The Importance of On-Site Observations and Witnessing at Refineries
In our capacity as refinery planning and economics consultants , a pivotal facet of our initial assessment involves meticulous observations and active engagement in operations. This approach enables us to firsthand gather information on existing workflows, identify potential issues, and unearth opportunities for value creation. Engaging in discussions with frontline operators and witnessing operations allows us to discern any deviations between planned steps in Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and the actual steps performed.
During a recent site visit to a client facility, a significant discovery was made concerning the over-utilization of diluent in the crude blending process to meet the pipeline viscosity requirement. This discrepancy was attributed to a non-ASTM compliant sampling location, methodology, and frequency, prompting a comprehensive review of the blend control process. Implementing our standardized audit and witnessing tools revealed the need for a revised sampling program, leading to substantial cost savings.
For successful site visits, adhere to these guidelines:
1. Ask questions and observe: Engage with frontline workers, formulate pertinent questions, and be mindful of time constraints. This approach helps uncover insights and perspectives, validating information from reports.
2. Document everything: Thoroughly document discussions, take pictures or videos with permission, and summarize insights immediately after the visit. Visual documentation aids in data collection and retention, facilitating the identification of opportunities and implementation of solutions.
Additionally, as implementation consultants, it is crucial to build trust during field visits. Spend time explaining project objectives, emphasizing collaboration, and addressing concerns. Operations personnel should feel integral to the problem-solving process, fostering ongoing dialogue beyond the site visit(s).
Observation and witnessing are integral to Trindent’s solutions, aligning seamlessly with our client's sustainability plan. As refinery planning and economics consultants, we bring a fresh perspective to optimize processes and drive economic efficiency.
Reach out to our team on LinkedIn.
This article was written by Tareq Chowdhury, a Senior Consultant at Trindent Consulting.
Path To Net Zero
Introduction
The 24th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) held in Calgary, Alberta brought over 15,000 visitors and 5,000 delegates worldwide to discuss the industry’s energy transition and path to net zero. The United Nations projects that the world population will reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050, leaving billions of people who must be brought out of energy poverty. There is clearly a challenge at a play – how should the industry that is currently supplying approximately 30% of the world’s energy demand lead its energy transformation, while balancing social governance, reliability, economic viability, and a sustainable future?
Key Takeaways
At this year’s WPC, it was encouraging to see innovative technologies and solutions that are in the pipeline to help achieve net zero. One of the presentations that caught my attention was around the application of dimethyl ether (DME) and its recovery technology – while the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) helped pioneer the rise of Canadian oil sands and its direct land footprint is relatively small, the process is costly, energy intensive, and extensively consumes water and natural gas. Most of the water from SAGD operations can be recycled, but approximately 10% must still be disposed and carbon dioxide emissions are at par with combined operations from mining and upgrading. DME displays affinity to bitumen and DME based recovery technology promises to reduce breakeven cost from $40/bbl to $8/bbl, mitigate energy consumption by 90%, eliminate water and steam generation facilities, and increase recovery rate by up to 300%. The provincial government also announced at the WPC that it will invest $7 million into a study conducted by Cenovus Energy on how small modular reactors (SMRs) can be used on oilsands operations. Having also worked in the nuclear industry, this announcement was also particularly interesting as SMRs have been thought to have applications in both public and private institutions. SMRs have a smaller footprint, allowing them to be prefabricated, shipped, and installed on locations not suitable for traditional nuclear power plants.
The examples provided above are two of many initiatives that are being taken by the oil and gas industry. However, the biggest challenge and a common theme that emerges is commercialization. Taking the DME recovery technology as an example, there are no practical applications to date and there is no concrete timeline on when it may be adopted. DME can be produced indirectly from methanol via dehydration reaction and a combination of auto-thermal reformer and direct DME synthesis, but the supply of DME is currently limited. With SMRs, there are still many unknowns surrounding cost and efficiency. Between Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission approval process, public hearings, site preparation, licensing, and construction, it can easily take 10 years start to finish. Even on the most aggressive timeline in Ontario where Ontario Power Generation is building SMRs as part of the Darlington New Nuclear Project, SMRs will not produce power until 2029. Finally, access to infrastructure, limited grid coverage in rural areas, and cost of grid connection for rural electrification can extend the timeline.
