Enterprise Wide Fired Heater Fleet Monitoring Tool

Kirtan Trivedi¹, Ed Kubis², Cameron Solomon³, Md Nasir Nur Hidayah⁴, Kris Chunangad⁵, Suhas Nehete⁴, John Gunter⁶

1. ExxonMobil Global Projects Company
2. ExxonMobil Chemical Company
3. ExxonMobil Fuels and Lubricant Company, Joliet Refinery
4. ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company.
5. ExxonMobil Business Support Center, Malaysia
6. ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Company

In response to challenges related to global warming, climate change, and greenhouse gas emissions, several countries are considering to adopt regulatory measures requiring industry to further improve energy efficiency. ExxonMobil has a long tradition of effectively managing energy efficiency, both for internal operational efficiency, as well as in support of external drivers such as the API Compendium challenge within the industry. Over several decades, substantial work has been done from an energy management perspective. This has enabled ExxonMobil to become the most energy efficient international refining company in the world and the most energy efficient refining company operating in the U.S. per Solomon Associates benchmarking. The company has achieved a 10 percent improvement in energy efficiency across its global refining operations following an effort launched in 2000 [1]. However, with emerging regulations across various countries, it’s becoming increasingly important to develop smart ways to identify further energy efficiency improvement opportunities in existing facilities.

Fired Heaters is one of the largest sources of energy input for a refinery. Ensuring efficient operation of fired heaters will help improve energy efficiency of existing facilities. The in-house tool developed by the authors, leverages data analytics principles and data visualization programs to identify actionable opportunities. This minimizes engineering resources required for identification of efficiency improvement projects. Performance issues are identified in a timely manner, improving long term global fleet efficiency trends. Opportunities are identified based on historical data and technically achievable targets. Global priorities and business plans are set using this tool to close the gaps for restoring and improving performance of the fleet. This single platform helps to develop internal benchmarks with improved learning around fleet metrics.

This paper discusses how the tool is developed, its functionality, and examples on how the tool is used to monitor the fleet, and identify opportunities for efficiency improvement.

Reference:

• https://news.exxonmobil.com/press-release/exxonmobil-announces-greenhouse-gas-reduction-measures; accessed 7/17/2019