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Engineering & Design

Reliability: Consider stainless steel tubing for mechanical seal connections

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

If, in days past, you have questioned why hard piping was used for mechanical seal flush lines and seal support configurations in process pumps, you are certainly not alone.

Prevent buckling of tanks with external rafters

Suncor Energy Inc.: Tharakan, J.

Most cone roof tanks are designed with roof-supporting structures inside the tank.

Simulation model of a vacuum heater transfer line

C&I Engineering: Williams, R. H.

The vacuum tower is a critical part of many crude distillation units, and the vacuum heater transfer line is a critical part of vacuum tower operation.

Flexibility in desalting operations for opportunity crudes

Forum Process Technologies: Mejias, I.  |  Liu, Y.  |  Boul, J.  |  Collins, T.

Typically, opportunity crudes require more rigorous desalting to yield high-quality products due to high levels of naphthenic acids, basic sediment and water (BS&W) and filterable solids, among others.

Upgrading the bottom of the barrel

Energy Systems Engineering: Elshout, R.
Consultant: Bailey, J.  |  Brown, L.  |  Nick, P.

In the past few decades, new technologies, including both carbon rejection methods and catalytic conversion methods, have emerged.

Metallurgy solution to prevent polythionic acid stress corrosion cracking in hydroprocessing

Honeywell UOP: Hoehn, R. K.  |  Bradley, S. A.  |  Mucek, M. W.
Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp.: Anada, H.  |  Osuki, T.

Hydrotreating is a staple process found in nearly every refinery. The process removes undesirable feed contaminants, such as sulfur, nitrogen and metals, and saturates olefins and/or aromatics to produce high-quality products.

Editorial Comment: It’s all in the makeup of things

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

This issue of <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> features a topic that has been addressed in sections of the magazine for several decades, but has never been a focal point of the publication. That topic is materials manufacturing.

Evaluate structural stiffness for piping stress analysis

Reliance Engineering Group (REG): Choudhury, M. G.  |  Tripathi, R.

Hydrocarbon plants use a system of pipes of various sizes, pressures and temperatures. Sometimes these pipes have pulsating flows that result in piping system vibration. These piping systems must be designed for a high degree of reliability, which requires a comprehensive piping stress analysis for thermal, sustained, occasional and dynamic loading conditions.

Consider pitot tube pumps for low-flow, high-head applications

Saudi Aramco: Alshaye, A.

Low-flow, high-head pumping requirements in refining and petrochemical plants make up less than 2% of the total pump population. This minor percentage is creating significant reliability concerns, which result in low mean-time between failures (MTBF), as well as high maintenance costs.

Borealis awards Jacobs FEED contract for PDH plant in Belgium

DALLAS — Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has been awarded a contract to complete a front end engineering design (FEED) study for a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant located at the existing Borealis production site in Kallo, Belgium.