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

Hydrogen

Brazilian developments in the biofuels market

Since the 1970s, Brazil has been a world reference in automotive biofuels, especially bioethanol produced from sugarcane. In 1973, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) forced a sharp rise in oil prices, triggering a massive slowdown in the country’s economic growth, which had been going through what was dubbed the “economic miracle,” with growth at an average of 12% of GDP. This study gives an overview of the biofuel sector in Brazil, along with the main business challenges and opportunities in this area.

Optimization: Steam methane reformer vs. electrolysis technology

Linde Engineering: Koul, S.  |  Shah, M.

Hydrogen market demand is forecast to expand. Bulk petrochemicals, ammonia, methanol and gasoline refining consume nearly two-thirds of global hydrogen demand.

Refinery residue and bitumen upgrading: Gasification

Advisian: Abazajian, A.  |  Sloley, A.

Gasifiers take the bottom of the crude barrel and move the residue into the C1 value chain. Refiners have had a variable record of running gasifiers for a time and then shutting them down. Reasons for this include inexperience with gasifier operations, lack of knowledge on how to extract profits from the C1 value chain and market difficulties in catering to clients operating in different business environments.

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.

Business Trends: Crude-to-chemicals—An opportunity or threat?

Wood Mackenzie: Gupta, S.  |  Xu, D.

For most oil refiners and chemical producers, the need to improve margins and remain competitive has never been greater.

International action can scale up hydrogen as a key part of a secure energy future

The world has an important opportunity to tap into hydrogen’s vast potential to become a critical part of a more sustainable and secure energy future, the International Energy Agency said in a major new report.

Raman spectroscopy for the optimization of hydrogen usage in refineries

SpectraSensors: Sutherland, S.

Approximately 700 refineries are in operation worldwide, producing a range of petroleum products including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel oils.

Case study for a high-performing refinery loss control program

Emerson Automation Solutions: Valentine, J.
YPF: Videla, R.

Most refineries have some sort of mass balance and loss control program in place for accounting, planning and scheduling, as well as for financial and operational evaluation purposes.

Develop reactor internals for optimizing reactor design - Part 2: High-performance mixing chamber

GS Engineering and Construction: Ahn, E. S.  |  Park, S. I.  |  Song, I. C.  |  Kim, G. B.  |  Chang, G. S.

Most hydroprocessing reactors are fixed-bed reactors comprising several catalyst beds that are divided by quench zones containing mixing chambers that introduce a vapor-quenching medium.

Reduce dry gas and coke with a more flexible FCC technology

SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing (RIPP): Gong, J.  |  Xu, Y.  |  Zhang, J.  |  Chang, X.  |  Wei, X.  |  Tang, J.

To meet increasingly stringent specifications for cleaner gasoline and to produce more clean fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) naphtha with lower olefins, a novel FCC technologya for maximizing isoparaffins was developed in the late 1990s. The technology’s principal is based on the formation and conversion of olefins in two different reaction zones.