Refining the oil processes The petrochemical industry is big, efficient
and never sleeps. Siân Harris finds out what role informatics plays in keeping this industry running
F
rom the fuel that runs our cars and heats our homes, to plastics and the starting materials of many other
things we rely on every day, the petrochemical industry plays a big part in our lives. Refining petrochemicals is done
on a large scale – around the world there are only about 600 refineries to serve all our petrochemical needs – and efficiency is key. Considerable care is taken
to ensure that products meet customer requirements without being over-refined. Aſter all, each purification step adds cost to the process and the resulting products may well be broken down and expelled from a car exhaust pipe within a week of manufacture. Such requirements for
efficiency have driven refineries towards greater automation. Tousands of samples are taken and analysed for, for example,
6 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
viscosity and octane levels. With analyses being straightforward, routine and high volume there has been a trend away from employing analytical chemists for these tasks. Instead, analysis is typically done by non-specialist staff working shiſts to ensure 24/7 activity at the sites. Tis means that they need to be able to come in and take over the routine sample collection and analysis from where their colleagues leſt off. As with many other industries,
such a trend towards lower-skilled people doing analyses is assisted by informatics. ‘A lot of it is batch- driven and uncomplicated so there is a drive to make it as simple and as fast as possible. Laboratories in these businesses are not profit-
generating but cost-generating so they want to make the costs as low as possible,’ comments PerkinElmer’s VP of marketing for informatics, Clive Higgins. Jay Ross, the product manager
who handles petrochemical clients at Starlims, agrees: ‘Even though the petrochemical industry is doing very well in the market, the money spent on QA/QC is very low. Te difference between a petrochemical refinery and, for example, an environmental lab, is that the process never ends. Once they start pumping they never really stop.’ A LIMS helps by managing all
the sample points, the work needed and the scheduling of samples. Tis makes it easier for any operator
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