September 2006
Special Report: Refining Developments
Emerging from India's 'hydrocarbon vision' are opportunities for refinery projects, as well as options to augment the domestic crude oil supply
An opportunity exists to redefine the way planning is done, involving the key groups more in a strategic supply-chain management role
Innovative additives help refiners blend for ultra-low-sulfur diesel
Following a failure during a routine startup, engineers discovered two problems that compromised tube service life
Reliability and environmental issues were key goals for this revamp of an existing reforming unit
Use it to test new control schemes before implementing them in a plant
Catalyst service-life determines the economic viability of solid-acid alkylation processes
Corrosion/Maintenance
Joint industry program provides a new methodology for assessing and controlling ammonium bisulfide corrosion
Engineering Case Histories
There is a big difference in safety between the two
Heat Transfer
Refining Developments
Computational chemistry with fundamental reaction kinetics streamlines innovative catalytic discoveries
Columns
I recently heard computer programs, mainly of the simulation variety, described as working in real time in service of the unit operators, inferring product properties and other unmeasured constraints ..
This column has friends and detractors. Our detractors buy (or make) widget model 1952 and hate it when we point out that the recently developed widget model 2006 is better than the previously used st..
The independent group set up last December to investigate the terminal explosion and fire at Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, UK, has uncovered fundamental problems with planning and emergency prepar..
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) will play an important role in meeting future natural gas demand/ consumption. Particularly in industrial nations, natural gas (NG) is the preferred fuel for power generati..
Trends and Resources
Assessing performance against peers and competitors, the Measurement, Control & Automation Association (MCAA) has released its latest findings. Each year, the association collects information on the o..
US industrial manufacturers are gearing up for growth, projecting an average revenue increase of 8.1% for the next 12 months, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' most recent Manufacturing Barometer. ..
Flowmeter functions in harsh environments A new ultrasonic flowmeter is intended as a partner to Katronic Technologies' existing KF160 flowmeter for use in hazardous and corrosive atmospheres. It is f..
Air Liquide Large Industries U.S. LP has selected CB&I to provide a large-scale hydrogen (H2) production facility that will be built at ConocoPhillips' refinery in Rodeo, California. The unit will sup..
Meridium Inc. has a contract with Braskem which operates 14 petrochemical plants in Latin America. The facilities have a production capacity of more than 5 million tpy of chemical and petrochemical pr..
MB Inspection has a three-year contract with options to extend by Shell UK Oil Products Ltd. The agreement is to supply dinitro toluene (DNT) and inspection personnel at Shell's Stanlow Manufacturing ..
PAS has a contract with Sasol for its multi-site operations effectiveness initiative. The campaign includes deploying both alarm management and control-loop performance software across multiple Sasol ..
ConocoPhillips and International Petroleum Investment Co. signed a memorandum of understanding to identify new upstream and downstream opportunities for joint investment. The parties also signed a hea..
Dresser-Rand (D-R) has a $17 million contract for compression equipment with Shenhua Coal Liquefaction Corp., Inner Mongolia, China. D-R will provide four six-throw BDC process reciprocating compresso..
  Production capacity in 2015: up 25% Global oil and liquids supply capacity could increase as much as 2..
Asia-Pacific oil demand growth slowed down in 2005, particularly during the second half. Two major reasons for this noticeable change: 1) oil prices persistently stayed at the historically highest lev..
The growth of construction activity in the HPI is unlike anything seen since the late 1970s. Sustained high prices for refined, petrochemical, and gas processing products and commodities are driving i..
First introduced in February 2001, The European Commission's "White Paper on the Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy" presented a new system of chemicals control: Registration, Evaluation and Autho..
Conducting business in an ethical manner is vital to all businesses. However, this year's annual conference of the Construction Industry Institute focused particularly on the engineering and construct..
Misc
Flowmeter testing conforms to API 22.2 McCrometer's V-Cone flowmeter conforms to the American Petroleum Institute's API 22.2 Testing Protocol for differential pressure flow-measurement devic..
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