February 2009

On this month's cover: CB&I works with refiners worldwide to help them expand to meet growing demand, increase their ability to process heavier crude slates, and lower the sulfur content of transportation fuels to comply with stricter air quality standards. At Valero Energy Corporation's St. Charles refinery in Louisiana, USA, CB&I supplied a diesel hydrocracker/hydrotreater, a light ends unit, and a sulfur recovery complex.

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World News
Contract awards, project updates, industry latest, news digest, diary dates, mergers and acquisitions

A Year of Turbulence
Nancy Yamaguchi, Contributing Editor, tracks the progress of the US oil market over the last year and considers its future

Bespoke Software
Vornel Walker, COADE, USA, discusses the importance of information sharing and what software companies are doing in the area of integration to provide users with the correct information exactly when and where it is needed

Get Cracked
David Hunt, Rosann Schiller and Matthew Chang, Grace Davison Refi ning Technologies, USA, explain maximising FCC light cycle oil operating strategies

To the Rescue
Pierre Dufresne, Eurecat SA, France, Pauline Galliou and Frederic Jardin, Eurecat France SAS, France, Francois Locatelli, Al Bilad Catalyst, Saudi Arabia, and Randy Alexander, Eurecat US Inc, USA, look at how to save good quality hydroprocessing catalyst from a partially contaminated batch by clever sampling, analysis, and segregation of the spent catalyst prior to catalyst regeneration, followed by catalytic testing for quality assessment

The Big Four
Sandro Mazzini, Shell Global Solutions, USA, highlights recent advances in the refi ning industry

Cost Effective Conversation of Heavy Residues
John Elliott and Michael McGrath, Foster Wheeler USA Corporation, review the process and results of conversion of heavy crudes

Salt Hydrolysis in Heavy Crudes
H. Kaur and M. Gray, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, and P. Eaton, Champion Technologies, USA, investigate the control of hydrolysis of emulsifi ed salts in Canadian bitumens

Combating Corrosion in China
Zhai Cheng Gang and Cao Feng Qi, PetroChina Jilin Refinery, China, Zhang Shi Bo, Nalco Industrial Services, China, Vincent Chua, Nalco Pacific, Singapore and Glenn L. Scattergood, Nalco Company, USA, study chemical inhibition of high temperature sulfidic corrosion at PetroChina’s Jilin Refinery

New Kid on the Tray
Dongxiang Yang, Jiazhuo Lu and Mingfei Ma, Beijing Zehua, China, present a new downcomer design to improve tray liquid flow and hydraulics

All Fired Up
Sari Aronen, Metso's Automation business line, Finland, highlights how to save energy and improve process performance with flow control solutions for fired heaters

Accelerating From Day One
Patrick Kelly, Honeywell, USA, discusses methods of improving operational readiness

Good Business Practice
Luis Duran, Invensys Process Systems, USA, gives an overview of safety systems standards as business drivers

How to Achieve Excellence
Sanjeev Mullick and Vikas Dhole, AspenTech, USA, explain how to achieve engineering and operational excellence by integrating plant design and engineering

A New Approach to Tank Cleaning
Marc Schindler, C&S International Services, France, and Zsolt Suba, Euroclean Hungary, discuss best practices in the crude oil tank cleaning industry

Failure: Not an Option
Steve Flynn, Rawell Environmental Ltd, UK, discusses the important choices engineers face when considering effective long term hydrocarbon containment against a backdrop of increasing public and official scrutiny

Fulfilling the Clean Air Act
Philip Bosse and Michael Davies, PROTEGO Germany, present venting technologies for reducing vapour losses

February 2009

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