Introduction to Process Technology

Lesson 2
Safety Topic | Working with Teams| Introduction to Gas and Oil Processing | Basic Terms

Objectives

1. Describe the differences between work groups and teams.

2. Describe the different types of teams encountered in the Process industries.

3. Describe the steps or stages through which a team evolves.

4. Describe communication skills needed (written, verbal)

5. Identify factors that contribute to the failure of a team including: Failure to achieve the defined outcome Failure as a team to work together and achieve full synergy

6. Define workforce diversity and its impact on workplace relations: In a team environment Work group (coworker)

7. Introduce Oil and Gas Processing

8. Describe the character of crude oil:

9. Describe Hydrocarbons:

10. Describe Petroleum Refinery Products:

11. Describe Petroleum Refinery Processes:

12. Basic terms of Maintenance Operations and System Components:

13. Basic Math

Safety Topic

Todays safety topic is PPE. What is PPE you may ask? It is the gear you wear to protect your

Eyes
Lungs
Ears
Skull
Fingers
Toes
Internal Organs
Skin

No one can protect your body like you. Your employer may provide the gear, but YOU have to put it on!

PPE stands for Personal Protective Equipment. It includes :

Safety glasses
Face shields
Welding helmets and cutting goggles
Respirators
Hearing protection
Hard hats
Gloves
Steel toe boots
Coveralls, protective suits

Locate the personal protection equipment on worker in the picture above.

Working with Teams

Work groups versus teams.

You will often work with groups of people, but not all work groups are teams.
Teams are generally formed for specific projects and operate differently from work groups.
Some teams are perpetual (not project specific; do not have a defined start or stop date) and continue to evolve over time with other members and other tasks.

Research on Effective Teams

Two researchers - Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith (1991) - researched teams in high-performing organizations such as Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Operation Desert Storm, and the Girl Scouts to find out the characteristics of their highest performing teams. They found that high performance teams were similar in:

How they chose their members - composition.
How they approached their tasks.
How they operated as a team - their process.

Findings

Not one team started out with all the skills the needed. They had to learn them along the way.
Composition Higher performing teams had less than 10 members.
Mix of complementary skills - Technical or functional expertise - Problem-solving, decision-making skills - Interpersonal - skills

Tasks

Spend time getting consensus about their purpose.
Specify measurable goals and objectives - what they will achieve and when.
Specific goals allow the teams to focus on what to do, and to enjoy "small wins," which strengthen commitment and motivation.
Monitor their progress towards achieving their goals.

Process

Members do equivalent amounts of work - no freeloaders.
Open about individual members' skills, and choose the best fit for the task.
Respond constructively to views expressed by others.
Give others the benefit of the doubt.
Provide support for and recognize the interests and achievement of others

Let's take a minute to explain two terms that you may hear around the plants related to teams, "Synergy" and "Team Dynamics."

Synergy -The word comes from a greek word meaning working togather. In todays terms it is defined as combined action or operation

Example: Steel is stronger than the metals that go into it - iron and nickel. In the same way, differences between the talents, perspectives, and skills of team members combine to make the team stronger than any of the individuals.

Dynamics - Often called the "chemistry" due to the changes that occur when different people are teamed together. Sometimes the change is positive, sometimes not.

Stages of Team Development

Introduction

1. Teams go through different stages of development.

2. A period of conflict is not unusual after the initial formation of the team.

3. At each stage of teaming, you can see some characteristic work process issues.

4. Recognizing the stage that your team is in, and the work process issues characteristic to that stage, can help you identify ways to help improve your team's work process.

5. In order to work effectively, all teams have to spend time on their work process.

Stage One: Forming

1. Fundamental issue: Developing trust.

2. Characteristics of Forming stage:

Tentative interactions or guarded dialogue; careful behavior trying not to offend anyone.
Mild tension, uncomfortable feelings, or polite discourse.
Concern over ambiguity, what roles one will play.
Concern over how one will be accepted by the group.

Stage Two: Storming

1. Fundamental issue: Conflict resolution.

2. Characteristics of Storming stage:

Individual actions are resisted by or incompatible with other group members.
Disagreements are more frequent.
Hostility.
Conflict with roles and procedures.
Stage Three: Norming

1. Fundamental Issue: Developing teamwork standards.

2. Characteristics of Norming stage:

Emerging sense of group unity, positive relationships among members.
Development of procedures, group norms, and roles.
Lower levels of anxiety.

