Equipment
Environment and Safety: Building resilience: Why now is the time to invest in natural hazard risk management
With extreme weather events growing in frequency worldwide, organizations can do many things to protect their assets and mitigate some of the risks posed by natural hazards.
Construction pitfalls in SRU-fabricated equipment
In the hydrocarbon processing industry, sulfur recovery is a well-known process. However, this process uses a variety of equipment.
Productivity in process plant engineering: Aspects and examples
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.
Impact of biofeed retrofits, co-processing on refinery amine units, SWSs and SRUs—Part 2
Producing diesel with a portion of biologically sourced carbon is being done at an increasing number of conventional crude oil refineries.
HP Flashback: Operations, processes and safety evolve and advance: Excerpts from the 1930s
The following is a mixture of technical articles, columns and headlines published in the 1930s by <i>The Refiner and Natural Gasoline Manufacturer</i>, the forerunner to <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i>.
Debottlenecking of an extractive distillation column for aromatics recovery: Effect of feed pre-vaporization
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.
Why robotic process automation is quickly becoming a must for downstream companies
For the refining operation that wants to relieve its planning team of mind-numbing manual data-management tasks, there are bots for that.
History of the HPI: The 1930s: Catalytic cracking, polyethylene, synthetic fibers, resins and jet engines
The hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) has a rich history of discovery, challenges, breakthroughs, trial and error, collaboration and success. <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> continues its reflection on the history of the HPI.
Process Controls, Instrumentation and Automation: Reduce maintenance costs by optimizing pressure transmitter calibration intervals
Pressure instrumentation is crucial for the functionality and safety of hydrocarbon processing facilities worldwide.
Engineering Case Histories: Case 115: A method for analyzing catastrophic type failures
A portion of my consulting career involved investigating catastrophic type failures on machines, pressure vessels and structures in the industry.

- Carbon capture tops agenda at GPAE Conference 2025 6/17
- INEOS to cease phenol production at German site, cites high European energy costs and CO2 tax policy 6/17
- Petrobras signs $892 MM in contracts to complete RNEST Train 2 refinery expansion 6/17
- China's May refinery throughput at 9-month low on plant overhauls (1) 6/17
- bp completes turnaround work at 250,000-bpd refinery in Washington (U.S.) 6/17
- Japan's Eneos restarts 77,000-bpd Kawasaki CDU after unplanned shutdown 6/17