Guests from the future

International Engineering CASE-IN Championship – a unique practice-oriented tournament for students and young professionals. This year, petrochemistry is included in the competition program for the first time. The opening of a new CASE-IN direction took place in March in Tomsk.

The young man spreads his arms wide and turns around several times: "Super! I'm going away for a long time!" He wears a virtual reality helmet, with which he travels through a new petrochemical complex. And there's a lot of life going on around: Tomsk Polytechnic University The regional stage of the CASE-IN engineering championship begins. The atmosphere is like at the airport: registration of participants is underway, there is a restrained hum of voices in the hall. But you immediately notice that a lot of young people have gathered in one place. A lot even for student Tomsk.

"It's going to be hard"

CASE-IN is the largest practice–oriented competition in the CIS, during which participants try to solve real engineering cases. No one expects that the answer will be found instantly, 10 days are given for preparation. The final presentation is evaluated by an expert company.

Until recently, CASE-IN included five areas: geological exploration, mining, metallurgy, oil and gas, and electric power. This year, the competitions were supplemented with tasks in petrochemistry. SIBUR was the strategic partner.

The case in the field of Petrochemistry was related to the construction of the ZapSibNeftekhim complex near Tobolsk, the very one where you could make a virtual trip. The students had to identify bottlenecks in the technological schemes of gas fractionation, pyrolysis, and polymer production plants and decide how to ensure the smooth operation of the enterprise and optimize costs.

– When we dropped the assignment, we said to ourselves, "It's going to be hard.", he says Alexander Krutey, captain of the Tomsk Polytechnic University School of Natural Resources Engineering Team. – Yes, there are laboratories at the university, problematic tasks are set, but all of them are more or less abstract in nature. It doesn't compare to a case study. Sometimes you sit down to play a computer game with bots and quickly "take out" everyone. And sometimes you get on a server with cool guys and you fight seriously. So it is here.

The fact that case study is a powerful tool is also noted by representatives of universities. Working on a case can be compared to an internship in a company: it transports a person into a given reality no worse than a VR helmet, where he has to understand existing processes, put theoretical knowledge into practice, work in a team, learn how to develop and structure his ideas, and promote them correctly.

– But you can handle the case only if you already have a good educational base., – I'm sure Sergey Kudryashov, Deputy Director for Scientific Work Institute of Petroleum Chemistry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the jury members. – There is not much time, the task cannot be solved from scratch.

The human membrane

The case Championship is a unique venue where two decision centers meet: universities and companies. From the perspective of a future specialist, a university is a starting point in a profession, a company is a challenge.

– Not only students who receive education in the specialty of the same name were able to participate in the direction of "Petrochemistry".- says Associate Professor of the Department of High Molecular Compounds and Petrochemistry at Tomsk State University Elena Berezina. – There were guys from the departments of physical chemistry and organics. We constantly pursue the idea that, after graduating from the chemical faculty, they will be able to find themselves in completely different directions. That's the way university education is, universal. Our graduates know how to gain knowledge.

Competitions in this format are also a simulator for development soft skills flexible skills that do not depend on the specifics of the job, but help maximize the potential. The ability to work in a team and be responsible for the decisions made – these qualities are appreciated by employers.

– There were no fixed roles in our team. Only the captain remained the captain. And one of the participants, Ilya Eftor, was a kind of membrane. He looked for and eliminated weaknesses in the ideas being discussed., – tells Daria Afanasyeva, a student at the Tomsk Polytechnic University School of Natural Resources Engineering. – Everyone offered ideas. Those with better arguments were accepted.

Engineering Puzzle

Without speaking, both the winning teams in the qualifying stage – both from Tomsk State University and Tomsk Polytechnic University – proposed to introduce an additional installation to rid the input raw materials of sulfur. They were going to clean such a product of processing associated petroleum gas as a wide fraction of light hydrocarbons – CFLU. At gas processing plants, it is eliminated from hydrogen sulfide and other impurities, but, according to future engineers, additional elimination of sulfur immediately before gas separation will save equipment from corrosion and extend its maintenance run. Having shown ecological thinking, one of the teams suggested using the obtained sulfur and its compositions as additives to polymers.

Ideas for the introduction of catalysts with increased activity were also presented to the experts. Catalysts are indispensable helpers in polymerization, they accelerate the reaction. The proposal to use catalysts with increased activity, when 200-300 kg of polymers are formed per 1 g of a substance, sounded exciting from the lips of the contestants.

Experts recognized the solution to improve knives in an extruder as a successful one, a device that can be compared to a meat grinder when it is necessary to quickly and clearly explain the principle of polymer granules production. The molten mass comes out through many holes, and the knives form a granulate from it. Future engineers have proposed a design of knives that will better adhere to the die (a high-strength mold through which plastic substances are pressed), which will form granules more uniform in size and shape.

– An important skill that can be developed by solving engineering cases is the ability to bring together disparate information and form an engineering solution based on it. The guys were really very involved. There were good ideas: some are already being applied in the company, others were discussed at technical councils. The participants could not have known about it, not all the information is publicly available, so they were able to come to these decisions themselves., – the chief expert explained SIBUR's areas of Technological Efficiencybut Arthur Covin.

– Everything that the teams suggested was correct. The guys expected an unambiguous assessment from us experts in vain. Yes, it is possible to correct the train of thought, but we did not have an envelope with the correct answers., – explains Natalia Shelekhova, Deputy Director for the production of Tomsk Catalyst Plant. – It's a very good experience. If there had been such a case championship in my time, I would have been happy.

The "digital" factory

A significant part of the proposed solutions concerned digitalization.

– It was proposed to introduce an APC system for improved process control. Such solutions have an economic effect, plus stable maintenance of the regime is ensured., – He says Arthur Covin.

As future engineers figuratively put it, APC is how to put the production process on autopilot, having previously set it to the desired mode. Next, the machine itself controls the process, adjusts the parameters.

There were ideas from the field of advanced analytics in relation to equipment maintenance, when working with big data helps predict the exact time of unit failure. "Ideally, if there is vibration in the compressor, then using the model and the information processed with it, I can say that after 24 hours one or another bearing will close". – one of the participants describes the essence of the "digital" idea in a simplified way.

Another solution proposed by the students is to use unmanned vehicles to inspect the insulation condition on pipelines of the petrochemical complex.

– As a graduate of the Polytechnic University, in addition to such visual digital solutions, I was pleased that the guys suggested using a mathematical model to identify bottlenecks in technological schemes., – shared it Natalia Shelekhova. – Yes, there were ideas to build additional installations, replace some nodes, but not everyone guessed to look for a reserve of existing equipment using an optimization model.

After summing up the results, I ask the winning team what attracts them to petrochemistry, but I ask you not to say the standard: "I liked chemistry back in school."

– This is an eternal industry, moreover, it is flexible in terms of raw materials. Associated petroleum gas is now coming to the fore as a feedstock. Potentially, both coal and biomass can be raw materials. Why not? And petrochemical products will always be in demand., – He says Ilya Eftor. – You often don't realize that everything we see around us is created thanks to petrochemicals: clothes, shoes, furniture, electronics, cars. If you give up all this, then the world somehow becomes grayer.

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