Quest Reliability specializes in inspection, assessment and monitoring of critical assets for the syngas industry. Through our global service network, we provide high value fitness-for-service and plant lifetime optimization services, as well as risk-based asset management, to ammonia, ammonium nitrate and methanol production facilities worldwide.
Quest Reliability's services and products are responsive to our syngas customers’ objectives:
- Improve management of asset integrity
- Avoid waste due to unplanned shutdowns and failure of critical equipment
- Maximize the reliable service life of critical equipment
- Identify greatest failure risks, target maintenance and inspection programs
Benefits We Offer
- Consultation for all material issues in plant and equipment, from conception to end of life
- Implementation and use of risk-based inspection to reduce inspection and maintenance costs and improve plant reliability
- Information to make better maintenance and repair decisions
- Safely extend plant lifetimes and reduce costs through deferred replacement expenditure, based on plant life assessments
- Solutions to problems, not just test results
Our Expertise
Quest Reliability, complemented by the resources of its parent company, the Quest Integrity Group, has over 80 engineering consultants including a large percentage with advanced degrees. Our employees have many years of practical experience in the syngas sector combined with backgrounds in research and development. The combination of this formal training and extensive experience is what constitutes the technical excellence that our customers value and we deliver.
Core areas of expertise include:
- Reliability management
- Risk-Based Inspection and Assessment
- Corrosion
- Metallurgy
- Materials engineering
- Fitness-For-Service and structural integrity assessments
- Finite element modeling and analysis
- Creep rupture analysis
- Remaining life assessment
- Process engineering
- CFD modeling
- Root cause failure investigation
- Specialized NDT (non-destructive testing)
Our specific plant expertise includes:
- Process & pressure vessels
- Reformers
- Fired heater tubes
- Boilers and heat exchangers
- Storage cylinders and tanks
- Piping
- Gas Turbines & Steam Turbines
- Pumps & Valves
- Instrumentation
- Support Structures
Quest Reliability is involved in many research programs that support our products and services.
Facilities and Equipment
- State-of-the-art diagnostic and non-destructive testing tools
- Research and testing facilities for simulating aggressive environments over a wide range of temperatures and conditions
Advanced Inspection and Analysis Tools
The Quest Integrity Group applies a portfolio of innovative, advanced inspection and Fitness-for-service assessment tools; representative technologies include:
Select Recent Projects
- Implementation of an RBI Program and Static Plant Management System at an Ammonia Plant
Quest Reliability was contracted to implement a Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) program at an Ammonia plant with the following objectives:
- Develop inspection plans for all static pressure vessels and equipment
- Instruct plant maintenance staff on the optimum frequencies for inspection
- Optimize plant shutdown timing based on outcomes of the risk-based assessment analysis
Further information on this project is available in the full case study:
Download the Ammonia Plant RBI Program Implementation Case Study...
- Fitness-For-Service Assessment of Steam Turbines
An inspection of a steam turbine disc showed indications of defects. Quest Reliability performed a stress analysis and fracture mechanics assessment which proved that the turbines were actually fit-for-service, and to prescribe an appropriate inspection frequency specific to the asset and conditions.
- Remnant Life Assessment of High-Energy Steam Pipework
Defects were discovered in terminal welds in high energy steam pipework. Quest Reliability performed a critical engineering assessment to predict the time for the flaw to grow to the maximum tolerable size, before resulting in prospective failure. The plant returned to service without delay, informed with an appropriate inspection schedule for the steam pipework.
- Remnant Life Assessment of an HP Feed Water Heater
Quest Reliability calculated the safe number of starts required before a known flaw would reach critical size to estimate the remaining service life of a high pressure feed water heater. The client was provided with a recommended inspection schedule to safely manage the heater through its remaining life.
For further information about the consulting services and products that we offer to the syngas industry, please contact us.