M. Flannery, Endress+Hauser, Houston, Texas; and C. MARCON, Endress+Hauser, Asheville, North Carolina
The global pressures posed by climate change and other environmental challenges have elevated sustainability to a worldwide corporate priority. As a result, businesses spanning the industrial sectors are reevaluating and prioritizing impacts on customers, employees and communities, with an understanding that long-term success requires a steadfast commitment to sustainability.
For refining, petrochemical and energy companies seeking to enhance their sustainability efforts, introspection is a crucial starting point, considering customer expectations, evaluating potential operational enhancements and devising strategies to meet high-level goals. These activities enable process manufacturers to establish tangible objectives and pursue them with clarity and purpose.
While industry acknowledges the urgency of adopting environmentally sustainable practices, the imperatives of competitive markets mandate minimizing expenses and upholding the highest degree of process integrity. This amalgamation of operational optimization and environmental sustainability presents a formidable challenge, and these objectives sometimes conflict. Nevertheless, process manufacturers can now leverage the capabilities of modern instrumentation to reconcile both aims by optimizing energy efficiency and minimizing utility consumption.
Inefficiency increases expenses. Traditionally, process manufacturers viewed their utilities as fixed expenses, but aggressively advancing energy-saving technologies are changing this perspective. Conversely, neglecting efficient energy management creates unnecessary expenditures, which are ultimately borne by consumers—in today’s competitive markets, this can result in lost customers (FIG. 1).
Efficient energy management can be a challenge because it sometimes necessitates regular manual checks. For example, boiler systems personnel must routinely inspect valve bodies, pressure regulators, pipe connections and steam traps for leaks. This routine maintenance regimen requires time and effort; furthermore, any leaks that develop during operation are likely to continue unnoticed until the next inspection, wasting energy and operating expenses in the interim. Manual inspections also create personnel safety hazards, and often produce inconsistent results depending on the technicians’ levels of experience and expertise.
Moreover, process variations can introduce operational inefficiencies. The difference in wet, saturated or superheated steam has implications on operational energy efficiency, but some of these conditions can also compromise product quality. Detecting wet steam, for instance, in a timely and efficient manner requires dependable and automated continuous monitoring solutions.
Contemporary instrumentation meets the need. Modern instruments with advanced functionalities are aiding process manufacturers in mitigating energy waste in numerous applications. These instruments can be broadly categorized into two groups. The first encompasses devices that employ conventional measurement techniques such as standard flow, temperature, pressure and level sensors. While resembling older models’ likenesses, modern iterations often provide enhanced precision, along with a plethora of diagnostic data that are crucial for identifying process or instrument issues.
The second category comprises specialized devices tailored for specific applications. For example, modern vortex flowmeters optimized for steam applications go beyond the conventional scope by gauging parameters like steam quality and temperature, and some even integrate onboard pressure transducers (FIG. 2). These instruments provide comprehensive insight into steam quality, creating avenues for significant efficiency enhancements.
Furthermore, many devices in this second category help streamline maintenance efforts by incorporating onboard smart verification techniques. These automated procedures execute a series of tests to ascertain whether the instrument is operating within acceptable parameters, enabling operations teams to quickly verify instrument integrity from the safety and convenience of the control room. This eliminates the need to disrupt a process or remove the instrument from service, and it consequently reduces manual maintenance requirements, reinstallation errors and process downtime.
Energy management methods. In addition to dependable and precise measurements, facilities require methodologies for collecting and analyzing measurement data to pinpoint areas for optimization and to monitor progress. For process manufacturers new to energy optimization, establishing an energy management plan is an essential first step. This requires auditing existing instrumentation and process measurement points, scrutinizing the data collected and identifying additional measurement points to enhance insights. Typically, this assessment is carried out with assistance from a third-party consultant or vendor experienced in energy optimization.
