Breakthrough case of water quality monitoring in Indonesian petroleum processing industry: MPG-6099 system helps Spare project to achieve both environmental protection and efficiency improvement

I. Customer Background and Requirements: Compliance pressure and urgent need for equipment upgrading of refining giants

As Southeast Asia's largest oil processor with an annual refining capacity of 120 million tons, Indonesia's petroleum processing industry (including crude distillation, catalytic cracking, and aromatics production) generates oily wastewater characterized by high toxicity, high salinity, and complex composition. The client in this case is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pertamina, Indonesia's national oil company, operating three large refineries that process 24 million tons of crude oil annually, supplying 60% of the domestic refined oil market. Its existing wastewater monitoring system, Hach POLYMETRON 9500 series, faces severe challenges following the implementation of Indonesia's Environmental Protection Ministry's "Pollutant Emission Standards for Petroleum Refining Industry" in 2024:

• Inadequate monitoring parameters: The Hach system only supports pH and COD monitoring, while TSS, flow and ammonia nitrogen require manual sampling and analysis (once a day), resulting in a fine of $1.2 million in 2023 due to excessive ammonia nitrogen (measured 22mg/L vs standard 15mg/L), and was required to complete the online monitoring of all parameters within 3 months;
• Lack of pollution resistance and explosion-proof performance: The heavy oil components and sulfides in the refinery wastewater lead to frequent coking of Hach sensor probes, requiring shutdown, disassembly and cleaning every 7 days on average, resulting in an annual loss of about 150,000 tons of production capacity; Moreover, Hach equipment does not have explosion-proof certification, so it cannot be deployed in explosion-proof areas such as catalytic cracking units;
• The comprehensive cost is high: the price of a single set of Hach explosion-proof ammonia nitrogen sensor is $38,000, and the additional investment of $2.204 million for 58 sets of full parameter upgrade is required, and the replacement cycle of spare parts is up to 12 weeks, which seriously affects the continuous monitoring.

In order to meet the requirements of the new standard (COD≤80mg/L, ammonia nitrogen≤15mg/L, TSS≤30mg/L) and ensure safe production, the customer started the "Sparing Project Phase III", which plans to deploy 58 sets of multi-parameter monitoring systems in 18 wastewater treatment units (including 6 explosion-proof areas) in 3 refineries. The core requirements include:

• Simultaneous monitoring of pH, COD, TSS, flow (open channel + pipeline), ammonia nitrogen five parameters;
• The sensor can withstand high salt (Cl⁻ concentration ≤10000mg/L), high temperature (60-80℃) and sulfur-containing environment, and can run continuously for more than 90 days;
• The equipment complies with ATEX Zone 1 explosion-proof standard and supports real-time data upload of "e-Proyek" platform of Indonesian Ministry of Environmental Protection;
• The comprehensive cost is more than 40% lower than Hach.

II. Product features and advantages: Customized technical solution of petroleum wastewater for MPG-6099 system

In view of the special working conditions of high salt, high oil and high sulfide in refinery wastewater and explosion-proof areas, MPG-6099 system has achieved technological breakthrough through "material innovation + non-contact monitoring + intelligent algorithm":

1. Full parameter accurate monitoring to solve the problem of refining wastewater monitoring

• Ammonia nitrogen anti-interference monitoring: BH-485-NH sensor adopts gas-sensitive electrode method (GSE), and has built-in sulfur dioxide masking agent automatic adding module, which can eliminate the negative interference of H₂S in oil refining wastewater to ammonia nitrogen detection (error ≤±0.8mg/L);
• Non-contact flow monitoring: BQ-ULF-100W clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter adopts dual probe penetration technology, which can realize flow monitoring of DN50-DN3000 pipeline without pipe opening, and avoid the clogging problem of traditional insert flowmeter in heavy oil wastewater, with measurement accuracy up to ±1.0%;
• TSS anti-coking design: ZDYG-2087-01QX sensor is equipped with high frequency pulse cleaning (100kHz) + inert gas blowing function, which can remove heavy oil adhesion, and the continuous operation cycle can reach 120 days (only 28 days for Hach similar products).

2. Comprehensive upgrade of explosion-proof and corrosion resistance performance

The system host adopts explosion-proof housing (Ex d IIC T6 Gb certification), and the sensor cable is made of fluororubber material (temperature resistance: -60~200℃), which can be directly deployed in hazardous environments such as catalytic cracking units. The pH sensor uses tantalum electrode rod + polytetrafluoroethylene membrane head, which has 8 times better corrosion resistance against Cl⁻ than Hach glass electrode.

