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

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.

FCC air/steam rings

Oct-2011

Ring distributors are a simple yet effective means of improving air/steam distribution within the FCC unit

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 ...

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 ...

Dealing with column fouling

Feb-2016

An understanding of process basics and fouling mechanisms enables increased run length in problem columns.

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.

Catalyst filling in a fixed bed tubular reactor

Apr-2017

A reactor filling methodology ensures even reactant distribution and pressure drop

Separation in ethylene plants

Oct-2010

Separation technology is not complex, but separators deliver a range of benefits in ethylene cracking

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Advances in amine reclaiming

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.

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 ...

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

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

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 ...

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) ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Savings using divided wall columns

Jan-2019

Divided wall columns can provide substantial energy and capital cost savings compared to conventional distillation methods.

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 ...

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. ...

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.

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

Revamp of a methanol wash column

Jun-2022

Installation of high performance trays and internals enabled a successful revamp for a syngas purification process.

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 ...

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.

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.

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 ...

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

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.

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 ...

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

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 ...

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.

Increase duty in tube side condensers

Jul-2020

A retrofit is shown to improve several aspects of tube side condensation processes.

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 ...

PackView™ liquid retention scale is a quantitative analysis of packing maldistribution

Sep-2020

PackView™ can be used to compare operational parameters with engineering design

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.

Horizontal incinerator reactor scans identify catalyst loss and provide insight to repair efficiency issues

Sep-2020

Tracerco technology can see inside the very heart of operations to determine why processes are not operating as expected.

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

Detecting leaking PSVs helps a refiner avoid potential emission fines and penalties

Sep-2020

A Tracerco Diagnostics™ Leak study identifies leaks resulting in massive savings from environmental fines, without any interruption to production.

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 ...