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Refining

Teaching an old plant new tricks: The rise of the methanol plant revamp

Jacobs Consultancy: Stanbridge, S.

The last time we saw such marked activity in the methanol industry was back in the 1990s and early 2000s, when methanol production in North America plummeted by almost two-thirds.

An operations reference model for common refinery operations

BR&L Consulting Inc.: Brandl, D.
Schneider Electric: Turk, M. A.

Refineries are large, highly automated, complex systems involving hundreds of people, thousands of work processes, thousands of control loops and tens of thousands of input/output points.

Catalytic advances make chemical upgrading a reality for heavy sour feeds

Auterra Inc.: Burnett, E.  |  Litz, K.  |  Schmelzer, G.

For many years, industry researchers have worked to find more cost-effective alternative processes than traditional hydroprocessing for upgrading petroleum fractions.

People

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

Dr. Alexander Horch has been named as the new head of development at HIMA Paul Hildebrandt GmbH.

Amec Foster Wheeler wins Indonesian refinery upgrade contract

Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded an engineering and project management services contract by PT Pertamina and Saudi Aramco for the upgrade and expansion of the Cilacap Refinery in Central Java.

Industry Metrics

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

The impact of Canadian and French refinery outages caused margins to fall slightly in the Atlantic Basin and Europe, despite stronger gasoline demand and higher inventories.

Business Trends: Asia’s smaller downstream players have big plans

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

Most of the focus on Asian downstream capacity construction revolves around large consuming nations, such as China and India.

Viewpoint: Envisioning a “future-proof” refinery of the future

Emerson Process Management: Carugo, M.

Trying to predict how global refining markets will look in 2026 is a losing proposition. The only thing we can count on with any real certainty is uncertainty.

Codes and Standards: Explore alternative engineering options for code requirements

The Augustus Group: Murti, D. G.

This article is the second under the “Codes and Standards” series.

Refining: Tackle operational challenges in refining unconventional crudes

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Andrew, Bob

Fuel refineries in earlier decades would preferentially process light sweet crudes, for the right price, to maximize gasoline and distillate production and to meet sulfur specifications with less cost.