One of the main factors affecting major and minor shutdown schedules is to understand “why you are shutting down”. We call this the ‘shutdown drivers’.
Shutdown driver’s fit into the following categories listed below with examples:
- Safety- installing new isolation valves or emergency shutdown devices
- Environmental/ regulatory- state air emissions mitigation requirements for sewers, seals
- Mechanical integrity- coded vessel internal inspection, piping corrosion and remaining life
- Operational- equipment plugging and fouling
- Revenue generation- dryer replacement for increased speed on a paper machine
Understanding your shutdown drivers and the timing and the expected life is critical to achieving best practice shutdown performance.
