ON-JOB TRAINING REPORT

PCBL
GET BATCH 2019

DEEPAK ASOKAN
EMPLOYEE CODE: 1002872
GRADUATE ENGINEERING TRAINEE
 WEEK 1: 11th November 2019 to 16th November 2019

Study with P&ID and interlocks of dryer area and verifying the same at the
field
P&ID of Dryer
Dryer is the equipment used to remove the moisture from the pellets formed in pelletizer.
A rotary dryer is used in PCBL. The outlet from dryer goes to RAL and then to the bucket
elevator. The heating for dryer is done through a jacket covering the dryer which is an
indirect mode of heating.
The products of combustion from the combustor are circulated in the jacket in a direction
cocurrent to that of CB flow inside the drier. The air for combustion in the combustor
comes from the DBC and pneumatic fan. The fuel for combustion comes from PBC. The
fuel is always more than air due to the low calorific value of the tail gas. After some time
of continuous operation of the drier, the drier gets saturated with moisture. After the
saturation point no drying will take place. So, inorder to avoid moisture saturation,
moisture is sucked into the VBC. A hot line is given from the jacket to the VBC to prevent
acidic condensation inside the VBC. There are lifter plates inside the dryer to help in
agitation inside the dryer so that the bottom layer of CB does not stay at the bottom.
The rpm of dryer is very low (3-5rpm). The dryer is kept at an angle of 7⁰ with the
horizontal. There is a girth gear which rotates the dryer. The girth gear sits on the pinion
roller which is rotated by a motor. There is a gear box present to control the speed of
rotation and a flange coupling between the gear box and the motor. The gear is rotated by
a motor. The rotation speed of the dryer is 3 to 3.5 rpm. There are two trunnion rollers
below both the tires present on the dryer. These help in the rotational motion of the dryer.
The angle made by the centers of the trunnion rollers and the center of the dryer is 28⁰.
Graphite lubrication is given between the tires and rollers to avoid flat spot or washboard
effect. From the dryer the outlet leads to the bucket elevator.
A P&ID is a very detailed diagram in the process industry which shows the piping and
process equipment together with the instrumentation and control devices. They help in
illustrating the interactions of the process components used to control an entire process. In
the case of the dryer it includes the MOC of all the components, all the instruments
associated with measuring and controlling of parameters like temperature, flow and
pressure of dryer and combustor and also, the different signals coming and going to and
from the equipment are depicted. This helps in understanding how each important
parameter associated with an equipment is controlled.
Interlocks for dryer
Interlocks can be defined as systems which function as protective mechanism which
activates when an undesired situation occurs in the whole chain of equipments. These
ensure that no further consequences occur due to malfunctioning of a particular equipment.
For dryer the interlocks are
• If screw conveyor trips, the rotary screen trips to stop material flow to the conveyor
• If the rotary screen trips, the bucket elevator trips to stop the material flow to the
screen
• If the bucket elevator trips, the dryer trips to stop material movement to the bucket
elevator
• If the dryer trips, it starts rotating in reverse direction to prevent localized heating
of dryer shell, RAL of surge bin stops to prevent material flow to dryer and VBC
suction fan trips since no new material is coming into dryer
• If the RAL trips, molasses and water flow to pelletizer stops because no CB is
coming to pelletizer, and surge bin agitator stops
All the equipments related to dryer are involved in the dryer interlocks

Oil lineup tracing and tagging

This task assigned by Mr. Dipankar Das was to trace the suction and recycle lines of CBFS
and naming the valves to make it easier in future to ensure how to bring CBFS to a line
from a specific storage tank using a particular pump. This also serves the purpose of
mistake proofing this entire section.
All the suction lines of the 6 set of pumps - P12 A/B, P21 A/B, P18 A/B, P17 A/B, P20
A/B and p8/9 and the recycle lines for line 1 header 1, line 1 header 2, line 2 and line 3
were traced and corrections were made in the existing oil lineup diagram.
Naming of valves associated with each suction lines and rerun lines were done. The names
comprise of the letter ‘V’ followed by a series number allotted to a particular pump’s
suction line or a particular recycle header followed by two digits (XX) showing that
particular valve’s allocated number in that specific header.
• P12 A/B - V1XX
• P21 A/B - V0XX
• P18 A/B - V4XX
• P17 A/B – V3XX
• P20 A/B – V5XX
• p8/9 – V2XX
The valve name tags have been obtained from the mechanical department and the tagging
process is in progress
The next step is identification of the valves which needs to be opened and closed to lineup
a particular tank with a particular pump.
 WEEK 2: 18th November 2019 to 23rd November 2019

