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

Maintenance & Reliability

Water Management: Minimize white rust in galvanized cooling systems

U.S. Water Services Inc.: Mowbray, M.

Galvanized coatings for cooling tower systems (cooling towers, evaporator tube bundles, etc.) have been used in the industry since the 1950s due to their relatively low cost and long service life.

Refining: Despite decline, Group 1 base stocks are here to stay

ExxonMobil: Nadasdi, T.

Given increasingly stringent automotive specifications and the advent of the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 sulfur regulations, the continued decrease in Group I base stocks demand should come as no surprise for anyone in the industry.

Maintenance: How to conduct successful turnaround maintenance at refineries

Ingersoll Rand: Diacumakos, S.

PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that, since 2014, the oil and gas industry has put off noncritical spending to reduce costs.

Reliability: Reliability engineering on offshore platforms

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Offshore platforms have had their fair share of successes and failures over the years, and to say that their reliability experiences contain lessons for all of us is an understatement.

Root cause analysis for low yield of p-diethylbenzene produced by catalytic alkylation

Reliance Industries Ltd.: Reddy, J. K.  |  Warke, V.  |  Jasra, R. V.  |  Mantri, K.

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) manufactures para-diethylbenzene (PDEB) at one of its plants by alkylation of ethylbenzene (EB) with ethylene, using RIL's own technology and super-selective catalyst.

Industry Perspectives: The Main Column podcast: Crucial topics shaping the industry

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

In the February issue of Hydrocarbon Processing, the editors asked our global readership what topics they would like to hear on the publication’s new podcast series: The Main Column.

Variable capacity control technology facilitates efficient operation for reciprocating compressors

Siemens: Sanford, J.

Reciprocating compressors are used extensively in refinery and petrochemical operations to keep feedstocks and products moving through miles of piping.

Improving plant operations with control valve simulations

Emerson Automation Solutions: Novak, L.  |  Youngdahl, R.

In today’s business climate, where project budgets and schedules are under cost and time pressures (and where installed valve applications must perform reliably under increasingly severe conditions), valve simulations are enabling new capabilities.

Design of very-high-flow coefficient centrifugal compressor stages

Elliott Group: Jariwala, V.

Centrifugal compressors are widely used in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries, with more than 15,000 operating in the U.S. alone.

Optimization: Plan before main air blower disaster strikes

Aggreko: Chauvin, J.  |  Fischbach, A.

Weeks before a planned overhaul of its coker unit, a synthetic crude plant’s main air blower for the furnace failed, throwing the engineers’ plans into disarray.