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

Environment

Refinery/petrochemical makeup water treatment: A general guide for technical personnel—Part 2

Buecker & Associates: Buecker, B.

A very important—and sometimes overlooked—unit operation within processing facilities is makeup water treatment for steam generators and other processes. Many cases have been documented in which makeup system upsets have led to boiler tube failures that partially or completely shut down unit processes. This article serves as a guide for those employees who may be on a steep learning curve when it comes to makeup system understanding.

Bridging the innovation gap in the chemical industry

Productive collaboration between established chemical companies and agile climate startups is key to bridging this gap and accelerating decarbonization within the global petrochemicals/chemicals industry.

HIF Global announces e-Fuels project in Brazil

HIF Global, a leading e-Fuels company, has announced its first project in Brazil, after signing today a land reservation contract with Port of Açu, one of Brazil's main ports, to develop a facility to produce up to 800,000 tpy of e-Methanol.

Wood to operate and maintain one of the world’s largest plastics recycling facilities

Wood, a global leader in consulting and engineering, has been awarded a three-year contract to operate and maintain the Freepoint Eco-Systems plant in Hebron, Ohio (U.S.).

Haffner Energy, Bambbco partner to optimize biomass procurement for clean fuels production

The signing of this partnership will enable Haffner Energy and Bambbco to offer a turnkey solution for the production of green energy, with guaranteed feedstock availability and cost all year round. It builds on Haffner Energy’s strategy to diversify sustainable biomass procurement.

Thermal decomposition of particulate mercury sulfides in petroleum—Part 1

Chevron Energy Technology Co.: Das, T.  |  Hatakeyama, E.  |  Hoelen, T. P.
Contributing Author: O'Rear, D.

Traces of particulate mercury sulfide (HgS) in stabilized crude oils transform to elemental mercury below 400°C in refinery distillation units. The authors evaluated this transformation and measured reaction rates and activation energies in crude oil and Hg-spiked mineral oil, using glass vessels at atmospheric pressure and a microunit at 1,000 psig.

Deliver sustainable benefits through site-wide process digital twins

Saudi Aramco: Bazuher, E. A.
KBC, a Yokogawa Company: Chellani, J.

Refiners have used offline process models for decades. The next generation of solutions is anticipated to operate automatically, integrate with legacy systems and provide transparency site-wide.  

Prompt engineering: Extracting operational excellence knowledge from AI—Part 1

CEPSA: Larraz, R.

Prompt engineering is an emerging discipline at the intersection of AI and process engineering and will undoubtedly contribute to the hydrocarbon and green molecules processing industries. Parts 1 and 2 (October 2024) of this article explore and provide a glimpse of how this technique can help process engineers and operators to manage the power of advanced AI models to optimize processes, contribute to solve complex problems, and improve operational efficiency in refineries and petrochemical plants.  

Seven tips to achieve a smoother plant turnaround

Swagelok: Aughenbaugh, M.

This article provides seven best practices that should be kept in mind for successful plant turnaround management. 

Monitoring cyclone reliability in fluid catalytic crackers

Honeywell UOP: Jawandhiya, A.  |  Panchal, D.  |  Gellaboina, M. K.

The authors’ company has developed a novel approach with a digital algorithm to effectively estimate the current cyclone erosion and predict future erosion based on operating conditions. With this approach, refiners get an automatic way to better predict abrasion lining erosion for both reactors and regenerator cyclones daily from digital analytics, thus helping refiners quantify their monitoring.