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VOLUME 10 NUMBER 46 SEPTEMBER 2024

WWW.IACPE.COM
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In This Issue
Volume 10 | Number 46

EDITOR
SPECIAL FEATURES Karl Kolmetz

04
Approaching Seventy – What is DIGITAL EDITOR
Success Shauna Tysor
Karl Kolmetz
REFINING CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Daily Plant Monitoring Basic Dr. Marcio Wagner da Silva

08 Routines In Upstream Oil & Gas

Facilities for Process Engineers in
PROCESS ENGINEERING
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Operations Jayanthi Vijay Sarathy
Praveen Nagenderan C
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Combination of Hydrocracking and Ronald J. Cormier
10 Naphtha Steam Cracking as Residue
to Chemicals Refining Route
Dr. Marcio Wagner da Silva

Relief Valve Sizing for Pump

25 Discharge
Jayanthi Vijay Sarathy

Different Aspects of Industrial

28 Project (Process Plant)
Mansoor Mohseni

Guidelines for Reducing Corrosion

33 Under Insulation and Its Safety
Consequences
Karl Kolmetz ,
Muhammad Salem Abdul Ajes ST.,
Reni Mutiara Sari ST.

Rock Bottom:
43 Progress, Both Close &
Far….America’s Oil Country
Increasingly Runs on Renewables,
but What if 100% Renewable Power
Reigned Across the US Grid?
Ron Cormier
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Approaching Seventy – What is Success

Karl Kolmetz

I will soon have lived three score and ten

years. The average life expectancy in USA is
seventy-six years. My parents lived to 87 and
90, so I am hoping I have a few more years
left. I am trying to plan so that may have a
few more good years.

Every Christmas I received a gift from my

grandmother even though she had many
grandchildren. I remember going to her house
at Christmas. There was no electricity, run-
ning water, she had a well and a hand pump
in the yard. We would sleep in front of the
fireplace under blankets. Northwest Florida in
My father’s grandmother was Della Victoria
December can be cold.
Strickland Jenkins. She was born on 18 Oct
1866 and died on 9 July 1945. She is buried Here is Mittie and her sons, with my father’s
at Pleasant Grove Methodist Church, Wash- head raised.
ington Co, Florida. That is all I know about
her. I wish I knew a few stories, but I do not.
Here is a picture of Victoria and her grandchil-
dren. I know of only one person in the picture
that is still alive today – the small girl in the
front with the flower in her hair is my father’s
sister Bertha, she is 90 years old this year.
My father is standing fourth from the left with
black hair looking down. In the early years of
his life, he was always looking down in the
pictures. Later he would always hold his
head up high to over correct.
Her daughter, my grandmother, Mittie Jenkins
was a caring loving person who raised her
children to be hard working and respectful.
Since I have no bad stories of Della Victoria,
Her first husband died in the 1919 flu, but she
she probably was a good person. I have
survived, so I have some inherited flu re-
many bad stories of the other ancestors. I do
sistance. She later married John Kolmetz
know her daughter was a good person. I
and here I am today.
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know my father better and he was a mixture of into words and just knowing that someone
the good and bad, just like you and I am. My is listening can be enough.
success today is in part because of the good-
Stable Financially
ness of Della Victoria, Mittie and my parents.
I have six siblings, and all are different, all Having enough money so that you can make
have achieved different levels of success the decisions that you want to make about.
even with common backgrounds.
Health
What is a good definition of success - Real
Friendships
Success Has at least four parts
Family
Health
Giving Back
Friendships
Giving Back
Family
Giving Back 1. The happiest people are not those receiv-
ing more but giving more.
Health
2. When you pray, do you pray to be
1. You will not be successful or wealthy with- blessed, or that you may be the one giving
out maintaining your health. the blessing.
2. Maintaining your health does not require One hundred years from now there will proba-
major knowledge, but it is difficult to ac- bly be no one with living memories of you.
complish; eat healthily and exercise. For The good news and bad news are the good
many people, both are hard to maintain. that you have done will be forgotten, and the
bad that you have done will mostly be forgot-
3. Many people bring poor health to them- ten. Bad seems to always live a lot longer
selves by living wicked lives – you cannot than the good. So why should we try to do
escape the consequences of your actions. good, in 100 years no one will really know.
The bible says you reap what you sow.
Today our success was developed by those
4. You need to understand what your per- who worked before us, so that we might have
sonality and work are to keep your health a better life. We have no real memories of
even with addictive and destructive per- their lives and struggles. Our success today is
sonalities. because of their struggles and effort to build
Friendship better lives.

1. Remember the most valuable antiques are Our lives and struggles will also be forgotten.
dear old friends - H Jackson Brown So why do we then try to do good? Each of
us has the capacity to do good and evil and if
2. A friend of mine’s child died. I asked my our deeds will be forgotten why make the ef-
dad, what should I say to him? My dad fort to do good? Why strive to be success-
answered – you do not have to say any- ful? It takes a certain type of personality to be
thing, just go stand by his side. successful and make our world a better place
despite no real acknowledgment.
3. You will move in the direction of the peo-
ple you associate with. You need to asso- Each of us can be successful, ordinary or a
ciate yourself with the kind of people that failure, based on the choices we make in life.
you would like to become. Most people are happy to take credit for their
successes but remember that we also must
4. The friends you have will form you as you take credit for our failures. You call always
go through life, make good friends, and tell a tree by the fruit it produces – what fruit
keep them the rest of your life. are you producing?
Family There are many people that are very happy
1. Success is that you are seventy years old, just to float through life with no real efforts to
and all your siblings will still speak to you be successful and they get the results one
– many family members to not speak to would expect. Many people think I am lucky
one another in their old age. to be where I am. I worked a full-time job and
went to night school eleven years – so maybe
2. Communication is important – during both I am not lucky just hard working. If you work
the good and the tough times. Some peo- and go to school, you will be lucky also.
ple often find it hard to put their feelings
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There are people that are born with additive

personalities and live lives of torment until
they realize that alcohol and drugs are their
enemy. I had a friend with a large alcohol
problem get pulled over for drunk driving, I
was thinking the answer to the problem was to
quit drinking. Their solution was that I need to
quit driving. The alcohol had a powerful hold
on her.
I like freedoms, but I believe that alcohol and
drugs should be strictly controlled due to the
damage that I have seen from my family
members. I had two uncles that I rarely saw
sober. I knew the additive personality was in
my family, so I tried to stay away from alcohol
and drugs. Many people fail this test and
lead lives of missed opportunities. Many do
not have the capacity to resist this temptation,
as high as 10% of the population. My seventy
years on the earth says that we should make
it harder to obtain alcohol and drugs.
Almost everyone at seventy knows they could
have been better and accomplished more –
this might be the normal human condition.
But even at 70 we can try to accomplish good
for the next generation. Freedom, prosperity,
and happiness are not values, they're not a
map, they're not even principles. They may be
the fruits of a successful society, but they're
not its roots. No good tree bears bad fruit and
to restore the fruit we must first attend to the
roots. The true roots, the foundation stones of
a civilization are not freedom, prosperity, and
happiness, but the pursuit of good deeds,
hard work, and truth in action.
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Daily Plant Monitoring Basic Routines In

Upstream Oil & Gas Facilities for Process
Engineers in Operations
Praveen Nagenderan C

As a Process Engineer in Upstream Oil & 4.UTILITY CONSUMPTION MONITORING:

Gas Operator company, effective plant moni- Track daily utility consumption patterns, in-
toring is crucial for ensuring optimal perfor- cluding power generation, to identify areas for
mance. In this article only the elements were optimization. Prepare daily utility consumption
discussed whereas methodology for the ele- sheets and specific utility consumption sheets
ments are not detailed. Here are essential against the production data to pinpoint usage
daily monitoring routines: trends relative to plant activities, identify po-
tential system leakages & optimization
1. WELL MONITORING: Begin with downhole
scopes, and carry out daily data against the
and collaborate with Production Engineers.
plant's design utility load summary.
Evaluate wellhead parameters, artificial lift
parameters, WHCP (Well Head Control Pan- 5. PLANT PARAMETERS SURVEILLANCE
el) parameters/Subsea Control Module data, AND REPORTS: Identify Critical-to-Process
and real-time data from DOF (Digital Oil & Critical-to-Quality parameters by breaking
Field) or Real time data servers for anoma- down the plant into systems, process catego-
lies. Conduct variance analysis of the param- rization, process criticality analysis. Deter-
eters, review well test results, and check wa- mine safe operating limits for all plant param-
ter cut against surface facilities to align with eters and equipment’s, and carry out daily
daily production allocation. surveillance for any deviations. Prepare plant
performance report incorporating well param-
2. PRODUCTION DATA ANALYSIS: Retrieve
eters, top sides/surface facilities process pa-
daily production data (Oil, Produced Water,
rameters, equipment’s parameters and per-
Associated Gas, Fuel Gas, Flare, Water In-
formance data, utility consumption, controller
jection, Gas Lift, Power, and Water Discharge
set point, control valve position, analytical re-
Quantity) and perform a 24-hour comparative
sults, chemical consumption details, and brief
analysis to correlate with operational activi-
about plant state describing actual conditions,
ties. Review Production Efficiency, Opera-
equipment status, system known deviations,
tions Efficiency, and Operation Availability
and other system uncertainties. Plant perfor-
metrics and identify & understand causes of
mance report shall be prepared for daily gen-
+/-ve variations. Compare daily production
eral overall basis, for specific deviation identi-
loss forecasts with actual values, linking dis-
fied through surveillance, and for any non-
crepancies to overall operations and activi-
routine or special activities in the sub-surface
ties.
or top sides/surface facilities.
3. ASSET MASS BALANCE: Prepare a com-
6. EQUIPMENT PERFROMANCE EVALUA-
prehensive asset mass balance for oil, pro-
TION:Generate daily performance reports for
duced water, and associated gas, including
equipment such as separators, pumps, com-
fuel gas, flare, and water discharge, using
pressors, turbines, and heat exchangers us-
flow meter readings. Adjust for known meas-
ing real-time data. Compare this data against
urement errors and apply reverse balance
design/data sheet to identify performance is-
techniques or engineering calculations where
sues and opportunities for optimization.
meters are unavailable. Incorporate backup
methods for malfunctioning meters. While this 7. PRODUCTION CHEMISTRY: Review daily
can never be not 100% accurate, but calibra- quality parameters and ensure they align with
tions can bring accuracy close to 95%. This specifications. Monitor chemical injection sys-
process helps in identifying system leakages, tems for target versus actual injection quanti-
excess consumption patterns, and in general ties and parts per million (PPM) values.
plant performance.
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8. CONTROL LOOPS ANALYSIS: Review set AUTHOR

point changes in PID controllers by the opera-
tors, evaluate controller modes (AUTO/MAN)
for any changes in the last 24 hours, analyse
control loop performance through which control
valves problems and controller tuning scope
can be identified. Identify trip transmitter’s
faults by generating reports through real time
data from servers comparing process values Praveen Nagenderan C is a chemical engi-
from control and trip transmitters. Generate neer graduate and post-graduate in Oil & Gas
reports on control valve % opening for the last Engineering, University of Aberdeen with ex-
24 hours and compare against datasheet & perience in Oil & Gas production and pro-
flow coefficient curves for performance, com- cessing facilities. Professional experience
pare the same with against daily production covers working in production operations,
volumes, and overall plant conditions. commissioning & start-up, turn-arounds, and
process engineering – operations support
and facility surveillance & engineering.
Praveen has worked with major oil compa-
nies Equinor, EnQuest, Spirit Energy, Expro,
Cairn Oil & Gas and Nayara Energy
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Combination of Hydrocracking and Naph-

tha Steam Cracking as Residue to Chemi-
cals Refining Route
Dr. Marcio Wagner da Silva

