Asset Integrity & Reliability Services

BoilerRock is an independent consulting group that specializes in reliability and mechanical integrity improvements services to clients in the oil and gas industry.

Category: Asset Integrity

Dave Bryan Joins BoilerRock

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Inspection, Process Safety Management, ReliabilityLeave a comment

Dave Bryan joins BoilerRock as Partner and Technical Director after completing 36 years with Marathon Oil. He brings Engineering, Maintenance and Reliability expertise from both the upstream and downstream sectors of the Oil and Gas industry. After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Dave worked as a project engineer in Marathon’s Pipe Line and Refining organizations. He went on to roles as Refinery Inspection Supervisor, Corporate Fixed Equipment Subject Matter Expert and Refinery Maintenance Manager.

After 26 years in the downstream, Dave transferred to the Marathon’s upstream organization where he served as corporate Fixed Equipment Integrity Manager and Technical Authority/Reliability Manager for World Wide Production. Dave has extensive experience working with diverse cultures, applying engineering fundamentals and maintenance best practices. He is recognized for developing sustainable fit-for-purpose strategies and processes to improve facility reliability.

Initiatives that Dave can help clients with include:
• Mechanical Integrity Program Assessments/Audits
• Reliability & Integrity Strategy Effectiveness
• Turnaround Scope Challenges/Readiness Reviews
• Turnaround Planning & Management
• Risk-based Assessments & Applications
• PSM & API 751 (HF) Audits
• Root Cause Analysis/Incident Investigations
• Maintenance Optimization & Benchmarking
• Project Support (Fixed Equipment Engineering & QA/QC)

Dave currently holds API 510 and 570 certifications (previously held API 653 and NBIC) and is active on several API committees. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Indiana and Illinois. Dave’s been active for over 25 years with industry organizations focused on pressure equipment inspection and integrity.

Your Vibration Program

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Reliability, Rotating EquipmentLeave a comment

In today’s blog we will be discussing the basics of a vibration monitoring program and benefits for your plant.  The rotating equipment used in a plant is essentially the heartbeat of the plant. Rotating equipment is used to move gases and liquids throughout the plant, allowing the different production process units to perform their intended duties. To provide the desired on-stream production rates of these units, the rotating equipment must be reliable. Maintaining the equipment’s reliability at the desired high level is a process that requires many different people’s abilities and skills.

You get a report from a plant operator that a piece of rotating equipment seems to be vibrating more than it has previously been and wants to know what to do. How do you make the judgement call to continue its operation or to shut it down? Well, let’s start off with a little history searching… Do you have a routine or continuous vibration monitoring program that has been monitoring this piece of equipment and if so, what are the characteristics of the vibration data history? Does your company have the ability to perform a spot vibration data collection and analysis for that equipment to check its current condition? Knowing the history of this equipment, being able to perform a current vibration analysis on the equipment and having a program with defined vibration levels with corresponding actions will provide the information to determine if the equipment can continue to operate or whether it requires immediate shut down and repair.

Now, let’s step back and ask about that routine, continuous and spot checking vibration monitoring capability? As part of your plant’s condition based programs, it would be expected to have a plan for the vibration monitoring of the rotating equipment. Monitoring of the equipment’s vibration signature (frequency and amplitude) assesses the “health” of the equipment. Evaluations of this monitoring data is typically completed on a routine basis, continuous basis and also spot checking when the equipment’s vibration level has elevated. The benefit of monitoring is to first provide a high level of safety to the plant and personnel and then to minimize equipment failures that may lead to a serious event or even worse, injury or loss of life.

Rotating equipment typically has some level of vibration and with changing operational conditions or changes within the equipment, the vibration signature changes. The goal of a well-developed vibration monitoring program is to be able to identify the vibration frequency and amplitude to associate it with a defined situation. This evaluation provides the ability to determine whether to continue to allow the equipment to remain in service, plan a “short in the future” equipment shut down or an immediate shut down for maintenance. Goals for any of the condition monitoring programs should be specific and measurable. To ensure that the program is providing the expected benefit, key performance indicators (KPI’s) should be established and tracked.

