The chemical industry is faced with two major challenges: aging facility infrastructure and a workforce with fewer experienced workers thanks to a wave of retirees. These issues have an impact on productivity and a company’s ability to respond to market changes. Competition is fierce, not just for feedstocks, but also for customers. This means facilities need to operate at peak performance for long periods of time, with minimal safety or environmental incidents. Many new competitors based outside the United States—primarily in China and India—are able to respond more quickly to market demands because they are using newer equipment, have newer process designs and have a more modern infrastructure. In some areas of the world, plants might be directly supported by their governments (where facilities are wholly or partially government-owned), which means they may have more capital to work with. With more capital, they may be more agile in response to global changes. The problem of aging infrastructure in older plants in the U.S. is particularly tied to the prevalence of legacy two-wire metering equipment. There is also a considerable number of plant employees reaching retirement age who will take with them the skills honed over years of dealing with this existing equipment. The next generation of workers will not have the same level of skills or experiences, and they will expect to work with newer equipment.
Obstacles to Flow Measurement Success
To become more agile and remain competitive in the global marketplace, one of the first and most effective things an operation can do is upgrade older flow meters. Flow meters serve essential functions in chemical plants, from accurately determining the flow of feedstock to measuring the correct amounts of additives in custody transfers. All of these depend on accurate, reliable measurements. Because many older chemical plants were built with two-wire twisted-pair electrical infrastructure, the chosen equipment was two-wire meters and transmitters. In the past, those were legacy differential pressure meters, turbine meters or positive displacement meters. Until recently, there have been few options to use Coriolis meters, because the power to most Coriolis meters required four wires. The biggest challenge with the meters used historically is that they have moving parts that wear out, can be affected by the materials used in the plant and require regular calibration. The calibration process means that a meter must be taken out of the line and sent to a lab for adjustment. This is a time-consuming and expensive procedure, and if another meter is not temporarily available to take the spot of the meter out for calibration, it means some processes are briefly stopped. There is also a challenge in that the legacy differential pressure meters are usually sized for maximum flow rates and tend to cause rangeability issues when lower flow rates are experienced. From a health, safety and environmental perspective, added risk is created every time the processes are stopped and a piece of equipment is removed. This is due to the increased risk of process fluid exposure caused by leaks, spills or improperly removed or reinstalled devices. Increasingly stringent environmental regulations require a facility to carefully examine procedures, equipment and how best to plan for meeting the needs of the 21st century in a safe and efficient way. Included in this examination should be how to safely and effectively meet the demand for new materials using alternative feedstocks that can be hazardous to personnel and the environment when in process. A Coriolis flow meter with no moving parts reduces the risks of leaks caused by failing components.
Image 1. Examples of potential cost savings (Image courtesy of Emerson)
