Something else that amazes me , refineries

[flywise]

Coming into Corpus and seeing those refineries I can’t imagine how you guys keep those thing operating. Must be a million miles of pipe in those things. Can’t imagine how people designed that stuff and actually make it work and had to be difficult to keep it all straight and operating

[DEREKG22]

Go inside one sometime and be even more amazed at some of the folks that somehow got employed inside there....I shake my head at some of the things I've seen.....you've got a mix of some really great folks with the safety of themselves and others around them, and others that I don't feel I could say the same about. All and all though, as painful as they are to look at sometimes, these facilities provide work to many across the coast. The industry has kept myself and family employed and fed well over the years. For that I'm am grateful.

[txtimetravler]

And the fact that all that
Metal is rusting in the salt air….

Always made me wonder.

[Grndchecker]

Pipes usually aren't where the issues happen. It's all the miles of wiring to the valves and pumps that control everything.

[ElfEyes]

Go inside one sometime and be even more amazed at some of the folks that somehow got employed inside there....I shake my head at some of the things I've seen.....you've got a mix of some really great folks with the safety of themselves and others around them, and others that I don't feel I could say the same about. All and all though, as painful as they are to look at sometimes, these facilities provide work to many across the coast. The industry has kept myself and family employed and fed well over the years. For that I'm am grateful.

A few years back we were at a yearly safety training and a operator on another unit asked where he could find the mental JHA they were discussing. He wasn't being a smart arse either!

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[hopedale]

Coming into Corpus and seeing those refineries I can’t imagine how you guys keep those thing operating. Must be a million miles of pipe in those things. Can’t imagine how people designed that stuff and actually make it work and had to be difficult to keep it all straight and operating

OP, I'm with you. Was on a deer lease in Louisiana. Many of the members worked at the Monsanto plant (makes round up), but the plant looks just like a oil refinery.

They told me several things about working in a plant, but the two that stick out the most are:

"Open before you close, and close before you open."

"If you have to check gauges, bring the stick."

Was told its so loud and in day light if you have a "flame out" you could walk right through it and be killed. So they had a broom stick that they waved in front of them walking on the platform to do the guage checks.

I never did get the explanition on the open close. How the heck to they get someting in the pipes from point A to point B, if you have to open before you close and close before you open.

[flywise]

Pipes usually aren't where the issues happen. It's all the miles of wiring to the valves and pumps that control everything.

I bet that is a beast as well.

[jaime1982]

OP, I'm with you. Was on a deer lease in Louisiana. Many of the members worked at the Monsanto plant (makes round up), but the plant looks just like a oil refinery.



They told me several things about working in a plant, but the two that stick out the most are:



"Open before you close, and close before you open."



"If you have to check gauges, bring the stick."



Was told its so loud and in day light if you have a "flame out" you could walk right through it and be killed. So they had a broom stick that they waved in front of them walking on the platform to do the guage checks.



I never did get the explanition on the open close. How the heck to they get someting in the pipes from point A to point B, if you have to open before you close and close before you open.

Seen the broom trick with super heated steam while looking for pinholes.

I'm also amazed at some of the people that actually make it to operations lol.

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[jds247]

OP, I'm with you. Was on a deer lease in Louisiana. Many of the members worked at the Monsanto plant (makes round up), but the plant looks just like a oil refinery.

They told me several things about working in a plant, but the two that stick out the most are:

"Open before you close, and close before you open."

"If you have to check gauges, bring the stick."

Was told its so loud and in day light if you have a "flame out" you could walk right through it and be killed. So they had a broom stick that they waved in front of them walking on the platform to do the guage checks.

I never did get the explanition on the open close. How the heck to they get someting in the pipes from point A to point B, if you have to open before you close and close before you open.

The open before you close could be pertaining to valves. If you are using a different lineup you have to give the product somewhere to go before you close the valve it was going through. The towers are always being fed in a continuous flow unit. Dead heading a line up screws up the whole train in some cases..

[Huggybear]

Brooms are for super heated steam and hydrogen fires.

[doublearrow]

Designing them is easy. Designing them correctly is difficult. Operating the things which you said wouldn't work during design phase and proved to not work after install is the tricky part.

[OldRiverRat]

once they are up and running its generally all good,, they are mostly made to run though so when they have to bring them down or slow them down or re-start is when you have problems.

[Zjesse22]

They are something else that’s for sure! Like mentioned above you would be amazed at the people that work there that makes you wonder their intelligence. Lyondell in corpus had a heater blow up when the igniter failed to start so the op decided to pour in diesel and a match which pretty much set off a small bomb in a closed box that created work for an additional 4 months. Operator just got a reprimand for bypassing a work procedure.

[Strummer]

Something else that amazes me , refineries

Seen the broom trick with super heated steam while looking for pinholes.

I'm also amazed at some of the people that actually make it to operations lol.

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We use broom for super heated 1500 psi steam . Can’t see it . But will cut a broom in half . Also used it to find hydrogen and methane fires . Stuff we made is so pure you can’t see it burn .