February 2022

A new era of the energy revolution has arrived with the rapid growth of innovative technologies that utilize alternative energy resources, such as electricity, solar, wind and hydrogen, and an increasing demand for sustainable use of natural resources.

Refineries in oil-importing nations typically process a blend of crude oils, rather than a single crude oil, to ensure that an optimum product mix can be obtained at the minimum costs.

For the refining operation that wants to relieve its planning team of mind-numbing manual data-management tasks, there are bots for that.

Extractive distillation is one of the most efficient techniques to separate aromatic and non-aromatic hydrocarbons by increasing the relative volatility of the mixture in the presence of a solvent.

Producing diesel with a portion of biologically sourced carbon is being done at an increasing number of conventional crude oil refineries.

For centuries, division of labor has been the recipe to improve productivity—dividing an organizational set of tasks into smaller tasksets, as assigned to individuals.

Most oil and gas process plant projects involve multiple work packages executed by different lump sum turnkey (LSTK) contractors executing work within their own package, with a final piping interface connection at an agreed boundary limit to accomplish the interface joint between two parties and successfully close the piping interface.

The hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) has a rich history of discovery, challenges, breakthroughs, trial and error, collaboration and success. Hydrocarbon Processing continues its reflection on the history of the HPI.

The following is a mixture of technical articles, columns and headlines published in the 1930s by The Refiner and Natural Gasoline Manufacturer, the forerunner to Hydrocarbon Processing.

The Austrian-born chemist, Hermann Francis Mark, is well-known for his contributions to the development of polymer science, which he devoted more than 60 yr of his life to.

In the hydrocarbon processing industry, sulfur recovery is a well-known process. However, this process uses a variety of equipment.

Pipes transporting hot media are insulated to reduce heat loss and maintain the required process conditions.

In a greenfield project, a proprietary heat exchanger^a has been found to be preferable to conventional shell-and-tube (S&T) exchangers to optimize the total lifecycle cost (i.e., capital, operating, installation and maintenance costs).

Across industries, ranging from chemical upstream oil and gas to food and beverage applications, the manifold has proven to be a solid and hard-working instrument that receives little attention until it stops performing as designed.

Most international and national standards used in the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) for conducting hazardous area classification do not provide any guidance or recommendation for non-electrical equipment, such as hot pipe and equipment surfaces, that can act as ignition sources.

The maintenance checklist for a plant shutdown can sometimes look intimidating and, in the face of a short timeline, unnerving.

A few years ago, Hydrocarbon Processing started to include digital technologies in its monthly article focus.

In the now almost 32 yr since this monthly column was first published, we have had more than a few occasions to highlight the pitfalls of trial-and-error solutions in plants that process toxic, flammable or explosive materials.

A portion of my consulting career involved investigating catastrophic type failures on machines, pressure vessels and structures in the industry.

Hydrocarbon Processing sat down with Helion Sardina (HS), Chief Commercial Officer, Lummus Technology.

Pressure instrumentation is crucial for the functionality and safety of hydrocarbon processing facilities worldwide.

In late January, Tyler Campbell, Associate Editor, Hydrocarbon Processing, Gas Processing & LNG, and H2Tech, presented an update on the global capital construction landscape at the Engineering and Construction Contracting (ECC) Extra Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana (U.S.).

Digitalization and Industry 4.0 initiatives require tight integration between complex, heterogeneous and highly complex industrial control systems (ICS) and enterprise information technology (IT).

Hunter Buildings names Michael Draper as Chief Operating Officer