Stage Four: Performing

1. Fundamental Issue: Getting the job done well.

2. Characteristics of Performing stage:

Strong/good decision-making.
Creative problem solving.
Mutual cooperation. Strong feelings of commitment to the group's success

Stage Five: Adjourning

1. Fundamental issue: Dealing with impending dissolution of the team.

2. Characteristics of Adjourning stage:

Increased independence.
Increased anxiety.
Regret.
Blame.
Sorrow.
Withdrawing emotionally from other members.

Summary and Key Points

1. Teams have different issues at different stages.

2. Knowing what issues might come up in different stages helps you to contribute to developing optimal teamwork processes.

3. Conflict on teams is very common shortly after formation, and again at the midpoint of a project.

What Causes Teams to Fail

1. Introduction

We have been given a lot of information on what makes teams successful. From that, you can guess what makes teams fail - just the opposite of what makes them succeed. Here are some key points related to team failure.

2. Not all tasks are appropriate for teams

Situations requiring very fast decisions.
Tasks requiring a higher degree of skill than what is present on the team.
Painful decisions, such as deciding who gets laid off when times are bad.

3. Unclear Purpose

You have to know where you are going before you can decide how to get there.
When teams don't have a clear purpose, they have more conflict, and are less likely to achieve their goals.

4. Wrong Members

Sometimes you can choose team members and sometimes they are assigned.
Sometimes you think they are the right members and then they aren't.
If you are clear about your purpose and work on the conflicts, you can minimize the impact of having the wrong members.

5. Paying attention to the wrong things

You have to keep both task and team dynamics balanced. Each is important.

DESCC Conflict Resolution Model

1. Describe

What is going on that shouldn't be?
What is not happening that should be?
Be very specific and describe in behavioral terms (what someone could see or hear).
Avoid vague descriptions such as lack of communication, commitment, bad attitude, etc.
LISTEN to the response.

2. Express

Express how the situation affects you.
How does it make you feel?
LISTEN to the response.

3. Specify

What must happen for you to be satisfied; what will the improved situation look like?
Be very specific and use behavioral terms.
LISTEN to the response.

4. Contract

Negotiate an agreement as to what will change.
LISTEN to the response.

5. Consequences

What will happen if the changes are/aren't made?
Use only when people have not lived up to the contract.
LISTEN to the response.

Giving Feedback

1. Throughout the different stages of your team, when working on your team processes, you will need to be both giving and receiving feedback.

2. Sometimes people equate feedback with criticism. It is more helpful to think of it like steering a car. When you are driving down the highway, your car is never pointed directly at your destination. Instead, you are pointing in the general direction and constantly making little corrections - always fine tuning your navigation.

3. In teamwork as well, you start out pointed in the general direction of your goal and all of the team members make small corrections in their individual processes to keep the team headed in the right direction.

4. Feedback gets emotionally loaded when there is conflict. And as we have seen, there is always some conflict in any team project. These tips will help you give feedback that is objective, fact-based, and less likely to create or increase conflict.

Summary of Key Points on Teamwork

Teams not only have to work on the tasks, but they must also deal with their work processes as well - how the team members work together to get the job done.
Conflict may occur at fairly predictable times in the life of the team and over fairly predictable issues.
You now have some tools and methods to help you manage your teamwork processes and resolve conflicts. (The Memory Jogger has additional tools has additional information if you selected it as a resource.)

Introduction to Diversity: From Melting Pot to Salad Bowl

Definition

We use the term "diversity" generically today, to mean two things:

All the ways that we are different and unique from another.

As shorthand for anti-prejudice training.

From Melting Pot

1. At one time, the ideal vision of America was the "melting pot." All of the new immigrants who arrived here were expected to drop their language, customs, traditional clothes, etc. and to try to blend in and become indistinguishable from other Americans.

2. American businesses have learned that people are most creative and productive when:

They feel valued.
They believe that their individual and group differences are accepted and taken into account.

to Salad Bowl

In short, the melting pot does not make sense in a nation like the United States that values individuality and creativity. The melting pot vision has been replaced with a vision of a "salad bowl" - a big, mixed-up, colorful bowl of ingredients that work quite nicely together, while retaining their own unique colors, textures, and flavors.

Workplace Impact

As the "Salad Bowl" concept becomes reality, individual workers must become more accepting of people of different cultures, beliefs, race, and religion. This acceptance and even appreciation of others by all, places additional demands on the development of interpersonal skills.

