Situation
Largest refinery in Germany with a processing capacity of approx. 17 million t/ year
Service contract between EagleBurgmann and Shell
TotalSealCare for the Rhineland refinery
Challenge
Broad range of services to maintain the seals and to reduce workload of the refinery's staff
Solution
Extensive service contract and service center nearby to offer comprehensive measures
The plants
The Shell Rhineland refinery is the largest refinery in Germany. It has an annual processing capacity of approx. 17 million t and comprises the two plants in Godorf and Wesseling.
The objectives
The activities under the service contract referred to above are to significantly increase the service life of the mechanical seals that are in operation at the facilities there. The services provided by EagleBurgmann make for a reduction of the Shell staff’s workload, especially where maintenance, materials, purchasing and production activities in the plants are concerned.
The customer service center in Cologne
In the interest of ensuring an optimum plant availability, EagleBurgmann opened up a new, fully equipped service center including a sales office in the form of a customer care center with a floor area of 750 m2 in September 2004, not far from the refinery. The current staff there numbers eleven. There, the modern machinery and equipment enables all arising work to be carried out at the very highest quality standards.
In terms of achieving these objectives, EagleBurgmann deploys - inter alia - a qualified on-site engineer at the plants, supported by additional fitters at the service center in Cologne. The repair and improvement procedures are determined by workflows, which means that the work sequences and responsibilities are clearly defined. The standardization of the mechanical seals leads to a reduction in the number of variants and enables to optimize warehouse operations.
Alone EagleBurgmann’s regular presence at the plants and the proximity of the Cologne service center, just a few kilometers away from Godorf and Wesseling, guarantee a close cooperational basis between the partners.
Shell and EagleBurgmann are working together very closely to avoid malfunctions and thus repairs in the future. The two parties discuss failure reasons and root causes, and conduct joint discussions to define corrective action which is then documented, monitored and logged in SEPRO. The warehousing of several thousand seal components at the Cologne service center is being optimized, step by step.
Due to the service contract EagleBurgmann became a comprehensive service partner to Shell. The two companies develop and pursue the common objectives in a continuous improvement process.
Service contracts with EagleBurgmann generate the following advantages for end users:
- Just one single contact partner for all mechanical seals
- Increased MTBR (Mean Time Between Repair)
- Improved preventive maintenance measures
- Standardization of the mechanical seal types
- Optimization of warehousing costs
- Constant on-site advice and support on all matters of sealing technology
- Technology and know-how transfer
- Devising and development of efficiency-enhancing measures in terms of workflows and the utilization of the existing resources
- Preparation, processing and optimization of the master data
- Improved documentation, including the direct entry by EagleBurgmann of data into the customers ERP system
Further reference projects
China, Mainland
10 years ahead
Between June 2017 and March 2019 the Hengli Group constructed an integrated refining and chemical complex in the Chinese harbor town Dalian where 20 million tons of crude oil are processed every year. EagleBurgmann advised the company Hengli concerning the selection of mechanical seals and supply systems for the whole plant and supplied more than 95 % of the components in use.
United Kingdom
10 years of reliability: Protecting the heart of Great Britain’s natural gas infrastructure from failure
In Great Britain, a shortage in natural gas supply has severe consequences: Since the country switched from coal-fired to gas-fired power stations, a gas supply shortage makes households and industrial consumers not only vulnerable to failing heating and gas stoves, but also to power outages. Companies along the value and transportation chain of natural gas are therefore especially dependent on reliable equipment.
Germany
100 percent performance at 300 degrees
Things get hot in rotary kilns, very hot in fact. In the production of cement, for example, the thermometer measures more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. Sealing systems from EagleBurgmann, a company of the Freudenberg Group and EKK, make sustainable contributions to environmental protection, energy efficiency and process reliability under these "fiery" high-temperature conditions.
India
A Partnership to build on
Our modern civilization is quite literally built upon cement. Today, building materials made from cement are used in buildings, roads, bridges, dams etc. Cement production is a heat-intensive process and causes thermal expansion in duct systems. To compensate this, Indian cement producer Ramco Cement needed fabric expansion joints with a diameter of several meters for two of their plants. On the basis of a close collaboration, EagleBurgmann was able to design components that increase the efficiency of the plant in the long run.
Argentina
Clean gas despite fluctuating operating conditions
Frequent starts and stops are a severe test for gas-lubricated compressor seals. Installed in an Argentinean combined cycle power plant is an EagleBurgmann supply system that provides a continuous gas flow rate for the seals and adapts it to changing conditions. Since then, the operational reliability of the compressors has increased significantly.
Germany
Clean sealing solution for demanding crystal production
Seals are a risk factor in the production of liquid crystals. If there is even the slightest contamination of the liquid crystals, this will later affect the image quality of the display. Read on to see which sealing solution Merck KGaA uses in paddle dryers for the production of liquid crystals.