BIC Magazine recently held a special roundtable discussion with some of the industry's top operations managers, featuring:
- Chad Moody, operations manager -- acrylics business unit, Arkema Clear Lake
- Brant Shields, operations leader for the TX-9 ethane cracker, Dow's Oyster Creek Site.
- Jennifer Dunphy, process manager, ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Chemical Plant
BIC: What is your site’s main equipment/operating challenge?
Chad Moody, Operations Manager - Acrylics Business Unit, Arkema Clear Lake
MOODY: At the Arkema Clear Lake facility, we produce three finished products: glacial acrylic acid, butyl acrylate and methyl acrylate. The site has been in operation for more than 45 years. The greatest challenge we face is avoiding disruptions in production to ensure we can deliver product on time to our customers. To make that happen, our efforts primarily fall into one of two categories: maintaining good asset condition and preventing polymer formation. In the area of maintaining good asset condition, our team is placing an increased focus on identifying and prioritizing equipment replacement in our capital project portfolio. As we develop projects to replace equipment prior to the end of its useful life, we are taking a close look at ways to optimize design to drive long-term reliability. One example of this is upgrading metallurgy on the cooling water side of heat exchangers — from carbon steel to stainless steel — in an effort to prevent corrosion of the baffle plates.
We have a diverse team of technical, operations and R&D experts focusing on ways to eliminate polymer formation. The team meets regularly throughout the year and maintains a list of activities intended to drive our improvements. In one of our production units, we made a process change that essentially eliminated polymer formation in a specific area, resulting in a big increase in on-stream reliability.
Brant Shields, Operations Leader for the TX-9 Ethane Cracker, Dow's Oyster Creek Site
SHIELDS: Our main challenge is preventing unplanned events such as mechanical integrity issues, upsets leading to flaring emissions and product quality issues. Global competition challenges margins in the chemical industry, where the successful companies are those that run the most reliably and control costs. The key to this is preventing unplanned events and, more importantly, preventing unplanned process safety events. Fundamentally, the chemical process industry is about controlling hazardous energy. There is little room for error, and the mistakes that impact worker and community safety are critical to prevent. These challenges are handled through a number of different efforts such as robust implementation of integrity management and maintenance programs, effective safety instrumented system (SIS)/layer of protection analysis (LOPA) programs and automation, and effective operator training programs.
BIC: What do you think will be the biggest breakthroughs in operations in the next 1-2 years?
MOODY: From my perspective, the biggest breakthroughs in the next few years will be with digital mobility. Arkema has been steadily working to harness digital technologies in many areas including manufacturing, and I expect our operations team will continue this effort in the near term by making great strides in the area of electronic safe work permit writing. Driving efficiency in the permitting process will reduce the time spent inside preparing for a task, and that will increase the time spent in the field.
Another breakthrough I expect at Arkema Clear Lake is an upsurge of employee engagement in solving problems and improving the plant. Arkema is in the midst of implementing “SMART,” which is a methodology intended to drive continuous plant improvement by engaging all levels of the organization in problem-solving. We have many talented employees at Arkema Clear Lake, and I expect SMART to help ensure that we hear and implement their great ideas. This should deliver improved operations and business results while also increasing employee morale and retention.
SHIELDS: The continued adoption of digital technology to operating-the-plant tasks will impact operations significantly. This includes wireless data systems in plant process areas, wearables, etc. Traditionally, plant operation involves a panel operator inside the control room and an outside operator in the field. The panel operator monitors data; processes information, trends and alarms; and then directs the actions of the outside operator via radio. I think we’ll see more adoption of technologies where the outside operator has information similar to the inside operator. The technology to do this is widely available now, but the breakthrough will be in its adoption.
Jennifer Dunphy, Process Manager, ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Chemical Plant
DUNPHY: Digital manufacturing is going to be a positive disrupter for the future of our industry in operations. At ExxonMobil, VR is being utilized for personnel safety training. By integrating VR tools with the 3-D model of the facility, personnel can perform a virtual walkthrough of the unit and practice high-risk tasks before contact in a physical unit even begins. This technology accelerates the competency of our employees and contractors on tasks like opening process equipment or boiler operations. Digital manufacturing is making our operations more effective and productive with other tools such as wireless connectivity, mobile devices and mobile applications in the field. This provides our teams with faster and more precise data to offer us an even better competitive position in reliability and safety.
BIC: Where is your site anticipating the use of big data and analytics?
MOODY: Arkema is actively working on a solution that will directly connect our field observations and diagnostics with our maintenance management system. Streamlining the process and enabling creation of repair and preventative work requests on the spot will have a positive impact on equipment reliability. Our site is also anticipating connectivity between this data and our process data historian, which would enable us to more closely monitor the process and identify challenges proactively.
At our site, we are in the midst of implementing a new software that interfaces with our continuous environmental monitoring system (CEMS). The software can send real-time alerts to the appropriate subject matter experts. These experts can then respond in a timely manner and document the actions they have taken in the system.
DUNPHY: Big data tools enable us to collect extremely large data sets and analyze them to reveal patterns, trends and associations. We now have several big data tools available and deploy them throughout our site. For example, we are assembling massive amounts of reactor startup data and capturing conditions using certain key parameters. We are, however, in our infancy with respect to big data and only scratching the surface of its potential. Ultimately, to have supercomputers analyze the terabytes of data we generate every day and determine trends faster has significant potential to improve safety and reliability.