Introduction and Context higher cost putting under pressure his refining
margins or look for deep bottom barrel con-
One of the biggest challenges for the oil refin- version technologies to ensure more value
ing industry is raising the profitability or the so- addition to processed crude oils and avoid to
called refining margin face to a scenario with loss competitiveness in the downstream mar-
environmental regulations increasingly restric- ket. For these refiners, deepest residue up-
tive, which requires high costly processes and grading like hydrocracking technologies can
the volatility of the crude barrel price. Restric- offer great operational flexibility, despite the
tive regulations like IMO 2020 raised, even high capital spending.
more, the pressure over refiners with low bot-
tom barrel conversion capacity once requires Furthermore, despite be more frequently re-
higher capacity to add value to residual lated to bottom barrel value addition and resi-
streams, especially related to sulfur content due upgrading issues, the hydrocracking
that was reduced from 3,5 % (in mass) to 0,5 technologies can offer better conditions to
%. Refiners with easy access to low sulfur closer integration with petrochemical assets
crude oils present relative competitive ad- though the improvement of intermediates
vantage in this scenario, these players can rely streams, an interesting case is the synergy of
on relatively low-cost residue upgrading tech- hydrocracking and naphtha steam cracking
nologies to produce the new marine fuel oil units aiming to maximize the petrochemicals
(Bunker) as carbon rejection technologies production in the refining hardware. Recent
(Solvent Deasphalting, Delayed Coking, etc.), forecasts indicate a trend of reduction in
but they are the minority in the market. The transportation fuels demand accompanied by
most part of the players need to look for the growth of petrochemicals demand as pre-
sources of low sulfur crudes, which present sented in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Growing Trend in the Demand by Petrochemical Intermediates (Wood Mackenzie,

2020)
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The improvement in fuel efficiency, growing Due to his similarities, better integration be-
market of electric vehicles tends to decline the tween refining and petrochemical production
participation of transportation fuels in the glob- processes appears as an attractive alterna-
al crude oil demand. New technologies like ad- tive to maximize the yield of petrochemicals.
ditive manufacturing (3D printing) have the po- Although the advantages, it’s important to
tential to produce great impact to the transpor- consider that the integration between refining
tation demands, leading to even more impact and petrochemical assets increase the com-
over the transportation fuels demand. Further- plexity, requires capital spending, and affect
more, the higher availability of lighter crude oils the interdependency of refineries and petro-
favors the oversupply of lighter derivatives that chemical plants, these facts need to be deep-
facilitate the production of petrochemicals ly studied and analyzed case by case.
against transportation fuels as well as the high-
er added value of petrochemicals in compari- According to data presented in Figure 2, is
son with fuels. expected a significant growth in the market of
petrochemicals intermediates, especially in
Facing these challenges, the search for alter- ethylene market, and a refining hardware ca-
natives that ensure survival and sustainability pable to maximize the yield of these deriva-
of the refining industry became constant by tives can offer significant competitive ad-
refiners and technology developers. Due to his vantage through closer integration with petro-
similarities, better integration between refining chemical assets and higher value addition to
and petrochemical production processes ap- processed crude oil.
pears as an attractive alternative.
This scenario requires even more conversion
Considering the ethylene market, the scenario capacity in the refining hardware as well as
is even more attractive once is expected an profitable routes to convert these hydrocar-
annual growth rate of 5,58 % between 2022 bons into petrochemicals in compliance with
and 2030 and the total size of the ethylene market demand, in this sense, hydrocracking
market can reach USD 287 billion in 2030 as technologies and their synergies with petro-
presented in Figure 2. Again, the Asian conti- chemical processes like steam cracking can
nent is responsible of the major part of this be an attractive route to some refiners.

Figure 2 – Evolution of Ethylene Market Size for the next years (Precedence Research, 2022)
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Synergies between Refining and Petro- Figure 3 presents a block diagram that shows
chemical Assets – Petrochemical Integra- some integration possibilities between refin-
tion ing processes and the petrochemical indus-
try.
The focus of the closer integration between
refining and petrochemical industries is to pro- Process streams considered with low added
mote and seize the synergies existing opportu- value to refiners like fuel gas (C2) are attrac-
nities between both downstream sectors to tive raw materials to the petrochemical indus-
generate value to the whole crude oil produc- try, as well as streams considered residual to
tion chain. Table 1 presents the main charac- petrochemical industries (butanes, pyrolisis
teristics of the refining and petrochemical in- gasoline, and heavy aromatics) can be ap-
dustry and the synergies potential. plied to refiners to produce high quality trans-
portation fuels, this can help the refining in-
As aforementioned, the petrochemical industry dustry meet the environmental and quality
has been growing at considerably higher rates regulations to derivatives.
when compared with the transportation fuels
market in the last years, additionally, represent The integration potential and the synergy
a noblest destiny and less environmental ag- among the processes rely on the refining
gressive to crude oil derivatives. The techno- scheme adopted by the refinery and the con-
logical bases of the refining and petrochemical sumer market, process units as Fluid Catalyt-
industries are similar which leads to possibili- ic Cracking (FCC) and Catalytic Reforming
ties of synergies capable of reducing opera- can be optimized to produce petrochemical
tional costs and adding value to derivatives intermediates to the detriment of streams that
produced in the refineries. will be incorporated to fuels pool. In the case
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of FCC, installation of units dedicated to pro- Hydrocracking Technologies

duce petrochemical intermediates, called pet-
rochemical FCC, aims to reduce to the mini- Despite the high investment for hydrocracking
mum the generation of streams to produce units’ construction, this process is what gives
transportation fuels, however, the capital in- more flexibility to refineries to processing
vestment is high once the severity of the pro- heavy oils, so with lower cost, on the other
cess requires the use of material with noblest hand, these oils produce a high quantity of
metallurgical characteristics. derivates with lower value added and with
restricted markets like fuel oils and asphalt.
The IHS Markit Company proposed a classifi- Table 2 presents the main differences be-
cation of the petrochemical integration grades, tween hydrotreating and hydrocracking tech-
as presented in Figure 4. nologies.
According to the classification proposed, the The hydrocracking process is normally con-
crude to chemicals refineries is considered the ducted under severe reaction conditions with
maximum level of petrochemical integration temperatures that vary from 300 to 480 oC
where the processed crude oil is totally con- and pressures between 35 to 260 bar. Due
verted into petrochemicals intermediates like to process severity, hydrocracking units can
ethylene, propylene, and BTX. In these refin- process a large variety of feed streams,
ing schemes, the combination of hydrocrack- which can vary from gas oils to residues that
ing and steam cracking units are fundamental can be converted into light and medium deri-
to allow the conversion of bottom barrel vates, with high value added.
streams to petrochemicals to maximize the
added value to the processed crude.
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Among the feed streams normally processed normally made through cold hydrogen injec-
in hydrocracking units are the vacuum gas oils, tion between the catalytic beds.
Light Cycle Oil (LCO), decanted oil, coke gas
oils, etc. Some of these streams would be hard Figure 5 shows a typical arrangement for hy-
to process in Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units drocracking process unit with two reactions
(FCCU) because of the high contaminants stages, dedicated to producing medium dis-
content and the higher carbon residue, which tilled products (diesel and kerosene).
quickly deactivates the catalyst, in the hy- According to the feed stream quality
drocracking process the presence of hydrogen (contaminant content), is necessary hy-
minimizes these effects. drotreating reactors installation upstream of
According to the catalyst applied in the pro- the hydrocracking reactors, these reactors act
cess and the reaction conditions, the hy- like guard bed to protect the hydrocracking
drocracking can maximize the feed stream catalyst.
conversion in middle derivates (Diesel and The principal contaminant of hydrocracking
Kerosene), high-quality lubricant production catalyst is nitrogen, which can be present in
(lower severity process). two forms: Ammonia and organic nitrogen.
Catalysts applied in hydrocracking processes Ammonia (NH3), produced during the hy-
can be amorphous (alumina and silica- drotreating step, has a temporary effect re-
alumina) and crystalline (zeolites) and have ducing the activity of the acid sites, mainly
bifunctional characteristics once the cracking damaging the cracking reactions. In some
reactions (in the acid sites) and hydrogenation cases, the increase of ammonia concentra-
(in the metals sites) occurs simultaneously. tion in the catalytic bed is used like an opera-
The active metals used to this process are nor- tional variable to control the hydrocracking
mally Ni, Co, Mo and W in combination with catalyst activity. Organic nitrogen has a per-
noble metals like Pt and Pd. manent effect blocking the catalytic sites and
It’s necessary a synergic effect between the leading to coke deposits on the catalyst.
catalyst and the hydrogen because the crack- As in the hydrotreating cases (HDS, HDN,
ing reactions are exothermic and the hydro- etc.), the most important operational variables
genation reactions are endothermic, so the are temperature, hydrogen partial pressure,
reaction is conducted under high partial hydro- space velocity and hydrogen/feed ratio.
gen pressures and the temperature is con-
trolled in the minimum necessary to convert Depending on feed stream characteristics
the feed stream. Despite these characteristics, (mainly contaminants content) and the pro-
the hydrocracking global process is exother- cess objective (maximize middle distillates or
mic, and the reaction temperature control is lubricant production) the hydrocracking units
can assume different configurations. Like, the disadvantage, in this case, is the
high concentration of ammonia and H2S in
For feed streams with low nitrogen content the hydrocracking reactors, which reduces
where the objective is to produce lubricants the catalyst activity.
(partial conversion) is possible to adopt a sin-
gle stage configuration and without the inter- The higher costly units are the plants with
mediate gas separation, produced during the double stages and intermediate gás separa-
hydrotreating step. The main disadvantage of tion. These units are employed when the feed
this configuration is the reduction of the hy- stream has high contaminant content (mainly
drocracking catalyst activity caused by the nitrogen) and the refinery looks for the total
high concentration of ammonia in the reactor, conversion (to produce middle distillates), this
but this configuration requires lower capital configuration is presented in Figure 6.
investment.
In this case, the catalytic deactivation process
The application of hydrocracking route to pro- is minimized by the reduction in the NH3 and
duce lubricating oils offers great competitive H2S concentration in the hydrocracking reac-
advantage once the alternative routes, based tor. It’s important to consider the feedstock
on solvent extraction units can produce only quality to define the better residue upgrading
Group I and II lubricating oils that present fall- technology to the refining hardware, once the
ing demand. hydroprocessing of residual streams presents
additional challenges when compared with
Due to the accelerated technological develop- the treating of lighter streams, mainly due to
ment, especially in the automotive market, the the higher contaminants content and residual
Group I lubricating oil tend to lose market in carbon (RCR) related with the high concen-
the next years this fact tends to lead the refin- tration of resins and asphaltenes in the bot-
ers to look for capital investment aiming to tom barrel streams.
sustain their competitiveness in the lubricating
market. Another side effect for lubricating pro- Higher metals and asphaltenes content led to
ducers based on solvent routes due to the a quick deactivation of the catalysts through
competitiveness loss is raising the imports to high coke deposition rate, catalytic matrix
supply the internal market, leading to an exter- degradation by metals like nickel and vanadi-
nal dependence of critical production input as um or even by the plugging of catalyst pores
well as negative effects on the balance of pay- produced by the adsorption of metals and
ments. high molecular weight molecules in the cata-
lyst surface. By this reason, according to the
Normally for feed streams with low nitrogen content of asphaltenes and metals in the feed
content where the objective is to produce mid- stream are adopted more versatile technolo-
dle distillates (diesel and kerosene), the con- gies aiming to ensure an adequate operation-
figuration with two reaction stages without in- al campaign and an effective treatment.
termediate gas separation is the most com-
mon.
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As quoted earlier, the hydrocracking units de- Among the Hydrocracking Technologies
mand high capital investments, mainly to oper- which applies fixed bed reactors, it can be
ate under high hydrogen partial pressures, it’s highlighted the RHU technology, licensed
necessary to install larger hydrogen production by Shell company, Hyvahl technology de-
units, which is another high costly process. veloped by Axens and the UnionFining and
However, in the face of the crescent demand Unicracking Processes, developed by
for high-quality derivates, the investment can UOP. These processes normally operate with
be economically attractive. low conversion rates with temperatures high-
er than 400 oC and pressures above 150 bar.
The Residue Hydrocracking Units have severi- Figure 7 presents a basic process arrange-
ty even greater than units dedicated to treating ment for the Unicracking process by UOP
lighter feed streams (gas oils). These units aim Company.
to improve the residues quality either by reduc-
ing the contaminant content (mainly metals) Technologies that apply ebullated bed reac-
like an upstream step to other processes, such tors and continuum catalyst replacement al-
as Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) or low higher campaign period and higher con-
to produce derivates like fuel oil with low sulfur version rates, among these technologies the
content. most known are the H-Oil technology de-
veloped by Axens and the LC-Fining Pro-
Residue hydrocracking demand even greater cess by Chevron-Lummus. These reactors
capital investment than gas oils hydrocrackers operate at temperatures above 450 oC and
because these units operate under more se- pressures until 250 bar. Figure 8 presents a
vere conditions and furthermore, the opera- typical process flow diagram for a LC-
tional costs are so higher, mainly due to the Fining process unit, developed by Chevron
high hydrogen consumption and the frequent Lummus Company while the H-Oil process
catalyst replacement. by Axens Company is presented in Figure 9.
Hydrocracking technologies have been widely Catalysts applied in hydrocracking processes
studied over the years, mainly by countries can be amorphous (alumina and silica-
with large heavy oil reserves like Mexico and alumina) and crystalline (zeolites) and have
Venezuela. The main difference between the bifunctional characteristics, once the cracking
available technologies is the reactor character- reactions (in the acid sites) and hydrogena-
istics. tion (in the metals sites) occurs simultaneous-
ly.
 17

