calculation procedure. The following section
introduces a very simple procedure to define the blocked-gas tem-
perature as a function of time and solves Eq. 3 for a gas-gas heat
exchanger using a numerical solution. This method may result in
10%20% overdesign on flow (required area). Its also acceptable
compared to the overdesign associated with the relief valve selec-
tion procedureselecting a pressure safety valve (PSV) among
standard orifices usually much larger than the required area.
Step 1. Assume constant temperature intervals, T, between
the initial relieving temperature and the heat source temperature
and calculate T(t+t):
T(t + t ) =T(t ) + T (5)
Step 2. Calculate the average heat transfer rate between heat
source and trapped gas by using Eq. 6:

Q(t ) =U(t ) A T
S
T(t ) ( ) (6)
Step 3. Calculate the heat required to increase the tempera-
ture of trapped gas from T(t) to T(t+t) by using Eq. 7, which
ignores part of the heat that is consumed by the gas container
(heat-exchanger metal).
q(t ) =n (t ) MWC
P
(t ) T(t + t ) T(t ) (7)
Step 4. Calculate the time required to increase the temperature
of trapped gas from T(t) to T(t+t) using Eq. 8.

t =
q (t )
Q(t )
(8)
Step 5. Calculate the relief rate using Eq. 9.
W(t ) =
P
R
V MW
RT(t )
2
T(t + t ) T(t )
( )
t
(9)
Step 6. Calculate the new number of trapped gas moles using
Eq. 10 for the next calculation stage. Go back to Step 1.
n(t + t ) =n(t ) W(t ) t (10)
Case study. Table 1 shows natural gas with conditions and
compositions that are superheated from 100C150C in a gas-
gas heat exchanger using 400C high-pressure steam. The heat-
exchanger tube inside diameter, total heat transfer area and total
tube volume are 1 in., 100 m
2
and 1.5 m
3
respectively.
According to Fig. 1A, the pressure rise of trapped gas at an
average temperature of 125C and 10 barg is 0.0289 bar/C.
Therefore, the minimum heat source temperature to increase the
blocked-gas pressure from operating to design pressure is:
TABLE 1. Gas condition and composition
Parameter Value
Methane (mole %) 0.84
Ethane (mole %) 0.08
Propane (mole %) 0.04
i-butane (mole %) 0.02
n-butane (mole %) 0.02
MW 19.97
P
N
(barg) 10
P
D
(barg) 12
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52

I


P
D
P
N
T 125C
=0.0289 bar / C
Then:
T =
12 10
0.0289
+125=194.2C
Since the temperature of HP steam is higher than 194.2C,
it will over-pressurize the cold side and a relief valve is required
for gas thermal expansion if the system is blocked-in. Simulation
software was used to obtain the physical properties of the gas at
each temperature interval. Considering relieving pressure of 13.2
barg (corresponding to a relieving temperature of 235.7C), the
relief rate was calculated (Table 2).
In this example, the following points were observed:
As the blocked-gas temperature increases, the differential
temperature decreases. This results in reducing the overall heat
transfer coefficient and, subsequently, the relief rate.
The maximum relief load takes place at the first interval
when the heat transfer rate is high.
The time between two subsequent PSV openings (t) is
initially so short that it can be assumed as continuous relieving.
The PSV will chatter as trapped gas temperature approaches heat
source temperature.
Unlike liquid thermal expansion where a in. x 1 in. ther-
mal relief valve will normally be sufficient, preliminary PSV sizing
showed that a 1 in. x 2 in. PSV with an F designation is needed
for this case.
When the gas temperature reaches 194.2C, the relief valve
opens for the first time. If the heat transfer rate is high, the relief
valve will remain open, otherwise, it will close until the pressure
buildup is sufficient to reopen the relief valve again.
The typical trends of blocked-gas parameters for this case are
illustrated in Fig. 2 (Case 1). In case of low heat flux, the relief
valve opens and closes repeatedly to release the excess pressure, as
shown in Fig. 2 (Case 2).
Gas thermal expansion can cause system over-pressurization
in particular conditions that were discussed. Ignoring this case
may result in a system mechanical failure. A in. x 1 in ther-
mal relief valve recommended by API-521 may not be suffi-
TABLE 2. Relief rate calculation
T (C) Cp
*
(kJ/kgK)
*
(cP)
*
(kg/m
3
) k
*
(J/s m K) Gr () Pr () Nu () U (J/sm
2
K) Q (J/s) m (kg) q (J) t (s) W (kg/hr)
235.7 2.84 1.75E-02 6.74 6.42E-02 7.32E+06 0.775 11.7 30.0 493205 10.10 470582 0.95 1241.1
252.1 2.90 1.79E-02 6.53 6.70E-02 5.71E+06 0.776 10.8 29.1 429724 9.78 464857 1.08 1027.3
268.5 2.96 1.83E-02 6.32 6.98E-02 4.42E+06 0.777 10.0 28.0 368505 9.47 462289 1.25 838.1
285.0 3.02 1.87E-02 6.13 7.27E-02 3.38E+06 0.778 9.2 26.9 309314 9.17 454386 1.47 669.9
301.4 3.08 1.91E-02 5.95 7.56E-02 2.54E+06 0.779 8.5 25.7 253048 8.90 449576 1.78 522.8
317.8 3.14 1.95E-02 5.78 7.86E-02 1.87E+06 0.780 7.7 24.3 199593 8.64 447697 2.24 393.8
334.3 3.20 1.99E-02 5.62 8.15E-02 1.32E+06 0.781 7.0 22.7 149015 8.40 440545 2.96 281.0
350.7 3.26 2.03E-02 5.47 8.45E-02 8.82E+05 0.782 6.1 20.8 102460 8.17 436291 4.26 185.0
367.1 3.32 2.06E-02 5.33 8.75E-02 5.25E+05 0.782 5.2 18.4 60452 7.95 434803 7.19 104.6
383.6 3.37 2.10E-02 5.19 9.06E-02 2.34E+05 0.783 4.1 14.9 24373 7.74 428127 17.6 40.5
400.0 3.43 2.14E-02 5.07 9.36E-02 0.00E+00 0.783 0.0 0.0 0 7.54 0.0
*Input from simulation software
Heat transfer background
Ignoring the effect of heat radiation, overall heat transfer
coefficient for the tube side of the heat exchanger is calculated
from the following relation:

1
U
=
1
h
i
+
1
k
w
x
A
w
A
i
+
1
h
o
A
o
A
i
(11)
From the heat transfer point of view, the main difference
between the operating and blocked-in conditions is that the
heat transfer mechanism inside the tube changes from force
convection to free convection. The following assumption is
applicable to blocked-in conditions:

h
i

k
w
x
h
o
(12)
Substituting Eq. 12 in Eq. 11 gives Uh
i
.
There are many correlations for calculating the free convec-
tion heat transfer coefficient, h
i
, inside enclosed space. The fol-
lowing relation can be used for estimating this parameter when
6 x 10
6
< Gr Pr < 10
8
.
5
Nu = 0.104 Gr
0.305
Pr
0.389

where:

Gr =
g (T
S
T ) D
3
2
Pr =
C
p
k
Nu =
h
i
D
k
=
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Gas-liquid and liquid-liquid separators
54

I

cient for this case. Therefore, the relief rate has to be calculated
according to the system dimension and heat transfer rate from
the heat source to the blocked-in gas while an adequate PSV
size needs to be utilized. In absence of any standard addressing
this case, different systems should be reviewed on a case-by-
case basis. HP
LITERATURE CITED
1
Pressure-relieving and depressuring systems, API RP 521, 5th edition,
January 2007.
2
Norouzi, S. and S. Rahimi Mofrad, What you should know about liquid
thermal expansion, Hydrocarbon Processing, November 2008.
3
Rahimi Mofrad, S. and S. Norouzi, Designing for pressure release due to a
fire Part 1, Hydrocarbon Processing, November 2007.
4
Smith, J. M. and H. C. Van Ness, Introduction to Chemical Engineering
Thermodynamics, Fourth Edition, McGraw Hill.
5
Cheremisinoff, N. P., Heat Transfer Handbook, Gulf Publishing Company,
Houston, Texas, 2003.
NOMENCLATURE
A Heat exchanger surface area, m
2
C
p
Gas heat capacity, kJ/kg K
D Tube diameter, m
g Accleration of gravity, 9.81 m/s
2
Gr Grashof number, dimensionless
h Heat transfer coefficient, J/s m
2
K
k Thermal conductivity, J/s m K
m Mass of trapped gas, kg
MW Gas molecular weight, kg/kgmol
n Mole of trapped gas, kgmol
Nu Nusselt number, dimensionless
P Pressure, bara
P
r
Prandtl number, dimensionless
Q Total heat transfer rate, J/sec
q Heat content of trapped gas, J
R Gas constant, 8,314 bara m
3
/kgmol K
Ra Rayleigh number, dimensionless
T
S
Heat source temperature, K
T Blocked-gas temperature, K
t Time, sec
U Overall heat transfer coefficient, J/s m
2
K
V Trapped gas volume, m
3
W Relief rate, kg/hr
Z Gas compressibility factor
Cubical expansion coefficient, 1/K
Dynamic viscosity, Centipoises (Cp)
Kinematic viscosity, m/s
2
x Wall thickness, m
Density, kg/m
3
Subscripts
i Inside
o Outside
ave Average
w Wall
N Normal operating condition
D Design condition
R Relieving condition
Saeid Rahimi Mofrad is a process engineer with Petrofac
Engineering and Construction at Al Soor, Sharjah, UAE. He is inter-
ested in relief load calculation, overpressure protection systems
design and flare network sizing. Mr. Rahimi Mofrad has an MS
degree in chemical engineering from the Sharif University of Tech-
nology and a BS degree from Shiraz University, Iran.
HI GH PRESSURE PUMPI NG SOLUTI ONS
woodgroupsurfacepumps.com
Relief rate, Case 1
Relief rate, Case 2
Temperature
Pressure, Case 1
Pressure, Case 2
P
R
T
N
Gas is
blocked in
Time, t
PSV
opens
P
N
T=Ts
Case 1: High heat ux
Case 2: Low heat ux
B
l
o
c
k
e
d

g
a
s

p
a
r
a
m
e
t
e
r
Typical trend of blocked-gas parameters. FIG. 2

I

55
Customize operator training
for your thermal oxidizers
This case history shows the benefits of site-specific programs
in new equipment installations
T. GILDER, Shintech Louisiana, LLC, Plaquemine, Louisiana; and
D. CAMPBELL, T. ROBERTSON and C. BAUKAL, John Zink Co. LLC, Tulsa, Oklahoma
S
hintech began construction of its new Plaquemine, Loui-
siana, manufacturing facility (see Fig. 1) in October 2005.
The facility is located on a 1,725-ac site, and it manufac-
tures chlorine, caustic soda and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM).
Historically, Shintech has manufactured only polyvinyl chloride
(PVC). This new plant is Shintechs first integrated complex. This
new manufacturing facility uses state-of-the-art environmental
technologies and is subject to the most stringent environmental
controls in the country.
Thermal oxidizers (TOs) are commonly used to treat volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO) emis-
sions because TOs have very high destruction and removal effi-
ciencies.
1,2
Thermal oxidation can be defined as the process of
oxidizing combustible materials by raising their temperature above
the auto-ignition point in the presence of oxygen and maintaining
it at high temperature for sufficient time to complete combustion
to carbon dioxide and water.
3
Shintech partnered with the manufacturer of the TOs to offer
customized training to 37 of its plant operators for the start-up
of its new facility.
a
Fig. 2 shows part of the thermal oxidization
system installed at the Shintech facility. The TO training course
was offered with optional Continuing Education Unit (CEUs)
credits that were available to any students meeting the follow-
ing criteria: take (not pass) a pre-test, attend at least 80% of the
course contact time, pass (at least 80%) a post-test and complete
an anonymous course evaluation. The manufacturer also operates
a training organization that is accredited; the JZI
b
is authorized to
offer CEUs through its accreditation by the International Associa-
tion for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).
Course design. While the plant is responsible for all safety
practices and training, JZI provided training designed to give
operators at the new facility a good idea of both the what and why
of operating the TO system and associated equipment. All too
often, operators are trained, sometimes hurriedly and haphazardly,
by existing experienced operators. The new operators may learn
what to do, but not the why behind it. It is also fairly common for
long-time operators not to understand some of the basics because
they were never taught to them.
The why is important because it helps operators better understand
the cause and effect that can impact safety, thermal efficiency (and,
therefore, operating costs), productivity and pollutant emissions.
For example, Fig. 3 illustrates the potential problem of blow-
off if a burner is over-fired. Moving from left to right shows what
happens as the air/fuel mixture velocity is increased. The last
furnace, on the far right, depicts the danger of going beyond the
design firing limit for the burner. The why also better prepares
operators to react to new situations that may not have been cov-
ered in formal training sessions.
The course content included basics that apply to any equip-
ment of this type, along with very detailed and specific informa-
tion on the equipment in their particular installation. Materials
presented include:
1. Combustion and thermal oxidizer basics
2. Safety overview and warnings
3. Overall equipment familiarization
Shintech plant in Plaquemine, Louisiana. FIG. 1
56

