Refiner Unlocks Potential 60M USD Per Year in Cost Savings

Solomon’s Performance Excellence Process™ (PEP™) identified 10M USD in “quick hit” savings in only 6 months.

A NEED FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

A large refinery in Southeast Asia that processed 300k bbl/d of crude came to Solomon looking to be a part of the consultancy’s Worldwide Fuels Refinery Performance Analysis (Fuels Study). Having been out of the study for some time, the refiner was seeking Solomon’s energy improvement expertise to streamline its operations. Solomon approached this request using its Performance Excellence Process.

FINDING THE “QUICK HITS”

Focusing on finding areas that could be addressed quickly and those that would result in the largest returns, Solomon completed the first two phases of its Performance Excellence Process methodology—assessment and recommendation. This assessment included one-to-one interviews with plant personnel on site as well as the construction of a detailed stream management model. After 6 months of on-site assistance to help the refiner identify “quick hits”— improvement opportunities that can be accomplished in just a few months—Solomon delivered extensive reports and tools to manage the findings.

DELIVERING ANALYSIS, TOOLS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

These deliverables pinpointed areas for improvement and empowered the refiner to prioritize certain systems, manage implementation of recommendations, and keep track on its progress. In addition to the quick-hits recommendation report, which identified the fastest ways to realize cost savings, Solomon presented the refiner with a specific energy model and report that reconciled mass and energy balances, assessed steam, water, power, and fuel systems, and identified Solomon’s top four recommendations for performance improvement.

A No-/Low-Capital Recommendations Report helped the refiner identify steps that would streamline operations while minimizing the impact on their balance books. Solomon also performed prioritization workshops to assist management in deciding which recommendations to address first, and created an energy KPI spreadsheet to benchmark the refiner’s progress.

When the assessment and recommendation phases were completed, Solomon identified 21 quick-hit recommendations overall, totaling 10M USD—a figure calculated and confirmed by the refiner.

DRASTIC SAVINGS IN ONLY 6 MONTHS

Additional recommendations included—but were not limited to—the following four items and projected cost savings:

• Improved furnace combustion process control, potential savings 20M USD/yr
• Optimized power generation performance, calculated savings of 23.2M USD/yr
• Optimized boiler firing reserve, calculated savings of 1.4M USD/yr, also a quick hit
• Evaluated and reduced steam to the vacuum unit ejectors, savings 1.8M USD

With a total benefit of as much as 60M USD in potential savings, the refiner was extremely satisfied and contracted Solomon to perform a detailed analysis of all its Energy Intensity Index™ (EII^®) monitoring spreadsheets.