Maintenance & Reliability
HP Project Management: Case history: Hurdles in dismantling a vintage ammonia plant
Dismantling an ammonia plant is a daunting task under any circumstances. It is even more problematic when the facility is located in a remote place such as central Pakistan and managed by local contra..
HP Reliability: Consider technology-based specialized industrial services
Most downstream professions have heard of (or personally experienced) glitches in activities involving offshoring and outsourcing. Too often, some maintenance and purchasing agents travel the “go..
Two approaches to sulfur management
Sulfur is naturally present as an impurity in fossil fuels. When the fuels are burned, the sulfur is released as sulfur dioxide—an air pollutant that contributes to respiratory problems for human..
What is the impact of US shale oil on global markets and refinery configurations?
One of the most important factors in determining a refinery’s profitability is its ability to access low-cost feedstocks. This is not to be confused with survivability. Some uneconomic refineries..
Improve monitoring and troubleshooting of reciprocating compressors
The terms surveillance and monitoring for reciprocating compressors can be used interchangeably. With few exceptions, the monitoring and/or surveillance tasks are assigned to the unit operators. They ..
HP Project Management: Pipeline expansion uses rerating to debottleneck services
The Colonial Pipeline connects refineries primarily on the US Gulf Coast with customer service markets across the southern and eastern US. In 2010, Colonial’s 5,500-mi pipeline was transporting a..
HP Reliability: Consider suspended-access scaffolding
You may always have left scaffolding and access-to-work questions to an outside contractor to make the final decisions. But plant safety and timely work completion are everybody’s business. As a ..
Update on secondary seals for fluid machines
Elastomer-based O-rings are used as secondary sealing components in millions of fluid machines. Although O-ring seals are primarily intended for fluid containment between different but nonrotating com..
Improve compressor reliability with advanced chemical treatments
Although many olefin plants are making big investments in hardware and metallurgy to improve compressor performance and to extend run lengths, the reliability, efficiency and throughput capacity of the CGC are still key influences on plant profitability.
Triple-offset valves offer advantages in emergency services
Liquid hydrocarbon storage facilities have used triple-offset valves (TOVs) in traditional tank farm applications for decades. Due to more stringent health, safety and environment (HSE) requirements, ..
- Consortium launches study to create a consolidated hub for recycled plastics 5/22
- Eni strengthens its global LNG strategy with long-term supply agreements in Indonesia 5/22
- Breakthrough shows how electricity could replace heat to turn CO₂ into useful chemicals 5/22
- bp's Whiting Refinery offers revised proposal to union in ongoing talks 5/22
- Plains oil pipeline partly shut down after rupture in East Los Angeles (U.S.), could disrupt supplies to refineries 5/22
- Vitol moves to open Mexico fuel terminal years after bribery scandal 5/22
