Digital technologies are being widely adopted across nearly every industry. Industrial companies are moving as far away as possible from manual, document-centric processes and replacing them with cloud services, digital solutions and data-centric strategies.
Propylene is at the core of the petrochemical industry, with the synthesis of its numerous derivatives finding greater application in industries from textile to automobile, cosmetics and beyond. Propylene is also a foundation block/intermediate for numerous chemicals, from isopropanol to polypropylene (a widely used synthetic material) to gasoline octane enhancers.
Driven by rising demand for polypropylene, cumene, acrylonitrile and other derivatives, increasing global demand is seen for propylene.
Crude oil has been the fundamental element of transportation fuel for many decades.
Process tubes in refining applications are typically steel alloy (ASTM A335 P22, P5 or P9), which contain 2.25%, 5% and 9% Cr, respectively. These grades oxidize at operating temperatures, and scale will grow continuously on the surface, often reaching 2 mm in thickness in higher-temperature/high-heat-flux units. The layers of scale are very insulating and represent a significant barrier to conductive heat transfer to the process.
In many refineries and petrochemical plants, air fan coolers (AFCs) become a major bottleneck to increasing plant capacity. Many plants suffer from lower heat duty than designed, especially during the summer months, which can lead to lower plant capacity.
The refining industry is facing increased pressures, such as crude oil supply changes, changing product distributions and increasing regulations. These pressure points create a highly competitive market where refiners are looking for options that include digitally transforming operations and adapting new technologies to enhance safety and improve uptime, flexibility and efficiency, while securing their competitive position in a dynamic market. Improving personnel and process safety remains a top focus area for refiners.
The term Industry 4.0 refers to the fourth industrial revolution. Widely hailed as a new level of organization and control over the entire value chain of the lifecycle of products, Industry 4.0 is geared toward progressively personalized customer requirements.
Today’s tools are often specialized for a certain type of task; however, they often lack the connectivity that would enable the easy comparison and cross-reference of asset information. Engineering tools are well suited for design and build phases, but may be less suited for use in operations and maintenance.
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.