Labor, refinery

Developments. Electrolytic refining requires a large capital investment, and labor costs per kilogram of copper produced are high. Most refineries have traditionally operated at current densities of about 240 A/m. Thus, a tank house area of approximately 40 m is required per ton of copper produced daily. The use of higher current densities reduces capital requirements but may impair deposition efficiency and product quaUty. 

The Nelson Refinery Constmction Index, which appears monthly in the Oil and Gas Journal, is a weighted constmction materials and labor index. 

Labor costs experience inflation just as do capital costs as Figure B.5 demonstrates. Raw materials and fuel costs are subject to considerable erratic fluctuations as demonstrated by oil and metals prices, which have rapidly risen and fallen several times over the last five decades. For example, Figure B.6 shows the changes in refinery fuel price index since 1955. Prediction of refinery fuel prices in the future is clearly much more difficult than predicting capital costs. 

For most odour nuisance problems, chemical plants, refineries, livestock production, food processing, rendering, water purification plants etc., the compounds responsible for the odour are known. So chemical analysis of the odour can be limited to these odorants, and selective concentrating techniques can be used. Selective concentrating methods are based on specific absorption techniques, using particular chemical reactions of odorant classes. Sometimes several absorption methods have to be used in order to describe the odour problem, thus increasing the labor cost of the analysis. On the other hand absorption methods allow better quantitative results. Selective absorption of odorants from air produces a far less complex mixture. We developed or are developing several of these methods for aldehydes, amines, acids, thiols etc. 

Indirect cost normally ranges from 20 to 35% of material plus labor of the modular major equipment cost. In most cost analysis of complete processing units, the indirect cost is very significant. Indirect cost factors should therefore always be a part of the summary sheet s total cost analysis and never overlooked. For most refinery, chemical plant, and oil- and gas-treating facilities, a 25% indirect cost factor is a well-accepted number in the industry, worldwide. The 25% factor of the material plus labor is therefore advised and is used in this chapter. 

Many different types of cost indexes are published regularly. Some of these can be used for estimating equipment costs others apply specifically to labor, construction, materials, or other specialized fields. The most common of these indexes are the Marshall and Swift all-industry and process-industry equipment indexes, the Engineering News-Record construction index, the Nelsotl-Fatrar refinery construction index, and the Chemical Engineering plant cost index. Table 3 presents a list of values for various types of indexes over the past 15 years. 

IMULSIONS OF OIL AND WATER are one of many problems directly associated with the petroleum industry, in both oil-field production and refinery environments. Whether these emulsions are created inadvertently or are unavoidable, as in the oil-field production area, or are deliberately induced, as in refinery desalting operations, the economic necessity to eliminate emulsions or maximize oil-water separation is present. Furthermore, the economics of oil-water separation dictate the labor, resources, and monies dedicated to this issue. Before we describe the methods and economics of emulsion breaking at commercial facilities, we will restate several key concepts concerning emulsions and the petroleum industry. 

Extraction techniques have also been used to determine total mercury and its species in petroleum products [6]. The technique is effective, but it appears to be more labor-intensive than what one may desire for a refinery laboratory. An instrument that provided a direct determination of mercury in crude oil by thermal decomposition followed by CVAFS was built [7]. This approach appears to hold the promise of uniquely low detection limits, but imfortunately a fully automated instrument based on this design has not been commercialized. 

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries is asked to perform verification audits and to participate in the refinery s process safely culture oversight committee. 

The purchase of cmde oil and external blend stocks accounts for about 85% of a refinery s operating costs. About half of the remaining 15% is due to energy in the form of fuel and electrical power. Table 35 shows a typical breakdown of plant-wide operating costs. For the refining industry, labor costs are about 2.3% of sales compared to 7.6% for making automobile bodies, 8.3% for plastics, and 12.7% for computers." ... 

Assay analyses of whole crudes are done by combining an atmospheric and vacuum distillation run. These two runs when combined will provide a TBP (True Boiling Point Curve). While these batch distillation methods are labor intensive, taking between three to five days, they allow the collection of distillation fractions that can be utilized for testing. While each of the distillations techniques have been standardized by ASTM, cut schemes tend to mimic Refinery product classifications and there is no standardization of the individual inspection formats. Each corporation tends to perform both physical and chemical testing that best meet the needs of their refining operations and product suites. 

Many hydrotreaters are stay-in-business investments, so it s diffieult to quantify their upgrade value, which is the value of products minus costs -labor, materials (liquid feed, hydrogen, catalysts and chemicals), utilities, maintenance, and investment amortization. In some plants, the refinery planning LP assigns equal value to treated and imtreated naphtha, and even to treated and untreated distillates. This reflects the underlying assumption that the increase in value across a hydrotreater is equal to the cost of running the unit, i.e., the upgrade value is zero. In other LPs, the NHT that pretreats catalytic reformer feed is lumped in with the reformer. Certainly, if a key naphtha or distillate hydrotreater shuts down, ihe refinery may have to run at reduced rate, but that can be said of most units. 

In refineries and chemical plants with highly complex and inter-related processes and equipment, down time because of corrosion failure with concomitant loss in production, and product sales and profits, may be much more important than direct costs of equipment replacement or repair, and the labor to effect them. Such losses can easily exceed the cost of continuous treatment by corrosion inhibitors and anti-foulants. 

Complete costs can seldom be assembled at a particular date, and hence cost indexes such as those of Table 23-1 must be. employed. Indexes are especially useful if they are kept up to date in readily available publications. The ENR (Engineering News Record) index of constrq6tion costs has been used since 1913 and it is published each month. Likewise the Nelson Refinery Construction Cost Index is published in the first issue each month of The Oil and Gas Journal. Refinery wages and the productivity of refinery labor can be obtained (or computed) from informa -tion in the monthly magazine entitled Survey of Current Business (U.S. Department of Commerce) or from quarterly issues (January, April, July, and October) of The Oil and Gas Jouranl (Itemized Cost Indexes). There is no truly satisfactory way to state an operating cost index because the value of fuel varies widely from plant to plant, and the fuel cost Nelson, W. L.,. . . How it is Computed, Oil Gas J., Oct. 1, 1956, p. 110. 

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