April 2003

Follow these guidelines to reduce costs and shorten downtime

Payback can usually be measured in days by finding areas that need improvement

Benefits include improved safety and reduced cost and installation time

These condition monitoring methods estimate increased power consumption due to wear

Tests in an FCC unit showed both instrument and process problems could be detected

Each method offers pros and cons; yet combined, these techniques form a powerful tool to diagnose operational problems in fractionators

  Table 3. Material tracking example     ..

Sometimes both metallurgical and mechanical analysis are required

By deploying a sophisticated system, a refinery can reap benefits totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars/year

Apply LOPA-HF to a fired furnace

Periodic auditing of the state of your reliability management practices is needed if your plant wants to be assured of not being overtaken by the competition. One effective way to condu..

I recently rediscovered a curious phenomenon that affects SIS shutdown settings: trip points. This malady is particularly problematic for flow measurements in plants that have gone thro..

ARC estimates that roughly $65 billion worth of automation systems presently installed are at the end of their traditional life cycle. To make the decision to migrate to newer process a..

Despite the figures that many of the multinational and national oil companies are turning in for 2002, the immediate future continues to look tight. This point was reinforced by Sir Phi..

High-fidelity graphics card for plant design Plant documentation that has historically resided in paper format is now supplied electronically. This significantly increases the amount of..

Fieldbus chosen for Chinese complex China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) will use Foundation Fieldbus to automate a new petrochemical facility. It is claimed to be the largest inst..

High-strength steel knife gate valve A unique 48-in. knife gate valve, part of the Big Knife family, is made of high-strength 2205 duplex steel for processing more corrosive and abrasiv..

Diaphragm compressors for fuel cell applications Pdc Machines designs and manufactures diaphragm compressor systems and reformers for fuel cell technology. Partnering with companies and..

  Trends in pumps, seals, valves A..

Meeting last month, seminar participants from EU governments and private sectors examined research and development (R&D) priorities for creating a hydrogen infrastructure. The Internati..

Linde AG has created the world's first hydrogen filling station using 700-bar (10,000-psi) technology for the Adam Opel AG. This is claimed to be an important milestone on the road to t..

While global energy prices had moderated by the beginning of 2002, the increasing political turmoil overwhelmed conventional supply/demand dynamics pushing energy values upward 50 - 100..

Until recently, the price of natural gas had become very affordable, enabling many producers to enjoy profits that had not been seen in the petrochemicals industry for a number of years..

Wendy Weirauch, Managing Editor       Comments? Write: WW@HydrocarbonProcessing.com "Techno..

The crude oil markets have been plagued by uncertainties that have elevated the role of market psychology in shaping prices. As a consequence, prices have been volatile and generally st..

The worldwide control valve market, which totaled almost $3 billion in 2002, will reach almost $3.5 billion by the end of 2007, expanding at a cumulative annual growth rate of over 3%. ..

For natural-gas-based petrochemicals, feedstock pricing has been a true beast of burden. Recent high natural gas pricing in North America (NA) is great for suppliers. Yet, for users, hi..

North America Aker Kvaerner has a front-end loading, detailed design, procurement assistance and construction management contract for DuPont Dow Elastomers' consolidation project at its..