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Americas

Oxford Catalysts to design new biomass-to-liquids plant in Oregon

The BTL project was recently awarded a $4.1 million grant from the US Department of Defense (under the Defense Production Act, Title III), which will help fund detailed engineering for a 1,100-bpd BTL facility. The project will have an opportunity to apply for a further grant.

Enterprise taps Foster Wheeler for gas processing services work

A subsidiary of Foster Wheeler has signed a master service agreement to support the North American capital project program of Enterprise Products Operating LLC.

Huntsman to acquire US polyols manufacturer Oxid

Huntsman Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Oxid LP, a US manufacturer and marketer of specialty urethane polyols.

Refinery watch: Planned and unplanned US outages

Valero reported the fluid catalytic cracking unit at its Benicia refinery is back at planned rates after a brief outage June 29. Tesoro reported a major unit startup at its Martinez, Calif. refinery July 2. Scheduled maintenance on a unit at ExxonMobil's Torrance, Calif. refinery could cause flaring, Exxon said July 1.

Brazil's Petrobras sets new company record for refinery production

The record volume was volume is 30,000 bbl more than the previous record. This strong performance has enabled a reduction in oil product imports and reflects the high level of operational efficiency at its refineries and in the integrated management of downstream operations.

REG starts up new biorefinery in Northeast Texas

The largest US biodiesel producer hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of major upgrades at the New Boston biorefinery, located about 150 miles east of Dallas. REG acquired the 15 million gal/year refinery in November 2012 after it had been shut down for nearly four years.

Asia: Future challenges and opportunities for refining sector

Wood Mackenzie: Sivanandam, S.

Securing the right quality of crude oil, increasing refinery competitiveness and adapting to fast-changing inter-regional trade dynamics are some of the area's key challenges.

Enhance refinery profitability with modeling innovations

Aspen Technology Inc.: Beck, R.  |  Ajikutira, D.  |  Herrmann, L.  |  Ye, V.

Several improvements are on the horizon, which will add powerful optimization capabilities into the process modeler’s simulation work space in areas like heat integration, column optimization and economics.

The future of automation has arrived

Invensys Operations Management: Turk, M. A.  |  Clark, D. C.

As automation moves into asset optimization, it spans all elements of operations and can run your process as a business.

Innovative solutions for processing shale oils

Baker Hughes: Sandu, C.  |  Wright, B.

New monitoring protocols can provide advance warning of any negative aspects of shale oil processing, thus enabling the refiner to take corrective measures early.