Hydrocarbon Processing 2021 Awards FINALISTS
Hydrocarbon Processing, the downstream processing sector’s leading technical publication for nearly 100 yr, has announced the finalists for its fifth annual HP Awards, which celebrate innovative technologies and people that have been instrumental in improving facility operations over the past year.
Hydrocarbon Processing, the downstream processing sector’s leading technical publication for nearly 100 yr, has announced the finalists for its fifth annual HP Awards, which celebrate innovative technologies and people that have been instrumental in improving facility operations over the past year. The awards cover 19 strategic categories. Nearly 100 nominations were submitted from countries around the world. Each abstract was voted on by an independent Hydrocarbon Processing advisory board. The following is a complete list of all finalists in each category. The winners in each category will be announced during a live-stream, digital event on October 28. The awards ceremony will also feature two additional categories not listed in the following finalists list: EPC of the Year and Licensor of the Year. Hydrocarbon Processing would like to congratulate all nominees on this prestigious honor.
BEST AR/VR/AI TECHNOLOGY
Aspen AIoT AIoT™ Hub, Aspen Technology
The Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) is a cloud-ready and built-for-purpose industrial AI infrastructure that unlocks the immense value from data assets across capital-intensive enterprises to deliver actionable insights quickly and easily.
AVEVA™ Schedule AI Assistant, AVEVA
The AI system provides refinery schedulers a smooth and incident-free means to optimize refining operations, providing viable options for plant scheduling in a matter of minutes instead of hours when using older methods.
ehsAI, ehsAI
The system uses AI and machine learning (ML) to automate the transformation of regulatory documents such as patents, standards, regulations, policies and guidance documents into detailed, mapped requirements.
Immersive Field Simulator (IFS), Honeywell
The IFS is a VR and mixed reality-based training tool that incorporates a digital twin of the physical plant to provide targeted, on-demand and skill-based training for plant workers.
Closed Loop Neural Network™, Imubit
This solution is a closed-loop neural network that interconnects planning and economics, process engineering, process control and operations, enabling plant managers to discover, engineer and monetize process optimization opportunities.
APM 360™, Symphony Industrial AI
This technology covers overall machine health and performance, real-time prescriptive monitoring and predictive maintenance insights for critical plant assets.
BEST ASSET MONITORING TECHNOLOGY
Aspen Mtell® v12, Aspen Technology
This prescriptive maintenance solution uses historical behavior of an asset and maintenance data to find key failure events and help organizations discover problems before failures occur.
Honeywell Forge Asset Performance Management (APM), Honeywell
The APM tool is an enterprise-grade, real-time analytics solution that monitors asset and process performance, detects impending health issues and helps drive continuous improvement.
Digital Reliability Platform, SCG Chemicals/AVEVA
SCG Chemicals worked with AVEVA on a digital solution to monitor critical assets and predict failure, which would have a detrimental impact to SCG’s production chain. The asset performance management platform predicts equipment health, monitors performance and enables advanced maintenance to eliminate unplanned downtime.
APM40&G, Siemens Energy
This solution helps personnel avoid costly downtime, obtain enhanced performance out of assets and significantly reduce operations by continuously comparing real-time operational data against models.
Dynamic Risk Pathways, Sphera
This technology is the industry’s next generation of operational risk management digital twin technology to model and simulate risk exposure to help prevent incidents.
BEST AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY
Aspen GDOT™, Aspen Technology
The General Dynamic Optimization Technology (GDOT) addresses the long-standing challenge of margin leakage in refineries and olefin plants by coordinating and optimizing multiple proess units, covering broad process envelopes, all in a closed loop.
Collaboration Information Server, Yokogawa
CI Server automatically aggregates data that has been acquired from plant facilities and systems to enable personnel to monitor and operate plant operations remotely. The solution provides users all the information needed to make swift and effective decisions to plant operations.
BEST CATALYST TECHNOLOGY
ART ICR 5th Generation ISODEWAXING® catalyst, Advanced Refining Technology
This fifth-generation ISODEWAXING catalyst overcomes current base oil manufacturing challenges. It uses an advanced shape-selective zeolite technology to improve base oil yield and allow higher contaminant feedstock.
