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

January 2010

Archive

Special Report: Gas Processing Developments

A unique natural gas processing success story
Anadarko Pinnacle Gas Treating, Inc.: Baker, C.
Merchem Chemicals and Refinery Services LLC: Barnette, T.

Cost-effective expansion created high reliability operations

Equilibrium considerations in choosing a gas treating amine
The Dow Chemical Company: Bedell, S. A.

Pursue these guidelines to understand solubility

Advanced mercury removal technologies
UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company: Eckersley, N.

New technologies can cost-effectively treat 'wet' and 'dry' natural gas while protecting cryogenic equipment

Designing a selective MDEA tail-gas treating unit
Fluor: Nagpal, S.

Following these protocols will enhance sulfur recovery efficiency

Engineering Case Histories

Case 54: Is it motor vibration or some other cause?
Consulting Engineer: Sofronas, A.

It's not always the motor causing the vibration

Environment

When does carbon capture make sense?
Foster Wheeler Energy: Ferguson, S.

Here are several options in which carbon capture can provide cost-effective solutions

Instrumentation

Implement a constrained optimal control in a conventional level controller - Part 1
LG Chem, Ltd.: Lee, J. W.
Yeungnam University: Lee, M.
LG Chem.: Shin, J.

Novel tuning method enables a conventional PI controller to explicitly handle the three important operational constraints of a liquid level loop in an optimal manner as well as copes with a broad range of level control from tight to averaging control

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor/Correction

  Advocating the abandonment of MPC Regarding Zak Friedman's three "HPIn Control" columns on APC designs for minimum maintenance in the June (p. 90), July (p. 13) and August (p. 13) 2009 issues o..

Maintenance and Reliability

Managing costs and incidents in industrial plant equipment
Technical University of Catalonia: Egusquiza, E.  |  Escaler, X.  |  Gardella, M.
University of Mondragon: Goti, A.

Use this method to allogate limited maintenance resources to the most critical equipment

Plant Safety and Environment

Designing for pressure safety valves in supercritical service
S & B Engineers and Constructors Ltd.: Doane, R. C.

Use this rigorous method to prevent over-sizing

Piping

New explicit friction factor equation for turbulent flow in smooth pipes
Bouali Sina Petrochemical Company: Sasan-Amiri, A.

A simple, explicit and high-accuracy equation is presented

Columns

HP Reliability: More about unreliability, global procurement and you
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

We quite obviously believe that reading is the key to professional growth and that Mark Twain was right in stating that the man who refuses to read is no different from the illiterate person who canno..

HP Water Management: Wastewater discharge permits; What should you know?
MarTech Systems, Inc.: Huchler, L. A.

Title IV, Permits and Licenses, of the Federal Water Protection Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act (CWA) created the system for permitting wastewater discharges, known as the Nati..

HP Integration Strategies: Applying tuneable diode laser spectroscopy to help reduce energy consumption
ARC Advisory Group: Hollywood, Paula

According to the US Department of Energy, industry accounts for about a third of all energy used in the US. Despite the recent drop in energy prices, energy remains the second leading cost pressure (b..

HPIn Europe: Duh! Business as usual will not be good for the HPI
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Wright, Tim L.

Where the common ground between my best friends in engineering and I becomes a parkland with fireworks is when we share the "aha moments." I suspect it's from that curious, excited child in my friends..

HP Innovations

Pressure-relief software awarded first US patent Farris Engineering Services, a business unit of Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Company, has announced that its iPRSM product, claimed to be a revolutionar..

New Developments

Compressors offer lowest total cost of ownership Redesigned 200 HP compressors are said to combine reliability with innovative technology. They are offered with a choice of constant-speed drive models..

HP Construction: South America
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

  BG Group has a joint venture agreement with Petroleo Brasileiro SA focused on developing floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) as an additional option to commercialize the associated natural ga..

HP Construction: Europe
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

  ABB has an order worth $26 million from Hellenic Petroleum SA to provide an integrated power and automation system for the upgrade of Hellenic Petroleum's Elefsina refinery, west of Athens, G..

HP Construction: Middle East

  Samsung Engineering has a $2.73 billion contract from Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Co. for utilities and offsite work on the Ruwais refinery expansion project (RRE). Samsung's work is set for mechani..

HP Construction: Asia-Pacific
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

  Shell Chemicals Ltd. recently had a successful startup of its new monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit at the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals complex in Jurong Island, Singapore. The capacity is 750,000..

Free Literature

Instrumentation calibration services ABB Instrumentation's new brochure explains its extensive calibration offerings and why they are important to ensure equipment performance. The br..

HP Impact: HPImpact: Struggles for US refiners expected to continue
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

In a recent refining industry piece, Deutsche Bank analysts took a gander at the US refining industry and wondered if the worst has passed for refiners. In short, they think not. ConocoPhillips CEO Ji..

HP Impact: HPImpact: The EU's ETS at a glance
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Carbon trading, carbon taxing and other forms of regulating greenhouse gases have been hot topics of conversation of late. Since it appears that these concepts will be dominating thought and affectin..

Misc

HPIn Brief
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

IEA speaks up in Copenhagen During the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, the International Energy Agency shared its ..

Industry Forecast Forum
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Billy Thinnes, News editor       Comments? Write: editorial@HydrocarbonProcessing.com In early December, Hydrocarbon Pro..