Working in a refinery you deal with a lot of different people… many times people who work for other companies. These contractors provide a variety of different services. Many lead projects, perform design work, provide chemical or catalyst solutions, execute mechanical work, or give technical guidance.

In a modern refinery, chemicals are expected to do a lot of heavy lifting. Whether it’s chemicals to provide clean oil/water separation in your desalter, or an antifoulant to give you longer runs on heat exchangers, or a dispersant that manages pressure drop across a reactor, or maybe even chemicals to improve shutdown times during a turnaround, there are a variety of different polymers that can improve refinery operations.

Often when things go wrong, the first direction a refinery turns to is a chemical injection in order to resolve the issue without shutting down. Many times they’re successful but sometimes they aren’t. Yet when things don’t work the work the chemical vendor is often dismissed and maybe even ridiculed.

In my humble opinion, rarely are chemical vendors out to make a dishonest dollar. Each proposed application is with the intent of success and many applications are absolutely critical to unit operations. The chemical vendor doesn’t want to see an application fail any more than you do. This is the reason that they need to treated as more than vendors and as part of the team.

Improve communication with chemical vendors so you can openly discuss potential applications but at the same time clearly understand costs in order to complete an accurate evaluation. Think creatively about new applications that may lower mechanical costs or energy costs. Understand that not every application will be successful but at the same time communicate about the probability of success.

And most of all, remember that these chemical vendors are just like you and me. They’re trying their best to add value and be successful. They’d rather make an honest dollar as part of a team that appreciates them than a dishonest dollar while being ridiculed.