Diversity Terms

1. Stereotyping : A conventional, oversimplified opinion, conception, or belief.

Many of our beliefs about other groups come from stereotypes.
Some stereotypes are errors that are repeated until they seem to be true.
Another way of stereotyping is to assume that all members of one group have similar qualities.
Stereotyping greatly limits people's opportunities.

2. Ethnocentrism: Belief in the superiority of ones own ethnic group

People who are ethnocentric usually do not know that they are.
Major cause of misunderstandings is communication.
Ethnocentrism generally decreases when individuals spend time outside their own culture.

3. Prejudice: An adverse opinion or judgement formed beforehand or without full knowledge or examination of the facts

Can put an end to communication.
One result of prejudice is selective perception. For example, noticing the bad qualities of one who is different, while not noticing the same qualities in one's own group.
Another result of prejudice is the heightened sensitivity to "trigger" behaviors or words uttered by one group about another. This is where a particular term or behavior is considered extremely offensive to a group. An example might be when male managers call professional women "girls". Even if the communicator means well, use of the trigger words will generate hostility. Uninformed or insensitive people often mean no harm and feel hurt or puzzled by the negative reaction they receive.

Introduction to Oil and Gas Processing

The petroleum industry began with the successful drilling of the first commercial oil well in 1859, and the opening of the first refinery two years later to process the crude into kerosene. The evolution of petroleum refining from simple distillation to today's sophisticated processes has created a need for health and safety management procedures and safe work practices.

Oil and Gas must be processed before they can be sent to the end user. For example oil comes out of the ground mixed with water, sulfur, and salt. Gas comes out of the ground mixed with condensates, sulfur and other contaminates. Without processing these unwanted contaminates would cause equipment failure all the way from the pipeline to the automobile engine.

Processing of oil and gas in the upstream segment consists of removal of these contaminates.

Processing of oil in the downstream segment consists of Refining.

Refining is the processing of one complex mixture of hydrocarbons into a number of other complex mixtures of hydrocarbons. The safe and orderly processing of crude oil into flammable gases and liquids at high temperatures and pressures using vessels, equipment, and piping subjected to stress and corrosion requires considerable knowledge, control, and expertise.

The Character of Crude Oil

Petroleum.........A thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons that occurs naturally beneath the earth's surface, can be separated into fractions including natural gas, gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, fuel and lubricating oils, paraffin wax, and asphalt and is used as raw material for a wide variety of derivative products.

Hydrocarbon :Any of numerous organic compounds, such as benzene and methane, that contain only carbon and hydrogen.

Crude oil is petroleum directly out of the ground. It is a varied substance, both in its use and composition. It can be a straw-colored liquid or tar-black solid. Red, green and brown hues are not uncommon. Not all crude oils behave the same. Some flow like water and others flow like cold peanut butter. An "average" crude oil contains about 84% carbon, 14% hydrogen, 1%-3% sulfur, and less than 1% each of nitrogen, oxygen, metals, and salts. Crude oils are generally classified as paraffinic, naphthenic, or aromatic, based on the predominant proportion of similar hydrocarbon molecules.

Crude oils are also defined in terms of API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity. The higher the API gravity, the lighter the crude. For example, light crude oils have high API gravities and low specific gravities. Crude oils with low carbon, high hydrogen, and high API gravity are usually rich in paraffin's and tend to yield greater proportions of gasoline and light petroleum products; those with high carbon, low hydrogen, and low API gravities are usually rich in aromatics.

Theory has it that crude oil was formed over millions of years from the remains of tiny aquatic plants and animals that lived in ancient seas. Petroleum owes its existence largely to one-celled marine organisms. As these organisms died, they sank to the seabed. Usually buried with sand and mud, they formed an organic-rich layer that eventually turned to sedimentary rock. The process repeated itself, one layer covering another.

Over millions of years, the seas withdrew. In lakes and inland seas, a similar process took place with deposits formed of non-marine vegetation.

In some cases, the deposits that formed sedimentary rock didn't contain enough oxygen to completely decompose the organic material. Bacteria broke down the trapped and preserved residue, molecule by molecule, into substances rich in hydrogen and carbon. Increased pressure and heat from the weight of the layers above then caused a partial distillation of the organic remnants, transforming them, ever so slowly, into crude oil and natural gas.

Hydrocarbons

Although various types of hydrocarbons - molecules made of hydrogen and carbon atoms - form the basis of all petroleum, they differ in their configurations. The carbon atoms may be linked in a ring or a chain, each with a full or partial complement of hydrogen atoms. Some hydrocarbons combine easily with other materials, and some resist such bonding.

