In the wake of Hurricane Florence, businesses across the US had another reminder of how unpredictable and unavoidable disasters are when they strike.
In today’s business and regulatory environment, controlling a refinery or other high-hazard processing plant is increasingly demanding.
Refineries and petrochemical plants contain some of the harshest environments on the planet.
On November 30, 2013, an explosion and fire occurred at the UCB Farchim SA site in Switzerland. Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities occurred.
In 1982, I wrote an article called “Using process computers as robots for refining operations,” which was published in the May issue of Hydrocarbon Processing.
Digital transformation is a common theme at many industry gatherings and events, as operating companies are more readily sharing their digital success stories and audiences are becoming more comfortable with the digital themes.
Embedding machines with artificial intelligence (AI) allows them to learn from their past experiences.
For a process facility, guaranteeing maximum profit over its lifecycle while increasing safety and taking care of environmental aspects means continuous improvement toward operational excellence.
Using quadratic equations rather than a linear relationship in a linear programming (LP) model increases the model’s accuracy and reduces money left on the table.
According to the editors of Hydrocarbon Processing, the downstream processing industry will witness substantial growth in new refining, petrochemical and gas processing/LNG capacities over the next several years.