Safety
Conceptually, accidents are a fallacy
Webster’s unabridged dictionary defines accident as “Literally, a befalling; an event that takes place without one’s foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden and unexpected event..
Select the right shaft-riding brushes for turbomachinery
Since the mid-1950s, much progress has been accomplished in the development, design and production of shaft-riding brushes for turbomachinery applications. The machinery includes steam and gas turbine..
HP Reliability: Fact-checking list from recent reliability conferences
Whenever HP editors attend technical conferences, their primary goals include observing industry practices, finding facts and spotting trends. Fact or fictionUnfortunately, presenters sometimes relate..
HP Water Management: Update: Online measurement of oxidizing biocides
Nearly all owners of industrial cooling towers feed oxidizing biocides—chlorine (Cl) and bromine (Br)—to kill bacteria in the recirculating cooling water. Minimizing the populations of bacte..
HP Innovations: Innovations
Flowmeter uses Coriolis force in measurementThe Sitrans FC430 flowmeter from Siemens AG is capable of measuring liquids and gases using the Coriolis principle. Flows can be measured with a precision o..
Use model-based temperature control for fixed-bed reactors
A process unit at BASF’s Geismar, Louisiana manufacturing facility contains a series of six packed-bed reactors filled with a proprietary catalyst. This catalyst promotes an exothermic reaction, ..
Overcome barriers to proper planning and scheduling
Planning and scheduling must work hand-in-hand for a turnaround, outage or shutdown to be executed to budget and schedule. Unless proper diligence is given up-front to planning and scheduling, no amou..
Mitigate reactor failures due to graphitization
Graphitization occurs in carbon steel (CS) reactors in high-temperature service (> 455°C). As discussed in this case history, the shell of a methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) reactor became s..
Corrosion under insulation is a hidden problem
Corrosion under insulation (CUI) is one of the costliest avoidable problems facing the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) today. CUI afflicts refineries—specifically, the steel piping, storage..
Process safety management: Going beyond functional safety
Operating companies are increasing efforts to reduce the risk of catastrophic events such as the release of toxic, reactive or explosive chemicals that can damage the environment or plant assets.
- Shell shuts down Singapore oil processing unit to investigate leak 12/27
- Peru declares environmental emergency after oil spill 12/27
- New York (U.S.) to fine fossil fuel companies $75 B under new climate law 12/27
- BPCL plans $11-B refinery and petrochemical project in South India 12/26
- Mexico's new Olmeca refinery operated at 17% of capacity in November 12/26
- Relevant Industrial announces acquisition of Loy Instrument Inc. 12/26
