Petrochemicals

The demand for light olefins is continuing to rise at over 3% per annum. While ethylene production is expected to be addressed by the construction of new ethane crackers, mostly sited in the Middle East, only 3% of propylene production can be attributed to on-purpose propylene technology. As the...

The site utility system provides the heating, cooling load along with power production for the processes on the total site. Low-grade heat is available in large amount across the process industry from temperatures of 30 o C to 250 o C as gases (e.g. flue gas) and/or liquids (e.g. cooling water)...

Abstract: Corrosion, blockage, fouling, and mechanical/thermal overload are the key degradation mechanisms that operators need to control to avoid premature failure of their aluminum plate fin heat exchangers. The paper will describe these degradation mechanisms as well as how to incorporate finite...

With an increasing focus on resid upgrade and bottom of the barrel conversion over the years due to economic advantages, refiners are increasingly processing heavy crudes that yield higher residue content. These crudes are also higher in salt, metal and sulfur content. Often in these cases, there...

Ethylene Cracking Furnace operators are under continuing pressure to increase furnace efficiency. Fuel costs, environmental concerns and reduced maintenance budgets demand that unit reliability and efficiency be kept at a high level. Our paper will discuss an operational problem common to high...

Borealis' cracker in Stenungsund, Sweden was a very early adopter of APC for olefin plants. Part of Exxon's early 80's roll out of APC based on Honeywell's PMX process computer on top of a TDC2000 DCS the plant got over a few years state of the art furnace, compressor and distillation control. In...

Synthesis and Characterization of Trimetallic Ni(Co)-Mo-W HDS Catalysts Supported on Al-HMS Substrates R. Huirache-Acuña 1 , B. Pawelec 2 , E.M. Rivera-Muñoz 3 , R. Nava 4 B. Torres 5 , G. Alonso-Núñez 6 , J.A. Cortés 1 and J.L.G. Fierro 2 1 Facultad de Ingeniería Química, Universidad Michoacana de...

In the 2007 turnaround at the BASF FINA PETROCHEMICAL L.P. Ethylene Steam Cracker, severe damage was discovered in the cooling tower to process exchangers. Over 41 exchangers had been replaced or required total tube bundle replacement within the first seven years of operation. Several of the units...

Advanced Catalytic Olefins (ACO TM ): First Commercial Demonstration Unit Begins Operations Michael J. Tallman and Curtis N. Eng, KBR and Sun Choi and Deuk Soo Park, SK Energy With the number of new ethane-based crackers coming on line in the next few years, it is anticipated that the traditional...

Control of feed pH control is an important task in chemical industries, wastewater treatment, polymerization reactions, fatty acid production and biochemical processes. However, this is a challenging problem due to (i) presence of large and varying time delays and (ii) complex time varying...