February 2023

Digitalization has impacted the world of refining for the past several decades.

Uncertainty in global hydrocarbon markets has led to the tightening of belts on capital expenditures while new capacity comes online, driving prices lower and pinching profit margins.

Hydrocarbon facilities are operating differently and managing more pressures than they did just 5 yr–10 yr ago.

As asset integrity and reliability managers, risk-based inspection (RBI) and corrosion analysts, and inspectors and contract inspection firms across asset-intensive industries look to optimize their mechanical integrity programs, there is a paradigm shift to implement a comprehensive, scalable and sustainable fixed-equipment reliability program to meet increasing reliability demands.

Modern petrochemical processing facilities are blessed with overwhelming quantities of data, given the digital transformation taking place throughout the manufacturing industries.

Hydrocracker units are the most valuable conversion facilities in refineries. The outcome is the conversion of a variety of feedstocks to a range of products—the units that produce those products can be found at various points throughout a refinery.

In the hydrocarbon processing industry, where direct heating is not possible, a heat transfer medium is used. Steam has traditionally been the preferred heating medium.

A mercury absorber vessel is designed to remove mercury from a light naphtha stream.

Incorporating digital technologies into refining and petrochemical operations is not new to the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI).

One of the biggest challenges to the crude oil refining industry over the past decades is the development of technologies capable of reducing the environmental impact of crude oil derivatives, while also raising their performance.

Endress+Hauser’s newly developed iTEMP TMT31 temperature transmitter (FIG. 1) for analog 4-20mA signals is characterized by its long-term stability, high accuracy and ease of use for reliable temperature measurement.

Process Service Specialists names Russell Gaudin as Vice President of sales and marketing

API 685, “Sealless Centrifugal Pumps for Petroleum, Petrochemical and Gas Industry Process Service,” has been updated to the 3rd Ed. and was published in July 2022. It addresses both magnetic drive pumps (MDPs) and canned motor pumps (CMPs). This work (Part 3) focuses exclusively on secondary containment/secondary control, along with associated instrumentation requirements.