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Practical hydrocarbon dew point specification for natural gas transmission lines
Mar-2011Hydrocarbon liquid dropout can cause a number of problems in gas transmission lines, including increased pressure drop, reduced line capacity and equipment ...
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Maximising premium distillate by catalytic dewaxing
Feb-2011Advances in technology for catalytic dewaxing of distillates by isomerisation provide improved activity
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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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Predicting catalyst lifetime
Jul-2013A simulation model compares accurately with actual operating data to provide reliable predictions of catalyst lifetime in naphtha reforming
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Sour water stripping Part 2: phenolic water
Aug-2014In addition to ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, and carbon dioxide, phenolic sour water may contain a host of so-called heat stable salts (HSSs), hydrogen cyanide, ...
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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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Choosing the proper regulator for high-purity applications
Feb-2008Regulators are highly technical, highly specialised fluid-handling components. So, the next time you need one please do not just grab one out of the supply ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Process improvements in the direct hydration of olefins to alcohols
May-2014Synthetic alcohols produced by direct hydration have wide application in the process industries as solvents, in the production of cosmetics and as intermediates ...
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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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Troubleshooting steam ejectors
Oct-2014Some causes and practical solutions concerning problems with refinery steam vacuum ejectors
Most Popular
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Maximising FCC performance and yields with catalyst innovations (ERTC)
Nov-2017BASF analyses equilibrium catalyst (Ecat) and operating data from over 200 units worldwide. These data provide valuable information on refinery conditions ...
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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.
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Effect of reactor inlet temperature in a hydrotreater
Sep-2018Solving a problem of pressure drop in a naphtha hydrotreater led to fresh insights into the role of reactor inlet temperature.
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Savings using divided wall columns
Jan-2019Divided wall columns can provide substantial energy and capital cost savings compared to conventional distillation methods.
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Real-time total chlorine monitoring to ensure optimal desalter performance
May-2019Chlorides are always present in raw crude oils and their concentrations vary greatly. Depending on origin, transportation methods, and process conditions, ...
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Optimise hydrocracker operations for maximum distillates
Apr-2012Estimation of an accurate operating window for a hydrocracker enables refiners to minimise yields of light ends and maximise diesel production
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The future for hydrocracking: part 1
Nov-2017Hydrocracking technology faces challenges and opportunities amid diesel emission scandals, low sulphur marine fuels, and the growing position of electric ...
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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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Understanding FCC feeds and benefits to refinery operation
Apr-2015In this work, over one hundred FCC feed samples, originating from diverse geographic locations and consisting of assorted FCC refinery streams, were a ...
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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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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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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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Controlling corrosion in amine treatment units
Apr-2011A range of measures can be taken to minimise corrosion in amine units. The amine unit plays a vital role in the petroleum refining, gas processing, coal ...
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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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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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Understanding centrifugal compressor performance
Apr-2002In a connected process system, expensive changes to the compressor and driver can be avoided with system debottlenecking modifications
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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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Maximising ethane in liquids crackers
Jan-2013Economics for energy and feedstock supply favour ethane feed cracking, but plant constraints must be examined rigorously before maximum ethane feeds are ...
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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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Are produced water emission factors accurate?
Oct-2016Rules of thumb are often used for estimating emissions from Produced Water storage tanks, especially when entrained hydrocarbons are present.
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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
Most Recent
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Advanced catalyst characterisation for improved hydrocracking performance
Nov-2018Advanced analytical techniques delivered new insights into catalyst structure and manufacturing leading to improved performance material.
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Hydrofluoric acid alkylation conversion and expansion
Nov-2018Much of the cost of switching from hydrofluoric acid to sulphuric acid alkylation can be avoided by using existing equipment.
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Evaluating quickly deactivating catalytic systems (TIA)
Nov-2018Avantium provides contract research services for high throughput catalysis R&D. For some years now, Avantium has been helping refineries select the best ...
