Adjustable Speed Drives in the U.S. Petroleum Refining, Petrochemical, and Chemical Industries

Abstract

This paper describes applications and incentives for the use of variable frequency drivers (VFD) in the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and chemical industries. VFDs are a particular type of adjustable speed driver (ASD) found prevalently in these industries. Installations work best where both an energy efficiency improvement and a process control function can be accomplished with the same installation. Although these applications are quite familiar to mechanical and electrical engineers, they are still considered new technology among chemical and process engineers. Therefore, a significant amount of education is required to overcome natural resistance to these new "black box" systems. A survey conducted of VFD equipment suppliers, users, and others revealed that properly designed installations can accomplish the advertised energy savings while simultaneously realizing incentives for process control, product quality control, reduced maintenance, and others.