Catalyst replacement strategy for a hydrocracking unit at a Middle East refinery

Vinod Ramaseshan is a hydroprocessing engineering specialist for Saudi Aramco and has over 22 years of experience in the petroleum refining industry. He began his career with Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. and worked for UOP Ltd. before joining Saudi Aramco. Mr. Ramaseshan has been involved with commissioning, operating, troubleshooting and optimizing new and revamped hydrocracking and hydrotreating units in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and India regions. He holds an MS degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, and is a charted engineer in the UK.

Abdulmalik A. Al-Turki is the plant operations engineering supervisor at the Saudi Aramco Riyadh refinery and has 12 years of industry experience. Mr. Al-Turki has worked in various capacities within Saudi Aramco, including in engineering, operations, planning and accountability supervisor roles. He earned a BS degree in chemical engineering and an MBA degree from King Fahad University.

Adnan A. Al-Hajji is a senior research science consultant at the Saudi Aramco Research and Development Center, where he leads the advanced hydrocarbon characterization group. Mr. Al-Hajji received his BS and MS degrees in chemistry from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He has been with Saudi Aramco since 1976 and has authored numerous publications.

Frederick Adam is a scientist at the Saudi Aramco R&DC, where he is in charge of advanced molecular characterization of petroleum products by means of chromatography. Prior to joining Saudi Aramco in 2008, Dr. Adam obtained his PhD from the French Institute for Petroleum, where he focused on molecular characterization of petroleum products using multidimensional chromatographic techniques.

Abdulaziz S. Al-Ghamdi is a hydroprocessing process engineer for Saudi Aramco. He has over 12 years of experience in the petroleum refining industry and has worked in operations, engineering and projects within Saudi Armco and Aramco JV refineries. Mr. Al-Ghamdi earned a BS degree in chemical engineering from KFUPM in Saudi Arabia, and he holds an MSc degree in chemical engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada.