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

Analyzers

LOPA: A comprehensive analytical tool for deriving SIL targets and applicability review

Fluor: Patel, H. J.

Many industrial facilities, especially those in the chemical, oil and gas and petroleum industries, involve inherent risks in operations due to the processing of material that is hazardous in nature. It is necessary to precisely identify and analyze hazards, operability issues, associated risks and consequences.

Digital: How digital tools improve access to device information

Emerson Automation Solutions: Thompson, A.

Welcome to the future! The plant runs fully automated; robots glide silently back and forth, ensuring an optimized process; and your maintenance technician—with a few keystrokes—can tell you exactly how each piece of equipment is running. The promise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has been delivered.

Optimal gas analysis decisions improve ethylene plant operation

Emerson Automation Solutions: Kamphus, M.  |  McMillen, D.

One of the most common and important building blocks in the petrochemical industry is ethylene, constituting a huge and fast-growing worldwide industry. Ethylene is an intermediate chemical used to manufacture many commercial products—approximately 200 MMt will be produced in 2020.

Business Trends: EPC 2030: Five vital characteristics that will define the EPC firm of tomorrow

AspenTech: Donnelly, P.

The state of the global engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) industry can accurately be described as “challenging.” Operating in an environment of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous conditions, EPC firms are facing unsustainable levels of stress.

How changes to functional safety standards can optimize fire and gas detection

Emerson Automation Solutions: Naranjo, E.

ANSI/ISA-84 is one of the most influential standards in functional safety and has been a driver for instrumented process safety improvements over the last 20 yr. It is a comprehensive norm covering a wide range of aspects related to functional safety in process industries, including the entire life cycle of designing, implementing and operating safety systems.

Reliability: Improve condition monitoring with shock pulse technology

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Shock pulse technology is generally well known to vibration analysts and reliability technicians. A handheld combination of sensor and display meter would typically be used to detect discontinuities in bearings and would respond to the impact of two masses. The resulting shockwaves will create a shock pulse of a certain magnitude that commonly manifests itself at a particular repeat frequency. The respective magnitude of relevant excursions and their trends can be observed by the person entrusted with the monitoring task.

Improved cooling system performance begins with data

Emerson Automation Solutions: Dalebroux, J.
Consultant: Aleynik, B.

Refineries consume large amounts of energy and water to refine crude oil into products. Up to 10% of crude oil’s energy content is consumed during processing, and it takes 1.5 bbl of water to process one barrel of crude oil. Refining processes also generate large quantities of excess thermal energy that needs to be expelled into the environment using a once-through or recirculating cooling system.

Hydrocarbon Processing Awards Winners

<i>Hydrocarbon Processing,</i> the downstream processing sector’s leading technical publication, has announced the winners for its third annual awards. The <i>HP</i> Awards celebrate innovative technologies and people that have been instrumental in improving facility operations over the past year.

Building industrial networks to serve IIoT and digitalization

Emerson Automation Solutions: Logue, C.

Two of the terms growing in popularity over the past few years are “digital native” and “digital immigrant.” Natives are those individuals young enough to have known computers and the internet since childhood. For them, such technologies have always existed. Immigrants, either through age or circumstance, had no exposure until later in life. Hopefully, for them, such technologies are a welcome addition to work and life, but they can remember times when most activities were more manual, local and isolated.

Innovations

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

In the oil and gas industry, failing to perform ongoing maintenance on equipment can have severe consequences, including reduced equipment service life, unplanned shutdowns and degraded performance.