An improvement in relation of ebullated bed basic process flow diagram for the VCC
technologies is the slurry phase reactors, technology by KBR Company.
which can achieve conversions higher than 95
%. In this case, the main available technolo- In the slurry phase hydrocracking units, the
gies are the HDH process (Hydrocracking- catalysts in injected with the feedstock and
Distillation-Hydrotreatment), developed by activated in situ while the reactions are car-
PDVSA-Intevep, VEBA-Combicracking Pro- ried out in slurry phase reactors, minimizing
cess (VCC) commercialized by KBR Com- the reactivation issue, and ensuring higher
pany, the EST process (Eni Slurry Technolo- conversions and operating lifecycle. Figure
gy) developed by Italian state oil company 11 presents a basic process flow diagram for
ENI, and the Uniflex technology developed the Uniflex slurry hydrocracking technology
by UOP Company. Figure 10 presents a by UOP Company.
 18

Other commercial technologies to slurry hy- Despite the high capital investment and the
drocracking process are the LC-Slurry tech- high operational cost, hydrocracking Technol-
nology developed by Chevron Lummus Com- ogies produces high-quality derivates and
pany and the Microcat-RC process by Exxon can make feasible the production of added
Mobil Company. Aiming to meet the new bun- value product from residues, which is ex-
ker quality requirements, noblest streams, nor- tremely attractive, mainly for countries that
mally directed to produce middle distillates can have difficult access to light oils with low con-
be applied to produce low sulfur fuel oil, this taminants.
can lead to a shortage of intermediate streams
to produce these derivatives, raising his prices. In countries, with a high dependency of mid-
The market of high sulfur content fuel oil dle distillates like Brazil (because his dimen-
should strongly be reduced, due to the higher sions and the high dependency for road
prices gap when compared with diesel, his transport), the high-quality middle distillate
production tends to be economically unattrac- production from oils with high nitrogen con-
tive. tent, indicate that the hydrocracking technolo-
gy can be a good way to reduce the external
dependency of these products.
 19

Naphtha Steam Cracking Process – Naph- applies a reduce residence time to minimize
tha to Olefins the coking process and ensure higher opera-
tional lifecycle.
The Steam cracking process has a fundamen-
tal role in the petrochemical industry, nowa- The cracking reactions occur in the furnace
days the most part of the light olefins light eth- tubes, the main concern and limitation to op-
ylene and propylene is produced through erating lifecycle of steam cracking units is the
steam cracking route. The steam cracking con- coke formation in the furnace tubes. The re-
sists of a thermal cracking process that can actions carry out under high temperatures,
use gas or naphtha to produce olefins, in this between 500 oC to 700 oC according to the
review we will describe the naphtha steam characteristics of the feed. For heavier feeds
cracking process. like gas oil, is applied lower temperature aim-
ing to minimize the coke formation, the com-
The naphtha to steam cracking is composed bination of high temperatures and low resi-
basically of straight run naphtha from crude oil dence time are the main characteristic of the
distillation units, normally to meet the require- steam cracking process.
ments as petrochemical naphtha the stream
needs to present high paraffin content (higher The Synergy between Hydrocracking and
than 66 %). Figure 12 presents a typical steam Steam Cracking – Residue to Chemicals
cracking unit applying naphtha as raw material
to produce olefins. As aforementioned the hydrocracking units
are capable to improve the quality of bottom
Due to his relevance, great technology devel- barrel streams, the main advantage of the
opers have dedicated their efforts to improve integration between hydrocracking and steam
the steam cracking technologies over the cracking units is the higher availability of
years, especially related to the steam cracking feeds with better crackability characteristics.
furnaces. Companies like Stone & Webster,
Lummus, KBR, Linde, and Technip develop Bottom barrel streams tend to concentrate
technologies to steam cracking process. One aromatics and polyaromatics compounds that
of the most known steam cracking technolo- present uneconomically performance in
gies is the SRT process (Short Residence steam cracking units due the high yield of fuel
Time), developed by Lummus Company, that oil that presents low added value,
 20

furthermore, the aromatics tends to suffer con- the hydrocracking unit, raising the bottom
densation reaction in the steam cracking fur- barrel conversion of the refinery. Sometimes
naces, leading to high rates of coke deposition the hydrocracking and FCC technologies are
that reduces the operation lifecycle and raises faced by competitors technologies in the re-
the operating costs. fining hardware due to the similarities of feed
streams that are processed in these units. In
Once cracking potential is better to paraffinic some refining schemes, the mild hydrocrack-
molecules, and the hydrocracking technologies ing units can be applied as pretreatment step
can improve the H/C in the molecules convert- to FCC units, especially to bottom barrel
ing low added value bottom streams like vacu- streams with high metals content that are se-
um gasoil to high quality naphtha, kerosene, vere poison to FCC catalysts, furthermore the
and diesel the synergy between hydrocracking mild hydrocracking process can reduce the
and steam cracking units can improve the yield residual carbon to FCC feed, raising the per-
of petrochemical intermediates in the refining formance of FCC unit and improving the yield
hardware, an example of refining configuration of light products like naphtha, LPG, and ole-
relying on hydrocracking and steam cracking fins.
units is presented in Figure 13.
Considering the great flexibility of deep hy-
In Figure 13, a slurry hydrocracking unit is ap- drocracking technologies that are capable to
plied to achieve deep conversion of bottom convert feed stream varying from gas oils to
barrel streams while a diesel hydrocracking residue, an attractive alternative to improve
unit is applied to destroy diesel and improve the bottom barrel conversion capacity is to
the yield of naphtha in the refining hardware, process in the hydrocracking units the
the light naphtha is directed to steam cracking uncracked residue in FCC unit aiming to im-
unit to produce olefins, like ethylene and pro- prove the yield of high added value deriva-
pylene while the heavier fraction is pumped to tives in the refining hardware, mainly middle
a catalytic reforming unit where is converted in distillates like diesel and kerosene.
light aromatics (BTX), achieving high added
value to the processed crude oil. It’s interest- Another alternative to reduce the fuel produc-
ing to observe the synergy between deep hy- tion near to zero is presented in Figure 14.
drocracking (slurry) and FCC units, where the
residual stream from FCC is applied as feed to
 21

In the refining configuration presented in Fig- Another great refining technology developers
ure 14, the kerosene is cracked to naphtha in like UOP, Shell Global Solutions, ExxonMobil,
a hydrocracking unit, in this case, the naphtha Axens, Saudi Aramco and others are develop-
is sent to the aromatic complex aiming to pro- ing crude to chemicals technologies, reinforc-
duce even more aromatics (BTX) which has ing that this is a trend in the downstream mar-
higher added value than olefins which is max- ket. In any case, is applied the combination of
imized in the alternative of Figure 13. Consid- hydrocracking and steam cracking units. Fig-
ering the recent trend of reduction in transpor- ure 16 presents the crude to chemicals con-
tation fuels demand followed by the growth of cept developed by UOP Company.
petrochemicals market makes the synergy be-
tween hydrocracking and steam cracking units Again, it’s possible to see in Figure 16 the rel-
an attractive way to maximize the petrochemi- evance of hydrocracking and steam cracking
cals production in the refining hardware. units to maximize the yield of petrochemicals.

