Stamitalks Podcast
We at Stamicarbon are pioneers in the licensing and design of fertilizer technology with more than 77 years of experience.
Here we share the latest technology insights into urea, green ammonia, fertilizer sustainability, and digital trends for fertilizer plants, and we also discuss the role the fertilizer industry can play in solving global challenges.
Happy to share our knowledge with you.
Stamitalks Podcast
Optimizing Plant Longevity: Maintenance and Material Strategies
Curious about how to extend the lifespan of your plant’s piping and equipment?
In the latest episode of #Stamitalks, Kirk Ofei, a Materials & Corrosion specialist at Stamicarbon, highlights the crucial role of corrosion maintenance in prolonging the lifespan of piping and equipment in a fertilizer plant.
Gain insights into the inspection process and understand the internal and external factors that can affect a plant’s piping, ultimately impacting the plant’s lifespan.
All right, welcome everybody to a new episode of Stamitalks, the podcast that talks about fertilizer technology, and today we have a materials and corrosion specialist with us, kirk Ove Welcome. Thank you, mark. You started in Stamitalks, I think, before I did, so can you share a bit about your background?
Speaker 2:Yes, I've been with Stamicarbon for about 11 years now. Time goes really fast so it feels like yesterday, but I joined Stamicarbon really at a critical moment where we were trying to make new developments on our Saphorex materials and grades. So it was a really exciting time to be joining. A lot of things to do, a lot of things to learn, and it also got me in touch with, let's say, our clients' laboratories. So it was a steep learning curve and also an interesting time okay and what's your your background well, study-wise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my background is uh same as my title okay, material science and engineering. Okay, so it's uh, yeah, quite seamless.
Speaker 1:Let's say, uh, okay, fit with stomach carbon okay, so today we're going to talk a bit more in depth about the lifetime of, I think, most of the urea plants, but lifetime of fertilizer plants in general. Of course, let's say urea is a highly corrosive process, especially with carbamate, so material and corrosion is a big, big impact on the lifetime of plants. Can you share a bit about your experience in this? How do you support clients in making the most out of their plant?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you are right in the sense that the urea synthesis process can be quite corrosion intensive.
Speaker 2:So one of the main items we focus on, apart from the process, is material selection, because we need to focus on how the materials will interact with the service environment will interact with the service environment. We need to look at it from both a technical perspective and a cost perspective, so we try to have a compromise between the two to have a cost-effective, safe solution. How do we support clients with this? First of all, we do a lot of research and development to, let's say, continuously improve the corrosion resistance of our materials Okay, but also we visit clients when they have planned turnarounds to check the condition of their equipment and also piping sometimes and then, based on the condition, we give them advice, also give them new insights, because we are also learning as the years progress, and some of the new insights is what we are going to be talking about today as well, which is how they can extend the lifetime of their piping and equipment. Yeah, based on the knowledge that we've gained over the years as an organization.
Speaker 1:Maybe to start with, let's say, a baseline, right? So let's assume I don't know anything about the urea process, urea industry Precisely. What would be? Let's say you started 11 years ago, let's say 15 years ago. What would be the average lifetime of a urea plant? Can you give a sort of a range for that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so urea plants are designed to have a minimum lifetime of 20 years, so that is also what the equipment and piping is designed for.
Speaker 1:Okay, but of course, based on how the plant is run and maintained, this can be extended quite significantly okay yeah, so there are a lot of plants that are older than 20 years, yeah, um, so probably you will see more and more situations that well, I think at some time you already mentioned it's a. It's a process versus cost perspective, or technical versus cost perspective. Of course, the easiest solution would be to just build a whole new plant and you're set for another 20 years at least, but of course, making that decision is very costly. When is the point that you would say, okay, now it's done, we can't do anything anymore, because I think clients would like to postpone that as long as possible to get the most out of their investment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that will differ from plant to plant and also depending on, like I said, how the plant has been run. The recent philosophies that we have on running plants and maintaining them is risk-based. So actually trying to follow a methodology that predicts when an item is going to go out of service, and if you follow this methodology you could end up in a situation where the whole plant might not have to go out of service but certain critical equipment or piping have to be replaced at a given time. So actually, so far as the plant is commercially viable if you follow a proper maintenance strategy, you can extend the lifetime of a plant quite beyond 20 years.
