May 2007

Here's how a typical refinery can obtain nearly $4 million per year in benefits

Follow these guidelines to improve reliability

Mechanical design of the pump and system design of the installation are both equally important

Here are the fundamental forces that affect their operation and the pros and cons of various types

Four upgrade opportunities are presented

An analysis can help avoid wear problems before they occur

Oil and gas industries will play a pivotal role in carbon-emission reduction programs

Using simulation improves impingement device application in exchangers

Current market forces are requiring unique methods to develop staff members

Here's how to ensure that operators can provide their peak performance

Installing feed chimney and distribution trays increased packed column efficiency for a gas plant

Over design of heat exchangers sourced to fouling problems

Using this technology offers increased performance in demanding processes

At 1:20 p.m., March 23, 2005, the BP refinery at Texas City, Texas, experienced one of the worst industrial accidents in recent US history. More than 180 workers were injured, 15 people lost their liv..

Because flexible piping connectors have their place in industry, many articles in books and trade journals dealing with equipment subjects describe available connector configurations. One of many opti..

Fieldbus acceptance continues to steam ahead. With a firm foothold in the hydrocarbon industries and growing acceptance in a host of others, we can see that fieldbus is a working solution that is more..

A leadership committed to safety has to ensure that an ethos of safety permeates the culture. We know this is an issue for companies—and BP is currently on people's minds in this regard—but ..

US liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal projects have met with considerable opposition from local communities. A major debate surrounds the hazards and societal risks/benefits from LNG faciliti..

Breakthrough capillary flow technology  Fig. 1    Gas chromatograph offers unique in-oven capillary flow technology. Agi..

Open-channel flowmeter The SULTAN FLOW open-channel flowmeter is said to be ideal for real-time flow measurement of liquid materials. With its continuous 4-20mA output, alarm relays, failsafe relays a..

  Shaw Stone & Webster has an engineering and procurement contract with Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC for a 70,000-bpd heavy-gasoil hydrocracker unit and 47,000-bpd kerosine hydrotreater unit. The c..

  Dow has increased its total global nameplate production capacity for propylene oxide (PO) to more than 1,900 kilotons/yr (kty) and total global production capacity for propylene glycol (PG) to ..

  Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Exxon Mobil Corp. celebrated the completion of RasGas Train 5 in Doha on March 20. RasGas Co. Ltd. is a joint venture owned by QP and ExxonMobil RasGas Inc. Train 5, on..

  Aker Kvaerner has a contract with China Petroleum Material & Equipment (Group) Corp. for the basic engineering design and supply of certain equipment for a new polypropylene (PP) plant at the P..

  Exchangers offer high heat transfer coefficients  Chemineer, Inc.'s Kenics heat exchangers are equipped with streamlined Kenics static mixer elements. They reportedly offer maximu..

    US plastic resins rally In 2006, the US plastic resins industry significantly rebounded from the..

Problems in the supply of propylene began when the global market shifted from cracking heavy to lighter feedstocks for ethylene crackers, according to a recent outlook presented by Earl Armstrong, man..

Global refined-product demand growth faltered in 2005 and 2006 largely due to high crude oil prices. From 2000 to 2005, the average global refined-product demand increased by 1.2 million bpd (MMbpd). ..

A severe shortage of qualified contractors is the single greatest barrier to new construction projects, according to a survey released today by KPMG LLP. Furthermore, with demand for construction expe..

The Bush administration rolled out several initiatives to bolster US energy security in early 2007. One element of this energy policy is a proposal to substantially expand the use of ethanol and other..

The US Department of Homeland Security has released a final rule that imposes for the first time comprehensive federal security regulations for high-risk chemical facilities. The new rule gives the de..

Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors of environmental and contamination control systems will spend more than $60 billion in 2007 for components and services. So says a new outlo..