This article was included in one of Hydrocarbon Processing’s three daily show newspapers at the NPRA Q&A and Technology Forum in San Antonio, Texas.
Wireless technology is superior to most wired alternatives for modern plant asset monitoring, a senior applications consultant with Emerson Process Management said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the NPRA Q&A and Technology Forum in San Antonio, Emerson’s Nikki Bishop said that most wireless solutions take roughly two hours to install, compared to two days for older, wired alternatives.
“The wireless solution involves a low installation cost and an easy setup,” Ms. Bishop said at the forum’s plant automation session.
For pumps and blowers in particular, Emerson’s wireless solutions can collect almost all needed data, Bishop explained. As such, asset monitoring is essential to optimal plant performance. About 25% of unplanned plant outages are related to equipment failure, she noted.
In one specific case, CITGO recently installed the pump health monitoring system from Emerson in the crude unit at its Lemont refinery, Ms. Bishop said.
Previously, CITGO’s data collection used to troubleshoot was only compiled during upset conditions. There was no continuous data collection for use in comparisons.
However, with the new wireless system, data is being collected continuously, leading to better analysis. In general, it’s easier for the company to see how individual operations are impacting the pumps, Bishop said.
Moreover, modern asset monitoring will soon extended to all essential elements of a plant, including not just pumps and blowers but also heat exchangers, tanks, fired heaters, simple compressors and nearly all rotating equipment.
“Essential asset monitoring is important for improved performance,” Ms. Bishop said. “Catching an equipment issue before it fails can be many times the cost of the monitoring equipment.
“You monitor because you don’t want bad things to happen,” she continued. “Lost production, injuries, environmental impact, fines, reduced cost, bad press – these are all big factors.
“And wireless monitoring makes the application affordable.”