Page 12 - Energize Issue 1 2023

NEWS

Intrinsically safe tool cuts hours from

daily troubleshooting routine

Fluke 568 Ex intrinsically safe infrared thermometer saves time,
paperwork at oil refinery

il refineries are among the most challenging work to go into the control room and ask for a low-energy permit
environments in all of industry. First of all, they’re and then the operators had to go out to the area where you
Omassive – about the size of an average small town. were going to actually do your work to check for levels of
Plus, they have multiple processes in motion involving hydrocarbons. It required a great deal of time each shift.”
hydrocarbons that are pressurised, heated, evaporated and
transformed into products used by millions of people. Ideal for oil and gas
Crude oil flows in and petroleum finished products flow The experienced engineer decided it was time to explore
out— among them gasoline, jet fuel, propane and butane. options. He bought a Fluke 568 Ex, an intrinsically safe infrared
Several of the products being produced, if leaked or ignited, thermometer that is certified for use in Class 1 Div. 1 and Div.
could be dangerous. Thus, many of the work areas in oil 2 or Zone 1 and 2 hazardous environments anywhere in the
refineries are deemed hazardous or potentially explosive world. Such a tool is ideal for oil and gas, petroleum, chemical
atmospheres where intrinsic safety protocols are in order. or pharmaceutical production environments.
Those are areas in which instruments and tools certified He found it a real time saver because he did not need
as intrinsically safe should be used. Devices that are certified to request that low-energy permit each time he entered
as intrinsically safe are designed to prevent the release of the unit, 90% of which is deemed as a potentially explosive
sufficient energy, by either thermal or electrical means, to environment. In addition, with his new intrinsically safe infrared
cause ignition of flammable materials. thermometer, he is also able to quickly check the temperatures
Such an environment necessitates safety controls to protect in pumps, motors, turbines and process piping as his group
workers, including the reliability and maintenance personnel moves toward a less reactive maintenance strategy, to more
whose job it is to check and maintain equipment in the preventive and predictive models.
refining process. At an independent oil refiner and marketer The Fluke 568 Ex has become a go-to diagnostic tool that he
headquartered in Texas, the commitment to safety is baked into is able to carry around with him. It also signals to co-workers
procedures. his personal commitment to safety. “I can’t take my cell phone
into the unit, but I can take the thermometer,” he said. “But the
Permit needed to carry electronics biggest payoff is what it does out in the field.”
Even entering the work unit with equipment such as a laptop
computer, cell phone or electronic tools requires a stop at the
control room to apply for a low-energy permit. The permit is a
safety check in order to ensure the areas being accessed don’t
have hazards. Sometimes it can take up to 45 minutes for each
permit to be processed.
And about 20 low-energy permits a day are required to go
along with work orders created to do proactive maintenance,
troubleshooting or repair work at the refinery, which has a
crude capacity of over 100 000 barrels a day.
So, when the plant and reliability engineer with eight years
of experience had a troublesome heater last winter, he faced
some choices. He knew that it would take frequent temperature
monitoring and spot checks to troubleshoot the specific issues
involved in the heater. But he also knew that would mean
pulling a low-energy permit each time, a necessary procedure
but also one that is fairly slow.
“It was a cumbersome process,” he said, “because you had

energize | Issue 1 2023 | 12