Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2021 - 82

Environment and Safety
Continuous monitoring of key performance indexes. Traditionally, equip-

3. Energy monitoring on a real-time
basis and shift basis

Plant management software helps operators run
their plant safely with reliable data and documents,
rather than from memory and/or experience.
ment and catalyst performances are evaluated quarterly, biannually or annually.
However, due to new digital software, performance calculations can now be completed as frequently as a reading set is taken.
Compressor performance, exchanger heat
duties and heat transfer coefficients can
be tracked as frequently as operators take
readings. At any time, operators are able to
pull up trends on polytrophic efficiencies
of rotating equipment, catalyst approaches
to equilibrium and poisoning rates, and
exchanger heat transfer coefficients. This
provides personnel the ability to make
meaningful decisions about equipment
performance based on calculated parameters rather than on implied process parameters. With live field readings, precursors to
equipment failures and safety incidents are
able to be determined ahead of time.
Along with DCS readings, field equipment readings are integrated to monitor
and generate an automated reporting system for the following:
1. Key performance indicators
(KPIs) of plant operability
2. Real-time operation reports
geared to provide operating
personnel key information on
plant performance

4. Daily and/or monthly production
reports on plants or sites
5. Equipment/asset performance on
a real-time basis
6. Catalyst performance.
These reports help identify any deteriorating equipment conditions, even
those that do not generally come back
to the DCS. Real-time data, along with
historical data, is readily made available,
which is critical for troubleshooting.
Follow-ups on routine work. The
system follows up on pending work orders and tracks them, along with additional items, such as:
* Ensuring that operators prepare
chemicals to maintain levels
* Tracking standby equipment for
changeovers
* Providing forms to fill field
vibration and skin temperature
readings
* Aiding lube oil top-ups and
scheduled oil analyses
* Sending reminders to operators
regarding routine tasks, along with
those tasks that are still pending to
be completed
* Ensuring that plant reliability
elements are effectively managed

and tracked, thus significantly
reducing plant shutdowns due to
reliability issues.
Checklists. Apart from regular
operator readings, checklists that
are used for data collection should
be given equal importance. Prestartup checklists, safety checklists,
preventive and corrective checklists, field inspection checklists,
personal protective equipment
checklists, hazard analysis checklists, fugitive emission checklists and flare monitoring checklists are some of the critical
checklists that are automated, and the
data collected can be archived and tracked
to check for issues. This also helps in the
effective implementation of process safety management (PSM) elements. Making
checklists digital saves unnecessary trips
to the control room or file cabinets.
Lockout/tagout (LOTO). Improper
LOTO procedures are one of the major
causes of accidents and fatalities. During
a shutdown, the supervisor and operators
manage several activities-and errors
with manual work permits and logout procedures can prove fatal. The proprietary
system logically groups isolation points
by task or trade and creates automated
packages. These prebuilt packages can
then be retrieved when required. Documents can be linked to equipment. The
LOTO process associated with equipment isolation or confined space entry
is greatly enhanced by automatically instructing the necessary lockout points.
The system prints all the necessary tags
for hot work and cold work permits and
shows where to display them. The supervisor can perform a LOTO field verification with the click of a button.
communication. Effective
communication is very critical in chemical plant operations, and this is why plants
invest in expensive radio systems to provide interference-free, real-time communication. While voice communication is
essential, many traditional communications occur through a physical operator
logbook and whiteboards. This leads to inefficiencies in proper tracking and followups. Therefore, to optimize operations, it
is necessary to have a digital operator log
that tracks all of the communication.
Communication of operation. Effective communication and timely follow-up
among plant personnel are vital to plant

Effective

FIG. 1. The proprietary plant management software solutiona provides an identical look to paper
log sheets, enabling familiarity with operations and reducing the learning curve.

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Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2021

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