Crude Oil to Chemicals Strategy – The Rel- Closing the Sustainability Cycle – Plastics
evance of Hydrocracking and Steam Crack- Recycling Technologies
ing Units
As described above, we are facing a continu-
Due to the increasing market and higher add- ous growing of petrochemicals demand and a
ed value as well as the trend of reduction in great part of these crude oil derivatives have
transportation fuels demand, some refiners been applied to produce common use plas-
and technology developers have dedicated tics. Despite the higher added value and sig-
their efforts to develop crude to chemicals re- nificant economic advantages in comparison
fining assets. with transportation fuels, the main side effect
of the growth of plastics consumption is the
The combination of hydrocracking and steam growth of plastic waste.
cracking technologies is fundamental to the
crude to chemicals refineries once allows a Despite the efforts related to the mechanic
deep conversion of bottom barrel streams into recycling of plastics, the increasing volumes
high added value petrochemicals, Figure 15 of plastics waste demand most effective recy-
presents an example of a crude to chemicals cling routes to ensure the sustainability of the
refinery based on the synergy between hy- petrochemical industry through the regenera-
drocracking and steam cracking units, in this tion of the raw material, in this sense, some
technology developers have been dedicated
 22

investments and efforts to develop competitive in this case the chemical principle involves
and efficient chemical recycling technologies of the cracking of carbon-carbon bonds of the
plastics. polymer under high hydrogen pressure
which lead to the production of stable low
One of the most applied technologies for plas- boiling point hydrocarbons. The hydrocrack-
tics recycling is catalytic pyrolysis where the ing route present some advantages in com-
long chain polymeric is converted into smaller parison with thermal or catalytic pyrolysis,
hydrocarbon molecules which can be fed to once the number of aromatics or unsaturated
steam cracking units to reach a real circular molecules is lower than the achieved in the
petrochemical industry. Another route is the pyrolysis processes, leading to a most stable
thermal pyrolysis of plastics, is this case, it’s feedstock to steam cracking or another
possible to quote the Rewind Mix technology downstream processes as well as is more
developed by Axens Company. selective, producing gasoline range hydro-
carbons which can be easily applied in the
Another promising chemical recycling route for
highly integrated refining hardware.
plastics in the hydrocracking of plastics waste,
 23

The chemical recycling of plastics is a great References

opportunity to technology developers and sci-
entists, especially related to the development of Advances in Catalysis for Plastic Conversion
effective catalysts to promote depolymerization to Hydrocarbons – The Catalyst Group
reactions which can ensure the recovery of high (TCGR), 2021.
added value molecules like BTX. More than
CHANG, R.J. – Crude Oil to Chemicals –
that, the chemical recycling of plastics is an ur-
Industry Developments and Strategic Impli-
gent necessity to close the sustainability cycle
cations – Presented at Global Refining &
of an essential industry to our society.
Petrochemicals Congress (Houston, USA),
Conclusion 2018.

The scenario faced by the players of the down- CLARK, I. Maximizing Naphtha through the
stream industry requires even more competitive UOP Unicracking Process, UOP Compa-
capacity to ensure higher value addition to the ny, 2019.
processed crude oils, mainly considering the
FRECON, J.; LE BARS, D.; RAULT, J. –
current trend of reduction in transportation fuels
Flexible Upgrading of Heavy Feedstocks.
demand followed by the growing market of pet-
PTQ Magazine, 2019.
rochemicals that requires a higher conversion
capacity in the refining hardware aiming to en- GARY, J. H.; HANDWERK, G. E. Petroleum
sure higher yields of added value derivatives. In Refining – Technology and Economics. 4th
this scenario, high integrated refining configura- ed. Marcel Dekker., 2001.
tions based on residue upgrading and flexible
refining technologies can be economically at- GELDER, A.; BAILEY, G. The Future of Pet-
tractive, despite the high capital investment and rochemicals: A Tale of Two Transitions,
the hydrocracking unit can improve the offer of Wood Mackenzie, 2020.MUKHERJEE, U.;
high quality naphtha to steam cracking units, GILLIS, D. – Advances in Residue Hy-
allowing higher yields of light olefins in the refin- drocracking. PTQ Magazine, 2018.
ing hardware and closer integration with petro-
chemical assets, which is a relevant competi- MULDOON, B.S. – Profit Pivot Points in a
tive advantage in the current and short term Crude to Chemicals Integrated Complex –
scenario of the downstream industry. Presented at Ethylene Middle East Technol-
ogy Conference, 2019.
Despite the advantages, it’s important to con-
sider that integrated processes lead to a higher Refinery-Petrochemical Integration
operational complexity, however, given current (Downstream SME Knowledge Share).
and middle term scenarios to refining industry, Wood Mackenzie Presentation, 2019.
a better integration between refining and petro-
ROBINSON, P.R.; HSU, C.S. Handbook of
chemical processes is fundamental to the eco-
Petroleum Technology. 1st ed. Springer,
nomic sustainability of the downstream indus-
2017.
try.
VU, T.; RITCHIE, J. Naphtha Complex Opti-
In the digital transformation environment, the
mization for Petrochemical Production, UOP
companies need to find new ways to ensure
Company, 2019.
added value to the customers and creative
ways to destroy his current businesses through ZHU, F.; HOEHN, R.; THAKKAR, V.; YUH,
the discovering of new markets. To the down- E. Hydroprocessing for Clean Energy – De-
stream industry, the closer integration between sign, Operation, and Optimization. 1st ed.
refining and petrochemical assets ensures both Wiley Press, 2017.
goals with higher revenues and lower operating
costs to refiners as well as the high added val-
ue to the processed crude oils while offers low-
er environmental footprint and needed materi-
als to the society. The combination of adequate
bottom barrel conversion capacity and the max-
imization of petrochemicals in the refining hard-
ware can offer a highlighted competitive posi-
tioning in the current and future scenarios of the
downstream industry helping the players to
build an antifragile profile in a highly competi-
tive market.
 24

Author

Dr. Marcio Wagner da Silva is Process Engi-

neering Manager at a crude oil refinery based
in São José dos Campos, Brazil. Bachelor’s in
chemical engineering from University of Marin-
ga (UEM), Brazil and PhD. in Chemical Engi-
neering from University of Campinas
(UNICAMP), Brazil. Has extensive experience
in research, design and construction to oil and
gas industry including developing and coordi-
nating projects to operational improvements
and debottlenecking to bottom barrel units,
moreover Dr. Marcio Wagner have MBA in Pro-
ject Management from Federal University of Rio
de Janeiro (UFRJ), in Digital Transformation at
PUC/RS, and is certified in Business from
Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV).
 25

Relief Valve Sizing for Pump Discharge

Jayanthi Vijay Sarathy

Oversizing relief valves is not uncommon. In

the case of pumping systems which is derated,
relief valves are installed on the pump dis-
charge. These are sized based on the maxi-
mum shut-off head developed by the pump
and if higher than the design pressure of the
piping and equipment.
During the design phase, the pump vendor
curves would not be available. Therefore, a
common practice is to choose a shut-off head
between 15% to 25% more from the rated
point and the relief valve [RV] is sized for the Therefore, estimating the maximum dis-
normal capacity of the pump. But sizing based charge pressure of the pump,
on a shut-off margin can cause the RV and the
associated piping to be oversized and lead to
higher procurement costs.
However, when the pump performance curves
are available from the vendor, it can so hap-
pen that the shut-off head margin would be
lower than the assumed shut-off head. Say a
value of 25% is chosen during design phase, Considering the case of blocked outlet, the
but the pump vendor curves can indicate lower RV can be sized based on API 520/521 and
at around 15% to 20%. Instead with pump ven- the RV designation chosen from API 526 as,
dor curves, a lower head and lower flow rate at
which the RV discharges can help reduce the
RV size, which can help reduce costs and
avoid any valve chattering.
Where,
Case Study
To explain with a case study, a suction vessel
operates at a design pressure of 19.6 bara.
The liquid outlet is connected to a pump and
its associated piping at 150 class rating of 19.6
bara design pressure at 380C. A relief valve is
installed on the pump discharge with a set
pressure of 19.6 bara.
In the design stage where pump curves are
not available, a shut-off margin of 25% is as-
sumed to size the relief valve. The pump oper-
ates at a rated flow of 31 m3/h at a maximum
suction flange pressure of 14 bara. The re-
quired differential head is 52.5 m. The fluid is
water operating at a density of 1,000 kg/m3.
The back pressure acting on the RV discharge
 26

Substituting the values with the requisite unit From API 526, the selected standard orifice
conversions, where 10% accumulation is add- size is ‘F’ with an effective discharge area of
ed to 19.6 bara, i.e., 2045 kPag, 0.307 in2.
Comparing both results, it is seen that when
the pump shut-off head margin is lower, the
size of the relief valve also decreases.
Therefore, once the pump curves are availa-
From API 526, the selected standard orifice ble from the vendor, it is important to revisit
size is ‘G’ with an effective discharge area of the RV sizes and see, if they can be made
0.503 in2. smaller along with the associated piping siz-
es. This also adds to costs savings & avoids
RV Sizing based on Pump Curves mechanical damage due to valve chattering.
When the pump performance curves are avail- References
able from the vendor as shown below, the RV
size can be re-estimated. “Sizing Selection and Installation of Pressure
Relieving Devices in Refineries”, API Recom-
mended Practice 520, 7th Edition, January
2000, Part -1
“Pressure Relieving and Depressuring Sys-
tems”, API Standard 521, 6th Edition, Jan
2014
“Control Valve Handbook”, Fisher’s Hand-
book, 5th Edition
Author

The shut-off head margin [Ps] is estimated as, Vijay Sarathy holds a Master’s Degree in
Chemical Engineering from Birla Institute of
Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, India
and is a Chartered Engineer from the Institu-
tion of Chemical Engineers, UK. His expertise
Taking RV accumulation of 10%, the relieving over 10 years of professional experience co-
pressure of the RV [Pr] becomes, vers Front End Engineering, Process Dynam-
ic Simulation and Subsea/Onshore pipeline
flow assurance in the Oil and Gas industry.
Vijay has worked as an Upstream Process
The corrected differential head becomes,
Engineer with major conglomerates of Gen-
eral Electric, ENI Saipem and Shell.

From the pump curves shown, the correspond-

ing flow rate for a differential head of 57.1 m is
20.7 m3/h.
Performing a RV sizing for the blocked outlet
case with the new RV set pressure of 19.6 ba-
ra and a flow rate of 20.7 m3/h for 1 barg back
pressure, the RV size becomes,
27
 28

Different Aspects of Industrial Project

(Process Plant)
Mansoor Mohseni

Introduction different technical and commercial depart-

ments while coordinated by different special-
Design & Construction of a new process plant ist persons in different positions/categories or
(including Chemical, Oil & Gas, and Petro- responsibilities. Of course, handling such
chemical Plants) are some of daily growing complex projects to succeed to the best re-
industrial or engineering projects from begin- sults need set of powerful skilled manage-
ning of 20th century. During the time, manag- ments to care for the inputs and conditions (of
ing such industrial projects are completed for their scopes of work and supply), and coordi-
doing more and more complexity and bigger nating all items to reach the best outputs /
production size further to better performance targets which are in their responsibilities.
quality and optimum execution time projects. However, coordination between all manage-
Industrial or engineering projects include huge ments to have the same approach and totally
activities and required documentation in jobs. follow their responsibilities in the right time,
 29

needs much more competency for top man- bright area (project success) are the skills of
agements of project. They shall be familiar top managements of the industrial project. On
with different aspects of industrial projects and the contrary, weak management or wrong
coordinate different teams to consider all re- actions of project teams or insufficient sup-
quired/ relevant aspects in their port may produce dark area (project failure).
Top management shall try to get all aspects of “Considering that we have different light
the project and combine them partially or total- sources with different colors and intensities
ly for reaching the best targets. In fact, we can which have rays on one complex surface, so
imagine each industrial project as an area it combines or reflects such lights, and we are
which is highlighted by different light source of the controller/actuator to set different availa-
aspects and the final project target /output is ble parameters or variables to control the
the combination of total reflection of consid- path and intensities of reflection rays. If we
ered aspects as shown in Figure-1. Industrial can suitably set the mentioned parameters
projects may have so many light sources of and modify the (complex) surface of reflector,
aspects and each of them may have big or then we may reach the concentrated return
small weight of effects on project output. light with good, focused brightness, and as
Please notice that each aspect category may we hop (get away) from optimum set-points
have different weight effect by different action we will have more divergence and so less
parameters (as example in Figure-1 the radia- brightness (or other than requested color). In
tion angle, color and intensity of light sources fact, the project aspects are the source lights,
are 3 different parameters of each aspect the reflectors are the project (company) struc-
which control the weight effect in total reflec- tures/ conditions/ procedural systems/ com-
tion further to right combination surfaces). Ar- munications (and so on) further to effects of
ranging the light sources of aspects with suita- external forces, and finally the controllers/
ble weights and combining and controlling the actuators are the management (team) with
right reflection of such rays to produce more their levers. In real project situation, If
 30

