Gas analysis – beyond the measurement

Are the production processes you operate dependent upon reliable, accurate, and stable gas measurements to optimise operations, maintain safety or meet regulatory requirements?

Servomex has provided those measurements for over 60 years. Our measurement capability is at our core and continued innovation in this area is a given. But looking ‘Beyond the measurement’, could the solution surrounding the measurement be improved in coming years as technology and digitalization develop? At Servomex, we believe so.

That’s why we’ve launched this new #blog series discussing the key issues around #gas analysis and #digitaltransformation. By joining the conversation, and completing the two-question survey here , you can help form the future of our gas analysis solutions.

In today’s #industry40, economic, competitive, and regulatory pressures are combining with challenges arising from cultural and workforce shifts, spurring a change in operations.

The focus on Operational Excellence – seeking the optimization of processes, assets and people – is increasing, and paying huge dividends.

Top-quartile performers stand out in Safety, Reliability, Efficiency, Sustainability and Financial performance when compared to those at the opposite end of the spectrum.

They average three times fewer recorded safety incidents, a 4% increase in operational availability, 50% lower maintenance costs, a 30% reduction in emissions and energy use and 20% lower operating costs – clearly helpful in maximizing profits and margins.

With tougher times ahead, a continued focus on Operational Excellence could be critical for competitiveness or survival.

Operational Excellence gains often result from incremental, thoughtful and focused #digitalization initiatives: finding ways to automate or streamline manual, error-prone or slow activities and improve situational awareness.

Low-cost sensing, connectivity, data storage and processing are being harnessed to enable more informed and responsive operations and maintenance, making new levels of optimization and #assetmanagement compelling.

Are there activities associated with gas analysis systems where digitalization could be valuable? We suspect there is. This series aims to explore those ideas, considering going ‘Beyond the Measurement’ from a different perspective – look out for the following blogs:

• Maximizing availability: The myriad ways in which the offline time of #analyticalinstruments can impact operations, can accumulate, and ways to reduce it.
• Increasing safety: Safety is a top priority, and while nothing in life is risk-free, we will look at how new approaches and digitalization can reduce some of the risks to personnel and a site.
• Increasing productivity: Never has the need to do more with less been greater. So many activities remain labour intensive or make inefficient use of time. Could new approaches save all stakeholders time and money?
• Optimizing the process: Tighter process control can, of course, lead to benefits in terms of yields, safety, energy consumption and emissions. We’ll look at aspects of solution design and digitalization that could provide greater process insight and enable improved control, rooted in data for the #connectedplant.
• Improving regulatory compliance: Regulations on emissions, energy use, safety and cybersecurity, to name a few, are designed to benefit us all. They also incur overheads, impact competitiveness, and can result in penalties if breached. What new capabilities could help?
• Procurement and cost management: Procurement of gas analysis solutions, and subsequent processes – including order progression tracking, factory acceptance test, delivery tracking, service and spares provision and, indeed, remedy in the event of problems – have remained mostly unchanged for years. Could these be streamlined?
• System interoperability: Many improvements need richer data from equipment, and access to that data by more systems, services and people than ever. Every industrial facility is unique though, employing a vast array of different technologies across and between the various layers of the Purdue model. How should analyitical equipment integrate? We’ll consider this in more detail.
• The trustworthiness of analytical devices/solutions: Safety, security, reliability resilience and privacy are the building blocks of trust. Sensors within analytical equipment are the starting point for the data used in all subsequent process control and decision making, without trust at this level all bets are off. We’ll consider #digitalization from this perspective.

We want to know what you think, so please join the discussion by completing our first survey here. Let us know your views, as your feedback will help to improve and prioritize not only our future posts, but also our future gas analysis solutions.