Читать книгу Profit Maximization Techniques for Operating Chemical Plants - Sandip K. Lahiri - Страница 68

Disruption of whole operations due to malfunctions of various process equipment is very common in chemical plants. In the worst case, due to malfunction of compressors, distillation columns, a process instrument, the electrics of a whole plant tripped and a large amount of money was lost. Today's chemical plants are so complicated and interrelated between various sections that once a plant trips, the whole process becomes destabilized and it takes 1 or 2 days or more to stabilize the process and continue on‐spec production. This not only reduces the profit due to a lower production rate but also represents a huge loss due to flaring/draining, production of off‐spec production, etc. Early detection of a fault or equipment malfunction can help to take corrective or preventive actions at their incipient stage and thus avoid the financial loss. Fault diagnosis of equipment or a process is an online real‐time system, which continuously monitors various equipment‐related data (say temperature, pressure, vibrations, etc.) and sends an early alert signal when a fault is detected. This early alert is triggered before the fault actually disrupts the process. This will help the concerned engineer to focus on the particular fault and take preventive action to avoid process disturbance. In most cases where a fault is detected at its incipient stage the operator will be able to avoid trips and reduce the financial loss associated with a plant trip. It is absolutely necessary nowadays to implement a fault detection system in running a plant to increase its on‐stream factor, i.e. running hours.