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Loss Prevention

HP Impact: Statoil issues report on In Amenas terrorist attack

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Statoil’s board has concluded an investigation into the terrorist attack at the BP gas plant in In Amenas, Algeria. The investigation team visited the In Amenas plant on April 16 and issued its f..

Mitigate fouling in crude unit overhead—Part 1

CH2M Hill: Sloley, A. W.

In a refinery crude distillation column, up to 40% of the total heat removal may be found in the tower overhead condenser. The quantity of duty available makes heat integration (HI) between the column..

Improved oxidation process increases sulfur recovery with Claus unit

GTC Technology US, LLC: Vazquez, R. G.  |  Seeger, D.  |  Thundyil, M.

Since its development in 1936, the “modified Claus” technology has been the preferred process used by refineries and gas processing plants for the recovery of sulfur from acid-gas streams. M..

Update: Russia’s capacity and modernization program

RAS, A.V. Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas: Levinbuk, M.
Gazprom Neft: Galkin, V. V.  |  Makhiyanov, V.

Since 2008, Russian regulations regarding the crude oil and refining industry have changed substantially. At present, Russia has 22 large refineries, each with an individual throughput capacity exceed..

Novel use of sulfiding agent prevents refinery shutdown

Lubrizol: Frank, T.
Coastal Chemical Co.: Bridges, W.

When an insufficient supply of acid gas threatened to shut down operations at a US refinery, quick thinking, along with the novel use of a sulfiding agent and a strong supply chain made all the difference.

HP Industry Perspectives: A sad turn of events

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Romanow, Stephany

Many pages in Hydrocarbon Processing have and continue to discuss the technical solutions required by the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and similar legislation. At a time when developed nations str..

Use a simulation tool for multi-commodity pipeline scheduling

Polytechnic University of Madrid: Ortega-Mier, M.  |  García-Sánchez, A.
Natra SA: Goti, A.

Pipeline transport represents one of the most important means of moving oil derivatives to different locations. It is both a reliable and inexpensive means of transport, and it yields small variable c..

Improve pressure drop calculations for saturated water lines

When saturated water flows through pipes and components, it flashes—thus increasing its specific volume and limiting the fluid flowrate. Due to these conditions, the calculation and design for pi..

Reduce hydrocarbons and solids contamination in sour water strippers

Sulphur Experts: Spooner, B.  |  Engel, D.

A modern refinery in Finland processes used lubrication oil and produces renewed base oil for lubrication products, gasoil and fuel gas. The process uses a front-end additive removal stage from the us..

HP Integration Strategies: Consider procedural automation at a commercial-scale pilot plant

ARC Advisory Group: Miller, Paul

“All processes are batch processes to some degree. Even in ‘continuous’ process plants, processing units will need to be shut down at some point and then restarted to resume production...