The international regulations observed in Turkey require that all equipment used at oil refineries be inspected at least once every four to five years. The maximum window for FCC (Fluid Catalytic Cracking) unit inspections is five years, but Tüpraş conducts these inspections every four years.

Tüpraş is Turkey’s largest industrial enterprise of crude oil processing.

Traditionally inspectors physically enter various parts of the FCC unit to collect visual data on their condition. 

The unit was built in the late 1960s and it is not designed with human entry in mind regarding today’s HSE standard approach. This means that these inspections can be intensive and potentially dangerous.

To inspect the unit’s riser - a huge pipe over 50 meters (164 feet) long used to mix heavy oil with a powdered catalyst at high temperatures - maintenance workers must take the very difficult step of cutting the top cap of the riser to provide an access point. When inspectors are done with their work, the top part of the riser is welded shut with the cap until the next inspection.

Once inside the riser, inspectors are lowered slowly down the pipe on a rope, visually inspecting its interior as they go. There is usually debris inside the pipe, making the air quality poor and visibility difficult.

Tüpraş personnel began researching alternatives to manual inspections and using UAV Elios 2 provided the following benefits:

SAFETY

Use of the Elios 2 for remote visual data collection meant that inspectors did not need to enter confined spaces in the riser and cyclones of the FCC unit by rope access, which significantly decreased their exposure to risk.

COST REDUCTION

The Elios 2 allowed Tüpraş to save the equivalent of 2.5 days of work (170 man hours) by not having to cut the top cap of the reactor riser, which is the standard procedure for human entrance in order to perform a visual inspection. Resulting savings were significant, as downtime for a refinery process unit can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per day.

EFFICIENCY

There was no need for inspectors to go inside of the FCC unit's riser because the Elios 2 was able to take the place of their physical presence for visual data collection, making the inspection process more efficient and repeatable than manual alternatives.