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

Engineering & Design

Improve performance of exchangers in quench-water services

Wieland-Werke AG: Lang, T.  |  El-Hajal, J.
Technip: Provost, J.

Dual-enhanced (DE) tubes are widely used in shell-and-tube heat exchangers (HEXs) in a range of industries. They have become a standard in multiple clean services for the hydrocarbon processing indust..

A chemist’s perspective on organic fouling in ethylene operations

Nalco Champion: Hancock, J. M.
SABIC Technology & Innovation: Van Zijl, A. W.  |  Robson, I.  |  Vachon, J.  |  Hashmi, A.

Since organic fouling cannot be completely eliminated, ethylene producers must use operational, chemical and mechanical methods to minimize heat transfer losses and equipment downtime.

Automate furnace controls to improve safety and energy efficiency

Phillips 66: Mickity, D.

Furnace firing is the biggest single operating expense in any refinery. Consider a medium-size refinery (250,000 bpd) that consumes 2,000 MMBtu/h. At a cost of $5/MMBtu, that’s $87.6 MM/yr being ..

Use online conditioning to monitor electric motors

GE Measurement and Control: Wilhelm, B.
GE Global Research Center: Neti, P.

Quality and health assessments of motor insulation are important aspects during the manufacturing, as well as the operation, of electrical motors. Today, there are several offline insulation quality a..

Targeted liquid injection improves shed deck performance

Valero Benicia Refinery: Riley, C.  |  Wicklow, C.
Valero Energy Corp.: Hanson, D.  |  Brown Burns, J.

This case study shows how the installation of an unique piping and lance design achieved targeted liquid injection, quenched vapor hot zones and reduced resid entrainment into the heavy coker gasoil product.

Which margin levers impact Group I and Group II base stock competitiveness? Part 1

Kline and Co., Inc.: Moncrieff, I.

As much as the lubricants industry might wish it otherwise, base stocks production is becoming more commoditized, and it is intertwined inextricably with mainstream refining operations. The vast major..

HP Reliability: Normalization of deviance can kill

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger (mission STS-51-L) broke apart just 73 seconds after launch. The seven-member crew of the shuttle lived until 3 minutes and 58 seconds after launch, w..

HP Automation Strategies: Working toward a more profitable model-based control technology

ARC Advisory Group: de Leeuw, V.

Last November, the European Union (EU) Autoprofit project held a workshop near Amsterdam for academia, users, and suppliers. The workshop organizers presented the results of the soon-to-be-completed m..

HP Project Management: Better strategies avoid project delays—Part 3

Tecnicas Reunidas: Corrales-Pérez, J.

The first two parts of this series analyzed the root causes of project delays and proposed strategies to avoid schedule overruns. This final part reviews construction planning.Construction planningOne..

HP Petrochemicals: Future vehicle design will need collaboration among HPI and auto manufacturers

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: DuBose, Ben

The US automotive market is under stress to meet new corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) targets of 50 mpg for 2025 model vehicles. The tighter fuel specifications will bring together automobile man..