Yokogawa positioning as combustion total solution provider at Valero

“The Valero Way: The safety of our employees, our operations and our communities is our highest priority – Valero 2007 annual report”

Valero is constantly striving to achieve operational excellence. It is not by accident that Valero was ranked No. 1 in Fortune magazine as the best large company to work for two consecutive years. Valero was also named, Downstream Business of the Year by the 2007 Platts Global Energy Awards. When Yokogawa introduced the TDL (Tunable Diode Laser) analyzer product last year, Valero was one of the first companies that expressed keen interest in this unique combustion solution.

How can Yokogawa help Valero sustain operational excellence in the cyclical refinery business? During up cycles, most companies focus on improving safety, increasing throughput and product quality. In an economic turndown, the focus is on safety, improving efficiencies and reducing costs. Initial discussions between Yokogawa and Valero centered around TDL features and benefits. These meetings gradually evolved from product technical discussions into how a total turnkey solution for combustion management could help Valero improve the safety and fuel efficiencies of fired heaters in their refineries – even in times when capital budgets were not available.

The primary function of fired heaters is to increase the temperature of the petroleum crude before it enters into distillation columns and vessels. There are typically 30-50 fired heaters in each refinery.

In 2007, the Valero’s corporate group created a compliance document related to SIS (Safety Instrumented Systems) for fired heater units. Valero McKee refinery’s 28 fired heaters were benchmarked against this new safety standard. It was discovered that many of these aging units need improvement in safety, and fuel efficiencies. In order to comply with this new objective, Valero is expecting a total combustion solution that consists of SIS, analyzers, instruments, data acquisition, application engineering, sound project, and maintenance management. An asphalt-fired heater at the McKee refinery has been identified as the pilot project for Yokogawa’s combustion safety and optimization solution.

In addition to TDL analyzers measuring oxygen and carbon monoxide content, Valero has requested Yokogawa to provide a turnkey proposal that will include mechanical and sustainable maintenance services. An example of mechanical maintenance would be to repair the damper in the flare stack and seal the fired heater box. Typically, mechanical work does not fall within the scope of a controls project. As Yokogawa rapidly establishes its reputation as a total solution provider and a main automation contractor, we need to expand our service capability into these new areas.

Valero praised Yokogawa’s ability to listen to their requirements and were impressed by our fired heater knowledge. The Yokogawa team members involved in this pursuit are Craig Ferris, Trevor Knittel, Tadao Jo, Donald Wyatt, Terry Nelson, Maurice Wilkins, and Constantine Lau. This Valero application will provide a stepping-stone to other combustion applications such as incinerators, boilers, and burner management.

Solution selling requires listening and understanding customer’s issues and priorities, especially in an economic environment when customer-spending priorities are switching from capital expenditure to operational expenditure. As demonstrated in this case, listening and creativity allowed us to expand a TDL analyzer point application into a combustion safety and optimization total solution.