Cooling Tower Diagnostic Performance Audit™ Saves Plant $6 Million

During planning stages of a recent oil refinery turnaround, plant management confirmed that current production levels would only meet their contractual obligations and local market demands. However, they also recognized that their facility was cooling limited and unable to produce excess inventory to cover the shutdown period. This problem was exacerbated by the refinery's remote location. Management was faced with a $6 million dollar contingency plan to ship in refined product by ocean-going tankers.

Hoping to avoid the costly contingency, a cooling tower Diagnostic Performance Audit™ was commissioned to uncover the cause of the cooling tower's poor performance. Day one preliminary testing revealed some initial positive results - a possible fan stall condition. Following up on this discovery, more focused diagnostic tests were conducted to verify and probe deeper into the surprise results.

In the final analysis, specific problems were positively identified and the issued audit report recommended a list of 6 Targeted Corrective Actions (TCA). Refinery management were then able to schedule the TCA's to restore cooling tower performance with minimal cost and disruption to operations. After implementing only the first TCA, sufficient cooling capacity was recovered to increase process throughput to provide inventory for the planned shutdown.

By leveraging the techniques and analyses of a cooling tower Diagnostic Performance Audit™, the out-sourcing contingency and its estimated $6 million costs were avoided. This amount does not account for any cost savings accruing from the ongoing improvement in operating efficiency.