I

4. Detailed walkthrough of equipment
5. Detailed blower, boiler, absorber, scrubber and demister
details
6. Detailed walkthrough of P&IDs
7. Drawings review
8. Pre-startup and refractory cure out
9. Normal startup and shutdown
10. Logic demonstration and DCS screens
11. Normal maintenance
12. Troubleshooting
13. Drawings.
Each student received a three-ring binder containing the color
PowerPoint slides of the course. Adequate room was provided
for them to make notes in the manual as desired. Some students
received their manuals prior to the start of the class and came pre-
pared with questions to ask. Statistics for all types of training show
that retention of the material diminishes fairly quickly after the
training has been completed. The student manual can be quickly
and easily referenced as often as needed to refresh previously
learned information. Although operators do not generally receive
their own copy of the operation and maintenance manual, the
student manual contains much of the same information, includ-
ing many of the written operating procedures.
Training. The training was conducted over three consecutive
days, followed by a fourth day about six weeks later on a couple
of specific pieces of the equipment. Although most of the time
was spent in the classroom, there were many short sessions
spent outside at the equipment to review and emphasize specif-
ics after reviewing the basics in the classroom. The plant had
not been started up yet, so the equipment was installed but not
operational. While this did not allow the operators to do live
training, it did permit operators from all shifts to attend classes
together during normal working hours. This produced signifi-
cant interaction and feedback between participants and with
the instructors. Another important aspect of the training was
that supervisors were present during most of the sessions, which
sent a strong message about the importance of the class.
The format of the training was designed to be very interac-
tive. While colorful PowerPoint slides (for example, see Fig. 4)
were used to guide the discussion, operators were encouraged
to ask questions and make comments at any time. This was
encouraged in part through subject-oriented fun games such
as poker and bingo. Every time a participant asked or answered
a question, they were given a random card from a poker deck.
For the poker game, the student with the best poker hand at
the end of the day received a prize. For the bingo game, cards
were drawn from a deck until someone had enough matching
cards to win. The more cards a student had, the more chances of
winning, so this encouraged continuous and frequent participa-
tion. Other token gifts were also given out during the training
as deemed appropriate by the instructors, for example, to a
student asking a particularly good question.
Short video clips and brief plant visits were used to break
up the lecture periods to help keep students engaged in the
materials. Videos are particularly powerful when demonstrat-
ing potential problems, such as flashback from a burner, that
may not have been previously experienced at a particular plant,
but which could happen under certain circumstances. This is
analogous to airline pilots who train in simulators to react to
situations they hope they never encounter, but for which they
are prepared to handle just in case.
The actual equipment drawings for this plant were used dur-
ing the training to help familiarize the operators with the equip-
ment and with the operating procedures. To make it even more
Photo of part of the thermal oxidation system during
installation.
FIG. 2
Series of furnaces showing the progression toward
blow-off of a burner flame.
FIG. 3 Slide showing the 3Ts of combustion: time, temperature
and turbulence.
FIG. 4
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58

I

realistic, photos were taken of individual components that would
pop up on the drawings when clicked. For example, clicking on
the symbol of a valve would pop up a picture of the actual valve
in the plant as shown in Fig. 5. This personalized the training
and made it easier for the operators to connect the drawings to
the actual equipment.
Results. Identical 15-question pre-tests and post-tests were given
to the students to measure learning. The pre-test assessed students
knowledge prior to taking the class. The average pre-test and post-
test scores were 52% and 99%, respectively. The difference between
the scores is an indicator of what was learned in the training.
Students were also given a questionnaire at the end of the course
to assess their level of satisfaction with the course. Students did not
put their names on the forms, although their names were checked
off a list to show they completed the evaluation, which is one of the
requirements for receiving credits for the course. A five-point Lik-
ert scale was used, where 1 = none, 2 = little, 3 = average, 4 = above
average, and 5 = great. Students rated each section of the course
according to their interest in the topic and its benefit to them.
There was also a space to write in any comments they may have
had on the topic. Fig. 6 shows the averaged results by interest and
benefit for each topic. The results show that, on average, students
found all topics to be of above-average interest and benefit.
Another part of the questionnaire asked students for written
comments on the instructors and material. Some of the instruc-
Animated P&ID with a picture of an actual control valve. FIG. 5
To join them:
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1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Topic #
8 9 10 11 12 13
2
3
R
a
t
i
n
g
4
5
Interest Benet
Student ratings of interest and benefit of each course
topic.
FIG. 6

59
tor comments included Very Knowledgeable, Excellent and
Very Thorough. Some students felt more time should have been
spent on startup, shutdown and troubleshooting, and less time
on the drawings. Content and coverage are always the challenge
with a group of students having a wide range of backgrounds and
experiences. Note: All students met the necessary requirements and
received CEUs for the class.
Outcome. Properly training plant operators is critical to ensure
that process equipment is operating safely, while maximizing effi-
ciency and productivity and minimizing pollution emissions.
Operators need to understand some basic information about the
equipment, as well as the details on their specific installation.
Although not always possible, it is particularly beneficial to have
all operators together in the same class to enhance discussion and
mutual learning. Training should be customized to the needs of
the plant and should incorporate techniques such as fun games to
promote interaction among the participants and instructors. Ide-
ally, there should be a hands-on portion of the training where
instructors use the actual equipment during demonstrations. Pre-
testing and post-testing are effective tools to show that operators
have learned the key points in the training. HP
NOTES
a
John Zink Company, LLC (JZC) manufactures thermal oxidation systems
used to destroy unwanted wastes.
1
b
The John Zink Institute (JZI) is the training group for JZC and delivers
training both at its US headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and at customer
plant sites. JZI works with the plant to determine a suitable course agenda.
LITERATURE CITED
1
Baukal, C. E., ed., The John Zink Combustion Handbook, CRC Press, Boca
Raton, Florida, 2001.
2
Schnelle, K. B. and C. A. Brown, Thermal Oxidation for VOC Control,
Chapter 13, Air Pollution and Control Technology Handbook, CRC Press,
Boca Raton, 2002.
3
Moretti, E. C., Reduce VOC and HAP Emissions, Chemical Engineering
Progress, Vol. 98, No. 6, pp. 3040, June 2002.
Todd Robertson is a combustion service leader at John Zink Company, LLC. He is
responsible for thermal oxidizer installation supervision, startup, maintenance, service
and training. He retired from the United States Air Force after 23 years of service. Mr.
Robertson earned a bachelors degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
Dale Campbell, P.E., is a senior design engineer at John Zink Company, LLC,
where he serves as the primary resource for incinerator troubleshooting and design
in the thermal oxidizer aftermarket group. Since 1973, his primary responsibility has
been the detailed design, equipment application, startup, and project management
of waste incinerator systems. Mr. Campbell earned a bachelor of science in chemical
engineering from the University of Tulsa.
Chuck Baukal is the director of the John Zink Institute at John Zink Company,
LLC in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has nearly 30 years experience in industrial combustion
in a wide range of industries. Dr. Baukal has a PhD in mechanical engineering from
the University of Pennsylvania and is a registered professional engineer in the state
of Pennsylvania. He has authored/edited eight books on industrial combustion and
has 11 US patents.
Tim H. Gilder joined Shintech Louisiana, LLC, in 2006 as vinyl chloride monomer
production superintendent. Prior to joining Shintech, Mr. Gilder served in engineering
and supervisory positions at flexible polyurethane foam, furfural, polyvinyl chloride
and ethylene dichloride/vinyl chloride monomer production facilities. He earned a
bachelors degree in chemical engineering from the University of Mississippi.
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61
Emergency response planning
start at the plant design stage
Follow these guidelines for a safer facility
R. SAINI, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, Kuwait
A
n optimum level of emergency
preparedness can be achieved if
emergency response planning
is started early and the requirements are
incorporated in the plant design. Codes
and standards provide basic guidelines but
there is also a need to go beyond the books.
Emergency response and management
requirements should be established and
documented, and appropriate provisions
should be part of the system.
Incidents such as fires and explosions
continue to make news every now and
then. Such incidents, if not effectively con-
trolled, have serious impact on life, envi-
ronment, property and business. Adequate
and efficient emergency response can mini-
mize the consequences of the incidents,
should one occur. Emergency preparedness
therefore, continues to be an important
element of the overall process safety man-
agement system.
Fig. 1 shows the components of an
emergency preparedness system. It includes
the following:
Emergency mitigation and control
systems that include process control and
emergency shutdown systems, and emer-
gency detection and alarm systems, passive
as well as active fire protection systems
Emergency response and manage-
ment systems that include emergency plans
and procedures, communication systems,
logistics and resources.
Continual reviews, checking, mainte-
nance and testing of emergency prepared-
ness facilities are important to ensure
their effectiveness when needed. Overall
plant layout and design of the individual
facilities, utilities and support systems are
normally done based on operational and
maintenance requirements. These are done
in accordance with the applicable codes,
standards and regulations, safety guidelines
and insurance requirements. Emergency
planning activity should also be initiated at
the project conceptual stage. Fig. 2 demon-
strates how the emergency planning team
interacts with the plant design team.
Emergency preparedness requirements
must be established and documented. The
following documents should be developed
as a part of the project emergency prepared-
ness design package:
Emergency scenario register includes:
Emergency scenarios (flammable/toxic
liquid/gas leaks, fires etc.) identified for each
plant facility based on qualitative risk assess-
ment for each plant facility, considering the
products handled and operating parameters
and carrying out credibility analysis.
Overall emergency scenario list for
the plant along with the recommended
emergency response strategies for each type
of emergency.
The emergency scenario register is the
basic document for emergency prepared-
ness planning. The data is also used for car-
rying further quantitative risk assessment
and consequence analysis.
Fire protection philosophy document
should include the design basis for:
Firewater systemsfirewater storage
and pumping capacity, distribution net-
work design and sizing, fire hydrant design
and location
Fire protection requirements for
individual facilities such as process areas,
storage tanks, operation control rooms,
electric substations, cooling towers, waste
treatment areas, chemical storage and other
buildings
Fire detection and alarm system basic
requirements.
The philosophy document serves as a
basis for detail design as well as for develop-
Emergency
preparedness
Emergency mitigation
and control systems
Emergency response and
management systems
Assessment and
installation
Testing and
maintenance
Plans and procedures
Training and
drills
Design stage
Subsequent
periodic adequacy
reviews
Emergency response
and management
teams
Communication
system
Emergency coordination
centers, re station
Assessment,
availability
Testing and
maintenance
Equipment and
materials
Emergency preparedness components. FIG. 1
62