BIC: What level of success have you experienced with new technologies at your plant?
MOODY: We’ve had excellent success in our efforts to enhance mechanical pump-seal reliability. Working closely with our pump-seal supplier, we have systematically been upgrading our seal technology to improve reliability. In the past year, we have seen about a 30-percent improvement in mean time between failures, which reduces maintenance and increases reliability.
A very recent new technical application for us is in the area of online analyzers. Online analytical technology on our recently started acrylic acid reactor is providing us with continuous data that allows for optimization of reactor operations. Optimizing reactor yield can generate significant variable cost savings for our plant each year.
Another area of success for us has been with the implementation of electronic dashboards for safe work permit communications. While this is still a work in progress, it shows great promise for improving communications between operations and maintenance, which will improve wrench-time utilization for the craftspeople.
SHIELDS: We’ve had success with implementation of electronic safe work permitting and drones for visual equipment inspections. We’ve also seen success in novel applications of existing analytical methods like tunable diode lasers. I’d like to see continued adoption of technologies that integrate operator field surveillance information, such as condition monitoring during plant rounds, into the plant’s data historian systems.
DUNPHY: I have been excited to see us commercialize new products that improve the benefits we provide our customers — and also new operations that allow us to meet market demands. For instance, the chemical plant started up a unit in 2015 that produces synthetic lubricants used in aircraft engines, motor oils and greases. These feedstocks are used at our Port Allen, Louisiana, aviation plant to service the global aviation industry. In addition, we have continued to implement industry-leading technologies in our steam crackers. These types of innovations will enable our operations to remain a reliable supplier, keeping our site competitive in a global market.
I am always hungry for more innovation at our plants. We are focused on empowering our teams to be more agile when it comes to testing new processes, technologies and approaches for the complex challenges we face in the petrochemical industry. Unique ways of improving reliability, quality and cost performance are critical for our continued success. Making sure people feel supported to bring their full, creative selves to work also ensures we attract top talent and our site remains an inclusive place to work.
BIC: How have operations changed regarding contractors in the time you have been on the job?
MOODY: Arkema has made changes in the past several years to better align with our contractors, because contractor safety and efficiency heavily influence our success. Our efforts to work more collaboratively have resulted in stronger relationships, common goals and improved results. Arkema Clear Lake’s efforts in this area include contractor roundtable discussions on a monthly basis to share pertinent topics of interest, pre-job assessment discussions to align everyone on work scope and expectations, and annual contractor safety day events to share best practices and ensure alignment on the safe behaviors necessary to deliver an injury-free workplace. Efforts like these are having a real impact and enhancing our success with everything we do.
SHIELDS: In my personal experience, operations have not changed much regarding use of contractors in the years I have been on the job. I believe this is due to the highly specialized and mission-critical nature of the plant operator’s role. With the operating objectives of 100-percent reliability and zero unplanned events, plant operators must be highly skilled, highly motivated and highly trained individuals. The company must spend significant time and resources attracting and developing them, too. These individuals need to be in their plant operation roles for a long time and need to be fully committed to the long-term safety and reliability objectives of the organization.
The specialized nature of a modern chemical plant operator’s role means that it takes years of training and experience to develop true proficiency. In addition to a broad skillset, a plant operator must have a very deep understanding of the job at that specific facility.
DUNPHY: In today’s environment, it is important we look at our contractors as allies instead of service providers. The importance of working together to identify, test and implement new technology will help keep our operations and people safe as well as make our processes more reliable and efficient. Some examples of this would be smart flange technology that keeps the worker away from the process during installation; cellphone applications that eliminate the need to transfer written documents to computer files; and new scaffolding technology that allows for more efficient setup, takedown and maintenance through our ropes.
Additionally, we need to work together in the training and development of local residents to ensure we have a capable and competent workforce. We work with our contract companies to ensure they are playing a key role in workforce development and the safety of their employees. Industry organizations like the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance and ABC also play a vital role in ensuring the area has the qualified contractor workforce to meet the industry’s needs. I see this collaboration with our contractor companies continuing to grow and remaining an integral part of our operations.
BIC: What issues are affecting your operations in ways you didn’t anticipate a few years ago?
SHIELDS: A few things come to mind, such as security issues associated with drones. The prevalence of drones means a traditional chemical plant’s fenceline or bordering green zone property doesn’t provide the level of security it once did. There are also challenges with certain materials that are widely adopted in construction. Modern materials and fabrication techniques allow excellent pressure-containing performance of very thin stainless steels — so thin that microbial-induced corrosion is a more significant concern to manage than in the past, when components had higher wall thicknesses. Managing the proper construction and commissioning of these systems is critical in preventing them from becoming a source of unplanned events.
DUNPHY: The competition for investment is becoming more and more global. Our products are made around the globe, and we compete for customers around the world. Even more importantly, we see strong competition for that investment right next door in Texas. We did not anticipate the resistance we would face locally for that investment. As we experience an era of generational growth on the Gulf Coast, I believe further reform is needed to ensure the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) is a predictable and fairly administered economic development tool. A streamlined ITEP process, improved transportation infrastructure and availability of a qualified workforce are all things we support and are key to keeping us in a competitive position for potential future growth opportunities in Baton Rouge and Louisiana.
BIC Magazine would like to thank all those who participated in this industry roundtable.