Conclusion
So what does this all mean? For realistic energy transition, where energy security, affordability, and economic prosperity can continue to occur, investment in oil and gas must continue. We must stabilize our climate and protect the environment, but in my view, turning off 30% of our energy supply is not the solution. There must be a balance where we hold the government and companies accountable, while working with the industry to implement sustainable solutions.
Reach out to our team on LinkedIn.
This article is written by Kevin Kim, Associate Principal at Trindent Consulting.
Optimizing the Hydrocarbon Value Chain
Overview
Refining companies have a multitude of lucrative coordination opportunities in their efforts to turn hydrocarbon resources into finished products.
In recent years, refiners have suffered with skills shortages, where crucial skillsets left the organization. At the same time, there has been a proliferation of data that makes decision-making more complicated, and after constant reorganization, the inter-departmental siloing of responsibility makes optimization across the total value chain more difficult to achieve.
Any hydrocarbon value chain improvement initiative must first have a clear set of objectives. Some companies seek to optimize working capital, and deployment of liquid inventories. Others seek to configure for optimal margins, while others are most interested in operational flexibility, and ensuring maximum throughput from refining assets.
Organizational Participants
In our view, there are as many as ten discrete departments that must work together to maximize the total hydrocarbon value chain. In general terms, they are:
Trading – Product exchange for alternatives to production, and getting the right crudes and feedstocks to maximize added value.
Planning – Identifying decision drivers through optimization including crude selection, operating conditions, stream dispositions, product blending and demand allocations;
Scheduling – Translating the planning decision drivers into a feasible and achievable set of execution instructions while minimizing logistics cost;
Process Engineering – Providing rigorous, technical process insight and direction that informs operations and planning and scheduling modelling requirements;
Refinery Operations & Maintenance – Executing safe, reliable and optimal production and providing current information that enables well informed plans and schedules;
Logistics – The movement of refined products to their final destinations efficiently and by the lowest practical cost.
Distribution – Placing product in quantity into the highest margin markets;
Production Accounting – Managing hydrocarbon losses and providing quality reconciled “actual” data;
Master Data Management – Providing a unified quality data for performance analysis;
Performance Analysis – Providing measurement and visualization capabilities that facilitate collaborative enterprise optimization and management of past, present and predicted performance.
The Functional Landscape
Below is a map of the functional landscape that illustrates some of the opportunities that are available for optimization at any given time:
Starting Points
Ensuring a uniform, latent and accurate set of data is helpful. Often outdated prices, incentives, and inventory positions make ‘optimizing for yesterday’ a phenomenon. We typically will commence an improvement project with a focused effort on making the refinery material balance more accurate and trustworthy. Further, there are number of techniques to improve the physical visibility of crudes and products in transit, giving them more of a real-time.
The planning process and cycle is also very important. Does manufacturing disregard aspects of the plan? Are changes to the plan adjudicated swiftly, with clear roles and accountabilities? When market opportunities present themselves, how long does it take to amend the plan? Does manufacturing chase day-to-day economics, or look to optimize over the longer term?
Better communication around maintenance events and upsets is also a common starting point. Although no one can accurately predict when an asset or unit will resume operation following a period of unplanned downtime, better focus on progress communication can help to mitigate maintenance changes to the plan. While a lot of focus has been placed on maintenance backlog reduction, overall expense reduction and reliability improvements, there needs to be an acute focus on mean time to repair (MTTR) and how status updates are provided beyond the refinery fence line.
Emerging Considerations
Carbon accounting will undoubtedly become a more important consideration in optimization. With carbon pricing, carbon capture and storage, green hydrogen, and renewables of all forms are becoming part of the equation to optimize, value chain optimization professionals need to at the total bottom-line. Recent changes instituted by the US Inflation Reduction Act only make these considerations more financially relevant.
