November 2011
Special Report: Plant Safety and Environment
The concept improves safety and efficiency and bolsters the bottom line
Resolving critical water supply and quality issues by managing risk and implementing successful solutions
Understanding of waste components needed for proper spent caustic disposal
Communicate clearly and explain thoroughly
Replacing spring-loaded valves can help increase efficiency and output
With careful consideration, an engineer can be certain that an installation will not chatter
Bonus Report: Process Control and Information Systems
Implementing low-cost best practices can provide peace of mind
Using dual-composition conserved energy efficiency, reduced reprocessing and allowed higher throughput
Engineering Case Histories
Tips on how to communicate with managers
Maintenance/Heat Transfer
In case history, engineers search for root cause of water-side tube failures for a 23-year-old boiler
Columns
As a safety professional with 25 years of experience in the hydrocarbon and chemical industries, I’ve had the unique opportunity to view first-hand the evolution of safety. Upon entering this fie..
While performing reliability audits decades ago, pump-failure statistics were made available or could be recovered with relative ease. But even then, the sources were usually kept confidential because..
Several years ago, while arriving onsite during another unit turnaround, I joked to a process engineer at the refinery “I get it. . . every time I ‘turn around,’ you have a turnaround.&..
As a leading research and consulting organization focused on the process industries, manufacturing, infrastructure and other industrial sectors, ARC Advisory Group has been closely following the emerg..
Trends and Resources
Biojet fuel grantRenewable chemicals and advanced biofuels firm Gevo has received a $5 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the development of biojet fuel from woody biomass ..
Eastman Chemical Co. has announced a second expansion of its Benzoflex plasticizer line at the Kohtla-Järve, Estonia, site. The expansion will increase Benzoflex capacity by an additional 11,000 ..
Technip, within the framework of a cooperation partnership with Haldor Topsøe, was awarded a contract to provide basic- and front-end engineering services on a Petrobras grassroots fertilizer com..
Navum Energy Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Turkmenistan state-owned gas concern, Turkmengas, which will lead to the construction of a series of gas-to-liquids (GTL) and ..
Technip was awarded a strategic engineering contract by Gabon Fertilizers Co. for a world-class, grassroots ammonia-urea fertilizer project to be developed at Port Gentil, Gabon. The proposed project ..
L&T Hydrocarbon has a project order, valued around $150 million, from Petroleum Development Oman LLC (PDO). The order is to set up a greenfield project planned to treat an average of 3 million standar..
Alfa Laval has won an order to supply its Packinox heat exchangers to a refinery in Kazakhstan. The order value is approximately SEK 55 million, and delivery is scheduled for 2012.The Packinox heat ex..
European Union (EU) chemicals production in July grew by 0.8% compared with July 2010, according to the latest chemicals trends report released by the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic). Howev..
World demand for water treatment products is projected to increase 6.2% per year to nearly $65 billion in 2015, according to The Freedonia Group (Table 1). Although growth will be healthy across the g..
The US shale gas exploration and production boom continues to fuel significant cost advantages for North American commodity chemicals producers as relative costs of natural gas and oil-based feedstock..
The five major automation foundations (FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International, and OPC Foundation) have developed a single common solution for..
Plant maintenance tips More than 100 maintenance tips, collected from maintenance and operations personnel nationwide, are now available in Kano Laboratories’ revised brochure Plant Maintena..
Compact-sized close-coupled pumps for application versatility  The Moyno 1000 close-coupled positive-displacement pump is said to provide greater versatility and performance advantages over other..
North American Turnaround and Maintenance 2011 Supplement
What is ‘lean’ for maintenance; should companies use?
- Samsung E&A awarded $955-MM contract for 650,000-tpy biofuels plant in Malaysia 12/12
- Neste supplies renewable diesel to BMW for initial fueling of the company’s newly-produced vehicles in Germany 12/12
- Nigeria's Dangote Refinery makes first petrol export to Cameroon 12/12
- EIA: U.S. crude stocks fall, fuel inventories rise on robust refining 12/12
- Wood Mackenzie: Defining the energy transition 12/12
- Rosneft, Reliance agree to biggest ever India-Russia oil supply deal 12/12