February 2018
Maintenance and Reliability
Eliminate mechanical seal failure in a crude distillation unit
Multiple mechanical seal failures in a crude distillation unit (CDU) resulted in total losses of $3 MM in a refinery since its startup in January 2015. The maximum seal life achieved did not exceed 6 mos, which was much shorter than the American Petroleum Institute (API) 682 “Advancements in Mechanical Sealing” goal of 3 yr of seal life.
The Author
Ahmed A. Telmesani is a Maintenance Engineer for Yanbu Saudi Aramco Sinopec Refinery (YASREF). His responsibilities and areas of focus include eliminating failures, enhancing systems reliability, power saving initiatives, early failure detection and continuous preventive maintenance review and enhancement. He previously spent 10 yr with Saudi Aramco. Mr. Telmesani earned his BS degree in mechanical engineering from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
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