Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

Maintenance & Reliability

Reliability: Understanding right-angle gear backlash

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

By definition, all gear units have teeth. These teeth are designed and produced to a certain strength, or a defined force-on-tooth, or an allowable pressure-load on tooth.

Business Trends: Human reliability—a disruptive innovation

Small Hammer Inc.: Snider, B.

Annual bottom-line losses due to equipment failures total more than $100 MM at major refineries and petrochemical complexes. Corporate executives charge plant personnel with improving the reliability of the facility.

Editorial Comment: Maintenance—a value-added expense

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

This issue of <i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i> tackles one of the most integral aspects of the downstream industry (or any industry, for that matter): maintenance and reliability. These two terms go hand-in-hand and help to ensure efficient and safe operations.

Recommended practices for fired process heater instrumentation and control

Burns & McDonnell: Schaffer, C.

Fired process heaters are one of the most critical pieces of equipment within many refinery and petrochemical facilities. Proper instrumentation and control of the equipment has direct bearing on the successful operation of the process, as well as on overall facility process safety.

A deeper examination of thermal expansion issues in process equipment and piping

Suncor Energy Inc.: Tharakan, J.

Piping and process equipment that operate at high temperatures experience thermal expansion. If free thermal expansion is restrained, mechanical stresses are created within the component.

Continuous corrosion monitoring of crude overhead systems

Permasense: Davies, J.

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.

Extend unit life at ammonia-urea plants with debottlenecking and equipment replacement

Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd.: Kumar, K. R. R.  |  Anand, G. V. S.

Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd. (NFCL) operates a large, modern, integrated ammonia-urea complex with an annual capacity of 1.6 metric MMtpd of urea from natural gas feedstock. The facility is laid out in two units, located in Kakinada in India’s coastal state of Andhra Pradesh.

Metso to supply emergency shutdown valves at Orpic petchem complex in Oman

Metso will supply 400 Neles emergency shutdown (ESD) valves for an ethylene cracker as part of the new Liwa Plastics Industrial Complex (LPIC) Project in Sohar, Oman.

Chile oil refinery Aconcagua suspends operations after quake

Chile oil refinery Aconcagua suspends operations after quake

Neste Jacobs to perform energy study for Unipetrol's Czech Republic refinery

Technology, engineering and project management company Neste Jacobs and refinery and petrochemical group Unipetrol have signed an agreement for Neste Jacobs to perform a comprehensive energy efficiency study of Unipetrol's Litvinov oil refinery in Czech Republic.