ACTION®+ FCC Catalysts, Albemarle
This FCC catalyst leverages the core technology of ACTION catalysts—the shape selective ZT-400—in conjunction with a new, innovative Y-zeolite stabilization system (ZT-500). This minimizes hydrogen transfer reactions, providing maximum LPG olefinicity with unrivaled butylene/propylene selectivity and preserving those species which maximize gasoline octane.
SeLene™, Axens
This catalyst portfolio provides optimal performance for selective hydrogenation. The catalyst family combines more than 20 industrially proven catalysts to create value along the whole olefin value chain from acetylene to the pygas cut.
Ziegler-Natta Catalysts for Polypropylene Production, Reliance Industries Ltd.
This catalyst optimizes polypropylene production by providing desired polymerization and product performance.
FUSION® FCC Catalysts, W. R. Grace & Co.
This next-generation FCC catalyst employs a novel advanced matrix binding system designed to enhance product yields for refineries processing residuum feedstocks.
BEST CYBERSECURITY PROGRAM/SOFTWARE
Advanced Monitoring and Incident Response, Honeywell
The AMIR service provides 24/7 operational technology cybersecurity detection and rapid response for current and emerging cyber threats.
DeepArmor® Industrial, fortified™, Siemens
This platform leverages AI and ML to protect endpoint assets in a refinery, especially when vulnerable during a turnaround, shutdown or outage.
BEST DIGITAL TWIN TECHNOLOGY
Real-time digital twin integrated with advanced process control, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd.
This process uses a digital twin to optimize the operation of BPCL’s amine regeneration/treatment units. The digital twin helps optimize lean amine circulation, maintain amine loading and reduces steam usage.
Dry Gas Seal Simulation Tool, Siemens
This tool employs a digital twin to analyze dry gas seal systems to ensure optimal operation under a range of conditions.
Dynamic Risk Pathways, Sphera
This technology is the industry’s next generation of operational risk management digital twin technology to model and simulate risk exposure to help prevent incidents.
Performance 360™, Symphony Industrial AI
The real-time digital twin uses AI and ML with process models to detect process faults and forecast plant behavior, providing personnel with data/information to achieve higher energy efficiency, reduce pollutants, reduce health/safety incidents and increase yields.
BEST GAS PROCESSING/LNG TECHNOLOGY
AVEVA Gas Value Chain Optimization, AVEVA
This solution helps optimize the entire natural gas value chain, in an environmentally friendly way, by minimizing leaks to optimize the value of each molecule of natural gas, while meeting supply and demand requirements.
Annular Injection Mixer, ProSep
The novel injection mixer provides injection, dispersion and homogenous mixing for natural gas and LNG processing. The annular injection mixer design provides a lower pressure drop, higher turndown and improved performance.
Materializing innovative ideas in testing and loading dehydrators, Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco increased quality assurance of its NGL plants by using an accelerated degradation apparatus for measuring strength and breakdown ability of solid samples, as well as installing a hold down ring to help seal the gas dehydrator bottom section to avoid desiccants leakage.
EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
Derek Becht, Managing Director, Becht Europe B.V. and LATAM SRL, Board Member, Becht
Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lummus Technology
BEST HEALTH, SAFETY OR ENVIRONMENTAL CONTRIBUTION
Methane Emissions Reduction System (MERs), GPS International
The environmentally friendly chemical technology helps reduce methane emissions from flaring or venting operations by delivering a chemical mist to effluent methane, permanently changing the molecular structure to produce a non-explosive and nonflammable vapor.
Honeywell Forge Inspection Rounds, Honeywell
This mobile application closes the gap between field operations and safety systems, providing field operators complete visibility into evolving field conditions in real time. Field data can be instantly exported to operational technology or similar systems, enabling immediate action.
HazardIQ for iNet, Intelex Technologies
This solution empowers organizations to detect, analyze and act on gas exposure alarms in real time by streamlining the collection and analysis of data obtained directly from the connected instruments in the field.