Rotating equipment included in the program should include all critical (typically unspared equipment that can cause business interruptions/losses) and non-critical (typically equipment that does not greatly affect business losses). Rotating equipment typically included in the program are compressors/blowers, fans, pumps, motors, gearboxes, steam/gas turbines and engines. The extensiveness of the programs for each type of equipment may vary. Managing the vibration monitoring program must consist of training, procedures, records and program reviews/audits.

Actions to Take:

1) Review to determine if your plant has a vibration monitoring program.
2) Review your current vibration monitoring program.
3) Determine what equipment is included in your current vibration monitoring program.
4) Review your vibration monitoring program’s goals & associated KPI’s.

If this seems overwhelming or you need help, BoilerRock can assist with the establishing, identification, development, monitoring or auditing of the vibration monitoring program that can benefit your plant.

Terry Roehm is a Rotating Equipment Specialist with 40+ years experience in both the upstream and downstream businesses of the Oil and Gas Industry. He is a member of the American Petroleum Institute (API) serving on task forces for the mechanical subcommittee and is a past advisory committee member for the Texas A&M Turbomachinery Symposium. He has held various positions in maintenance and engineering involving specification, selection, procurement, testing, installation, startup, troubleshooting and turnaround planning for the rotating equipment. He has established programs, provided and developed training opportunities and has completed audits for companies to improve their operating and maintaining of rotating equipment. He has a Mechanical Engineering Degree from Purdue University and is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Kentucky and Texas.

Corrosion and Damage Mechanisms – How do I Learn More? “An example”

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As we discussed in last month’s blog, Loss of Primary Containment (LOPC) or simply leaks in our process facilities is an all too common event. Sometimes we get lucky and it is a minor event but relying on luck is not any way to keep our plant’s safe and reliable. However, other times the leak leads to a serious event and we make the local or national news or worse yet; someone gets injured or loses their life! Today’s blog will be focus on a simple example of using API-571 “Damage Mechanisms affecting Fixed Equipment in the Refining Industry” to improve your corrosion and damage mechanism knowledge.

In today’s example, I will assume that I am the area inspector or engineer working in my refineries Crude unit. Therefore, the first thing I do is review the Process Flow Diagram for the Crude Unit/Vacuum in Figure 5-65. (See example in blog photo) For this example, I’m interested in the atmospheric tower side draw piping. So what damage mechanism do I need to worry about for this area of the Crude unit?

DM#1 Sulfidation
DM#6 Naphthenic Acid Corrosion

So, I need to understand more about damage mechanism DM #1 -Sulfidation—Looking at the DM table of contents, we see that Sulfidation is covered in Section 4.4.2 on pg 4-159. Moving to page 4-159 you will find six pages of information related to sulfidation, including pictures, graphs and other details including: High Level Description of Sulfidation, Affected Material, Critical Factors, Affected Units & Equipment, Appearance of Sulfidation, Prevention/Mitigation, Inspection & Monitoring, and Related Damage Mechanisms. Sulfidation (also known as sulfidic corrosion) is the corrosion of carbon steel and other alloys resulting from their reaction with sulfur compounds in high temperature environments. (>500F) There are eight Critical Factors related to Sulfidation discussed with one of them being the alloy composition (determined by the alloys ability to form protective sulfide scales), temperature (increased corrosion as temperatures increase) and concentration of corrosive sulfur compounds.

Section 4.4.2.7 gives you information about the how to Inspect and Monitor for Sulfidation Corrosion:

  • Evidence of thinning can be detected using external ultrasonic thickness measurements and profile radiography.
  • Process conditions should be monitored for increasing temperatures and/or changing sulfur levels. See API 584-Integrity Operating Window (IOW) for more information on issues that may assist in the development of an IOW program.
  • Proactive and retroactive PMI programs are used for alloy verification and to check for alloy mix-ups in services where sulfidation is anticipated. Note: Inadvertent mixing of Alloy material in a piping circuit has led to several major incidents in the Oil and Gas industry.

