Information Systems
Improved cooling system performance begins with data
Refineries consume large amounts of energy and water to refine crude oil into products. Up to 10% of crude oil’s energy content is consumed during processing, and it takes 1.5 bbl of water to process one barrel of crude oil. Refining processes also generate large quantities of excess thermal energy that needs to be expelled into the environment using a once-through or recirculating cooling system.
When digital transformation hits all four sustainability buckets
Sustainability is emerging as a critical business topic, as many companies focus resources toward lowering emissions, waste and energy use in their production processes. This important concept can apply broadly to company operations, especially when considering the expansive view of the triple bottom line that measures the impact of company operations on profits, people and the planet.
Accurate prediction of phase equilibrium properties—Part 2
Phase equilibrium properties, such as bubble point, hydrocarbon dewpoint, water dewpoint, phase envelope, two-phase compositions, compressibility factor, hydrate equilibrium properties, etc., for hydrocarbon mixtures have been calculated accurately using the Peng-Robinson cubic equation of state by implementing constant and temperature-dependent binary interaction parameters in the Van der Waals mixing rule.
Hydrocarbon Processing Awards Winners
<i>Hydrocarbon Processing,</i> the downstream processing sector’s leading technical publication, has announced the winners for its third annual awards. The <i>HP</i> Awards celebrate innovative technologies and people that have been instrumental in improving facility operations over the past year.
Pay attention: LockerGoga and Trisis/Triton demand an improved cybersecurity strategy
The need for a solid cybersecurity strategy has been discussed and debated for nearly half a century. However, the basic worm-type attacks first documented in 1972 are still with us today. Why? The reason is because even the most basic measures to protect control systems from these types of attacks are still not systematically employed.
Process engineering, optimization and advanced process control
A recent <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> “Industry Perspectives” survey found that process engineering and optimization is the number-one topic that readers want to read about most. Process engineering and optimization rated higher than the next-highest topic (maintenance and reliability) by a factor of 2:1, and higher than every other topic by a factor of at least 4:1. Process control and instrumentation made the top ten list, albeit below process engineering and optimization by a factor of 7:1.
Building industrial networks to serve IIoT and digitalization
Two of the terms growing in popularity over the past few years are “digital native” and “digital immigrant.” Natives are those individuals young enough to have known computers and the internet since childhood. For them, such technologies have always existed. Immigrants, either through age or circumstance, had no exposure until later in life. Hopefully, for them, such technologies are a welcome addition to work and life, but they can remember times when most activities were more manual, local and isolated.
The future of digital transformation and smart manufacturing
In today’s challenging oil and gas operations, it is vital to have a robust operating system that supports each facility’s goal of operational excellence (OE). Digital transformation and smart manufacturing are being implemented by Saudi Aramco as a coined umbrella term: integrated manufacturing operations management system (imoms).
Innovations
In the oil and gas industry, failing to perform ongoing maintenance on equipment can have severe consequences, including reduced equipment service life, unplanned shutdowns and degraded performance.
Cybersecurity: Crucial defenses for critical infrastructures
A colleague of mine once suggested to a chemical plant operator that it was a good idea to apply patches to Windows-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) servers as soon as they become available every month—after all, a lot of them fix security vulnerabilities.
- Technip Energies awarded two large contracts by BPCL for new units at Bina and Mumbai refineries in India 1/28
- ADNOC and TAQA announce 27-yr utilities agreement with TA’ZIZ, enabling world-scale chemicals production at Ruwais 1/28
- BASF to open global digital hub in India in Q1 2026 1/28
- Solvay inaugurates Europe’s first bio-circular silica facility in Italy 1/28
- Nikkiso’s next-generation marine fuel cryogenic pump skids to support dual-fuel vessel conversions 1/28
- Indian diesel exports to West Africa jump as EU bans Russian crude-derived fuel 1/28
