Maximizing Business Performance - Article Example

Maximizing Business Performance In the resent past there has been a keen interest in provision of solution that can be useful to refineries in optimization of the business impact and thus resulting to overall profitability. The traditional approach that has been used in the management of industrial complexes have been described under operations management but the current business environment, operation management can be considered as to provide only part of the solution. The challenge requires coupling of the management operations with business drivers. This calls for a new approach that links the business segment with operation management with a holistic approach being provided in managing and controlling the operations so as to have a business success. This is referred to as Operation Business Management In Refinery-wide Performance Optimization Solution there is integration of different technologies so as deliver different forms of real time business operations management in oil refining industry. The Solution use in ADOS is expected to provide the following solutions all in an integrated framework by use of industry leading technology: 1. Improved Mass Balance Accuracy Across the Refinery 2. Improvement of Personnel/Operations Effectiveness through Model Based Performance Monitoring 3. Optimal Regulatory and Advanced Process Control 4. Unit and Refinery-wide optimization for agility and responsiveness to changing market conditions (Optimize) 5. Evaluate and Adjust Energy Production & Utilization 6. Enable Optimal Refinery Planning & Scheduling 7. Provide Ready and Timely Access of Performance Data to all Stakeholders Data Reconciliation and Improved Mass Balance Accuracy There is a need to for raw data to be taken from the plant and process the data so that faulty instruments are detected. Inaccurate data in the refinery also need to be corrected after which they can be used in operational decisions which are playing a great role in the determination of the profit to be made by the refinery. This is helpful in achieving unit mass balance yield, level of energy consumption and monitoring of profit. The process important in establishing meters with gross error and through this the meters in fault in ADOS will be reduced from 25% to below 5%. This will result to achievement in having a satisfactory heat and material balance in the refinery There will be more accurate mass flows to the accounting team and this is useful in monthly mass balance closure. In the refinery the fuel consumption for refining processes is typically 7% of the crude oil. However, because of high level of uncertainty in measuring the products, the error contribution to the total balance becomes significant. The technologies which are used in measurement of fuel gas and fuel oil such as the orifice plate/dP technologies are associated with high level of measurement errors due changes in fuel composition. The orificeplate/dP instruments always need recalibration when there is change in the composition of the fuel in the refinery system otherwise there is uncertainty in the tune of +/-5%. . It is recommended that Coriolis Meters be used as this will result into significant improvement in the dynamic flow measurements, which include the inputs to outputs in the refinery. Stock measurements are also expected to record considerable improvement through making a number of changes in the operational procedures that are used in the delivery and discharge of products to and from the tanks. Through making changes in metering the refinery will have confidence in the actual losses. Real losses in the refinery are caused by evaporation and flare stack. Infrare stack involve gas being burned for safety purpose or for production reason. Y having better control of emissions in the flare system losses are expected to be reduced by a margin of 1.5 to 0 2%. Installation of ultrasonic meters is also a good move towards increasing accuracy of flare gas measurement and thus improving the overall refinery balance. Ultrasonic meters help complete the mass balance There can be determination of fluid density by use of ultrasonic meter technology by utilization of the relationship between the molecular weight of the gas and the speed at which sound is able to travel through fluid, where there is basically a linear relationship which is somewhat sensitive to composition. Through measurement of volume flow and the density of the flare gas, the ultrasonic meters are able to give a mass flow output. In this way ADOS is able to make measurements of all the major streams that are likely to contribute to the refinery balance on the basis of mass. Effecting these changes will reduce measurement losses up to 0.6 to 0.8 from the current range of 5%. Use of ultrasonic flow meters involve using sound waves in measurement of the velocity of the fluids passing through the refinery pipelines. Pulses are transmitted by the transit-time ultrasonic meters, from a transmitting transducer, and the pulses are then propagated through the flowing medium (the fuel in this case) to another transducer which is the receiving transducer. The difference in the time it takes for a pulse to travel in the upstream direction and the time for downstream travel is used in the calculation of flow velocity accurately. There is also opportunity for ADOS to improve on its mass balance through measurements on consumption of fuel. This should be directed at both fuel and gas although fuel gas measurement is seen as the major problem. There is use of process quality orifice meters in the gas system and this are not recalibrated with change in the fluids or process conditions. The discharge coefficients are assumed to be constant and are used in the calculation of rate of flow in the pipes by use of the pressure drops. This results to significant errors in the system flow measurements Model Based Performance Monitoring Operation of the refinery at the at its peak production there is need for determination of the current operating point and to establish the likely financial impact suppose any change is to be made. To make such decision it will require the staff in charge of operations to have a good understanding of process and process insight some of which that are not deducible from flow rate, pressure measurement and temperature measurements alone. The major reason of performing monitoring by use of rigorous engineering model lies in the need of extracting useful and consistent information from process data that will ensure that high quality operation decision making is made. After establishing the crude feed monthly plan, the potential margin for refining will have been established on assumption that there are no operating issues that are unforeseen. The potential refining margin can be maximized by the stakeholders having visibility and collaboration. This should include the workflow of headquarters trading and planning division and the