The delayed coking process is a fundamental part of the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, and is among the main technical means for transforming inexpensive heavy oil into more valuable, light-oil products. Delayed coking units are common in petroleum refineries,…
The solubility of water in the hydrocarbons that comprise crude oil is an increasingly important issue in view of processing, safety and environmental considerations surrounding product quality and equipment sustainability. Water in the reacting hydrocarbon species may result in the…
Oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTOs) is the most common process in the chemical process industries (CPI) for removing diluted emissions of VOCs and carbon monoxide from stationary air- pollution sources. Thousands of RTOs operate…
With today’s state-of-the-art digital technology, the sky seems to be the limit for doing everything with one system platform. However, with the exception of a few very specific applications, using a safety PLC (programmable logic controller) for process control is…
Pumps are essential equipment in the chemical process industries (CPI). Given the imperatives to reduce production costs and maximize energy efficiency, pump selection is crucial. Knowledge of pumping basics, along with the fluid characteristics for a particular application can help…
This article describes an algorithm that end users can use to develop a program on a personal computer to assess the technical and economic feasibility of installing a variable frequency drive (VFD) on centrifugal pumps. This simple algorithm serves a…
A survey of tower failures [ 1 ] ranks kettle reboilers as the most troublesome reboiler type in the chemical process industries (CPI). Excessive pressure drop in kettle reboiler circuits is the prominent kettle malfunction, causing liquid to back up…
Today’s high costs of energy make an energy audit evaluation of process facilities a must. Most plants were designed and built when energy costs were low by today’s standards. This makes facilities that have not been reviewed for energy efficiency…
For valves operating in hazardous environments, certification testing is critical to ensure the reliability and safety of the equipment. But this testing process has historically required facilities to shut down and sacrifice valuable production hours to check each valve. Built-in…
Particulate buildup and other material flow problems are common hurdles wherever dry materials find application in the chemical process industries (CPI). Since manual intervention is costly in terms of downtime, and can be quite hazardous for the personnel involved, dedicated…