http://www.che.com Chemical Engineering en-us 2013 Tue, 21 May 2013 8:04:19 EDT The volume of heavy, sour crude oil processed by North American refineries is steadily increasing, and along with it a commensurate demand for hydrogen to upgrade that oil. A steam-reforming process that would allow refiners to produce their own H2 from heavy oil and residuum is being developed by TDA... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/9974.html Sat, 1 Dec 2012 0:00:00 EST Aither Chemicals LLC (South Charleston, W.Va.; www.aitherchemicals.com) is planning to build a commercial-scale plant based on a catalytic ethane-cracking process that uses 80% less energy and generates 60% less carbon dioxide than conventional steam-cracking of ethane.  The company has refined a mixed... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/9897.html Thu, 1 Nov 2012 0:00:00 EDT Startup can be a tricky time for any distillation tower, with problems arising from equipment or process conditions, instrumentation or ancillaries, or anomalies associated with tower construction or internals. This article illustrates a variety of practical tools to avoid problems during startup, and describes in detail a troubleshooting exercise performed on a specific depropanizer tower... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/9389.html Fri, 1 Jun 2012 0:00:00 EDT A Samsung petrochemicals facility in South Korea will be the first to feature a suite of energy efficiency technologies developed by UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill., www.uop.com) for improved aromatics production. A number of UOP aromatics-processing design features and materials will be integrated to allow the... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/9159.html Sun, 1 Apr 2012 0:00:00 EDT A proprietary nanoscale catalyst and an updated engineering design have allowed higher conversion rates for transforming the heaviest fractions of crude oil, known as vacuum residue, into high-value transportation fuels, such as diesel. Developed by UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) and called... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/9039.html Thu, 1 Mar 2012 0:00:00 EST A proprietary nanoscale catalyst and an updated engineering design have allowed higher conversion rates for transforming the heaviest fractions of crude oil, known as vacuum residue, into high-value transportation fuels, such as diesel. Developed by UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) and called... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/9169.html Thu, 1 Mar 2012 0:00:00 EST Venezuela’s state-run petroleum company, PDVSA Petroleo, S.A. (PDVSA, Caracas; www.pdvsa.com), will commercialize a company-developed process for upgrading heavy crude oil in its Puerto La Cruz refinery, about 300 km (190 miles) east of Caracas. The 210,000-bbl/d plant will employ PDVSA’s HDH... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/8823.html Sun, 1 Jan 2012 0:00:00 EST An improved sulfuric-acid alkylation process that reduces acid consumption by up to 50% from that of conventional processes will make its commercial debut in China. Developed by Lummus Technology, a CB&I company (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com), the technology will be used by Ningbo Haiyue New Material... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/8726.html Thu, 1 Dec 2011 0:00:00 EST Anew process to make BTX (benzene, toluene and xylenes) from light cycle oil (LCO), an oversupplied product of petroleum refineries that can supplement the dwindling supply of BTX precursors, is being developed by JX Nippon Oil & Energy (JX Energy; Tokyo, Japan; www.noe.jx-group.co.jp). Whereas... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/8401.html Thu, 1 Sep 2011 0:00:00 EDT Today only a few percent of Canada’s oil sands resource is accessible by traditional surface mining, so the rest has to be recovered in situ, mostly by steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). In this process, steam is injected into a horizontal well in the oil formation to mobilize the viscous bitumen... http://www.che.com/chementator/petroleum_refining/8412.html Thu, 1 Sep 2011 0:00:00 EDT