Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

September 2024

Archive

Digital Features

Effective inventory management during a turnaround
Valin Corp.: Kohonen, K.

Nothing will impede a successful plant turnaround like improper planning. One aspect of this planning is effective inventory management, and the keys to achieving this are properly identifying and communicating maintenance needs.

Oil and gas web client computing devices facilitate integration of web-based HMI/SCADA applications

Operators in oil and gas manufacturing facilities have long depended on human machine interfaces (HMI) to offer a visual summary of process systems that simplifies the monitoring of crucial status and control data. A well-crafted graphical user interface enhances situational awareness, decreases workload and empowers operators to oversee the entire process, facilitating their focus to quickly address any abnormal scenarios.

Special Focus: Refining Technologies

Thermal decomposition of particulate mercury sulfides in petroleum—Part 1
Chevron Energy Technology Co.: Das, T.  |  Hatakeyama, E.  |  Hoelen, T. P.
Contributing Author: O'Rear, D.

Traces of particulate mercury sulfide (HgS) in stabilized crude oils transform to elemental mercury below 400°C in refinery distillation units. The authors evaluated this transformation and measured reaction rates and activation energies in crude oil and Hg-spiked mineral oil, using glass vessels at atmospheric pressure and a microunit at 1,000 psig.

Deliver sustainable benefits through site-wide process digital twins
Saudi Aramco: Bazuher, E. A.
KBC, a Yokogawa Company: Chellani, J.

Refiners have used offline process models for decades. The next generation of solutions is anticipated to operate automatically, integrate with legacy systems and provide transparency site-wide.  

Prompt engineering: Extracting operational excellence knowledge from AI—Part 1
CEPSA: Larraz, R.

Prompt engineering is an emerging discipline at the intersection of AI and process engineering and will undoubtedly contribute to the hydrocarbon and green molecules processing industries. Parts 1 and 2 (October 2024) of this article explore and provide a glimpse of how this technique can help process engineers and operators to manage the power of advanced AI models to optimize processes, contribute to solve complex problems, and improve operational efficiency in refineries and petrochemical plants.  

Plant Turnarounds/Project Management

Seven tips to achieve a smoother plant turnaround
Swagelok: Aughenbaugh, M.

This article provides seven best practices that should be kept in mind for successful plant turnaround management. 

Maintenance, Reliability and Inspection

Monitoring cyclone reliability in fluid catalytic crackers
Honeywell UOP: Jawandhiya, A.  |  Panchal, D.  |  Gellaboina, M. K.

The authors’ company has developed a novel approach with a digital algorithm to effectively estimate the current cyclone erosion and predict future erosion based on operating conditions. With this approach, refiners get an automatic way to better predict abrasion lining erosion for both reactors and regenerator cyclones daily from digital analytics, thus helping refiners quantify their monitoring.

Truly effective reliability requires predictive maintenance
Emerson: Kleinubing, R.

To navigate this new digital world, organizations must find ways to bring in new technologies to support the limited personnel they have, but without increasing the complexity of those people’s jobs or overwhelming them with raw data they are not trained to use. The solution is to implement a predictive maintenance technology plan founded on a boundless automation vision of seamlessly moving contextualized data wherever it is needed.

Environment and Safety

Configure safety communication to unleash your safety culture’s true potential
Contributing Editor: Khan, A. J.

From an industrial perspective, effective communication is an integral part of achieving an injury-free workplace. This article provides the benefits of developing a safety management system to build a culture of safety in plants.

Alarm management and operator training: Case studies for a sulfur recovery unit
Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd.: Singh, P. V.  |  Chaudhuri, D.

This article will provide an in-depth insight of an operator training simulator, as well as the basic features of creating a virtual plant in which the operators are allowed to train and test various operating scenarios. It will also highlight the inbuilt scenarios inside the model—most importantly, the startup, shutdown and specific upset scenarios.  

Hydrogen

The role of clean combustion in achieving net zero: Emphasizing hydrogen’s promise

The world is increasingly turning its attention to alternative fuels in the quest for net-zero emissions, and hydrogen (H2) is at the forefront of this transformative shift. This article will discuss the benefits of H2, comparisons to alternative energies, sustainability and environmental implications, and H2’s potential. 

Carbon Capture/CO2 Mitigation

Retrofitting CO2 capture in a petroleum refinery
Bechtel India: Singh, R. B.

This article examines the application of solvent absorption-based post combustion capture for refinery/site-specific factors and quantifies the impact this will have on CCS CAPEX/OPEX. This analysis helps to determine the optimum approach for any individual refinery site.

Water Management

Zero-liquid discharge: A stepping stone to water sustainability—Part 2
Fluor: Kumar, S.  |  Ekmekci, B.  |  Sonia G. S.  |  Ranwe, A.

This article will evaluate zero-liquid discharge technologies and the preliminary treatment, disposal or further treatment for a preliminary treated system.  

Refinery/petrochemical makeup water treatment: A general guide for technical personnel—Part 2
Buecker & Associates: Buecker, B.

A very important—and sometimes overlooked—unit operation within processing facilities is makeup water treatment for steam generators and other processes. Many cases have been documented in which makeup system upsets have led to boiler tube failures that partially or completely shut down unit processes. This article serves as a guide for those employees who may be on a steep learning curve when it comes to makeup system understanding.