Management
Total inks new labor agreement with global union
A committee made up of members from Total and IndustriALL will meet annually to ensure that the agreement has been implemented and to identify and promote best practices.
Shale gas drives new opportunities for US downstream
This shift to lighter feeds for the SC will reduce the future availability of other petrochemical feedstocks—in particular, propylene.
DCS migration: Lessons learned
In 2005, TOTAL’s Port Arthur refinery (PAR), like many present-day refining and petrochemical facilities, found itself with an obsolete, at-capacity distributed control system (DCS). As shown in ..
Avoid counterproductive project management practices
For many years, reliability-focused engineers have observed flawed procurement processes for mechanical equipment. Many requirements are supposedly aimed at the lowest possible lifecycle cost; however..
Use a schedule confidence tool to manage project risk
On most industrial projects, the baseline schedule completion date and the indicated schedule completion date are typically the same, unless the schedule is forcibly re-baselined. Key learnings have indicated that a reevaluation of the scope, schedule and budget is essential.
Fine-tune monitoring of critical compressors
In this case history, a new monitoring system was installed on a critical service hyper compressor for a Middle East (ME) ethylene complex. This unit supported two 400 Mton polyethylene (PE) units; do..
Consider technology to reduce compressor vibration and noise problems
Industrial centrifugal compressors installed in hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) complexes absorb significant amounts of mechanical power when compressing gases. A small part of the mechanical en..
Without reliability, there can be no safety
Reliability and safety are complimentary concepts. For instance, unless process reliability at a plant is extraordinary, safety cannot be assured. Achieving the highest level of safety at a processing..
HP Automation Strategies: Control on the wire(less)
Since the industrial revolution, process/industrial control had relied on tightly coupled systems to transmit control signals. Industrial plants have used “modern” control via wired electron..
HP Project Management: German refinery successfully modernizes safety system
In September 2014, the Heide refinery in Germany used two weeks of planned downtime at its pyrolysis plant to migrate to new safety systems. The new system emphasized high plant/equipment availability..
- EcoCortec, Jakob Schober GmbH awarded sustainability award for closed-loop circular films solution 8/20
- Vioneo awards Lummus polypropylene contract for world's first industrial scale fossil-free plastics from green methanol facility 8/19
- Research: Developing an energy-saving, carbon-capturing method for making ethylene glycol 8/19
- Emerson announced the release of its new Rosemount 3144S temperature transmitter 8/19
- Chinese refiners sweep up Russian oil after Indian demand falls 8/19
- Indonesia plans quick-to-build oil refineries for U.S. crude 8/19