The Payoff
In our experience, the optimization benefits available will include hundreds of millions of dollars in free-flowing cash from better working capital management and decisions. The achievement of a sustainable cost reduction across the value chain equivalent to between fifty and one hundred fifty cents is also entirely achievable. A well-oiled hydrocarbon value chain is also less susceptible to shocks, more responsive to capturing general interest economics, as well as delivers a more robust supply to ensure that refining assets perform at their optimal rate.
Looking to connect? Reach out to our team on LinkedIn.
This article was written by Adrian Travis, President of Trindent Consulting
Refinery Planning Best Practices
Refinery Planning Best Practices
Refinery Planning
Short and long-term planning is one of the most critical activities that a refinery undertakes; it is a multi-million decision-making process that involves feedstock selection, product slate, and refinery scheduling, which impacts the longevity and profitability of a refinery. While this process defines how a refinery should operate to achieve specific optimization objectives, it often lacks the attention and cross-functional review that it requires – especially considering today’s refining margins. So, what does an industry’s best planning cycle look like and who are the key stakeholders that should be involved in this process?
Planning Cycle
First and foremost, there must be a structured and recurring planning calendar that is consistent each month. Unless there is a unit upset that either impact the refinery personnel’s health and safety or the environment, all meetings and business activities should be planned outside the planning discussions.
A best-in-class planning cycle begins with Inputs – ideally, it is provided to the Planner at month end or at least three days prior to the Inputs and Assumptions meeting. Inputs include items such as crude and product pricing, freight, demands, unit availability/capability, maintenance schedule, etc. Responsible parties must provide the necessary information to the Planner in a standardized format and retain ownership throughout the planning cycle.
During the Inputs and Assumptions meeting, which should be scheduled in the first week of the month, individual stakeholders must speak on behalf of their own area of expertise. For instance, Technical / Process Engineering must speak on behalf of unit constraints and Traders / Commercial must discuss prices. During this meeting, all inputs should be open for discussion and debated amongst key stakeholders. Once all inputs and assumptions have been agreed to, they should not be revisited, absent any material changes.
Depending on the complexity of the refinery, in addition to the number of periods being evaluated, two to three linear programming (LP) output review meetings should be held. At a minimum, a Preliminary Review meeting should be conducted mid-month to review the initial LP outputs. The purpose of this meeting is to identify any gross errors and optimization opportunities, and the Planner must summarize key findings.
A Final Plan Review meeting should be held late month for the last review of LP outputs. Changes at this point should be minimal if the preliminary processes are conducted appropriately; minor tweaks may be incorporated, but inputs should not be adjusted at this point unless significant new information has fundamentally changed the market or refinery operations.
It is imperative that this is a cross-functional exercise. In other words, Planning, Technical, Operations, Traders, and Commercial are present at a minimum to ensure the right information is used in LP and optimization opportunities are realistic. While it may not be feasible for all Unit Engineers or Business Leads to be present, a senior representative such as the Technical Manager should be in attendance.
Separately, LP backcasting and lookback processes should also be implemented to ensure sub-models are evaluated and execution to plan are assessed for continuous improvement.
This article was written by Kevin Kim, Associate Principal at Trindent Consulting
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Refinery Maintenance: Planning for Success
As processors and storage become cheaper and more efficient, more and more companies want to analyze increasing amounts of data and use artificial intelligence to support Risk Based Decision Making; and refineries are no different.
Predictive Maintenance offers refineries an opportunity to determine the current condition of equipment to predict when a failure will occur. This gives refineries a potential to reduce Operating Expenses by performing preventative maintenance only when it is warranted and by reducing the costs associated with Reactive Maintenance. Predictive Maintenance programs are high CAPEX and, unfortunately, most refineries do not have adequate processes and quality data available to make this transition worthwhile. Trindent provides refineries with low to no CAPEX solutions that build the fundamentals required to make the first step towards Predictive Maintenance.
Foundations for Success
Before a refinery can implement a holistic Predictive Maintenance program, they first need to establish a pilot program. Creating the right foundation allows the refinery to plan for success and implement a program using data-driven decision making to determine where the initiative will have the most impact. Proper foundations also allow for improved refinery operations and a reduction in Operating Expenses in the interim.