The remainder of the section contains additional information related to Sulfidation including graphs giving you information on corrosion based on the affects of temperature, Sulfur content and Alloys in your system.

Now, follow the same review of 571 for DM#6- Naphthenic Acid Corrosion and you will have a good understanding of what you need to look for and how to find it for the Crude Atmospheric Tower Side Draw Piping.

API-571 is an excellent resource to use for improving your corrosion knowledge and that of your work force. I hope this very simple example will encourage you to review API-571 for your area of responsibility or area of corrosion knowledge that you would like to learn more. Additionally, API has an API-571 Certification Program available for anyone with a keen interested in corrosion and potentially becoming a technical resource for your facility. See http://www.api.org for additional information.

Actions to Take:

  1. Complete a quick review of API-571.
  2. Review the damage mechanism PFD for your unit or unit you would like to learn more about.
  3. Have one of your employees present an overview of one damage mechanism for their area during a weekly meeting. The employee and those present will all learn from this type of exercise.

Please contact BoilerRock if you need assistance with any of your Reliability or Asset Integrity issues.

Reference: “API Recommended Practice 571, Second Edition. Washington DC: API Publishing, 2011”

Corrosion and Damage Mechanisms – How do I Learn More?

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Inspection, Process Safety Management, ReliabilityLeave a comment

Loss of Primary Containment (LOPC) or simply leaks in our process facilities is an all too common event. Sometimes we get lucky and it is a minor event but relying on luck is not any way to keep our plant’s safe and reliable. However, other times the leak leads to a serious event and we make the local or national news or worse yet; someone gets injured or loses their life!

Our process safety management programs and particularly our Mechanical Integrity program are designed to help prevent/reduce these type events. Our inspection programs drive the testing and inspections of your equipment and help in identifying problem areas, but how can we do better?  We can do better by knowing what we are looking for.   Are we looking at a corrosion mechanism that is a general type corrosion? Or is it a corrosion type that is only localized?  Or is it a corrosion mechanism that causes cracking?  And the list goes on…. The point is you need to know what type of corrosion your looking for to improve your chance of finding the corrosion before it becomes a LOPC/Leak/Event.

The corrosion knowledge of your plant Engineers and Inspectors varys widely but is absolutely vital to your MI/Inspection program.  A Damage Mechanism review is common if you are using a risked based inspection program, but often the inspectors looking for the corrosion are only following the inspection instructions of the program rather than understand what they are really looking for.   So how do you know what I need to look for?   API-571 “Damage Mechanisms affecting Fixed Equipment in the Refining Industry” is an excellent resource of information to assist your plant in understanding where the corrosion is most likely to occur and how best to inspect your systems to find it.   Note: Although the standard was written for the refining industry, the damage types and how to inspect for them can be used in many industries.   It can be difficult to find time for Training and Education and it can be perceived to be expensive, but it is absolutely required for a good inspection program.   API-571 is an excellent resource for you to use in improving the corrosion knowledge of your work force.

API-571 has several hundred pages of information which can sound overwhelming, however, it is separated into 60 corrosion mechanisms that help to organize and make the document very useable.   Additionally, there are Process Unit-PFD’s with the expected damage mechanisms identified in Section 5.2 of the standard.  This makes understanding the potential damage mechanisms for each unit, how to inspect for those mechanisms very simple.  I will give a detailed example with next month’s blog, but in the meantime have one of your engineer’s or inspector’s review a common damage mechanism for their area and share it with their group as a learning exercise.

Actions to Take:
1) Review your inspection program and verify that is has corrosion/damage mechanisms identified for your equipment.
2) Complete a quick review of API-571.
3) Review a damage mechanism of interest to you and write down a few things you learned.
4) Share what you learned with your group.

