(26c) Technical Support Benchmarking: A 15 Year Historical Perspective

Since 1996, the Nalco Downstream Petrochemicals Research and Development Team has utilized our Technical Support Request (TSR) database to document and resolve more than 4,000 customer petrochemical process issues that could not be resolved at either the local Nalco Sales Engineer or Regional Support level.  This TSR database has withstood the test of time, and remains the primary workflow process for the delivery of “high level” support to our customers.  Furthermore, this database serves as a rich knowledge repository, as well as a reliable tool to determine market trends and appropriate R&D resource allocation.  This presentation will discuss how technical support requests have trended with general market conditions, the more recent shift to gas cracking from naphtha cracking, regional shifts in ethylene capacity, unit shifts (e.g. increasing need for support in Primary Fractionators), as well as a statistical analysis of the composition of “typical” ethylene plant deposits.