It is difficult to revamp an existing air-cooled steam surface condenser (ACSSC) for higher throughput, since most ACSSC suppliers have changed to a single-tube row design and have discontinued their multi-tube row design.
As environmental concerns emerging from the incessant consumption of fuels have gripped the attention of global leaders, energy producers have been developing cleaner fuel alternatives for use in domestic and commercial settings.
The sheer volume of equipment in a refinery—from vessels, columns, huge structures and mazes of pipes to pumps, valves, controllers and instruments—is staggering.
Ross Systems and Controls (SysCon) recently completed the qualification to self-certify its touchscreen purged panels as meeting the rigorous standards of Underwriters Laboratories’ UL-698A Code and the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA-496 Code.
Hawk Measurement Systems has announced a new OptioLaser S300 that can be used for the detection of all types of liquids, regardless of their dielectric properties.
Das, S., Bahrain Petroleum Co. (Bapco)
Technological advances have allowed predictive maintenance (i.e., condition-based maintenance) to overtake preventive maintenance in plant operations. “Look, listen and feel (LLF)” is a condition monitoring technique that improves the reliability of equipment and machinery in manifolds.
The Petronor oil refinery is located in northeastern Spain. Recently, the facility converted its last rolling element-equipped machine from liquid oil lubrication to pure (“dry-sump”) oil mist.
Shipping pumps with 1,800 hp are equipped with five cooling fans that cool the oil going to the lube oil pumps to lubricate the bearings.
Oil refineries and large petrochemical plants contain thousands of pieces of process and utilities equipment that are subject to wear, erosion, deterioration, aging, etc., resulting in increasing breakdowns and outages. Imagine being a maintenance engineer and receiving 50 work orders during an overhaul with a limited budget, time, labor, spare parts, tools, machines, etc. How does that engineer prioritize the work?
This case study aims to provide the root cause analysis behind bearing failure of an induced (ID) fan at a new refinery startup in 2015.