Alkylation units can be based on sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid as a catalyst.
Because of its clean-fuel properties (paraffinic, high octane, low vapor pressure and very low sulfur), alkylate is considered one of the most desired components in the gasoline pool.
In an olefins plant, the reliability of ethylene cracking furnaces is one of the deciding factors used to indicate whether or not the plant can be operated at its design productivity.
Pneumatic operated control valves (POCVs) are consistently the most used control final element for process control across most industries—in some cases, they are also part of the safety instrumented systems (SISs) layer.
In any process plant, fired heaters are generally considered to be one of the most optimally designed pieces of equipment.
Since the flash zone is the first process undergone by the coke drum effluent vapor upon entering the column, the operation of the flash zone is critical to the operation of the entire coker fractionator column.
Founded in 2009, Gulf Publishing Company and Hydrocarbon Processing’s International Refining and Petrochemical Conference (IRPC) provides a series of events for the international downstream industry covering technical innovations, and exploring both the challenges and opportunities found in today’s market.
The growing availability of light tight oils (LTOs) is resulting in a choice for refiners between upgrading metallurgy or chemical inhibition and corrosion monitoring to manage the increased corrosion risk. With tight budgetary constraints in place, many oil companies are opting for chemical inhibition and online corrosion monitoring.
One of the major challenges in the oil and gas processing industry is to strike a balance among handling the changing qualities of petroleum products and byproducts, increasing the productivity and service life of critical components and reducing environmental hazards. As an example, new refineries are moving to applying conversion methods, such as hydrocracking, to increase yields, while also utilizing conventional distillation. This juxtaposition translates into a higher Nelson Index rating. Greater refinery complexity makes processing low-quality crude oil difficult, if not impossible, thereby precluding bottom-of-the-barrel products.
For corrosion risk assessment and control, ample published research exists on the inherent corrosivity of combinations of naphthenic acid and sulfur in refining systems, but not on the chemistry and mechanism of corrosion inhibitors. This work offers refinery engineers insight into the construction of corrosion inhibitor molecules, as well as how differences in molecules impact the performance of the inhibitor and the risk of fouling in crude units and hydroprocessing units.