Hydrocarbon Processing - September 2021 - 35

Special Focus Refining Technology
K. TRIVEDI, ExxonMobil Global Projects, Houston, Texas;
S. NEHETE, ExxonMobil Chemical Operations Pvt. Ltd.,
Singapore; and J. GUNTER, ExxonMobil Fuels &
Lubricants Co., Houston, Texas
Enterprise-wide energy efficiency
fleet monitoring tool
In response to challenges related to global warming, climate
change and greenhouse gas emissions, numerous countries are
adopting regulatory measures requiring industry to further
improve energy efficiency. The authors' company has a long
tradition of effectively improving energy efficiency and mitigating
emissions, both for internal operational efficiency and
to support external drivers within the industry-such as the
API Compendium challenge-as well as managing the risk of
climate change through emissions reduction goals for 2025,
which are projected to be consistent with the goals of the Paris
Agreement. The company continues to invest in lower-emissions
technologies, such as carbon capture and advanced biofuels,
which are necessary for society to achieve its ambition
for net zero emissions by 2050.1,2
Over several decades, substantial work has been done from
an energy management perspective. This has enabled the company
to become one of the most energy efficient international
refining companies in the world and one of the most energy efficient
refining companies operating in the U.S. The company
has achieved a 10% improvement in energy efficiency across
its global refining and chemicals operations following an effort
launched in 20003
, showcasing a robust set of processes
to improve energy efficiency and mitigate emissions, including
programs focused on reducing methane emissions, flaring and
venting. These processes include, where appropriate, setting
tailored objectives at the business, site and equipment level,
and then stewarding progress toward meeting those objectives.
This rigorous approach is effective to promote efficiencies and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions in operations, while striving
to achieve industry-leading performance.4
However, with regulations to manage climate change risk
emerging around the world, it is becoming increasingly important
to develop smart ways to identify further energy efficiency
improvement opportunities in existing facilities. Such initiatives
support the company's aim for industry-leading greenhouse
gas performance across its businesses by 2030.1
Energy fleets, such as fired heaters and boilers, are the
primary energy consumers for refineries and petrochemical
facilities. Overall facility energy efficiency improves with the
improved energy performance of energy fleets. Therefore,
it is important to routinely track the performance of energyconsuming
equipment. This helps to identify maintenance requirements
in a timely manner and improve energy efficiency.
Need for enterprise-wide monitoring tools. For an organization
like the authors' company, plant performance monitoring
activities consume significant resources. For example,
the global fleet of fired heaters within the authors' company
exceeds 700. Adding other equipment that impact the energy
footprint to the fleet will result in thousands of pieces of
equipment that must be monitored. It is important to deploy
smart and efficient digital solutions to minimize resource requirements
without affecting the quality of the monitoring. In
fact, digital monitoring has helped the company to increase its
overall productivity by replacing closed site level monitoring
systems with open, interoperable systems. This has resulted in
easier information sharing among relevant stakeholders. Such
a transformation makes engineers more creative in managing
fleets and unlocks many unidentified opportunities. With improved
transparency, such transformation facilitates the process
to monetize and prioritize opportunities at the corporate level.
Another major advantage of such an approach is that it helps
to deploy a consistent process as uniform engineering toolsets
are used across the entire fleet family. This also results in creating
an internal benchmarking database that can be used to monetize
and prioritize opportunities on a global scale.
FIG. 1. Elements of a fleet development framework.
Hydrocarbon Processing | SEPTEMBER 2021 35
Hydrocarbon Processing - September 2021

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