Compressors
Unconventional improvement of propylene recovery yield at the PP splitter
Thermocompression-equipped propane-propylene (PP) splitters are used to upgrade large quantities of refinery-grade propylene (RGP) to polymer-grade propylene (PGP).
Engineering Case Histories: Case 110: A checklist for vibration analysis
Periodically, I receive questions from engineers around the world on why a piece of critical machinery is vibrating excessively.
High-pressure gas compressor dry gas seal system enhancement case study
The Khurais producing department (KhPD) consists of four oil trains: each oil train is responsible for receiving, stabilizing and purifying the crude oil from the wells by removing sand, water, gas and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) contents to make the oil ready for use and shipment to refineries.
Business Trends: Autonomous operations in process manufacturing—Part 1
Progress in the driverless car segment has served to illuminate one of the major future goals in industrial and process manufacturing: autonomous operations in process plants—in other words, the autonomous plant. While AO for process plants has received interest from the process automation and control industry, limited serious discussion has taken place in the process operations and IT domains.
Reliability: Reliability engineering on offshore platforms
Offshore platforms have had their fair share of successes and failures over the years, and to say that their reliability experiences contain lessons for all of us is an understatement.
Variable capacity control technology facilitates efficient operation for reciprocating compressors
Reciprocating compressors are used extensively in refinery and petrochemical operations to keep feedstocks and products moving through miles of piping.
Design of very-high-flow coefficient centrifugal compressor stages
Centrifugal compressors are widely used in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries, with more than 15,000 operating in the U.S. alone.
Optimization: Plan before main air blower disaster strikes
Weeks before a planned overhaul of its coker unit, a synthetic crude plant’s main air blower for the furnace failed, throwing the engineers’ plans into disarray.
Managing dark data and visualizing your digital twin
Today’s tools are often specialized for a certain type of task; however, they often lack the connectivity that would enable the easy comparison and cross-reference of asset information. Engineering tools are well suited for design and build phases, but may be less suited for use in operations and maintenance.
Reliability: Things rarely heard at reliability conferences
We can only guess how many reliability conferences we have attended since accepting job offers in the refining or chemical processing industries. In my case, starting in 1965, it is somewhere between 60 and 80. If, in each of these conferences I listened to six presentations, the number of sessions attended is perhaps 400.

- China's Wanhua Chemical starts operation at new east China cracker 4/4
- Brookfield Infrastructure announces the acquisition of Colonial Enterprises for $9 B 4/4
- PBF restarts some units at Martinez refinery after February fire; fire-damaged units remain shut 4/4
- Japan to curb gasoline prices from June to cushion U.S. tariff blow 4/4
- Evonik presents innovative "Debonding on Demand" concept for more sustainable bonding 4/3
- Oil, gas and refined product imports exempted from Trump’s sweeping tariffs 4/3