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Driving automation forward to protect people and improve efficiency

For more than 30 years, Veolia Environmental Services has been providing full-service, turnkey industrial cleaning and maintenance services, supported by comprehensive environmental waste management solutions, that keep industrial facilities operating under peak conditions. During that time, the industrial cleaning industry has been slowly transforming itself, introducing faster, better ways to clean equipment while keeping workers safe. And Veolia is leading the way, having capitalized on advancements in technology to create a suite of remotely operated, hands-free equipment that keeps workers out of the line of fire and improves cleaning efficiencies.

Veolia has changed the nature of the work it performs by adopting a standard of remote operations. With conventional industrial cleaning equipment, workers hold hydroblasting shotguns or lances in their hands to manually clean equipment. Veolia has introduced several technologies that take that wand out of the operator’s hand and allow him to remotely perform the operation, minimizing fatigue and allowing for reduced PPE requirements. Other benefits include reduced headcount and shorter offline times for customers.

“The impetus toward putting efforts behind automated technologies was driven by safety,” said Bill McClister, vice president of Equipment & Technology for Veolia’s Industrial Cleaning Division. By using automated technologies, Veolia takes workers out of the line of fire to significantly reduce the likelihood of an accident. In fact, on jobsites where fully automated technologies have been utilized, Veolia is accident and injury free. “Safety impacts business on so many levels today and the level of expectation on behalf of the customer is very high,” said McClister. “Long term, taking people away from the danger area transcends all other considerations.”

The advantages of implementing automated technologies for industrial cleaning are numerous. It provides a safer work environment by moving the worker outside the barricade and away from the line of fire. This also eliminates the need to wear a slicker suit and avoids subjecting the worker to heat stress and fatigue. It allows for a greater consistency of cleaning standards and a generally improved quality of work. Automation also increases the ability to plan the length of the job, improving turnaround schedule planning where cleaning is a critical path item.

Veolia has an in-house Methods and Development (M&D) team that designs, engineers and builds its proprietary technology solutions and safety equipment. M&D is the vehicle that ensures work done in the field across North America is done consistently, with the right tools and with a mechanism for sharing best practices.

Many of the ideas for new technology, however, come from Veolia’s employees at various levels of the Industrial Cleaning Division. The majority of the hands-free tools Veolia develops are used for hydroblasting but others include vacuum services in the area of vapor and emissions control as well as tank cleaning and chemical cleaning technology. Some of the technologies in Veolia’s portfolio of proprietary solutions for hands-free cleaning include:

Partnering with customers on automation

Veolia has employed its hands-free portfolio of technologies on many of its customers’ sites over the past several years. Glen Kelley is one of Veolia’s national account leaders working closely with several major customers to introduce automated technologies as an alternative to conventional industrial cleaning practices. Kelley has seen firsthand the advantages of automated technology on safety performance for several customers. 

“Veolia is seeing many of our customers increasing their focus on eliminating injuries resulting from hydroblasting activities, an inherently dangerous activity due to the manual effort and high-pressure water involved in the process,” said Kelley. “With those customers where we have implemented our automated equipment on site, we are seeing injury rates declining significantly. In fact, we have zero water cuts on jobsites where we are using automated technologies.” 

Veolia has had particular success with introducing automation with one major customer in the chemical processing industry, where Veolia services 14 sites across the United States. On average, Veolia has approximately 180 employees working for this customer each day.

For many years, this particular customer has recognized the need to protect workers from the dangers associated with industrial cleaning. The company formed a global committee to address the risks of manual hydroblasting and resolved to task its contractors with developing automated processes to reduce or eliminate risk involved with manual hydroblasting activities. As a result of this initiative, this customer is now tracking toward implementing 100-percent automation for all hydroblasting work across all of its facilities by the end of 2013. 

Veolia has played a key role in the development and adoption of automated technologies at the customer’s sites. Two sites, one in Louisiana and another in Texas, were identified as pilot sites for Veolia to introduce 100-percent automation for hydroblasting work. Over the past few years, Veolia has achieved 100-percent hands-free operations at these two sites, well in advance of the 2013 target date set by the customer. To achieve this goal, Veolia first looked at the routine hydroblasting tasks that were normally performed manually through lancing and shotgunning and then developed automated robotics to take the place of the human in those activities. Once all routine tasks were conducted with automated technology, Veolia began addressing the one-off projects that occur quarterly, semiannually or annually. Veolia started applying the hands-free robotics to those jobs by re-engineering the technology to fit the facility’s specific need.  

