Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

December 2009

Archive

Special Report: Plant Design and Engineering

Maintain a competitive edge in the liquefied natural gas industry
Honeywell Process Solutions: Colpo, J.

Use this integrated approach to optimize construction and operation costs

What are the 10 secrets of successful leaders?
Management Methods Inc.: Woodruff, D. M.

Leadership is about relationships; consider applying these strategies to improve your organization

Advanced hydrocracking technology upgrades extra heavy oil
eni S.p.A. Refining and Marketing Division: Amoroso, A.  |  Rispoli, G.  |  Sanfilipo, D.
Honeywell Process Solutions: Colpo, J.

New hydrogen-addition process yields middle distillates while zeroing fuel oil and coke production from vacuum residue

Executing a standard plant design using the 4X model
Fluor Sunninghill: Clark, P.
Sunoco, Inc: Damiano Jr., V. P.
National Chemical Laboratory: Kulkarni, B. D.
University of Texas: O'Connor, J. T.

Case study: A low-sulfur gasoline project on four identical process units

Engineering Case Histories

Case history: Benchmarks achieved in a residue upgrading project
SK Energy: Jeon, Y. M.  |  Kim, S. J.  |  Kwon, S. H.  |  Ok, Y. S.  |  Shin, Y. W.  |  Sohn, B. H.

This energy company aggressively implemented a mega-project safely and under budget with a new approach

Plant Safety and Environment

Requirement engineering and management - Part 2 - performance standards development
ADEPP Academy: Salimi, F.-F.

Use these guidelines to determine the safety-critical elements and tasks. Free software modules are available at http://www.adepp.com/demo

Process Analyzers

Fine tune accuracy in analytic measurement - Part 3
Swagelok Company: Nordstrom, D.  |  Waters, T.

Follow these steps to avoid compromising a sample

Process Safety/Environment

Ensuring site-wide consistency in relief system analyses
Jacobs Consultancy: Brendel, R.

Follow these protocols when evaluating common-cause failure scenarios for flares and headers

Pumps/Reliability

Think power pumps are self-priming? Think again!
Consulting Engineer: Henshaw, T.

Think power pumps are self-priming? Think again!

Columns

HP Control: More on APC designs for minimum maintenance
Tesoro Corp.: Kern, A.G.

Perhaps Zak Friedman struck the perfect balance in his series of editorials,1 because while Dr. Latour thinks Zak went too far in his suggestions to prune multivariable control (MPC) matrices,2 I woul..

HP Reliability: Understanding periodic pump switching and parallel operation
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Many process plants have "identical" centrifugal pumps installed in a given service. Most of these were probably intended as spare equipment. They would be started up in the event the primary pump ha..

HP Integration Strategies: Laser scanning for HPI plant operations and maintenance

Ralph Rio, Contributing editor       Comments? Write: editorial@HydrocarbonProcessing.com   Is your plant's CAD m..

HPIn Europe: Forecast for Europe: Bankers get richer as old refiners fade away
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Wright, Tim L.

It may have been the banking industry that paved the way into the present global downturn. But it is European refineries that will be shutting up shop, and there's no government rescue waiting in the ..

New Developments

Online simulator for process heaters John Zink Co.'s educational organization, The John Zink Institute, offers an online process heater simulator. This learning tool reportedly enables users to study ..

HP Construction: North America
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

  CB&I has a contract in excess of US$100 million with UGI LNG, Inc. to engineer, procure and construct the expansion of the Temple liquefied natural gas (LNG) peak shaving facility near Reading,..

HP Construction: South America
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

  Petroperú (Petroleos del Perú) and Axens have signed a contract for the modernization of Talara, Petroperú's largest refinery in Peru. The main objectives are expansion of the ..

HP Construction: Europe
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

  Gazprom and Srbijagas have agreed to set up joint ventures for the South Stream and Banatski Dvor UGS facility in northern Serbia.The agreement defines procedures, terms and conditions of inc..

HP Construction: Middle East
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

  Al-Waha Petrochemical Co. has successfully started up its new complex in Al-Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia. The complex includes a 450,000-tpy polypropylene plant based on LyondellBasel..

HP Construction: Asia-Pacific
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

  Alfa Laval has received an order from PetroVietnam Group. The order value is about SEK 100 million and includes equipment and engineering solutions for an ethanol production plant in central ..

Free Literature

High-pressure pumping solutions Wood Group SPS Surface Pumping Systems are said to provide versatile, low-maintenance alternatives to many multistage split-case centrifugal, positive di..

HP In Brief: HPIn Brief
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

The lowdown on industrial drives The worldwide industrial drives market was estimated to be worth approximately $16.5 billion in 2008, with more th..

HP Impact: HPImpact: New regulatory pressures mean a tough slog for the EU's refining industry
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Berlin was the spot for a sober gathering of HPI professionals who used the ERTC annual meeting as a platform to discuss current economic and regulatory problems facing the industry. The mid-November ..

HP Impact: HPImpact: The roller coaster shows no signs of slowing down
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Oil prices have been on a roller coaster since West Texas Intermediate hit a peak of $147 in the summer of 2008 and then plunged to as low as $37 earlier this year. While oil prices have recovered sin..

HP Impact: HPImpact: Successful strategies in the current market conditions
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

The global recession was abrupt and has hit very deep. By the end of 2009, the world will have seen two consecutive years of oil demand decline, the first time it has happened since the 1980s. Within ..

HP Impact: HPImpact: Small technologies can deliver big punches
Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Thinnes, Billy

Charles Cameron, the head of research and technology in refining and marketing for BP in London, is a firm believer in small technologies that can deliver big punches. "I am here today as the lead che..