management (team) consider the enough 6. Planning: Such aspect (items) refers to
manpower with suitable (minimum) skills and project progress planning success and
experience for vigilance on the mentioned as- making right job orders at right times.
pects in each phase/ action, and provide the 7. Lifetime: Such aspects (items) refer to
suitable environment for combining the actions stability project goals and conditions
(in company) by their levers so that the best which shall be considered on project life-
and right actions could be done by maximum time.
efficiencies and at right times, then we may 8. Flexibility: Such aspect (items) refers to
reach to the optimum results. The manage- considering suitable facilities to enable
ment levers may include planning, monitoring, project owner or user for having different
push, expedite, arrange, (provide) training, options of productions and selection
punishment, encouragement, strengthening, chances.
supporting, … which can be used to reach the 9. Construction: Such aspect (items) refers
best combination of activities and other factors to considering those items which shall be
to get the success of project goals. Of course, studied or provided for construction phase
the art of using management skills on right of project.
time/ situation and the number of actions fur- 10. Modularity: Such aspect (items) refers to
ther to understanding the weight effect of each considering complex projects definition
aspect (on project progress and success) may and implementation by different modules
be considered as actuator actions for right to make better identifications on scopes
weight combinations.” (See Figure-2) and better defining relevant functions and
responsibilities. Furthermore, using modu-
Summary of Different Shown Aspects larity approach helps project manage-
Follow to mentioned introduction, we can re- ments to reach quicker and more efficient
view the summary of such aspects now. to project goals. Such an approach will
have positive effects on all other aspects
1. Safety / Risk: It is evident that first and es- too.
sential aspect of all industrial projects is 11. References: Such aspect (items) refer to
Safety / Risk items which shall be strictly consider and care for all required stand-
considered in all designs and activities. For ards, codes, rules, certificates, approved
process plants there are some require- references and so on.
ments, specifications and standards availa- 12. Others/ Specific: Here we mention such
ble which shall be considered and followed aspect (items) to be considered or cared
by the project responsible. As mentioned, for those special items which are related
the weight of this aspect is highest, and the to dedicate ones on subject project. On
right consideration of this aspect (items) the other hand, each viewer or provider of
may lead to the project successes or even the Aspect Model can add his/her focused
failures. concerns here.

2. Performance: Such aspect (items) refers to By reviewing the Figure-1 you can find some
final functional output requirements or de- proposed detail items of each mentioned as-
sirables and right considerations of such pect, but such items are mentioned just as
aspect (items) may increase quality, user examples while model users may define more
friendly functions, more efficiency, etc. or and more items for their concerns (although
may have contrary effects by wrong or the mentioned items may be repeated or con-
weak considerations. sidered as base of model provider). In fact,
for using such model, we shall study the dif-
3. Maintenance: Such aspect (items) refers to ferent main goals of project and accordingly
conditions and situations for saving the define the main aspects to be considered as
project equipment and hardware or opti- light sources and then mention the detail of
mizing their conditions for best availability each aspect accordingly. Then at the final
and performances. project execution we may find positive and
negative results of the project and highlight
4. System Engineering: Such aspect (items)
them with bright and dark stars. So, by such
refers to considering of systematic ap-
model we may quickly find the project as-
proaches on all functions, actions, and pro-
pects and check the results of project accord-
cedures to guarantee the stable and con-
ingly.
tinuous executions of project goals.
5. Commercial: Such aspect (items) refers to
economic points and limitations of project
and has big weight effects on succeeding
the project goals or vice versa.
 31

References Author
This article provided by writer experiences in
detail engineering company during execution
of many projects with some extraction results
from below articles published by Instrumenta-
tiontools.com:
I&C Engineer Roles & Responsibilities – In-
strumentation Design (https://
instrumentationtools.com/ic-engineer-roles- Mansoor Mohseni now is working in PIDEC
responsibilities-instrumentation-design/) (Petrochemical Industries Design & Engineer-
ing Company) as I&C Lead Engineer for
Instrumentation Engineer Activities & Docu- about 23 years. Before PIDEC, he was work-
ments – Detail Design Phase (https:// ing in INSIG (Iran National Steel Industrial
instrumentationtools.com/instrumentation- Group) as head of Control & Automation
engineer-activities-documents-detail-design- Dept. of wire rode mill for about 10 years.
phase/)
Instrumentation and Control Project Packages
– Detail Engineering (https://
instrumentationtools.com/instrumentation-and-
control-project-packages/ )
Keywords
Industrial Project, Process Plant, Project De-
sign / Engineering, Project Aspects, Project
Model Definition
32
 33

Guidelines for Reducing Corrosion Under

Insulation and Its Safety Consequences
Karl Kolmetz , Muhammad Salem Abdul Ajes ST., Reni Mutiara Sari ST.

Introduction The phenomenon of CUI can reduced and

controlled. This paper will review the
Like other natural events, earthquakes or bad guidelines for reducing corrosion under
weather, corrosion is a natural event that re- insulation and its safety consequences. The
sults in expensive damage that effects almost main goal in this paper is review the
every industrial sector; Infrastructure, Utilities, technical root causes of CUI, review best
Transportation, Production and Manufacturing, prevention practices, best inspection
and Governmental Functions. Corrosion Under practices and a review historical safety
Insulation (CUI) is a problem in the industrial incidents.
sector, including refining, petrochemical, pow-
er, industrial, onshore and offshore industries Definition of Corrosion :
and it is a real threat to the on stream reliability Corrosion or sometime called rust comes
of many of today’s plants. Because the corro- from "corrous" which means eating away.
sion is hidden under the insulation, CUI tends Corrosion can be defined as the destructive
to remain undetected until the insulation is re- attack of a metal by chemical or electro-
moved for inspection or whenever loss of con- chemical reaction with its environment. De-
tainment leaks occur. terioration by physical causes is not called
Petrochemical industry and other industries corrosion, but is described as erosion, gall-
have many thousands of meters of pipe that ing, or wear. Based on the reaction medium,
are insulated to prevent heat loss or heat corrosion can be devided into two types,
absorption. Corrosion of steel under insulation namely wet corrosion and dry corrosion.
is considered to be one of the major problems Wet corrosion occurs if transfor ions from the
which has caused damage to the cathode to the anode using a liquid. Dry cor-
petrochemical industry, especially to the rosion do not use the ions such as iron metal
insulated equipment and piping systems re- attack by oxygen or by sulfur dioxide gas typ-
sulting in failures and accidents. ically occurs at high temperatures.

CUI is occuring in the petrochemical industry Forms of wet corrosion can occur evenly or
and should be a special concern, because this locally. Corrosion is prevalent in the immer-
type of corrosion can cause failures in areas sion of ferrous metals in fluids. Forms of lo-
that are not normally of a primary concern to cal corrosion can occur macroscopically and
an inspection program. The failures are often microscopically. The local corrosion that are
the result of localized corrosion and not macroscopically example include; corrosion
general wasting over a large area. These of galvanized iron system events – zinc, cor-
failures can be catastrophic in nature or at rosion – erosion, corrosion cracking, corro-
least have an adverse economic effect in sion hole, exfoliation corrosion and corrosion
terms of downtime and repairs. melting. Examples of corrosion which are
microscopic include; stress corrosion, corro-
Implementation of safety procedures is a good sion fracture and corrosion between the
tool in reducing incidents in the petrochemical grains.
industry. Over the past 5 years there have
been many recorded CUI cases in the Any corrosion process depends into two fac-
petrochemical industry. One of the safety inci- tors: temperature and oxygen in addition to
dents was in an Olefions Plant, on 13 June the concentration of dissolved species. Cor-
2013 in Geismar, an unincorporated and rosion is increased by increasing both fac-
largely industrial area 20 miles (32 km) tors, if the oxygen is not available then corro-
southeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana[1]. sion may not occur. This means that if we
 34

keep the environment beneath the insulation

dry all the time, then no corrosion will occur.
When precipitation becomes trapped on the
metal surface by insulation, corrosive atmos-
pheric constituents such as chloride and sulfu-
ric acid gasses can concentrate to accelerate
corrosion.

History of Safety Incidents[2] :

The aging infrastructure is one of the most
serious problems faced by society today. In
past decades, corrosion professionals fo-
cused primarily on new construction specify-
ing materials and designing corrosion preven-
tion and control systems for buildings, bridg-
es, roads, plants, pipelines, tanks, and other
key elements of the infrastructure. Today, as
much of the aging infrastructure reaches the
end of its designed lifetime, the emphasis is Figure 2 : Annual Cost of Corrosion in The
on maintaining and extending the life of these Utilities Category.
valuable assets.

Figure 3 : Annual Cost of Corrosion in The

Production and Manufacturing Category.

Figure 1 : Cost of Corrosion in Industry Cate- The transportation category includes vehi-
gories. cles and equipment, such as motor vehicles,
aircraft, rail cars, and HAZMAT transport.
Utilities, which supply gas, water, electricity, The annual corrosion cost in this category is
and telecommunications services, account for $29.7 billion.
the largest portion of annual industrial corro-
sion costs. Direct corrosion costs total $47.9 Figure 4 : Annual Cost of Corrosion in The
billion. These costs are broken down into the Transportation Category.
sectors of gas distribution, drinking water and
sewer systems, electrical utilities, and tele-
communication.

These categories include industries that pro-

duce and manufacture products of crucial im-
portance to the economy and its residents’
standard of living. These include oil produc-
tion, mining, petroleum refining, chemical and
pharmaceutical production, and agricultural
and food production. The total annual direct
cost of corrosion for production and manufac-
turing is estimated to be $17.6 billion.
 35

Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) Intruding water is the key problem in CUI.
Insulation is used to minimize heat loss, re- Special care must be taken during design not
duce costs and improve efficiency in vessels to promote corrosion by permitting water to
and piping systems. It may also be employed enter a system either directly or indirectly by
to minimize heat gain or to protect personnel capillary action. Moisture may be external or
from the risk of injury from hot or cold surfac- may be present in the insulation material it-
es. Traditional insulation systems typically self. Corrosion may attack the jacketing, the
consist of an insulating material such as min- insulation hardware, or the underlying equip-
eral wool or calcium silicate, which is then ment.
protected by an outer layer of cladding. Thin
metal sheet or composite wraps are the most For high temperature equipment, water en-
common cladding materials. tering an insulation material and diffusing
inward will eventually reach a region of
dryout at the hot pipe or equipment wall.
Next to this dryout region is a zone in which
the pores of the insulation are filled with a
saturated salt solution. When a shutdown or
process change occurs and the metal wall
temperature falls, the zone of saturated salt
solution moves into the metal wall.

