As any operator knows, any time there is an injury, equipment failure or other major shutdown in a unit, millions of dollars are lost. The common denominator for these incidents is often lack of safety. Many accidents could be prevented by complying with established safety protocols. As I always like to say, knowledge is prevention, prevention is reliability, and reliability is productivity. In that spirit, here are two zero-cost practices you can implement today to help prevent accidents and shutdowns in your refinery while maximizing production.
Each unit has millions of dollars' worth of equipment running at any given time, with minimal monitoring. The purpose of surveillance rounds is for operators to become intimately familiar with the equipment so they know when things are wrong or when they need to call for another opinion. Operators are the eyes, ears, nose and feel of the equipment. They are there to monitor the pumps, fans and instrumentation running, as well as other things that could go wrong in the unit. But as our jobs have gotten more administrative over the years, many operators have gotten away from that fundamental "boots on the ground" function.
Operators need to know how to walk through the unit and look at the most critical equipment in a routine fashion. And they need to check in with the control board for outside verification. It's important to verify the outside process to what the control board is seeing off-site, sometimes a mile away.
Pressure gauges are another good example. If I see a bunch of gauges in bad order and the root valve still open, that means that gauge has been compromised. It's like driving around with low air pressure in one of your tires -- probably not the best idea, right? Operators can and should feel empowered to manage surveillance rounds in their house.
Back when I was working in a refinery, we had gun drills (also known as emergency drills). They were called gun drills because, back in the days of shooting a cannon, everyone had to be in the correct position. It was very precise; if you weren't where you were supposed to be, you had an opening on the team that could lead to injuries or loss of life. My son is in the Army, and the guys that shoot the cannons now still follow that same procedure. Everyone has a certain position, and they all have to be there and do their job in a coordinated series of events in order for everything to work properly. In the refinery, we should have the same type of approach about emergency drills.
Refineries have the emergency procedures printed and posted, and people read through them and sign off that they've read them. But some of these procedures need to be practiced in the unit, not just on paper. We used to run through the emergency scenarios on weekends when things were a little slower. Maybe a heater shut down, a compressor is running high vibes, or there's a coke drum bypass or a lack of feed. We had to know what to do to avert those issues.
One of the things I liked about emergency drills is that we went through them in a zone position. No matter who was on shift, they could fill that role and perform the emergency functions necessary to prevent a crisis. It shouldn't be designated when the emergency happens. People should already know, "If I am working this area, this is where I go." All shifts should have the same game plan in the event of an emergency, and each operator should have walked through the procedures numerous times so they know exactly what to do when an emergency strikes.
Using this strategy, you would also want to tie in communication with the control board. Have your team simulate calling in to the control board, and practice emergency communication protocols -- for example, "Your fuel gas pressure shows 26 pounds, and the valve shows 35-percent open." Simulate that in conjunction with the board operator so they are involved in the same scenario. We aren't able to have a contingency plan for every emergency under the sun, but the main ones need to be run through using this technique of knowing what to do and when to do it.
Practicing safety in the refinery doesn't have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to be expensive, but it should be automatic.
For more information on refinery safety, visit www.RefiningCommunity.com.