group in charge of refinery operations being integrated (Fig1). This groups need to communicate to each other and they also are to have a common business processes that has a common IT system. The integration level would range from planning which include crude fuel selection, scheduling, control, blending and process engineering. Through integration and making use of engineering models in the planning and scheduling in ADOS will ensure greater level of accuracy, high level of consistency and a range of prediction. Currently the refinery is like many other refineries is using manual update planning model. The integration of engineering tools is very complex and the solution involve use of multiple products and this takes considerably a long time in the range weeks. The long time together with the associated costs acts as a barrier in using engineering models in updating the planning models. This culminates to the planning models being infrequently updated to conform to the current refinery performance and thus the chance of developing a realistic and optimal plans and achieving the planned targets is lost. ADOS need to adapt to the use of technologies by companies like AspenTech which have been developed so as to optimize the workflow and breaking the barriers. There has been release of software that are able to deliver the functionality that has the capability of optimizing workflow thus delivering the benefits of improving the efficiency in the operation and profit levels of the refinery by offering engineering support in planning scheduling. By using the process models in supporting operations decisions the ADOS refinery margins will improve. It ensures that there is faster, more frequent and accurate update of planning models that will result to selection of a faster and better feedstock. There will also be increase in promptness in responding to operational needs that are likely to have impact on cost of refining and the profit realization at ADOS. The use of aspenONE in ADOS is recommend for planning and scheduling the process models enabling critical workflows. In each of the path there is use of Microsoft excel in transferring of data from engineering models to planning and scheduling operations. Optimal Regulatory and Advanced Process Control (APC) There is need to have multivariable model predictive or Advanced Process Control strategies as this will see the following issues addressed The refinery operation will be closer the desired product specification s and equipment as well process limits. The refinery processes will be made stable There will be reduction in quality variability of the products of the refinery There will be improvement in energy efficiency such as dispatch of boilers and unit stabilization There will be achievement of changeovers which are economically optimal between the different operating modes with there being minimal process upsets In many refineries where there is consideration of incorporation of Refinery-wide Performance Optimization Solution there is high chance that already there is Advanced Process Controllers in the plant. However the prevailing economic performance most of the refineries are at a very low rates. The control loops which had been tuned to operate at high operating rates are likely to be poorly tuned when it comes to the control of processes for the lower rates and this presents a chance of improvement in the performance. With regulatory control being poorly tuned, the operators are made to react to problems that results from poor tuning as opposed to having time for driving the process improvement so as to run the refinery in higher profitability. Even before tuning is done there can be re-commissioning of the existing Advanced Process Control solution or we can have a new one altogether. The industry specialist staff will utilize there diagnostic methods and the relevant proprietary tools in the documentation of the control system performance with remedial actions being recommended that will result into a positive difference. The process control performance by the industry solution providers and there diagnostic service is able to provide a highly comprehensive analysis which incorporates process constraints information, interaction of the loops, field actuator problems and identification of the models and their tuning. Having improved regulatory and advanced process control tuned at operating at the prevailing lower through put is a very important requirement in the utilization of this solution. Real-Time Unit and Refinery-wide Optimization There is need for tighter control to be maintained where there is less variability by employing Advanced Process Control, as this will make operations to be effected closer to product specifications and equipment limit and this will result to improvement energy efficiency, production yield and throughput with the process constraints not being violated. APC has the capability of holding the plant at the target controls, it lacks sufficient economics and unit model rigor that can be used in the calculation of optimum operation targets that can respond to the fast changing market. In real-time optimization there is utilization of rigorous first principles process model so that there is continuous calculation of improved set points for advanced controller that makes the refinery to have high profit margins with the constraints being put into consideration. There is configuration of the optimizer to achieve the desired objective functions which are Maximum profit through optimum product yield Having maximum production rate at minimum energy consumption The stepwise improvement of control in real time optimization is as shown in the figure Figure 1 The rigorous first principle is used on one unit such as the fluid catalytic cracker unit (FCCU) or the crude vacuum distillation unit and as may be applied the aromatics section where there is a number of units. The model uses the real time processes and the economic data and computes an optimal solution with the improved set points being identified for the APA that will bring profitability. The optimizer indicates the current operating point with the associated process constraints including column flooding, availability of cooling capacity or the furnace temperature. Some of the constraints were associated with the performance of the equipment and thus could not ne optimized, but where there is what is referred to as soft process constraints they can be relaxed so that the refinery can achieve higher profitability. In individual unit optimization, process operations are managed within the laid down criteria and does not go beyond the process boundary to find out how the other units are likely to be affected the optimization. A refinery wide model can be used which is not build to a full blown rigorous level but only supports the desired level of rigor where there can be timely analysis with the entire refinery behaviour being understood as well as hoe the