I

ing a fire protection manual for subsequent
use. The fire protection manual includes
details of the actual as-built fire protection
systems installed, along with testing and
maintenance requirements.
Pre-incident planning for a particular
plant facility/area includes:
Listing all types of potential emer-
gency incidents and possible escalations
Establishing an incident control strat-
egy and resource requirement, checking the
adequacy of the fixed emergency control
systems to control the incident
Assessing external emergency response
requirementsmanpower, equipment and
materials as necessary to supplement the
fixed systems and also as an alternate in case
of fixed-system failure
Developing an emergency response
equipment deployment plan, including fire
hose laying requirements according to the
availability of fire hydrants.
The pre-incident plans should be devel-
oped for all plant facilities/areas. The worst-
case scenario requirements for each type of
emergency are used to verify the design of
the common emergency response facili-
ties. For example, pre-fire plans should be
used to review and update, if necessary, the
fire protection design philosophy and ade-
quacy of the fire protection and emergency
response systems, including the following:
Firewater system designdesign flow
and pressure, water storage, distribution
network layout and sizing, to meet the
worst-case fire scenario demand
Review and update of the number
and location of fire hydrants
Number and types of emergency-
response vehicles and materials.
The information from pre-incident
plans is also used for:
Identi fyi ng gaps and possi bl e
improvements
Checking the adequacy of the plant
drainage system to handle firewater effluent
as well as any hazardous material discharge.
Emergency response and manage-
ment planning should also be started at
an early stage and the location and design
requirements for the following should be
established:
Emergency communication systems
A site emergency response center for
identified incidents such as fires, oil spills,
hazmat violations, chemical spills and per-
sonnel injuries
A holding area for external response
teams
Evacuation requirements
An emergency management center
emergency management team work sta-
tion.
Emergency communication require-
ments include:
Automatic detection and alarm sys-
tems, manual call points
An emergency communication con-
trol and emergency response team dis-
patcher center
Personnel call-out communication
Public address and siren systems.
Emergency evacuation requirements:
Local assembly pointspre-identified
areas near each occupied building or work
area where the occupants gather in case of
an emergency. They wait for headcount and
further instructions.
Main gathering areas and shelter-in-
placepre-identified area in a safe loca-
tion where the evacuees might stay for a
longer duration in case of a major plant
emergency. Such areas should provide pro-
tection against severe weather conditions
and be equipped with basic facilities such
as drinking water, toilet, first-aid and com-
munication. Large cafeteria dining halls,
auditoriums, basements, etc., if available,
may be considered for use as gathering
areas during emergency evacuations. Also,
consideration should be given to designing
buildings as a shelter-in-place for use in the
event of a toxic gas release emergency. It is
advisable to identify additional areas to be
used as alternate gathering areas.
Evacuation routesleading to local
assembly points and further to main gath-
ering areas to be identified and displayed
prominently at appropriate locations, along
with necessary instructions and guidelines.
Some important areas requiring special
consideration in the plant layout, fire water
system design, pre-fire planning and emer-
gency response planning are:
Large hydrocarbon storage tanks
Wind direction
Plant drainage system.
Hydrocarbon storage tank fires have
always been a challenge for firefighters.
Tank fires have potential to escalate, if not
controlled in the initial stages, and the con-
sequences may be disastrous. This is more
so with large storage tanks and tanks con-
taining light products and products with
boil over potential, e.g. crude oil.
Special consideration should be given
while developing tank farm layout, espe-
cially when large tanks are part of the
design. Roads should be provided on at
least three sides of large-diameter tanks so
that sufficient access is available for fire
fighting appliances. Maximum cumulative
volume of the flammable liquid stored in
all the tanks in the dyke should be limited
to reduce risk. The Institute of Petroleum
(IP) Safety Code of Practice, Vol. 3 provides
guidelines in this regard.
Dykes or bunds are important aspects
of designing tank farms. Codes permit
dykes made of earthen, concrete or masonry
construction. Concrete or masonry dykes
help save space and require low mainte-
nance as compared to earthen dykes. How-
ever, their use should be limited to low
heights (roughly 1 m) wherever possible.
Concrete dykes restrict the ventilation and
dead-air pockets that are formed close to
the dyke base where flammable vapors can
accumulate. This is also a hindrance to fire-
fighters and it may be difficult for a person
to escape during an emergency. The dyke
Perimeter
fencing, facilities
arrangement,
safety distances
Overall plant
layout
Facility design
Plant drainage
Firewater
systems
Mobile
re-ghting
equipment
Hydrant design,
spacing
Emergency
response
access
Evacuation,
assembly
points/shelters
Emergency
coordination
centers
Emergency
communication
Emergency
resources
(worst-case
scenario)
Communication
systems
Life safety,
passive re
protection, etc.
Other systems
Process control
systems
C
o
d
e
s
,

s
t
a
n
d
a
r
d
s
,

r
e
g
u
l
a
t
i
o
n
s
E
m
e
r
g
e
n
c
y

p
l
a
n
n
i
n
g
Emergency
scenario
identication
Pre-re
plans
Active re
protection
systems
philosophy/
manual
Incident
control
strategies
Emergency
response
plans
Emergency planning at the design stage improves emergency preparedness. FIG. 2

63
layout dimensions can be worked out by
volume calculations, code requirements
and accesses. Wherever possible, the fol-
lowing points should be considered:
Maximize the tank spacing within the
same dyke. However, the tank spacing with
respect to the adjacent dykes should not be
ignored.
Space between the dyke and the tank
shell should be such that the liquid jet from
any potential leak from a hole in the tank
shell is contained within the dyke.
Reach of the foam thrown from por-
table foam equipment is an important
consideration. Therefore, the road to tank
distance should be optimized, without
compromising other safety requirements,
to ensure effectiveness of the portable foam
equipment to be deployed as per the plan.
Pre-fire plans for storage tanks should
cover many scenarios including small leaks,
rim seal fires and the possible escalation to
full open-top fire. A fixed-foam application
and cooling systems attached to the tank
are the most effective means for controlling
tank fires. Floating roof tanks are normally
provided with fixed foam pourer systems
for rim seal fire protection only. However,
full-surface open-top tank fires, though
not very common, can and do occur if the
floating roof sinks.
In absence of the fixed foam systems
controlling full surface open top fires in the
large floating-roof tanks will require foam
application by using portable and mobile
equipment. Using portable and mobile
equipment may also be necessary when the
fixed systems, where provided, might get
damaged or become inoperative. There-
fore, it is necessary to ensure that adequate
provisions are made in the fire protection
systems design.
For calculating the overall design fire-
water demand, water requirements for a
foam application over a full open-top sur-
face area, tank shell cooling for the tank on
fire and exposure protection of the adja-
cent tanks should be considered. It must be
noted that the foam application rate is con-
siderably higher when foam is applied using
portable means as compared to the foam
application using fixed systems. Recent
research by specialist fire-fighting agencies
has recommended higher application rates
than those specified in the codes.
High discharge foam monitors with
large-diameter hoses should be used for tank
fire fighting. Deploying a large number of
the smaller-capacity foam monitors with
conventional 65-mm fire hoses may not be
practical. Also, a foam monitor deployment
plan needs to be prepared, considering the
prevailing wind direction. This implies that
one side of the tank (downwind) will not
be available for placing foam equipment.
The wind direction changing during fire
fighting is still another constraint. Alternate
locations must be considered. An adequate
number of fire hydrants should be avail-
able at strategic locations to feed the foam
equipment. Fire hydrants should have out-
lets to enable connecting of large-diameter
hoses for the purpose. Thus, the pre-fire
plan should include the estimated number
of fire hoses along with the foam equipment
requirements. Sufficient quantity of foam
concentrate should be made available.
Wind direction is another important
factor that requires proper attention dur-
ing plant design and emergency response
planning. Drifting and pattern of a haz-
ardous vapor cloud depends on the wind
direction. In case of a toxic gas release the
occupied areas downwind of the leak source
will be affected. In case of a flammable gas
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64

leak, there are chances of the drifting flam-
mable vapor cloud coming in contact with
a source of ignition on the downwind side,
with potential danger of an explosion and
fire. A plant layout design team must con-
sider the prevailing wind direction, while
locating the potential critical sources of the
hazardous gaseous leak, with respect to the
populated areas/sources of ignition inside
as well as outside the plant boundaries.
It is important to understand the pre-
vailing wind direction concept. The aim
is to locate the potential toxic/flammable
gas leak sources in such a manner that the
chances of the vapor/gas cloud drifting
toward the ignition source or the populated
area are minimal. Some sites have a clear
single prevailing wind direction throughout
the year, while other sites may have dif-
ferent prevailing wind directions during
other times of the year. Therefore, designers
must study the wind rose diagrams care-
fully and arrive at a direction that has the
minimum chance on wind blowing in the
wrong direction. Such direction is often
termed as the cross-wind direction.
Drains and sewers also have an impact
on plant fire safety. Industry has witnessed
the consequences of the plan drainage sys-
tem designed without proper consideration
to fire safety, such as:
Fire spreading through underground
oily sewers
Explosion in sewers
Fire spreading due to an oil layer on
the open drains
Drains overflowing and water logging
during fire fighting.
Fire safety considerations related to
plant drainage systems are:
Drainage systems must be designed
to handle the firewater discharge expected
during fire emergencies
Oily sewers should incorporate liquid
seals to stop propagations of fire through
vapor spaces in the sewer
Open drains, designed for non-oily
discharges in normal operations still have
chances of carrying oily effluent in abnormal
situations, and should also be provided with
liquid seals at certain intervals/locations.
Conclusion. Effective emergency
response is essential to minimize the con-
sequences of an incident in the petroleum
industry. Plant design must incorporate the
emergency response requirement, in addi-
tion to the normal plant safety requirements
laid out in the code and standard guide-
lines. Practical aspects of emergency plan-
ning and response should be incorporated
in the plant design, along with consulting
emergency response specialists. HP
Ramesh Chand Saini is a
Health Safety and Environment pro-
fessional with over 35 years of experi-
ence in emergency preparedness and
response systems in the hydrocar-
bon processing industry. He currently works at Kuwait
National Petroleum Company (KNPC) and his respon-
sibilities include developing and updating plans and
procedures for fire safety engineering and management,
emergency response and crisis management systems;
and also ensuring fire safety adequacy of the existing
plants as well as the new projects. Mr. Saini has initiated
a number of projects for upgrading fire safety facilities in
refineries. After graduating from the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, India, he worked for 13 years
for Engineers India Limited (EIL) in its project engineering
team in the area of safety and fire protection for refiner-
ies and petrochemical projects. Mr. Saini is a member of
the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), a certified
HAZOP leader and ISO 9001 lead auditor and has partici-
pated in a number of HAZOP studies and audits of fire
safety facilities at oil installations across Kuwait. He is a
member of a number of fire incident investigation teams.
Previously, Mr. Saini was a member of the fire committee
of the Bureau of Indian Standards, involved in develop-
ing a number of Indian standards on fire safety. He has
also been briefly associated with the Oil Industry Safety
Directorate of India for developing safety standards.
The Planning Guide to Piping Design
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300 pages Hardcover Pub date: September 2010
ISBN: 978-1-933762-37-1 Price: $175
The Planning Guide to Piping Design covers the entire process of
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along with his roles and responsibilities.
Advanced Piping Design
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To place an order, visit www.gulfpub.com or call +1 (713) 520-4426.

