PRODUCTION OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE

Over the lifetime of the field, the total undiscounted operating expenditure (opex) is likely to exceed the capital expenditure (capex). It is therefore important to control and reduce opex at the project design stage as well as during the production period. 

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The operations group will develop general operating and maintenance objectives for the facilities which will address product quality, costs, safety and environmental issues. At a more detailed level, the mode of operations and maintenance tor a particular project will be specified in the field development plan. Both specifications will be discussed in this section, which will focus on the input of the production operations and maintenance departments to a field development plan. The management of the field during the producing period is discussed in Section 14.0. 

The production operations and maintenance group will develop a set of operating and maintenance objectives for the project. This will be a guideline when specifying the mode of operation and maintenance of the equipment items and systems, and will incorporate elements of... 

There are many sources of hazards. People introduce some hazards. All too often, hazards arise from engineering activities, such as planning, design, production, operations, and maintenance. Seldom do engineers or others introduce hazards deliberately. Most likely they are the results of errors, oversight, or other inadvertent, unknowing or unintentional activities. 

Review all the proposed product operation and maintenance documents with respect to safety... 

The first function of a wellsite is to accommodate drilling operations. However, a wellsite must be designed to allow access for future operations and maintenance activity, and in many cases provide containment in the event of accidental emission. Production from a single wellhead or wellhead cluster is routed by pipeline to a gathering station, often without any treatment. In such a case the pipeline effectively becomes an extension of the production tubing. If a well is producing naturally or with assistance from a down... 

A new countercurrent continuous centrifugal extractor developed in the former USSR (214) has the feature that mechanical seals are replaced by Hquid seals with the result that operation and maintenance are simplified the mechanical seals are an operating weak point in most centrifugal extractors. The operating units range between 400 and 1200 mm in diameter, and a capacity of 70 m /h has been reported in service. The extractors have been appHed in coke-oven refining (see Coal conversion processes), erythromycin production, lube oil refining, etc. 

Size reduction (qv) or comminution is the first and very important step in the processing of most minerals (2,6,10,20—24). It also involves large expenditures for heavy equipment, energy, operation, and maintenance. Size reduction is necessary because the value minerals are intimately associated with gangue and need to be Hberated, and/or because most minerals processing/separation methods require the ore mass to be of certain size and/or shape. Size reduction is also required in the case of quarry products to produce material of controlled particle size (see Size measurement of particles). In some instances, hberation of valuables or impurities from the ore matrix is achieved without any apparent size reduction. Scmbbers and attritors used in the industrial minerals plants, eg, phosphate, mtile, glass sands, or clay, ate examples. 

The division of labor between operations and maintenance is shown in Figure 21-4. It is the primary responsibility of the production department to establish and regulate basic operating conditions, and it is the primary responsibility of the maintenance department to improve defects in design. The other tasks are shared between the two departments. 

The confluence of sharply rising Operations and Maintenance (O M) costs. NRC requested Individual Plant Examinations (IPEs) and increased personal computer capabilities gave rise to the R R Workstation. Its uses and maintains-current PSA models and databases for individual plants to perform O M planning and scheduling, and uses the PSA in IPE models to identify plant design, procedure and operational vulnerabilities. The Risk and Reliability Workstation Alliance was organized by EPRI to support the R R Workshop in order to achieve O M cost reduction, plant productivity and safety enhancement through risk-based, user-friendly, windowed software louls (Table 3.6 8). The Alliance, initiated in 1992, includes 25 U.S. utilities and four international partners from Spain, France, Korea, and Mexico. SAIC is the prime contractor for the R R Workstation, with participation of five other PSA vendors. 

The characteristics of the downstream pollution discharge must be monitored (see Fig. 13.18). It is essential that the operation and maintenance of the pollution control equipment be included in a quality audit procedure, assisting in determining the operation efficiency of the equipment and the formation of unwanted and possibly toxic compounds in the pollution control steps. Unsuitable operation of an incinerator may result in partial oxidation and formation of unwanted combustion products or excessive formation of MO. 

