Equipment
Design of very-high-flow coefficient centrifugal compressor stages
Centrifugal compressors are widely used in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries, with more than 15,000 operating in the U.S. alone.
Optimization: Plan before main air blower disaster strikes
Weeks before a planned overhaul of its coker unit, a synthetic crude plant’s main air blower for the furnace failed, throwing the engineers’ plans into disarray.
The importance of engineering and construction alignment throughout the project lifecycle
Construction is where the rubber meets the road. This phase historically is the most challenging time of the project, often characterized by problems with high levels of urgency and difficulty.
Effectively clean air fan coolers with water and steam
In many refineries and petrochemical plants, air fan coolers (AFCs) become a major bottleneck to increasing plant capacity. Many plants suffer from lower heat duty than designed, especially during the summer months, which can lead to lower plant capacity.
Leveraging modern flow technologies to improve safety in refineries
The refining industry is facing increased pressures, such as crude oil supply changes, changing product distributions and increasing regulations. These pressure points create a highly competitive market where refiners are looking for options that include digitally transforming operations and adapting new technologies to enhance safety and improve uptime, flexibility and efficiency, while securing their competitive position in a dynamic market. Improving personnel and process safety remains a top focus area for refiners.
Managing dark data and visualizing your digital twin
Today’s tools are often specialized for a certain type of task; however, they often lack the connectivity that would enable the easy comparison and cross-reference of asset information. Engineering tools are well suited for design and build phases, but may be less suited for use in operations and maintenance.
Five key innovation concepts to impact frontline engineers in 2020
Gas processing, liquefaction, oil refining, bulk petrochemicals and chemicals plants represent a large population of frontline engineers and technical managers. Their professional lives will become increasingly impacted by the growing adoption of disruptive digital technologies and digital platforms.
Innovations
Analytical Systems Keco introduces the 205L Laboratory H2S in Liquids Analyzer that quantifies hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in crude oil, fuel oil, naphtha, water, diesel and gasoline. The removal of H2S in crude oil, condensate and other liquid products before transport or storage is imperative to reduce the risk of health and safety issues, as well as product quality control. In addition to providing high precision in testing for H2S in crude oil, the analyzer is fast, offering results within 10 min.–15 min.
Industry Perspectives: The Main Column—Hydrocarbon Processing's new podcast series
In December 2019, <i>Hydrocarbon Processing's</i> launched its new podcast series: The Main Column. The podcast series will feature the latest in hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) trends, technology developments, engineering and operations.
Editorial Comment: Adopting digital technologies to enhance operations
What is the future of refining and petrochemical operations? One trend that has been the focus of many articles, whitepapers and conference presentations is the digital transformation of the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI).
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