In a proactive effort to prioritize the safety and welfare of petrochem workers, a dedicated group of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) experts has launched what they have dubbed the "FCC Roadshow."
Understanding the paramount significance of safety to the petrochemical industry and industries at large, this innovative initiative aims to bolster worker well-being and industry standards.
Recognizing that nothing is more valuable to the petrochemical industry than the safety and well-being of its workers, a group of fluid catalytic cracking leaders have devised an FCC Roadshow.
A suite of tools for senior level operators, the FCC Roadshow provides a high-level overview of the customizable, easy-to-implement tools developed in response to recommendations from major industry events.
Roadshow participant Nikolas Larsen, FCC and alkylation technology manager with Marathon Petroleum, describes FCC as "a dynamic and high temperature process" that’s been around since the mid-20th century.
"We know that abnormal events can get out of hand and quickly lead to personal or process safety events," Larsen said, discussing the Roadshow in an industry roundtable presented by BIC Magazine. "Historically, this led to the development of safety instrument systems and shutdown systems."
Larsen recalled a time "back in the old days" when an operator might be distracted or "in the bathroom" when the air blower shuts down, leading to "plumes on a stack."
More recently, Larsen said, incidents have highlighted risk during non-normal operation.
"The one thing we’ve noticed with high profile process safety events in FCC is that they’ve been related to non-normal operation — not something breaking when the unit is just running along," he said. "We realized we have a blind spot here and we need to put more focus on transient operation of FCC."
That realization, coupled with dedication to reducing incidents by evolving safety regimens, led to the development of the FCC Roadshow.
Ziad Jawad, director of FCC Technology with Phillips 66, has joined Larsen as an FCC Roadshow presenter.
Jawad explained that Roadshow meetings are designed to be easily accessible to personnel who would most benefit from the curricula.
"Simplified" and "easy to use" best describe the resource content, he said.
"We’re going to have regional meetings within an hour of the refinery so the people that need to be there can attend," Jawad said.
"The gap we have is that the right people haven’t been seeing the information," noted Roadshow co-presenter, Richard Grove, FCC enthusiast and global manufacturing process technology expert for Chevron. "So we’re going to try to get this information out to the unit level so they can take advantage of these learnings."
Jawad agreed with Grove’s assessment.
"The people who attend often haven’t been to these conferences before — you don’t see them taking a flight and staying at a hotel," Jawad said. "These are the people who are too important to leave the refinery — the operations supervisors, senior operators, senior board operators and procedure writers."
The one-day Roadshow seminar "will be easily accessible," Jawad continued, offering resources including practice shares — a toolbox of documents that reference the body of knowledge presented by subject matter experts that attendees can take back to the refinery to implement.
"There will also be action plans to help attendees best implement shared practices," Jawad said.
Jawad encouraged Roadshow attendees to use the tools and "make a change."
Director of Process Technology, Joe Colmone, with Delek US and Roadshow co-presenter emphasized that leaders should choose dialoguing instead of dictating when communicating with their workers.
"Leaders need to enable their staff and listen to their struggles," Colmone said. "I think having real-world examples helps. They need to be heard, rather than be told what needs to be done."
Larsen endorsed the "long history of industry working together to try to learn from incidents that happen across our industry."
Larsen and his FCC Roadshow co-presenters "have been communicating and collaborating with one another for more than 10 years, focusing on improving internal standards and processes, and taking those lessons back to our specific companies," he said.
Nonetheless, despite best efforts, incidents continue to happen, "So we’re out here trying to do more," Larsen said.
A dedicated website for the Roadshow is currently in the works. Meanwhile, panel moderator Lara Swett, VP of Technical and Safety Programs with AFPM, said questions may be directed to fccsafetyworkshop@afpm.org or by calling (202) 457-0480.