Compiling a roster of energy performance indicators (EnPIs)—metrics that monitor energy performance over time—is another significant step toward improving energy management. EnPIs help process manufacturers track energy consumption performance at all levels, from individual processes to the entire facility. EnPIs may be expressed as raw energy units, or as ratios or models that consider factors influencing energy usage, such as weather conditions or fluctuations in production demand. Some examples of EnPIs and common engineering units include:
The ISO 50001 standard delineates the establishment of energy management systems incorporating EnPIs, which are in turn detailed by ISO 50006. By comparing ongoing EnPI values with baseline measurements predating efficiency enhancements, companies can assess the effectiveness of their initiatives (FIG. 3).
Lastly, artificial intelligence (AI) presents potential for energy optimization by harnessing vast volumes of data in ways previously unattainable. Numerous oil, gas and chemical companies, for instance, are contemplating the integration of AI into their strategies to fulfill sustainability goals. It falls upon each company to explore all available avenues and determine the most suitable options to meet its requirements.
Multivariable measurement propels nitrogen process optimization. In the pursuit of a more cost-effective flow measurement technique, a nitrogen services company specializing in the hydraulic fracturing industry utilized Coriolis flowmeters to accurately measure non-Newtonian fluids. Measuring these fluids’ flows can be difficult because their viscosities fluctuate in correspondence with changing shear rates. This same characteristic makes accurate measurement crucial: if equipment is not properly adjusted to current viscosity before pumping fluid and frac gel down a wellbore, it can present operational challenges.
The company’s previous method of compensating for viscosity fluctuations required a manual sampling process, and although functional, it required scrupulous attention to detail and additional personnel. Operators obtained manual samples every 10 min and ran multiple tests to gauge the viscosity measurement and maintain exact product quality.
Because the Coriolis measuring principle operates independently of physical fluid properties—such as viscosity and density—the new flowmeters provided reliable measurement regardless of process conditions, eliminating the need for manual testing (FIG. 4).
The new Coriolis flowmeters measure multiple variables, including flow, temperature, density and viscosity. The automatic collection of these data points by a single device freed up the company’s operators to focus on other tasks because the control system now makes automatic corrections based on these process values. This enhanced process efficiency, measurement accuracy, energy efficiency and product quality, and it also eliminated the need for multiple transmitters each making individual measurements.
Additionally, the company can now view its process and instrument diagnostic data remotely via any device capable of hosting a web browser by connecting to the flowmeters’ built-in web servers. With less effort required to take manual samples and measurements, and more time to monitor operation, the company is optimizing operations and taking proactive steps to prevent potential issues, such as leaks and spills.
Attaining sustainable success. The pursuit of operational sustainability is paramount in preserving the environment, and fortunately, it does not have to come at the cost of compromised production. On the contrary, identifying and rectifying inefficiencies helps curtail wasteful operational expenditures, and it can help companies become more competitive through the efficient use of personnel resources’ time and efforts.
During initial stages of energy optimization, organizations must define the parameters to be measured, determine methods for data analysis and install modern instrumentation suited for the task. Although the first steps are daunting, process manufacturers can seek assistance from consultants well-versed in energy efficiency and plant optimization. These strategic collaborations help streamline procedures at every phase, propelling intrepid, sustainability-minded industry players in their quests for long-term business continuity. HP
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Mason Flannery is a Product Marketing Manager for Flow Measurement products at Endress+Hauser. He began his career with Endress+Hauser in the rotational engineering program and has spent time in tech support, inside sales, application engineering and as a Regional Flow Product Business Manager. Flannery has extensive field experience with flow measurement in industrial environments and a wide range of application knowledge. He earned a BS degree in industrial distribution from Texas A&M University.
Cory Marcon, Power & Energy Industry Marketing Manager for Endress+Hauser USA, is responsible for the overall business development and growth of the company position related to traditional power generation and the energy transition. As part of his role, he serves as the U.S. representative in the global SIG (Strategic Industry Group), helping develop education, the long-term vision, brand and product direction within Endress+Hauser as the world actively works toward carbon neutrality. Marcon is a 2012 graduate of McGill University with more than a decade of experience in many forms of energy, including solar, wind and gas.