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Sour water strippers: design and operation
Apr-2013
Simpler, more cost-effective sour water stripper designs can outperform more generally accepted designs in the refining industry
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Flue gas heat recovery through the acid dew point
Jul-2019
Polymer based heat exchange technology enables more heat recovery from flue gas by addressing acid corrosion issues.
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Oct-2011
Ring distributors are a simple yet effective means of improving air/steam distribution within the FCC unit
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Tray design for high load applications
Jul-2014
Distillation is an essential separation technology in refineries, gas processing, and the chemical industries. Internals for distillation columns can be ...
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Removing salts and contaminants in glycol regeneration
Apr-2014
A new process combining candle filters and pressure plate filters enables more glycol to be safely recovered from natural gas than by conventional met ...
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Feb-2016
An understanding of process basics and fouling mechanisms enables increased run length in problem columns.
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Foaming in fractionation columns
Oct-2015
By understanding the foaming process and its root causes, steps can be taken to eliminate or minimise the formation of foaming.
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Catalyst filling in a fixed bed tubular reactor
Apr-2017
A reactor filling methodology ensures even reactant distribution and pressure drop
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Oct-2010
Separation technology is not complex, but separators deliver a range of benefits in ethylene cracking
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Entrainment issues in vacuum column flash zones
Jan-2010
For 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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Working with an extractive distillation process
Jul-2001
A cost comparison between progressive extractive distillation of aromatics versus a more conventional technology has shown there can be considerable savings ...
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Practical hydrocarbon dew point specification for natural gas transmission lines
Mar-2011
Hydrocarbon 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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Feb-2007
Why there is no excuse for operating a dirty amine system. The benefits of reclaiming amine systems are trumpeted by many and doubted by others.
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Improvements in random packing performance
Oct-2010
Developments in random packing design aim for increased efficiency and capacity. Random packing is used extensively in gas processing and high-pressure ...
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Bulk separation of gas-liquid mixtures
Apr-2011
Effective gas-liquid separation is increasingly important to produce high-quality products from feedstocks of decreasing quality
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High-performance trays alone do not guarantee performance improvements
Apr-2012
A high-performance tray does not determine the effectiveness of the whole column. Other distillation equipment plays a vital role in a column revamp
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Distributor design and testing
Oct-2006
A new main fractionator designed to separate a range of feed streams incorporates multiple layers of structured packing and a slurry section. Flow testing ...
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A comparison of physical solvents for acid gas removal
Mar-2008
Physical solvents such as DEPG (Selexol or Coastal AGR), NMP or N-Methyl-2- Pyrrolidone (Purisol), Methanol (Rectisol), Propylene Carbonate (Fluor Solvent) ...
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Divided-wall columns — a novel distillation concept
Oct-2000
The 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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Tray hydraulic operating regimes and selectivity
Apr-2010
Tray hydraulics is discussed in terms of froth and spray operating regimes, and possible impacts on selectivity are pointed out by reference to performance ...
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Tray technology enhances extraction
Oct-2007
A case study involving the revamp of two rotating disc contactors in aromatics service highlights the most important design considerations for enhancing ...
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Analysis method for determining bound and free alkanolamines in HSS contaminated solutions
Jul-1990
A conductometric titration method has been developed to determine the true available alkanolamine in solutions used for H2S and CO2 removal from refinery ...
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Troubleshooting a C3 splitter tower Part 1: evaluation
Oct-2014
Distillation trays are prone to channelling and multi-pass maldistribution in large diameter towers. Multichordal gamma scanning is key for solving such ...
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Revamp process design — optimum crude unit product yields
Jul-1997
Designing a new crude unit is an unconstrained process, limited only by capital
investment targets, while revamping an existing unit to optimise ... -
Dividing wall technology in distillation columns
Feb-2020
Increased throughput required the revamp of a gasoline unit. Space constraints and strict product requirements led to dividing wall column technology as ...
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Slug catcher debottleneck protects downstream processing (TIA)
Aug-2020
Effective separation of oil and gas from different impurities in upstream operations is a matter of paramount importance. All downstream activities and ...
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Savings using divided wall columns
Jan-2019
Divided wall columns can provide substantial energy and capital cost savings compared to conventional distillation methods.
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Improving turnarounds and operations with online cleaning
Sep-2020
Case histories illustrate the financial and operational gains achieved by replacing mechanical cleaning with online, closed-loop operations. The conventional ...
