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

Furnaces

HP Project Management: Energy efficiency: Getting in early pays off exponentially

There are many situations and circumstances when it makes good sense to pursue energy efficiency for industrial processes. But when is the best time for such action?Better operating practicesIn existi..

HP Petrochemicals: Update on ethylene tube coating technology

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: DuBose, Ben

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..

Multi-faceted approach on energy efficiency methods

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 ..

Two approaches to sulfur management

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Sulfur is naturally present as an impurity in fossil fuels. When the fuels are burned, the sulfur is released as sulfur dioxide—an air pollutant that contributes to respiratory problems for human..

Choose the right metering technology for ethylene furnaces

Emerson Process Management: Lieberg, M.  |  Pihlaja, R.

An ethylene plant’s main purpose is to convert hydrocarbon feedstock, usually natural gas liquids or naphtha, into a “cracked gas” that contains ethylene and other higher value products..

Automate furnace controls to improve safety and energy efficiency

Phillips 66: Mickity, D.

Furnace firing is the biggest single operating expense in any refinery. Consider a medium-size refinery (250,000 bpd) that consumes 2,000 MMBtu/h. At a cost of $5/MMBtu, that’s $87.6 MM/yr being ..

Micro-alloyed steel: New standard for reformer tubes

Manoir Industries: Steckmeyer, A.  |  Chasselin, H.  |  Mougel, C.  |  Fournier, B.

Reformer furnace tubes are designed to operate under high temperature and pressure. Historically, these tubes exhibit improved creep resistance at higher temperatures. The improvements in creep resist..

Improve the cracking of ethylene dichloride

Linde Engineering North America, Inc.: Shahani, G.  |  Ma, D.

The discovery and exploitation of shale gas in North America is providing a boost to the domestic petrochemical industry. In particular, commodity petrochemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are e..

Case study: Service life assessment of boiler superheater tubes

SABIC Technology Centre: van Zyl, G.  |  Al-Meshari, A.  |  Al-Shahrani, S.

Boilers are used in petrochemical facilities to generate steam that can be used to meet process and utility requirements. Many industrial boiler designs can be shop assembled and are therefore referre..

Inspect steam reformers and catalyst tubes with infrared thermography

Thermal Diagnostics: James, S.

Infrared thermography is a useful inspection tool to help locate problems in steam reformers while the units are online and fired. There are three main areas in a reformer that can be efficiently insp..