Combustion Safety & Optimization

Combustion Safety & Optimization manages combustion in your fired heater assets.

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Key areas for Operational Excellence Transformation

Asset Operations and Optimization

Operational Excellence Transformation is Yokogawa and KBC’s co-innovated portfolio of solutions and services. We provide comprehensive solutions for business automation in all four areas using consulting and digital technology.

Asset Operations and Optimization

Asset Operation and Optimization deals with realizing the potential of physical assets by pushing throughput and maximizing the production of the highest-value products, while minimizing variable costs, such as energy. It ensures small and large capital expenditure projects are delivered on time and on budget, to achieve growth and meet environmental requirements. Through these competencies, it will be possible for companies to take full advantage of their physical assets. Yokogawa’s Asset Operation and Optimization solution leverage industry-leading technology to generate precise operating information to increase operator insight, ultimately leading to improved performance and profitability.

Key Operational Competencies in Asset Operations and Optimization

Asset Strategy: Define the requirements of plant capacity, operability and production to align with corporate strategy.
Asset Improvement: Improve plant profitability by expanding plant operating window and/or adding/modifying plants
Asset Optimization: Optimize the plant by enabling shift teams to execute activities as per plan and within operating window boundaries
Asset Operations and Process Control: Operate the plant by enabling shift teams to implement plans effectively and manage abnormal situations
Capital Projects Delivery: Screen options, engineer and delivers capital projects that are cost-effective, timely and fit for purpose

With our track record of providing project execution and thorough lifecycle services and KBC consulting, our customers can obtain practical and deep insights on maximizing their physical assets. Together, we aim to contribute and actualize improvements not only for profitability but also for overall safety, operability and reliability.

·Supply Chain Optimization
- Optimize management of supply, whether oil in the ground or feedstocks for a refinery or chemical asset, in light of product market demands. This provides operators with the agility to take full advantage of market conditions.
·Operational Risk Management
- Reliably control safety, health and environmental risk at a personal and process level. This assures the robustness required to avoid catastrophic losses.
·Asset Management and Integrity
- Confidently ensure asset reliability and availability, whilst controlling maintenance costs. This assures the asset always meets expectations and is always available to capitalize on short term market opportunities.

Combustion Safety & Optimization

Yokogawa is proud to offer a single source solution to improve combustion safety and efficiency in fired heaters.

Customer Challenge

Ongoing Challenges for Producers

Due to the lack of effective air control, excess air is typically allowed into the fired heater, reducing its thermal efficiency. Fired heaters have inherent risk and are generally operating at less than optimum efficiency as well. Typical challenges, risks and losses in efficiency plant may currently experience are as follows:

Higher costs as operators increase O2 flow to avoid a fuel rich atmosphere
Unexpected demand for fuel, leading to unsafe combustion conditions
Greater risk during a process upset
Risk of inadequate air control may not be assessed correctly for a process upset
Wet steam introduced on startup, requiring a steam purge, risking ignition failure
Shorter life of the fined convection section with afterburning due to the presence of combustibles

Our Solutions

Yokogawa integrated combustion management system dramatically increases the efficiency of fired heaters whilst improving their margin of safety. It combines next generation gas combustion measurement, modern control technologies and our vast furnace optimization experience into one solution that improves fired heater performance and life.

Yokogawa customers that choose our combustion management solution will enjoy:

Reduced O2 and lower operating costs as the fuel-air mixture is controlled
Limited fuel to the available air to prevent unsafe fuel rich combustion
Safely controlled CO and O2 concentrations at the optimum levels
Unburned fuel that is detected readily, avoiding unsafe combustion
Process upsets handled with controlled combustion conditions
Automated purge steam drain ensures a hydrocarbon-free chamber for a safe light-off

Yokogawa will help you align the project scope with the expected benefits, resulting in greater ROI. Our survey team can identify the particularly fired heaters that will best benefit from the combustion management system and also recommend a sequence of implementation on multiple fired heaters. When projects require multiple simultaneous installations of the solution on a site, Yokogawa applies a structured project methodology to ensure project quality and manage risk. The methodology employs comprehensive stage gates that ensure the highest reliability.

Customer Benefits

Improvement and Sustainability in Fired Heater Assets

The combustion management system simultaneously controls both the air and fuel supply to fired heaters by measuring average gas concentrations across the radiant section. Measuring a cross section average concentration of combustion gases, such as O2 and CO, has only recently been available through the use of the Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy (TDLS). The combustion management solution incorporates a TDLS analyzer with a dedicated control system and a safety system that is certified to meet FM NFPA and SIL 2 standards.

The four principal capabilities include:

Gas Concentration Measurement using TDLS technology in the radiant section
Process Control controlling fuel flow and air volumes
Safety System preventing unsafe conditions from persisting
Sensing and Actuation measuring airflow at multiple locations

Asset Sustainability

Providing air and fuel coordinated control on fired heaters, the combustion management system is a stand-alone package that delivers clear value and a rapid ROI. Combustion management is a major step in improving fired heater safety, plant energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving process throughput. Together, the capabilities of the solution reduce maintenance and extend the life of fired heaters.

Built in Reliability

The combustion management solution is based on high- reliability components and is available in a standard configuration or custom engineered package. Yokogawa provides engineered solutions to meet any physical requirements, such as extreme climates, user utility panels, location of the heater, etc. Where physical and process changes to the fired heater are required, Yokogawa partners with leading engineering companies and furnace manufacturers to provide a total solution. (Links to TDL and Field Instrumentation)

A Turnkey Solution

Typically, the installation of the combustion management system on a fired heater is straightforward. As the Main Automation Contractor (MAC), Yokogawa manages the implementation and installation of the field automation solution, including third party products and services. Where needed, Yokogawa provides a single point of responsibility for all aspects of the project, including modifications and refurbishment of the fired heater.