Gas processing, liquefaction, oil refining, bulk petrochemicals and chemicals plants represent a large population of frontline engineers and technical managers. Their professional lives will become increasingly impacted by the growing adoption of disruptive digital technologies and digital platforms.
In December 2019, Hydrocarbon Processing's launched its new podcast series: The Main Column. The podcast series will feature the latest in hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) trends, technology developments, engineering and operations.
What is the future of refining and petrochemical operations? One trend that has been the focus of many articles, whitepapers and conference presentations is the digital transformation of the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI).
You may recognize the “pre-owned” pump in FIG. 1 as an axially split, between-bearing, multistage model. Chances are that half of its impellers face right-to-left and half of them face left-to-right. In that case, there must be an internal seal or bushing that limits leakage flow from the pump’s higher- to lower-pressure sections. There must also be porting or piping that takes flow from the discharge of the lower-pressure section to the suction of the higher section.
With the ever-increasing speed of technology innovation around the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and cloud offerings, industrial manufacturers are evaluating how these new solutions can impact their daily operations. Specifically, they are looking at how these innovations enable real-time, actionable insights across processes, assets and the workforce. These insights allow for quicker and more informed decisions, thereby driving efficiency and profitability.
Internal inspections of pressure equipment involve a full inspection of the equipment. Inspection engineers and inspectors depend heavily on internal inspections to retrieve useful data, which includes information on active degradation mechanisms, corrosion rates, remaining equipment life, failure occurrences and failure expectations, among other critical details.
Welcome to the future! The plant runs fully automated; robots glide silently back and forth, ensuring an optimized process; and your maintenance technician—with a few keystrokes—can tell you exactly how each piece of equipment is running. The promise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has been delivered.
Dingankar, S.,
Mahulkar, S., Reliance Industries Ltd.;
Schutt, M.,
Mahalingam, S., TechnipFMC;
Banerjee, S., Technip India Ltd.
Process engineers strive to recover as much energy as is practically possible from the available process and utility streams within the constraint of the plant. To achieve this goal, traditional—and sometimes non-traditional—methods are utilized. In a steam cracker, light olefins are considered the highest-value products, and utilizing “cold energy,”
We can only guess how many reliability conferences we have attended since accepting job offers in the refining or chemical processing industries. In my case, starting in 1965, it is somewhere between 60 and 80. If, in each of these conferences I listened to six presentations, the number of sessions attended is perhaps 400.
When I talk to professionals in the refining and petrochemical businesses, they are always interested in how new technologies can improve operational efficiency, make plants safer and increase profitability.