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Keywords

Process anomalies, reliability incidents, loss events, reliability incident pyramid, CUSUM, EWMA, SPC

Document Type

Research Article

Abstract

In the hydrocarbon process industry, fnancial losses resulting from plant trips can be signifcant. In this study, reliability loss events or trips in 2018 at a sizeable hydrocarbon process plant are analysed to determine if they were preventable. Of particular interest is those loss events that exhibited early signs of process anomalies—such as temperature, pressure, and fow—at least twelve hours before the event. Using the concept of ‘reliability incident pyramid’ where plant process anomalies outnumber production slowdown and trip events, a software tool is deployed to help process engineers detect the anomalies. The idea is that troubleshooting these anomalies before they escalate to plant trips would reduce the number of trips and prevent production losses. Post-deployment plant process data for 2019 are analysed to determine if process engineers could pick up on the anomalies indicated by the software and intervene to prevent potential plant trips. Results indicate that in conjunction with vigilance by the process engineers, such software can reduce the number of reliability loss events in a hydrocarbon process plant.

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Publication Date

30-6-2021

First Page

38

Last Page

41

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