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Catalytic oxidation of spent caustic
Jul-2011A process to oxidise spent caustic in an existing treatment plant by a catalytic route in the presence of air enhances the quality of wastewater relea ...
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HCN emissions in fluid catalytic cracking
Apr-2013Increased attention to refinery emissions of hydrogen cyanide requires detailed understanding of its formation and conversion in the FCC regenerator
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Ambient conditions impact CO and NOx emissions: part II
Jul-2009Effects of air temperature and humidity on burner NOx emissions are discussed, including considerations for factoring in these effects
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Hydrogen-induced cracking and blistering
Apr-2009Hydrogen damage to steel is a well-known consequence of corrosion in sour service. A corrosion inhibitor program can reduce hydrogen entry into the metal. ...
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Simulation of a visbreaking unit
Apr-2011Simulation of a commercial visbreaking unit supports optimisation of the unit’s performance. The visbreaking unit utilises vacuum residue as a feed and ...
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Maximise olefins through catalytic cracking Indmax FCC process
Apr-2008The primary purpose of the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process historically has been to convert low-valued, heavier petroleum streams into gasoline, ...
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Multiple corrosion mechanisms in crude distillation overhead system
Jul-2009Extensive troubleshooting efforts determine distinct corrosion mechanisms simultaneously attacking multiple areas of an atmospheric tower overhead sys ...
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Entrainment issues in vacuum column flash zones
Jan-2010For a vacuum tower to operate effectively, the flash zone and the wash section must work together to provide the best possible feed quality to the sections ...
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Diesel and VGO recovery
Oct-2005Fundamental design considerations influencing diesel and vacuum gas oil (VGO) recovery when revamping existing or designing grassroots crude units. By ...
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Hydrotreating in the production of green diesel
Apr-2010A novel scheme enables co-processing of light gas oil and tall diesel to produce a renewable diesel meeting EN 590 specifications
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Optimised hydrogen production by steam reforming: part I
Jan-2012Modelling optimisation of process and design parameters for minimising natural gas consumption in hydrogen production by steam reforming
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Combating green oil formation in a CCR reformer
Jul-2013The addition of a chloride adsorber guard bed solved a refiner’s issues with contamination affecting a CCR reformer’s rich gas compressor
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Designing the CDU/VDU for opportunity crudes
Oct-2012New units for processing heavy crudes should not be designed using conventional practices or run length will be short, and product yields and quality ...
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Residue desulphurisation and conversion
Apr-2006The current market forces that presage a boom in resid hydrotreatment are examined along with recently reported progress in technology
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Managing vanadium from high metals crude oils
Sep-2003Improvements in process and equipment design with regard to crude unit and delayed coker distillation column performance can reduce metals content
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Mercury treatment options for natural gas plants
Jan-2014Removing mercury as close as is practicable to the front end of a natural gas processing system is the best choice
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Divided-wall columns – a novel distillation concept
Oct-2000The technology of divided-wall columns using a single distillation tower, described in this article, is claimed to have investment and operating advantages ...
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Reliable design of sour water strippers
Jul-2012A simulation model aims to raise confidence in the reliability of sour water stripper design. Oil refining always generates sour water, and within a refinery ...
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Naphtha cracking for light olefins production
Jul-2010As an alternative to steam cracking, an FCC-type process provides on-purpose production of propylene
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Sour water stripping Part 3: waste water treatment
Sep-2014Mass transfer rate-based simulation is used in a case study to examine two of the important factors that determine the performance of a 2-Stage Chevron ...
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A cheaper way of alkylating propylene and amylenes
Oct-1997The authors describe how propylene and amylenes can be alkylated using much less sulphuric acid catalyst
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Pretreatment of resid FCC feedstocks
Jul-2004How a refinery optimised hydrogen consumption to raise API “shift”, enhancing FCC economics. The effect of heavy feedstock reactivity on the operation ...