- Proper Preventative Maintenance: Preventative maintenance reduces the likelihood of equipment failure by performing routine checks or interventions on the equipment. A proper maintenance program will occur frequently enough to detect failures but not be unnecessarily burdensome to maintenance personnel. As part of this, it’s important to understand correct Preventative Maintenance tasks, durations, and crafts people allow for refinery management to focus predictive maintenance efforts on the equipment that cost the most to maintain. Without proper Preventative Maintenance tasks in place, there will be inadequate follow-up action from predictive maintenance findings.
- Data Quality – During the work management process there are many opportunities to collect the right data; however, refineries often lack the processes and training to collect data that is sufficiently detailed. Improving maintenance programs for instruments and sensors allows the refinery to identify whether the quality of the data is adequate or if the right sensors are even in place. Better data quality allows for management to focus predictive maintenance efforts on specific failures that result in process interruptions. Furthermore, the use of Defect Elimination programs can give the refinery insights into the conditions that cause failure, allowing for a more effective predictive maintenance program.
- Culture – Without building a proactive culture, a predictive maintenance program is destined to be an expensive, but short-lived endeavor. Establishing the right training, tools, dashboards, and communication methodologies allows for results to be sustained. Once the refinery has shifted from a reactive to a proactive culture then the predictive maintenance program can be successful.
At Trindent, we focus on tangible results and showing improvement through data. This data-driven approach links our results to financial or other key performance indicators. In addition, we make sustainability a key part of each engagement, and train your employees to sustain results.
Refinery Maintenance: The Work Management Process
n any equipment intensive sector, there is almost never a quiet day – and a refinery is no exception. Even the best-planned days can be full of interruptions – failures and other unplanned events that disrupt the schedule and cause system slowdowns or outages.
But a well-curated and properly executed Work Management Process can smooth the impact of these disruptions and enable good Risk Based Decision Making so that refineries can reduce the costs associated with equipment failures, inefficient work execution, process interruptions, overtime, and rushed orders.
Typical Work Management Process
During the first part of the process – Work Need Identification – enhanced training can increase operator understanding of the processes and equipment, while empowering them to better identify failures before they occur. Properly designed and executed Preventative Maintenance for each piece of equipment can enable better identification of failing equipment and increase the equipment’s longevity.
Once a failure is identified, the Operator generates a work notification in the refinery’s Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)or Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software. Often, these systems are not optimally set-up to enable proper data collection, so it’s important that operators receive proper training in order to ensure that work notifications are of sufficient quality and detail with reduced operator variation.
After the notification is submitted to and approved by a supervisor, a Planner determines which craftspeople and tools are required to fix the failure and how long the work will take to complete. An inaccurate plan can lead to inefficient Work Order Execution as the proper craftspeople may not be involved, the proper tools may not be available, or the schedule may be inaccurate in terms of its duration. Improving the planning process using accurate data can prevent these deficiencies.
Work Order Scheduling is often a challenging area, as there is a limited amount of both human and financial resources, but a long list of work that needs to be completed. These scheduling meetings are typically the embodiment of “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”, with the loudest individuals in the room receiving the most resources. As a result, Preventative Maintenanceefforts tend to be neglected, and this myopic view creates a slippery slope of increased equipment failures in the long-term. Creating Standard Operating Procedures and Work Management Risk Matrices can support work prioritization and strike the balance between preventative and reactive work orders. The same logic can be used to prioritize and decrease the Maintenance Backlog. It’s important to note here that the proper criteria should be used in work prioritization to reach desired outcomes; frequently, refineries use incorrect criteria, which reduces the effectiveness of prioritization efforts.
Work Order Close-out is one of the most important steps in the process but is often neglected or improperly completed. A proper Work Order Close-out results in better data collection and more informed decision making. This information can be used in a continuous improvement process that allows Planners to fine-tune Work Order Planning. Additionally, failure code data can be used to identify root causes of failures and support Defect Elimination programs.
