Asset monitoring installation improves reliability

Emerson's new Essential Asset Monitoring solutions improve equipment insight for CO2 separator installation

A CO2 separator installation is taking advantage of Emerson Process Management’s new integrated Essential Asset Monitoring solutions to improve equipment reliability.

The Essential Asset Monitoring solutions are installed at the University of Texas J.J. Pickle Research Centre  (USA), a cooperative industry/university programme that performs fundamental research of interest to chemical, biotechnological, petroleum refining, gas processing, pharmaceutical, and food companies. CO2 removal from stack gas is a current focus project.

"Our Essential Asset Monitoring solutions provide the capability for 24/7 automated monitoring and continuous asset health analysis of the CO2 separator’s bottoms pump, air water column blower, stripper cross exchanger and boiler blower," commented Pete Sharpe, Director Applications Development, Emerson Process Management. "Engineered and installed in 2011 and 2012, these four applications have demonstrated the cost effectiveness of pre-engineered plug-and-play solutions that combine wired with wireless technology to enable expansion of automated monitoring."

The installations were tailored to the CO2 separator applications by using the scalability feature of the solutions, which allows a user to define which faults to monitor for, and which process and asset health measurements are available. The module for pumps can monitor for cavitation, vibration, high bearing temperature, suction strainer plugging, auxiliary seal flush pot level, seal fluid leaks, and hydrocarbon leaks. The solution for blowers can monitor for vibration, bearing temperature, blower differential and discharge pressure, and flow. The solution for exchangers monitors exchanger duty, fouling, optimal cleaning required, and differential pressure and temperatures.

"Upon installation, the Essential Asset Monitoring application highlighted to local operators and rotating equipment experts, an anomaly with the trended vibration and monitored process variables versus baseline," continued Sharpe.  "A large spike in one of the monitored vibration parameters every time the blower cycled on pointed out an existing fault that had gone undetected for who knows how long.  Repairing the fault resulted in decreasing vibration peak amplitudes from a range of 4 to 14 g’s to a range of 1.5 to 2 g’s.  With a history of integrity problems on this particular blower, it was a good thing we caught it in advance."

Emerson’s family of Essential Asset Monitoring solutions reduce installed costs through pre-engineering software and the easy implementation of wireless networks. Essential Asset Monitoring solutions are available for pumps, blowers, compressors, corrosion, fin fans, heat exchangers and cooling towers.