Next Steps in . . .

Thermography

Using Thermography in a Natural Gas Operation

barry ungles, Alltech Instrumentation & electrical service Len sisk, bp Jayhawk Gas plant Jonathon blaisdell, Fluke Corporation

Using modern handheld thermal imagers, most energy companies can bring thermal imaging in-house and train their own technicians how to use them. Heres one plant that did just that.

his story is about a natural gas operation in southwest Making Thermal Imaging Local Kansas. The plant processes gas from the wells of sevThermal imaging is ideal for measuring electrical equipment, eral different companies, including its own. and this plant had plenty of it about 115,000-kW coming To get the gas from its wells to the plant, the gas procesin. Until recently, however, only highly trained experts using sor uses compressor stations that boost the pipeline pressure expensive equipment could do thermal imaging surveys. So of the natural gas after it flows out of the ground. At the the facility had been using a secondary contractor from six plant, several processes strip materials such as nitrogen and and one-half hours away to do the thermal imaging. waste products off the gas. Then, the company delivers the This arrangement was problematic. When plant personprocessed gas to a pipeline headed east. nel needed a problem assessed, six and one-half hours was too Alltech performs electrical installation and service work for the plant and its nearby gas fields. Daily work ranges from replacing electric motors and running conduit to automation controls, to wiring for AFR (air/fuel ratio) controllers for the compressors and helping field and plant technicians with repairs. Then the contractor added thermal imaging to their electrical services. Youd think they were two separate functions, but in reality, Alltechs knowledge of the plant equipment, their daily presence and their ability to make electrical repairs on the spot, combined two types of work into one far more efficient service. Simply bringing thermography in-house improved field and plant processing perfor- This hot connection on panels in the power control rooms shows how abnormal connection mance, reduced operations costs heat can be caused by overly loose or tight connections, corrosion, overloading, unbalance, and increased uptime. harmonics and other electrical problems. 44
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long to wait for a thermographer, especially in downtime situthey become serious problems. In some cases, they can tighten ations. However, a new line of thermal imagers had just come lugs on the spot if its safe to do that. For more serious probon the market that were more affordable than the pro models, lems, and problems with equipment carrying very high voltbut still powerful enough for facility maintenance. So Alltech age, they contact the plant technicians. In those cases, Alltech offered to absorb the expense of becoming thermographers and makes a thermal image and takes a digital photo of the piece to make thermal imaging part of their core electrical services. of equipment. Then, the plant or field technician can include When the plant accepted the offer, the contractor purthose with a work order to repair the equipment. chased an infrared imager and after a week of training, began inspecting plant and field equipment. The promise of www.woodgroup-esp.com on-demand thermography had convinced the plant to bring thermal imaging in-house, but soon Alltech took over the annual inspections at the plant and even added regular inspections of field equipment. The thermography-only contractors hadnt been authorized to remove panel doors or make other electrical adjustments necessary to get clear thermal images. That meant the facilitys electricians had to be involved. As licensed electricians, Alltech now does all of that and frees the plants electricians to perform their usual duties. They are also able to interpret the electrical significance of the THERES MORE THAN ONE WAY thermal images when they take them, TO REDUCE PERSISTENT PUMP and in some cases, proceed immediately MAINTENANCE PROBLEMS. to repairs and then verify their success with additional thermal images. Pressure to lower ever-increasing maintenance

Thermal Imaging in the Plant

Every year, Alltech spends about three days scanning the plant for electrical problems. The two power control rooms are divided into sections, called buckets, that contain switchgear and breaker sources for the power supply and distribution. The contractor monitors everything in the buckets, checking all of the operating stations and making thermal images of all the electrical connections from relays to transformers. Among other things, they look for loose connections, because thats where major problems such as meltdowns often occur. Because Alltechs infrared (IR) imager can measure components to onequarter of a degree, the contractor can find wire lugs that are loose but overheating only slightly. That means they can detect potential problems long before
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Next Steps in . . . Thermography

Electrical components are not the only equipment being monitored at the plant. For example, there is a sludge catcher, a big vessel that collects the waste from the natural gas. At one point, plant personnel were not sure how much sludge was in the vessel. In particular, they were uncertain that their level indicators were giving them correct readings. The contractor made thermal images of this unit at the end of a hot day, when the vessel had begun to cool. The image revealed the line between the heated sludge and the air above it in the vessel, which cooled faster. Thermography proved to be a failsafe backup to the level indicators. Plant personnel had thought they needed to clean out the vessel, when in fact they didnt. By doing this condition monitoring as part of a predictive main- If there is a problem with equipment carrying very high voltage, the contractor contacts the plant technicians. tenance program, Alltech helps the Again, because the imager can detect a temperature differplant avoid major catastrophes and expensive downtime. The ence of one-quarter of a degree, they have found loose 24-volt plants GM estimates that a plant shutdown can cost as much as connections that, because of the rating of the wire, werent yet $600,000 to the combined companies in the field, and as much problems. Still, if those connections had kept vibrating until as $62,000 per day net cash to the owner. the screws came out, the wires might have come out of their sockets and caused shutdowns. Thermography in the Field The contractor also monitors mechanical devices in the In gas fields, Alltech uses their thermal imager to monitor even field. Thermal images can detect alignment problems in rotat24-volt control circuits. On these low-voltage installations, the ing equipment for example, between a motor and a compresimager permits them to pinpoint loose connections as potential sor. Just a quick image with the IR camera, and they can disfuture problems, tighten them and prevent failures at a later cover when a bearing is heating up because of misalignment. date.