Promoting a Value-Added Culture
Promoting a Value-Added Culture
In previous knowledge base articles we have examined strategies for recruiting and evaluating top talent, managing performance, and developing employees. We now shift our focus to exploring ways of rewarding and reinforcing high-performance, using focused motivation tools to drive innovation and productivity, and building a strategy to create an engaged and empowered workforce.
Reinforcing Value-Added Behavior
A disconnect exists between the reasons why employees chose to leave a company and the reasons management believes an employee chooses to leave a company:
| Employee perspective | Management perspective |
| Lack of trust in senior leaders | Insufficient pay |
| Insufficient pay | Unexpected job/career opportunity |
| Unhealthy/ undesirable culture | Decision to change careers |
| Lack of honesty, integrity, ethics | Lack of work-life balance |
| Lack of opportunity for training and development | Lack of opportunity for training and development |
If we put aside the consensus reasons of insufficient pay and lack of training and development, we are left with a relatively clear picture of the difference in views of employees and management. Employees choose to leave because of internal issues – lack of trust in management, lack of culture, lack of honesty or integrity. Managers believe that employees choose to leave because of external issues – other opportunities, decision to change career, not enough time outside of the office. It is evident that in order for managers and senior leaders to effectively retain employees, they must alter their understanding of why employees leave in the first place, and further, why employees choose to stay.
Each employee has a set of unique reasons for choosing to stay or leave an organization. One commonality among them is that their decision is often predicated on an evaluation of what people derive from the work they do. Whether it’s purely a financial reward, a sense of community or an opportunity to learn, we all derive value from the work we do. When employees feel satisfied, they choose to stay, when they feel unsatisfied, they choose to leave. One retention technique that has been proven to increase employee satisfaction and thus decrease their likelihood to leave is the use of appreciation to reinforce value-added behavior. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project, concluded that “there may be nothing more precious that the feeling that we truly matter – that we contribute unique value to the whole, and that we’re recognized for it” (Schwartz, 2012).
Although appreciation seems to be something that most managers feel they provide on a regular basis, the fact is that we have become too accustomed to expressing negative emotions to punish or reprimand rather than expressing positive emotions to reinforce. This can have profound effects on both worker performance and health. Employees who feel appreciated have been found to have lower levels of stress and decreased rates of coronary disease. High-performing teams are much more likely to express positive feedback than their low-performing peers.
In his article, Schwartz outlines 4 steps that managers can undertake to build appreciation into their teams:
- As the Hippocratic oath prescribes to physicians, “Above all else, do not harm.”
- The impact of negative emotions, particularly creating the feeling of being devalued can be incredibly harmful to morale
- Practice appreciation by starting with yourself.
- You will not be able to openly appreciate the efforts of others if you can not appreciate the efforts you make on a day-to-day basis
- Make it a priority to notice what others are doing right.
- Constantly evaluate the behaviors of your workers that you take for granted – make a concerted effort to notice these immediately after they have occurred
- Be appreciative.
- Make sure it is personal, genuine and try to be as specific as possible about the particular value that you are appreciative of
Effective positive feedback can be a crucial tool of reinforcement that builds trust, shows integrity and creates a culture of appreciation. This can often be the difference between an employee choosing to stay and choosing to leave.
Using Motivation as a Tool to Engage Employees
As the business community comes to terms with fundamental shifts in the way we must select, engage and reward employees, new theories are emerging which could have profound effects on employee performance. Many of these concepts may seem new to the business world, but are in fact built on years of statistical evidence in fields such as marketing, psychology, philosophy and sociology. One powerful example is the extension of “motivational fit” tools, as developed for the marketing of products or services, to the workplace environment.
Effective marketing relies on delivering the right product at the right place at the right time to the right customer. In order to do this, companies must seek to provide more of the good things or experiences that customers value and avoid the bad ones. How do companies measure what is deemed good and bad? Is it different for each customer? How do they tailor their message to maximize the good?
