Maintenance & Reliability
Major turnaround at Neste refinery to complete planned production structure change
In mid-August, Neste will begin a two-month shutdown at its refinery in Naantali, Finland. The major turnaround will complete the plan first introduced in 2014 to implement closer integration of the operations of the two Finnish refineries under uniform management. The Finnish refinery operations of Neste consist of four production lines at the Porvoo refinery, and one in Naantali.
Rethinking the risk mitigation process and revitalizing operational safety
For the past 2 yr, oil prices have been in free-fall. At the time of writing, the WTI price is around $50/bbl, up slightly since OPEC’s May 2017 announcement to extend its September 2016 production cut of 2.2%.
Role statements needed for reliability job functions
Experience shows that written role statements impart great value to industries that have reliability professionals on staff.
Carburization inspection robots for radiant tubes inside ethylene cracking furnaces
In an olefins plant, the reliability of ethylene cracking furnaces is one of the deciding factors used to indicate whether or not the plant can be operated at its design productivity.
Does your control valve talk?
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
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
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
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.
Troubleshooting vacuum operation of an inter-after condenser unit in an ethylene plant
A system of compressors powered by surface condensing steam turbines is inherent in the operation of a typical ethane cracker unit.
Industry Perspectives: The global reach of Hydrocarbon Processing
Since the beginning of this year, Hydrocarbon Processing has published more than 200 articles and columns. These publications include technical and trends-based articles on the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) within the magazine, online, in show dailies, etc.
- 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
