Digitalisation solution for monitoring and improving performance
Development of a collaborative platform for monitoring, enhancing decision-making, and improving operational efficiency within various aspects of plant operations
Pierre-Yves Le-Goff, Philippe Mege, Yannick Gelie, Marie Duverne and Connor Knight Axens
R efining and petrochemical industries are facing sev - eral complex challenges related to operational per - formance imperatives, environmental standards, and skills shortages. Increased data volumes offer one lever for responding to these issues by enabling insights based on key performance indicators (KPIs), but too much data also carries its own analytical difficulties. Harnessing the power of data Data has long played a pivotal operational role in many businesses, and petrochemical and refining industries are no exception. Numerous sensors measure and monitor a wide range of parameters, from pressure and temperature to the content of various compounds. This has produced an abundance of data that exceeds the analytical capacity of most industrial companies. In this context, new technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are poised to revolutionise the way companies utilise the growing wealth of data at their disposal while simulta - neously transforming what data can do for these companies. Within the ever-evolving landscape of business and tech - nology, industrial companies are now expecting numerous benefits from digital transformation. Indeed, the real-time business management enabled by advanced data analyt - ics will unlock a host of operational efficiencies, improved safety and sustainability (for example, through lower CO₂ emissions and the maximum usage of catalysts), as well as profitability through operational guidance. Transforming operations In petrochemical and refinery complexes, process licensors and catalyst suppliers play a key role in accompanying this transformation. They provide digital tools that complement their proprietary technologies while also implementing new features such as diagnostics and alerts, predictive func - tions, and improvement suggestions. While data flows certainly facilitate problem identifica - tion and diagnosis, they can also represent an additional source of errors, as more data often results in more noise. Specifically, data cleansing and treatment are the first steps to ensure the reliability and accuracy of KPI calculation in addition to model building. Thus, verification and correction methodologies have
been developed, including algorithms for a better and more accurate closing of mass balance and principal component analysis to check data consistency. These tools ensure the relevance and quality of data, resulting in more pertinent recommendations. Petrochemical and refining industry challenges The oil and gas industry is facing a problem of skills loss. This is due to both a high number of retirements and the difficulty of attracting young engineers and data scien - tists, which can result in lower levels of productivity and efficiency. The economic stakes of this situation are considerable: performance gaps and non-compliance with regulatory Within the ever-evolving landscape of business and technology, industrial companies are now expecting numerous benefits from digital transformation standards have the potential to disqualify part of a pro - duction from a sale, leading to earnings losses. Inefficiency can also have significant environmental impacts, notably through excessive consumption of resources or unneces - sary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For this reason, oil and gas industries at large will need to identify and implement solutions for eliminating inefficien - cies, even within a tightening labour context. Digitalisation solutions can help overcome this challenge, not only by automating certain efficiency operations but also by improving the technological appeal of these professions for young engineers and data scientists. Digital solution benefits By integrating real-time data display and operating status viewgraphs for individual units or entire complexes, the technology provider is in an ideal position to assist opera - tors in maximising the efficiency of their processes, which
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PTQ Q4 2024
www.digitalrefining.com
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