Maintenance & Reliability
Raise profitability through continuous performance evaluations
Reliability engineers use a wide variety of tools to support plant equipment and to optimize unit uptime and availability. Sound reliability programs assist organizations to be more competitive in the..
HP Engineering Case Histories: Case 81: Is consulting a possible second career for you?
Often, engineers consider becoming consultants as a second career path. This was certainly true for this author, and it occurred early during his career. Equally important, his career turned out well,..
HP Project Management: Case history: Hurdles in dismantling a vintage ammonia plant
Dismantling an ammonia plant is a daunting task under any circumstances. It is even more problematic when the facility is located in a remote place such as central Pakistan and managed by local contra..
HP Reliability: Consider technology-based specialized industrial services
Most downstream professions have heard of (or personally experienced) glitches in activities involving offshoring and outsourcing. Too often, some maintenance and purchasing agents travel the “go..
Two approaches to sulfur management
Sulfur is naturally present as an impurity in fossil fuels. When the fuels are burned, the sulfur is released as sulfur dioxide—an air pollutant that contributes to respiratory problems for human..
What is the impact of US shale oil on global markets and refinery configurations?
One of the most important factors in determining a refinery’s profitability is its ability to access low-cost feedstocks. This is not to be confused with survivability. Some uneconomic refineries..
Improve monitoring and troubleshooting of reciprocating compressors
The terms surveillance and monitoring for reciprocating compressors can be used interchangeably. With few exceptions, the monitoring and/or surveillance tasks are assigned to the unit operators. They ..
HP Project Management: Pipeline expansion uses rerating to debottleneck services
The Colonial Pipeline connects refineries primarily on the US Gulf Coast with customer service markets across the southern and eastern US. In 2010, Colonial’s 5,500-mi pipeline was transporting a..
HP Reliability: Consider suspended-access scaffolding
You may always have left scaffolding and access-to-work questions to an outside contractor to make the final decisions. But plant safety and timely work completion are everybody’s business. As a ..
Update on secondary seals for fluid machines
Elastomer-based O-rings are used as secondary sealing components in millions of fluid machines. Although O-ring seals are primarily intended for fluid containment between different but nonrotating com..
- Iran's Revolutionary Guards say they targeted petrochemical facilities in the Gulf 4/6
- Damietta Green Ammonia completes pre-FEED for $873-MM, 150,000-tpy green ammonia facility 4/6
- Petrobras delivers LPG sold at steep premiums despite Lula move to annul auction 4/3
- Plug Power to supply 275-MW GenEco electrolyzer system for Hy2gen’s Courant decarbonized ammonium nitrate project 4/3
- Vietnam refinery boosting jet fuel production 4/3
- China plans to upgrade some petrochemical plants, phase out others by 2029 4/3
