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

Engineering & Design

Improve solvent recovery in wax production

CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum: Garg, M. O.  |  Kumar, S.  |  Nanoti, S. M.  |  Ghosh, P.

The solvent-recovery section of the deoiling unit for wax production consumes substantial energy. In this study, the effects of operating conditions (pressure), energy consumption and cost, and proces..

Update temperature control for a Claus unit with neural networks

North-West University, School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering: Schabort, C. J.  |  Neomagus, H. W. J. P.

The Natref oil refinery in Sasolburg, South Africa, had experienced refractory problems in the sulfur recovery unit’s (SRU’s) combustion chamber since startup (Fig. 1). Even though the SRU w..

HP Reliability: Maintain proficiency in root-cause-failure analysis

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Earlier in the year, the author attended a series of client and organizers’ presentations at the 2013 TapRooT Summit in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. TapRooT is a structured failure analysis and trouble..

HP Integration Strategies: Operational integrity management at Statoil

ARC Advisory Group: Reynolds, P.

Asset-intensive industries continue to suffer from unplanned downtime, failure to meet planned production rates, and too many safety and environmental incidents. Until companies can manage and mitigat..

HP Automation Safety: MTTR: Reality vs. calculation

exida LLC: Goble, W.

Many reliability engineers trained before IEC 61508 know the acronym MTTR as “mean time to repair.” I certainly learned that definition. Naturally, I think of the time it takes to repair som..

HP Industry Perspectives: Is it too early to be optimistic for 2014?

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Romanow, Stephany

The increased availability of natural gas supplies are redefining energy conditions. New natural gas reserves are shifting the order for producing nations. Shale gas reserves, once difficult to extrac..

HP Brief

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

LNG terminal to be built in Uruguay GDF Suez has signed a 15-year contract with Gas Sayago for LNG storage and regasification services in Uruguay. Commercial operation of the new terminal is expected ..

HP Impact: US demand for water treatment chemicals

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Demand for water treatment chemicals in the US is forecast to rise 3.2% per year to $6.7 billion in 2017. Gains will reflect not only healthy growth in the oil, gas and mining industries and a rebound..

HP Impact: Unconventional oil and gas to boost US trade position

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

The economic and employment contributions from US unconventional oil and gas production are now being felt throughout the US economy, increasing household incomes, boosting trade and contributing to a..

CF to expand US ammonia, urea production plants

CF Industries is constructing new ammonia and urea/UAN plants at its Donaldsonville complex and new ammonia and urea plants at its Port Neal complex. In combination, these two new facilities will be able to produce 2.1 million tpy of gross ammonia and upgraded products such as granular urea.