Speaker 2:So then of?
Speaker 1:course, the key question is how do you assess the risk? So what's the key? Yeah, what's the trick? Knowledge, knowledge, okay.
Speaker 2:Knowledge and experience. Yes, and you know that we in Stamikarbon have a lifetime assessment or extension activity that we offer to clients.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is only for Stamikarbon clients, or also for any urea plant.
Speaker 2:This is applicable to any urea plant, because the methodology is basically the same. Of course, every project that we carry out is tailor-made to the plant's needs. So, even if it's a Stamikarbon plant, it's really tailor-made to what type of plant it is and how it's run. It's process-related and not licensure-related. Precisely. Yes, okay, but then the steps to follow are quite similar, let's say. But then there are variations depending on what type of process it is. What are the materials of construction? Even where the plant is situated will determine how we approach.
Speaker 1:Why does it matter what the location of a plant is? Is it just climate conditions, or is there more to it? That's it climate.
Speaker 2:Okay. So, for example, if a plant is by the coast, the type of failure mechanisms we'll be looking at will differ compared to if you have a plant in a rainforest, for example.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So those are also quite important. Or if a plant is in Siberia as well, because temperature ranges also affects how the equipment in a plant runs, so it's the amount of cycles and temperature fluctuations in humidity and humidity, chloride content in the air all of that plays a role, okay yeah, and how do you just?
Speaker 1:how do you? Do you just call any weather institute and say can you give me all the details of the past 30 years of this location? Or how do you, how that?
Speaker 2:For me, that part is very easy. I just send an email to the client and then they have to provide us with this information. And yeah, usually they have this as well. Okay, so you start basically with getting information from the client, and I think that's the yes, so if we want to carry out a lifetime extension or assessment for a client, it's divided into three main parts, but we start with getting information from the client. I will say, actually, the very first step would be in defining the scope.
Speaker 1:What are those three steps? Can you give them a single word or a phase? What are they?
Speaker 2:Because I think it's good to go through the process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say phase A would be getting the information from the client and then making an action plan, which is the inspection plan for the items in the scope. Phase B would be then carrying out the inspections, getting the actual data, and then phase C would be delivering the report and advice and recommendations. And phase C would be delivering reports and advice and recommendations, but of course, there is also a deliverable for phase A, which is the inspection plan for the client to prepare for us.
Speaker 1:So then, how do you get to the inspection plan?
Speaker 2:That's the data intensive part. So first of all, we, together with a client, define what the scope will be, and it can be that it's a static equipment, it can be that it's piping, it can be that it's storage tanks, for example for ammonia or for piping in the utilities that they have on the plant. So once the scope is defined, then we get into getting information from the client on drawings of these equipments, the maintenance history of the items in the scope. If things have gone wrong in the past, we want to know what went wrong and then how it was fixed, because this can also affect the future performance of the items in the scope. We also find out about how the plant has been running.
Speaker 2:Have there been excursions outside of the operating, the normal operating window of the plant? We also need, most importantly, what is the material of construction of all the items in the scope Okay, of all the items in the scope and then so this is then related to the items in the scope themselves we also have to focus on things, like we already mentioned, the climate of where this plant is. So this is, let's say I call this the hardware part of this job. The soft part is also trying to align all the people that you'll do this job with, because carrying out lifetime extensions is also very people intensive and it's important to have all the stakeholders aligned and not to have any crossover in responsibilities.
Speaker 1:Okay. So who are the typical stakeholders in an activity like this?
