Loss Prevention
Equipment critical analysis: The need for an effective maintenance program
Oil refineries and large petrochemical plants contain thousands of pieces of process and utilities equipment that are subject to wear, erosion, deterioration, aging, etc., resulting in increasing breakdowns and outages. Imagine being a maintenance engineer and receiving 50 work orders during an overhaul with a limited budget, time, labor, spare parts, tools, machines, etc. How does that engineer prioritize the work?
Business Trends: Human reliability—a disruptive innovation
Annual bottom-line losses due to equipment failures total more than $100 MM at major refineries and petrochemical complexes. Corporate executives charge plant personnel with improving the reliability of the facility.
Editorial Comment: Maintenance—a value-added expense
This issue of <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> tackles one of the most integral aspects of the downstream industry (or any industry, for that matter): maintenance and reliability. These two terms go hand-in-hand and help to ensure efficient and safe operations.
Installation of liquid sulfur degassing processes in existing SRUs
Over the last 35 yr, more companies worldwide have installed liquid sulfur degassing processes in their sulfur recovery units (SRUs) to minimize the dangers of the release of hydrogen sulfide from the produced elemental sulfur.
Industry Perspectives: Hydrocarbon Processing’s IRPC returns to Europe in June
Founded in 2009, Gulf Publishing Company and Hydrocarbon Processing’s International Refining and Petrochemical Conference (IRPC) provides a series of events for the international downstream industry covering technical innovations, and exploring both the challenges and opportunities found in today’s market.
Recommended practices for fired process heater instrumentation and control
Fired process heaters are one of the most critical pieces of equipment within many refinery and petrochemical facilities. Proper instrumentation and control of the equipment has direct bearing on the successful operation of the process, as well as on overall facility process safety.
Extend unit life at ammonia-urea plants with debottlenecking and equipment replacement
Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd. (NFCL) operates a large, modern, integrated ammonia-urea complex with an annual capacity of 1.6 metric MMtpd of urea from natural gas feedstock. The facility is laid out in two units, located in Kakinada in India’s coastal state of Andhra Pradesh.
Metso to supply emergency shutdown valves at Orpic petchem complex in Oman
Metso will supply 400 Neles emergency shutdown (ESD) valves for an ethylene cracker as part of the new Liwa Plastics Industrial Complex (LPIC) Project in Sohar, Oman.
Process safety incidents, cognitive biases and critical thinking
Process hazard analysis (PHA) is performed to identify possible hazard scenarios that may occur in a process.
AIChE ’17: 13th Global Congress on Process Safety
SAN ANTONIO -- Run in parallel with the AIChE Spring Meeting, GCPS also draws a large attendance and a significant number of exhibitors. Now in San Antonio for 2017, the plenary session AGILE award keynote address was “Chemical Engineers Can Do Anything” by John Televantos of Arsenal Capital Partners.
- Essar launches hydrogen power plant at Stanlow refinery (U.K.) 7/16
- Trelleborg partners with Airbus on hydrogen-powered air travel 7/16
- Neste, Mitsubishi Corporation agree on strategic partnership to develop supply chains for renewable chemicals and plastics 7/16
- Vale, Komatsu and Cummins announce collaboration to develop dual-fuel large trucks, powered by ethanol and diesel 7/16
- Mexico–U.S. energy trade value fell in 2023 on lower fuel prices 7/16
- Belarus' Mozyr oil refinery restoring operations after outage due to storm 7/16
- Digital Exclusive: SPECIAL FOCUS: Digital Technologies—Utilize process simulation digital twin to optimize condensate yield
- Digital Exclusive-Flare system design: Liquid pockets in flare headers
- Hydrogen-rich content gasoline: A new concept for paraffinic gasoline reformulation
- Alarm rationalization at Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) refineries