I

65
Optimized fired heater control
Residual oxygen measurement principle
lowers emissions and improves efficiency
A. J. MOURIS, Hobr Instruments, Purmerend, The Netherlands
T
ighter emission regulations and high
energy costs pose new challenges to
control systems for fired heaters.
Rapid changes in fuel gas heating value,
air demand and composition are typical
for applications in oil refineries, chemical
plants and many other sites. Traditional
feedback control based on temperature,
stack oxygen and combustibles measure-
ment is not quick enough to handle rapid
changes effectively. This short coming is
typically addressed by controlling the excess
air set point with a certain safety margin.
Unfortunately, this approach prevents the
emission of unburned components while
increasing CO
2
emission due to poor fuel
economyair is heated unnecessarily and
heat transfer efficiency is reduced. NO
x
formation is promoted as a result of higher
oxygen levels in the combustion process.
For these reasons, feed forward control of
the air/fuel ratio is gaining more attention.
Properly selecting and installing the fuel
gas property analyzer and using the right
control parameters are essential to get the
best results.
Control parameters. The control
system philosophy of fired heaters varies
depending on the requirements and heater
or boiler design. However, in all cases, the
furnaces thermal load and the air/fuel ratio
are two critical parameters that must be
monitored and controlled.
Heat load control. Depending on the
control system design, the Wobbe Index
(WI), the heating value and gas density may
be required as input(s). The heating value is
the amount of heat produced when a unit
volume or fuel mass is burned stoichiomet-
rically. The higher heating value includes
the heat of water condensation formed in
the combustion process; the lower heat-
ing value does not. The WI (defined as the
heating value of a gas divided by the square
root of its specific gravity) is a measure of
the interchangeability of fuel gases when
introduced into a heater via a burner with
a fixed differential pressure. Two gases with
the same WI will deliver the same amount
of heat into a combustion process per unit
of time, regardless of the composition. To
clarify this concept, consider the following
fuel gas cases:
Case 140% methane and 60%
hydrogen (by volume)
Case 258% methane and 42%
nitrogen.
The lower heating value by volume
of these two gases is the same, i.e., 20.82
MJ/Nm
3
. The WI however, is 40.55 MJ/
Nm
3
for Case 1 and 24.39 MJ/Nm
3
for
Case 2! This means that the amount of
heat delivered per unit of time through
the same burner will be 40% lower in the
second case.
Air/fuel ratio control. The combus-
tion air flow supplied to an industrial
furnace is typically linked to the fuel gas
flow. In smaller installations, this may be a
mechanical link; in larger installations, air
and fuel gas temperature and pressure are
taken into account. If large fluctuations in
the fuel gas composition are expected, the
signal from a WI analyzer or calorimeter is
used for correcting the air/fuel flow ratio.
Typically, the assumption is that there is a
proportional relationship between heating
value and air demand. Whereas this is cor-
rect for hydrocarbon-based fuel gases like
natural gas, for fuel gases containing sig-
nificant percentages of hydrogen, olefins,
CO
2
and/or oxygen this approach fails.
The following are fuel gas cases:
Case 1100% hydrogen
Case 288.5% methane and 11.5%
nitrogen.
The WI for both gases is the same,
i.e., 40.9 MJ/Nm
3
. The Combustion Air
Requirement Index (CARI) is defined as
the stoichiometric air demand divided by
the square root of the relative gas density.
Results: 9.0 for Case 1 and 10.9 for Case
2. This means that if the fuel gas com-
position changes from hydrogen poor to
hydrogen-rich composition the excess air
may be controlled 20% too high. Please
note that, instead of WI and CARI, a
similar case can be construed for heating
value and air demand; this follows from
the definitions:
Pressure
reducer
Flowmeter
Bypass
Bypass
Vent
Drain
Mixing
chamber
Heat
exchanger
Booster Air station
Manifold
Sample
Low
High
Restriction
Measuring oven
ZRO2 cell
SG SG
PI
Typical residual oxygen content analyzer schematic. FIG. 1

I

67
WI = Heating value/(Specific gravity)
CARI = Air demand/(Specific gravity)
Residual oxygen content analy-
sis. In a typical residual oxygen content
analyzer sample, gas is continuously mixed
with combustion air under controlled
conditions followed by catalytic combus-
tion in an electrically heated furnace. The
residual oxygen content in the flue gas is
measured with an accurate and reliable zir-
conium oxide sensor. In the control unit,
the following combustion parameters are
calculated from the oxygen signal and the
(optional) density signal: WI, CARI, calo-
rific value (or BTU) and specific gravity.
The concept was first explored in the US,
but the European gas distribution compa-
nies Gaz de France and Dutch Gasunie have
really optimized the benefits. Their prime
objective was to develop an instrument that
was as fast as possible for optimizing natural
gas blending operations to meet grid entry
specifications. However, in the last decade
the technology has also proven to be very
suitable for fuel gas, vent gas, flare gas, bio-
gas and steel plant offgas applications.
Instrument installation and selec-
tion. When the decision is to install an
analyzer for measuring the heating value
and/or WI for feedforward fuel and air/fuel
ratio control, the following requirements
should be fulfilled:
The analyzer should be as fast as
possible. It doesnt make sense to install a
calorimeter with a 20-sec response time if
changes occur within seconds. With residual
oxygen technology, a response time of less
than 5 sec is achievable.
Signal noise should be as low as
possible. High signal noise levels require
smoothing of the signal, typically by aver-
aging. As a consequence, the response
from the control system to a step-change
will be slower. A residual oxygen content
analyzer offers a repeatability of 0.05% of
measured value.
Local installation should be close
to the sample tap point. Ideally, the fuel
gas heating value and air demand signal
should be available before the fuel gas leaves
the burner tip. This means that the travel-
ling time of the fuel gas from the sample
tap point to the burner should be longer
than the traveling time from the sample
tap point to the analyzer plus the analyzer
response time. Outdoor installation in
hazardous areas is not a must, but it often
follows from the requirment of installation
close to the sample tap point.
The sample handling system
should have minimal internal volume.
Although a fast-loop theoretically can
compensate for any dead volume in the
system, this will result in excessive vent-
ing and/or flaring of fuel gas. Ideally, the
analyzer has an integrated sample condi-
tioning system and requires no additional
external sample handling.
A combustion air requirement
signal should be available. As discussed
previously, the heating value or WI can be
poor indicators for the air demand in fuel
gas applications. Therefore, it is important
to select an analyzer based on the residual
oxygen content principle that stores sepa-
rate calibration lines for WI/heating value
and CARI/air demand.
The analyzers rangeability should
match all possible cases. Typically, the ana-
lyzer should be able to handle large fluctua-
tions in the fuel gas composition. Residual
oxygen content analyzers analyze fuel gases
of all possible compositions in the 0120
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68

MJ/Nm
3
(03,000 BTU/SCF) range with-
out the risk for flame-out or overheating.
Thorough application review. Each
application is different and proper review
is essential. Issues that should be consid-
ered include:
Calibration gas selectionthe right
calibrated gases give the best accuracy in
most cases, do not contain many compo-
nents (not more than two preferably) and
allow sufficient filling pressure even when
ambient temperature may be low.
Parameters measuredbesides
CARI and WI, specific gravity, heating
value and air demand may be required.
Fuel gas hydrocarbon and/or water
dew pointit is not uncommon that fuel
gas is taken from a knock-out vessel. Care
must be taken that condensation does not
take place in sample lines or inside the ana-
lyzer. Ideally, all sample wetted parts should
be heated 10C20C above the maximum
expected dew point.
Sulfur content and presence of other
corrosive components wrong material
selection can rapidly corrode and clog an
analyzer. Proper component selection and
analyzer design enables continuous opera-
tion even when more than 10% sulfur is
present.
Overall response timea lag time
analysis from the sample probe tip to the
analyzer signal output should be provided
to ensure compliance with the require-
ments. This is especially important when
high pressure gas lines must be analyzed.
Ambient temperature range and haz-
ardous-area certification requirementsthese
must be considered.
Conclusion. Feedforward control of
fired heaters utilizing fuel gas with varia-
tions in composition and properties may
result in considerable improved combus-
tion efficiency. Emissions may be reduced
and product quality and equipment life
time can be improved. Online analyz-
ers based on the residual oxygen content
method have the potential to deliver the
parameters to be measured within seconds.
However, a successful implementation of
the technology requires a clear understand-
ing of what is to be measured and how the
signals are used in the control loop. Also,
the location of installation and a properly
designed sample handling system are key
factors for success. HP
LITERATURE CITED
1
API RP 556, First Edition, May 1997.
2
Driedger, P., Controlling fired heaters,
Hydrocarbon Processing, April 1997.
3
Physical Properties of Natural Gases, N.V.
Nederlandse Gasunie, 1980. s
Albert Mouris is technical direc-
tor with Hobr Instruments BV. He
has more than 15 years of experience
in process analysis and sampling sys-
tems. Previously, Mr. Mouris worked as
an energy market analyst with the Dutch gas incumbent
Gasunie. He received a chemical engineering degree
from the University of Twente.
www.ohmartvega.com
info@ohmartvega.com
800.FOR.LEVEL
Sump Level Solution
Sump level measurements and pump
control are often a maintenance
challenge. The VEGAPULS through-air
radar and VEGAFLEX guided wave
radar provide reliable continuous level
measurements. The VEGAMET 391
supplies up to six relays, offering
lead/lag pump control and giving
power to the measuring instrument.
80-90%
10-20%
MODERNIZING
Level Measurement
In a typical residual
oxygen content analyzer
sample, gas is continuously
mixed with combustion
air under controlled
conditions followed by
catalytic combustion in an
electrically heated furnace.

I

69
Consider real-gas modeling
for turboexpanders
New visualization methods expose problems with traditional designs
K. KAUPERT, OC Turboexpanders, Irvine, California
E
very year turboexpanders generate millions of Euros in rev-
enue for hydrocarbon processing plants by removing heat
from gas streams, also known as the turboexpander refrig-
eration benefit. To maximize this financial benefit, accurate gas
dynamic performance predictions for turboexpanders are a neces-
sity. This requires an accurate thermodynamic equation of state
that uses a real-gas model. But, which real-gas model is best? For
example, an ideal gas assumption can cause horribly wrong perfor-
mance predictions due to gas compressibility at high pressures and
low temperatures.
1
As a result, all turboexpander manufacturers use
real-gas models in their simple gas dynamic sizing predictions.
However, beyond the simple sizing predictions, advanced tur-
boexpander manufacturers continue to apply real-gas modeling
in the detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) design of its
turboexpanders. This permits turboexpanders, such as shown in
Fig. 1 to attain high efficiency levels. Historically, the application
of real-gas models in commercially available CFD packages has
been problematic or even non-existent. This is due to:
1. Most turbomachinery manufacturers (e.g., those producing
gas turbines or turbochargers) are content with an ideal gas law or
a simple real-gas model since their compressibility effect is modest
and the flow is single phase.
2. Increased computational time is required when a real-gas
model is applied in CFD (slower code).
3. Numerical robustness is decreased when a real-gas model is
applied in CFD (code can more easily diverge).
4. Difficulty modeling two-phase flow in a wet gas expansion
region.
The turboexpander manufacturer is, therefore, confronted with
somewhat unique challenges, as the expander inlet gas can exhibit
substantial compressibility while the expander outlet gas can exhibit
two-phase wet gas flow.
2
For example, Fig. 2 shows an expander
impeller connected to a rotating assembly. This particular impeller is
subjected to both compressible gas and wet gas, which requires accu-
rate real-gas modeling in CFD to maximize expander efficiency. But
there are many real gas models available in the open literature. So,
the question again arises, which model is best? In this article, we will
assess several real-gas models used in CFD for turboexpanders.
CONSIDERING THE EQUATION OF STATE
An equation of state relates a fluids state variables.
3
For turboex-
panders, the equation of state is a thermodynamic equation, which
mathematically describes the interaction of the macroscopically
measurable properties of the process fluid (e.g., the thermodynamic
variables of pressure, temperature, density and composition).
Ideal gases and liquids. The simplest, most popular equa-
tion of state for gases is the Ideal gas law; it states:
P = RT (1)
For liquids, the bulk modulus and coefficient of thermal expan-
sion combine for the equation of state given as:
Turboexpander designed with real-gas modeling in CFD. FIG. 1
Expander side of a turboexpander rotating assembly. FIG. 2
70

