Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2021 - 73

Maintenance and Reliability
head salting potential of a crude unit during two separate operating periods at the
same overhead temperature. The system
salt formation temperatures are calculated at all operating times during the data
acquisition window for each period. The
green region represents the safe operating
window, the red is unsafe and the yellow
is the safety margin for the period.
The left chart in FIG. 5 shows a period
of unsafe operation; the system is only
in the safe operating region 16% of the
time and has a wide operating variation
(the spread of data points away from the
center). During this period, a wide and
potentially infeasible safety margin (yellow region) would be required to ensure
safe operation. The right chart, on the
other hand, shows much better performance with tighter operational control
and, subsequently, is characterized by a
narrower and economically feasible safety margin (yellow region). This type of
computational technique and data visualization allows improved operating state
visibility and the ability to operate closer
to the optimum for improved profit,

maintenance, and safety potential with
reduced capital costs over time.
Using this different definition of safe
performance and the other technology
advancements discussed earlier, a U.S.
refiner moving from a fixed safety margin-based operation to dynamic control
was able to safely reduce overhead column top temperature by approximately
25°F (FIG. 6). This operational change
allowed the refiner to increase distillate
yield without sacrificing reliability, in a
consistent and long-term manner. Due to
favorable distillate margins, captured additional distillate profit alone was conservatively estimated at $1.5 MM/yr.

eral years at multiple refineries. These
advancements have enabled refiners to
not only better recognize the previously
hidden corrosion window, but also act to
close the window altogether on uncontrolled corrosion in crude unit overhead
systems, while gaining opportunity to
maximize profitable yields. Finally, while
each aspect of advancement discussed
here has benefit when deployed independently, greater gains are seen when all are
implemented together.

Takeaway. Progressive refiners are

JEFFREY A. ZURLO is a Senior
Marketing and Commercialization
Lead for SUEZ Water Technologies
& Solutions. He has more than
30 yr of experience in engineering,
technology, business development
and marketing across several
hydrocarbon processing technologies. Prior to joining
BetzDearborn (now SUEZ) in 1997, Mr. Zurlo held
various process engineering positions at Sunoco Inc.,
Koch Refining and Hercules Inc. He holds a BEng
degree in chemical engineering from Stevens
Institute of Technology in New Jersey.

adopting new approaches that combine
technology, chemistry and analytics to
shift how performance is measured and
controlled, with the result of more favorable operating windows, improved
reliability and, ultimately, higher profits.
The methods and approaches described
here, while relatively new, have proven
effective in the industry over the last sev-

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author thanks Dr. Collin Cross and Dr. Keyur
Patel for their help with technical information, data and
editing support.

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Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2021

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