Piping
HC condensate sphere inlet pipe failure investigation
During a normal turnaround and inspection (T&I) of a hydrocarbon sphere, a fatigue failure in the 24-in. inlet pipe riser was discovered. As per the original 2003 design, the sphere serves as a surge tank during pipeline scraping, as well as a backup for a stabilizer during T&I. Each stabilizer has a capacity of 78,000 bpd. However, due to asymmetry in the piping configuration, the sphere typically receives higher flow of 90,000 bpd, with rates sometimes reaching 110,000 bpd as a result of scraping or other activities happening concurrently. The sphere was upgraded to work continuously in 2012 to handle the anticipated additional condensate by adding an overhead gas compressor and a dedicated condensate shipper pump.
Pinch analysis: A retrofit approach
Pinch analysis provides techniques for heat integration to design the heat exchanger network (HEN), not only for grassroots design but also to retrofit an existing system and optimize the process.
Hydrocarbon Processing Awards
<i>Hydrocarbon Processing,</i> the downstream processing sector’s leading technical publication, has announced the finalists for its third annual awards.
Address measurement uncertainty in pipelines and storage
How would you measure the volume of a can of soup? The height should work, but what about diameter? Or, you can possibly just trust what the manufacturer has told you on the label.
Specify the pressure drop of a vent silencer
Industrial facilities, such as refineries and petrochemical plants, have many systems and equipment that must relieve steam or gases through discharge piping to the atmosphere to avoid overpressure and protect the installation.
Innovations
Librestream and ecom, a Pepperl+Fuchs brand, have collaborated on an innovation for asset analysis and safety inspections in hazardous locations: the Onsight Cube-Ex wearable camera.
Mitigating corrosion challenges from opportunity crudes
High-quality crudes are not always readily available, or at a price that is acceptable to the producer’s budget.
Oil flushing benefits and optimization
Oil flushing has a direct impact on the performance and lifespan of industrial equipment.
Assess remaining life for heater tubes
Refineries and petrochemical plants form some of the major sections of the hydrocarbon industry and consume much of the fuel that is burned in furnaces (heaters and specialty furnaces, such as reformers and crackers) to meet process heating requirements.
Develop reactor internals for optimizing reactor design - Part 2: High-performance mixing chamber
Most hydroprocessing reactors are fixed-bed reactors comprising several catalyst beds that are divided by quench zones containing mixing chambers that introduce a vapor-quenching medium.
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