March 2013

In addition to inhibitor dosing, intensive corrosion monitoring and analytical tests play a major role in equipment and piping health monitoring and in analyzing stream properties online.

Graphitization occurs in carbon steel (CS) reactors in high-temperature service (> 455°C). As discussed in this case history, the shell of a methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) reactor became s..

Corrosion under insulation (CUI) is one of the costliest avoidable problems facing the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) today. CUI afflicts refineries—specifically, the steel piping, storage..

Operating companies are increasing efforts to reduce the risk of catastrophic events such as the release of toxic, reactive or explosive chemicals that can damage the environment or plant assets.

Operator response to alarms is important layers of protection (LOP). When implemented with good design, engineering and maintenance practices, an alarm can help reduce the safety integrity level (SIL)..

The Buncefield incident in the UK and the Jaipur fire in India stand out as major offsite storage terminal disasters in the European and Asian regions. In the Americas, a similar explosion rocked the ..

Refiners in Asia and the Middle East are setting the pace, with numerous new FCC units planned or already onstream to take advantage of this opportunity. Each of these new units includes the most modern technology to achieve record high propylene and conversion.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the Mobile Source Toxics (MSAT) Rule on February 26, 2007 (40 CFR Parts 59, 80, 85 and 86). This rule required refiners to reduce the average benzen..

In November 2012, a highly competent lubrication engineer and I met again at the ExxonMobil Maintenance and Productivity Improvement Symposium in San Antonio, Texas. We talked about the small, but pes..

Wireless sensing is the most important new technology to emerge in decades for process measurement and equipment monitoring applications. For this reason alone, it has attracted the sustained attentio..

To comply with mandatory sulfur specifications for gasoline and diesel from 2013 to 2016, Saudi Arabia is spending billions of dollars to construct multiple clean-fuel projects.

We’ve all heard the news reports: “Shale resource developments have the potential to make the US energy independent for the first time since 1952.” The long-term impact of shale resourc..

In “Case 71: Statistical visual data can be useful in troubleshooting—Part 1,” the editorial focused on how taking data and analyzing it could determine the cause for high reject rates...

Galveston Bay refineryMarathon Petroleum has closed its transaction with BP to purchase several assets, including the 451,000-bpd refinery located in Texas City, Texas. The refinery will be renamed an..

In late January 2013, the European Commission (EC) announced ambitious measures to ensure the buildup and standardization of alternative fueling stations across Europe. Much of the earlier EC policy i..

The California Division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) issued 25 citations against Chevron USA, with proposed penalties totaling nearly $1 million, for state safety st..

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) recently released a report in which it stated that the US chemical manufacturing sector is one of the most important beneficiaries of the surplus of inexpensive na..

In late January, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit vacated the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 2012 cellulosic biofuel mandate, concluding that its forecast was in ..

Coating system gets European patentHempel’s Ultra-High Solids and Speed (UHSS), a two-coat protective paint system certified for C5-M and C4 corrosive environments, has been granted a patent from..

Company demos energy savings in latest instructive video  Motion Industries has released its first video for 2013 to its MiHow2 channel, the product/application solutions series. The video, How t..

Explosion-proof approvals received for Sitrans magnetic flowmetersSiemens’ ½-in. to 12-in. line of Sitrans magnetic flowmeters has added approvals for FM Class 1 Division 1, Groups A, B, C a..

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To realize full activity from polymerization catalysts, feed streams need to be as clean as possible from all contaminants and catalyst poisons. A very low level of even a single catalyst poison can reduce catalyst activity drastically.

New step-out catalyst for ULSD and hydrocracker pretreatHaldor Topsøe has announced an improved catalyst preparation technology. In hydrocracking pretreatment and high-pressure ULSD services, the..