About the Imager

With basic training on how to get a clear picture, its relatively easy to make an image that has meaning to people familiar with the equipment. For example, the plant uses extremely cold processes to remove the unwanted gases from the natural gas. In one case, a nitrogen pump had a persistently leaky seal. It had to be changed out regularly. Alltech took a thermal image of the pump. An engineer took one look at the image and realized immediately that there was a restriction that was not allowing the seal to receive enough cooling airflow. As a result, the seal Thermal images of this sludge catcher vessel revealed the line between unrefined natural gas was overheating and melting. and heated sludge, saving the plant from a major shutdown required for manual verification. 46

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Thermography: What It Is, What It Can Do

Thermal imaging, or thermography, is a technique for capturing an image created by the otherwise invisible infrared (IR) radiation emitted from an object. Using this technology, thermal images of faults in mechanical or electrical equipment are collected and saved. These images show a range of temperatures represented as color or tone variations and allow observers to pick out hot spots (or cold spots) that might signal equipment problems problems that may cause equipment failure if they are not corrected. Thermal imaging can be used in any process where the temperature of an object gives an indication of its state not visible to the naked eye. For example, a loose electrical connection or a worn bearing will heat up. These defects are detected with a thermal imager as hot spots. Condition monitoring is the general term for what thermography accomplishes. It literally reveals the condition of a piece of equipment in which temperature irregularities signal a potential problem, as with the aforementioned electrical connection and bearing. Other kinds of condition monitoring devices monitor other telltale signs of equipment degradation. Predictive maintenance, often referred to as PdM, is the kind of maintenance procedure that reacts not to an equipment failure but to a potential failure, especially one signaled by condition monitoring. Petrochemical and energy companies, as well as discrete manufacturing companies, invest much capital in production and processing equipment. Delivery schedules and profits can be adversely affected by machine downtime. So, identifying impending equipment failures and preventing them before they happen can result in lower maintenance costs and fewer production losses. The software included with the imager helps Alltech set up inspection routes for the regularly scheduled inspections at the plant and in the field, and to adjust measurement parameters such as emissivity, RTC, temperature level and gain for particular locations and pieces of equipment. The contractor uses the same software to report their inspection results. It uploads all of the images that have been taken and allows them to add sideby-side digital photographs, so that the technicians can translate the hot spots on thermal images to locations on the digital photos. Alltech adds notes and analysis to each image and rates the inspected equipment, designating which should get attention first. For example, if a wire is rated for a maximum temperature of 150-deg F and the scan shows that wire fastened into a terminal lug that is more than 200-deg F, then they know they are looking at a meltdown fairly soon. In general, high, medium and low designations are used for scanned equipment with problems. Low means it can be addressed sometime. Medium means it needs to be to taken care of relatively quickly. High signifies do something right away. Each year, Alltech puts together a book of their findings, and the facility keeps that book on hand to guide its PdM activities.

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Next Steps in . . . Thermography

A Model for Others

The ease of use and relatively low cost of modern handheld thermal imagers means that most energy companies can, if they wish, bring thermal imaging in-house and train their own technicians in its use. This contractors relationship with the energy company described here is more like a partnership than anything else. As a primary contractor, Alltech is involved in the plants safety campaigns, as well as its maintenance and reliability efforts. They feel that they truly are an integral part of their customers organization. P&S

Barry Ungles is the operations manager for Alltech Instrumentation & Electrical Service, 324 South Cheyenne Street, Ulysses, KS 67880-2237, 620-356-1639, Fax: 620-424-2126. Len Sisk is the maintenance team leader at BP Hugoton Jayhawk Gas Plant, 13201 E Highway 160, Satanta, KS 67870, 620-657-4300.
Thermal imaging enabled the contractor to determine that insufficient airflow and cooling was causing this nitrogen pump seal to fail, saving a $100,000 project from ongoing seal failure.

Jonathon Blaisdell is the thermography products manager for Fluke Corporation, PO Box 9090, Everett, WA 98206, 800443-5853, Fax: 425-446-5116, Jonathon.blaisdell@fluke.com, www.fluke.com.

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