Employees, just like customers, evaluate products, services or processes based on two fundamentally different applications of the notion of “good”. Some employees see their work as an opportunity for gain or advancement. They are most interested in the aspects of their work that will provide future benefit, be it in terms of promotions or salary increases, more vacation time, greater benefits, or more responsibilities. These employees are driven by what the psychological community calls promotion motivation. Other employees seek to avoid losses and promote security – they are driven by prevention motivation. These employees want to avoid losing what they feel they have already earned and tend to be motivated most by criticism and the possibility of failure (Halverson, 2012).
| Promotion Motivation | Prevention Motivation | |
| Value | Opportunities for gain/advancement | Opportunity to avoid loss |
| Focus | Benefits and rewards stemming from their efforts | Worry about the negative implications of poor performance |
| Motivation | Optimism and praise | Criticism |
| Behaviors | Embrace risk, excel at creativity and innovation | Risk-averse; thorough, accurate, detail oriented |
In order to promote and achieve employee engagement, managers must be able to achieve a motivational fit with their employees. Just as companies strive to achieve a fit with prospective clients to promote trust, managers must understand the motivations of their workforce to promote engagement. Take for example a customer who is in the market for a new vehicle. Without knowing anything further how would you market your line of products? You may highlight specific features such as its sleek design and powerful engine, or focus on its fuel efficiency, or perhaps its safety record. Companies understand that different customers value the “good” aspects of products in different ways (and are willing to pay more accordingly) – in order to be successful they must built products that have features that are complimentary to their customers’ values and market them to promote these. Managers who understand this concept and extend it internally will be much more successful at engaging their employees and ensuring the adoption and promotion of products, services, processes, and systems.
The Future of Employee Engagement: The Empowered Employee
Having discussed the effects that consumer-marketing concepts can have on employee engagement, we shift our focus to the implementation of these concepts to promote the forthcoming high-performing worker – the empowered employee. Sine the evolution of social media, marketers have been promoting, and capitalizing on, the emerging dominance of the connected consumer. These days almost every company in nearly every industry is growing their digital presence, hoping to establish more “touch-points” with their audience of consumers. They emphasize the empowerment of these consumers to spread information about products and services, effectively creating an altogether new marketing channel. Today, it’s about relationships, not transactions. But why is it that organizations have limited their focus to consumers? Should they not also be focusing their efforts on the rising power of their internal workforce?
The biggest challenge, and arguably the biggest opportunity, for businesses today is to learn to approach their employees the same way they approach their customers. Historically, businesses have approached employees as costs and the predominant strategy, especially during slow economic times, has been to try to reduce that cost, and those associated with it, to the lowest possible level. At some point, however, there is a limit to how much value can be squeezed out of the management of human capital costs. At some point, businesses must fundamentally change the way they view their employees and start to see them as value – the potential for increasing revenue, sales, efficiency and ultimately profit. Just as business have learned to tap into their consumer base to expand their market potential, they must learn to tap into their existing employee base to do the same.
By shifting the focus inward and strategizing ways to empower employees, businesses can achieve greater performance from their workforce. The wealth of technology products, many of which are free or already owned by employees, allow workers to learn at a much faster pace than ever before. Adopting an alternative approach to the way sales forces are managed to allow for more direct interaction with customers and suppliers through various social media channels can not only drive sales growth but also contributes to employee engagement by emphasizing the contributions of front-line staff. By investing in products or technologies that allow workers to actively monitor their tasks and self-evaluate their performance, businesses can expect to see a reduction in error rates and the innovation of products and processes driven by those who actually contribute to their execution (Magee, 2007). The key consideration when strategizing ways to promote employee empowerment is to always consider whether improvements will be measurable and whether they will matter to both the business and the worker.
Finding ways to empower employees may not seem like a very innovative concept. In fact, it has been used for quite some time by businesses in a wide array of industries. One of the most well known examples was the strategy employed by Toyota in the mid 1980s, whereby front-line assembly workers were given the opportunity to identify and correct problems and process inefficiencies themselves. The result was that these employees were not only much more successful at identifying these issues than past management had been, but they developed a passion for their work. They became truly engaged in what they were doing and as a result performed at a very high level – the better they performed, the more passionate they became. Creating this passion is challenging, but the rewards are infinite. By adopting the proper strategies to recognize the efforts of your workforce, understanding what motivates them and empowering them to take ownership of their tasks and responsibilities within the business, true human capital innovation can thrive.
