Terra Drone Corporation have completed a pilot project for the RFCC Cyclone & CO Boiler Internal Visual Inspection using drones for the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Refining, a subsidiary of ADNOC that handles downstream processes, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The pilot project this time was carried out to prove that drones can be used for internal visual inspections at RFCC facilities, especially in reactors, cyclones, and boilers. This project was carried out at an oil & gas processing facility, precisely at Resid Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) in Al-Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
In the process, four teams were provided to carry out 24-hour operations to accommodate the short time available due to the shutdown process. There are some parts that have never been visually inspected before because of the difficulty of accessing them.
By using drones, these parts can be easily reached thereby providing valuable information for facility owners. In addition, because the drone is versatile, it can complete a visual inspection in a very short time, saving facility owners a lot of time preparing for follow-up actions.
This work has never been done in any other area in the region before. Therefore, thorough planning & coordination with facility owners & inspection engineers were carried out prior to inspection activities. In addition, drone inspections were carried out while the facility is shut down. Therefore, careful scheduling is required to ensure inspections can be carried out on time.
To complete this work, our team used the Flyability Elios 2 for internal inspections & the DJI M300 RTK for external inspections (flare stack). The Flyability Elios 2 was chosen because it proved capable of extensive operation during scheduled operations.
As per MRC, TotalEnergies announced an expansion of its strategic alliance with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which would examine new areas including the supply of diesel from the United Arab Emirates to France.
mrchub.com