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Refining

Brazil fuel, lubricant imports surge 57% in July

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) — Brazil's fuel and lubricant imports shot up 57.3% in July from the same month in 2016 to $1.522 B, government data showed on Tuesday.

US oil refiner HollyFrontier's profit tops estimates

(Reuters) — US oil refiner HollyFrontier Corp on Wednesday reported a quarterly profit that handily beat analysts' estimates, helped by higher production and refinery margins.

Rethinking the risk mitigation process and revitalizing operational safety

DuPont: Planche, S.

For the past 2 yr, oil prices have been in free-fall. At the time of writing, the WTI price is around $50/bbl, up slightly since OPEC’s May 2017 announcement to extend its September 2016 production cut of 2.2%.

Identify the cause of liquid maldistribution inside packed beds

Tracerco: Pless, L.

Diagnosing liquid maldistribution problems inside packed beds that can cause mass transfer efficiency loss is a challenge to process engineers.

Role statements needed for reliability job functions

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Experience shows that written role statements impart great value to industries that have reliability professionals on staff.

Does your control valve talk?

Palmela: Almas, A.

Pneumatic operated control valves (POCVs) are consistently the most used control final element for process control across most industries—in some cases, they are also part of the safety instrumented systems (SISs) layer.

Considerations for revamping shell-and-tube heat exchangers

Summum Projects: Garrido, E.

Revamp projects are complex in nature, and demand a great deal of resources for successful completion.

Revamp fired heaters with a common air-preheating system to increase capacity

Bechtel Corp.: Ahamad, S.  |  Vallavanatt, R.

In any process plant, fired heaters are generally considered to be one of the most optimally designed pieces of equipment.

Plug the metering skills gap to ensure measurement accuracy and safety

TUV NEL Ltd.: Macgillivray, A.

In all sectors of industry, the measurement of flow is of vital importance. However, in an industry that is cutting costs, what impact will a growing skills gap have on meter management and accuracy of measurement?

Analyzing axial cooling fans’ high noise, vibration and failures

Saudi Aramco: Allah, W. K.

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.