 

My Lubrication Program

Posted by on in Asset Integrity, Lubrication, Reliability, Rotating EquipmentLeave a comment

My name is Terry Roehm, Rotating Equipment Specialist and today’s author for the BoilerRock Blog. I will be continuing the discussion on Lubrication Programs and the basics of a good program.

Part 1 of the overview for a lubrication program for rotating equipment discussed that it is one of the very important condition-based programs used to monitor the health of your rotating equipment. Condition based programs are used to assist the plant personnel with achieving the desired on-stream production rates of the process units while improving the safety for both the productions unit and the equipment itself.
Lubrication Programs Should:

o fit the site while providing ownership and accountability
o be specific and have measurable goals
o be well defined and detailed
o have management approval and backing

Rotating Equipment included in the Lubrication Program

Driven Equipment:

o Compressors / Blowers (Centrifugal, Screw, Reciprocating, Etc.)
o Fans (Fin Fans, HVAC, Process, Etc.)
o Pumps (Centrifugal, Gear, Reciprocating, Etc.)

• Drivers (Electric motors, Gas Turbines, Gearboxes, Steam Turbines, Etc.)
• Other Critical Equipment (Valving/Actuators, Wellhead Equipment, Etc.)

Included in the Lubrication Program

Activities should vary based on your site, the type of equipment and criticality, but the following are items that should be included in a high-quality lubrication program:

1) Identification of a lubricant champion (person in charge of the lubrication program that the site realizes has ownership and responsibilities to the program)
2) Identification of job responsibilities for the different aspects of the lubrication program.
3) Development of a training program for your lubrication program.
4) Identification of each piece of equipment that requires lubrication.
5) Identification of the lubricant required or each piece of equipment.

a) Consolidating the lubricants as much as possible
b) Identifying the correct lube oil level for equipment
c) Identifying the frequency and method of re-lubrication (oil or grease)

6) Development and maintaining lubrication program procedures.
7) Development of a record keeping system and maintaining of the records in an appropriate CMMS.
8) Routine site audits of your lubrication program.
9) Establishing requirements for your lubricant supplier.
10) Establishing methodology for your warehouse and unit lubricant storage and replenishment.
11) Establish methodology for disposal of used lubricants (to be considered as waste and must be handled and labelled as such and to contact HES for disposal information)
12) Establish lubricant condition monitoring program (oil sampling & analysis)

a) Identify the equipment to be included in the lubrication condition monitoring program.
b) Identify who and how to take the lubricant samples.
c) Identification of where the lubricant samples are to be analysed and how the results are communicated.
d) Identify how the results of the lubricant analysis program are to be incorporated into the maintenance program.

Implementing and performing a lubrication program may be a cultural change for many plants. The change will not be overnight and needs to be slow and steady to achieve the goals. Not all people will react the same and working shoulder to shoulder with management’s direction will help with the cultural changing. Building a culture of continuous improvement will provide a direction that all people can associate with and will want to get on board.

Actions to Take:

1) Review your current lubrication program against this guideline.  Are changes required?
2) Determine what equipment is included in your current lubrication program and if your systems are adequate.
3) Review how your lubricant is selected.

 

Terry Roehm is a Rotating Equipment Specialist with 40+ years experience in both the upstream and downstream businesses of the Oil and Gas Industry. He is a member of the American Petroleum Institute (API) serving on task forces for the mechanical subcommittee and is a past advisory committee member for the Texas A&M Turbomachinery Symposium. He has held various positions in maintenance and engineering involving specification, selection, procurement, testing, installation, startup, troubleshooting and turnaround planning for the rotating equipment. He has established programs, provided and developed training opportunities and has completed audits for companies to improve their operating and maintaining of rotating equipment. He has a Mechanical Engineering Degree from Purdue University and is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Kentucky and Texas.