Acelan adds stronger links to refinery’s value chain
The dog might not be willing, but it turns out you can teach an old refinery new tricks.
For example, Brazil’s Mataripe refinery has been operating since the 1950s, and at 300,000 barrels per day (bps), it’s presently the second largest in Brazil. In 2022, Acelan acquired the refinery from Petrobras, and formed its Autoride 4.0 automation and advanced solutions team for business process control (BPC) and process optimization, which needed to assess a major, 17-year-old section of the refinery for digital transformation, and build a roadmap for its overall Plant of the Future program.
“We developed services and performed modeling for the refinery’s linear programming (LP) systems and did the same for scheduling and related services,” said Rafael Araujo, value chain optimization and competitiveness manager at Acelan, who shared the refinery’s transformation journey at this week’s YNOW2024 conference in Houston. “This let us see the benefits of having value chains inside the processes,”
“However, seeking value optimization can’t be done in silos because it exists as a holistic means of supporting integrated asset and supply chain optimization with value at the center of the equation,” he added. “This means shifting from a focus on local results that don’t maximize overall business value to strategic, end-to-end, margin optimization. In refinery production optimization, this means closing margin gaps with integrated coordination across every operational tier.”
After benchmarking how other refineries worldwide are optimizing their operations and assets, Acelan’s leadership began to develop their vision, and developed an automation master plan that included eight primary programs to drive optimization, efficiency and safety. These programs include:
- OptimzAcelan uses digital tools to create intelligence and optimize industrial operations
- SafeAcelan applies technology to improve safety for people and processes
- AcelanBot uses unmanned vehicles to increase efficiency and safety
- OperAcelan digitally enables fieldwork and operations
- ConfiAcelan uses predictive insights to maximize asset reliability
- IntegrAcelan integrates operations to optimize efficiency of the entire value chain
- MonitorAcelan monitors effluents, leaks and emissions to minimize the refinery’s environmental impact
- ProAnalise maximizes the refinery’s analytical capability and lab efficiency with new tools and techniques
Break old, weak chains to forge new, stronger ones
Araujo reported that Acelan’s vision and plan for production and value-chain optimization also included working down onto the plant-floor from the plan itself, and working up from the plant’s sensors and controls that serve as the foundation for what the plan is trying to accomplish.
“We also needed an advanced process control (APC) plan,” he said. “There’s also the challenge of disconnecting processes that have created silos. Many business changes can be very difficult. How do you connect to APC systems? How do you bring together two operators’ logbooks? That’s what we had to work on, but a lot of staff resist change because they can’t see what positives these efforts will bring. Initially, they only see change or loss, so we need to understand their concerns then help them learn new tools and see how they can synchronize with the overall initiative.”
Tracking the benefit streams
Once it eliminated the disconnections in its systems and segregations in its data, the value chain at Acelan’s refinery started generating increasingly solid benefits. Most notably, it’s projected to save $19 million in 2024 and reduce CO2 emissions by 14 kilotons (kt) per year.
Acelan’s value-chain project covered seven APC controllers, as well as Yokogawa Energy Real-time Optimization (ERTO) and heat exchanger monitoring functions, which saved 13% on energy consumption by reducing steam, natural gas and electricity usage. ERTO balances energy consumption across the refinery and delivers online recommendations about the best operational point that will minimize energy costs. It’s also integrated with an emission monitoring tool. HX is a process-predictive tool that simulates heat exchangers and uses maintenance costs and downtime data to identify and prioritize main bad actors to improve energy efficiency. ERTO and HX are based on Yokogawa’s Visual MESA software and KBC’s Petro-Sim software, respectively.
In addition, Araujo reported that scheduling for Acelan’s asset-optimization project started with its crude oil processes and will then be expanded to the refinery’s other products. Overall, the company expects to save $1 per barrel after it completes the second phase of its asset optimization project in about September 2025.
“Many users still work with spreadsheets, but we’re enthusiastic about trying to do more advanced analyses and the profits they can provide,” concluded Araujo. “We’re also planning to expand this project in 2025-27 to improve reliability. There are several critical success factors for all of these efforts. With all of them, technology gives us the power to do them, but it’s the human aspect that drives results. Once people understand objectives and see the value in them, it will motivate them, and we’ll succeed.”
