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

Equipment

Managing dark data and visualizing your digital twin

Siemens: Pawlewitz, J.  |  Doyle, A.

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

KBC, a Yokogawa Company: McIntee, A.
Yokogawa Corp. of America: Finnan, K.

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

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

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

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

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

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

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).

Inspection: A practical approach to internal inspection of pressure equipment

Contributing Editor: Anwer, A.

Internal inspections of pressure equipment involve a full inspection of the equipment. Inspection engineers and inspectors depend heavily on internal inspections to retrieve useful data, which includes information on active degradation mechanisms, corrosion rates, remaining equipment life, failure occurrences and failure expectations, among other critical details.

Project Management: How human intelligence and AI are driving project planning in the oil and gas industry

InEight: Patterson, D.

The science of project planning has something of a tenuous reputation. How often do large oil and gas capital expenditure (CAPEX) projects really come in according to plan? Almost never. Indeed, 30% of respondents to a 2018 PWC survey said they had experienced cost overruns of 10%–50% on their Middle East capital projects.

Digital: How digital tools improve access to device information

Emerson Automation Solutions: Thompson, A.

Welcome to the future! The plant runs fully automated; robots glide silently back and forth, ensuring an optimized process; and your maintenance technician—with a few keystrokes—can tell you exactly how each piece of equipment is running. The promise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has been delivered.

Cybersecurity visibility and resilience: Keys to protecting HSE/margins in operations

Siemens Oil and Gas: Garibi, C.

As digitalization accelerates in today’s downstream refining and petrochemical facilities, operators need to stay ahead of ever-growing cyber vulnerabilities in the operational technology (OT) layer—prime targets for threat actors—that may not be covered by traditional IT safeguards. Unfortunately, too often, that is not the case for a variety of reasons.

Optimal gas analysis decisions improve ethylene plant operation

Emerson Automation Solutions: Kamphus, M.  |  McMillen, D.

One of the most common and important building blocks in the petrochemical industry is ethylene, constituting a huge and fast-growing worldwide industry. Ethylene is an intermediate chemical used to manufacture many commercial products—approximately 200 MMt will be produced in 2020.