Abstract
The gas booster station of a steel works has experienced excessive bearing failures since commissioning over two decades ago. This station was designed with redundancy, allowing for automatic switch-over between two gas booster fans. Bearing failures were observed, on average once every 15.7 days, with instances where both fans experienced simultaneous downtime. Booster failures resulted in regular station downtime, preventing Coke Oven Gas (COG) transport to an end user. This flammable by-product is used as a heat source and all unutilized volumes are flared, resulting in energy wastages. Furthermore, the absence of COG increases Natural Gas (NG) usage, procured at a cost. Traditional root cause analysis techniques failed to identify the cause of these excessive bearing failures. However, multiple in-depth data analysis studies resulted in a thermodynamic investigation, exposing liquid and solid particles within the COG to be responsible for the failures. This allowed for the design of an in-line particle collector, eliminating excessive failures. Following the particle collector installation, only two strategic bearing changes took place over the next 41 weeks, with reduced bearing vibration levels compared to before. The station experienced no failure downtime during this period, resulting in reduced COG flaring and thus improved energy utilization.
Highlights
According to [1] maintenance expenses contribute 15 to 40% of manufacturing costs
This paper provides an industry case study of an indepth data driven failure analysis regarding excessive gas booster bearing failures at a Coke Oven Gas (COG) pipeline station
From the analysis results and information gained it can further be argued that tar deposits are likely present on the backup booster blades, at lower elevation, before start-up. This will result in higher vibration levels than expected at start-up that may even result in failure, depending on the imbalance forces exerted by these deposits
Summary
It is mentioned that the costs of breakdowns, especially bearing failures, are typically unknown It is reported by [2] that improper bearing maintenance within the steel industry results in energy inefficient systems, and increased costs. This paper provides an industry case study of an indepth data driven failure analysis regarding excessive gas booster bearing failures at a COG pipeline station. Identifying the failure’s origin resulted in a structural mechanical design that prevents excessive future booster bearing failures and station downtime. This allows the steel works to save on maintenance costs, and more importantly, yielding both improved energy utilization through less COG wastages and overall safety. These studies followed scientifically based conventional failure analysis techniques; the root cause behind these frequent breakdowns could not be identified
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