Upon reheating, the wall will temporarily be

in contact with the saturated solution, and
stress-corrosion cracking may begin. The
drying/wetting cycles in CUI associated prob-
lems are a strong accelerator of corrosion
damage since they provoke the formation of
an increasingly aggressive chemistry that
Figure 5 : Insulation[3]. can lead to the worst corrosion problems
possible, example stress corrosion cracking,
Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) is one of the and premature equipment failures.
largest maintenance problems facing the pet-
rochemical industry today. According to one Types of Corrosion Under Insulation4] :
specifier from a global oil company, problems When using insulation, the corrosion re-
such as major equipment outages and unex- sistance of the metal surface to be insulated
pected maintenance costs stemming from CUI is and important factor. The most frequently
account for more unplanned downtime than all occurring types of CUI are :
other causes.
General and fitting corrosion of carbon steel,
CUI is corrosion that occurs under insulated which may occur if wet insulation comes into
equipment. CUI is any type of corrosion that contact with carbon steel, particularly if acidic
occurs due to moisture buildup on the external which can leach from the insulation material
surface of insulated equipment. Any type of itself.
corrosion can occur under insulation the most
common types of CUI are galvanic, chloride, External Stress Corrosion Cracking (ESCC)
acidic, or alkaline corrosion. of austenitic stainless steel, which is a spe-
cific type of corrosion mainly caused by the
action of water-soluble chlorides from rain-
water or insulation that does not meet mate-
rial standards. Austenitic stainless steel is
generally susceptible to this type of attack in
the temperature range of 13 °C to 202 °C

The Technical Root Causes of C U I :

Causes of CUI are similar in most ways to
other types of corrosion, with the largest dif-
ference being the environment. Steel cor-
rodes when it is in contact with water and
Figure 6 : Fenomenon of CUI. has a free supply of oxygen. When plant and
pipework are insulated there is usually a
 36

space in which water can collect on the metal Compared to conventional moisture density
surface with access to air. The ingress of wa- gauges, IR thermography is more sensitive
ter into the insulation is often caused by one and faster. In addition, pipelines can be
or more of the following : scanned from a distance, which avoids time-
consuming construction of scaffolding works.
*Poorly designed and/or installed protective
finish or cladding.
*Cladding joint sealant breakdown.
*Mechanical damage to the protective finish.
*Caldding removed and not properly replaced
(common around valve boxes).

Moisture combined with oxygen is the largest

contributing factor to corrosion. The closed
environment of the insulation material over the
pipe, tank or equipment creates conditions
that encourage build up of moisture and re-
sulting corrosion. The corrosion is often times
more severe due to the insulation not allowing Figure 7 : Wet Insulation Identified By Infra-
evaporation and the insulation acting as a car- red (IR) Thermography.
rier whereas moisture occurring in one area
moves through the insulation to another area IR surveys are typically conducted for non-
causing the corrosion to spread more rapidly. traced insulated pipelines, but they are also
Warm temperatures normally result in more effective for heat-traced lines as well. Any
rapid evaporation of moisture and reduced wet insulation will retain heat longer than dry
corrosion rates, however a surface covered insulation. So two to three hours after sun-
with insulation creates an environment that set, locations where insulation is wet will be
holds in the moisture instead of allowing evap- hotter than locations with dry insulation. This
oration. Traditional thermal insulation materi- is the basic theory behind the technique.
als contain chlorides. If they are exposed to There are a few considerations when con-
moisture, chlorides may be released into a ducting IR surveys to detect wet insulation:
moisture layer on the pipeline surface and pit-
ting/stress corrosion cracking may result. Ac- *The best time to conduct IR surveys to iden-
ids, acid gases and strong bases like caustics tify wet insulation is two hours after sunset.
and salts are aggressive corrosive agents and The evenings of sunny days are considered
will not only cause but also accelerate existing to be the most preferable time.
CUI.
*The temperature difference between wet
The Best of Inspection Practices : and dry insulation is not very large, so it is
Current advancements in the corrosion field best to use a small temperature span to in-
allow us to detect and control damage mecha- crease sensitivity.
nisms such as CUI in pipeline systems
through proper material section, and by ad- 2.Long Range Ultrasonic Testing (LRUT)
justing operating parameters, controlling cor- Guided waves are used in Long Range Ultra-
rosion environments, developing systematic sonic Testing (LRUT) to scan pipelines which
procedures, and proper nondestructive evalu- are otherwise inaccessible for inspection.
ation methods. Guided waves are propagated in a pipe wall
from a ring of equally spaced ultrasound
Advancements in Non-Destructive Test (NDT) probes supported by a collar wrapped
methods have enabled the process industry to around the pipe. The ultrasonic waves are
carry out corrosion under insulation (CUI) in- reflected by discontinuities such as girth
spection without removing insulation. These welds, branches in pipeline circuit, and re-
techniques can be used along with conven- ductions in wall thickness (an indication of
tional techniques to provide cost-effective, corrosion). These reflected waves are de-
comprehensive CUI inspection of piping net- tected and then analyzed with the help of
works. Some of the proven NDT methode are: computers.

1.Infrared (IR) Thermography LRUT can typically scan a length of 60 m to

Infrared (IR) thermography can be effectively 120 m if the line is straight. If the line is insu-
used to identify wet insulation in pipelines. lated, the length will be reduced, since
 37

absorption is greater with some kinds of insu-

lation. Support locations, connections, and
bends in pipelines further reduce the span of
inspection. Even so, LRUT is considered one
of the most effective tools in identifying CUI in
pipelines where removal of insulation is diffi-
cult.

Figure 9 : Schematic of Profile Radiography

Setup.

pipelines, thus making the process more

time consuming.

4. Computed Radiography
Computed Radiography (CR) uses similar
equipment to conventional radiography ex-
Figure 8 : LRUT Setup is Used for Both Bur- cept that in place of a film to create the im-
ied Coated Pipelines and Insulated Pipelines. age, an imaging plate (IP) is used. CR has
the same inherent safety issues as conven-
The velocity of the guided wave is a function tional profile radiography.
of the thickness of the medium and frequency
(mode) of wave. CUI will lead to changes in The computerized images produced by CR
thickness in the medium (pipe wall) locally. In allow easy data sharing and result in signifi-
addition to scatter and reflection, this will lead cant improvements in radiographic inspec-
to mode conversion of the incident waves. tion productivity as well as faster identifica-
Therefore, reflected waves will contain both tion of defects.
incident wave mode, plus mode-converted
waves. Detection of these mode-converted The image in Figure 10 was taken by com-
waves in a reflected signal is a strong indica- puted radiography technique, showing corro-
tor of discontinuities such as CUI in an insulat- sion deposits at the elbow of an insulated
ed pipeline. pipe. Wall thickness reduction is calculated
using software. Before measurement, the
The interpretation of LRUT is difficult com- software needs to be calibrated on reference
pared to tools such as IR survey and will often wedges, such as a known-size steel ball or
require a specialist. But it is the most reliable an identical pipe piece.
tool to inspect insulated pipelines at non-
accessible locations, such as portions of pipe- If effective cordoning is possible, computed
lines passing under non-accessible culverts, RT is an effective tool to detect CUI without
buried piping and at road crossings, etc. removing insulation. Another advantage of
this method is data can be easily stored for
3.Profile Radiography future comparison or audit.
Profile Radiography is a proven technique to
detect the internal wall thickness and reduc-
tion of small bore piping. The technology can
also be applied to find CUI, provided that
Source to Film Distance (SFD) is sufficient to
cover the entire pipe diameter in one shot.
This may become difficult when pipeline diam-
eter is more than eight inches and there is in-
sufficient clearance between pipelines running
in a pipe rack.

It is possible to scan pipelines of wider diame-

ters by taking only a section of the pipeline in
one shot. Consequently, multiple shots will be Figure 10 : CR Radiograph Showing Corro-
required to cover the full diameter of some sion Deposits.
 38

The sensitivity of PEC is low compared to ra- 2. Design and planning of the insulation work
diographic methods because this method inte- The requirement of the planned insulation
grates over a large footprint. As a result, the work must be factored in during the industrial
smallest defect that can be detected has a plant design and construction phase. It is
diameter of about 50 percent of the insulation therefore advisable to involve all project
thickness (between 30mm and 120mm). PEC managers at an early stage to preclude un-
testing is therefore suitable for general wall necessary and unanticipated problems dur-
loss, but isolated pitting defects cannot be de- ing insulation work.
tected. Therefore, PEC is ideal for scanning
insulated carbon steel pipelines where corro- All preparatory work must be completed in
sion is expected over a larger area. accordance with the relevant insulation
standard and if necessary, apply corrosion
With using preventive strategies in nontech- protection. Insulation material should be
nical and technical areas as follows[2] : stored and installed in dry conditions. Vari-
· Increase awareness of significant corro- ous conditions must be fulfilled to ensure the
sion costs and potential cost savings. insulation does not contribute to the corro-
· Change the misconception that nothing sion of the steelwork later on.
can be done about corrosion.
· Change policies, regulations, standards,
and management practices to increase
corrosion cost savings through sound cor-
rosion management.
· Improve education and training of staff in
the recognition of corrosion control.
· Implement advanced design practices for
better corrosion management.
· Develop advanced life-prediction and per-
formance-assessment methods.
· Improve corrosion technology through re-
search, development, and implementation.

Other factors can be controlled effectively and

three issues should be addressed as follows
[4]:
Figure 11 : Pipe Insulation
1. Protecting steelwork
The necessity of protection against corrosion When making a considered insulation selec-
must be determined for each individual plant tion, it is important to think about not only
and the appropriate measures have to be obvious properties, such as the thermal con-
identified. Generally, the design of the insula- ductivity or maximum service temperature of
tion system and corrosion protection depends a product. To minimize risk of CUI, it is also
on the following parameters : important that the insulation does not affect
· Operation of the plant (continuous or inter- the steelwork, does not absorb any water
rupted/intermittent), and is open to vapor, so that moisture can
· Operation temperatures, easily egress the insulation.
· Metals used (non-alloy, low alloy steel,
austenitic stainless steel or copper), 3. Maintenance and Inspection
· External factors. To avoid unnecessarily complicating routine
maintenance and inspection work, high
Before applying the corrosion protection coat- maintenance areas must be taken into ac-
ing, the surface must be free from grease, count, especially in the design phase. Re-
dust and acid plus the priming coat should be movable insulation, such as coverings and
roughened for better adhesion. Blasting is the hoods, could be fitted in such areas. Easy to
recommended surface preparation method remove coverings are recommended to allow
(for austenitic stainless steel, use a ferrite free rapid disassembly. Bolt are generally fas-
blasting abrasive). Follow the coating manu- tened with quick release clamps, which can
facturer’s processing guidelines. be opened without special tools.
 39

Removable covering or hoods are usually in- Safety Consequences[6] :

sulated from the inside. The coverings are A case of CUI in the petrochemical industry
fastened to the object with lever fastenings, is the explosion in an Olefins Plant where
which are fixed directly on to the covering or two workers were killed and 114 injured. The
on to straps. Take the following suggested explosion was triggered by the failure of a
conditions into account when designing insu- heat exchanger caused by piping corrosion
lated coverings for fitting and flanges: under insulation. This was a small isolated
corrosion location that had not been previ-
· The overlap distance of the insulated cov- ously found.
ering over the insulated pipe should be at
2”.
· The pipe insulation should end at the
flanges, leaving a gap equal to the bolt
length plus 1.2” and should be closed off
with a lock washer so the flange can be
loosened without damaging the insulation.
· With valve, an extended spindle should
preferably be fitted horizontally or below
the pipe to prevent leakage along the spin-
dle shaft.
· The cladding must be fitted to prevent the
ingress of moisture in the insulation. On
inclined or vertical piping, for example,
mount rain deflectors above the remova-
ble coverings. If the ingress of moisture
Figure 14 : Incident in Olefins Plant[1].
into the insulation is unavoidable, make
0.4” diameter drain holes in the removable
A high commitment from management for
covering.
Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) is
required. Discipline that focuses on preven-
tion of physical situations with the potential
for human injury, damage to property or to
the environment through the release of
chemical energy in the form of fire, explo-
sion, toxicity or corrosively.

