1.

Problem Condition Description

Dow Chemicals is one of the leading companies in the chemical industry in the world that produces
a variety of polymer product like paint coatings and plastics. Dow Chemicals has many plant in
the world. Dow plant in Indonesia is located in Cilegon, Banten Province. The plant in Cilegon
produce acrilic resin that is used in coating and paint industry. The production process in Cilegon
process is batch process. In the batch process they produce 23 types of products through the same
reactor so that every change in their product type, they must clean the equipment. In this batch
process, the turnover process must run quickly and regularly in order to meet production needs or
targets.
To see the real condition of the plant, our delegation conducted a plant visit to the Dow Cilegon
Plant. After the plant visit, it is known that the Dow Cilegon Plant has one problem that often
occurs in that plant. The problem is sudden shutdown operation. This condition can occur for some
time and the solution to the plant problem can take days. As a result, it is very detrimental to the
company because the production process is stalled and cannot meet demand requirements in
accordance with the time specified. Shutdown problems at coating plants also make wasting some
of the raw materials that is being processed so that the raw material costs will increase. The failed
product caused by a sudden shutdown must be cleaned from the process equipment so that it adds
to the cleaning costs.

2.1 Plant Shutdown

Shutdown is a condition where half or all of the process is stopped from a factory. Every factory
will experience a shutdown. Shutdown is generally grouped into two types. They are regular
shutdown and unplanned shutdown. Regular shutdown occur when the factory intentionally stops
the process because the plant maintain the process equipment at the factory. Unplanned shutdown
occurs when there is a disruption in the process so that the factory automatically stops their process.
Unplanned shutdown or sudden shutdown are one of the main problems of the factory.
Sudden shutdown will cause losses to the factory because they will lose production during the
shutdown. Factories that have contiune processes will experience the greatest impact from these
problems because their processes are designed to continue to produce products. Feeds at the plant
with a continuous process will continue to flow from the vendor while the factory cannot process
the feed into a product so that the feed will be stored or converted into another material that can
be disposed into the environment. When a sudden shutdown occurs in a batch system plant, the
missing material is only material that is being used in that bacth so the number of losses in batch
system is less than the contiunue system.

6.1 Process Description

Raw materials for the emulsion line include monomers, additives, activators, and catalysts in liquid
or solid form. For stabilization, some monomers are pre-mixed with inhibitors. Catalysts are used
for activating the monomers and initiating the desired reactions. Activators activate the catalysts,
initiates the reaction, besides overcoming the effects of the inhibitors. Additives used in the
mixture include detergents, dispersants, and pH-adjustment ingredients. Thereafter, the monomers
are pumped from tanker trucks to monomer tanks for storage. From the storage tanks, monomers
are pumped to holding/premixing tanks, additive, activator, and catalyst holding tanks where
mixing occurs. The additives, activators, and catalysts can be directly added to the reactors without
being mixed with monomers in their respective holding tanks. Then, the raw materials are mixed
together in one of three temperature and pressure-regulated reactors where polymers are formed.
The desired chemical reactions are initiated by addition of catalysts and are regulated with
additives or by pressure and temperature adjustment. The resulting acrylic emulsion polymers are
pumped to blend tanks. Formalin is added in the blend as a preservative to control bacteria and
mold growth and ammonia is added to for pH adjustment. Sodium hydroxide is another pH-
adjustment chemical, added in the blend tanks. Ingredients such as emulsions, emulsifiers,
surfactants, binders and thickeners are added to modify monomer viscosity, to stabilize the
polymers and to hold the polymers in suspension. Finally, deionized water is added to lower the
solids content. After each polymer batch is processed, the blend tanks are flushed with deionized
water which is further pumped to the plant's wastewater treatment system.

6.2 Process Failure

Process failure refers to anythinng that create a process or quality abnormally that necessities
shutting a plant down. Process failure caused by many factors in industry. Some of causees are
omitting processing, processing error, missing part, wrong parts, mis-operation, adjustment error,
equipment not set up properly, poor control procedures, improper equipment, fatigue, lack of
safety, and enviroment. The Dow Cilegon plant often experiences process failures due to damage
of process control instruments. The damage caused the plant experience a sudden shutdown that
needed time to repair it. A sudden shutdown will cause the plant loss due to loss of production
time and raw materials in that batch.
The process control instrument consists of three main components, they are measuring instrument
to see the process parameters to be controlled, computer (DCS) that is used for determining
decisions from the measurement results, and final control element that is used to execute the
commands from computer. From the three main components, final control element is the
component that is often damaged. The final control element in the industry in general is a control
valve to regulate the fluid flow rate in the process at the plant.
Final element control must be maintained periodically to avoid instrument damage. Performance
conditions of the final control element need to be monitored at all times so that it can be known
when the right time to carry out maintenance so that no damage can occur and make the plant to
experience a process failure. The condition of final control element can be monitored at any time
through the application of the manufacturing concept 4.0. In this concept, the condition of the final
control element can be monitored at any time through a software that is connected to the computer
and the internet so that the condition of the device data can be accessed at any time.