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

Equipment

Machinery: Soft skills and habits all machinery professionals must develop—Part 1

Consultant: Perez, R. X.

When I ask people that work around machinery, “How do you improve reliability?” they often tell me to buy better bearings, seals, monitors or some other hardware-based improvement.

HF alkylation conversion is finally within reach—Part 1

DuPont: Nunez, J.  |  Presley, S.

Because of its clean-fuel properties (paraffinic, high octane, low vapor pressure and very low sulfur), alkylate is considered one of the most desired components in the gasoline pool.

FCC collector tray leaks impact column operation

Valero Energy Corp.: Hanson, D.  |  Brown Burns, J.  |  Teders, M.

In the collective experience of the authors, one of the most troublesome pieces of refinery fractionation equipment is the collector tray.

Identify the cause of liquid maldistribution inside packed beds

Tracerco: Pless, L.

Diagnosing liquid maldistribution problems inside packed beds that can cause mass transfer efficiency loss is a challenge to process engineers.

Does your control valve talk?

Palmela: Almas, A.

Pneumatic operated control valves (POCVs) are consistently the most used control final element for process control across most industries—in some cases, they are also part of the safety instrumented systems (SISs) layer.

Considerations for revamping shell-and-tube heat exchangers

Summum Projects: Garrido, E.

Revamp projects are complex in nature, and demand a great deal of resources for successful completion.

Revamp fired heaters with a common air-preheating system to increase capacity

Bechtel Corp.: Ahamad, S.  |  Vallavanatt, R.

In any process plant, fired heaters are generally considered to be one of the most optimally designed pieces of equipment.

Analyzing axial cooling fans’ high noise, vibration and failures

Saudi Aramco: Allah, W. K.

Shipping pumps with 1,800 hp are equipped with five cooling fans that cool the oil going to the lube oil pumps to lubricate the bearings.

Improve H2O measurement in catalytic reformer H2 recycle streams

SpectraSensors: Engelhart, W. G.

Catalytic reformer units convert naphtha into high-octane aromatic compounds called reformates, which are used in gasoline blending and formulation. UOP developed the catalytic reforming process and brought the first unit into operation in 1949.

Modified revamp process to reduce energy use in an SDA unit

CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum: Kumar, S.  |  Nanoti, S. M.  |  Garg, M. O.
Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd.: Amutha, R.  |  Nandagopalu, N. V. N.

Solvent deasphalting (SDA) is emerging as a low-cost, bottom-of-the-barrel upgrading process to recover valuable oil from short residue. This oil can either be further processed to make lube-oil-based stocks or cracked in secondary processing units.