Speaker 2:Stamicarbon, of course. Then you have on the plant side, you have the inspections department of the plants, the maintenance department, you have production from their side and because these activities are usually carried out during a plant turnaround, every plant, when they are planning a turnaround, they have a plant turnaround committee if you want to call them that.
Speaker 2:So they also have to be involved. And, last but not least, during turnaround, the plant hires a lot of outside contractors who help with this job, and they also need to be involved in this chain, because experience has shown us that when you don't have all of these people involved and informed, things don't go smoothly. What I mean by that is that you have, during a turnaround, a specific time frame to perform these activities, and if people are not aware that, first of all, you are carrying out the job, or they are not aware of what they should be doing, then you get unnecessary delays. And, of course, delays also cost money and time, and you want to avoid that.
Speaker 1:Okay, do you have examples of, let's say, a delay, of something, that it's not going smoothly, and then you have a I don't know a day or a week, I don't know what the let's say the normal duration of this plan forming phase would be or even the whole assessment phase would be, and what would be, let's say, the worst case scenario if it does not go smoothly?
Speaker 2:I mean this happens much more frequently than you would think, but I wouldn't say this is specifically related to lifetime assessments. It happens with all plant-side jobs. You start out with a very nice plan of I'm going to do X, y, z on each day, but things change on the plant side. But usually these jobs are planned for between 8 to 10 days, depending on the scope. If it's a larger scope scope, this can be quite longer, but it's it's not, let's say, surprising if this extends to between two to four days extra okay, so, of course.
Speaker 1:So any delay is not a good thing, but it's not like you were going to add well, of course, and not add months if it's a really burst, worst case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never had experience where we had to wait for months.
Speaker 1:I hope that you will not get that experience as well. Okay, so then you start basically with asking a lot of information to the client. Do clients normally have that data or is there a big variation in availability?
Speaker 2:have that data or is there a big variation in availability? The most common data, like drawings, maintenance history clients usually have. The big question is as to the quality of the data. Okay, because we are talking about plants that are usually older than 15 years old, you've had people turnover, so probably the people who were on the plant site when the plant was constructed are no longer available. Unfortunately, sometimes organizations have short memories so it can be difficult to find updated data.
Speaker 2:So when I mention quality, I mean in two ways. So first of all is the readability. For example, if you request isometrics for pipes, isometrics are just drawings of the layout of the pipelines on the plant site. Some can be from the 70s. It could have been that it's hand-drawn and photocopied several times over the years. So it can be a challenge sometimes with the readability, or sometimes changes are made on the plant which are not reflected in the data that we receive, and sometimes some data is just not available. So then we have to have workarounds. But I would say that usually about 95% of the information that we request is provided by the client. It is quite a lot of data, so this data gathering part can take a few weeks to a couple of months even.
Speaker 1:Okay, so then you have all this data, yes, and then I'm assuming you're not going to assume that it's all correct before you start, so you probably go there and check those locations. What's the?
Speaker 2:next step. So we hold off on going there for a bit. First we gather all the information that is required and then we study this information, and the reason for that is for the items in the scope. We want to know what risk each one has, and when we talk about risk we define it as what is the probability that it's going to fail? And if it fails, what will be the consequence. So we are looking at also the probability of how soon it might fail and consequence we are more looking at. If it fails, it means it's not available for the plant to operate, so the plant's going to be losing money. We are also looking at health and environment. We are also living in more of a green economy let's say so.
