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Refining

Control fouling on preheat trains with a two-stage approach

Fouling in heat exchanger preheat trains is a well-known problem in the refining industry.

Industry Metrics

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

Asian margins showed a strong recovery due to higher winter heating fuel demand, supporting middle distillate crack spreads.

Global Project Data

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Nichols, Lee

According to <i>Hydrocarbon Processing's</i> Construction Boxscore Database, new project announcements averaged approximately 25 per month in 2015.

People

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen Section board has elected Ian Phillips, chief executive of the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC), as its new chairman.

Pemex contracts Samsung to upgrade Salamanca refinery to low-sulfur diesel

The Salamanca refinery plant scope includes a new HDS (hydro desulfurization) unit with a capacity of 38,000 bpd, a SWS (sour water stripper) unit with a capacity of 5,000 bpd and the revamping of three existing HDS units, with a total capacity of 53,000 bpd.

Sunoco buys US fuels distributor from Alta East

The business distributes 55 million gal/year of branded and unbranded gasolines, including Sunoco-branded fuels. The transaction also included supply contracts with the dealer-owned and operated sites.

Shell to build biofuels demonstration plant in India

The IH2 technology was developed by the US-based Gas Technology Institute in 2009 and is being further developed in collaboration with CRI Catalyst Co. (CRI), Shell’s catalyst business.

American Petroleum Institute names new leader of global industry services

GIS is the API organization’s division responsible for certification, standards, training, events, publications and safety programs for onshore, offshore and refinery operations.

Aramco, ExxonMobil tap Axens for ultra-low sulfur control at SAMREF refinery

The objective of the APC solution from Axens is to achieve substantial economic benefit by providing extremely precise control of product sulfur content while minimizing octane loss and reducing consumption of hydrogen and utilities.

China’s Wonfull starts up world’s first solid acid catalyst alkylation unit

The unit employs CB&I’s breakthrough AlkyClean technology, jointly developed by CB&I, Albemarle and Neste. The unit has a capacity of 2,700 bpd of alkylate production (100,000 metric tpy).