Maintenance & Reliability
Improve coker efficiency with reliable valve automation
The case history discusses conditions occurring in delayed coker operations at two refineries in Louisiana, the impacts on valve performance, and a solution that offers extended life, better reliability and other benefits.
Select the right shaft-riding brushes for turbomachinery
Since the mid-1950s, much progress has been accomplished in the development, design and production of shaft-riding brushes for turbomachinery applications. The machinery includes steam and gas turbine..
HP Reliability: Fact-checking list from recent reliability conferences
Whenever HP editors attend technical conferences, their primary goals include observing industry practices, finding facts and spotting trends. Fact or fictionUnfortunately, presenters sometimes relate..
HP Water Management: Update: Online measurement of oxidizing biocides
Nearly all owners of industrial cooling towers feed oxidizing biocides—chlorine (Cl) and bromine (Br)—to kill bacteria in the recirculating cooling water. Minimizing the populations of bacte..
HP Brief
LyondellBasell plans to expand North American ethylene capacityLyondellBasell will raise its ethylene capacity in North America by 18% in coming years through several debottlenecking projects. Locatio..
HP Innovations: Innovations
Flowmeter uses Coriolis force in measurementThe Sitrans FC430 flowmeter from Siemens AG is capable of measuring liquids and gases using the Coriolis principle. Flows can be measured with a precision o..
Overcome barriers to proper planning and scheduling
Planning and scheduling must work hand-in-hand for a turnaround, outage or shutdown to be executed to budget and schedule. Unless proper diligence is given up-front to planning and scheduling, no amou..
Update on US refinery production outages
Unplanned and planned production outages at US refineries, as reported by Dow Jones Newswires.
Monitor and minimize corrosion in high-TAN crude processing
In addition to inhibitor dosing, intensive corrosion monitoring and analytical tests play a major role in equipment and piping health monitoring and in analyzing stream properties online.
Mitigate reactor failures due to graphitization
Graphitization occurs in carbon steel (CS) reactors in high-temperature service (> 455°C). As discussed in this case history, the shell of a methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) reactor became s..
- Brazil's Petrobras approves $1.2 billion investment for renewable fuels plant 6/22
- First batch of equipment arrives in Kazakhstan for $7.7-B Atyrau polyethylene project 6/22
- Explosion at Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG complex kills 13, injures 66 6/22
- Asia has plenty of crude oil, but refined fuels remain tight 6/22
- Fire extinguished at Marathon's Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas (U.S.) 6/22
- El Nino, expanding ethanol use squeeze India sugar supply 6/22
