While the ultimate purpose of operating a refinery is to produce gasoline, diesel or asphalt, key objectives include improving return on investment (ROI), net profitability and cash flow.
Most refineries have some sort of mass balance and loss control program in place for accounting, planning and scheduling, as well as for financial and operational evaluation purposes.
Geronimo, G. DI, ExxonMobil Rotterdam refinery;
Ceary, P. J.,
Markham, N., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co.;
Groenendijk, S.,
Moreno, Y., Fluor
The blowdown (BD) system in delayed coking units (DCUs) receives waste streams generated during the coke drum (CD) decoking process to recover valuable hydrocarbons and water.
Engineers tasked with finding a green solution to waste gas emissions from hydrocarbon storage tanks during loading and unloading operations will find that the ST100 series thermal flowmeter from Fluid Components International (FCI) supports tank vapor recovery systems, which help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Most refineries perform turnaround activities every 3 yr–5 yr to maintain and upgrade plant assets and equipment.
A reboiler provides the necessary heat duty for the separation in a distillation tower.
The pumps referred to in this article are 2,600-HP vertical pumps utilized as booster pumps for the shipment of crude oil.
Designed for hazardous, wet or corrosive locations, such as oil refineries and chemical plants, the Appleton PlexPower motor starter provides electrical apparatus protection combined with the convenience and savings of off-the-shelf components.
If you have ever sized or selected a pressure safety relief valve (PSV) using vendor sizing programs or hand calculations, you have probably run into a strange anomaly.
The sheer volume of equipment in a refinery—from vessels, columns, huge structures and mazes of pipes to pumps, valves, controllers and instruments—is staggering.