Dryer operations
Pelletizer is the equipment that comes right before the dryer. It does the job of converting fluffy
carbon black from surge bin to pellets using water and molasses/sugar as binders.
Pelletizer cleaning is a task carried out every day for each of the three lines. It is done by the field
operator while communicating constantly with the DCS. All the operations done on the pelletizer
by the DCS are confirmed by the field operator. First the RAL of surge bin is closed and then the
water and molasses flow to pelletizer is stopped. Then the pelletizer is stopped after which the
worker cleans the pelletizer using poking rods to remove any cake layer formed at both ends of
the pelletizer. Once it is ensured that all those are removed the field operator informs the DCS and
they turn on the pelletizer, water and molasses and the surge bin RAL respectively. Then the pellet
quality is checked to ensure adherence to product specifications.
The load on pelletizer and the flow of water runs in cascade mode. The flow of water is adjusted
so as to achieve the required load set point. If load falls below set point the water flow is increased
and vice-versa. The molasses flow is dependent on the water flow since the ration of these flow
rates is kept constant.
Dryer has 3 types of lifters inside it: curved lifters near the pellet inlet, angular lifters and, right
angled lifters. There are two types of angular lifters: near to the outlet of dryer the lifters are of
smaller angle compared to the lifters after the curved lifters. The shapes of these lifters are designed
so as to ensure maximum heat transfer at the inlet where the temperature difference between the
heat source and sink is maximum and also for the forward motion of the pellets.

Oil lineup tracing and tagging

The tagging of each valves has been completed and the details of the valves to be opened for
connecting a particular pump to a particular storage tank has been tabulated. Painting of color
bands on specific oil lines is in progress.

Line 3 shutdown job list

I was given the task of observing the line 3 shutdown jobs and reporting the completion of each of
the jobs to him by Mr. Dipankar Das. The tasks completed as of 23/11/2019 are
• 2 steam NRV replaced after checking for passing
• 3 nipples changed of MO
• SFS valve Palej bottom tube changed
• PAB-5 suction filter cleaning and replacement
• SFS atomizing air strainer bypass removed
• PAB-5 coupling inspection and replacement
• APH box/base temperature thermocouple inspection/cleaning
• APH cone temperature thermocouple inspection/cleaning
• Steam purging in OPH
• Purging of MO manifold
• OPH bypass cleaning
• OPH bypass inlet valve checked
 WEEK 3: 25th November 2019 to 29th November 2019

Pelletization is the technique used to convert the fluffy black into beads or pellets. The basic
process is densification of the CB particles. Pelletization is necessary because the CB produced
from reactors (fluffy black) cannot be handled easily and their transportation is also hard due to its
low density. Water, binder and molasse dosing system are the parts associated with this process.
Pelletization can be done by two methods-Dry method and Wet method. Wet method is used in
PCBL. The pelletizer is used for carrying out he process of palletization. It consists of a horizonal
shell with a shaft containing several pins inside it. Uniform pellet size distribution, uniform pellet
hardness distribution and mass pellet strength or pack point are the most important properties that
a pelletizer is rated upon. A pelletizer has a stationary shell, an external jacket heating system, a
moving rotor which is centrally located and has radially outward projected pins lying in a helical
shape, a screw conveyor at the inlet of rotor to push CB forward and a motor to control the shaft
rpm (Rotations Per Minute)
The steam jacket must be at a temperature of 100-130⁰ C to prevent sticking of material to the
inner surface. A clearance of 2-2.5 mm is given between the inner surface and the pinheads. The
rpm is maintained between 350 and 650.
The steps involved in palletization are wetting, agglomeration and polishing. A solution of binder
and water is added to the dry CB particles during wetting. This happens at the entrance region of
the equipment. The pins cause the agglomeration of CB particles with different moisture content
to form tiny spheres. These tiny spheres merge with others to give a larger pellet. The moisture
content of the pellets thus becomes more and more uniform. The density also increases rapidly at
first and then at a slower rate afterwards. The next pin the pellets meet help is shaping and polishing
of he pellets. Water travels from nucleus to the periphery of the pellet while the binder does not
form a hard nucleus and a weak periphery.
The feed to the pelletizer comes from the surge tank through the RAL. The surge tank ensures a
uniform flow of feed into the pelletizer. From the pelletizer the outlet leads to the dryer.
The factor affecting pellet quality:
• Mixer RPM: High RPM implies lower residence time and finer pellets. But it reduces the
OAN which is not desired. So, an optimized value of RPM is used.
• Jacket Temperature: The temperature should be high enough to avoid sticking of CB to the
shell
• Consistency of mixer load: The water to CB mass flow ratio should be maintained at an
optimum. If water quantity is too much mud formation takes place.
• Water nozzle location: It is usually preferred to keep the water-binder mixture entry nozzle
near the pelletizer feed entry
Line 3 shutdown job list
I was given the task of observing the line 3 shutdown jobs and reporting the completion of each of
the jobs to him by Mr. Dipankar Das. The tasks completed as of 29/11/2019 are

