Eddie Gerren - Veolia NA
For refineries with a delayed coker unit, the jet pump is a critical piece of equipment that keeps the unit in production. If this pump goes down or requires unscheduled maintenance, coke cutting is halted, which can result in major financial impact on a refinery.
An inherent challenge to coke cutting is that a jet pump can begin experiencing issues without notice. But with an effective preparedness plan, a plant can mitigate the operational and financial risks, and avoid an emergency situation.
One best practice for minimizing the impact of coker jet pump downtime is a comprehensive preparedness plan that is established and pre-approved by your organization, before an issue arises. A thorough preparedness plan should include:
- A specialized and comprehensive safety protocol for your supplier to follow
- Specific equipment requirements customized to your refinery, including response time, large-scale auxiliary
- mobile pumps, manpower and logistical support
- The standard operating procedure to supporting your unique refinery operation
- Your direct point-of-contact to initiate support, available 24x7x365
This best practice will be described and demonstrated through real-life examples and case studies on the financial and operational impacts of preparedness planning. For example, one major refiner in Texas was able to avoid millions of dollars in downtime and keep its jet pumps totally operational for 12 days in February 2014, thanks to an effective preparedness plan that was developed and executed for the plant by Veolia.