3. Intelligent operation and maintenance and data security

• Remote operation and maintenance in explosion-proof area: Support bluetooth explosion-proof handheld terminal debugging, avoid personnel to enter the dangerous area, and improve operation and maintenance efficiency by 60%;
• Multi-level data encryption: Data transmission using AES-256 algorithm, in line with the requirements of Indonesia Industrial Data Security Law;
• Process linkage control: COD and ammonia nitrogen data are linked to adjust the inlet flow of SBR reactor, so that the treatment efficiency is increased by 18% and the dosage of reagents is reduced by 25%.

4. 45% comprehensive cost advantage

The total procurement cost of 58 systems is $1.56 million less than Hach; the annual operation and maintenance cost is reduced to $890,000 (Hach's plan is $2.25 million/year), among which the maintenance cost of explosion-proof area is reduced by 72%, and the spare parts inventory turnover rate is increased to 7 days.

III. Effect and benefit: From compliance to production efficiency

After 12 months of operation, the system can create multi-dimensional value:

1. Dual guarantee of environmental compliance and production safety

• Key indicators are stable and up to standard: ammonia nitrogen (9.6mg/L avg), COD (68mg/L avg), TSS (22mg/L avg), exceeding the limit of the new standard by 30%, zero environmental protection fines in 2024;
• Zero accident monitoring in the explosion-proof area: Passed the "Safety certification of explosion-proof equipment" by the Ministry of Energy of Indonesia, achieved 365 days of fault-free operation, and was awarded as the "2024 Annual Safety demonstration project of Indonesia's refining and chemical industry".

2. Operation efficiency and cost optimization

• Loss of downtime elimination: The maintenance cycle of the sensor is extended from 7 days to 120 days, reducing the annual downtime by 52 days and recovering the loss of refining capacity of 180,000 tons (valued at about $108 million);
• Reduction of labor cost: The daily manual sampling was cancelled, saving the annual labor cost of testing in 3 factories by $120,000;
• Energy consumption and agent saving: Based on flow data, the reflux ratio of wastewater treatment system is optimized, saving 15% electricity in a single plant and saving $1.46 million in annual electricity cost; PAC agent consumption is reduced by 25% and saving $980,000 in annual cost.

3. Deep empowerment of process optimization

Through the correlation analysis between COD and ammonia nitrogen, it is found that the acidic water in the atmospheric and reduced pressure device is the main source of pollutants. After optimizing the desulfurization process, the ammonia nitrogen emission in this link is reduced by 40%, while the consumption of NaOH is reduced by 18%, and the annual profit is increased by more than 6.2 million US dollars.

IV. After-sales service and support: exclusive service system for petrochemical industry

The supplier will build a "explosion-proof safety + rapid response" service guarantee network for the project:

• Explosion-proof certification service team: 2 explosion-proof technology centers in Jakarta and Batam island, equipped with 15 certified explosion-proof engineers (ATEX/IECEX certification), providing on-site response within 2 hours;
• Customized training plan: Carry out special training such as "in explosion-proof zone instrument maintenance" and "analysis of pollutant characteristics of oil refining wastewater", and the independent operation and maintenance ability of customers' technical team reaches 100%;
• Joint reserve of spare parts: build an explosion-proof spare parts warehouse with customers to store key components such as BH-485-NH sensor and ultrasonic probe, and the inventory turnover rate is less than 5 days.

V. Customer evaluation and recommendation: from equipment supplier to strategic partner

"The MPG-6099 system has completely resolved the critical bottleneck in our explosion-proof zone monitoring —— The clamp-on flowmeter installation required no production downtime, while the ammonia nitrogen sensor maintained continuous operation for 120 days without a single failure—a feat unattainable with Hach equipment," commented Agus Setiawan, Technical Director of the client. "With integrated costs at merely 55% of Hach's, it delivers a 300% reliability boost."

The project has been listed by the Indonesian Petroleum Association as "the 2024 environmental benchmark case for the refining industry", and customers have recommended the purchase of 42 MPG-6099 systems to their affiliated companies, with plans to deploy another 65 units in new refinery projects in 2025.

Conclusion: Through the integration of explosion-proof design, non-contact monitoring and intelligent operation and maintenance technology, MPG-6099 system not only helps customers to achieve dual compliance of environmental protection and safety, but also builds a "monitoring-optimization-value-added" value closed-loop in the refining industry, providing a replicable technical paradigm for the precise monitoring of petroleum processing wastewater.