Panel Session – Impact of Lighter Feeds and Plant Age on Maintenance & Reliability

Ethylene is one of the largest volume base chemical and building block for the petrochemical industry. It’s of paramount importance that these units run reliably to support the downstream polymer and derivative units. High utilization rates of these assets drive the overall economics. Shale revolution has resulted in abundant supplies of lighter feedstock, particularly ethane, at cheaper price as compared to other regions of the world. Therefore, ethylene operators in North America have shifted to maximizing ethane (and lighter feeds) cracking. This shift can result in maintenance and reliability issues in certain areas of the plant and require special attention to meet high reliability expectations. In addition, the existing assets require attention to maintenance and reliability due to age of these facilities. The latest operating plant in North America was started-up more than 15 years ago and some of the older units have been operating for nearly 50 years. This panel session will focus on the maintenance and reliability issues impacted by shift to lighter feeds as well as plant age. We will hear from our panel of industry experts covering the following:

• Their experiences with shift to lighter feeds and related to plant age

• Options to consider for addressing M&R issues

Panelist Include:

Theo Knijff, The Dow Chemical Company
John Weikel, BASF
Jimmy Cleavinger, CPChem
Mike Pelton, LyondellBasell
Sanjeev Kapur, Apex PetroConsultants
Rene Kulik, ARVOS
Michael Gyorffy, Kubota
Bruce Harle, CHART