Market challenges shape valves design

London – The valves market is uncertain but suppliers are plugging away with new developments to meet increasing safety, regulatory and technical demands, while at the same time keeping an eye on reducing costs for the customer.

Setting the scene, Mika Nissinen, vice president for Metso’s Neles and Mapag product lines, believes that the 2009 sudden depression remains fresh in the mind of the industry causing the markets to suffer from uncertainty and unrest. This lingering concern, he said, is amplified by speculation on the effects of the financial situation in Europe and signs of a slowdown in China.

Against this backdrop, though, industrial investments have continued strongly during 2012 and the EPC companies have recorded backlog levels at an all-time-high, the Metso executive reports. This will bring business for valve companies in the next 6-12 months period, forecasts Nissinen, who also notes that process automation companies are generally growing sales and generating good results.

So business is surprisingly good - but for how long?

Nissinen sees the oil & gas market outlook as good in all continents. Shale gas exploration and production development, he added, continues strong in North-America while new shale gas resources are found all over the world including Europe, which has so far been missing green field investments.

“The gas development will be followed by chemical and petrochemical producers with olefins and related petrochemical plant expansions. The project activity has slowed in the oil sands but off-shore investments continue strong despite environmental concerns,” said the Metso expert.

“The coal gasification and coal liquefaction projects continue with high priority in China. Business hot spots are in China, Russia, Brazil, India and Middle-East. In pulp and paper, China has been slowing down but the old polluting capacity closures will open new opportunities. The paper market is currently suffering of overcapacity but the pulp industry is having a high season. There is quite a lot of project activity on-going, especially in South-America, Asia
Pacific and Russia.”

On the other hand, pricing pressure for valve suppliers remains high.

“Our customers are running cost reduction programmes with targets to reduce the purchasing costs of equipment,” the Metso VP said. “Competitors from emerging countries are getting more foothold with a cost effective, fit for purpose offering.”

At the same time, however, the requirements for the valves are increasing related to environmental performance, equipment safety and more demanding process conditions.

In response, Nissinen said Metso wants to bring technologically more advanced products to market in order to win the race to better cost position but technically superior products, such as its Q-trim noise abatement technology and new high pressure offering in butterfly and ball valves.

For his part, Joe Bush, Swagelok Co. sees three trends driving the valve market: The rising cost of energy and exploration of new methods to extract oil and gas; increasing regulations; and the need for automated components.

“In the oil and gas market, the drive towards alternate energy sources and deeper wells are creating a need for valves that can achieve higher pressures and in some cases, higher or lower temperatures,” said Bush.

“We also have observed an increase in exotic alloy consumption, specifically 625, 825, and 2507, due to internal and external corrosive environments affected by an increasing amount of sour gas (H2S) and other harsh applications.”

With regard to regulation, Bush highlights an increased focus on achieving operational efficiency and reducing leaks in production systems.

“Led by [individual] companies, government bodies (IPPC, TA-Luft, EPA) and industry specifications, the reduction of fugitive emissions is of increasing importance,” he said. “As a manufacturer, the importance of maintaining robust quality systems and tight manufacturing controls is greater than ever so that we can help customers meet requirements and keep personnel safe.”

An increasing need for automated components is remaining a key driver for the industrial valves, concludes Bush:

“Lastly, we see the market moving towards increased automation in the control and analysis of processes. This is driven by two factors: the loss of qualified staff, and the need to increase efficiency.”

At Emerson Process Management, Nicolas Menet of Fisher Valves and Carsten Thøgersen of Valve Automation believe an increased focus on financial performance is stretching the limits of process units.

As evidence, they point to how it is now becoming common for companies to operate a processing unit for four years, without scheduling downtime.

“This obviously creates challenges for the Safety Instrumented Functions, as the safety performance has to be maintained with a longer period of time between each proof test, extending the mission time of aging installations,” the experts said in a written statement to Process Engineering.

One technique used to assess the safety performance of a final control element, is to implement a partial valve stroke test (PST), which allows the operator to uncover a potential dangerous failure with the system in service.

This results in an improvement of the PFD (probability of failure on demand) and ensures the SIL level is maintained over the lifetime of the installation.
PST on a very fast acting shut down valve, such as a high integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS), is difficult to implement without increasing the risk of a spurious or uncontrolled closure of the safety valve, said the Emerson experts.

“The inability to fully test all components on a conventional pilot-operated shutdown system, using PST, has required end users to obtain far more reliability, to ensure that their critical ESD systems will work when called upon,” they commented.

“Today, operators can use intelligent actuation packages, with capabilities to diagnose the critical control components within the fast acting valve in service, and at the same time protecting against any spurious closure of the valve during the test. These intelligent packages consist of a reliable safety certified actuator, fitted with a digital valve positioner and a volume booster for shut down and PST.”

The performance of a diagnostic solution relies on its capability to uncover a very high percentage of dangerous failures, while the safety valve remains in operation.

All components of the shut-down circuit will have to be tested and the intelligent actuation packages will not only test the valve and actuator, but also test and diagnose components such as the solenoid valve and volume boosters.

“These packages use the valve signature technology that has been used for more than 24 years in the industry,” said the Emerson experts.

“The diagnostic technology based on analysis and measurement of forces involved in valve movement, provides the highest diagnostic coverage. It will uncover dangerous failure modes which include: valve shaft is broken, not enough torque to fully close the valve, too slow, stuck open.”