I

K
l
= dP/(d/) and
l
=(1/V)dV/dT (2)
Over limited ranges of pressure and temperature and without
phase changes, these two equations ( Eqs. 1 and 2) give reasonable
property predictions (e.g., the ideal gas law for ethane at less than 5
bar pressure and higher than 100C temperature gives less than 2%
error on the density). But turboexpanders routinely handle gases
outside the limited range of the Ideal gas law and with two-phase
flow. In essence, real gas and liquid modeling is obligatory.
Real gases and liquids. The need for accurate equations of
state has resulted in an abundance of real-gas models in the open
literature. So numerous are the real-gas models that they could not
possibly all be evaluated in this short article. However, these five
real gas equations of state do find widespread application:
1. Peng-Robinson (PR)
2. Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK)
3. Benedict-Webb-Ruben-Starling (BWRS)
4. Lee-Kesler-Plcker (LKP)
5. GERG.
These five equations of state are compared here with CFD
results through the expander side of a turboexpander. The math-
ematics of these equations of state are presented elsewhere; they
are large in size and require detailed explanation, among them
Refs. 4 and 5. The American Gas Association (AGA-8) is not
evaluated here as it poorly predicts the weight fraction of liquid
in the wet-gas region at the expander outlet.
Another very common and simple real gas equation of state
utilizes the compressibility factor, Z and is called the universal
gas law, given as:
P = ZRT (3)
Unfortunately, the determination of Z for gas mixtures in
turboexpanders is very difficult; this equation (containing Z) is
not evaluated here.
CFD WITH REAL-GAS EQUATIONS OF STATE
CFD using a real-gas equation of state is a time-consuming
task. In the past, this author has pursued three methods to incor-
porate real-gas equations in CFD. The first method is to program
the real-gas equation of state and patch it into the CFD code.
While this method is the most straightforward, it frequently leads
to numerical convergence difficulties in the transition region
from single-phase gas to two-phase wet gas. This concern can be
addressed with numerical damping routines that are ingeniously
applied by some CFD vendors. The second method is to use the
real-gas equation of state to prepare a set of look-up tables in the
desired pressure and temperature range of the gas. This method
is more tedious for pre-processing the CFD but tends to avoid
convergence problems while running the code. A third method
to follow uses the tables from the second method to create a set of
polynomials to approximate the equation of state. But the third
method can lead to large errors outside a prescribed temperature
and pressure range and convergence difficulties for the CFD.
Density as a function of pressure and temperature from a
real-gas model and used in a look-up table for CFD.
6
FIG. 3
Entropy
E
n
t
h
a
l
p
ya
b
d
225 K
7.0 MPa
275 K
235
245
255
3.5 MPa
4.0
4.5 5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
c
Enthalpy vs. entropy diagram for a hydrocarbon gas
example.
FIG. 4
TABLE 1. Gas conditions for the expander side of the
NGL hydrocarbon example
Gas dynamics
Job: Example NGL fractionation
Component MW Expander, mol%
Methane 16.0430 81.000%
Ethane 30.0700 11.000%
Propane 44.0970 5.000%
i-Butane 58.1230 0.800%
n-Butane 58.1230 0.900%
i-Pentane 72.1500 0.344%
n-Pentane 72.1500 0.100%
n-Hexane 86.1770 0.050%
C
7
+
110.00 0.002%
Nitrogen 28.0134 0.800%
Carbon dioxide 44.0100 0.003%
Water 18.0153 0.001%
Total 100%
Given process conditions Rated case expander
Molecular weight 20.087
Inlet pressure, P1, MPa a 6.91
Inlet temperature, T1, C 0.2
Outlet pressure, P2, MPa a 3.48
Mass flow, kg/sec 13
Volume flow, Nm
3
/h 52036

I

71
Most CFD vendors have followed the direction of the second
method or at least opened up their code for input from such look-
up tables. It is the second method that the author has applied
here. Essentially, the real-gas equation of state is used to generate
the thermodynamic look up tables for P=P (u,), T =T(u,), P
= P (h,s), = (h,s), s=s(h,P), h=h(s,P), u=u (P,T) and = (P,T)
where the variables are:
P Pressure
T Temperature
Density
u Internal energy
h Enthalpy
s Entropy.
An example of such a look-up table is plotted in Fig. 3, taken
from Ref. 6.
Example: CFD for real gases in natural gas liquids.
To protect client confidentiality, a generic gas composition and
condition were selected for this example. However, both gas
composition and condition are representative of a natural gas
liquids feedstock to the expander side of a turboexpander. The
gas composition and condition are seen in Table 1. The enthalpy
vs. entropy diagram is seen in Fig. 4 along three lines for the gas
expansion. The red line a-b represents an isenthalpic gas expan-
sion as would be experienced through a Joule-Thompson valve.
The blue line a-c represents an isentropic, or perfect, expan-
sion of the gas. The green line a-d represents the gas expansion
through the turboexpander and indicates a lower outlet tempera-
ture than the isenthalpic red line expansion.
This highlights the benefit of using a turboexpander vs. a Joule-
Thompson valve for the gas expansiona colder gas outlet tem-
perature with the green line and heat removal from the expander
gas stream. Table 2 shows the outlet gas conditions at the point d
compared between the ideal gas and five real gas models. It is seen
immediately that the ideal gas model gives the lowest expander
outlet temperature along with the largest
expander wheel (impeller) output power.
However, the compressibility Z is seen as
1.0, which is not realistic for the expander
inlet or outlet gas conditions. Accordingly,
applying an ideal gas model would lead to a
substantial modeling error for this gas.
Among the five real-gas models, the PR
model gives the lowest expander outlet tem-
perature, lowest output power, and lowest
efficiency. The GERG, LKP and BWRS
models all give similar outlet temperature,
output power and efficiency, as well as, simi-
lar weight liquid percentages. Based on mea-
surements for similar gas compositions and conditions, the GERG
model was found to be most accurate for this gas case. Although,
the LKP and BWRS models would be acceptable as well.
Results from applying the GERG model through the use of
generated property tables in the CFD are seen in the values given
in Figs. 5 and 6 at the expander design point. Fig. 5 shows the
distribution of temperature as predicted with the GERG real-gas
equation of state in the natural gas mixture. A rapid temperature
change is seen through the expander nozzles; it is typical for turbo
expanders, as the temperature decreases due to the acceleration of
the flow. In Fig. 6, the relative velocity vectors in the expander
impeller are seen, again as computed with the GERG real-gas
model. The overall image is shown on the left side of the figure
and a zoom at the expander impeller trailing edge is seen at the
CFD results for the temperature reduction in the expander
per GERG real-gas model.
FIG. 5
Left: CFD results using the GERG real-gas model for the relative velocity vectors in
the expander impeller (wheel). Three blades are shown along the shroud showing the
parallel flow to the blade at the outlet. A zoom is shown to the right at the impeller
outlet.
FIG. 6
TABLE 2. Comparison table of CFD results from five real gas models at the expander outlet
Ideal-gas model Real-gas model Real-gas model Real-gas model Real-gas model Real-gas model
Computed outlet conditions Ideal GERG PR LKP SRK BWRS
Outlet temperature, T2, C 33.7 28.8 29.4 28.9 28.3 28.7
Z
in
/Z
out
1.0/1.0 0.72/0.78 0.69/0.76 0.71/0.79 0.70/0.77 0.71/0.78
Specific enthalpy Hs, kJ/kg 86.84 54.03 52.12 54.37 52.52 53.69
Expander isentiopic efficiency, % 82.7 85.3 84.6 85.4 84.8 85.2
Expander impeller power, kW 933.2 599.1 573.2 603.6 579.0 594.7
Outlet weight liquid, % unable 13.60 12.74 13.52 13.32 13.64
right, showing that the relative velocity vectors closely follow the
blade surface without any recirculation zones. Such visualizations
are the key to optimizing the gas path and efficiency of expanders
by reducing any unwanted entropy generation.
Real-world view. Real-gas modeling is needed for accurate
gas dynamic performance predictions in turboexpander CFD to
optimize expander efficiency. As the five models have shown, dif-
ferent results are attained by applying different real-gas models. It
is important for turboexpander manufacturers to use test results
and to also obtain detailed field feedback. Together, this will allow
selecting the real-gas model best suited to a particular application.
In this article, only one example was presented. It is not wise to
generalize on the basis of just this one example. The scope is
widened with other published or in-house data. Table 3 offers a
number of generalized recommendations as to which equation of
state should be considered for CFD in modern turboexpanders.
Finally, interested readers are always encouraged to review
comprehensive texts on turbomachines, (such as Ref. 7) or more
elementary books on turboexpanders (Ref. 8).
As energy conservation has become one of the worlds foremost
priorities, the importance of efficient turboexpanders continues
to increase. HP
LITERATURE CITED
1
Beinecke, D. and K. Ldtke, Die Auslegung von Turboverdichtern unter
Bercksichtigung des realen Gasverhaltens, VDI-Berichte 487, VDI-Verlag
Dsseldorf, pp. 271279, (in German), 1983.
2
Kaupert, K. A., Design of Two-Phase Flow Air Separation Turboexpanders,
Cryogenic Technology Journal China, Vol. 1, pp. 4752 (in Chinese), 2010.
3
Zemansky, M. W., Heat and Thermodynamics: An Intermediate Textbook,
McGraw-Hill Book Co., 6th edition, 1981.
4
Modisette, J. L., Equation of State Tutorial, Pipeline Simulation Group
(PSIG), Paper 0008-2000, 2000.
5
Kunz, O., R. Klimeck, W. Wagner and M. Jaeschke, The GERG-2004 Wide-
Range Equation of State for Natural Gases and Other Mixtures, VDI-
Berichte 557 Reihe 6, VDI-Verlag Dsseldorf, 2007.
6
Numeca, Numeca Fine Users Manual Version 6.1-1, Numeca International,
February 2003.
7
Ldtke, K., Process Centrifugal Compressors, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg,
2004.
8
Bloch, H. P. and C. Soares, Turboexpanders and Process Applications, Gulf
Publishing Co., Houston, ISBN 0-88415-509-9, 2001.
TABLE 3. Generalized recommendations regarding
applicable equations of state
Gas type GERG PR LKP SRK BWRS
Hydrocarbon +/ 2% +/ 5% +/ 2% +/ 3% +/ 2%
Air +/ 2% +/ 5% +/ 3% +/ 3% +/ 2%
CO
2
+/ 3% +/ 6% +/ 4% +/ 4% +/ 1%
H
2
+/ 4% +/ 7% +/ 4% +/ 2% +/ 5%
NH
3
not good not good not good not good not good
Note: the PR equation of state was the least accurate for all gas types but it is also the sim-
plest to apply. For ammonia, none of the five real-gas models performed satisfactorily and
in-house models are still relied upon.
Dr. Kevin Kaupert is the director of technology at OC Tur-
boexpanders. He holds a doctorate in turbomachinery engineering
from the ETH Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He has
over 25 years of experience in turbomachinery for cryogenics,
power generation and aerospace applications.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 11 a.m. ET / 10 a.m. CT
With the myriad of engineering, logistical and safety challenges involved in a rening operation, common API pumps can often be
overlookedas a potential source of improved productivity, or a cause of catastrophic failure if not operated properly.
In this webcast, Dan Kernan and Eddie Choung of ITTs Industrial Process business will share best-practice advice to help attendees improve
the eectiveness of the pumps they use in oil and gas processing.
Opo..t|cr.| Jcs .rJ Jcrts |c. us|rg punps p.cpo.|y |r .o|r|rg .pp||c.t|crs
Ar cvo.v|o. c| ccrJ|t|cr ncr|tc.|rg cpt|crs tc |np.cvo s.|oty .rJ .oJuco n.|rtor.rco ccsts
|o st.tus c| A|| 68 c|.pto. 8 |c. punp .op.|.s
.so stuJ|os t|.t |||ust..to t|o .o.|.c.|J |np.ct c| J||o.ort .pp.c.c|os tc punp cpo..t|cr .rJ ncr|tc.|rg
This webcast will provide practical advice for anyone who oversees the use of pumpsincluding renery managers, maintenance/reliability
engineers and production supervisors.
ITT presenters:
Dan Kernan, Manager Monitoring and Control
Eddie Choung, Aftermarket Sales ManagerPRO Services North America
REGISTER at
LIVE WEBCAST
Run your pumps like a Pro: Tips for Boosting
Production and Reducing Risk at the Renery
presents . . .