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Main fractionator water wash systems
Sep-2006When properly designed and operated, main fractionator wash water systems can remove salt with little upset
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Predicting catalyst lifetime
Jul-2013A simulation model compares accurately with actual operating data to provide reliable predictions of catalyst lifetime in naphtha reforming
Most Popular
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Acid gas treatment upgrade for Qatargas
Jul-2016Upgrading acid gas treatment at the world’s largest LNG facility safeguards the plant’s design capacity and its ability to process increasingly sour ...
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Processing high TAN crude: part I
Jan-2010Huizhou, which is the first refinery for processing 100% high TAN crude, started up in 2009. This article describes the challenges of an opportunity crude ...
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Simulating and monitoring H2 plant operations
Oct-2012A computer program was developed to enable a refinery to monitor its hydrogen production daily to foresee potential operating problems
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Reciprocating compressor suction and discharge valve monitoring
Feb-2013A decision making guideline evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the most common online monitoring technologies
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Refining/petrochemical integration: a new paradigm
Sep-2013The global trend in motor fuel consumption favours diesel over gasoline. There is a simultaneous increase in demand for various petrochemicals such as ...
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Myth of high cutpoint in dry vacuum units
Apr-2014Accurate measures of true boiling point cutpoints are essential to correctly evaluate vacuum unit performance
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Maximizing refinery energy optimisation
Jan-2018Flexicoking™ technology is a highly differentiated unique resid upgrading process resulting in significantly lower environmental emissions than other ...
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Hydrogen management in a GHG-constrained refinery
Mar-2011Recently the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power plants and oil refineries starting ...
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21st century reciprocating compressors for downstream applications
May-2016Technology, like time, marches on. Think about the advancements in technology that have taken place in the last 50 years. Advancements have taken us from ...
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The challenges of crude blending - Part 2
Jun-2016The second part of a two-part article details the importance of crude selection and blending strategies to prosper in a low cost yet volatile market.
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Olefins and butanes to gasoline
Jul-2017Increasing alkylation capacity to process readily available olefins can be an opportunity to add value to refinery operations
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Troubleshooting a FCC unit
Mar-2012The source of a fouling problem in a FCC CO boiler was identified by systematic analysis of fresh catalysts, additives and equilibrium catalysts
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Natural gas fuels the integration of refining and petrochemicals
Jul-2012Maximising the use of natural gas in a refinery-petrochemicals complex offers higher margins and lower carbon emissions
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Simplifying hydrogen production
Jun-2017Catalyst systems developed for the purification and reforming sections of the hydrogen plant target significant barriers to efficient production.
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Catalyst selection – a refiner’s perspective
Nov-2015The refining industry is fortunate to have the catalyst suppliers as our partners. They have been leaders in developing new technology for refining.
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Relative economics of mixed C4 processing routes
Jan-1998Ethylene producers are seeking ways to upgrade the mixed C4 stream from ethylene plants to improve operating economics
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Delayed coking and LC-Fining technology - a winning combination
Apr-2008The high price of oil and increasing global demand for refined products have resulted in unprecedented refining margins, especially for those refiners ...
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Choosing quench interbed technology
Jan-2010A design for hydroprocessing interbed internals favours separate mixing of gas and liquid phases before contacting of the two phases occurs
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Sour water strippers: design and operation
Apr-2013Simpler, more cost-effective sour water stripper designs can outperform more generally accepted designs in the refining industry
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Failure analysis of burner piping
Jul-2014Investigation of the causes of a severe refinery fire leads to recommendations for burner piping design to prevent such incidents
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SRU simulation getting the properties right
Aug-2016Reliable, predictive simulation software for SRUs requires recognition of many of the unique properties and behaviours of sulphur.
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Catalyst technologies for improved FCC yields
Nov-2017Boron based nickel passivation enables refiners to reduce contaminant hydrogen and coke production and improve FCC yields.
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Refining-petrochemicals integration: an Indian view
Mar-2018Integrating a refinery with a petrochemicals complex offers high value products and a boost to gross margin.
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Maximising propylene and isobutylene from the FCC
Aug-2018A combination of recent catalyst and additive developments raised a refinery’s output of FCC propylene and isobutylene.