Schwartz, T. (2012). “Why Appreciation Matters So Much.” Harvard Business Review Blog:
http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/01/why-appreciation-matters-so-mu.html. (March 29, 2012).
Halvorson, H. G. (2012). “Use Motivational Fit to Market Products and Ideas.” Forbes Magazine:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/heidigranthalvorson/2012/01/09/use-motivational-fit-to-market-products-and-ideas/. (March 29, 2012)
Magee, D. (2007). “How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World’s Greatest Car Company.” Portfolio
Hardcover.
Gasoline Blending Optimization using Spectroscopic Analyzing Techniques
The use of spectroscopic analyzing techniques in refinery process control, especially gasoline blending, is a fairly common practice in the industry. The technology to use Near-Infra Red (NIR), RAMAN, or Fourier-Transform Near-Infra Red (FTNIR or FTIR) to fine-tune component ratio, ensure meeting specification and minimize quality giveaway has been around for decades, but is this technology beneficial, and are refineries using it accurately?
Compared to traditional measurement techniques, spectroscopic analyzers such as NIR/RAMAN have several advantages in gasoline blending:
- High data density: typically 1 data point every 120 – 150 seconds, versus 1 data point every 360 – 1200 seconds of other technologies
- Ability to analyze multiple qualities simultaneously: 10 or more qualities can be monitored at the same time
- Ability to analyze multiple streams together: with the right setup, the same analyzer can monitor process streams and production streams together
- Easy to maintain: mostly filter changes and condition control, with lamp changes once every 6-12 months
With these features available, we have seen an increase in the number of refining operators investing in spectroscopic technology in the recent years, with over 90% of our clients in the past two years using one or more of these instruments to improve their process control.
Is it working well?
Unfortunately, for most refining operators, the answer is NO.
While the technology looks very attractive, we have often noticed that a refinery's investment in NIR/RAMAN lacks the complexity and understanding required to fully exploit the potential of these instruments. Spectroscopic measurement techniques utilize chemical principles and advanced statistics, while traditional analyzers rely more on physical principles. As a consequence, these upgraded projects frequently fail to maximize their financial return. In some extreme cases, due to a lack of experience working with spectroscopic analyzers in gasoline blending, the process control capabilities often regress, leading to higher quality giveaway costs for the refinery.
How can Trindent help?
In the past few years, Trindent has successfully implemented multiple solutions to improve the accuracy and reliability of NIR/RAMAN technology for our clients, especially in the area of gasoline blending optimization. To establish a top-tier NIR/RAMAN management system, followed by a strong gasoline blending program, a refinery should:
- Create a clear responsibility matrix outlining the ownership of accuracy of the analyzers
- Develop a comprehensive management system to oversee the analyzer performance
- Install a clear root-cause analysis framework to identify improvement opportunities
- Improve training and hence the knowledge of the responsible team
A successful NIR/RAMAN program requires the investment of technology, knowledge development, and active management but the last two pieces are often missing. With these missing links installed, our clients were able to achieve measurement accuracy as good as the primary testing method (PTM) and accomplish top quartile giveaway control comparable to some analyzer programs that comprise of PTM exclusively.
Click here to learn more about how we can help your organization use the right spectroscopic analyzing techniques develop a world class gasoline blending optimization program.
The author of this article Kai Y. Wan is an Engagement Manager at Trindent Consulting. Kai holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry (Hydrocarbon Catalysis) and a BSc in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Toronto. Kai's passion for chemistry coupled with his management consulting expertise has helped him deliver over $100,000,000 in financial improvements for some of the world's leading Oil & Gas companies.
Pride at Trindent
June is celebrated as Pride Month in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots which accelerated in New York 53 years ago. As the world comes together to honor the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community against social discrimination, we at Trindent want to use this medium to make our ally ship and support for our colleagues and partners from within the community loud and clear.
