To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, we caught up with Betsy-Ann Ward. Betsy-Ann is the crude distillation technologist at EET Fuels. She joined the business seven years ago after graduating with a Masters of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University.
Following an internship, Betsy-Ann began her full-time employment as a graduate technologist for the first three years, starting out on the oil movements team and then the utilities production units. Three and a half years later, she joined the oil distillation and processing team as a chemical engineer or, as it’s known on site, a technologist, and she progressed into her current crude distillation technologist role.
How would you describe your day-to-day role?
My main responsibility is to ensure that the crude distillation unit performs safely and efficiently. There are challenges and problem solving as part of this, which I really enjoy. It’s a team effort. For example, if a pump is broken on the unit, I work with colleagues from other disciplines including the mechanical and electrical team and the instrumentation engineers to develop a solution. This could include specifying a temporary replacement or procuring a new pump.
I work with operators to maximise the feed rate. Unit optimisation often involves collaboration with the economics, planning and scheduling department (EPS). In essence, we focus on getting the most value out of the unit, which often requires day to day communication with the wider team to constantly find innovative ways of doing this.
How has your role been redefined to support EET Fuels in reaching its target to reduce its carbon emissions by 95% by 2030?
Although my role predominately supports the “performing for today” side of things, I have had some exposure to our energy transition projects. For example, the crude distillation unit will benefit from a new higher efficiency furnace that will reduce carbon emissions. This is due to come online next year. I have supported the project team at various stages of the development, providing my unit knowledge. I also supported the refractory dry out process for the new furnace at the end of 2023.
Additionally, I’ve done some work for our HPP2 (hydrogen production plant two) which is part of Hynet. Some off-gas streams will be taken from my process unit for HPP2 so I have been involved by providing the process unit knowledge to support the development of the project.
What does success look like in your role for 2024?
Maximising crude distillation unit rates, keeping the unit operating efficiently and reliably, processing as much crude oil as possible to maximise profits, optimising product qualities. Safety is a massive part of my role – and everyone’s roles here at EET Fuels. We keep safety at the forefront of everything we do. Everything is properly assessed from an engineering point of view, so keeping everything and everyone safe is a huge success.
We have very strict environmental targets and I monitor the crude distiller every day to make sure we comply. Crude distillation is very energy intensive, so we need to get the most out of energy we’re putting in, focussing on crude pre-heat and minimising excess oxygen.
As a team, how would you say you are contributing to the UK's energy transition?
I have worked with the project team for the new furnace, it hasn’t been commissioned yet, but in preparation, I did some work with the team to help with the furnace dry-out with operational support and monitoring. The idea would be that this time next year when the new furnace is commissioned, it will be my responsibility to look after that furnace from a process technologist perspective.
The wider technology team has also been supporting the various energy transition projects, by providing their process unit expertise to ensure successful project development.
In your role, what do you think will be the key areas of focus or challenges in the next three years, and how do you plan to address them?
I’m not sure about the next three years just yet, but for the next 18 months we’re working towards the February 2025 turnaround, and then bringing the unit online with the new furnace afterwards.
The turnaround is a big maintenance event, giving us the opportunity to clean and maintain process equipment so that it operates safely, effectively and reliably until the next turnaround. There is a lot of preparation required between now and then, so it will be a huge team effort to get there.
During the turnaround itself, there will be lots of maintenance, inspections and collaboration from everyone, so that everything is managed efficiently and safely – it will be a very intense time with busy shifts.
Afterwards, there will be the challenge to continue to optimise the crude distillation unit pushing its new constraints after we fire up the new furnace.
