Bad Actors Removal of a Mature Refinery in the Middle East

Our client was the owner and operator of several downstream plants in the Middle East.

MACH10 has been asked to identify the root-cause and propose solutions for 10 chronic rotating equipment bad-actors that had been long disrupting operations in two refineries and one aromatics plant.

These bad actors included:

• Casing and impeller erosion and seal leakage from several pumps in the Main Fractionator, Water System, and DHDS units
• High vibrations and frequent bearing failures in the Water System, Steam and Condensate Units
• Frequent dry-gas seals failure on recycle gas compressors in the NHTU Unit
• Abnormal rider ring wear on CCR Regeneration Loop Compressors

MACH10 applied its failure diagnosis process, which led to carrying out 18 RCAs at the customer’s plants.

The exercise led to the identification of all root-causes behind the customer’s bad actors.

About half of the issues proved to be related to the equipment operation or the process conditions and a quick fix has been identified.

Remarkably, for almost 50% of the chronic bad actors the root-cause of the problems would have been preventable through an appropriate design and selection during the project phase.

This was a key learning point that highlighted how important it is to have a specialized rotating equipment expert as part of the client’s team in any new project to oversee the EPC’s work.