Pre-turnaround scans enable better critical path planning

Posted by Nicola Porter

Mar 1, 2021 7:49:02 AM

Pre-turnaround scans are very useful tools for facilities to utilise for planning turnaround projects. They can indicate some damage within a vessel, allowing for parts to be ordered and onsite ahead of time. They can also indicate an operational issue, which can be corrected without an entry into the vessel. If required they can indicate that the vessel is healthy and no work is needed on it at this time. 

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Topics: distillation column, Distillation Column Performance, Column Performance, packed column performance, packed column, distillation column maintenance, gamma scanning distillation columns, trayed columns, turnaround schedules, turnarounds, distillation column scan, distillation column scanning, turnaround planning, packed bed towers, trayed tower, manage turnaround costs, turnaround critical path project, pre-turnaround scans, baseline scan, column troubleshooting, pre-turnaround planning, critical path planning

Advantages of PreTurnaround and Baseline Scans

Posted by Margaret Bletsch

Jul 12, 2018 10:25:22 PM

Are you planning a scheduled turnaround and want to know the advantages of scanning before  and after your planned turnaround?

A Tru-Scan™ or Tru-Grid™ Scan will assist in defining and developing a turnaround critical path project scope at an early stage ensuring that your turnaround meets your goals. The most common use of gamma scans is to give process engineers and operations an online tool that results in understanding how a column is performing.  This data can be used in advance of a turnaround to identify tray or packing damage and other process problems without having to shut down the column for internal inspections. These results will fully prepare turnaround planners with the knowledge they need for critical path decisions that must be made prior to a shutdown. At other times the results from a Tru-Scan™ or Tru-Grid™ Scan can either justify an unscheduled shutdown or identify options that will enable a plant to continue operating until the next scheduled shutdown.   

Read more on how Tracerco scanning technologies can help to develop a plan for your turnaround planning.

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Topics: Gamma Scanning, Liquid maldistribution, packed column, Packed Beds, Tru-Grid Scan, Suspected maldistribution in packed beds, turnaround schedules, turnarounds, turnaround planning, tray fouling, gamma scan, liquid distribution, quantitative analysis pack beds, PackView Analysis, packed bed towers, packed bed scan, packed bed performance analytics, density of liquid, fouling, critical path

Remove any doubt about fouling issues found in trayed and packed towers.

Posted by Margaret Bletsch

Jun 4, 2018 5:37:55 PM

Diagnose and take control of fouling issues.Fouling_towers_web

In some processes a common problem that towers experience over a period of time is fouling of trays and packing with solid deposits. Fouling can cause conditions such as liquid maldistribution in packed columns or premature entrainment/flooding in trayed columns resulting in a loss of efficiency and an increase in operating pressure drop. Fouling may result from foreign material entering a column or from polymerization or decomposition occurring inside the column. The fouling may start under normal conditions or begin to build due to abnormal operating conditions.

Read more on how Tracerco scanning technologies can help to develop a plan to implement a routine maintenance programme for assets with fouling issues.

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Topics: Gamma Scanning, Liquid maldistribution, packed column, Packed Beds, Tru-Grid Scan, Suspected maldistribution in packed beds, tray fouling, gamma scan, liquid distribution, quantitative analysis pack beds, PackView Analysis, packed bed towers, packed bed scan, packed bed performance analytics, density of liquid, fouling

Packed bed performance analytics

Posted by Margaret Bletsch

Apr 25, 2018 8:44:15 PM

 

Advanced analytics introduce a numerical and easily understood approach to tower gamma scanning

Refinery and chemical plant operations depend heavily on distillation and separation towers. Tower gamma scanning is well established in the process industries as a qualitative tool to help troubleshoot towers. Advances in data analysis have lead to a quantitative approach in expressing gamma scan data in numerical terms easily understood by process and operations engineers. 

In a recent Tracerco article published by Petroleum Quarterly Technology (PTQ) magazine you will be able to read three example case studies of packed towers that will answer questions concerning the state of liquid distribution through the packed bed and illustrate how Tracerco's PackView™ analysis was developed to consistently analyse Tru-Grid™ Scan data to reach a conclusive result.

 CLICK HERE To read the full article (Page 69) published in the Q2 2018 Petroleum Quarterly Technology (PTQ) issue.

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Topics: Gamma Scanning, Liquid maldistribution, packed column, Packed Beds, Tru-Grid Scan, Suspected maldistribution in packed beds, gamma scan, liquid distribution, quantitative analysis pack beds, PackView Analysis, packed bed towers, packed bed scan, packed bed performance analytics, density of liquid

How to diagnose liquid maldistribution in packed beds: A case study - Part 2

Posted by Nicola Porter

Jun 8, 2016 11:35:29 AM

This post is the second part of the "Diagnosing liquid maldistribution inside packed beds" series.

In the previous blog, we explained how Tracerco’s Tru-Grid™ Scan technologies can be used to diagnose suspected maldistribution in packed beds. In Part 2, we will discuss how we obtain more details on distribution within the packed bed.

A challenge to process engineers is diagnosing liquid maldistribution problems inside packed beds that can cause severe mass transfer efficiency loss. In industrial distillation columns, common examples of the cause of liquid maldistribution are design, manufacture or installation defects of distributors as well as damage, plugging and process disturbance of packed beds.

In this latest blog we will explain how following a Tru-Grid Scan, Tracerco’s ThruVision technology was able to obtain a more detailed liquid distribution profile of the packed bed.

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Topics: optimising plant processing, plant processing, scanning technology, Process Diagnostics, distillation column, Distillation Column Performance, packed column performance, distillation tower scanning, annular liquid distribution, Liquid maldistribution, packed column, Suspected maldistribution, distillation column maintenance, ThruVision scan, Tracerco technologies, Suspected maldistribution in packed beds, ThruVision

How to diagnose liquid maldistribution in packed beds: A case study - Part 1

Posted by Nicola Porter

May 12, 2016 8:52:49 AM

This post is the first of the "Diagnosing liquid maldistribution inside packed beds" series.

A challenge to process engineers is diagnosing liquid maldistribution problems inside packed beds that can cause severe mass transfer efficiency loss. In industrial distillation columns, common examples of the cause of liquid maldistribution are design, manufacture or installation defects of distributors as well as damage, plugging and process disturbance of packed beds.

In this latest blog, we will explain using a case study approach how Tracerco's scanning technologies can be used to diagnose suspected maldistribution in packed beds.

The first step to determine liquid maldistribution in a packed column is to perform a Tracerco Tru-Grid™ Scan to provide an initial look at the liquid distribution in the packing.  A Tru-Grid™ scan consists of four equal-distant chords, one through each quadrant of the tower. Under ideal conditions and uniform liquid loadings, each scan plot will overlay closely with all others.

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Topics: optimising plant processing, process systems, plant processing, scanning technology, Process Diagnostics, Gamma Scanning, Distillation Column Performance, packed column performance, distillation tower scanning, annular liquid distribution, Liquid maldistribution, packed column, Tru-Grid Scan, distillation column maintenance, Tracerco technologies, optimising plant production, Suspected maldistribution in packed beds

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