Condition monitoring in the petrochemical industry: How can operational efficiency be improved?

Have you ever wondered how condition monitoring in the petrochemical industry can improve a plant's operational efficiency? This industry continues to expand, requiring equipment and applications that guarantee the efficient operation of its industrial assets and facilities.

In fact, it is essential for the sector to have support activities in two directions:

• Managing the proper functioning of your industrial assets 
• Operational efficiency 

Condition monitoring systems in the petrochemical industry are now essential for ensuring continuous and efficient operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Bear in mind that supply chain disruptions are in most cases associated with serious economic consequences, so it is extremely important to monitor the condition of the plant by tracking and detecting faults in good time that could pose a major risk.

Petrochemical facilities require automated, remote monitoring capabilities that eliminate the need for manual measurements. Manual measurements are delayed, and faults are detected long after they have developed and become catastrophic. 

This is a sector in which there are many critical machines, therefore, it is essential to implement permanent control systems for the condition of the machines, minute by minute, to avoid periods of downtime without information on the status of the machinery, during which an anomaly may arise that causes significant production losses due to not being detected in time.

The maintenance manager must be able to apply the optimal machine monitoring technology based on the criticality of the assets and the environmental conditions, characterised by being immersed in particularly explosive atmospheres. Resources, sensors and measurement systems specially suited to these environments are necessary to control and protect critical machinery, prevent unscheduled downtime, avoid accidents and improve reliability.

Bear in mind that in this type of facility there are many measurement points with expensive cabling in an ATEX atmosphere. To solve this problem, condition monitoring technology in the petrochemical industry allows:

• A low-cost installation,
• Easy to expand to the particular needs of the installation,
• With the capacity to cover long distances of up to 800 metres, and
• Ideal for working in particularly explosive atmospheres.

How can operational efficiency be improved with condition monitoring solutions in the petrochemical industry?

The petrochemical sector operates under high cost pressure, which means that each plant must increase machinery availability to achieve greater productivity. Greater reliability based on maintenance is crucial in today's petrochemical plants.

The monitoring and protection of industrial assets is crucial for operational efficiency. There are diagnostic solutions on the market that support predictive and timely decision-making capabilities, with efficient asset management and predictive diagnostic capabilities aimed at maximising the reliability and availability of plant assets through greater predictability.

These condition monitoring solutions in the petrochemical industry process:

• Vibration signals from all types of transducers and shock pulses,
• Displacement measurements,
• Temperature and pressure data,
• Revolutions, and
• Trigger signals.

This system enables online monitoring, signal analysis, impact signal recording, measurement data processing, and storage of results for timely decision-making.

General advantages of a condition monitoring system for the petrochemical industry

• Automated vibration monitoring detects all faults regardless of their development time, eliminating the uncertainty of potential faults that may occur between periodic measurements taken with portable instruments.
• The cost of labour dedicated to data collection is eliminated, as this is done automatically.
• The data is highly repetitive because it is obtained at the same point and with the same sensor.
• Trend calculations are more reliable.
• It is possible to configure alerts for exceeding alarm levels or to schedule machine shutdowns.

It is clear to see how condition monitoring technology in the petrochemical industry continues to advance, providing a faster and more accurate response for critical machinery. Decision-making regarding machine operations is immediate, with greater collaboration between the work team, thanks to automated data management and collection.

We invite you to learn how condition monitoring solutions work for the mining sector, as well as to find out what the condition monitoring equipment that improves the efficiency of field maintenance work.

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