• Potassium line drain valve provided before mass flow meter

• Stroke checking of all control valves
• 2 steam NRV replaced after checking for passing
• 3 nipples changed of MO
• SFS valve Palej bottom tube changed
• PAB-5 suction filter cleaning and replacement
• SFS atomizing air strainer bypass removed
• PAB-5 coupling inspection and replacement
• APH box/base temperature thermocouple inspection/cleaning
• APH cone temperature thermocouple inspection/cleaning
• Steam purging in OPH
• Purging of MO manifold
• OPH bypass cleaning
• OPH bypass inlet valve checked
• MFM and control valve of molasses fixed

New inline blending

Pressure test of new inline blending oil headers were observed. Each of the 5 lines for ATO, IPCL,
RIL, IFS and OPAL were tested for leaks using steam up to a pressure of 10 kg/cm2.
The new lineup was also taken in line during the startup of Line 3

APH soot blowing valves checked

Due to temperature in line 1 APH being lower than required, all the soot blowing valves were
checked in presence of shift in-charge. The reason being that APH temperature could be lowered
due to excessive fouling which is possible if soot blowing is inefficient.
 WEEK 4: 2nd December 2019 to 7th December 2019

Dryer DMT (Daily Monitoring Team)

• Silo top inspection of Line 1 was done on Monday and it was observed that the chain of
the rotary valve of fines reducer was loose and was reported to the mechanical department
and it was also observed that the KGVs of 2 silos were open at the same time
• Analysis of dryer product temperature and the reasons for abnormalities identified includes
polisher tripping, GCO and mixer cleaning
• Checking of bag leak was done on Thursday
▪ A 4 membered team including me did the checking of bag filters for leaks
▪ The top tapping of differential pressure transmitter of bag filters was opened. Then a
filter paper was kept at the opening. If there is a leak, then black patch would appear
on the filter paper.
▪ This was done for all the PBCs of each of the 3 lines and major leaks were found in
PBC 2 and PBC 6 of line 1.
▪ The findings were reported to my reporting manager
▪
SOP for Dryer shutdown during emergency
Sl. No Jobs Responsible
personnel
1 Cut the fire in the furnace by closing down the off-gas control DCS officer/ Field
valve and stopping of off gas blower simultaneously. officer
Remove LDO burner if present
2 Stop the VBC fan and combustor air blower, isolate VBC DCS officer
modules
3 Keep stack valve full open for faster cooling keeping watch DCS officer
on emission
4 Stop the mixer and simultaneously other back stream DCS officer
equipments to reactor
5 Cool down the dryer to 50 - 60⁰ C for 12 hours Shift In-charge
6 Check the CO gas percentage before entering into the dryer Safety officer/ Shift In-
after cooling for any maintenance or checking job charge
Grades manufactured in Mundra and their Iodine number and OAN
Grade Iodine Number OAN
N220 121 114
N234 120 125
N326 82 72
N330 82 102
N339 90 120
N347 90 124
N375 90 114
N550 43 121
N660 36 90