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Best practices in boiler replacement (TIA)
Nov-2018When you are processing 100 000 barrels or more of crude in a day, reliability is of the utmost importance. There is no justification for unscheduled shutdowns ...
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Online hydrogen purity analysis boosts sulphiding (TIA)
Nov-2018Reactor Resources has utilised the Online Hydrogen Purity Analyzer to assist with the sulphiding of 40 hydrotreating units.
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Characterising heterogeneous catalysts with laser diffraction (TIA)
Nov-2018Heterogeneous catalysts, where the catalyst is in solid form, enhance many of the gas and liquid phase reactions that underpin routine chemical proces ...
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Measuring level in a molten sulphur pit (TIA)
Nov-2018Not every level measurement application is straightforward. In some instances, the nature of the substance being measured creates a hostile measurement ...
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Online monitor slashes biocide dosage (TIA)
Nov-2018In many systems, fouling and deposits are a serious problem which results in shutdowns, cleaning actions and unexpected costs for the customer.
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Activity still key for FCC catalyst to improve profit margin (TIA)
Nov-2018Nowadays, the gasoline economy still prevails in most markets. The US market has been favouring gasoline yields for a long time.
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Drop-in catalyst generates more jet fuel and full range diesel (TIA)
Nov-2018A North American refiner was producing ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD) in a 800 psig hydrotreater.
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Simple lubricant additive package quality control using HDXRF
Nov-2018Professionals in the field of lubrication and tribology are at the forefront of solving many of today’s biggest problems.
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Process development for Tier 3 low sulfur gasoline
Oct-2018Gasoline sulphur is being reduced in the United States to meet the EPA’s Tier 3 standard which requires an annual average of 10 ppm sulphur by 2020.
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How ceramic solutions simplify field installation and address skilled labor gap
Oct-2018Innovative ceramic designs simplify field installation and address critical manufacturing skills gap.
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Ensure accurate results for sulphur and chlorine analysis in biodiesels
Sep-2018The use of biodiesel is rapidly becoming more popular due to growing trends both inside and outside the petroleum industry.
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Precision comparison between ASTM test methods D7039, D2622, and D5453
Sep-2018For many years, professionals in the petroleum industry have faced challenges regarding compliance and quality of product.
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Structured catalyst for steam reforming
Sep-2018A catalyst system for steam methane reforming for improved heat transfer, pressure drop and catalyst effectiveness.
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Burner retrofit increases capacity and cuts costs
Sep-2018Replacement burners in a hydrogen reactor feed heater saved the cost of retrofit within a week.
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Increasing resid processing flexibility
Sep-2018A resid processing technology converts low value refinery streams to full range refinery products.
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Water treatment on contract
Sep-2018Rented mobile water services can be a cost effective alternative to capital investment in water treatment plant.
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Low cost gasoline from low octane feed
Sep-2018Naphtha and methanol are the feedstocks for production of high octane, low cost gasoline.
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Opening the crude flexibility window: automation manages threats in real time
Sep-2018By increasing the volume of quality data, refiners can automate the correct addition of chemical additives to respond to variations in unit performanc ...
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Predictive analytics in incident prevention
Sep-2018Predictive analytics can support risk management by identifying where failures are likely to occur and what can be done to prevent them.
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Effect of reactor inlet temperature in a hydrotreater
Sep-2018Solving a problem of pressure drop in a naphtha hydrotreater led to fresh insights into the role of reactor inlet temperature.
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Reducing hydrogen consumption in diesel hydrotreating
Sep-2018Fractionating a raw diesel stream before hydrotreating reduces consumption of hydrogen to produce high quality diesel.
White Papers
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Optimise catalyst efficiency by monitoring chlorine levels
Jun-2019(White Paper) - Over the years, refineries have fine-tuned their production methods to maximise efficiency while ensuring quality. One such example is ...
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Bottoms upgrading of FCC resid feedstock
Jun-2019(White Paper) - A refiner chose a new catalyst to improve bottoms upgrading and maximise fuels production from resid feeds.
The fluid catalytic ...
