Honeywell, UOP partner to improve refinery profitability

Phoenix, AZ; Des Plaines, IL— Honeywell Process Solutions and UOP LLC have announced an alliance to jointly develop, market and deliver refinery solutions that integrate UOP’s process knowledge into Honeywell’s software and system solutions for improved refinery operations. These software and service solutions will enable refining clients to identify, capture, and maintain improvements in their refinery operations.

The partners say many refiners historically have not realized the full value of their automation and information systems investments. They add that this is often caused by implementing advanced systems ‘out of phase’ with the information or know-how necessary to make full use of system capabilities.

Honeywell and UOP add their alliance will combine control and decision support systems with an intimate knowledge of how the refining assets and decision variables contribute to profitability, which will allow clients to increase safety, availability and profitability by maximizing knowledge resources and process flexibility. The alliance’s offerings will allow refiners to improve the return achieved on historical and future technology investments. They also will improve decisions made throughout the refinery, from crude purchase and logistics, through unit operation and management, to final product blending. These initial solutions will be in the areas of:

Operator performance improvement, which includes unit-monitoring tools and focused training programs. These solution tools are configured to monitor key process variables and critical equipment for impending abnormal situations. Simulator-based training ensures that operators properly respond to any abnormal situations. The initial release focuses on fluid catalytic cracking units, and is available now. Future releases are planned for additional critical process units including hydrocrackers and continuous catalytic reformers.

Refinery scheduling and blending, which combines UOP’s know-how and refinery scheduling/blending software technologies with Honeywell’s Production Scheduler. This solution helps planning and scheduling groups in a refinery or corporate logistics organization make supply chain decisions from the tanker and pipelines, through the process units, and all the way to blending and shipping finished refined products. The configured solution will simultaneously generate feasible and economically optimum schedules that take into account the complex interactions in entire facilities. A benefit of employing this joint scheduling and blending offering is that the facility can execute, not only fully automated sequences, but also has the capability to manually interact with the model to give users added flexibility.

Remote performance management, which helps refiners monitor, optimize, and sustain the performance of process units in a refinery or petrochemical facility. This solution will provide timely access to information and recommendations, allowing refiners to make better economic decisions in how they operate their assets. UOP and Honeywell will provide several levels of continuous service, from basic process unit monitoring to economic optimization based on proprietary, first-principles models.

‘The combination of UOP’s refinery process knowledge and experience with Honeywell’s leading software and systems solutions, such as Experion PKS, will have a significant impact in the industry,” says Jack Bolick, Honeywell Process Solutions’ president. “The new solutions embody the concept of a true process knowledge system, enabling clients to capitalize on the knowledge and information obtainable throughout the organization to improve operational safety, reliability, and profitability.’

Graeme Donald, UOP’s president and CEO, adds that, ‘The Honeywell/UOP Alliance allows us to leverage the tremendous knowledge and expertise of both companies to deliver sustainable solutions that enable refiners to make the most of the information existing throughout the operation, which means that now they can use that information to safely and effectively execute the right decisions at the right time, every time.’

UOP is an international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, process plants, and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries.

Honeywell Process Solutions is part of Honeywell’s Automation and Control Solutions group, which provides product and service solutions that improve efficiency and profitability, support regulatory compliance, and maintain safe, comfortable environments in homes, buildings and in-dustry.

Control Engineering Daily News DeskJim Montague, news editorjmontague@reedbusiness.com

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