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

Loss Prevention

Address inlet pressure loss concerns with restricted lift relief devices

Smith & Burgess LLC: Smith, D.
Bechtel Corp.: Yoram, S.

For the past 30 years, standard-sized relief devices have been sized such that it is difficult to meet the installation criteria in American Petroleum Institute (API) standard (STD) 520. This problem ..

HP Editorial Comment: The silent assassin: Corrosion

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Romanow, Stephany

This month’s special report focuses on corrosion. Often, uncontrolled corrosion undermines the mechanical integrity of process equipment and infrastructure. It is often identified as the root cau..

HP Automation Safety: What are safety engineering ethics?

exida LLC: Goble, W.

In many professional engineer (PE) programs, continuing education is required. In some US states, this education includes specific requirements for engineering ethics training. The author recently att..

HP News

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Country spotlight: KazakhstanAccording to data from the Kazakhstan Ministry of Oil and Gas, the country’s three oil refineries processed nearly 14.3 million tons (MMt) of crude in 2013. The 2013 ..

HP Innovations

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Blume, Adrienne

Bitumen blowing unit converts residues to asphaltPoerner Ingenieurgesellschaft’s Biturox oxidation process (Fig. 1) converts suitable feedstock blends to road and industrial asphalt/bitumen. Feed..

Integrated management helps compliance with maintenance, startup and shutdown rules

Kleinfelder: Bejarano, F.  |  Sussman, M.

To comply with stricter air quality regulations while allowing for continued growth, hydrocarbon processing facilities must efficiently minimize pollutants without interrupting production (Fig. 1). Tr..

Consider robust tank overfill prevention and independent alarm and gauging systems

PEMY Consulting: Myers, P. E.

Elimination of tank overfills is a significant problem for the petroleum industry. Since most tank receiving operations are manual, the operators rely heavily on tank level gauges and alarms for overf..

HP Automation Strategies: ISO 55000 will up the ante for asset performance management

ARC Advisory Group: Hollywood, Paula

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you should have heard about the upcoming ISO 55000 Asset Management Systems standard. How will this impact the hydrocarbon processing i..

HP Automation Strategies: ISA108 Intelligent Device Management focuses on work processes

ARC Advisory Group: Hollywood, Paula

Over the last decade, field instrumentation and analytical chemistry device suppliers have made tremendous progress incorporating value-added functionality into intelligent devices. This includes enha..

Rethink the hazards in your process

Professional engineer: Modi, R.

In designing process safety systems, “more” is not necessarily better. Advanced technology has created a mindset to over-install hardware to prevent or to reduce the risk of failure in hydro..