Management direction to achieve the vision

of the Process Safety Management (PSM)
required some of the following:

· Establish formal organization to drive and

Figure 12 : Minimum Distance Within Range monitor process with divisional owner-
of Pipe Flanges. Figure 13: Insulation of Valve ship.
Should Be Designed with Removable Cover- · Develop prescriptive "how to" PSM pro-
ing or Hoods. cedures.
· Appoint qualified person to fill key pro-
cess safety roles.
· Plan and execute rigorous implementa-
tion of PSM requirement develop and
provide standardized PSM tools and so-
lutions globally.
· Establish PSM key performance indica-
tors to monitor PSM performance.
· Establish a PSM corporate score card to
drive accountability.
· Verify compliance by conducting global
PSM focused audits.
· Governance process to sustain the PSM
improvement process corporately.
 40

Figure 16: Risk Based Inspection[9].

Figure 15 : Establishment of Formal Organiza- failure. Design reviews, manufacturing quali-

tion. ty assurance, operating training, and sys-
tems analyses are examples of such
The three sequence of PSM procedures are measures. In-service inspection is a back-
as follows: stop to prevent failure when a root cause has
led to deterioration from the design intent or
1. The first: Appointment of Qualified Per- the as manufactured condition.
sons, Process Hazard Analysis (PHA),
PHA Revalidation, EHS Critically Assess- The process of risk based inspection should
ment, Risk Management Procedure and form part of an integrated strategy for man-
Matrix, Target Assessment Methodology, aging the integrity of the systems and equip-
Facility Siting, Management of Action. ment of the installation as a whole. Its aim is
2. The second: Operating Procedures, De- to focus management action on prioritizing
sign Verification, Pressure Relief System resources to manage the risk from critical
Design, Organization Change Manage- items of equipment. Risk based inspection is
ment, Management of Change, Mechani- a logical and structured process of planning
cal Integrity, Pre-Start-Up Safety Review, and evaluation.
Process Safety Information.
3. The third: Process Fire Safety Manage- Inspection is also a priority for equipment
ment, Area Classification and Manage- where the fabrication, inspection or operating
ment, Design & Maintenance of Plant history is unknown, where there is inade-
Trips (SILs), Alarm Management, Incident quate maintenance, or where there is lack of
Investigation, Process Safety Variance the materials data required for assessing fit-
Procedure, Control System Security. ness for service. Risk based inspection in-
volves the planning of an inspection on the
The process of correct implementation of the basis of the information obtained from a risk
PSM procedure can be raise the overall ex- analysis of the equipment. The purpose of
pectations and performance in process safety the risk analysis is to identify the potential
at each site, consistently communicate the degradation mechanisms and threats to the
content of each of the process safety proce- integrity of the equipment and to assess the
dures and expectations, and can to identify consequences and risks of failure.
gaps in the facility's practices and develop
gap closure plans. First, the requirements for plant integrity
management by RBI are established within
1.Risk Based Inspection (RBI) the context of existing regulations, inspection
Risk Based Inspection (RBI) is a risk assess- codes and practices. Reviews the regula-
ment and management process that is fo- tions, guidance and practices relating to risk
cused on loss of containment of pressurized assessments and RBI. Identify the systems,
equipment in processing facilities, due to ma- the system boundaries and the equipment
terial deterioration. These risks are managed within them requiring integrity management.
primarily through equipment inspection. Drivers, criteria and limitations for a risk
based approach to inspection planning must
An integrated integrity management strategy be ascertained as RBI may not always be
will contain measures that address and miti- possible or appropriate.
gate the possibility of the root causes of
 41

Assessment of the examination results and

fitness-for-service are essential parts of the
RBI process. For equipment where fitness-
for-service cannot be assured, repairs, modi-
fication or changes to operating conditions
may be recommended.

2. Mechanical Integrity Program

Mechanical Integrity is the process of ensur-
ing equipment is in satisfactory condition to
safely and reliably perform its intended pur-
pose. Mechanical Integrity programs have
been an essential element of process Pro-
gram Safety Management in the chemical
and petroleum industries for decades. Alt-
hough maintenance is a major part of a Me-
chanical Integrity program; Mechanical Integ-
rity is not just maintenance. Mechanical In-
tegrity covers the proper design, fabrication,
construction or installation and operation of
equipment throughout the entire process life
cycle.

Figure 17 : Process Diagram for Plant Integri-

ty Management by Risk Based Inspection[8].

For risk based inspection, information and

opinions from several functions and disci-
plines are normally needed. It is recommend-
ed that these were best obtained from a team
of relevant individuals. Risk based inspection
requires a wide range of information in order
to assess the probability and consequences of
equipment failure and develop an inspection
plan. A plant database containing an inventory Figure 18 : Chart of PSM Program.
of the equipment and associated information
is a useful way of managing the relevant data. Guidelines and best practices for compliance
The information and associated uncertainties with this program are mainly based on Indus-
identified by the risk analysis about potential try standards for piping in highly hazardous
deterioration are used to develop an integrity services. Piping systems in highly hazardous
management strategy and appropriate inspec- service shall be identified and registered;
tion plan. namely the steps required to place in the Me-
chanical Integrity system for future inspec-
In order for inspection to be an effective part tions. Mechanical Integrity is clear standards
of integrity management, the techniques and and external standards on inspection and
procedures used must be capable of achiev- maintenance of local organizations such as:
ing a reliable examination. The techniques
and procedures must therefore be matched to Evaluation to determine if a potential spill
the potential deterioration identified by the risk under normal operating conditions could ex-
analysis. ceed threshold external authority reportable
quantities. If the piping system
 42

has the potential to release highly hazard- Justifying the expense of an effective CUI
ous chemicals in quantities greater than inspection program is often challenging since
the threshold limit, then the piping system to identify all areas of CUI requires an ex-
shall be registered. pensive process. But the failures prevented
· Explaining the party responsible for the by an effective CUI inspection program are
steps of registration, inspection, and follow often very dangerous and they can occur in
-up associated with the inspection pro- areas where and there were no previous in-
gram. dications of corrosion.
· Including specific expectation and repro-
ducing the requirements inspectors should Conclusions:
follow from external standards are critical Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) is a phe-
for consistent global mechanical integrity nomenon that can’t be avoided but can be
inspections. reduced. Corrosion affects almost every in-
dustrial sector, Infrastructure, Utilities, Trans-
Mechanical Integrity programs cannot rely portation, Production and Manufacturing, and
solely upon contract inspectors and need ade- Governmental Functions. To determine the
quate involvement of plant personnel familiar occurrence of CUI, inspections conducted by
with plant operations. Effective communica- several NDT methods can be utilized.
tions and involvement of persons familiar with
all modes of operation within the plant is criti- The design and specification of insulation,
cal to develop a robust inspection plan. correct construction installation and preven-
tative maintenance practices are the best
An effective program to leverage learnings prevention of CUI. By following appropriate
from other incidents should include discover- strategies and obtaining sufficient resources
ies of excessive corrosion or any other losses for corrosion programs, best engineering
of mechanical integrity. Leadership and em- practices can be achieved. Controlling corro-
ployees in petrochemical industry must be sion requires expenditures, but the payoff
were aware of the potential severity of CUI includes increased public safety, reliable per-
incident. This awareness must spark leader- formance, maximized asset life, environmen-
ship and company Mechanical Integrity pro- tal protection, and more cost effective opera-
gram steering team to launch a initiatives tion in the long run.
such as[7]:
References :
A mandatory refresher training for all site and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
production plant leaders on the key elements Williams_Olefins_Plant_explosion.
and responsibilities under the corporate Me- Corrosion Costs and Preventive Strategies in
chanical Integrity program. the United States, NACE International, Hou-
The creation of a list of high priority CUI in- ston.
spection locations, by technology, to be in- http://www.international-pc.com/products/
spected as soon as possible. temperature-resistant/corrosion-under-
The creation and delivery of new CUI inspec- insulation.aspx.
tion training to train maintenance and opera- Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) : Industrial
tions personnel how to better identify areas Technical Overview, Roxul The Better Insu-
susceptible to CUI. lation, Milton.
Corrosion Under Insulation of Plant and
The launch of an additional, one-time Me- Pipework V3, Health and Safety Executive,
chanical Integrity program audits of all major 2013.
sites. (The Mechanical Integrity program of Driving Process Safety Management Perfor-
each site should be audited as part of the mance, Budd, Kevin., Huntsman Global PSM
sites’ ongoing periodic EH&S audits. This Manager, 2009.
special audit was intended supplement this More Lessons “Re-Learned” from Corrosion
auditing with a highly visible site-wide, Me- Under Insulation, Sampaio, Renato., Leite,
chanical Integrity focused audit to respond to Antonio Luiz M.V., The Dow Chemical.
this near miss event.) Best Practice for Risk Based Inspection as a
Part of Plant Integrity Management, Kenzie,
Process Safety Management systems and B.W., Wintle, J.B., TWI, Cambridge, 2001.
best practices rank as one of “the most im- An Update on Risk Based Inspection : Bring-
portant system” to prevent incidents. An effec- ing Focus on External Corrosion Under Insu-
tive mechanical integrity program would cer- lation, Stress Corrosion Cracking and Other
tainly be among the top systems. Damage Mechanisms, Presley, Joel., Lloyd’s
Register Energy Conference, 2012.
 43
Rock Bottom: Progress, Both Close &
Far….America’s Oil Country Increasingly
Runs on Renewables, but What if 100%
Renewable Power Reigned Across the US
Grid?
Ron Cormier