Speaker 2:If you have a failure, you are releasing a lot of toxic items into the atmosphere, which also causes reputation damage for the client. So we take all of these into consideration. So the importance of the data is we are going to study it and see what is the risk of each item and based on the risk, we can determine how to inspect or how much attention to pay to that item. So we use this to create an inspection plan and in the inspection plan we will note what to inspect, where to inspect and how to inspect. With the how to inspect meaning, what sort of non-destructive testing techniques are we going to use? Are we going to use ultrasonic technology to measure wall thickness? Are we going to use a boroscope to check the insides of piping, if it's on equipment? Are we going to do visual inspections, carry out some eddy current testing, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Okay, the whole list of tools available for the inspection team to check.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And then these things are also determined by the failure modes. So all that, all the data that the client has sent to us, we, uh, we, we take a look at it. We take a look also, as I mentioned before, about the operating conditions and excursions and stuff like that. So we, when stamy carbon designs a plant, or if any other licensor, when they design a plant, they have the parameters according to which the plant is supposed to run.
Speaker 2:And here I'm talking mainly we look at temperature and pressure, and when the plant is in operation this can deviate. So we compare the design parameters to the operating parameters, see how far away they are, and, taking a look at all the information that I've mentioned, we then determine, and also the materials of construction, we determine what are the possible failure modes. Something is going to fail by just uniform corrosion. We have an idea of what to check, where to check. If there is a threat for chloride stress corrosion, cracking for example, which is something that happens from the outside of the piping, it's not supposed to happen from the process side, at least for piping. Let's say, then we will take some samples with us of insulation material and stuff like that to check in the laboratory. So it is the failure modes that also have a very important role in determining the risk, plus also how we will inspect what to look for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so then you make this whole plan, you send that to the client and who signs off on it and then you start inspecting it on site.
Speaker 2:There's one more step. So this is a desk study, so it means it's myself and colleagues sitting in the office taking a look at all of this and then making a plan. When we finish this, we then have to do what we call a validation plant visit, because we need to validate that what we've done fits with the reality on the ground. So we pay a visit to the client. This is about a two-day plant site visit. Where we will, and the two days also depends on the scope. If you have a larger scope it might be more days, but the normal scopes it's two days days. We then check to see that all the locations that we want to inspect based on our inspection plan exist. If they don't, then we need to make some modifications, and not just that they exist, but also if they are accessible. So if they're not accessible, you need to make again and exist.
Speaker 1:You mean, like, if they're still based on the data that you got precisely it hasn't been any construction work.
Speaker 2:Because sometimes, yes, plants have modifications and maybe on the original PNID you see two pumps, for example two HP carbonate pumps, and then you go inside and maybe they have three. It could also be for the ammonia the same thing. Or sometimes you've marked a thermal well somewhere that you want to check or weld or let, and then they've changed the pipeline so it doesn't exist. So you need to make modifications, be adaptive Exactly. But there is another reason why this visit is also very important, also to the client, because it gives them an idea of exactly what we are going to check and where we are going to check, so they can make the necessary preparations for the inspections. So inspections of these items involves building scaffolding, disconnecting flanges, removing certain valves or MTOs on pipelines.
Speaker 1:What is an MTO?
Speaker 2:Material takeoff.
Speaker 2:This refers to valves and all other attachments on are on our high pressure pipings, and it is important for the client to know this because I mentioned before the plant plant turnaround committee.
Speaker 2:They will take this into consideration in their planning because they plan all the items that need to be opened or disconnected during a plant inspection and then allocate resources and time to this. So it is important for them to know that they need to, let's say, disconnect a flange somewhere or open a vessel, a nozzle somewhere. If they don't know this and we come on site and they need to make modifications to their plants, it's much more difficult because they also need spare parts. So, for example, if they need to open a flange, they need to think okay, do we have bolts and that's spare. In case that they are damaged, we have gaskets. So they need to think about all of this. It's a big, big project planning that goes into this before you can precisely so it's much more difficult for them to make on the spot changes than for us, so we need to make them aware of our plans ahead of time okay, so then you go and do the inspection.
Speaker 2:Yes, so then we come actually still one more step Okay. During the validation step as well. We actually tag all the locations.
