Panel of Experts

Top Coker Issues

The Coking.com list of the top issues affecting cokers around the world.  At the seminar, a Panel of Experts will offer advice on how to deal with each issue.

1. Ownership of Safety

Who makes the final safety decisions in the unit? It is the person who has their hand on the valve or MOV button. The operators think ‘someone else’ is in charge of the unit – consequently, they feel little empowerment.

• There is a lack of training and basic understanding of how the process works; what is expected of them as members of the unit staff.
• The people who operate the equipment or unit do not understand the 14 points of PSM and do not apply the policy in their everyday duties. The fourteen elements of PSM are:

1. Introduction to Process Safety Management
2. Employee Involvement in Process Safety Management
3. Process Safety Information
4. Process Hazards Analysis (PHA’s)
5. Operating Procedures
6. Employee Training
7. Contractor Safety
8. Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR’s)
9. Mechanical Integrity
10. Non-routine Work Authorizations
11. Management of Change (MOC’s)
12. Incident Investigations
13. Emergency Planning and Response
14. Compliance to Safety Audits

• Some refiners have not read or published to their employees the EPA/OSHA paper from 2003 that indentifies the dangers of coke drum operations.

2. Deviation from procedure

When instrumentation or equipment does not work, items are bypassed. If equipment continues to not work, it becomes routine to bypass the item. After months/years the people operating the equipment think “this is the way it has always been done here”. There is no formal tracking of variances when things need to be worked around. It becomes commonplace.

** See following excerpt from Chemical Safety Board about Management of Change (MOC)

   "Chemical processing enterprises should establish policies to manage deviations from normal operations. Systematic methods for managing change are sometimes applied to physical alterations, such as those that occur when an interlock is bypassed, new equipment is added, or a replacement is “not in kind.” The coker complex needs to have MOC policies that include abnormal situations, changes to procedures, and deviations from standard operating conditions.
    For an MOC system to function effectively, field personnel need to know how to recognize which deviations are significant enough to trigger further review. It is essential to prepare operating procedures with well-defined limits for process variables for all common tasks. Once onsite personnel are trained on MOC policy and are knowledgeable about normal limits for process variables, they can make informed judgments regarding when to apply the MOC system.
   Once a deviation is identified that triggers the MOC system, it is management’s responsibility to gather the right people and resources to review the situation. The skills of a multidisciplinary team may be required to thoroughly identify potential hazards, develop protective measures, and propose a course of action.

3. Egress Pathways

During unit construction small bore piping and instrumentation can cause the minimizing of egress pathways also by adding the process equipment, safety equipment and tool storage in these designated access and egress pathways.

• Egress drills should be trained on by for operations, in house maintenance personnel and contractors who work in the running unit and on elevated platforms.

• Include lighted exit sign and escape lighting to show egress route.

• Housekeeping is not enforced; scaffolding and debris can block the pathway.

Consider the basic purpose of ingress and egress – a way to get in and a way to get out. If entry and exit points are blocked by hoses, angle iron, insulation blankets, tools and debris or if the space is too narrow or risks burns, the entry and exit points are not filling their basic purpose. Next, consider if one’s vision is limited by steam or, worse yet, by smoke in the air, and compound that with the emergency situation because of a fire or imminent explosion where speedy egress is most critical, the need to clean up the area becomes obvious.

4) Hot Drums – steam explosions – boil over’s – coke drum ‘banana effect’

We as an industry need the understanding of how to recognize the systems that forewarn of an ‘At Risk Coke Drum’ We should challenge the products and services group to develop a predesigned instrument system that can detect and forewarn us of these ‘At Risk Coke Drums’ then with that information make sure the people closest to the decoking process are warned of the danger.

5) Equipment Reliability

• Plant priority overrides the repair of equipment that sometimes needs daily care to keep it functioning.
• PSM item #9 Mechanical Integrity is not being enforced.
• Decoking equipment – valve train logic – un-heading equipment not being maintained at a working level there are many workarounds in most cokers to operate the unit. (**NOTE** this is a personal observation from the 22 coker units audited by Gary Pitman)
• Why do we accept that our elevators operate 60% to 80% of the time? We need a good hard look at how, we as an industry can keep them reliable.
• Coke fines have plagued us since the first delayed coker was built. Equipment and waste water damage/issues could be reduced if we controlled the amount of coke fines in the decoking system.

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© Copyright: November 16, 2011 05:49 PM