Welcome back to another edition of TVRB. amount of power coming from large-scale so-
Renewable commodity resources continue to lar farms, was expected to gain on its West
gather attention, especially in this US federal Coast rival in battery storage as well.
election year, and as political parties continue
to maintain divergent views/platforms toward The swift growth of battery storage as a
support for these important initiatives. While source of power for the electric grid, along
we here at EPM, do not take sides politically, with the continued expansion of large-scale
we are strong supporters of our industry’s con- solar farms, could not have come at a better
tinued lifeblood; STEM careers will continue to time. Texas, like many other states, is facing
provide and challenge coming generations of a surge in its power needs from data centers,
engineers and practitioners who assure our new manufacturing plants, cryptocurrency
energy and materials-based way of life, while mines, growing residential demand and in-
maximizing a clean world in which to enjoy creasingly intense summer heat. Officials es-
such innovation. timate that Texas, already the nation’s largest
electricity consumer, could roughly double its
Texas, the biggest oil-producing state, has demand in just a few years.
turned to solar power and battery storage
to see it through extreme weather. But with “Every state is going to go through this. Tex-
demand rising, much more power will be as just happens to be the farthest along be-
needed across the USA. cause we are growing our energy usage first,”
said Michael Lee, the chief executive of Octo-
During the scorching summer of 2023, the pus Energy U.S., a subsidiary of the British
Texas energy grid wobbled as surging demand electricity provider. “We’re seeing this in eve-
for electricity threatened to exceed supply. ry other state, and all over the world.”
Several times, officials called on residents to
conserve energy to avoid a grid failure. This Officials estimate that Texas, already the
year it turned out much better — thanks in nation’s largest electricity consumer,
large part to more renewable energy. The could roughly double its demand in just a
electrical grid in Texas has breezed through a few years.
summer in which, despite milder temperatures,
the state again reached record levels of ener- Renewable energy sources have taken off in
gy demand. It did so largely thanks to the sub- Texas, the nation’s premier oil-and-gas state,
stantial expansion of new solar farms. And the in large part because of the relatively easy
grid held strong even during the critical early process for connecting to the state’s grid and
evening hours — when the sun goes down its mostly deregulated market for energy,
and the nighttime winds have yet to pick up — company leaders and energy experts said.
with the help of an even newer source of ener- But some of those same advantages have
gy in Texas and around the country…. also come under scrutiny since the grid’s cat-
astrophic failure during a prolonged winter
Batteries. freeze that killed hundreds in the state in
2021.
The federal government expects the amount of
battery storage capacity across the country, Governor Abbott took steps to try to prevent a
almost nonexistent five years ago, to nearly similar failure from happening again. Since
double by the end of the year. Texas, which then, leaders in Texas, along with energy
has already surpassed California in the companies of all types, have been debating
 44

how to ensure there is always enough energy said, has been from the electrification of the
supply, while also preserving the state’s rela- oil and gas fields of the Permian Basin — an
tively free market. Since the winter storm, offi- expanse of oil-rich West Texas where frack-
cials have pushed for the construction of new ing has boomed. In other words, oil and gas
gas-fired power plants, arguing that predicta- companies are increasingly turning to elec-
ble, “dispatchable” energy is more reliable in tricity to power their operations in Texas.
an emergency than wind and solar.
Despite few people living there, the region is
In the energy market in Texas, mostly deregu- expected to see energy demands rivaling
lated in the 2000s, generators are paid, with those of major cities. “The Permian Basin is
some exceptions, only for the energy they pro- forecasting to become about the size, electri-
vide to the grid, rather than for having capacity cally, of the Houston area,” said Pablo Vegas,
to do so in the future. And in contrast to other the head of the Electric Reliability Council of
states, the main electricity grid in Texas is con- Texas, the state’s market operator, known as
tained entirely within the state. ERCOT.

In a somewhat unlikely turn, renewable energy Texas, which is the nation’s second most
companies have been arguing for keeping the populous state, already consumes far more
market open and less regulated. However, energy than any other state. Officials recently
contrary to usual smaller-government initia- changed how they calculate the potential
tives, Republican leaders have pushed for in- growth in energy demand and now estimate
creasing government intervention, including that the state could nearly double its peak
incentives to build additional gas-fired power demand by 2030.
plants.
The current record for demand at a single
The Sun Will Destroy the Earth One Day, time (that Tuesday in August) was about 86
Right? Maybe Not. gigawatts. (By contrast, the demand record in
California, set in 2022, is 52 gigawatts). In
“The abject irony is that the once-freewheeling six years, ERCOT has said, Texas could see
power market is now on the precipice of be- peak demand above 150 gigawatts. The fore-
coming fully government-controlled,” said Aa- cast raised concern among some state lead-
ron Zubaty, the chief executive of Eolian, ers about the grid’s ability to meet such fast-
which invests in energy projects. “New tech- rising demand. Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick said in
nologies have provided market solutions and a social media post that the state should take
scaled rapidly,” he said. The result, he added, “a close look” at the increased demand from
is that legacy gas-fired power generators and data centers and crypto mines.
their political backers are trying to increase
barriers for the newcomers and “push the mar- The state’s power needs are a big reason
ket to go all-in on natural gas.” Despite that that efforts by some Republicans in the legis-
bureaucracy, Texas has turned to solar power lature to rein in renewables — sometimes
and battery storage to see it through extreme called “unreliables” by critics — are unlikely to
weather. succeed, said Ed Hirs, an economist and en-
ergy fellow at the University of Houston. “At
He pointed to the swift growth of batteries, this point the legislature can’t do anything to
even without any state mandates, as an exam- stop the growth of solar and wind and batter-
ple of why interventions were not necessary to ies,” Mr. Hirs said. “The state desperately
bring innovation. The increasing importance of needs it.”
batteries to the Texas electricity grid could be
seen on a Tuesday in August when the state Much like an external battery for a cellphone,
hit a new high for energy demand, a load that batteries that connect to an electricity grid are
might have threatened the grid only a few meant to provide stored energy for a short
years ago. But that day, the state produced time, running only for a few hours. They
near-record amounts of solar energy. When charge up when energy is plentiful, and pric-
the sun went down, large-scale batteries put es are low, and they put out their power when
out more power than ever before. energy supplies begin to flag, and prices rise.
As a result, the growth in batteries comple-
Texans barely noticed the crunch this time. ments the development of wind and especial-
The air-conditioners hummed along. ly solar power, whose ups and downs vary
throughout the day.
Demand for power in Texas is growing at a
rapid clip. A big part of the increase, experts The potential pricing windfall has led
 45

businesses to rush to build more battery facili- · Set up time-of-use electricity rates to en-
ties. The queue for new energy projects wait- courage charging at night.
ing to link to the Texas grid includes nearly as · Incentivize the electrification of freight rail
much power from batteries as from solar, ac- and shift freight from trucks to rail.
cording to ERCOT data. “Texas is such a
unique place,” said Matthew Boms, the execu- These initiatives would require coordinated
tive director of the Texas Advanced Energy action from US Congress, federal agencies,
Business Alliance, which promotes renewable state legislatures, and local officials. Togeth-
energy businesses. “You have a free market er, they represent an unprecedented level of
and a grid that’s all in one state. That’s attract- government activism, a fabric of incentives,
ed all this private investment in battery stor- mandates, standards, and laws unmatched in
age, and solar and wind.” US history. Much of that government activ-
ism is scheduled for the next five to 10 years,
The result has been a lot of recent construc- while Republicans, who fervently oppose
tion. Not far from downtown Houston, by the nearly every one of these goals, are expected
site of a former gas-fired power plant, large to control the House of Representative and
containers filled with small lithium-ion battery well over half of the 50 state legislatures.
cells — half a million cells in total — sit in neat
rows. They were not doing much on a relative- Is such bureaucracy realistic? Uh, no. No, it
ly cool and cloudy late summer day but were isn’t. No real technical or economic barriers
ready to discharge power to the grid when exist (only crony protectionism) to ramping up
needed. production of WWS technologies, as history
suggests that rapid ramp-ups of production
The batteries, owned by Jupiter Power, began can occur given strong enough political will.
operating last month. “Two or three years ago For example, during World War II, aircraft
there were barely any batteries anywhere,” production increased from nearly zero to
Andy Bowman, the chief executive of Jupiter 330,000 over five years.
Power, said. “That’s capitalism working.”
The phrase “given strong enough political
How We Get There from Here will” is open-ended enough to allow virtually
anything through. But what would create this
What sorts of policies could produce these political will, equal to what gripped the US in
enormous shifts in energy technology and the wake of the Pearl Harbor In many ways,
practice? Here are some possibilities just for the more interesting question is (assuming
the transportation sector: we could conjure up the political will for this
kind of wholesale transformation to WWS) ...
· Promote more public transit by increasing would we want to?
its availability and providing compensation
to commuters for not purchasing parking The resultant total-system costs would be
passes. lower than the business-as-usual scenario.
· Increase safe biking and walking infrastruc- Which is great, since BAU sucks, as most
ture, such as 5 dedicated bike lanes, side- everyone agrees (again, except those people
walks, crosswalks, timed walk signals, etc. profiting from BAU). What they don’t try to
· Adopt legislation mandating BEVs [battery- show is that the resultant system is the opti-
electric vehicles] for short- and medium- mal system, i.e., the optimal balance of costs
distance government transportation and and benefits. Insisting on 100 percent WWS
use incentives and rebates to encourage — excluding nuclear, biomass, cogeneration,
the transition of commercial and personal natural gas, etc. — almost certainly raises the
vehicles to BEVS. total-system costs relative to a broader port-
· Use incentives or mandates to stimulate folio of low-carbon options. Just a little bit of
the growth of fleets of electric and/or hy- nuclear or biomass power, for instance,
drogen fuel cell/electric hybrid buses start- would reduce the amount of power-plant
ing with a few and gradually growing the overbuild necessary.
fleets. Electric or hydrogen fuel cell ferries,
riverboats, tows, and other local shipping Lots of people remain extremely skeptical.
should be incentivized as well. They say, why not accept a little bit of asth-
· Ease the permitting process for the instal- ma, or some nuclear waste, in exchange for a
lation of electric charging stations in public cheaper system? But that misses the point.
parking lots, hotels, suburban metro sta- What could we do if we aimed to create an
tions, on streets, and in residential and entirely sustainable, pollution-free energy
commercial garages. system? After all, the cost-benefit trade-offs
 46

of less sustainable systems almost always Sources

mean higher benefits for the already privileged Boms, Matthew, Executive Director, Texas
and more costs for the already less privileged Advanced Energy Business Alliance. Article
(in other words..”lets not be half pregnant. In- for Conservative Energy Network, Energy
stead, drop the excuses of protectionism, and Storage Summit 2024
make it work”) …
Goodman, J. David, Houston Bureau Chief,
What kind of power system would you The Times, reporting on Texas and
choose for society if you had no idea where Oklahoma. September 18, 2024 article
you might personally exist in that society?
Hirs, Economist and Energy Fellow, Univer-
If you didn’t know whether you’d be rich or sity of Houston. "Hirs: The State of Texas vs.
poor, living in a gated suburb or right next to a Texans - A Matter of Life, Death and Money"
power plant or waste dump? You’d probably Hart Energy, September 5, 2024
design a system that is equitable and healthy
for everyone. That’s our highest aspiration… Lee, Michael, CEO, Octopus Energy U.S. (a
Whether we pursue our highest aspirations is subsidiary of the British electricity provider).
up to us. Blog articles various, 2024

There you have it. Until EPM’s November edi- Kalifa, Tamir Photojournalist, for The New
tion of The View from Rock Bottom, we leave York Times, September, 2024
you with these thoughts to ponder as you, our
readers and our industry continue to shape Thibodeaux, Brandon for The New York
forward progress. Times, September, 2024

Vegas, Pablo, Head, Electric Reliability Coun-

cil of Texas, comment per The Texas Tri-
bune, August, 16, 2024.

Zubaty, Aaronthe CEO, Eolian, LP, a private

equity firm which invests in energy projects.
Comments of Santander backing for
renewable energy portfolio, April, 2022.
 47

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