GDA Webinar draws 80 Regional SME’s
Becht presented a webinar on “Coke Drum Lifecycle Management” to a select pool of over 80 subject matter experts from various refiners in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on 6th March 2024. The webinar was organized by the GDA Plant Reliability & Integrity Technical Committee of the Gulf Downstream Association (GDA), where Becht is an active Associate Member. This webinar was the latest episode of an ongoing series of GDA Conversations that is being offered for members and downstream players at large.
This webinar was presented by Dave Dewees and moderated by Raj Jhajharia. The audience included engineers from Middle East key downstream players, such as: Saudi Aramco, KNPC, KPI, BAPCO, ADNOC Refining, OQ, SASREF, Yasref, Samref, Satorp, Idemitsu, JCCP, Cabinda Refinery, etc.
During this webinar, Dave described the critical factors that affect the life cycle of coke drums, and how that life cycle can be understood in terms of typical damage progression. Tools and techniques for effective management of the coke drum life cycle were also presented and illustrated with multiple case histories.
The webinar was well received. Some remarked it to be the best in the series of GDA Conversations so far. It was followed by a prolonged Q&A session, below are some of the questions that were discussed:
- How specifically does an HMS extend life and is there a definable benefit in terms of life extension?
- Do you have a similar study on dual feed nozzle Coker C1 type?
- Is HMS useful to monitor Skirt Critical Weld?
- How does the sludge processing affect the life cycle of the coke drum and what is the efficient operation of sludge processing?
- Is there a new version or technology for HMS that can be used as proactive barriers for coke drum and where is it implemented?
- What is the criteria to repair the circumferential / skirt weld cracks?
- What are the reasons for the frequent failures or issues, for example BUD/hydro jetting vapor line and MOVs passing issue?
- Is there a new coke drum other than skirt design. or is there any ongoing research for new designs, since skirt design is not reliable?
- What is the best practice for DCU TAR, 4 Y or 5 Y or 6Y?
- To increase the life cycle of coke drums, how frequently do we need to inspect the coke drum?
Becht is continuing its efforts to promote its varied and rich engineering expertise through such webinars among the Middle East clients.