I

73
Predictive emissions monitoring
helps reduce stack air emissions
New technology reduces compliance costs while optimizing operations
R. HOVAN, Rockwell Software Environmental Solutions,
Rockwell Automation, Austin, Texas
T
he oil and gas industry is under unprecedented environ-
mental scrutiny. Already struggling to cope with increas-
ingly rigorous air quality regulations, the industrys been
battered in recent headlines about oil spills from the Gulf of
Mexico to Michigans Kalamazoo River.
To protect both the environment and company reputations,
producers must do far more than prevent potential environmental
crises. They need to employ solutions and invest in technology to
make oil and gas production cleaner. Today, oil and gas processers
across the globe are facing stringent emissions monitoring, report-
ing and reduction goals from national regulatory bodies, as well
as an ever-growing patchwork of state and regional regulations.
Carbon dioxide (CO
2
)the primary greenhouse gas (GHG)
and nitrous oxide (N
2
O)a GHG largely blamed for acid rain
and ozone depletionare among the top targets for reduction.
Traditional emissions monitoring and management relies heav-
ily on hardware, manpower and a variety of reporting forms
and spreadsheets. Todays and tomorrows regulations require a
level of accuracy, timeliness, consistency and security that legacy-
emissions monitoring systems cannot easily provide.
The good news is that cost-effective, software-based predic-
tive-emissions monitoring systems (PEMS) and environmental
management applications already are available to help reduce
emissions. These systems use existing plant process-monitoring
equipment to measure emissions factors in real time, predict
future emissions scenarios and compile emissions reports, thus
helping to reduce the cost of regulatory compliance.
Any business manager whos well-versed in efficient produc-
tion will recognize the potential uses for such accurate, immediate
data collection and analysis. Oil and gas producers already facing
increasing capital and operational costs can use this data for more
than achieving regulatory compliance. It can also help reduce
energy usage and improve productivity and business performance.
The technology for energy efficiency that actually improves com-
petiveness is here and its proven.
Regulatory ramp-up. Petrochemical and natural gas plants
face new emissions-related regulations that require immediate
action. New rules aim to prepare the industry for emissions reduc-
tion by focusing on monitoring and reporting improvements.
Plants that produce combined emissions (from combustion, flares,
fugitive emissions and vents) equal to or greater than 25,000 met-
ric tons of CO
2
equivalent (CO
2
e) annually must monitor emis-
sions and provide comprehensive reporting on an annual basis.
This is according to the 2009 GHG Mandatory Reporting Rule
from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Simply put, the new regulations require that producers know
and report precisely what is coming out of their smokestacks. The
rule requires monitoring systems to be in place by Jan. 1, 2011.
The first annual emissions report is due March 31, 2012. After
enacting the 2009 rule, the EPA recognized that implementing a
traditional monitoring system might be cost-inhibitive for some
producers. As a result, the EPA adjusted a number of the require-
ments outlined in the initial rule to help reduce the burden.
Under the updated rule, facilities may measure emissions through
engineering estimates and emission-modeling software.
Despite these changes, oil and gas producers have encountered
many challenges in trying to comply with requirements. Process-
ing is a complex operation and emissions can vary widely, depend-
ing on a spectrum of variables ranging from the composition of
the fuel feedstock to weather conditions.
Many producers today are finding that they dont know if
theyve surpassed the regulated limit for specific emissions until
they prepare their required reports after the fact. This lack of real-
time monitoring makes it all too easy to surpass emissions limits.
So much so, that some producers even build noncompliance
charges into their business models.
Even producers with some emissions monitoring in place lack
complete knowledge about how much they are emitting and when
levels peak. Not only does this make compliance difficult, but its
nearly impossible to take emissions output into account in opera-
tions and business decisions.
Once oil and gas producers and the EPA have a clear grasp of
actual emissions levels, the next step in the evolution of emissions
regulation will be control. Everyone in the industry is watching
the proposed Transport Rule, which will replace the Clean Air
Interstate Rule (CAIR). The new law will set limits on emissions
from utilities and lay out cap-and-trade requirements. This could
foreshadow what is in store for the oil and gas industry.
By anticipating and preparing for upcoming regulations now,
producers can eliminate waste and make improvements to their
bottom line. The ability to closely track their emissions, and tie
this output information back to data based on process inputs,
opens up a vast assortment of opportunities to use this informa-
tion to reduce energy consumption and optimize production for
more efficient operations.
74

I

A Texas-based petrochemical producer, driven by state emis-
sions reduction requirements, implemented a PEMS to monitor
and verify the continued reduction of NO
x
emissions by 50%. As
a result, the company began to operate well within permitted NO
x

levels and is now able to sell (vs. buy) NO
x
credits through the
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Emissions Banks
and Trading program.
The PEMS provided detailed information on boiler output
vs. input allowing the company to run its energy centers four
300-MW boilers at their lowest oxygen levels by eliminating their
artificial oxygen floor. The plant improved energy efficiency by
1%, according to a Department of Energy calculation based on
temperature in the stack. Through its energy-efficiency savings
alone, the plant saw full payback on the project in 13 months.
Fig. 1 illustrates the formation of NO
x
and CO as a function
of excess O
2
within a typical combustion application. Efficiency is
also shown as a function of excess O
2
. As excess O
2
decreases, NO
x

decreases while CO and efficiency increase. To minimize NO
x
pro-
duction and maximize efficiency, excess O
2
needs to be minimized;
however, equipment safety limitations and environmental regula-
tions limit the amount of CO that can be produced. As a result,
excess O
2
can only be reduced until the CO constraint is reached.
At this point, combustion has been optimized, with the unit operat-
ing at the maximum allowable CO production, which corresponds
to the minimum NO
x
production and maximum efficiency.
Continuous emissions monitoring (CEM) systems.
New regulations will be the impetus for many oil and gas pro-
cessors to invest in a continuous emissions monitoring system.
However, when choosing which system to implement, processors
should carefully consider a system that not only eases compliance,
but that can also help improve productivity and reduce waste at
the same time. The primary distinction between systems on the
market is hardware- vs. software-based technologies.
Hardware-based CEM systems. Hardware-based CEM
systems require a significant investment in new equipment. The
systems require probes to be fitted to the wall of a plants smoke-
stacks to take samples of process gas at a continuous basis. These
probes require weatherproof enclosures to protect them from the
extreme conditions of the stack. All equipment with exposure to
process gas must be designed and built for operation in hazard-
ous locations. Additional cabinetry and shelters are required for
the sampling equipment, gas analyzers and the control system
that will feed emissions information back into a computer for the
EPA-required data collection and reporting.
The two primary types of hardware-based CEM systems are
direct extractive and dilution extractive. In a direct extractive sys-
tem, a sample pump located in a shelter fitted to a smokes stack
pulls a sample of emissions through a heated probe. The probe
provides filtering via a 2- ceramic element. The hot/wet sample
continues through a heated sample line and onto a sample chiller
located within the CEM cabinet. The sam-
ple is then flash-cooled to 4C and water is
rapidly removed. The now dry and very cold
sample is delivered to the analyzers on a dry
basis. The analyzers, in turn, provide an out-
put to either a datalogger or programmable
logic controller (PLC). A direct-attached
storage (DAS) polling computer collects this
data and produces reports for the EPA and/
or state compliance.
In a dilution extractive CEM system,
the sample is immediately mixed with or
diluted by clean, dry and extremely cold
air (at 40C) within the probe. Approxi-
mately 5L of this air is sent up an umbilical
into the probe. This air is used to develop a
vacuum on a critical orifice located within
the probe. This orifice allows a precise
amount of process gas to blend with the
clean dry air delivered to the probe. This
diluted process gas flows down the sample
tube in the umbilical under positive pres-
sure. In most applications, it is not necessary
Maximum
efciency
Minimum NO
x
CO limit
0.00 1.00 2.00
O
2
, %
CO
NO
x
Efciency
N
O
x
,

e
f
c
i
e
n
c
y
C
O
3.00 4.00 5.00
NO
x
and CO efficiency. FIG. 1
Analyzer
Analyzer
Analyzer
PLC/DL
Filter and
ow control
Undiluted
dry sample
DAS
Cooler
dryer
Extraction
probe
Undiluted
dry sample
Analyzer
Analyzer
Analyzer
PLC/DL
Pneumatic
controller
Diluted
wet sample
DAS
Dilution
probe
Diluted
wet sample
Diluted
wet sample
Undiluted
hot wet
sample
Direct extractive CEM system
Heated probe
and sample line
Stack wall
Dilution extractive CEM system
Stack wall
Hot wet (option)
Hardware-based CEM systems. FIG. 2
11
20
SAVE THE DATE
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9-11 March 2011 Moody Gardens, Galveston, Texas
Hosted by both World Oil and Hydrocarbon Processing, the Process Controls & Instrumentation Conference will be
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August 2011 Houston, Texas
The Marketing in the Oileld Conference provides an environment to learn new ideas and strategies in addition to
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IN ENERGY & TECHNOLOGY
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Hosted by both World Oil and Hydrocarbon Processing, the Womens Global Leadership Conference in Energy &
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GULF PUBLISHING COMPANY EVENTS
76

I

to heat the sample line. In other applications, the sample dew
point hasnt been sufficiently lowered, and heating is required.
The process gas is now delivered to the analyzers on a wet basis.
No water was removed from the sample. It was only diluted. The
analyzers then provide an output by the same method as direct
extraction systems.
Fig. 2 illustrates that the hardware-based approaches rely on
precise instrumentation and sensors. They require high installa-
tion costs, real-estate requirements and sustained skilled main-
tenance. In continuous emissions monitoring and reporting,
even small human errors can lead to inaccurate reporting, missed
deadlines, permit violations, financial penalties and ultimately lost
profit. Hardware-based approaches lack the accuracy, timeliness,
consistency and security demanded by todays regulations.
Software-based CEM systems. A software-based CEM,
known as a PEMS, can help oil and gas producers cost-effectively
monitor emissions data without installing and maintaining expen-
sive hardware and systems.
The EPA Emissions Measurement Center has recognized
predictive monitoring as a viable alternative to hardware CEM
systems since 2005 and most states have followed the EPAs guid-
ance.
*
Predictive monitoring continuously monitors emissions by
developing an online model using historical and real-time data
from existing plant sensors. This hybrid modeling technology
incorporates nonlinear empirical models such as neural networks,
as well as first-principles models to provide the most accurate
prediction models available in the industry. These models, crucial
to accurate monitoring and compliance, can also be used to better
understand and, therefore, control energy use.
Models are executed online, using a proprietary analytic engine
to provide real-time predictions of emissions from a wide range of
sources and fuels. Model validation is a routine that applies known
values to the sensor inputs and verifies the values against known
outputs. Predetermined input values are applied to the PEMS and
output values are then calculated. These values are compared to
the known output values from known input values developed dur-
ing modeling and relative accuracy test audits (RATAs). Values are
compared and the software determines that they are in accuracy
compliance. This process is an equivalency to an EPA-mandated
quarterly audit.
Achieving the EPA-mandated minimum operational standard
for demonstrating continuous compliance with PEMS requires
the ability to continue to provide reliable data in the event of
sensor failure. This requires a methodology for detecting and com-
pensating for those failures. The predictive monitoring software
CEM uses a sensor validation model as a filter to detect sensor
failures and to set alarms when it identifies a faulty sensor. If a
failed sensor needs repair, the sensor model is also able to act as a
substitute by reconstructing sensor values from the other sensor
values in the plant. This allows the PEMS model to continue to
accurately predict the emissions regardless of the interruption of
replacing a faulty sensor and the associated downtime with the
failed hardware. Fig. 4 shows predictive monitoring software
compares modeled sensor output with actual sensor data for sen-
sor validation.
*
The EPAs Emission Measurement Center developed and published a PEMS
protocol and performance specifications, available on the EPAs TTN
websitehttp://www.epa.gov/ttn/emc/perfspec/ps-16.pdf
Manual
entry
Analyzer Historians
Data qualication and
sensor validation
Control console
Metadata warehouse
(optional)
Views
Browser-based
client
Real-time environmental
management reports
(optional)
A
p
p
l
i
c
a
t
i
o
n

s
e
r
v
e
r
C
a
c
h
e
C
a
c
h
eInputs
Fuel ows
Fuel quality
Air ow
Process O
2
Temperatures
Ambient
Humidity
Emission alarms
Sensor alarms
Outputs
NO
x
O
2
CO
Model analytic engine
UMS PLC DCS
Predictions
T
x
, F
y
, ... P
z
T
x
v
, F
y
v
, ... P
z
v
T
x
T
i
T
i
T
x
Dif.
No
Yes
Greater than
tolerance
Validated sensor
data
Alarms
Data reconciliation
T
x
, F
y
, ... P
z
Raw values
Sensor validation
Sensor models
Predictive emissions monitoring system. FIG. 3

