Emerson Exchange 365

Suncor, Canada’s largest integrated energy company, extracts and upgrades oil sands into high-quality, refinery-ready crude oil products and diesel fuel. Suncor was having reliability issues at their upgrading complex in Fort McMurray, in part because of issues with the drain valves in the cokers.

The drain valves, located directly between the cokers, are in a high-vibration, extremely high temperature environment. The existing valve actuators were failing, causing down time adding up to $1.125 million dollars in lost production per year.

In an Emerson Exchange presentation on Thursday, Juan Bracho, Senior Electrical Engineer for Suncor, and Spartan Controls’ Ryan McKimmie, Technical Specialist, and Bret Block, Product Support Specialist, outlined how Suncor, Emerson and Spartan collaborated to find a solution.

Modifications, such as ensuring the gear limit switch was made with metal rather than molded plastic, were made to the EIM M2CP electric actuator platform to enable it to withstand the extreme heat and high vibration in the application. Additionally, the separate control module moved the electronic components away from the volatile environment, making the actuators easier to operate, control and maintain. Safety is also greatly improved, as personnel operating the actuator locally are removed from the high heat.

As a result of the collaboration, the reliability of the valves has improved dramatically.  “We went from having failures every six weeks to not having failures for 21 months,” said Bracho.