The Company
Ineos ChlorVinyls, the largest PVC manufacturer in Europe have been operating a Chlor-Alkali production facility under the vigilance of the R2 EMOS® system since it’s commissioning in 2006. The XYZ kT/year membrane electrolyser room in Runcorn, UK has been carefully monitored from the very beginning to insure the safest and most efficient chlorine and caustic soda production.
The Solution
R2’s Cell Performance Report (CPR) enables the adoption proactive selective maintenance strategies based on the true economic performance of individual cells and their critical components (anode coating, membrane and cathode coating). Operating costs are reduced through detection and replacement of underperformers, as well as identifying and prolonging the lifetimes of better performing elements. Further benefits can be achieved using CPR to test new components or to optimize other strategic projects, such as in situ reactivation of cathode coatings.
Using the historical data stored in R2’s EMOS® system it was possible to evaluate the performance of the plant prior to the start of the study. Ongoing data analysis throughout the study gave continuous feedback on the effects of the changes that were implemented based on the CPR analyses.
During the study Tessenderlo used the CPR to rank and sort the performance of individual elements within each electrolyser (Figure 1) and also throughout the plant. By setting filters (i.e. maximum savings) Tessenderlo Chemie could optimize maintenance planning while reduced operating costs and increasing the overall production efficiency of the plant.
The Benefits
By leveraging the operational data stored in EMOS® the CPR gave a precise view of the true economic performance of the chlor alkali plant. This was successfully demonstrated at the Tessenderlo Chemie plant.
Based on this experience and on average data from other EMOS® users, expected CPR benefits for a typical 270,000 tpy plant, would enable to:
- Reduce operating costs by €300,000/yr through selective maintenance practices (calculated as the difference between additional maintenance costs and typical operational savings).
- Gain additional savings through improved warranty management by identifying correlations between for example manufacturing related problems with coating or membranes and performance data.
- Improve production output by preventing unplanned shutdowns through continuous replacement of underperformers.
- Save more then €1,000,000 (€125,000/yr) by prolonging the usable lifetime of the better performing components (coatings & membranes).
- Make better decisions when purchasing new components in future remembraning and recoating projects by monitoring the true performance of test cells.
- Improve overall plant safety by continuously focusing maintenance on underperformers that hold higher probabilities of leading to failures.
