October 2011

This refinery used a simulator to train operators effectively

Dynamic models unravel potential problems in high-pressure steam production and consumption

Total cost of ownership can quickly add up for field analytical equipment

A European refiner opts to apply embedded multivariable predictive controllers as part of an advanced process control system

Major olefin producer uses new process control to fine-tune energy consumption

Here are guidelines to increase accuracy for flow measurements

Conceptualization and economic models looked at scenarios to process clean gasoline, diesel from domestic feedstock

Prior to the 1980s, process control was in the dark ages. Our main “technology” was the single-loop controller, despite that it operated obliviously to the many interactions and non-first or..

Biofuels are growing up in Europe. From an exotic outlet for European Union (EU) agricultural product in the 1990s, to a boutique fuel for the green consumer in the 2000s, now today’s industry ha..

A refinery engineer was in a quandary over requests from a project group. High volume/pressure/temperature pumps in hydrocarbon service were involved and the refinery’s standards had, in 2007, be..

On July 22, four months after the unprecedented earthquake and tsunami struck the Pacific Coast side of eastern Japan, Japanese engineers from various process and other industries gathered in Tokyo to..

Sunoco plans to exit the refining business and has begun a process to sell its refineries located in Philadelphia and Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. Sunoco also announced that it is conducting a company-w..

European oil company association CONCAWE started compiling statistical data on safety performance for the European downstream oil industry 17 years ago. The group recently released its safety report f..

Wood Mackenzie recently undertook an analysis of Libya, attempting to discern how long it could take for a recovery of oil and gas production. One of the key issues in this respect is how quickly the ..

The European Parliament is calling for fast action to reduce non-CO2 climate forcers including black carbon soot, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), methane and ground-level ozone. The Parliament’s call ..

Dominion is proceeding with its next major project in the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions, the construction of a large natural gas processing and fractionation plant along the Ohio River in Natrium,..

Foster Wheeler’s Global Engineering and Construction Group has been released to perform the second phase scope for an existing contract with Ecopetrol S.A. for modernization of the refinery in Ba..

A subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Engineering and Construction Group has a contract with Aibel AS to provide detailed design engineering services to support Aibel, which has been appoint..

KBR has a contract with Anadarko Mozambique Area 1, Ltd., to perform a pre-front-end engineering and design (pre-FEED) study for a prospective liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Mozambique, Africa. ..

Fluor Corp. has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by SAPCo, a joint-venture company being formulated between Saudi Acrylic Acid Co. and Evonik Industries, for it..

Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas (GLNG) in Queensland, Australia, has selected Meridium, Inc. as the platform for its enterprise-wide APM initiative. The GLNG plant, which began construction earlier th..

Mercaptan oxidation in aqueous waste   Fig. 1. Mercaptan destruction rate.  Tert butyl mercaptan (TBM) and dimethyl sulfide (DMS) are oxidized to destruction in an aqueous-waste so..

High-spectral resolution using a laser The ProCeas product line from ap2e relies on optical-feedback, cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (OFCEAS) technology developed and patented by the Uni..

Automated boiler blowdown control system reduces water and energy consumption to cut plant costs The automated Model 61 boiler blowdown control system is said to offer a complete, ready-to-use sy..