Shutdowns in a crude oil refinery can cost millions a day. A reliable compressed air system is the key to keeping everything running. An Atlas Copco oil injected air compressor can support many critical processes. Our oil lubricated compressors are designed to run for longer periods, reducing surprise breakdowns and maintenance. Atlas Copco’s latest oil injected screw compressor models do more than just support basic refinery operations. They have features that support new applications in your whole plant. These include:
In refineries where uptime is everything, our compressors deliver performance you can rely on. By reducing air system downtime, Atlas Copco helps refineries:
- Run at maximum production
- Reduce operating costs
- Protect margins
- Stay in the oil game
Choose Atlas Copco oil injected compressors to increase your refinery’s uptime and productivity. Refineries use compressed air for many applications, each with its own challenges. Let’s look at some application examples where Atlas Copco’s oil-injected air compressors shine:
Get to know how our oil-injected air compressors can meet these challenges head-on.
Get to know how our oil-injected air compressors can meet these challenges head-on.
- Reduced Productivity: Pressure drops can reduce tool power and speed, extend maintenance time, and delay refinery restart after shutdowns.
- More Wear and Tear: Dirty air wears out tool parts faster, resulting in more repairs or replacements.
- Safety Risks: Unstable tool performance due to air supply can hurt workers.
- More Maintenance Costs: More maintenance or replacement means more downtime.
- Longer Downtime: If critical maintenance tasks are delayed due to suboptimal tools it can extend planned shutdowns and result in big production losses.
Not enough pressure or volume can mess up testing. However, pressure testing of new or repaired pipelines and vessels is key to safety and compliance in refineries. Poor or interrupted air supply can lead to several consequences:
- False Negatives: Not enough pressure won’t show up small leaks or weak points that might cause failure during operation.
- Extended Downtime: Insufficient air volume will take way longer to test large systems and delay startup.
- Regulatory Non-Compliance: Subpar testing might violate regulations and get you fined or shut down.
- Catastrophic Failure: If you miss weaknesses due to bad testing, system failure can happen during operation and risk lives.
- Higher Insurance Costs: A history of bad testing procedures will result in higher insurance premiums for the refinery.
No air supply, or unreliable air supply, during maintenance can mean inefficient work, safety hazards, and extended downtime. For example, a reliable air supply is critical for a scheduled turnaround where multiple maintenance activities are happening across the refinery at the same time, including hydroblasting, sandblasting, spray painting, and pneumatic tool operation. Any failure or disruption in air supply can lead to:
- Longer Downtime: No air supply slows down maintenance work and extends overall turnaround time. Each extra day of downtime costs more money.
- Incomplete Cleaning: Not enough air pressure for hydroblasting or sandblasting means unremoved deposits or corrosion, and equipment might fail when the refinery comes back online.
- Poor Repairs: Unreliable air supply to pneumatic tools means bolts not torqued properly or incomplete welds, and potential leaks or failures when operations begin again.
- Coating Failures: Inconsistent air supply during spray painting means uneven application, premature coating failure, and increased corrosion risk.
- Labor Costs: Delays due to air supply issues mean extra labor costs as maintenance teams have to work overtime to get tasks done within the turnaround window.
- Start-up Delays: If maintenance is rushed or incomplete due to air supply issues, it may cause problems during refinery start-up, and extend downtime even further.
Refineries as well as general manufacturing plants are under more pressure than ever to be more efficient, more reliable, and reduce their environmental footprint. Choosing the best air compressor has never been more critical.
Atlas Copco’s oil injected air compressors are designed to meet these challenges head-on, a forward-thinking solution for any modern refinery.
Atlas Copco oil-injected air compressors have several technologies to address these risks:
Atlas Copco’s rental fleet of oil-injected air compressors gives refineries the flexibility to:
- Respond quickly to equipment failures
- Supplement air supply during peak demand
- Support maintenance without disrupting main systems
- Test new processes or expand operations without capital expenditure
Don’t let air supply problems put your refinery at risk. Contact Atlas Copco today to see how our oil injected air compressor rental solutions can keep your operations running smoothly.
