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Process Control

Widely used engineering symbols and drawings Standard ISA-5.1 updated by ISA

The International Society of Automation (ISA) — the leading professional society for automation — has published a new update of its most widely used standard, the internationally recognized ANSI/ISA-5.1, “Instrumentation and Control Symbols and Identification.”

Digital Feature: Refiner improves operational technology risk measurement and management: A Case Study on addressing the cyber risks in the oil and gas industry

This case study details how a U.S.-based Fortune 50 petroleum refiner used proprietary technology to improve operational technology (OT) cybersecurity. By automating asset inventory and vulnerability assessments, the company reduced manual processes, enhanced visibility into cyber risks and improved safety, ultimately saving millions of dollars in program costs.

Truly effective reliability requires predictive maintenance

Emerson: Kleinubing, R.

To navigate this new digital world, organizations must find ways to bring in new technologies to support the limited personnel they have, but without increasing the complexity of those people’s jobs or overwhelming them with raw data they are not trained to use. The solution is to implement a predictive maintenance technology plan founded on a boundless automation vision of seamlessly moving contextualized data wherever it is needed.

Alarm management and operator training: Case studies for a sulfur recovery unit

Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd.: Singh, P. V.  |  Chaudhuri, D.

This article will provide an in-depth insight of an operator training simulator, as well as the basic features of creating a virtual plant in which the operators are allowed to train and test various operating scenarios. It will also highlight the inbuilt scenarios inside the model—most importantly, the startup, shutdown and specific upset scenarios.  

Prompt engineering: Extracting operational excellence knowledge from AI—Part 1

CEPSA: Larraz, R.

Prompt engineering is an emerging discipline at the intersection of AI and process engineering and will undoubtedly contribute to the hydrocarbon and green molecules processing industries. Parts 1 and 2 (October 2024) of this article explore and provide a glimpse of how this technique can help process engineers and operators to manage the power of advanced AI models to optimize processes, contribute to solve complex problems, and improve operational efficiency in refineries and petrochemical plants.  

Monitoring cyclone reliability in fluid catalytic crackers

Honeywell UOP: Jawandhiya, A.  |  Panchal, D.  |  Gellaboina, M. K.

The authors’ company has developed a novel approach with a digital algorithm to effectively estimate the current cyclone erosion and predict future erosion based on operating conditions. With this approach, refiners get an automatic way to better predict abrasion lining erosion for both reactors and regenerator cyclones daily from digital analytics, thus helping refiners quantify their monitoring.

Cybersecurity: A discussion on the EU's NIS2 Directive with ABB's Global Cybersecurity Lead Tobias Nitzsche

Hydrocarbon Processing sat down with Tobias Nitzsche, Global Cyber Security Practice Lead, ABB, to discuss the European Union’s (EU’s) NIS2 Directive—the EU-wide legislation on cybersecurity—and how it will affect the hydrocarbon processing industry.

Emerson to join the Margo initiative, an open-standard pathway to optimize edge applications

Emerson is joining the Linux Foundation’s Margo, a new open-standard initiative designed to make edge applications, devices and orchestration software work together seamlessly across multi-vendor industrial automation environments.

Oil and gas web client computing devices facilitate integration of web-based HMI/SCADA applications

Operators in oil and gas manufacturing facilities have long depended on human machine interfaces (HMI) to offer a visual summary of process systems that simplifies the monitoring of crucial status and control data. A well-crafted graphical user interface enhances situational awareness, decreases workload and empowers operators to oversee the entire process, facilitating their focus to quickly address any abnormal scenarios.

Shell to leverage proprietary structural performance management software for various facilities

Under this agreement, Shell will leverage Akselos’ Structural Performance Management (SPM) software to monitor the structural health of critical assets across the Shell portfolio in near real-time. Akselos’ SPM software will help enable Shell to optimize the lifecycle of critical assets safely and sustainably.