I

77
Armed with accurate, real-time emissions information, pro-
ducers can identify vulnerabilities before they cause emission limit
violations and continually factor emissions into plant automation
strategies to both reduce emissions and improve efficiency.
Utility, industrial/commercial/institutional (I/C/I) combus-
tors and process heaters (P/H) are fired via a carbon-based fuel
such as natural gas, oil, coal or some form of biomass that is con-
tinuously fed into the combustor chamber. During this process,
complete fuel combustion occurs. However, using these fuels can
be minimized by optimizing burner efficiency, thus reducing fuel
consumption and emissions output.
Efficiency is a direct correlation of data derived from the mea-
surement of flue gas temperature and oxygen (O
2
). The combus-
tion chamber of an industrial/commercial boiler introduces the
primary air and fuel. The fuel is introduced through a burner
nozzle and is designed to produce a flame front over the full range
of operating conditions. Complete combustion is a function of
oxygen and temperature: the greater the amount of excess oxygen,
the less fuel efficient the boiler will be. Reducing the excess oxygen
improves efficiency. Conversely, as oxygen is reduced, CO can
start to form. Excess levels of CO indicate incomplete combustion
and increased emissions. The use of CO monitoring with a PEMS
can ensure that emission levels remain within limited parameters
and maximize the efficiency of the burner operation. Monitoring
O
2
and CO as a process application for burner/boiler control has
been widely accepted in the utility and industrial source market
and has played a strong role in optimizing burner/boiler efficiency
(Fig. 5).
A PEMS is also cheaper. By eliminating the instrumentation
required for a hardware-based approach, this software can predict
emissions based on process variables. Across industries, a PEMS
costs, on average, around 50% less than a hardware-based CEM
system. In industries like oil and gas processing, where hardware
must be able to withstand extremes and function in hazardous
locations, installation and maintenance of a PEMS can cost 70%
less than hardware solutions.
Clean up, comply, cut costs. A large Houston-based mid-
stream natural gas company was able to achieve a 90% reduction
in NO
x
emissions, using predictive monitoring software along
with ultra-low NO
x
burner and selective catalytic reactor (SCR)
technologies at one of its natural gas plants. The plant processes
up to 700 MMscf of raw natural gas per day. When its grand-
fathered operating limits for NO
x
emissions expired, the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality mandated that it reduced
emissions by 90%. No small task.
The plant installed a new boiler with ultra-low-NO
x
burn-
ers and a SCR. The SCR is an integral component to the boiler
exhaust and it uses a specialized catalyst for the reduction of NO
x

emissions. The company knew that an accurate and reliable mea-
sure of NO
x
was critical to the feedback control loop for SCR/
ammonia injection optimization.
Once this equipment was in place, the company had to
choose a CEM system under considerable challenges, including:
nonlinear emissions of the combined low NO
x
boiler with the
SCR ammonia injections, inherent low-measurement signal-to-
noise levels, and extreme operating conditions within the emission
stack. The impact of these challenges meant the potential for
penalties or fines associated with downtime as well as suboptimal
economic control of ammonia usage due to inconsistent and
inaccurate feedback measurements.
The producer implemented the predictive monitoring software
system and achieved 6% relative accuracy in its first attempt at
RATA certification, well above the EPA regulatory requirement of
+/20%. Software CEM offers hybrid modeling, through empiri-
cal models and first-principles knowledge, to provide an extremely
realistic representation of process behavior. This approach, com-
pared to other approaches that use a look-up table, helps provide
improved emissions predictions even in the extreme operating
ranges of the unit operationsespecially for ultra-low-NO
x

burner boilers and turbines.
Unlike historical reporting systems that provide latent informa-
tion from hardware-based CEM systems, software CEM operates
in real time, allowing the plant to monitor operating conditions
that could affect final emissions output. This predictive methodol-
ogy gives the company the ability to simultaneously incorporate
process behavior and feedback into the control strategy of the
boiler and SCR, making it the first of its kind to do so.
In addition to helping prevent fines for noncompliance, the
plant saved more than $100,000 per year in costs relative to main-
taining a hardware-based CEM system. The automated, real-time
and on-demand reporting capabilities of the system saved more in
July
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Alarms
Raw sensor
measurement
agged as error
Sensor model
output
Final validated
signal
November
Sensor validation model output and validated signal
for failed temperature transducer.
FIG. 4
Total stack
losses at
low load
Total stack
losses at
high load
C
a
r
b
o
n

m
o
n
o
x
i
d
e

C
O
,

p
p
m
H
e
a
t

l
o
s
s
,

%
Excess air
Variation in O
2
setpoint
CO control band
(unaffected by
boiler load change)
300
50
CO
low
load
CO
high
load
Representation of the relationship of O
2
and CO with
efficiency.
FIG. 5
78

I

reporting costs. Over the projects life cycle , savings will continue
to grow due to higher reliability and lower maintenance costs of
the software CEM.
Implementing the software. Deploying a PEMS is much
faster than the hardware-based alternatives. Implementing a soft-
ware-based CEM usually begins with discussing project scope.
Participants establish the monitoring systems functional design
and identify the necessary process sensors. If there is no existing
process in place (i.e., hardware CEM system or other monitoring
system), engineers obtain process data from the processs data
historian or data logger. If no emissions data is available from an
existing hardware-based CEM systems, an environmental testing
firm can concurrently collect stack emissions data.
The emission unit goes through its entire range of operation
over a two- to seven-day period (depending upon the complexity
of the unit) while data is collected. Engineers use the process and
stack data to construct a highly accurate emissions model.
Beyond compliance. Regulatory monitoring and reporting,
followed by tighter regulatory control, intend to make oil and gas
production greener. Processors will need to make investments
in new monitoring and reporting systems to meet regulatory
objectives. Installing a PEMS helps protect a plant from regula-
tory emissions and reporting violations at a fraction of the price
of a hardware-based CEM system. It also provides plants with a
mechanism to better control emissions going forward.
Implementing environmentally friendly approaches to oil and
gas processing and optimizing productivity need not be mutually
exclusive. By providing plant engineers with accurate predictions
of emissions output in a large variety of circumstances, PEMS
allows these engineers to make strategic emissions management
decisions. This facilitates more efficient processing and gives
plants a leg up in future GHG cap-and-trade markets. PEMS
data and guidance can help oil and gas processors meet goals for
cleaner air, healthier communities and a stronger bottom line.
An emissions data collection is an asset that can make processing
plants more competitive. A PEMS helps make that collection
more accurate and affordable. HP
Richard Hovan has over 34 years of experience in the com-
bustion, safety, environmental instrumentation and air pollution
control equipment field. In addition, he has worked on grass-roots
projects such as an 1,800-MW power plant in Egypt and and several
water-treatment facilities. Mr. Hovans background includes such
companies as Graver Water Company, Infilco Degrimont, Inc., Environmental Elements
Corporation. He has been the vice president of product technology for KVB/Analect,
vice president of combustion sales and product marketing for Land Instruments Interna-
tional, markets manager/corporate strategist at Forney Corporation and, most recently,
manager of environmental solutions for Rockwell Automation. He has extensive over-
seas experience with all of his previous companies. Mr. Hovans knowledge includes
continuous emissions monitoring (CEMS), boiler and ground-based turbine combus-
tion efficiency monitoring, air pollution control equipment, coal pre-ignition detection
systems and water treatment equipment. He has developed several new processes
and has been instrumental in the development and introduction of new technologies
into the market place. Mr. Hovan has served on the US-EPAs technical review board
for compliance assurance monitoring (CAM), open market trading rule (OMTR) and
medical waste Incinerators (MWIs) and an opacity performance specification rewrite.
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79
Consider switching to
Internet protocol surveillance
Heres a checklist to make the jump
M. S. WILSON, Infinova, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey
O
rganizations have experienced a
dramatic demand for surveillance
technology development to protect
people, as well as private and public assets.
The growing need for increasing security,
especially surveillance, leaves many security
managers in a quandary.
A challenging dilemma that petro-
chemical industry security managers face
is how and when they should take the
leap from an analog system to an Internet
protocol (IP)/digital video system. They
want to jump to IP surveillance in a cost-
managed way that extends the existing
equipment life. For most sites, this migra-
tion will take place gradually and, during
the process, analog and IP solutions will
have to coexist, in some cases, for many
years to come.
Traditionally, in the leap from analog
to digital video, organizations convert ana-
log signals to digital signals by buying and
installing rack encoders for their bank of
analog cameras. They replace the analog
control room equipment with new IP con-
trol room equipment. This can be quite
expensive at the front end.
Some believe that a better way is to cre-
ate a coexistent system. In this scheme,
the system keyboards connect to a virtual
memory system (VMS), not the matrix
switchers. The analog side of the coexisting
system stays untouched. Nothing is added
to it. However, since the VMS sits on top of
the system, operators use their traditional
keyboard commands to manage both the
analog and digital solutions.
This is true since the VMS interfaces
with both the systems analog matrix switch-
ers as well as the IP cameras. As a result, on
the combined video wall, the analog and
IP solutions coexist but are still separate.
Transparent to the operator, with no mouse
needed, the system sends IP camera images
to the digital monitors and analog cam-
era signals to the analog monitors. With
this coexistent solution, agencies can begin
using an IP solution simply by adding IP
cameras, digital monitors and the coexis-
tence VMS.
In the leap from analog to digital, five
major system areas need to be considered:
Cameras
Transmission and cabling, including
power supplies
Storage and retrieval
Command and control
Integration.
Camerasthrow out the analog
or keep them. A key consideration for
security professionals is whether or not the
existing analog cameras or new IP ones
will provide the image quality needed to
achieve the functional requirements of the
system. Different applications have differ-
ent requirements; some users require the
ability to see and track suspects in chang-
ing lighting conditions, while others sim-
ply need to see that a corridor is clear.
In many migration plans, specific loca-
tions of greater vulnerability or image detail
requirements are ideal places for IP-based
cameras, including megapixel and high-
definition models, and one needs to ask if
higher-resolution cameras can help at each
location (Fig. 1). A risk/vulnerability matrix
can display overall elements or drill down
to specific locations such as the perimeter,
parking garage, entrance and exit doors,
hallways, computer center, security com-
mand and control (Fig. 2).
Typically, a hybrid approach is consid-
ered in which analog-to-digital encoders
at the camera end can transform images
from an analog camera to digital trans-
mission and storage. The analog control
room equipment gets scrapped but the new
IP control room equipment controls the
already-installed analog cameras.
Coexistence is a more cost-effective
approach that holds down the budget at
the beginning. The existing analog equip-
ment, including cameras, control room,
video wall and cabling remains untouched.
VMS software, integrated with the present
keyboard, sits on top of the system to man-
age the new IP equipment and the already-
installed analog system.
The petrochemical industry has another
major camera challenge as wellthe threat
of explosives. Cameras must be in explo-
sion-proof product housings that meet
stringent corrosion-resistant requirements
(Fig. 3). These housings should be made of
316 stainless steel and be suitable for both
indoor and outdoor installations. The cam-
era should comply with the IECEx standard
and have an IP66 environmental protection
designation. The standard for explosion-
proof camera housing is ExdIICT6.
High-definition (HD) 36
continuous rotation megapixel
IP PTZ dome cameras with
1.3-megapixel resolution.
FIG. 1
80

