An innovative and comprehensive product platform helps refineries control largest expense
TREVOSE, PA, March 30, 2005--- GE Infrastructure Water & Process Technologies, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), offers the Predator monitoring program, from GE Infrastructure Water & Process Tech-nologies, an innovative solution for reducing crude oil costs. With crude oil prices soaring to $50+ per barrel, oil refineries search for ways to effectively process discounted crudes. Predator allows refineries to profitably process and market high acid (discounted) crudes while reducing risks to equipment, production and product quality.
Predator brings new flexibility to purchasing and marketing crude oil. That translates to lower fixed costs and improved margins. GE's imagination in developing Predator brought together the people, technologies and solutions that change how refiners and producers approach opportunity crudes. We're like the pit crew that helps our customers finish first," says Colin Sabol, chief marketing officer, GE Infrastructure.
Running high-acid crude oils poses a dangerous risk to refineries, as they are highly corrosive to the process equipment. Left unchecked, high-acid corrosion can damage equipment, lower production and, in the ex-treme, create unexpected plant shutdown and unsafe working conditions. Comprised of three distinct tech-nologies -- Non-Destructive Testing, Knowledge Base/Predictive Engine and advanced chemistry -- Predator works to detect corrosion and predict process conditions, crude slates and refinery configurations, as well as ensure that running high-acid crude can help improve profitability and reduce risks.
The Predator Knowledge Base/Predictive Engine exposes areas of concern, which could be impacted by processing a high-acid crude. By focusing on the areas of potential risk before exposure to a high-acid crude, refiners can adopt a safe, conservative strategy for risk control before the crude is in the refinery. Predator also uses Non-Destructive Testing tools, such as digital radiography (DR) and resistance corrosion monitoring (RCM), in conjunction with traditional monitoring tools to gather quantitative data. The data baselines key areas and enables assessment and modification of the corrosion control program. This infor-mation helps operators adjust the chemistry to ensure safe, effective processing.
Controlling the risk of corrosion is the primary function of the Predator monitoring system. Despite the com-plexity of high temperature naphthenic acid corrosion, Predator's advanced chemistry has proven effective in numerous refineries and over a wide variety of analytically diverse high-acid crudes.
About GE Infrastructure Water & Process Technologies
Water & Process Technologies, a unit of GE Infrastructure, is a leading global supplier of water, wastewater and process systems solutions. Water & Process Technologies delivers customer value by improving per-formance and product quality and by reducing operating costs and extending equipment life in a broad range of products and services. These products and services are used to optimize total water/process sys-tem performance, safeguard customer assets from corrosion, fouling and scaling, and protect the environ-ment through water and energy conservation. For more information on Water & Process Technologies, visit gewater.com.
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