One example of how Veolia’s automated technology demonstrates safe work performance and minimizes stress on workers is an exchanger project at one of the pilot sites. In this instance, nine exchangers were being removed from service to be scrapped and needed both interior and exterior surfaces cleaned. The job was originally scoped according to conventional practices — using a manual shotgun, requiring 21 days of work. The time of year was mid-summer, so heat stress on workers using manual cleaning equipment was a concern. As an alternative, Veolia suggested using one of its automated shotgun technologies, the Shell Side Cleaner, and the customer agreed. As a result, the job was completed in only seven days. More importantly, because workers were not required to perform the task in full slicker suits, heat stress and downtime due to that stress were eliminated. 

“When Veolia can clean a unit faster, you can get back on line faster, which means more production time to make your products,” said Kelley.

Following the success at the pilot sites for this customer, Veolia took on the initiative to also eliminate manual lancing work at all the U.S. sites at which the company works by July 1, 2013 and eliminate all manual shotgunning at those sites by Aug. 1, 2013. At press time, Veolia is 99-percent automated at all these locations and, between 2009 and 2013, have had zero OSHA recordable injuries at these same sites.

Winning business with automation

Glenn Miano is one of Veolia’s site-based managers and works at a customer location where Veolia provides vacuum truck, chemical cleaning and industrial cleaning services. 

“We utilize several of our automation technologies to minimize safety risk and improve efficiency for our customer,” said Miano. “We use automated lancing and shotgunning technologies for cleaning exchangers and our Cobra for blasting on pad areas. We also perform on-line cleaning services using an automated lance feed technology.”  Veolia provides the technology and works with the facility’s operations personnel to develop work procedures to ensure safe operations during cleaning projects.

At this customer site, Veolia has proven its ability to provide automated cleaning solutions that other contractors can’t. For example, other contractors on site were using both manual and semiautomated equipment to clean exchangers and other equipment. Veolia was invited to introduce some of its proprietary hands-free technologies to the jobsite. It used the Viper auto lance feeding system and RHD to clean the furnace USX tubes and collection header. The customer found Veolia’s high-volume, high-pressure RHD devices cleaned the tubes and header better than that of the other contractors. 

Veolia also demonstrated the value of its automation portfolio when it answered this customer’s call for a solution to on-line cleaning. In this instance, a distillation column was becoming fully loaded with liquid because the trays were plugged with a polymer type substance. Using conventional cleaning methods, the customer would have had to take a lengthy, costly turnaround to open the column and clean the trays. However, Veolia employed one of its automated on-line cleaning technologies, using diesel as a process compatible liquid, to clean the trays via a hot tap on the column. Within the first hour, the column was unloaded and liquid was flowing through the trays. 

Industry trends

Kelley sees the driving force behind automated technologies coming from the customers. “Stories of successful projects, like those we’ve referenced here, have a tendency to spread around the industry,” said Kelley. “A number of major companies have heard about the success with automation at these customers’ sites and are interested in knowing more about it, too.” 

Customer demand for fully automated solutions has also pushed Veolia to get more aggressive on its own implementation of Hands Free™ technologies. While the company was steadily increasing its rate of automation and continuing to develop new cleaning technologies, the success of recent customer programs resulted in Veolia’s senior management team challenging themselves to achieve 100-percent automated hydroblasting at all customer sites. Over the course of the next two to three years, Veolia will be moving all of its customers across North America toward automation. 

Going from manual work to using automated tools also changes the complexion of the jobs the worker is doing. “A natural shift in the skill set needed to perform these types of jobs is occurring,” said McClister. “A move from manual labor to skills centered on operational expertise, diagnostics and repair will define the worker of the future.”  

As an employee, moving from manual work to automation may initially feel uncomfortable, but it’s often a welcomed change once operators realize the personal benefits for their health and safety. Veolia provides extensive training on the proper operation of the automated equipment and most employees become excited about the opportunity to learn a new skill. “There’s the possibility for personal and professional growth,” said McClister. “In this technological age, these are good skills to have and often lead to better compensation and greater career opportunities.” 

McClister knows Veolia’s implementation of hands-free technologies underscores the company’s commitment to safety and that improving upon current technology is key to keeping its employees safe in the long run. So as Veolia looks to the future, the goal is to continue to enhance its technology portfolio by developing new concepts and applications. 

“Innovative thinking and continuous improvement keep our employees safer and enable us to add new levels of value to our customers,” McClister said. “We are grateful for the excellent customer- and employee-driven ideas and technological advancements that have helped keep us at the leading edge of our industry.” 

For more information, visit www.veoliaes.com or call (888) 983-6542. 

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