I

There are also explosion-proof inte-
grated pan tilt zoom (PTZ) cameras that
are designed for use in flammable and
explosive hazardous areas. The housings
on these explosion-proof cameras are
sealed to prevent the intake of explosive
dust while featuring strong corrosion-
resistant capabilities.
Transmission choicesbudgets
can dictate. Coaxial, shielded twisted
pair and unshielded twisted-pair cable,
fiber optics and, to a lesser degree, a variety
of wireless approaches carry most security
video. The difference and business advan-
tage of the various transmission schemes
are in the installation and maintenance
costs. A question to ask is whether or not
the new IP cameras will eliminate long dis-
tance analog cabling.
One strategy to handle both analog
and digital networks is to transmit all
the signals over a single fiber optic cable
that is secure and immune to electrical or
environmental interference. Installation is
dramatically simplified by eliminating the
need for multiple fibers, transmitters and
receivers. Not to be forgotten are power
supplies. Following a coexistence plan,
power supplies that are multi-tap, address-
able and programmable have advantages.
Other considerations include the
increased bandwidth impact on the enter-
prises network. This is a tricky assignment
and IT can help. Newer types of compres-
sion, decompression or codec, such as
H.264, reduce bandwidth traffic load but
at a cost of more storage and command
center processing. Can the budget afford
the increased transmission and storage
associated with megapixel cameras?
Storage and retrieval challenges.
Though being analog-based, most secu-
rity organizations already have digital and
network video recorders for storage and
retrieval. However, storage solutions have
their own challenges, thanks to myriad fea-
tures and benefits that can range from com-
mon specs to helpful elements such as intel-
ligent PTZ control with preset positions
and e-mail or SMS message notification
upon motion detection or event alerts.
Migrating from MJPEG to H.264 can
reduce storage use by 50% or more. Thats
why security users migrated from MJPEG
to MPEG-4 and now are moving to H.264.
It compresses video into a smaller size, yet
maintains the same video quality when
compared with an MPEG-4. With an
H.264, a representative frame (R-frame)
is selected from a group of frames in a
video sequence. Only the selected R-frame
is stored. By using R-frames, H.264 can
compress a video stream, thereby more
efficiently generating significantly less
bandwidth.
This is true for most camera situations,
such as a fixed camera with a low amount
of motion. If there is a lot of motion, as in
an airport lobby, or if the camera is moving,
such as a PTZ, the number of the R-frames
generated will increase. In some situations,
the compression provided by H.264 may
be only marginally better than M-JPEG.
Nonetheless, because of the lower band-
width generated by H.264, less storage is
required to archive the video. Overall, in
most surveillance situations, H.264 is a
more efficient codec to use for both band-
width reduction and storage.
At the camera edge, security managers
are deploying secure digital or secure digi-
tal storage cards, as well. This is especially
important in applications where connec-
tion loss to the rest of the system could lead
to lost images.
Regardless, there are several questions
to consider before selecting one mode or
another on the pathway to IP:
If the video is being monitored from
a remote location (and it typically is), will
one get exception reporting?
Do files ever need to be shared with
other departments, including law enforce-
ment, in real time?
How much does one need to record
and how long does one need to keep those
recordings?
Command and control options.
There is a lot to consider with command
and control. Traditional matrix switching
and joysticks are workhorses but in a fast-
approaching software world, a solid next
step is to consider networked video matrix
switchers.
Integration. True security systems inte-
gration is a goal of most security operations.
Beyond relays and interfaces, seamless inte-
gration of security video with electronic
access control, intrusion, perimeter, and
identification systems is a beneficial end-
point of any operation and one made sim-
pler through IP.
The bottom line for security
operations. No matter the speed of the
change-over, a solid plan is where both
analog and IP cameras can coexist. Such
coexistence increases securitys overall situ-
ational and domain awareness, improves its
operational effectiveness and efficiencies,
and provides a growth plan that extends the
existing equipments life. It also makes sys-
tems affordable and easy to manage. HP
Mark S. Wilson has overall
responsibility for Infinovas product
marketing and global marketing ini-
tiatives as well as extending relation-
ships with manufacturing partners.
He focuses on building a program structure for global
marketing activities and matrixes with product manage-
ment and manufacturing to develop efficient processes
for new product launches and marketing operations.
Likelihood
assessment
Impact
assessment
High
Medium
Low
Criticality
Critical
assessment
Threat experts
Mitigation strategies
Transportation
professionals
Vulnerability
experts
V
u
l
n
e
r
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
Reduced
likelihood
Reduced
impact
Risk/vulnerability marix. FIG. 2
Explosion-proof camera housing. FIG. 3
ENGINEERING CASE HISTORIES

I

81
A
n extruder is analyzed in this case history. While not a
piece of machinery familiar to most engineers, the tech-
niques used in this analysis can just as well be applied
to pumps, compressors, heat exchangers, vessels or piping.
The extruder in this example processes polymer. Its main
component, a barrel, is essentially a thick pipe with longitudinal
cooling passages in the wall. A screw within the barrel pushes
product through a die at the discharge end. This pushing force
generates a temperature rise due to the shearing action between
the rotating screw and polymer. To keep the temperature constant
at 525F, water is pulsed through the drilled passages; the water
turns to steam at a moderate temperature, which then helps to
cool the product (the polymer) and keeps it from degrading.
Problem. A malfunctioning control valve allowed water that
was not pulsed to go through the cooling passages at 150F. There
was concern that the sudden increased temperature difference
could cause cracking between the water passages and the barrel
bore. Figs. 1a and 1b represent a finite element model that has
been reduced to symmetry and will produce results similar to a
full model. The longitudinal stress is considered to be negligible,
meaning it isnt restrained axially.
After five seconds, Fig. 1a shows the extruder at its 525F prod-
uct temperature, except for the cooling passage bore area, which is
at 200F. Fig. 1b shows that the stress in the bore is 80,000 lbs/in.
2

in the x direction (horizontal) and also in the y direction (which is
not shown here). If there were any cracks in the cooling passage,
as illustrated in Fig. 2, this tensile stress would try to open them.
If there was a high tensile stress region going from the bore to the
cooling passage, this would be a concern since a crack could have
propagated through this region.
The tensile strength of the extruder barrel is 140,000 lb/in.
2

It is made of ductile material, with no significant tensile stresses
from the passages to the bore. For these reasons, the probability of
a through-crack developing is judged to be relatively low.
Applied results. The importance of this case history is to
show the effect of suddenly applied temperatures and stresses
they produce. Methods, such as presented here, can be used on all
types of heat-up and cool-down situations. The model includes
time, heat transfer coefficients and internal pressure. Of course,
the analysis makes many assumptions. However, if someone
were to ask if the process should now be shut down for a barrel
inspection, you could provide adequate information to say that it
probably has not cracked due to the malfunctioning valve.
This type of analysis obviously tests one of the possible
causes and does so rather quickly. In any problem-solving ses-
sion, there will be many potential causes from which the most
probable will need to be addressed. All proposed causes deserve
to be tested in some way. Analytical analysis is one way to evalu-
ate them. HP
Case 59: Heat-up rates
and thermal cracking
A good analysis is usually better than speculation
T. SOFRONAS, Consulting Engineer, Houston, Texas
Dr. Anthony (Tony) Sofronas, P.E., was worldwide lead
mechanical engineer for ExxonMobil before his retirement. Informa-
tion on his books, seminars and consulting, as well as comments to
this article, are available at http://mechanicalengineeringhelp.com.
a) Temperature profile at 5 sec.
b) Stress profile at 5 sec.
FIG. 1
Typical temperature-induced cracking. FIG. 2
82
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Delta Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 (83)
Eaton Filtration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 (119)
Emirates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 (54)
Farris Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 (88)
Flexitallic LP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 (93)
Garlock Sealing Technologies . . . . . . . 16 (84)
Gulf Publishing Company
Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 (166)
Construction Boxscore . . . . . . . . . . . 29 (156)
EventsSave the Date . . . . . . . . . . 75
HPI Market Data Book . . . . . . . . . . . 78 (170)
Webcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 (169)
Heurtey Petrochem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 (68)
HPI Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8283
Honeywell Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 (71)
Hunter Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 (153)
inprocess Technology Consulting
Group S.L. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 (154)
KBC Advanced Technologies Inc . . . . . 14 (82)
Linde Process Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 (81)
MBI Leasing LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 (152)
Merichem Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 (78)
MSA Instrument Division . . . . . . . . . . 67
Newton's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 (163)
Ohmart/Vega . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 (168)
Paharpur Cooling Towers, Ltd. . . . . . . . 6 (77)
Rentech Boiler System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 (58)
Siirtec Nigi SpA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 (151)
Spirax-Sarco Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 (161)
Spraying Systems Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 (62)
T.D. Williamson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 (66)
Team Industrial Services. . . . . . . . . . . 21 (73)
United Laboratories International,
Llc/Zyme-Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 (164)
UOP LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Veolia Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies 66 (60)
Wood Group Surface Pumps . . . . . . . 54 (160)
FREE Product and Service InformationNOVEMBER 2010
For information about subscribing to HYDROCARBON PROCESSING, please visit www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com
HOW TO USE THE INDEX: The FIRST NUMBER after the company name is the page on which an
advertisement appears. The SECOND NUMBER, appearing in parentheses, after the company
name, is the READER SERVICE NUMBER. There are several ways readers can obtain information:
1. The quickest way to request information from an advertiser or about an editorial item is to go to www.
HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS. If you follow the instructions on the screen your request will be forwarded for
immediate action.
2. Go online to the advertiser's Website listed below.
3. Circle the Reader Service Number below and fax this page to +1 (416) 620-9790. Include your name, company, complete
address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address, and check the box on the right for your division of industry and
job title.
Name ________________________________________________________ Company ________________________________________________________
Address ______________________________________________________ City/State/Zip ____________________________________________________
Country ______________________________________________________ Phone No. _______________________________________________________
FAX No. ______________________________________________________ e-mail ___________________________________________________________
This Advertisers Index and procedure for securing additional information is provided as a service to Hydrocarbon
Processing advertisers and a convenience to our readers. Gulf Publishing Co. is not responsible for omissions or errors.
This information must be pro-
vided to process your request:
PRIMARY DIVISION OF INDUSTRY
(check one only):
A -Refining Company
B - Petrochemical Co.
C -Gas Processing Co.
F -Equipment Manufacturer
G - Supply Company
H -Service Company
J -Chemical Co.
P -Engrg./Construction Co.
JOB FUNCTION
(check one only):
B - Company Official, Manager
E -Engineer or Consultant
F - Supt. or Asst.
G -Foreman or Asst.
I -Chemist
J -Purchasing Agt.
ADVERTISERS in this issue of HYDROCARBON PROCESSING
Company Page RS#
Website
Company Page RS#
Website
Company Page RS#
Website
LORAINE A. HUCHLER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
HPIN WATER MANAGEMENT
Huchler@martechsystems.com
86

I

In Part 3, we will discuss the typical responsibilities of a util-
ity process engineer to manage their systems and to interface
with process engineers at all of the production units within the
complex. Plants often assign a newly graduated engineer to the
utility water area. The new engineers lack of plant experience
and technical knowledge of water treatment, coupled with their
lack of authority over the utility water systems in the operating
units create many challenges.
Proactive efforts. Process-side issues demand most of the
daily attention of process engineers, and utility operations are
small and often-overlooked technical areas. Utilities process
engineers should discuss problems with the unit process engi-
neers. Likewise, all process engineers should read the weekly ser-
vice reports from chemical suppliers; discuss nonconformances
with shift supervisors and/or operators; participate in equip-
ment inspections (boilers and heat exchangers); and become
acquainted with the routine testing conducted by the operators
in their unit.
Sometimes, the chemical supplier will offer training for pro-
cess engineers. More often, the service representative will coach
the process engineer on technical issues related to their indi-
vidual process unit. Table 3 summarizes typical requirements
for the new process engineer assigned to utilities.
Summary. Engineers assigned to the water plant can reduce
the risk of failure by understanding the vital few issues that can
progress rapidly and have catastrophic consequences, as well as
the problems that develop slowly but have equally severe modes
of failure. Slowly developing problems create a huge risk of
normalization of deviance. Utility process engineers must guard
against allowing this culture of danger. New process engineers
should rely on their chemical suppliers for data interpretation
and technical information about controlling corrosion, deposi-
tion and microbiological fouling. Engineers in each process unit
should assume responsibility for the proper operation of the util-
ity water systems in their unit, and collaborate with the chemical
supplier and utility-water process engineer in diagnosing prob-
lems and implementing effective corrective actions. HP
End of series: Part 1, September 2010, and Part 2,
October 2010.
The author is president of MarTech Systems, Inc., an engineering con-
sulting firm that provides technical services to optimize water-related sys-
tems (steam, cooling and wastewater) in refineries and petrochemical
plants. She holds a BS degree in chemical engineering and is a licensed
professional engineer in New Jersey and Maryland. She can be reached at:
huchler@martechsystems.com.
Utility water boot camp for process engineersPart 3
TABLE 3. Typical utility process engineer responsibilities
Action or responsibility Frequency Importance
Interface with service representative When problems occur Identify key issues to correct
from chemical supplier When weekly reports or historical data show Limit severity of problem
significant nonconformances Learn about water treatment from chemical supplier representative
During annual reviews
Minimum of once per month
Review routine operator testing Initially when assigned to unit Partner with chemical supplier to ensure proper
methods, data management and Annually monitoring procedures
corrective action procedures Confirm conformance to OEM specifications
Review historical trend data When problems occur Limit severity of problem
When weekly report shows nonconformances
High boiler feedwater total hardness Poor softener or demineralizer operation Calcium-rich deposits will cause long-term overheat failures
Condensate contamination in boiler tubes
Feedwater heater leak
Feedwater pump seal leak
As the worlds leading provider of pressurized piping system mainte-
nance and repair capabilities, TDW delivers innovative, customized
products, services and solutions that optimize system performance
with a minimum of downtime.
Give us a call. And put our solutions to work for you.
NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA: 918-447-5000 | EUROPE/AFRICA/MIDEAST: 32-67-28-36-11
ASIA/PACIFIC: 65-6364-8520 | OFFSHORE SERVICES: 832-448-7200
Registered trademarks of T.D. Williamson, Inc. in the United States and in foreign countries. / TM Trademarks of T.D. Williamson, Inc. in the United States and in foreign countries.
T.D. Williamson, Inc.
TDW Services, Inc.
TDW Offshore Services
Your objectives
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challenges with leading-edge solutions from Axens
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