processes in various units depend on each other as well as their economic dependence. A finery wide model that can be applied to ADOS refinery is to run on an open-loop so as to be able to understand the refinery behaviour as a whole as well as the process constraints and this would allow safe pushing of constraints so as to maximize the profit margin of the refinery. Table 1 Refining Unit Benefit C/BBL Typical unit size 1000Bbl/d Typcal benefit,$million/yr Crude/Vacuum 5-10 135 2.5-5.0 FCCU 20-40 38 2.8-5.6 Reformer 5-25 25 0.5-2.3 Hydrocracker 10-30 26 1.0-2.9 Alkylation 5-35 10 0.2-1.3 Delayed Coker 10-40 31 1.1-4.5 Light Ends 10-20 40 1.5-2.9 Isomerization 5-15 30 0.5-1.6 Lubes Vacuum 10-40 10 0.4-1.5 Aromatics 15-20 15 1.8-1.1 The APC and real time optimization are practices that are reliable and are used by refinery industry leaders. The benefits from the control and optimization have been reported widely in literature. Table 1 clearly shown the benefits that can be gained by APC and Optimization components are substantial. Further benefit is to be realized by incorporation of refinery wide model. The APC and real time optimization also balances use of energy to find the best yields, with a well tuned model being show how inputs and outputs relate to each other for each of the units in the refinery. The data comes in handy when it comes to updating the planning models that are to be used in guiding the operations in the refinery. 3.5 Energy Optimization With a rise of crude oil increasing per barrel, it is observed that the costs of energy becomes a major factor in refinery operations in terms of finances which is represented by an increase in operating costs percentages. When this act in combination with the strict environmental regulations makes it important for refineries to have improved energy efficiency. power and utilities cost takes the biggest proportion of controllable operating expenses after taking care of purchase of raw materials in large refineries such as ADOS. By use of the refinery-wide Performance Optimization Solution it is possible to act in real-time and realize optimization of energy supply within the changing economics and plant requirements with the environment constraints being put into consideration. This is Optimization Solution when used in ADOS is expected to reduce the energy cost in the range of 3% to 5%. The other side benefit that are to be realized by energy optimization Through monitoring there is reduction of CO2, SOX & NOX The off-peak power pricing is taken advantage of through automatic switching in production There is achievement of better fuel gas management with few alarms A screenshot from a utilities optimization that has been developed within an integrated solution is as shown in figure 3.6 Optimal Refinery Planning There is need to use empirical LP planning models in deciding which crude oils are to be processed and also this is helpful in deciding on how to operate the ADOS process units so that the expected end-product demands that yields maximum profits are met. Usually planning is undertaken from the Planning Department where operations are somewhat independent of the operations of the ADOS refinery. There can be optimization of business performance of the refinery through integration of Refinery-wide Performance Optimization Solution and work flows of the various functions in the company unites information from optimization applications in support of optimal Refinery Planning in the department of planning. ADOS Planning Department is recommended to effect optimal performance through enabling optimization of production plans and schedules by use of LP Planning Models that will give a reflection of a current refinery state. Through the installation of an Optimizer, there will be continuous tracking of the performance and any changes that occur in the refinery over time with adaptation being effected concurrently. With retune of the optimization model as it responds to changes in process condition of the refinery there will be maintenance of highly accurate relationship in all the process units of the refinery. The model which is highly accurate has the ability of exporting updated relationship between the feeds and products automatically in all the process units in ADOS refinery. There will be formatting of LP vectors in readiness for inputting in the refinery planning model and on the process of updating there will be the best representation of the refinery that can be used for planning in the next month. Consequently the following month’s planning model will be able to come up with away of operating the factory that will bring the highest profit. 3.7 Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence for Refinery Performance Tracking Process and business optimization in many leading refineries is undertaken on a daily basis with industry consultants working closely with the refineries on components that give the overall solution. The leading refineries have been able to track the quantities with the benefits of the technologies being deployed being reported. Unit Optimizers can be used for over 10 years with the major factor that can lead to this long service being the tracking of the optimizers KPI’s. through tracking and reporting of the high benefits that results from process optimization, the management of will be able to the value and there will be continuous investment and even more investment in this solution across ADOS asset as has been witnessed with other industry leaders Shell. For every $25 spend on maintaining and supporting the optimizers ADOS will be expected to realize $1000 in benefits which is a very high return on investment. This is a Refinery-wide Performance Optimization Solution whose focus is on ensuring that there is enabling and automation of a business impact feedback loop resulting from the solution. Critical process and data from optimal performance from optimizer is will be a acquired by the Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence “feedback loop” component of the solution and this can then be aggregated with data from other data sources in the refinery including RRP system together with the refinery process historian and this would then provide a deeper insight of the refinery and tracking the performance of the refinery. Calculation of a unique and valuable data set will be made possible through this and then the data can then be tracked and be made available for ADOS refinery stakeholders. The information will include: The financial impact of optimizers The financial opportunities that can result from pushing the operational constraints of the refinery The performance of the planning model The major performance indices that include product yield and energy intensity of the refinery ADOS performance in terms of emissions, profitability and utilization Reference Aspen Technology (2012). Benefits of Integrating Process Models with Planning and Scheduling in Refining Operations Read More