OLEUM: Cloud operator training during the pandemic, TotalEnergies/AVEVA
OLEUM is TotalEnergies training center, powered by AVEVA’s Operating Training Simulator. This cloud-based system enabled the operator to continuously train personnel during the pandemic as lockdowns and travel restrictions rolled through TotalEnergies’ operating regions.
BEST INSTRUMENT TECHNOLOGY
Flare monitoring at Flint Hill Resources: 708 Wireless Acoustic Transmitters, Emerson/Flint Hill Resources
Emerson’s 708 wireless acoustic transmitters were installed at Flint Hill’s Pine Bend refinery to improve flare gas recovery unit optimization during the shutdown and maintenance preparation steps of a large turnaround. The transmitters led to optimal operations and optimization of the unit.
Honeywell Forge Sentinel with Field Device Manager, Honeywell
This instrument simplifies maintenance tasks, saves time and provides the flexibility and scalability to perform complete device configuration and management tasks in the plant environment through smart plant instrumentation.
J22 TDLAS Gas Analyzer, SpectraSensors, an Endress+Hauser company
This analyzer utilizes tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy technology in combination with proprietary software to translate spectral data provided by the tunable diode laser to create a highly accurate and repeatable direct gas phase moisture measurement.
BEST MODELING TECHNOLOGY
Aspen Hybrid Models™, Aspen Technology
This process simulation technology combines AI and engineering first principles to deliver a comprehensive, accurate model to optimize processes across the hydrocarbon value chain.
AVEVA Process Simulation, AVEVA
This integrated platform covers the entire process engineering lifecycle of design, simulation and training, all in one platform.
K Model, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd.
This software technology provides a quick and accurate prediction of crude compatibility and optimization of numerous crude oils within minutes, as opposed to a week or more.
FRI Colum PRO, EPCON International
This software evaluates current column operations or can design new columns to determine how to maximize overall performance.
Honeywell UniSim® Design, Honeywell
USD enables process design, simulation and digital twins to model all stages of an asset’s lifecycle, including feasibility studies, design, construction, operations and retrofits.
MOST PROMISING ENGINEER
Melissa Mastry, Technology Manager, Refining Catalysts, BASF
Ahmed Basodan, Operations Engineer, Saudi Aramco
Faisal A. Al Dossary, Rotating Equipment Engineer, Saudi Aramco
Avinash Karre, Senior Process Engineer, Worley
BEST PETROCHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY
AlphaButol®, Axens
The process is used to produce high-purity 1-butene via ethylene dimerization. The process provides low to moderate operating temperature and pressure, no heat input to the reaction section and low capital costs, among others.
HP-DUCER, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd.
This is a proven technology to mitigate fouling issues in fixed-bed reactors and helps to increase the service factor of the unit.
RELAD, Reliance Industries Ltd.
The sustainable, eco-friendly absorbent technology has a unique structure, ion-exchange capacity and memory effect, which helps the absorbent remove all kinds of impurities and is the first of its kind to be used not only for online cleanup of aged thermic fluids but also solvents such as sulfolane and n-methylpyrrolidone.
Olefin Catalytic Cracking process, Sinopec
The novel process produces propylene and ethylene from C4/C5 olefins. The process converts low-value byproduct streams containing C4/C5 olefins from methanol-to-olefins processes, crackers and refineries into high-value propylene and ethylene products.
YieldUP, SUEZ Water Technologies and Solutions
YieldUP is a patented multifunctional anti-coking coating applied to ethylene furnace tubes to reduce coke formation and deposition.
BEST PROCESS-PLANT OPTIMIZATION TECHNOLOGY
Aspen Unified PIMS v12™, Aspen Technology
This latest version of the company’s PIMS software has added features such as AI modeling and improved cloud support. It enables customers to maximize margins through crude and feedstock evaluation, product evaluation, blending optimization and value chain optimization.
BPMARRK®, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd.