But for power station applications, the thermal efficiency is not the only measure of the performance of a plant. While a new type of plant may involve some reduction in running costs due to improved thermal efficiency, it may also involve additional capital costs. The cost of electricity produced is the crucial criterion within the overall economics, and this depends not only on the thermal efficiency and capital costs, but also on the price of fuel, operational and maintenance costs, and the taxes imposed. Yet another factor, which has recently become important, is the production by gas turbine plants of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide) which contribute to global warming. Many countries are now considering the imposition of a special tax on the amount of CO2 produced by a power plant, and this may adversely affect the economics. So consideration of a new plant in future will involve not only the factors listed above but also the amount of CO2 produced per unit of electricity together with the extra taxes that may have to be paid. 

Make provision in your contract procedures for requiring customers to supply handling, operating, and maintenance instructions as necessary for any product they supply. 

The heaviest products obtained directly from oil arc lubricants, waxes, asphalt, and coke. These products have both domestic and industrial uses. Lubricants, for example, are applied in the operation and maintenance of industrial equipment and machinery. Asphalt, because it is not reactive to chemicals in the environment, is a superb material of construction in the building of roads and in roofing. It is also used in the waterproofing of concrete, the manufacture of black paints, and as a material lor tire threads, battery housing, electrical insulation, and other applications. The heaviest of all the petroleum products, coke, is used extensively as a major component of industrial electrodes and as a commercial fuel. 

The main consideration in the selection of a compressor plant is the production of an adequate supply of compressed air at the lowest cost consistent with reliable service. The installation of a compressed air system, as with all forms of power transmission, calls for capital investment with consequent operating and maintenance costs. The information on which the selection of plant is based should be as accurate as possible. Important factors to be considered are the following. 

Jigs are relatively cheap with regard to construction, operation, and maintenance, and are relatively unaffected by the grade of the feed. They are basically designed for handling material that is too coarse for table feed (380 mm in diameter down to 2 mm). The cleaning of coal and the production of tin mineral concentrate can be cited as two major examples where jigging is found to be in use even today. 

Economically, the elimination of lead and nickel emissions will result in an improved product because exposure of the metal to combustion gases in the current process results in porosity and entrainment of hydrogen gas in the metal. Overall, AMPCO estimates an annual savings in operations and maintenance expenses of USD 1.2 million with the use of this technology. Assuming the same 70% industry adoption, economic savings by 2010 could reach USD 5.8 million. Without the new electric induction heating process, the capital costs required for compliance could be USD 3 million. 

It seems increasingly clear that the operating cost (operation and maintenance plus fuel costs) is very competitive with the same cost of its main competitors, coal-and gas fired plants. Therefore, the economic advantage of life extension is obvious, and also the clear trend to operate existing nuclear power plants on base load only. Even in France where there are too many nuclear plants to operate them all on base load, there is a trend to decrease the share of nuclear power in total production in view to operate eventually all... 

Standards provide a base for a uniform system of accepted performance such as those found in engineering practice standards, material standards, and test standards. Hydrogen standards are typically written under a consensus process by technical committees (TC) representing a cross section of interested parties and issued in the United States, for example, by organizations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for pressure vessels, pipelines, and piping the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) for pressure vessel operation and maintenance and the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for product certification. 

Defining hydrogen fuel quality specifications is a high priority for the Roadmap. Such specifications must be quantified at the vehicle-station interface and must consider how the presence of small amounts of contaminants affects the performance and durability of fuel cell and balance of plant material compatibility of onboard and stationary hydrogen storage systems and the operation and maintenance of hydrogen production, purification, and delivery systems. Most importantly, fuel quality specification must consider... 

The computerized systems, both hardware and software, that form part of the GLP study should comply with the requirements of the principles of GLP. This relates to the development, validation, operation and maintenance of the system. Validation means that tests have been carried out to demonstrate that the system is fit for its intended purpose. Like any other validation, this will be the use of objective evidence to confirm that the pre-set requirements for the system have been met. There will be a number of different types of computer system, ranging from personal computers and programmable analytical instruments to a laboratory information management system (LIMS). The extent of validation depends on the impact the system has on product quality, safety and record integrity. A risk-based approach can be used to assess the extent of validation required, focusing effort on critical areas. A computerized analytical system in a QC laboratory requires full validation (equipment qualification) with clear boundaries set on its range of operation because this has a high... 

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