August 13, 2021
Chemical Plant
Problem
- Customer complained of availability issues.
- Operation was not smooth, and availability was lower than expected.
Goal
- 3% increase in plant operational availability
How SAM GUARD Helped
- The plant was partially modelled over the course of a few days, covering several of the main production units.
- Alerts directed the operators to equipment failures at the thermal incinerator; indicators showed bad sensors at the oxygen flow meter, and process deviations direct to the blower.
- After handling these problems and measuring the availability three months after applying the software, unplanned shutdowns were reduced from 14% to 10%.
- A substantial increase of 4% was measured in the overall plant operational availability.
Value
- 4% increase in plant availability.
- Next steps include modelling the entire plant to increase plant operational availability to the highest industry standards.