How can refinery stakeholders ensure safer, more cost-effective turnarounds?

The European petrochemical sector faces weak margins due to overcapacity and high energy costs, impacting its global competitiveness. Effective turnarounds are crucial for necessary upgrades and maintenance, but they require strategic planning and adaptability from refinery teams to be successful.
But for this to happen, these same teams must possess high levels of in-house expertise to safely execute this highly specialist process. Yet this is becoming an issue in the chemical industry, which is facing acute labour shortages. Indeed, 30% of employees within the sector are over 50 and are likely to retire over the next decade or so.

Brain drain and delays

This brain drain is likely to affect the turnaround process, impacting key planning stages including risk assessments and identifying the correct PPE, as well as the execution of the turnaround itself. As a successful turnaround hinges on having the right assets and skilled personnel lined up months in advance, difficulty engaging qualified experts to manage the process can translate into further complications.
Consequently, the entire procedure may become less safe, less cost-effective, and less sustainable, while also being increasingly prone to delays. With each day the refinery is offline costing millions, such setbacks should be avoided wherever possible.

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Safety for life

In these circumstances, it is vital that turnaround managers look to leverage third-party expertise to bridge potential knowledge gaps around critical processes and safety concerns. Aggreko's comprehensive health, safety, and environmental programme, known as Safety for Life, is a fundamental aspect of its global operations, and was developed with these aims in mind. This framework is meticulously designed to eliminate or manage risks while fostering continuous improvement.
The programme ensures clarity on health, safety, and environmental (HSE) rules, standards, and processes, with well-defined accountabilities and responsibilities. Aggreko is committed to driving best practices and, at a minimum, complying with legal requirements, delivering strong results that ensure site and personnel safety.
Furthermore, Aggreko emphasises accountability through effective communication, setting targets, executing plans and actions. By doing so, the company can best establish the critical path throughout the turnaround process, measure ongoing performance, and provide assurance that reported outcomes accurately reflect actual events.

Engaging expertise

Importantly, this involves collaboration and pooled knowledge across the company’s global operations, including the Aggreko Process Services team – a staff of chemical and mechanical engineers that plan more than 20 turnarounds annually. By utilising such expertise throughout turnarounds, from initial strategic planning to execution and after-action reporting and reviews, Aggreko can better guarantee a safe working experience that upholds high standards in health, safety, and environmental practices.
This expertise manifests in multiple ways throughout the turnaround process – for example, in maintaining cooling towers used for comfort cooling during asbestos removal, or for testing when commissioning trains or other equipment. These informed maintenance strategies, enhanced by access to key equipment performance metrics through remote monitoring, can shorten turnarounds by days while improving overall safety.

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Reassurance in reactor cooling

The impact of third-party knowledge can be best seen during the reactor cooling process. This critical procedure involves bringing catalysts in hydroprocessing units and catalytic reformers down to near ambient temperatures from their normal high operating temperatures.
This is typically done in two stages. An initial cooldown can be achieved by using existing unit equipment, with a second, more rapid cooldown taking place afterwards using liquid nitrogen or alternative methods such as mechanical cooling. Yet due to the large mass of the reactor metal and catalyst, cooling can take days before personnel can safely enter the unit.
Refinery managers may therefore understandably seek ways to safely expedite the second portion of the catalyst cooldown process without the costs, storage or flammability issues surrounding liquid nitrogen, placing turnaround teams at risk.
To mitigate cooldown concerns during this second phase, Aggreko has developed an innovative solution that circulates coolant through a closed-loop chiller system, cooling the gas from the recycle gas compressor discharge via a heat exchanger.

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Safety, efficiency, expertise

Crucially, this may let refinery personnel move the vessel off the critical path and allow the plant to restart units in a shorter time period. The fact this can all be done while reducing flare demonstrates further advantages from a safety standpoint and again underlines the importance of engaging knowledgeable third parties that can safely execute such procedures.
Indeed, to safeguard both personnel and site integrity, refinery personnel must prioritise health, safety, and environmental standards throughout the turnaround process. This approach not only mitigates potential risks during this vital procedure but also reduces costly plant-wide delays during the turnaround. Utilising supply chain expertise is crucial for bridging knowledge gaps and ensuring this process is carried out as effectively and efficiently as possible, with no compromise on safety.
Discover more about Aggreko’s refinery turnaround services and safety for life programme .