An emerging topic along the entire oil and gas value chain is the move toward sustainability. Each company has a somewhat different definition of what sustainability means to its operations.
Kyriakou, S.,
Plellis, C.,
Tatsis, V.,
Damianou, C.,
Gkanis, D., Hellenic Petroleum;
Burgess, T.,
González, R., W. R. Grace
Hellenic Petroleum S.A.’s Aspropyrgos refinery is located near Athens, Greece. It has a total refining capacity of approximately 7.5 MMtpy and a Nelson complexity index of 9.7. The refinery was built in 1958 and has undergone several upgrades, including the installation of a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU).
Ammonia is well known as a fertilizer. However, it is also a potential carbon-free fuel and an excellent solution for storage of renewable electricity, especially if the syngas needed for producing the ammonia is made by electrolysis.
No doubt exists that the added connectivity that modern control and automation systems deliver offers a myriad of benefits. By embedding computing within the process and utilizing edge and cloud technologies, it can provide greater visibility. It creates a digital thread for the plant and allows both equipment and the processes to be analyzed, as well as giving prescriptive advice.
The year 2020 will be a mess from the fuel oil stability and compatibility points of view. The year will be price-driven, so the temptation to “cut corners” is great—meaning that a highly variable number of blend components to manufacture the fuel oil will open a “Pandora’s box” of complex and questionable fuel formulations.
When Kitack Lim won his second, four-year term as the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in November 2018, it solidified the organization’s aggressive 2020 deadline for a global < 0.5% sulfur limit on fuel oil used onboard ships. This reduced sulfur requirement, commonly known as IMO 2020, squeezes the oil and gas industry, confounding the medium- and small-size refineries that struggle to produce low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO), and wracking the nerves of maritime freight shippers facing volatile fuel pricing.
The editors of Hydrocarbon Processing have identified nine projects that are anticipated to significantly impact the global or regional downstream industries. The winners and nominees of the HP Top Project awards will have a considerable impact on the HPI, whether through CAPEX, satisfying domestic or regional demand, diversifying product offerings, or adding to the resurgence in refining and/or petrochemical processing capacity.
ANSI/ISA-84 is one of the most influential standards in functional safety and has been a driver for instrumented process safety improvements over the last 20 yr. It is a comprehensive norm covering a wide range of aspects related to functional safety in process industries, including the entire life cycle of designing, implementing and operating safety systems.
As environmental regulations are becoming more stringent on reduced nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions, burner designs are changing to meet revised regulations. The heater design must complement the chosen burner for optimal performance. Although design duty is considered to be the main focus of the heater design, the range of heater operation and its impact on heater safety and emissions needs are often neglected.