Engineering & Design
What is the ‘refinery of the future’?
For years, technology experts and engineers have discussed the elements and operations that will define the refinery of the future. The refining industry has made great progress from the early days. H..
Use crowdsourcing to boost process simulation
There are many ways to enhance the user experience of next-generation simulators by borrowing concepts from crowdsourcing, data mining and related fields.
Improve performance of exchangers in quench-water services
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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..
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