The number of carbon atoms determines the oil's relative "weight" or density. Gases generally have one to four carbon atoms, while heavy oils and waxes may have 50, and asphalts, hundreds.

Hydrocarbons also differ in their boiling temperatures - a key fact for refiners who separate the different components of crude oil by weight and boiling point. Gases, the lightest hydrocarbons, boil below atmospheric pressure. Crude oil components used to make gasoline boil in the range of 55 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Those used for jet fuel boil in the range of 300 to 550 degrees, and those for diesel, at about 700 degrees.

Petroleum Refinery Products

Refinery products include naphtha, kerosene, several grades of diesel, atmospheric gas oil and residual fuel oil and asphalt emulsions. Each of these products is separated from the crude by a refinery process. Of course the whole idea here is to separate the crude into homogenous useful products. Light ends are the molecules with the fewest number of atoms and heavy ends are molecules with the most atoms. Here is a list of some of the components separated in a refinery.

1. Gasoline. The most important refinery product is motor gasoline, a blend of hydrocarbons with boiling ranges from ambient temperatures to about 400 F. The important qualities for gasoline are octane number (antiknock), volatility (starting and vapor lock), and vapor pressure (environmental control). Additives are often used to enhance performance and provide protection against oxidation and rust formation.

2 Kerosene. Kerosene is a refined middle-distillate petroleum product that finds considerable use as a jet fuel and around the world in cooking and space heating. When used as a jet fuel, some of the critical qualities are freeze point, flash point, and smoke point. Commercial jet fuel has a boiling range of about 375-525 F, and military jet fuel 130-550 F. Kerosene, with less-critical specifications, is used for lighting, heating, solvents, and blending into diesel fuel.

3. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). LPG, which consists principally of propane and butane, is produced for use as fuel and is an intermediate material in the manufacture of petrochemicals. The important specifications for proper performance include vapor pressure and control of contaminants.

4. Distillate Fuels. Diesel fuels and domestic heating oils have boiling ranges of about 400-700 F. The desirable qualities required for distillate fuels include controlled flash and pour points, clean burning, no deposit formation in storage tanks, and a proper diesel fuel cetane rating for good starting and combustion.

5. Residual Fuels. Many marine vessels, power plants, commercial buildings and industrial facilities use residual fuels or combinations of residual and distillate fuels for heating and processing. The two most critical specifications of residual fuels are viscosity and low sulfur content for environmental control.

6. Coke and Asphalt. Coke is almost pure carbon with a variety of uses from electrodes to charcoal briquettes. Asphalt, used for roads and roofing materials, must be inert to most chemicals and weather conditions.

7. Solvents. A variety of products, whose boiling points and hydrocarbon composition are closely controlled, are produced for use as solvents. These include benzene, toluene, and xylene.

8. Petrochemicals. Many products derived from crude oil refining, such as ethylene, propylene, butylene, and isobutylene, are primarily intended for use as petrochemical feedstock in the production of plastics, synthetic fibers, synthetic rubbers, and other products.

9. Lubricants. Special refining processes produce lubricating oil base stocks. Additives such as demulsifiers, antioxidants, and viscosity improvers are blended into the base stocks to provide the characteristics required for motor oils, industrial greases, lubricants, and cutting oils. The most critical quality for lubricating-oil base stock is a high viscosity index, which provides for greater consistency under varying temperatures.

Petroleum Refinery Processes

REFINING OPERATIONS. Petroleum refining processes and operations can be separated into five basic areas:

1. Fractionation (distillation) is the separation of crude oil in atmospheric and vacuum distillation towers into groups of hydrocarbon compounds of differing boiling-point ranges called "fractions" or "cuts."

2. Conversion processes change the size and/or structure of hydrocarbon molecules. These processes include: Decomposition (dividing) by thermal and catalytic cracking: Unification (combining) through alkylation and polymerization; and Alteration (rearranging) with isomerization and catalytic reforming.

3. Treatment processes are intended to prepare hydrocarbon streams for additional processing and to prepare finished products. Treatment may include the removal or separation of aromatics and naphthenes as well as impurities and undesirable contaminants. Treatment may involve chemical or physical separation such as dissolving, absorption, or precipitation using a variety and combination of processes including desalting, drying, hydrodesulfurizing, solvent refining, sweetening, solvent extraction, and solvent dewaxing.

4. Formulating and Blending is the process of mixing and combining hydrocarbon fractions, additives, and other components to produce finished products with specific performance properties.

