Interview with Nicole Kryda, General Manager (Singapore), Refined Technologies

To start off, tell us a little more about Refined Technologies. What do you do?

For the last 20 years, our core business has been helping refinery and petrochemical operations teams save time and optimize the decon phase of their shutdown window. Our patented and proprietary chemistries and methodology create safe and predictable results in record time.

To help our customers achieve 100% closed-loop decontamination, we expanded our offerings to include mechanical rental solutions that can be paired with our strategic cleaning operations.

What does RTI specialize in?

We specialize in delivering excellent service to our customers while lowering their total costs. Most of the time the margin environment requires us to complete our work in record time. As a prime example on FCCs, Cokers, and Hydrocrackers our experienced operations teams can help our customers go from oil out to blinding in 48 hours.

In another instance, a customer may want to make a unit safe for demolition so there is more time available and oil-free is the highest priority. One of our customers wanted to perform a 100% closed-loop decon for the first time and needed help with the temporary equipment required.

RTI offers custom equipment fabrication and mechanical solutions that include our team designing and providing a full system even if chemical cleaning is not required. The last example I will share is when one of our clients was executing their first ethylene cracker turnaround and needed help to assure it was done safely. RTI worked side by side with the facility’s operations team to develop a new mechanical rental offering to manage solids removal during chemical cleaning.

I saw on the RTI website that you have 18 chemistry patents – and more pending! Tell us a little more about that.

Our R&D team is awesome and always innovating to meet our clients’ needs!  I can’t share information about the newest application we have in the works, but it’s super exciting and an industry game-changer!  The patent is still pending but we hope to have the service available commercially within the next year.

We enjoy problem-solving and look for opportunities to improve within RTI and the industries we serve. That coupled with our skilled R&D folks has enabled us to stay ahead of the game in new product development and change industry standards.

In a nutshell – why pick RTI?

Customers choose us because our expertise and superior chemistries deliver improved performance and profitability. Our seasoned operations and mechanical specialists are former operators and plant supervisors. Leveraging their knowledge of refinery and petrochemical processes inside and out when planning a project, RTI partners with the facility’s operations team to integrate the required cleaning steps into the plant shutdown procedures.

While a typical operator may see a turnaround decon every 3 to 6 years, our team members experience multiple per year which adds to their expertise and provides tailored solutions that are unmatched.

After receiving requests for more general turnaround and operations guidance from many of our customers, last year we launched the consulting arm of our business called CruzAlta. Our CruzAlta team partners with clients to enhance their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) capabilities and performance.

Any case studies or interesting stories you’d like to share with us?

Of course, and if I shared them all this article would be way too long!  I do have a really cool story about adjusting to the energy transition, which is either a challenge or opportunity (depending on how you look at it) that we are all facing in the industry.

Since we clean 100+ Hydroprocessing reactors a year, we have a patented process and application we utilize for cleaning Hydroprocessing reactors. A few of RTI’s operations personnel figured out how to effectively apply this existing technology to renewable diesel units and have it ready for use when our customers needed it.

So, now as facilities convert their process units to renewable diesel units, we can support them without missing a beat.  We like to address industry challenges and help clients navigate these complexities.

We saw you just last week at this year’s Asian Refining Technology Conference! Can you give us a quick recap of RTI’s session, for those who missed out on the fun?

James Esteban is one of our technical experts and has assisted in developing some of our unique chemistries. His session focused on best practices and proven technology to successfully prepare reactor systems for maintenance. James introduced one of RTI’s applications that is changing industry standards. One highlight of this application is operators can safely remove the head of a reactor without fresh air.

We really appreciated the opportunity to be a part of the conference and the shared learnings on addressing industry challenges!