To avoid dangerous leaks and the high costs of unnecessary shutdowns, refineries today must be able to rely on the performance of their on-off and safety valves.
The European refinery wanted to upgrade its new light hydrocracking and motor fuel hydrotreatment facility production quality to meet clean fuel standards, in this case, according to European clean fuel standard. To do so, it needed to match strict European standards for safety and emissions. Safety and compliance with regulations were key criteria when selecting valves for heater burner management systems and the truck and jetty loading system. Since the early 1990s, We have been delivering valves to European refineries that have been looking into reducing plant and fuel sulfur emissions to meet new stricter Euro standards.
Crucial reliability and safety
Today’s on-off and safety valves must be completely reliable. A valve’s failure to close in an emergency puts both people’s health and the environment at risk. And unnecessary shutdowns lead to excessively high costs.
Valves that handle explosive and toxic hydrocarbons must retain gas shut-off tightness and low fugitive emission levels compliant with European standards over their entire operational lifetime. Regular shutdowns for valve inspection are typically scheduled every four years to avoiding any valve stem leakages that could impact an operator’s health or pollute the environment.
Safe and simple solution
This refinery chose Neles high-performance valves for the safety shut-off and venting applications in its newest truck and jetty loading station, firefighting system and a new hydrocracking unit heater.
These valves fully comply with all regulations relevant to their application in the refinery. The valves’ long-term bubble tightness prevents overpressure during sudden rises in temperature – an extremely important safety criterion for applications with highly inflammable media.
The refinery chose valves that are approved and compliant with the latest European fire safety standards. The ValvGuard intelligent safety solenoid with a partial stroke testing feature provides further safety protection. The valve shaft sealing fully complies with fugitive emissions regulations. The valves’ simple design preserves superior tightness throughout the high cycling and minimizes the cost of operation and maintenance.
High-quality, safe production
The refinery bought the complete valve package – valve, actuator and instrumentation – along with relevant approvals and certificates for emergency shut-off and venting applications.
Today, the refinery has achieved the desired run-time targets for its hydrocracking process and uninterrupted production of high-quality fuels. The long-term tight shutoff of the new valves helps keep the plant and truck loading area emissions at European regulation levels. The refinery also enjoys safer truck loading operations because of the firefighting capabilities of its valves.
We are proud to have helped the customer reach its goals, because to us, the details matter.
Written by S. Aronen. For additional information, please contact lindsay.coutinho@valmet.com.
The text has been updated in April 2022, due to the company name change to Valmet.
