Refining
Digital: How digital tools improve access to device information
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
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.
Brazilian developments in the biofuels market
Since the 1970s, Brazil has been a world reference in automotive biofuels, especially bioethanol produced from sugarcane. In 1973, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) forced a sharp rise in oil prices, triggering a massive slowdown in the country’s economic growth, which had been going through what was dubbed the “economic miracle,” with growth at an average of 12% of GDP. This study gives an overview of the biofuel sector in Brazil, along with the main business challenges and opportunities in this area.
Reveal the unmonitored risks in your rotating equipment—Part 1
On December 15, 2002, an anomalous event occurred in a steam turbine of Unit 2 at the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, a pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear reactor near Bay City, Texas. The ensuing investigation concluded that a blade was ejected from a low-pressure stage, and detailed inspections revealed additional cracked blades in several stages.
Fluid Flow: Energy markets, product improvements drive growth in the global flowmeter market
The size of the global flowmeter market has followed the upward and downward fluctuations in oil prices and is now on an upward trajectory, according to a new study by Flow Research that provides total global market shares of the major suppliers of each flowmeter technology (except sonar and optical) by 2018 revenues.
Roundtable: The skills gap: How to bridge it and how to close it
The skills gap is not a new phenomenon for the oil and gas sector. An aging workforce and increased competition for tomorrow’s technical talent have left the industry nervous about its future. On the heels of the 2019 Global Energy Talent Index (GETI), a panel of experts came together to discuss the sector’s ongoing struggle with the skills gap and what oil and gas/energy companies can do about it.
Digital: Technologies are advancing industry beyond alarm management
Let’s face it, alarm management is a fully mature body of knowledge. Since the mid-1990s, industry has improved thousands of alarm systems, transforming them from overloaded nuisances to valuable operator tools for abnormal situation detection and response.
Case study: Heat exchanger tube rupture and its impact on metal embrittlement
Process engineers strive to recover as much energy as is practically possible from the available process and utility streams within the constraint of the plant. To achieve this goal, traditional—and sometimes non-traditional—methods are utilized. In a steam cracker, light olefins are considered the highest-value products, and utilizing “cold energy,”
Editorial Comment: Processing a sustainable future
An emerging topic along the entire oil and gas value chain is the move toward <i>sustainability.</i> Each company has a somewhat different definition of what sustainability means to its operations.
People
The Valve Manufacturers Association of America (VMA) has named Heather Rhoderick as President. She will succeed William “Bill” Sandler, who retired this year after a 40-yr tenure with the organization.
- KBR to provide technology for mega-scale ammonia plant in Angola 11/25
- Indian refiners' October crude processing up over 3% y/y 11/25
- Air Liquide strengthens partnership with TotalEnergies through renewable H2 project in France 11/25
- Hexagon collaborates with Microsoft to enhance industrial operations 11/25
- China issues extra crude oil import quota to teapot refineries 11/25
- McDermott achieves ISO 50001 Certification for energy management at four fabrication yards 11/25