Speaker 2:We want to inspect and photograph them, because before we go on site these locations are indicated on isometrics. Because before we go on site these locations are indicated on isometrics but it's not always the most convenient to identify these locations using just the isometric. So we do another step of also photographing the locations and come back home and place all of this back in the revised report we made, and then this final document is sent to the client. Okay, so then the client can use this to prepare for us and one piece of useful information. The client should always anticipate a minimum of about one and a half months to read our report and prepare for us. Okay, because it's quite a lot of work and it's not advisable to just go into phase B, which is the inspection phase, as soon as the client receives the report. So that is also taken into account during the initial planning.
Speaker 1:So now I'm hesitant to ask. But now we can move to phase B. Yes, we are in phase B. Okay, so then we go on-site or you go on-site, I won't join you.
Speaker 2:Well, Stabicarbon goes on-site. Usually it is a two-person team. For smaller scopes you have a corrosion specialist and then you have a non-destructive testing specialist as well. But the team on site is much bigger because the client will also provide support for doing other activities, For example radiography, which is x-ray. We will not do it, the client will have to provide the service for that. But then the inspections are done and then we get real hard data, so we then see the actual condition of equipment and or piping that we are inspecting. Based on that data, in most of the cases we can then make a calculation to determine what is the expected, what is the estimated remaining lifetime, depending on the failure mechanisms.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you do that basically for each inspection location, so for each inspection item.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's say we are inspecting a pipeline. It may have 10 inspection locations with different results, 10 inspection locations with different results. The remaining lifetime, of course, will be determined by the worst location. Precisely what is happening at the worst location.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. So then you provide this again, a report, to the client. So we've done these 10 inspections on this pipe. We see values X, y and Z. Z is the worst. So based on that, the expected lifetime is whatever months or years, and then you come up with advice to continue further with either more inspections or replacing it. Is that step?
Speaker 2:C already A little bit of it, with either more inspections or with replacing it, or then, what's the? Is that? Yeah, so I mean it's Is that step C? Already A little bit of it is in step C, but immediately after we perform the inspections if, of course, we found some alarming, we've made some alarming observations or measurements we have a discussion with a client and provide mitigation actions. Rarely do we run into the situation where, immediately, a whole pipeline needs to be replaced.
Speaker 2:I have an interesting example of there was a thermal well on a gas line. So it's a gas line that runs from the urea stripper to the high pressure carbonate condenser and usually gas lines are critical because of condensation which happens there, and actually condensation corrosion is much more severe than the other forms of uniform corrosion that we have. The line was surprisingly okay, but then we shot some x-rays of this weldolet to a bit of the displeasure of the client, because it takes them time and manpower and yeah, we found out that there has been some severe material loss at the weld connection. Okay, so this would have failed in service, which is something that you don't want to have. So when we discovered this, we had a quick discussion with the client, and then this part was replaced, because they had the time to do it in that moment as well, and this actually pleased the client a lot, because then it has saved them a catastrophic failure or potential catastrophic failure. Yeah, that's that will.
Speaker 2:If you, if you save a catastrophic failure, then the the return on investment will be good anyway, whatever whatever you charge, but it's good that you have these, these examples yeah, so, uh yeah, after the inspection, we, we and anyway, when we're on site, we have daily conversations with the client at the end of each day Debriefing Precisely what has been measured, what are the observations, do they need to take any actions at the moment or not? And then we come back home, usually also with some samples, because we need to carry out extra laboratory investigations on, for example, insulation material. This is important to check, for example, what's the chloride concentration in this insulation material, depending on if it's a stainless steel, if it's a carbon steel, for example, then we'll check the nitrate concentration. There are rules and regulations, international standards, which determine how much of these ions you can have dissolved in your insulation material, because they can have a detrimental effect on the equipment or piping from the outside. So we make sure that you are under this limit and if you are not, we then give you advice to, let's say, replace this as soon as possible.
