Production processes consist of many complex apparatuses involving both moving and static parts as well as interconnecting pipes, control mechanisms and electronics, mechanical and thermal stages, heat exchangers, waste and side product processing units, power ducts and many others.
Bringing such a complicated unit online and ensuring its continued productivity requires substantial skill at anticipating, detecting and solving acute problems. Failure to identify and resolve these problems quickly can lead to lost production, off-spec product, equipment loss, and even catastrophic accidents. Therefore, the ability to troubleshoot process operations is one of the most valuable skills operations personnel can possess.
Troubleshooting is the process used to diagnose the fault safely and efficiently, decide on corrective action and prevent the fault from reoccurring. Process engineering, especially troubleshooting, is different from most other branches of technology in another respect: It is not advancing very quickly.
The principles of distillation, hydraulics, phase separation, and heat transfer, as they apply to process applications, have been well known for quite some time. The challenge in troubleshooting consists of untangling the influence that human error, mechanical failure, and corrosion have on these well-known principles. The aspect of the job that makes it so difficult is that most process problems are initiated by human error – a never-ending source of surprise.
This course is designed to provide instruction in the different types of troubleshooting techniques, procedures, and methods used to solve process problems. Participants will use existing knowledge of equipment, systems, and instrumentation to understand the troubleshooting process operations of an entire unit in a facility. Participants study concepts related to troubleshooting commissioning, normal startup, normal operations, normal shutdown, turnarounds, and abnormal situations, as well as the Process team role in performing tasks associated with these concepts within an operating unit.