Parameters for dryer, DBC and VBC

Parameter
Product temperature
Dryer drum pressure
Dryer shell temp
Dryer tail gas to air ratio
DBC inlet temperature
DBC outlet temperature
DBC Delta pressure
VBC inlet temperature
VBC outlet temperature
VBC delta pressure
Range Remarks
170 + 40⁰ C Adjust the dryer efficiency. Divert the material
to off-spec silo if temperature goes below 110⁰ C
and above 250⁰ C. correlation of dryer product
temperature with calibrated thermometer to be
done twice per shift. Temperature difference
should be about 0 - 25⁰ C. if higher difference is
found than the given range, ask instrument
department to clean the dryer discharge
thermocouple
-6 + 5 mmWC Adjust VBC fan suction control valve
accordingly
800 + 200⁰ C Maintain the combustor temperature to control
shell temperature
0.8 + 0.3 Change the ratio according to grade
145⁰ C max
130⁰ C max
300mmWC max
220 + 15⁰ C max
200 + 15⁰ C max
250 mmWC max
Strainer change in R1 PFS line

• Strainer 2 was to be taken online and strainer 1 was to be taken offline

• Valve 3 was slowly opened at first and then the strainer top went valve was opened. The
vent valve removes air because if air goes into the nozzle, the nozzle can get burnt.
• First air comes out of the vent, then air and oil start coming out together and finally only
oil comes out. The vent is closed at this point
• Valve 3 is opened slowly because if it is opened suddenly, there is a sudden drop in
pressure in PI-1 which will cause the interlock to bring online the standby pump and thus
result in very high pressure leading to leak in the lines
• After closing the vent valve, valve 4 is opened
• After this valve 2 is closed followed by closing of valve 1
• Valve 4 should not be opened before valve 3 because this will cause a drop in pressure at
the nozzle
• Scheduled nozzle changes happen at regular intervals while it is also carried out
whenever the pressure drop across a strainer is 3 kg/cm2 or more

Carbon Black Testing

• Iodine Number – D1510-17 – g/kg
• OAN – D2414-17 – cm3 /100 g
• IPHT – centi Newton
▪ If it is greater than 40 then there is chance of lump formation
• Mass strength
▪ Measure of fluidity
▪ Should be between 30 and 40
• Fines – unpelletized CB
 • Ash – post combustion residue
• Grit – non water-soluble impurities
Iodine number and OAN are categorized as target value and COAN, NSA, STSA, Tint and PD
are called typical descriptive value

Dryer Flow Diagram

 WEEK 5: 9th December 2019 to 14th December 2019

Interlocks – Dryer
Line 1
Sl. No. Condition Result
1 RAL at dryer discharge stop • Dryer stop
2 Bucket elevator stop • Dryer stop
• RAL-A stop
• RAL-B stop
3 Dryer stop • Dryer reverse
4 Dryer not in forward • RAL-A stop
• RAL-B stop
• Tail gas C/V close
5 Polisher-A trip • Mixer-A trip
6 Polisher-B trip • Mixer-B trip
7 Mixer-A trip • RAL-A stop
8 Mixer-B trip • RAL-B stop
9 RAL-A stop • Water an molasse ON/OFF close
• Water C/V close
• Molasses C/V close
• Both scrapper close
10 RAL-B stop • Water an molasse ON/OFF close
• Water C/V close
• Molasses C/V close
• Both scrapper close
11 Screw conveyor stop • Rotary screen stop
12 Rotary screen stop • Off-spec tank knife gate valve open
13 VBC fan discharge temperature Hi Hi • DBC common vent 100%
(>350⁰ C) • VBC fan stop
• VBC fan suction PCV close
• VBC hotline TCV close
• VBC pulsing B/V close
• Combustor air C/V close
• CA Fan stop
• Tail gas KGV close
• Tail gas C/V close
14 VBC fan stop • VBC fan suction PCV close
• VBC hotline TCV close
• VBC pulsing B/V close
 15 Dryer product temperature HI Hi • DBC common vent 100%
(>400⁰ C) • VBC fan stop
• VBC fan suction PCV close
• VBC hotline TCV close
• VBC pulsing B/V close
• Combustor air C/V close
• CA Fan stop
• Tail gas KGV close
• Tail gas C/V close
• Dryer stack C/V close
16 Both Mixer RAL stop • Tail gas C/V close
17 CA flow Lo Lo (<1000 Nm3/h) • Tail gas C/V close

