Petrochemicals

Underlying feedstock prices that derive from either natural gas or crude oil represent a high percentage of the operating expense related to the production of ethylene for a vast majority of the global ethylene market. Historically, while steam crackers in West Europe and Asia are mainly naphtha-...

Trip & Throttle Valve Reliability Trip & Throttle (or Stop) valves are used in ethylene plants to isolate the energy to steam turbines when required. They are critical Safety Protection components with a high impact on a plant’s reliability; however, they operate under tough conditions like...

Cracking furnaces are the heart of the ethylene plant. Ethylene producers purchase various feedstocks ranging from “Gas” feeds: ethane, propane, butane and ethane propane mix, “Liquid” feeds: NGL’s, naphtha and up to “Heavy liquid” feeds: condensates, atmospheric gas oil (AGO), and vacuum gas oil (...

Autothermal reforming processes of hydrocarbon liquids such as diesel fuels are spotlighted as methods to produce hydrogen for Fuel cell. However, the use of higher hydrocarbons as feedstocks for hydrogen production causes some problems which increase the catalyst deactivation by the carbon...

Braskem, a Brazilian player among petrochemical manufacturers, produces monomers, resins and chemicals specialties. The overall Ethylene capacity is 3,600 KTA, distributed in six Olefins plants. Naphtha is the main raw material of the petrochemical and plastic productive chain in Brazil, followed...

Today, there is no excuse for not getting five years or more on the run length of refinery preheat exchangers without the need for cleaning. Among the many tools available for fouling mitigation of preheat exchangers, the most overlooked ones involve determining and eliminating the cause. Almost...

Abstract: The conversion of methanol to olefins (MTO) is a means to produce ethylene and propylene from feedstock derived from sources other than crude oil or condensates. Methanol is widely produced from natural gas or coal at locations with abundant reserves. By utilizing methanol derived from...

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...

The vacuum residue fraction of petroleum is one of the most complex mixtures of compounds known, one which continues to defy comprehensive analysis. The combination of complexity, diversity, and aggregation of the asphaltenes has enormous implications for upgrading reactions and phase behaviour...

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...