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High efficiency contaminant removal - Improving new and existing acid gas sweetening processes
Nov-2022
Gas sweetening processes using amine solvents are often challenged to meet productivity and reliability targets due to the impact of solid and liquid contamination. ...
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Process safety time for fired heaters
Dec-2020
Cases illustrate the actions needed to avoid hazards occurring when the supply to a fired heater is disturbed.
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High capacity valves for distillation towers
Nov-2021
Advanced valves deliver higher column capacity while meeting process requirements such as wider operating range and higher fouling resistance
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Revamp of a methanol wash column
Jun-2022
Installation of high performance trays and internals enabled a successful revamp for a syngas purification process.
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New graphical procedure to design reactor supports used in industry
Aug-2022
Two reactor models used in gas recovery demonstrate a new design strategy that can lead to significant savings in material cost and engineering design ...
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Flue gas heat recovery through the acid dew point
Jul-2019
Polymer based heat exchange technology enables more heat recovery from flue gas by addressing acid corrosion issues.
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Boosting tube-side heat transfer
Jun-2021
Tube insert technologies can improve heat exchanger performance by enhancing tube-side heat transfer coefficients in two-phase applications.
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Premature foam-flood in an amine absorber: Part 1
Nov-2021
Troubleshooting and hydraulic analysis identified vapour channelling in fixed valve trays as the root cause of premature foam-flooding in a high pressure ...
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Heat exchanger fouling analytics
Sep-2020
Modelling the effects of fouling on the performance of heat exchangers and its impact on product values as well as energy losses
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Achieving Fit for 55 emission reduction targets by 2030
Feb-2023
Options available to oil refineries in reducing CO2 emissions while providing a clearer vision on possible roadmaps.
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Debottlenecking product recovery using product pair distillation: Part I
Apr-2023
Advantages of using a thermodynamically efficient method to debottleneck existing distillation trains using fewer new columns than traditional methods ...
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Sour water strippers: design and operation
Apr-2013
Simpler, more cost-effective sour water stripper designs can outperform more generally accepted designs in the refining industry
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Troubleshooting instability in a debutaniser tower
Dec-2019
Successful diagnosis and remediation of premature flood in a debutaniser tower demonstrate the value of good diagnosis for solving tower problems econ ...
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Managing vacuum tower wash beds
Sep-2020
ThruVision™ scans monitor the rate of coking in vacuum tower wash beds to get the most out of bed productivity.
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Increase duty in tube side condensers
Jul-2020
A retrofit is shown to improve several aspects of tube side condensation processes.
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Troubleshooting premature tower flooding
Aug-2020
Thorough analysis of field data and tray hydraulics together with gamma scanning were key factors in the successful troubleshooting of premature flooding ...
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PackView™ liquid retention scale is a quantitative analysis of packing maldistribution
Sep-2020
PackView™ can be used to compare operational parameters with engineering design
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ThruVision™ scans are the next step to investigate liquid maldistribution
Sep-2020
ThruVision™ technology allows for a complete understanding of liquid distribution, saving days of production losses and massive costs of a unit shut ...
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Tru-Grid™ scans detect solids build-up to assist in determining the appropriate maintenance path
Sep-2020
PackView™ liquid retention scale included on Tru-Grid™ Scan results provide customers the amount of build-up, relative density and growth patterns ...
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Tru-Scan™ identifies abnormal process conditions and helps optimise vessel efficiencies
Sep-2020
Tru-Scans™ provide valuable data aiding operations in achieving 115% of unit capacity
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Increase production rates with Tracerco’s FrothView and Tru-Scan technologies
Sep-2020
How Tru-Scan™ and FrothView™ results help increase production, and remove the debutanizer tower, which seemed to be the bottleneck for the unit.
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Pre-turnaround scans enable better critical path planning
Sep-2020
Tru-Scan™ and Tru-Grid™ Scan results help determine whether to enter a particular column during the turnaround outage or remove it from the critical ...
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Retrofitting vane pack separator for improved column performance
Nov-2024
(White Paper) - Case history of a syngas production unit, which experienced high methanol content in the tail gas of the scrubber when operated at 116% ...
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Optimising cartridge tray installation
Oct-2024
Methodology for tackling site challenges and improving HSE and quality in cartridge tray installations while reducing the overall installation cost and ...
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Separation technology addresses challenges in emerging technologies
Oct-2024
How a proven technology has been repurposed to offer a versatile solution for separating biochar from hydrocarbon vapours and ash from flue gases.
