Analyzers
Catalytic processes operation during downturns in aromatics complexes
Paraxylene production is a highly cyclical business that is subject to changes in the global economy and dependent on feedstock costs, alternative dispositions for aromatics, utilities costs and plant locations, among other factors. With the large PX capacity added by recently started crude-to-chemicals complexes and the expected impact of the economic recession on commodities demand, many aromatics complexes face a significant slowdown in the coming months or, possibly, years.
Business Trends: Autonomous operations in process manufacturing—Part 1
Progress in the driverless car segment has served to illuminate one of the major future goals in industrial and process manufacturing: autonomous operations in process plants—in other words, the autonomous plant. While AO for process plants has received interest from the process automation and control industry, limited serious discussion has taken place in the process operations and IT domains.
Advanced analytics drive IIoT success
Refineries and petrochemical plants face similar challenges in daily operations. Each must mitigate risk, anticipate maintenance, optimize operations and minimize expenses. To achieve these goals, plant personnel rely heavily on data to drive decisions.
Innovations
Sphera has released a new Interactive piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) solution that helps organizations break down silos between their operations, maintenance and engineering departments while simplifying isolation planning.
Business Trends: Managing risk and uncertainty: The importance of optimizing your value chain
No doubt exists that COVID-19 is disrupting the oil and gas industry. Oil prices are falling, demand is down, supply is up, and storage capacity is limited. In these difficult times, the industry must swiftly act to keep business viable to come back strong when conditions improve.
Improve the safety and efficiency of natural gas sweetening units
After natural gas is extracted from onshore and offshore sites, it must be transported and processed.
Safety: Where foresight replaces hindsight: How AI impacts the future of oil and gas safety
According to the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), there were 31 fatal incidents across the industry in 2018.
Leveraging modern flow technologies to improve safety in refineries
The refining industry is facing increased pressures, such as crude oil supply changes, changing product distributions and increasing regulations. These pressure points create a highly competitive market where refiners are looking for options that include digitally transforming operations and adapting new technologies to enhance safety and improve uptime, flexibility and efficiency, while securing their competitive position in a dynamic market. Improving personnel and process safety remains a top focus area for refiners.
Five key innovation concepts to impact frontline engineers in 2020
Gas processing, liquefaction, oil refining, bulk petrochemicals and chemicals plants represent a large population of frontline engineers and technical managers. Their professional lives will become increasingly impacted by the growing adoption of disruptive digital technologies and digital platforms.
Project Management: How human intelligence and AI are driving project planning in the oil and gas industry
The science of project planning has something of a tenuous reputation. How often do large oil and gas capital expenditure (CAPEX) projects really come in according to plan? Almost never. Indeed, 30% of respondents to a 2018 PWC survey said they had experienced cost overruns of 10%–50% on their Middle East capital projects.
- Radix partners with Cleopatra Enterprise to enhance project controls and turnaround management 4/15
- Uzbekistan aims to achieve a chemical hub status with the help of Chinese polymer tech 4/15
- BASF broadens its range of bio-balanced ingredients for European detergent, cleaning, and industrial formulations 4/15
- Neste to supply SAF to Air New Zealand at Los Angeles International Airport 4/15
- China's Sinopec completes successful trial of crude to olefin technology 4/15
- Prada Group announces first investment in SAF credits in partnership with DHL Global Forwarding 4/12
