S08 ORME 3 2020 Pumps & Valves_Layout 1 21/04/2020 06:58 Page 30
Technology
Digital technologies for asset management of
valves & accessories Digital automation technologies can help you to better manage the entire lifecyle of your valves, resulting in improved efficiency and cost savings at a difficult time, says Saurabh Pathak, MEA leader, Instrumentation Technologies – Flow Control at Emerson Automation Solutions. ONTROL VALVE SIZING and selection in the oil and gas industry across its value chain needs to adhere to various pipeline and fittings specifications to follow industrial, national and international standards (eg. API, ASME, ISA). Manufacturing to selected standards and specifications ensures that each piece of equipment is suitable for use under nominal, minimum and maximum plant operating conditions. Furthermore, it is essential to have a well-engineered design as well as knowledgeable personnel to operate and maintain your critical assets. Digital automation technologies can complement these efforts to predictively identify valve problems and better manage the entire lifecycle of your valves.
Digital transformation in oil and gas The outlook for the oil & gas industry is uncertain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with global demand collapsing, supply chain impact and a sudden increase in crude oil supply following the suspension of previously agreed upon OPEC+ production cuts. The market is likely to get worse before it gets better, at least in the short term. To remain competitive, industrial organisations need to improve asset availability, while reducing their operating and maintenance costs. When it comes to maintaining your process equipment, some key areas for improvement can be identified. Think of all the tasks that can increase risk to your uptime, budget and most importantly, your people: locating valves in the field or in the stock yard; validating the construction of valve assemblies; reading through written reports to determine work scope; shuffling through papers to find installation manuals; sending personnel into risky areas of the plant to find critical valves; and assembling and
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Image Credit: Emerson Automation Solutions
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Saurabh Pathak, MEA leader, Instrumentation Technologies - Flow Control, Emerson Automation Solutions.
disassembling scaffolding to reach valves – to name just a few. Integrating digital technologies into these work practices can improve and optimise efficiency, safety and production availability. Reactive maintenance typically results in at least some production downtime or degraded performance, resulting in unnecessary damage and cost. At the same time, many
This technology helps identify valves that require immediate overhaul, and those that are still healthy.”
preventative maintenance-based jobs are executed prematurely, creating unnecessary cost. However, condition- or predictive-based maintenance prior to failure, could eliminate both unnecessary down-time related to reactive maintenance and unnecessary costs related to preventive maintenance, thus helping to ensure non-stop production and uncompromised valve performance. End users in the oil and gas industry have seen up to 40 per cent reduction in maintenance cost on valves due to digitalisation and critical asset management. This technology helps identify valves that require immediate overhaul during upcoming shutdowns, and those still healthy with additional runtime remaining. Digital transformation across the oil and gas industry has led to instrumentation insights that can be used for next-generation predictive maintenance solutions. These new solutions use data analytics and machine learning tools available in industrial cloud platforms. In addition to improving asset reliability and uptime, this transformation helps reduce maintenance cost by enabling remote access to information for analysis and remote intervention. HSE incidents can also be avoided, reducing harm to the environment and personnel. Modern digital valve controllers have the intelligence to gather and store valuable diagnostic information, but in many cases this information is not utilised to its full potential. Tapping into this information will enable a more efficient, predictive approach to operations and maintenance. This can yield immediate and long-term benefits to plant uptime, reduce risk and improve availability. A common cause of this lost potential is the lack of specialist diagnostic expertise in your plant maintenance teams. IIoT-based Valve Connected Services enable you to strengthen your condition-based monitoring by collaborating with Emerson expert resources