The LGBTQ+ community has fought a long battle for the right to express themselves freely and monumental strides have been made by the community’s relentless work. However, any conversation about equality and acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community is incomplete without talking about employment opportunities and workplace equality; and we acknowledge that the fight is far from over.
The culture at Trindent remains committed to diversity, inclusion and equal rights. This means that every team member is encouraged to be their authentic self at work and must feel empowered to express themselves freely, without any barriers.
Be Proud. Be Unique. Be Yourself.
Our inclusion and diversity strategy puts a strong focus on creating a comfortable and open work environment and we are committed to ensuring that every employee is allowed to excel regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Our leadership team firmly believes that innovation and productivity thrive in an inclusive workplace. This commitment is etched into Trindent’s core values, culture, and vision and we are committed to empowering every individual by actively promoting the incredible talent we have.
Trindent For Pride
To celebrate Pride month every year, we rebrand our social media pages by adding the pride colors to our logo, and amplify our message across our internal communication channels. Our firm belief in Inclusion reflects at various stages from the recruitment process to our employee performance evaluations. Annually, Trindent’s leadership and employees come together to choose a Diversity and Inclusion ambassador from within the team to champion the organization’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. The D&I ambassador introduces various activities for team members designed to grow their understanding of diversity and inclusion and becomes the key point of contact for anyone needing a safe space to address any concerns.
How An Active Management Drives Sustainable Improvements
Implementing improvement is necessary, but can be a difficult, costly, and grueling process. Companies pay consultants to assist them in improving critical processes but forget to focus on what happens after the consultants leave. They neglect to teach managers the essential skills to drive sustained profitability from changes that were implemented.
Why does this make a difference? Because even the most efficient processes and best operating systems must be actively managed to drive sustainability.
Are You Training Your Managers? Is That Management Training Structured and Active?
Active management is the key to post-implementation sustainability, but active management must be built though a specific structured methodology to be effective.
“Active” Managers are managers, supervisors and other leaders in a company that drive exceptional results through the talents of other people. In working with our clients, Trindent develops the Active Manager by training six behaviors interwoven throughout an engagement in a specific order supporting sustainability and driving profit:
- Clear Communication: Communicating expectations is the foundation for successful engagement sustainability. Good leaders clearly outline the goals of the organization and how each staff member can contribute to their team achieving those goals.
- Follow up: A manager who holds others accountable, uses regular check-ins to ensure performance, addresses variances when necessary, and has a keen awareness of Parkinson’s Law - work expands to fill the time available for its completion – is essential to sustainability. Active management training stresses effective follow-up as the next building block for sustainable engagements.
- Feedback: Providing feedback is the next step in building structured sustainability. Trindent trains supervisors use every opportunity to provide others with constructive feedback – whether to praise good work or correct mistakes – to encourage learning and growth. The effectiveness of feedback increases when it’s personal, specific, and timely.
- Coaching: Being able to coach your teams is imperative to sustaining change. Active managers should coach skills gaps, teach others how to do their job with proficiency, develop all staff for their next challenge, and train members of their team to train others.
- Solve problems and alleviate barriers: Once the first four concepts are in place, an active manager is taught skills to effectively solve problems and alleviate barriers. Ultimately, the value of a manager is the additional performance they can create in a team. This requires learning the tools for removing roadblocks, identifying hurdles, brainstorming solutions, and implementing change.
- Report of Performance: Finally, an active manager must report on performance to ensure the profitability of a process or performance change has been sustained. They must use objective data (both quantitative and qualitative) to communicate to others, explain trends, and make decisions for business improvement.
Conclusion
Providing training on newly implemented processes and tools is inadequate to ensure sustainability. Any engagement must also include a structured approach to training leadership to actively sustain the desired outcomes. Successful programs employ training building blocks integrated into the process and tools to develop a synergy between system and management. Leadership is the foundation of sustainability and building active management training with a solid structure and integrated purpose is essential.
Click here to learn more about Trindent Consulting and how to build structured active management training to support sustainability.