Most Recent
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Advances in residue hydrocracking
Mar-2018Recent developments in ebullated bed hydrocracking technology target high residue conversion and high quality products.
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Managing knowledge retention
Mar-2018With continued activity in mergers and acquisitions, companies need to consolidate assets to survive or retain their influence in the market.
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Crude analysers in corrosion prevention
Mar-2018On-line salt-in-crude oil analysers and crude oil analysers are essential in protecting the CDU and other refinery process units from corrosion.
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Challenges in producing BS-VI diesel
Mar-2018An Indian refiner describes the technical challenges of meeting a leap in
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Opening the crude flexibility window: enhancing crude unit capabilities
Mar-2018Innovative online analysers help refiners to mitigate crude unit threats in real time and provide new insights into existing problems.
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Advanced process control of distillation
Mar-2018The introduction of model predictive control enabled a bio-products plant to raise throughput and automate product variation.
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Surfactant-stabilised emulsions in amine units for LPG treating
Mar-2018Emulsion formation by surfactants is one of the most complex problems facing amine units treating refinery LPG.
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Refining-petrochemicals integration: an Indian view
Mar-2018Integrating a refinery with a petrochemicals complex offers high value products and a boost to gross margin.
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Three ways to effectively monitor total chlorine in liquid hydrocarbons
Feb-2018Corrosion at petroleum refineries is a critical problem all over the world. In the United States alone, NACE International, a professional association ...
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MIDW technology as a drop-in catalyst solution
Feb-2018Benefits of upgrading to a highly isomerisation-selective distillate dewaxing catalyst.
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Compressor improvements turn benchmarks into savings
Feb-2018How can refiners create real improvements at plant level? Reciprocating compressors are likely candidates.
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The future for hydrocracking: part 2
Feb-2018Technical solutions and strategies for innovative hydrocracking technologies are needed to meet challenging environmental legislation and future market ...
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SOx and NOx emission abatement in the FCC
Feb-2018The complexities of sulphur and nitrogen species formation in the FCC call for tailor made catalyst additive chemistry to limit formation of polluting ...
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Eliminating inert entry for catalyst changeout (TIA)
Feb-2018Since hydrocracking and hydrotreating catalyst were introduced to the refining industry in the mid-20th century, it has always been a struggle to safely ...
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Maximizing refinery energy optimisation
Jan-2018Flexicoking™ technology is a highly differentiated unique resid upgrading process resulting in significantly lower environmental emissions than other ...
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Ultra low sulphur analysis in liquid petroleum using MWDXRF
Jan-2018Tougher regulations are challenging refiners to produce higher quality products while trying to maximise efficiency.
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Making wet waste destruction a sustainable reality
Jan-2018Irish environmental company SCFI was supported by the European Union’s Eco-Innovation initiative in a project to build a portable unit to demonstrate ...
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Dynamic column simulation delivers reduced relief load
Jan-2018Dynamic modelling of a gasoline hydrodesulphurisation column simulates the column relief profile during power failure
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Experimental phase balance assessment for duplex stainless steel welded pipe
Jan-2018This paper discusses the assessment of weld metal ferrite content in duplex stainless steel pipe welded at a 45˚angle
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High efficiency coalescers for gas processing operations
Jan-2018High efficiency coalescers reduce running costs and shutdown time by removing contaminants in feed streams to each gas processing step
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Preventing ammonium salt fouling and corrosion
Jan-2018Best practices and opportunities to reduce the risk of salt deposition and damage
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Debottlenecking an FCC gas concentration unit
Jan-2018Component trapping by physical carry-over of water can cause capacity bottlenecks that are not easily predicted
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Wastewater treatment for challenging crudes
Jan-2018A new organic polymer treatment has enabled refiners to more effectively process a variety of opportunity crudes
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Retrofitting crude furnace burners
Jan-2018A burner retrofit has delivered more robust operation with reduced NOx emissions from a crude process furnace
White Papers
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New insights into Claus waste heat boilers
Dec-2018(White Paper) - The real plant performance of a waste heat boiler depends on many factors besides heat transfer.
The Claus waste heat boiler ...