5. Other Refining Operations include:

Light-ends recovery;
Sour-water stripping
Solid waste and wastewater treatment
Process-water treatment and cooling
Storage and handling
Product movement
Hydrogen production
Acid and tail-gas treatment
Sulfur recovery.

Auxiliary operations and facilities include: steam and power generation; process and fire water systems; flares and relief systems; furnaces and heaters; pumps and valves; supply of steam, air, nitrogen, and other plant gases; alarms and sensors; noise and pollution controls; sampling, testing, and inspecting; and laboratory, control room, maintenance, and administrative facilities.

Basic Terms of Maintenance, Operations and System Components

Petroleum:crude oil

Fractions: a portion or cut of crude oil which has specific characteristics and a boiling point range

Natural gas :gaseous hydrocarbons found issuing from the ground or obtained from specially driven wells. The composition of natural gas varies in different localities. Its chief component, methane, usually makes up from 80% to 95%, and the balance is composed of varying amounts of ethane, propane, butane, and other hydrocarbon compounds. Because of its flammability and high calorific value, natural gas is used extensively as an illuminant and a fuel.

Gasoline, or petrol, light, volatile mixture of hydrocarbons for use in the internal-combustion engine and as an organic solvent, obtained primarily by fractional distillation and "cracking" of petroleum, but also obtained from natural gas, by destructive distillation of oil shales and coal, and by a process that converts methanol to gasoline using zeolite as a catalyst.

Naphtha, volatile fraction of petroleum (when it is known as petroleum naphtha), coal tar (coal-tar naphtha), and in a similar distillation of wood (wood naphtha), it is used widely as a solvent for various organic substances

Kerosene :thin mineral oil whose density is between 0.75 and 0.85 grams per cubic centimeter. A mixture of hydrocarbons, it is commonly obtained in the fractional distillation of petroleum as the portion boiling off between 150C and 275C (302F-527F). Kerosene has been recovered from other substances, notably coal (hence another name, coal oil), oil shale, and wood

Hydrocarbon :an organic compound composed solely of the elements hydrogen and carbon

Crude oil :oily, flammable liquid that occurs naturally in deposits, usually beneath the surface of the earth

API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity scale is based on pure water, with an arbitrarily assigned API gravity of 10. Liquids lighter than water, such as oil, have API gravities numerically greater than 10. Crude oils below 20 API gravity are considered heavy, l crudes with API gravities between 20 and 25 are medium, with light oils ranging above 25. The higher the gravity the more valuable the oil.

Density :ratio of the mass of a substance to its volume

Boiling point :temperature at which a substance changes its state from liquid to gas. A stricter definition of boiling point is the temperature at which the liquid and vapor (gas) phases of a substance can exist in equilibrium. When heat is applied to a liquid, the temperature of the liquid rises until the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the pressure of the surrounding gases. At this point there is no further rise in temperature, and the additional heat energy supplied is absorbed as latent heat of vaporization to transform the liquid into gas.

Atmospheric pressure :the pressure at sea level on a normal day. 29.92 inches of mercury or 14.7 psi absolute. When the vapor pressure of a liquid exceeds atomospheric pressure boiling occurs. Heating a liquid can raise the vapor pressure. The liquid will boil at a lower than normal temperature if the atmospheric pressure is reduced as in a vacuum tower.

Asphalt :brownish-black substance used commonly in road making, roofing, and waterproofing. Asphalt is a residue from the refining of petroleum

Light ends :crude oil molecules with the fewest number of atoms. They are referred to as light ends because they have the lowest density. Naphtha and butane are light ends.

Heavy ends :crude oil molecules with the greatest number of atoms. They are referred to as heavy ends because they have the highest density. Asphalt and bunker fuel are heavy ends.

Fractionation :the separation of crude oil in atmospheric and vacuum distillation towers into groups of hydrocarbon compounds of differing boiling-point ranges called "fractions" or "cuts."

Resid or residuum : the heavy product found in the bottom of a distillation tower after the lighter elements have been removed. Typically asphalt, this material gets hard fast when it cools. Therefore it must be kept at very high temperatures to be pumped. Resid storage tanks must be heated to prevent solidification of the product.

Flash point: Lowest temperature at which a petroleum product will give off sufficient vapor so that the vapor-air mixture above the surface of the liquid will propagate a flame away from he source of ignition.

Pour point: the lowest temperature at which oil or other liquid will pour. Similar to viscosity

Tasks/Quiz

Go to the basic math link and study pages one thru ten. Session two quiz will contain questions from this material.