The operability & control solutions – the technology to achieve stability for plant start-up

Abstract

Process start-up of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, refinery or a petrochemical facility is often equated with some level of process instability. The root cause for these instabilities is the lack of work-processes that manage the dynamic behaviour of the entire facility during the detailed engineering design phase. This has been found to be pervasive in all the international design companies assessed during the development of this program. As a result of these instabilities, Control Room Operators/Panel Operator will typically be challenged during the start-up of the facility, with the potential for human-errors, start-up delays and in some instances, mechanical failures. These in turn contribute to losses in production, significant energy wastage and extended flaring duration (a significant environmental concern). The concerns had prompted the Process Control team to come up with mitigation, the Operability and Control Solutions (OCS) technology, developed based on experiences gained from the start-up of a number of Oil and Gas facilities over a 20-year period. This paper will describe an innovative design-review technology that addresses the gap in effective process behaviour management. This unique technology provides assurance that new process facilities are designed to be inherently stable during the critical start-up phase till the normal operations phase. In doing this, the technology also addresses design gaps in addressing the potential of human-error and design gaps, which had prevented the facility to at its optimum point in a sustainable manner. The Operability and Control Solutions (OCS) is the technology, which has been applied in more than 10 large multi-million dollar plants. The technology has been accepted by design contractors and gives estimates of reduction in start-up periods of up to 3 days per facility.