Line 2
Sl. No. Condition Result
1 RAL at dryer discharge stop • Dryer stop
2 Bucket elevator stop • Dryer stop
• RAL-A stop
• RAL-B stop
3 Dryer stop • Dryer reverse
4 Dryer not in forward • RAL-A stop
• RAL-B stop
• Tail gas C/V close
5 Mixer-A trip • RAL-A stop
6 Mixer-B trip • RAL-B stop
7 RAL-A stop • Water an molasse ON/OFF close
• Water C/V close
• Molasses C/V close
• Both scrapper close
8 RAL-B stop • Water an molasse ON/OFF close
• Water C/V close
• Molasses C/V close
• Both scrapper close
9 Screw conveyor stop • Rotary screen stop
10 Rotary screen stop • Off-spec tank knife gate valve open
11 VBC fan discharge temperature Hi Hi • DBC common vent 100%
(>350⁰ C) • VBC fan stop
• VBC fan suction PCV close
• VBC hotline TCV close
• VBC pulsing B/V close
• Combustor air C/V close
• CA Fan stop
 Tail gas KGV close
• Tail gas C/V close
12 VBC fan stop • VBC fan suction PCV close
• VBC hotline TCV close
• VBC pulsing B/V close
13 Dryer product temperature HI Hi • DBC common vent 100%
(>400⁰ C) • VBC fan stop
• VBC fan suction PCV close
• VBC hotline TCV close
• VBC pulsing B/V close
• Combustor air C/V close
• CA Fan stop
• Tail gas KGV close
• Tail gas C/V close
• Dryer stack C/V close
14 Both Mixer RAL stop • Tail gas C/V close
15 CA flow Lo Lo (<1000 Nm3/h) • Tail gas C/V close

Dryer DMT
Dryer DMT meeting was conducted every day of the week at 12 p.m.
During these meetings the status of jobs like pulsing check, bag filter leak check was collected.
The dryer efficiencies and dryer product temperature trend were analyzed for each day. The
variations in dryer product temperature were due to mixer cleaning in Line 1, GCO and also due
to material flow irregularities. When the temperature fell below 110⁰ C the product was diverted
to off spec silo. As part of the DMT schedule line 2 Pin mixer area and line 2 Bag filter area were
visited for inspection. It was found that condition of the ball valves of the pulsing section was not
satisfactory due to corrosion.

Dryer Jobs
• WI for for Mixer cleaning, Strainer change, Reprocessing, dryer emergencies and molasses
preparation and maintenance were studied.
• Accompanied dryer operator for mixer sample collection
▪ Line 1
• Dryer inlet cleaned using cleaning rod
• Polisher samples (both A and B) taken. It was observed the pellets contain right
amount of water by visual inspection
• Common discharge of the polishers was cleaned using cleaning rod
 ▪ Line 2
• Dryer inlet cleaned using cleaning rod
• Mixer samples (both A and B) taken. It was observed the pellets of mixer B contain
right amount of water by visual inspection, but mixer A sample showed big pellets
first then normal pellets, followed by powdery CB and then normal pellets. The
sample for testing was taken after the pellet size became constant for for time. This
variation is size is due to irregular flow of CB from RAL of surgebin.
• Individual and common discharge of the mixers were cleaned using cleaning rod
▪ Only bead moisture is tested for mixer/polisher samples. Rest of the properties are
tested for dryer product
• Dryer P&ID was obtained
• Accompanied Dyer operator for molasses level and specific gravity checking. Specific
gravity is checked using hydrometer. The device is dipped in the sample taken in the
container and the value at the point of contact of the liquid sample and the instrument
circumference is multiplied by 0.001 and added to 1 to get the specific gravity. The level
in the tank should never fall below 40%. Alarm will be given at DCS if level reaches 80%
• For molasses solution and water at their mixing location near the mixer, the water pressure
should always be less than the molasses solution pressure because high water pressure will
cause water to flow into the molasses solution line not allowing the NRV present in that
line to open. Tapping of the molasses line is the immediate solution to molasses solution
flow being low.
• If the molasses solution plus water header pressure is higher than the normal operating
header pressure, this means there is choking in the quench. Quenches have to be taken out
and checked to identify the choked quench and it must be replaced.
• Breaking off of quench stopper is a major issue. The stopper prevents the quench from
going too much inside the mixer. If the stoppers are broken off, the quenches will ome n
contact with the moving pins in the mixer and both the pins and quench are damaged.
Proper welding of stopper is required to avoid this.
• It was observed that surge bin has provisions for air so that air can be provided in case of
choking. There is no main valve for the header but only valves for individual lines of air.
• The emergency stop buttons in the dryer area were identified in the field
• The manual KGV switches for bag filter inlets were identified in the field