Columns
HP Control: Recent trends in control
As you know, Zak Friedman has taken over writing this column. Zak had a column prepared for this issue, but the company he interviewed declined permission to publish it (Zak wouldn't let them make it ..
HP Reliability: Unreliability, engineers and lawyers
I have often engaged in litigation support. To me, litigation support is a term meaning one might occasionally choose to work for law firms that pay engineers to relate how and why machines function a..
HP Integration Strategies: Can metrics reveal automation as a 'profit maker'?
For the past decade or more, manufacturing has been fixated on three things: reduced costs, reduced headcounts and eliminating poor-performing businesses. No wonder that automation metrics, if availab..
HPIn Europe: Little-reported statement that changes everything
As far as I can see, the G8 Communiqué on Climate Change, Energy and Sustainable Development (the summit was held July 6 8 in Perthshire, Scotland) changes just about everything we do. You..
Trends and Resources
HP Impact: HPImpact: LDPE markets expand despite replacement technology challenges
Technology developments continue to redefine state-of-the-art products and processes in the polyolefins industry. Second-generation LLDPE resins represent the greatest challenge for the LDPE industry ..
HP Impact: HPImpact: Analyst questions 'unrealistic' oil and gas demand forecasts
Suggestions that oil consumption will grow up to 120 million bbl per day by 2020 and that automobile and airline traffic will increase at extraordinary rates are futile and damaging to policy makers. ..
HP Impact: HPImpact: Clean air for Europe 'back on track,' says Commission
Key environmental strategies with far-reaching implications for the process industries will be unveiled this month after all, according to the European Commission. This means that a clean air and ma..
HP Impact: HPImpact: Public/ private plant security partnership endorsed by NPRA
The National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) recently told a US Senate Committee examining the role of the federal government in chemical facility security that it does not oppose reasonab..
HP Impact: HPImpact: Specialty plastic additives demand to increase 2.6%/yr
In value terms, consumption of specialty plastic additives will grow 4.6%/yr to $6.8 billion. Gains will result from increasing plastics demand, especially polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and an improved ou..
HP Innovations: HPInnovations
Satellite images streamline large-scale plant projects In 2002, Marathon Oil Company purchased an interest in the Alba field, offshore Equatorial Guinea. The field is estimated to be Equatorial Guin..
New Developments
Electric failsafe valve actuators Quarter-turn and linear Skilmatic SI electric valve actuators reportedly provide both modulating and two-position control for failsafe o..
HP Construction: North America
CB&I has a lump-sum turnkey EPC contract with Valero Energy Corp. to engineer and construct a new amine regeneration unit (ARU), a sulfur recovery unit (SRU) and a new tail gas treating unit (TGTU) ..
HP Construction: South America
Repsol YPF (RYPF) is selecting UOP LLC technology for a new CCR Platforming unit to be installed at the RYPF Complejo Industrial Ensenada (CIE) in Ensenada, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Included in the ..
HP Construction: Europe
Bayer Antwerp N.V. and Shell International Research Maatschappij BV have a licensing agreement. This enables Shell to implement Double Metal Cyanide (DMC) technology to produce polyether polyols using..
HP Construction: Middle East
Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. (FWEL), a Foster Wheeler Ltd. subsidiary, has a front-end engineering and project management services contract with Saudi Aramco for the Khurais full-field development in Sa..
HP Construction: Asia-Pacific
Clough Ltd. and its joint venture partners, collectively known as Kellogg Joint Venture Gorgon, [Kellogg Brown and Root (30%), Clough (20%), JGC (30%) and Hatch (20%)] have signed a front-end e..
Free Literature
ANSI chemical process pumps Dean Pump's pH series, the benchmark used in developing the ANSI/ ASME B73.1 process pump standard in 1958, reportedly continues to meet and e..
HP In Brief: HPIn Brief
At last: US has energy bill US lawmakers have finally a..
HP Impact: HPImpact: High differentials in prices benefit refining margins
It seems like an oxymoron to argue that high crude prices improve refinery economics. But, this time, it holds true in the framework of a new plateau rather than a cycle. A recent analysis by Fereidun..
HP Impact: HPImpact: Global spending on LNG infrastructure to exceed $73 billion by 2010
Contractual relationships and structures of some modern LNG (liquefied natural gas) supply chains is growing increasingly complex. International oil and gas companies, national oil companies and utili..