Petrochemical & refining recovery: How to improve efficiency through strategic hire projects

In a bid to avoid use of a certain word starting in ‘un’ and ending in ‘precedented’, it is undeniably extraordinary times for the oil, gas and chemicals industries right now. Understandably the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns has forced many companies to seek cash preservation but, at the same time, maintain a level of business that serves their own company and customers best. 

What’s more, businesses are still having to balance meeting sustainability targets alongside improving efficiency and productivity levels. I’m “virtually” meeting many people across the sector who simply feel like they’re caught in a catch-22 right now.

While many are experiencing a temporary decline in demand for fossil fuels, in particular jet fuel, demand for new renewable alternatives like HVO is on the up. Also, LPG residential demand appears to be helping a number of firms recover from COVID-19 losses as more people stay at home. No matter which side of the coin you are, companies need to diversify and come at the challenge from a new angle. What’s for sure is, whatever the product, it’s undeniable that the industry needs to do more with less.

I see many process, production and operations managers tolerate plant inefficiencies due to perceived limitations around “what solutions are out there”. Whether it be lack of capital to upgrade, inefficient equipment, maintenance and repair costs or simply a lack of time, there are many barriers that make it easier to continue without intervention. But that needn’t be the case.

Taking a strategic outcome-based project approach to process efficiency can have dramatic effects on the long-term goals. Let’s take a look at the challenges companies in our sector have faced, and how a new approach has helped the operations teams to overcome challenges they once thought demanded much more time, effort and money.

Old infrastructure is a problem in most industries and the pace of change in today’s technological society means that the ageing of equipment is exacerbated. This means that resident cooling or heat rejection equipment is often outmoded, under capacity or generally inefficient. Paying to replace such items is going to be harder to justify than ever going forward. And, as the pace of life goes back to pre-COVID-19 levels, improving throughput rates is going to be more important than ever. 

One typical application for this sector is to consider temporary supplementary cooling during production to remove excess heat. Under-performance of cooling equipment can often be intensified in the summer months which can push the production temperatures up. 

By providing localised cooling and heat exchangers at the run-down cooling stage, the additional cooling kW will help bring the temperatures down & stay down more quickly. Ultimately this means the process can stay on track, as well an ensuring there are less losses. 

By carrying out a strategic hire project in this instance, there is no client asset depreciation or amortisation and no ongoing maintenance, repair or ownership costs.