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

Products

Optimal gas analysis decisions improve ethylene plant operation

Emerson Automation Solutions: Kamphus, M.  |  McMillen, D.

One of the most common and important building blocks in the petrochemical industry is ethylene, constituting a huge and fast-growing worldwide industry. Ethylene is an intermediate chemical used to manufacture many commercial products—approximately 200 MMt will be produced in 2020.

Editorial Comment: Processing a sustainable future

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

An emerging topic along the entire oil and gas value chain is the move toward <i>sustainability.</i> Each company has a somewhat different definition of what sustainability means to its operations.

Onsite

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

Construction

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

Equatorial Guinea plans to invest $1 B to build several energy projects, including the construction of two new refineries, each with a capacity of 30,000 bpd–40,000 bpd, as well as oil storage facilities, a methanol-to-gasoline plant and an LNG expansion project.

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.

Industry Perspectives: Petrochemicals surge despite possible future roadblocks

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

Over the past several years, investments in petrochemicals capacity additions have skyrocketed. Hundreds of billions of dollars have and will be invested in additional petrochemicals units and complexes.

FCCU catalyst reformulations: Reducing risk and guaranteeing value with collaboration/testing

Hellenic Petroleum: Kyriakou, S.  |  Plellis, C.  |  Tatsis, V.  |  Damianou, C.  |  Gkanis, D.
W. R. Grace: Burgess, T.  |  González, R.

Hellenic Petroleum S.A.’s Aspropyrgos refinery is located near Athens, Greece. It has a total refining capacity of approximately 7.5 MMtpy and a Nelson complexity index of 9.7. The refinery was built in 1958 and has undergone several upgrades, including the installation of a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU).

A new liquid-phase isomerization process for xylene loop debottleneck and energy savings

Reliance Industries Ltd.: Mhatre, S.  |  Warke, V.
ExxonMobil Chemical Co.: Choi, A.  |  Molinier, M.  |  Saple, A.

In a typical xylene loop, C<sub>8</sub> aromatics are fractionated out of a heavy reformate C<sub>8</sub>+ aromatics stream and collected in the xylene column overhead. Then, paraxylene (PX) from the C<sub>8</sub> aromatics stream is recovered as product—usually by an adsorption or crystallization process—in the PX recovery section.

Can ammonia be a future energy storage solution?

Ammonia is well known as a fertilizer. However, it is also a potential carbon-free fuel and an excellent solution for storage of renewable electricity, especially if the syngas needed for producing the ammonia is made by electrolysis.

HP Top Project Awards

The editors of <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> have identified nine projects that are anticipated to significantly impact the global or regional downstream industries. The winners and nominees of the HP Top Project awards will have a considerable impact on the HPI, whether through CAPEX, satisfying domestic or regional demand, diversifying product offerings, or adding to the resurgence in refining and/or petrochemical processing capacity.