Speaker 2:But we come back home, we then do these laboratory examinations, but also then use the data to calculate for each item the estimated remaining lifetime and then round up the report by also giving the client another important information, which is the inspection interval, because now remember that in the beginning we had a risk ranking.
Speaker 2:Yes, after the desk study, yes. So after we carry out the inspections, we also need to do another risk ranking again, because the first risk ranking was based on it's a theoretical exercise, yeah, with some data, but yeah, it is not based on the hard measurements. So now, when we've made observations, we've made measurements, we do a risk ranking again, and sometimes the risk of an item. So we rank until five, five being the most critical, meaning you have a shorter inspection interval. Actually, you need to act immediately. So we redo the risk ranking, which then also determines what are the inspection intervals. So if an item has a risk ranking of one, its inspection interval will differ from an item with a risk ranking of three or four. And this is quite important for the client because then it means that at the next turnarounds they don't need to assign resource and time to items with a lower risk ranking does it also impact the let's say, the investment planning?
Speaker 1:because I can imagine that if you have a high risk or a higher risk item that needs to be replaced at some point, that of course you, you can replace more items surrounding that thing, even if they have a lower risk assessment, that you combine things and so it impacts your investment planning yeah, I mean it is.
Speaker 2:It is true, and I mean for for the items around, if they have a low risk. That will be the plant's personal decision. But for sure, if an item has a high risk and the mitigation factor is to replace because we can also give then advice on how long we think you can use it until it's really at the end of life it gives the plant managers the the opportunity to budget. So if they know that they need to replace an item within four years, yeah, this is important information for them because they can now start thinking about how to get the money to to get this done okay, yeah, that's really nice.
Speaker 1:I think nice, I think we, uh I think then that you mentioned that to get things done, but I think then also the process is done. You've mentioned the three tabs, the the plan do and act phase that you described. Um, I think you've seen a lot of urea plants from from the inside, uh, over the last 11 years. Yeah, probably also all over the world, so that's nice to get some flavor of that experience. Would you like to add something else before we close off?
Speaker 2:Well, what I would like to add and this is for clients is that usually for the static equipment in urea plants, clients always have a plan for inspecting them, and it can be either condition-based, which is based on risk, or it can be time-based, which means that they have, let's say, a philosophy in their organization that every X number of years everything is shut down and taken a look at. But for piping, unfortunately, this is not standard and if you think about it, it should be because actually the materials of construction for the piping, the corrosion resistant alloy, is the same that is used for the equipment and it is the same process. So the process that goes through the piping is similar to what is going on in the equipment.
Speaker 2:It's in the same conditions, precisely so. The failure mechanisms are also similar. But sometimes piping is forgotten, and it is not intentional, it is just that it can be quite time consuming because clients may have a difficulty in determining where should I even begin to look. And not just that sometimes also who is responsible for what with piping can also be a bit blurry, especially if they cross battery lines in a plant, and also during the life cycle of piping.
Speaker 2:It goes through several hands during construction, when it goes into service, you have production in there you have maintenance in there, so it becomes quite More ambiguous, yeah, and also a bit more complicated. But then with Stamicarbon's lifetime assessment, based on our experience with different types of plants and different materials of construction and stuff like that, we can support them and make this less of a daunting task by taking a look at the piping, because usually when the plant is more than 15 years old, it is time to take a look at the piping, and because this isn't done, usually in the urea industry you see more failure in the piping than in the high-pressure equipment where more attention is paid to. So I would say, yeah, take care.
Speaker 1:Shout out to give attention to the piping.
Speaker 2:Take care of piping yeah.
Speaker 1:All right well. Thank you so much for all of these insights, kirk. It has been very interesting to listen to your stories on the extending lifetime of plants, so thank you so much for being with us, and also a shout out to all our listeners who listen into Stammy Talks, and we hope to have your ear again next time.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for having me, mark, it has been a pleasure.
Speaker 1:Most welcome Thank you. Stammy Talks pleasure most welcome, thank you.