Femke Schaefer outlines how companies to perform better technically and financially.
Even after almost a century, the oil and gas market still faces enormous challenges. Demands are ever increasing, new resources are more difficult to reach, prices fluctuate because of political instability and environmental interests conflict with economic interests.
Politics is involved as well: the EU set regulations on CO2 emissions, which force industries to become 2 per cent more energy efficient every year. Oil and gas processes do indeed offer room for efficiency improvement; in terms of energy, maintenance, amount of material used and also process design.
The four solutions below may facilitate companies to perform better technically and financially.[Page Break]
Less material
Shell and tube heat exchangers with extreme high pressure on the tube side, normally require a voluminous and exceptionally strong construction requiring a lot of material. This all adds up to volume, energy and raw materials. Reasons for Bronswerk to develop a special design known as the Compact Header Design which only needs a fraction of the material normally required. This translates into substantial weight reductions for the complete super structure of an offshore-rig and or floating platforms.
Managing director Sjaak Remmerswaal says: "We supplied Petrobras with this solution and by doing so not only save weight (and energy) but additionally made their maintenance process a lot safer and simpler, since the compact header heat exchangers are easier to clean".
Fouling prevention outside the tubes
Fouling of heat exchangers has an enormous impact on the production capacity. Shutdown for cleaning costs a lot of money and effort. In close co-operation with The Royal Dutch Shell, Bronswerk developed the EM-baffle. This specially designed Shell and tube heat exchangers has several advantages for all sorts of applications. This design guarantees clean tubes on the outside resulting in reduced pressure drop over the shell which, for example, is particularly important in gas cooling.
Other improvements are:
- Better prevention of tube vibration.
- Design optimisation resulting in less material.
- Less cleaning and maintenance costs.
- Less pumping power over the shell side.
In the case of crude oil trains it has been demonstrated at a site in Pernis Holland, that fouling on the shell side of these exchangers is drastically reduced. The interval period between cleaning processes is doubled and the heat transfer is notably higher than conventionally. Half the number of cleaning periods means that the operating time of the installation is much better and also diminishes environmental pollution due to the reduction in cleaning chemicals. Additionally, a more efficient heat exchanger in a crude train, also yields better energy efficiency since no additional heating is required.[Page Break]
Fouling prevention in the tubes
If fouling occurs inside the tubes, this can be prevented by another product of Bronswerk, the Klarex heat exchanger. Due to small metal particles injected at the flow inlet and removed at the flow outlet of the heat exchanger, causing turbulence in the tubes, fouling is prevented. Less fouling means less maintenance in terms of costs and chemicals but in some applications the Klarex heat exchanger can also lead to enormous energy savings. When for instance crude oil is to be heated, the second heat exchanger can be switched into a Klarex heat exchanger. This will produce enormous energy savings since the steam, originally needed to heat the crude oil in the fouled second heat exchanger, can be reduced even by half, because the klarex heat exchanger stays clean.
Energy saving and noise reduction
The Whizz-Wheel ultra-low noise and ultra high efficiency fans were specially developed using the most sophisticated airflow simulation software, with the goal of decreasing the acoustic load on the surroundings. It also leads to more than 50 per cent energy savings, resulting directly into large CO2 emission reductions. This means a tremendous basic energy saving in terms of sustainability.
Sjoerd Ruevekamp, sales engineer, says: "For our client Technip I calculated how much they would be saving in energy costs in 10 years. They will install our Whizz-wheel installations in February 2012".[Page Break]
Process optimisation
The designer, the operator and/or the owner of a plant are the experts in the process layout of that plant. It is common practise in the oil business that these same experts also define operations and processes in great detail.
Chief design engineer Johan van der Kamps adds: "This means that companies like Bronswerk who are experienced designer of components and systems, are only allowed to quote and build what the process expert has decided and "unalterably" specified. The feedback of our know-how and experience is hardly ever allowed to take place."
In businesses other than oil, Bronswerk has shown that it can improve and optimize the process with great benefit for the owner of the plant. Bronswerk could safe large amounts of investment and operating costs for the oil industry if they would allow more feedback. The know-how in process optimisation can possibly even double your operational profits.
Enter √ at www.engineerlive.com/iog
Femke Schaefer is with Bronswerk Heat Transfer BV, Nijkerk, The Netherlands. www.bronswerk.com