BPCL’s patented software provides an end-to-end solution to facilitate crucial business decisions related to crude planning, scheduling, capacity utilization and refinery-wide optimization for profit maximization.
Honeywell Forge Plant-Wide Optimizer, Honeywell
This technology integrates planning and control to enable process optimization across the plant and multiple plants across the enterprise.
Integrated Manufacturing Operations Management System (iMOMS), Saudi Aramco
The iMOMS is a centralized engine that organizes scattered refinery data, processes and applications through an integrated intelligent framework which employs data validation and reconciliation algorithms and converts them into meaningful information in real time.
Notebook, TrendMiner
This technology enables operational experts in process manufacturing to analyze, monitor and predict operational performance using sensor-generated time-series data.
Collaboration Information Server, Yokogawa
CI Server automatically aggregates data that has been acquired from plant facilities and systems to enable personnel to monitor and operate plant operations remotely. The solution provides users all the information needed to make swift and effective decisions to plant operations.
BEST REFINING TECHNOLOGY
Axens Prime-G/Prime-G+®, Axens
The post-FCC gasoline hydrotreating process is considered the industry standard in meeting gasoline product quality worldwide, especially for ultra-low-sulfur gasoline specifications.
Biovisbreaking, Eni SpA
This pretreatment oil process obtains a purified vegetable oil suitable for upgrading in Eni’s Ecofining™ unit. The process can remove more than 99.5% of the oil’s pollutants without the use of other treatment, providing significant savings vs. conventional pretreatment processes.
HP DEWA, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd.
HPCL has developed a novel dewatering formulation to aid in removing emulsified water and free water; therefore, helping in the reduction of water content in crude oil being processed and sludge formation.
CDHydro/CDAlky®, Lummus Technology
This technology produces high-octane, premium alkylate with less environmental impact than other alkylation technologies.
Single Regenerator Dual Catalyst (SRDC) technology, Lummus Technology
The SRDC is a highly cost-effective solution for converting FCC gasoline, coker naphtha and C4 LPG into very high-yield propylene, ethylene and aromatics-rich naphtha.
CONSULTING FIRM OF THE YEAR
Becht
The company provides technically sound engineering solutions, plant services and software tools to clients around the world. For more than 50 yr, Becht has maintained a valued reputation for exceptional innovation, service and partnership, solving engineering problems for the energy, process and power industries.
PEMY Consulting
The company is composed of highly trained experts in various disciplines that support basic and advanced engineering for tanks, piping, vessels and other equipment systems. They provide clients with new techniques and methods to overcome inspection, design and implementation challenges associated with aboveground storage tanks and connected process equipment.
SUSTAINABILITY
Aspen ProMV™ Process Optimization Technology, Aspen Technology
The technology analyzes and monitors process health conditions for effective operation and uptime and reduced environmental impact. ProMV™ provides users with actionable insights in weeks/months vs. other solutions which can require years.
Barracuda Virtual Reactor, CPFD Software
The physics-based software can predict fluid-particle, thermal and chemical reacting behavior in industrial units and has become the standard for modeling FCC regenerators, addressing emissions, erosion, afterburn and catalyst loss.
Honeywell Forge Energy and Emissions Management, Honeywell
The software helps enable plants to achieve sustainability goals by providing energy and emissions management, along with end-to-end energy optimization.
Green Circle, Lummus Technology
The subsidiary of Lummus Technology, Green Circle supports Lummus’ vision of accelerating the energy transition. Green Circle unites existing Lummus technologies for sustainability, renewable fuels, bio-ethers, blue hydrogen and carbon capture, among others.
Visual MESA™ Energy Management System, Yokogawa
The system achieves cost savings by using an optimization program that can leverage the flexibility inherent in a plant’s energy systems to recommend the lowest cost utility operation, reduce energy costs and sustain the savings.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Walter Babbitt, Global Product Manager, Refining Catalysts, BASF
Joseph Lu, Chief Scientist and Senior Fellow, Honeywell Process Solutions
Madhukar Garg, President, Research and Development, Reliance Industries Ltd. HP
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