 Water well treated at Paulínia Refinery (Replan)
Brazil’s biggest refinery reduced effluent generation by nearly 30% in the past six years, although it increased its oil processing volume by 20%.
Reuse is the word of order at Paulínia Refinery (Replan) ever since the refinery kicked off a project to reduce water consumption and effluent generation back in 1999. The work is still in progress, but it has already reached significant results. In the past six years, the effluent volume fell from 785 cubic meters per hour to 550 cubic meters per hour, about 30%. The reduction is even more meaningful if one considers that in the same period, the volume of oil the refinery processes rose nearly 20%, from 296,000 barrels per day to 351,000 barrels per day. According to Replan’s environment coordinator, Luíz Tadeu Furlan, the goals are even more ambitious: the refinery is going for “zero discard.”
In mid-1999, the Replan team noticed effluent emissions were surging because of the refinery’s increased processing capacity. Since 1996, it had risen from 611 m3/h to 785 m3/h. The situation was even more critical because the refinery was inserted in the Piracicaba and Capivari River basin, which supplies more than 60 cities and is in a region of heavy industrial concentration and strong demand for water.
A workgroup was then created to analyze the problem and the first measures started being deployed within a month. A simple change made to the water cooling filtering system, which leaves the treatment station, led to the reduction of large volumes of effluents. “We changed the chemical cycle from 5 to 11, and with that simple measure we achieved savings in the order of 40 m3/h,” explained Furlan.
This and other measures not only significantly reduced effluent generation, but also rendered two awards to the unit in 2000 . The refinery was granted the “Water monitoring” and “Water reuse” category awards in the “Action for water” awards given by the Intermunicipal Piracicaba, Capivari, and Jundiaí River Basin Consortium.
Replan’s environment coordinator explained the refinery used traditional water usage approaches, and that it was necessary to rethink long-standing industrial practices. “From then on, we split the actions in short-, mid-, and long-term measures. The short-term ones could be kicked-off immediately. The mid-term ones, which required small investments or simple changes, were deployed during a two-year period. Meanwhile, the long-term measures require complex process changes and large investments and are still in progress,” concluded Furlan.
No more dikes
A new recycling system reduces oil well drilling environmental impacts and boosts process efficiency.
Petrobras is using a pioneering method that eliminates the need to build residue dikes near onshore oil wells. The process significantly reduces environmental impact while slashing drilling costs, as it allows the recovery of the gravel and of almost 50% of the drilling fluid that is discarded during the activity.
The experience started in 2003, with the drilling of the 7-RI-43D-BA well by the SC-94 probe, in Buracica, in the Recôncavo Baiano. The results were so good that the three onshore probes that currently operate at the Bahia Business Unit (UN-BA) use the system, which is now being deployed by other company units.
Recycling – The method consists of combining the use of N-paraffin drilling fluid (an oil byproduct processed at the refineries) with the installation of a gravel-drying device developed by Tuboscope/Brandt. The system recovers part of the paraffin that adheres to the gravel for reuse in drilling, cutting fluid discard by about 50%. The gravel is then submitted to microbiological treatment to be made inert to be deposited directly on the soil or reused for several purposes, such as, for example, to produce bricks or even to pave the well base.
Savings – UN-BA Well Engineering department’s Gabriel Raimundo de Abreu said this not only allowed a reduction in environmental impacts, but also cost reductions: “We wanted to stop building dikes. There were palliative measures, such as incinerating the residues, but they were expensive, and not very efficient. With the new system there were not only environmental gains, but also savings, since the gravel, the fluid, and the water used to clean the probe are being recovered. We even had transportation cost gains, as the volume of fluid we have to take to the probe was reduced,” he said.
When a well is drilled, residues are generated – a mix of drilling fluid and gravel – which, if not treated appropriately, may impact the environment. The residues are traditionally confined in waterproof dikes, built at the location itself. These dikes are later dried out and covered up. On average, the dikes are 10 meters wide and 1.5 meters deep and are covered by a PVC blanket.
Education Ensures Safety
Literacy classes and lectures on alcoholism reduce outsourced labor deviations by about 80% in but two months.
Education is the best tool to introduce safe practices in the workplace. That is what the literacy project Petrobras held between October 2004 and April 2005 among outsourced employees in Macaíba (RN) shows. In a mere couple of months, the number of outsourced labor deviations – actions that increase the risk of accidents – fell nearly 80%, while the safe practice rate rose from 85% to 93%.
Illiteracy - While supervising the construction of a gas measurement testing laboratory by the Granito contractor, Petrobras’ safety engineer Marcelo Arthur Soares noticed a large amount of deviations in the work. After evaluating the professionals, he concluded there was a high level of functional illiteracy, over and beyond signs of alcoholism among them.
Marcelo then suggested the possibility of opening classrooms for them, something that generated large interest among the workers. Under the coordination of the Environmental Permit, Quality, Safety, Environment, and Health department (EPQSEH), a literacy group was formed in partnership with the Study, Research, and Citizen Action Center (SRCAC). Additionally, lectures on alcoholism were also organized for the professionals. The course gained even more social characteristics as it included the participation of people from the local community and included the distribution of basic food good baskets to the students.
EPQSEH’s Luciana de Oliveira Leite explained that although it was not possible to include the group in the Labor Improvement Program, a similar system was used: “The classes followed the same approach, the Paulo Freire, which uses daily life as a tool to facilitate learning,” she said. The course lasted a total of six months, with classes being held at night.
The results didn’t take long to appear and, at the end of the work, in December 2004, the number of deviations fallen to 17 – there were 78 in October. Furthermore, the construction was concluded a week ahead of schedule and on the final date the construction site had already been disassembled.
In addition to the statistics, there are also results that can’t be measured by numbers alone. According to Luciana, there was a boost in self-esteem, in quality of life, and in the professional perspective among the participants, over and beyond more interaction among Petrobras and outsourced employees after the course started.
Labor Development & Improvement Program (LDIP)
Petrobras’ Engineering department has an ongoing investment plan for outsourced professionals. The Labor Development & Improvement Program (LDIP) was launched in 2003 aiming not only at improving the quality of the work done for Petrobras, but also to be a social inclusion, development, and valuing tool.
One of the LDIP’s main objectives was to reach zero illiteracy in the work done to Petrobras as of 2005, via actions carried out in partnership with outsourced companies and teaching institutions. The program also seeks to increase the outsourced staff’s professionalization and certification levels (boiler workers, mechanics, electricians, instrument pipe fitter, and assemblers) With the support of the city halls, communities, and public and private institutions.
To program and follow-up on the LDIP’s actions, an information system was deployed to quantify all professionals involved in the construction work and to identify, per region and specialty, the future staff demand, taking the new facilities foreseen in Petrobras’ strategic plan into account.
 
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