How I contribute to efficient catalyst production through future planning
Mary discusses how her work helped expand alumina powder production, the challenge of making catalysts more efficient and how future planning is essential to the energy transition's success.
Mary McDowell is a process engineer at the Port Allen Catalyst Facility in Port Allen, Louisiana. Her work primarily focuses on creating and implementing efficient, reliable solutions that strengthen and support catalyst production. It's all driven by her passion for working in a forward-thinking environment.
In this interview on "How I Make Every Molecule Matter", Mary discusses how her work helped expand alumina powder production, the challenge of making catalysts more efficient and how future planning is essential to the energy transition's success.
1. Please tell us about your current work and how it supports efforts.
With new catalyst development providing the leading edge of technology, Shell Catalysts & Technologies delivers the next generation of customer support on their energy transition journeys. In my role, I support those customers by helping make the products they use in the safest and most effective way possible. The process starts with equipment efficiency, reliability and cost-effectiveness.
My team's work focuses on utility infrastructure, specifically improvements and reliability. Examples include making huge improvements around the plant's cooling tower. Cooling water efficiency is essential to almost any manufacturing plant or refinery. We've reduced about 10 million gallons of water usage annually. For the size of our site, that's a significant change.
Our work also impacts our operating philosophy, reliability plans and operation鈥攐ne of the most significant improvements involved installing isolation valves as part of our raw material feed systems. Raw material feedstocks are designed to flow independently from the top down in the system. However, when plugging occurs downstream, manual intervention is required. Isolation valves were added to contain the raw materials in the silos in a way that allows the discharge lines to be opened and unplugged without losing an excessive amount of material. This reduces the amount of waste created while also mitigating exposure risks to personnel.
2. How important is future planning in the energy industry?
If you don't have a plan, you won't make it very far. And you need momentum around that plan to have a lasting effect. We provide next-level catalysts, and we must think ahead about what new developments will improve the products, which will help our customers be more successful in their energy transition journeys.
Focusing more on the energy industry, I describe future planning's importance in one word: essential. You don't have an energy industry once the finite resources we're predominantly relying on are gone. As a result, it's vital to have the ability for redirection, and future planning provides that ability.
When we hit the end of current resource availability, we need to be able to take on seen and unforeseen challenges. Right now, we're testing theories; we're inventing things. The innovation process is full of trial and error. It is not going to happen overnight.
Some of our ideas will not be successful. Ultimately, knowing we will have those setbacks and failures is part of the process. Keeping your eye on the prize and knowing what the end goal looks like helps me and helps all of us work through the challenges because we know we're working toward cleaner energy future
3. Can you tell me about the powder unit expansion project in 2020?
Our facility is a fully integrated site meaning we鈥檙e both producing and consuming our major raw material, alumina powder, for catalyst production. The Port Allen catalyst manufacturing facility is the only fully integrated site within Shell Catalysts & Technologies. This expansion project allowed us to meet our consumption needs as well as produce additional alumina powder for transport and use at other Shell Catalysts & Technologies facilities.
The project included rebuilding our rail transport capability and installing new, more energy efficient equipment. Heat is essential to our process. A heat recovery unit, installed on the project, reduces our steam consumption, allowing us to produce the same quality products with less impact to the environment. We continue working to embody our mission to be carbon neutral by 2050.
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4. What attracted you to your current role?
Shell Catalysts & Technologies is open about where they were in the energy transition and were equally vocal in how they embrace it as an industry leader. That spoke to me. Being vocal about the energy transition is fundamental to our daily work. We need to be part of the next energy generation, which is key to me.
Also, I saw an opportunity to learn. I love a good challenge. I saw working at Shell Catalysts & Technologies as a chance to be hands-on with technology I hadn鈥檛 worked with before. Some days, I work as a production planner. On other days, I get to operate plant equipment. It's variety of work that appealed to me. It speaks to my personality and working style.
5. Can you describe what it鈥檚 like working with your team and what your daily work entails? How do you feel your role positively impacts your team, the planet, the community and our world?
Teamwork is an asset for efficiency at Port Allen. As a team, we work hard to get things done. Individually, we have our responsibilities, but those are part of a more significant effort to find solutions to the challenges we face here and around the world regarding catalyst production and ensuring the energy transition's success.
Team confidence is crucial to that success. We have a great team dynamic that allows us to share the load because of the trust we have in each other. I can ask for help and be confident that someone will assist. Each person has different strengths and talents, and we take full advantage of that to make Port Allen successful every day.
On a day-to-day basis, I work closely with our other site process engineer and our two Production Specialists. We tag-team challenges and support each other across different departments to support the larger team. Sometimes, real and complex challenges arise. How we address those challenges and work through them makes our team stronger and inspires our next improvement. It's a massive piece of the success puzzle at Port Allen.