Steam System Management Program Yields Fuel Savings for Refinery

The Phillips refinery at Borger, Texas, determined the need to develop a utility monitoring system. Shortly after this commitment was made, the refinery was introduced to a flowsheet modeling program that could be used to model and optimize steam systems. The refinery requested that the program be installed on their corporate computing system so that a process engineer could periodically evaluate operating data and determine potential benefits. The steam balance helped identify areas where meters were needed and showed how piping changes would affect operation. Case studies gave a better understanding of how the steam system operates and what would happen as new units were put on line. One set of case studies resulted in modifications to the feed water system for boilers that were being installed. A number of sets of operating data were evaluated and a payout of less than one year was determined for a process control computer and all additional instrumentation. The computer system will use the steam system modeling and optimization program on-line to minimize operating costs