February 2015

H2 is the lifeblood of 21st century refineries. The application of various technological advancements and core developments has been raising the bar in the design, build, operations and maintenance of H2 facilities.

Tamoil is a major operator in the oil and energy industry with operating refineries in Hamburg, Germany, and Collombey, Switzerland, in addition to distribution networks in Italy, Germany, Switzerland..

The recent shift to lighter crudes has starved many US heavy oil units of feed. Maximizing asset use makes importing heavy oil for vacuum distillation and delayed coking attractive.

The feed to fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) is the most important process variable. FCCU feed has the greatest impact on operating conditions, yield and product quality. A typical FCCU feed consi..

No singular event has had as significant an impact on the quality of refinery feedstocks as the shale revolution. Not only are shale crudes, such as Eagle Ford and Bakken, generally lighter than other..

What you think you know, what you do not know, and what you should know about precious metal recovery of spent catalysts can impact your refinery’s profitability. Most hydrocarbon, petrochemical ..

Capital and maintenance projects require the management of thousands of documents, which can be more easily accomplished with cloud-based solutions.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and near infrared (NIR) process analyzers are highly effective in quantifying physical properties in hydrocarbons, especially where the feedstock, intermediate and final product streams are all interlinked.

Energy Construction ForumMarch 3–4, 2015Moody Gardens Convention Center, Galveston, TexasECF represents US Gulf Coast’s leading forum and expo for energy constructionUS new project market sh..

“Don’t panic” is probably the best advice for the downstream industry regarding oil prices. The upstream fully recognizes the present and short-term conditions for its business.

In the 1970s, an oil refinery discovered that 7% of its 3,200 process pumps experienced a disproportionate share of the facility’s yearly pump outage events. Slightly over 60% of the money spent ..

In our latest Boxscore Construction Analysis, we examine proposals by Kitimat Clean and Pacific Future Energy to process bitumen first and then ship those fuels to market.

Between 2010 and 2014, the largest volume of new gas import capacity was seen in Asia, which brought online 67 MMtpy of capacity. Asia is expected to continue leading the world in new gas import capac..

What is the oil price outlook for the next 12 months? As of early January, the price of Brent has effectively halved compared to the 2014 summer peak, similar to the price collapse of 2008. However, u..

Improving the efficiency of ethylene furnaces has been a long-time goal for olefin manufacturers. The steam cracking or pyrolysis of hydrocarbons to yield ethylene also coproduces unwanted coke that a..

The present “shale revolution” has generated opportunities in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) industry that even a few years ago would have seemed fanciful. Billions of d..

A remarkable convergence is taking place in North America, as rising natural gas production meets the growing market for both stationary fuel cells providing power to businesses and the utility grid, ..

The world’s population is expected to exceed 9 B people by 2040, and the corresponding energy demand for many of these newly affluent consumers will rise similarly. For the industrial sector, mor..

Renewable fuels remain a huge burden for the global refining industry. Today’s transportation fuels, when used with later-model vehicles, have dramatically reduced tailpipe emissions. With much p..

Qatar Petroleum and Shell cancel $6.5-B petrochemical project in Qatar Royal Dutch Shell and Qatar Petroleum (QP) have canceled the $6.5-B Al-Karaana petrochemical project in Qatar, which will signifi..

Mid-January saw the continued decline of monthly average Brent crude oil prices, which fell $17/bbl from November to a monthly average of $62/bbl. The continual price decrease reflects US tight oil pr..

AVEVA NET software is cloud readyAVEVA has implemented a number of improvements to AVEVA NET, its information management software (Fig. 1). Customer feedback has shown that these improvements enhance ..

ABB’s board of directors unanimously nominated Peter Voser to succeed Hubertus von Grünberg as chairman.

Protection methods for overall safety A new guide from METTLER TOLEDO offers expertise for chemical and other manufacturers who work in potentially explosive environments. The Hazardous-Area Safety Co..

Oseco has expanded its team of pressure management consultants (PMCs) to provide greater presence and availability in the field. The PMCs render onsite analysis and guidance to improve antiquated pressure-relief systems.

The hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) is a high-energy-consuming business. After cost for feedstocks, energy is the next largest operating expense for an HPI facility. Since the first oil embargo ..