June 2006

Using a rigorous refinery-wide simulation, a refiner moved more low-value products into value-added end products

Using this technique can take the guess work out of design calculations and improve costs

Incorporating them can yield significant improvements in efficiency and productivity

A European refiner effectively uses delayed coking to exit residual fuel-oil market

Cutting corners can incur long-term performance issues and expenses; this refiner used revamp monies wisely to stretch capacity and increase equipment availability

Common-sense approach uncovers potential problems when upgrading tower internals

Understanding the stages and having a strong vision of where you need to go are essential first steps

Four key benefits can evolve from filing the paperwork

Several inspection techniques were required to determine the root cause of the failure

Weld failures can be due to manufacturing defects

Measuring advanced process control (APC) benefits is as important as it is difficult. We justify APC projects on estimations that the unit operation would improve. To the extent that these preproject ..

Our respected colleague and coauthor of a series of books on machinery reliability improvement, Fred Geitner, recently took a look at North American refineries. He wanted to see how they are typically..

A process plant goes through several distinct life cycle phases that include designing, building, commissioning, operating and maintaining the asset (Fig. 1). Each of these activities contributes to p..

We've so far had a couple of progress reports from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) about the big bang at Buncefield, UK, in December. Its investigation continues, and soon we'll have a third. We..

Efficient process removes C2 from natural gas TOYO Engineering Corp. has developed COREFLUX (Cold Reflux) – new technology to extract NG liquids (NGLs) from natural gas (NG) and/or liquefied NG (..

Advanced condition monitoring system The LEWA CMS monitors the function of components and parameters that are critical to correct operation of reciprocating diaphragm pump heads. Impact sound sensors ..

Cheniere LNG, Inc., has a contract with Invensys Process Systems to implement a terminal operations management system (TOMS) for the company's Sabine Pass LNG receiving terminal. The complex is being ..

Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is using Invensys Process Systems to implement Triconex triple modular redundant technology (TMR) for safety instrumented systems applications. The TMR technolo..

Essent and ConocoPhillips completed a feasibility study for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the Port of Eemshaven in the North Groningen municipality of Eemsmond, The Netherlands. The compan..

CB&I has a lump-sum contract to provide a gas processing and treating complex in Cabinda Province, Angola, for Cabinda Gulf Oil Co. Ltd. (CABGOC), a wholly owned Chevron subsidiary. CABGOC operates Bl..

CB&I has a lump-sum turnkey contract exceeding $150 million to engineer and construct multiple tanks to store liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and gas condensate. The project is located in Ras Laffan Ind..

Yara International ASA has opened what is claimed to be the world's largest greenfield ammonia plant in Burrup, Western Australia. The facility has a 760,000 metric tpy liquid ammonia production capac..

Stud bolts and ring gaskets Dan-Loc Bolt & Gasket offers a full range of stud bolts and ring-joint gaskets. The company's manufacturing approach includes rigid testing and quality procedures. Stud bo..

  Summer energy price outlook Rising crude oil prices have slowed world petroleum demand growth, neverth..

Worldwide, reforming accounts for 35% of benzene production; 20% is produced from toluene, of which 80% is reformate based. Nearly 87% of xylene production is extracted directly from reformate, and 10..

The state of the aromatics industry in Asia-Pacific was featured in a recent outlook by Bert de Guzman of DeWitt & Co. Assessing how long imports will prevail, he examined the region country-by-countr..

Will Europe or the US build the first commercial gasification project to produce power from solid hydrocarbons and capture and store the CO2 underground? That question was posed at the European Gasifi..

Coal in China has had two types of prices since 1993. One is the market price, which applies to coal bought and sold in the market. The other is the price for coal that is used for power generation, w..

With the introduction of ethanol alcohol to replace MTBE in gasoline comes the problem of storage tank compatibility. Gasoline blended with 10%, 15% and now 85% ethanol may not be compatible with many..

In many EU countries, there are no surviving national oil headquarters. "Decisions are made from an international perspective with a decreasing influence of local conditionals. Therefore, more regiona..

The demand for Brazilian ethanol and Chilean metals are two of the reasons that healthy growth is forecast for process and environmental equipment in Latin America. The market for pumps will grow from..

A new survey of manufacturing engineers and engineering management reveals that respondents expect to continue to enhance their control systems. This will be accomplished by adding predictive maintena..

Maintenance cost control After reading the article, "Improve your annual report through maintenance cost control," (HP, January 2006), I realized that while the three maintenance programs you describ..

New methodology decreases testing time and improves accuracy

HPI remains in strong growth cycle