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

Piping

Business Trends: EPC 2030: Five vital characteristics that will define the EPC firm of tomorrow

AspenTech: Donnelly, P.

The state of the global engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) industry can accurately be described as “challenging.” Operating in an environment of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous conditions, EPC firms are facing unsustainable levels of stress.

HC condensate sphere inlet pipe failure investigation

KELM Engineering LLC: Rinawi, A.
Saudi Aramco: Al Bukhari, A.  |  Al Hajji, M.  |  Al Boobaid, M.

During a normal turnaround and inspection (T&I) of a hydrocarbon sphere, a fatigue failure in the 24-in. inlet pipe riser was discovered. As per the original 2003 design, the sphere serves as a surge tank during pipeline scraping, as well as a backup for a stabilizer during T&I. Each stabilizer has a capacity of 78,000 bpd. However, due to asymmetry in the piping configuration, the sphere typically receives higher flow of 90,000 bpd, with rates sometimes reaching 110,000 bpd as a result of scraping or other activities happening concurrently. The sphere was upgraded to work continuously in 2012 to handle the anticipated additional condensate by adding an overhead gas compressor and a dedicated condensate shipper pump.

Pinch analysis: A retrofit approach

Penspen Intl.: Raza, S. A.
Oman Refineries and Petrochemical Ind. Ltd. (Orpic): Hussain, I.

Pinch analysis provides techniques for heat integration to design the heat exchanger network (HEN), not only for grassroots design but also to retrofit an existing system and optimize the process.

Hydrocarbon Processing Awards

<i>Hydrocarbon Processing,</i> the downstream processing sector’s leading technical publication, has announced the finalists for its third annual awards.

Address measurement uncertainty in pipelines and storage

TÜV SÜD: Robson, B.

How would you measure the volume of a can of soup? The height should work, but what about diameter? Or, you can possibly just trust what the manufacturer has told you on the label.

Specify the pressure drop of a vent silencer

Empresarios Agrupados (EEAA): Casado, E.

Industrial facilities, such as refineries and petrochemical plants, have many systems and equipment that must relieve steam or gases through discharge piping to the atmosphere to avoid overpressure and protect the installation.

Innovations

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

Librestream and ecom, a Pepperl+Fuchs brand, have collaborated on an innovation for asset analysis and safety inspections in hazardous locations: the Onsight Cube-Ex wearable camera.

Mitigating corrosion challenges from opportunity crudes

Emerson Automation Solutions: Wold, K.

High-quality crudes are not always readily available, or at a price that is acceptable to the producer’s budget.

Oil flushing benefits and optimization

Wattco: Toledano, I.

Oil flushing has a direct impact on the performance and lifespan of industrial equipment.

Assess remaining life for heater tubes

Engineers India Ltd.: Patel, R.  |  Singh, J.  |  Ashutosh

Refineries and petrochemical plants form some of the major sections of the hydrocarbon industry and consume much of the fuel that is burned in furnaces (heaters and specialty furnaces, such as reformers and crackers) to meet process heating requirements.