Overview
The Essar Group is a multinational conglomerate and a leading player in the sectors of steel, oil & gas, power, communications, shipping ports & logistics, construction and minerals. With operations in more than 20 countries across five continents, the group employs 60,000 people, with revenues of about USD 15 billion. Essar Oil Limited, part of Essar group, has a world-class 20-million tonne (405,000 barrels per day) refinery. It currently yields 300,000 bpd at Vadinar in Gujarat, which is being progressively expanded to a capacity of 36 million tonnes (750,000 bpd). It has the capacity to produce petrol and diesel suitable for use in India and advanced international markets. Refining capacity will also include LPG, Naphtha, light diesel oil, Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) and kerosene.
The situation
Mr. Rakesh Mishra is the Deputy General Manager of Instrumentation at the Essar Oil Limited, Vadinar refinery. “In terms of our calibration requirements, we have more than 15,000 field devices that we calibrate regularly,” he begins. All those devices are calibrated in the field using various secondary calibrators. All calibrations are executed in-house. Calibration itself is considered extremely important at the site, as it helps to assure the reliability and accuracy of instruments as well as to meet regulatory requirements and quality standards.
The Beamex test and calibration bench system is used to recalibrate all these secondary calibrators and devices such as digital multimeters, pressure and temperature calibrators as well as digital manometers. In addition to calibration, the system also facilitates electrical and electronic repair and testing. The site is ISO certified. “The biggest benefits include savings in time and ease of use.”
The solution and main benefits
Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery utilizes a total of seven Beamex calibration test benches set at various parameters for performing calibrations. “We were looking for an all-in-one calibration solution having all the relevant features for automating temperature and pressure calibrations. When we studied the different alternatives we found the Beamex solution fulfilled our requirements,” Mr. Lakshminaryan explains. “One of the important decision criteria in selecting the supplier was the quality of service and support we would receive for the Beamex equipment from Waaree Instruments Limited, Beamex’s partner in India,” Mr. Lakshminaryan continues.
High accuracy, ease of use, reliability and costs were also considered important factors in making the decision, and Beamex’s solution was able to meet all of the requirements. “I would even say that user-friendliness and the ability to reduce time used to calibrate were the most important factors for any solution we were considering”, Mr. Mishra explains. The Vadinar site has been extremely satisfied with the Beamex calibration solution. The MC5P, the core of the calibration test bench system has proved to be very easy and efficient to use. “It saves us time; that’s the most important thing,” Mr. Mishra reveals. The automated pressure calibration functionality makes it possible to perform more calibrations in the same period of time as well as execute other tasks while an instrument is being calibrated.
Therefore, the Beamex system enables multi-tasking in the calibration laboratory. In addition, the Beamex system communicates with temperature baths, which means that automated temperature calibrations can also be easily executed. The quality of calibrations has increased and the time cycle of temperature calibrations has reduced drastically. “Since we have a vast number of HART® -based transmitters, we wanted to be able to easily calibrate and trim these transmitters in our laboratory without using additional equipment. This was also possible with Beamex’s solution.” Mr. Mishra points out. A key elemental part of the laboratory is the Beamex CMX calibration management software that binds all the essential parts together. CMX includes the intelligent History Trend feature that helps in deciding to change the calibration interval of a transmitter after evaluating the calibration history. This results in further time savings as the interval can be extended depending on the performance of the particular instrument.
Once the Beamex calibration system had been bought, the Beamex Professional Services team together with their local partner, Waaree Instruments Limited, provided installation, commissioning and training of the system for the entire instrumentation team at the Vadinar site. Training is seen as an important factor at the site – it ensures that both the users of the equipment and the managers gain the necessary skills to use the calibration system to its fullest potential. The confidence and the great advantages the system is proving for Vadinar refinery, they are confident in pursuing NABL accreditation for the laboratory further enhancing the usage and capabilities for even wider range of revenue generation for the company. This will result in further decreased pay-back time of the investment made for the calibration laboratory.