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Selection of ULSD dryers: Key technical considerations
Oct-2024
An evaluation of various drying options for ULSD aiming to pass bright and clear specifications or haze ratings.
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Evaluating tray efficiency impacts on column design
Oct-2024
Steps to avoid undersizing or oversizing of columns along with the selection of property packages essential for the model to generate reliable tray traffic ...
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MellapakEvo and the evolution of structured packing (RI 2024)
Sep-2024
Distillation has been the most prevalent separation technology in the chemical industry.
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Transforming packed column efficiency
Jul-2024
Column internals, such as packings and distributors, along with application expertise and distillation know-how, are critical to achieving greater productivity ...
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Vessel internals enhance worker safety during plant turnarounds (TiA)
Jul-2024
Reducing confined space entry when changing media beds using hold-down screen solutions
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Innovative vessel internals for enhanced safety when changing media beds (TiA)
May-2024
In our previous article (PTQ Q1 2024), we discussed the challenges inherent in performing scheduled inspections within confined spaces of fixed-bed downflow ...
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Revamping a conventional naphtha splitter to a dividing wall column
May-2024
Installation of new equipment, performance results, and final commissioning of a DWC and its ability to sharply fractionate three components in one single ...
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On the fly vs high-performance H2S selective solvent
May-2024
A focus on highly selective designs in low-pressure tail gas treating units using BASF’s proprietary technology in comparison to generic MDEA soluti ...
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Eight critical process vessel, tower and column corrosion mitigation projects
Feb-2024
Integrated Global Services (IGS) discusses eight global process vessel, column, and tower corrosion mitigation projects. This paper explores innovative ...
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Feb-2024
A new approach to the costly problem of biofilm formation in refinery and petrochemical operations.
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Considerations for crude unit preflash drums and preflash towers
Feb-2024
A guide to debottlenecking, revamping, designing, and operating crude unit preflash facilities based on literature and the authors’ experience.
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Benefits of spiral and welded plate heat exchangers (RI 2023)
Nov-2023
Nexson is a French company based in Garchizy in the Nièvre region. Aware of environmental issues, the company helps manufacturers optimise their manufacturing ...
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Enhancing profitability using high-efficiency heat exchangers (RI 2023)
Nov-2023
Alfa Laval has been in the refinery industry for more than 40 years, with more than 3,000 high-efficiency heat exchangers installed worldwide. The company’s ...
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Optimising fouled distillation units
Nov-2023
Case studies discuss optimisation strategies and enhanced distillation unit performance against fouled conditions.
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Practical considerations for the design of adsorbent beds
Jul-2023
Refineries have to achieve outstanding reliability and in order to obtain this, they must ensure they optimise the lifetime of molecular sieves. Oil and ...
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Advanced thermoplastic polymer supports processing of harsh chemicals
Jul-2023
The proprietary NeXRing in VICTREX PEEK polymer from Sulzer Chemtech is ideal for supporting the processing of harsh chemicals, thanks to its high temperature ...
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Debottlenecking product recovery using product pair distillation: Part II
Jul-2023
Advantages of using a thermodynamically efficient method to debottleneck existing distillation trains using fewer columns than traditional methods.
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Debottlenecking product recovery using product pair distillation: Part I
Apr-2023
Advantages of using a thermodynamically efficient method to debottleneck existing distillation trains using fewer new columns than traditional methods ...
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Energy saving with tube inserts for heat exchangers
Apr-2023
When it comes to fouling in crude oil preheat trains, tube inserts can maximise heat transfer and reduce heat exchanger fouling, with an average six-month ...
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Achieving Fit for 55 emission reduction targets by 2030
Feb-2023
Options available to oil refineries in reducing CO2 emissions while providing a clearer vision on possible roadmaps.
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Sulzer’s VIEC technology provides the solution with single-stage early separation
Nov-2022
The principle of “easiest first” applies as much in the oil industry as in most other enterprises. This in no more evident than in the state of the ...
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High efficiency contaminant removal - Improving new and existing acid gas sweetening processes
Nov-2022
Gas sweetening processes using amine solvents are often challenged to meet productivity and reliability targets due to the impact of solid and liquid contamination. ...
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Retrofitting vane pack separator for improved column performance
Nov-2024
(White Paper) - Case history of a syngas production unit, which experienced high methanol content in the tail gas of the scrubber when operated at 116% ...