The Vicissitudes of Fortune

"I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government.” -- Woody Allen (American Actor, Author, Screenwriter and Film Director, b.1935)

Hydrocarbon Engineering is one of my favorite technology magazines in the hydrocarbon area.  Unfortunately, it is the single most difficult to access without a paid subscription to the magazine itself.  It is not included in any of the online database subscriptions.  It isn't even indexed online.

However, you can find occasional full text articles online.  I Google® the following, including the quote marks ...

"hydrocarbon engineering"

... and then begin browsing.  I think of it as beachcombing.  You never know what kind of stuff may wash ashore.

Here is a sampling of flotsam and jetsam I found during a recent search.

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Hydrocarbon Engineering July 2011
Putting 2 & 2 Together
Gary Carson, Equamark Inc., USA, studies current plant design and engineering work practices and looks at ways to break down work silos that hinder effective collaboration.
When it comes to engineering and design, many companies continue to operate in silos, with the engineers and designers each doing separate tasks and rarely collaborating unless absolutely necessary. Until recently, this separation of engineers and designers was due to a lack of tools that allow or encourage collaboration and integration of processes. Now, tools exist that not only allow, but actively encourage collaboration and integration between engineers.
Free Full Text Source: http://coade.typepad.com/coadeinsider/2011/11/hydrocarbon-engineering-july-2011-improving-collaboration-by-removing-work-silos.html
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Hydrocarbon Engineering March 2008
Spring Cleaning
For the past twenty years Tube Tech International has been working with several of the the worlds largest oil refineries to develop radically innovative cleaning and inspection techniques to assist with de-bottlenecking activities caused by heavily fouled, difficult exchangers or exchangers perceived as “un-cleanable”. The companies’ innovations have included in-situ and even on-line cleaning of heat transfer equipment where previously local contractors had struggled and needed to use cranes and scaffolding to affect a mediocre cleaning result. With this knowledge Tube Tech is able to offer the following advice to engineers tasked with refinery debottlenecking where cleaning is involved.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.tubetech.com/news/published-articles/debottlenecking-hydrocarbon-engineering
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Published in Hydrocarbon Engineering Magazine, July 2004; Updated January 2009
Economic N2 Removal
Michael Mitariten, P.E., Guild Associates, Inc.
Nitrogen contaminated natural gas is a worldwide issue and more than eleven percent of natural gas reserves in the USA are sub-quality due to the presence of excessive levels of nitrogen. The USA contaminated fields tend to be small producers that cannot support significant operator attention and for which low capital, easy equipment relocation, and minimal pretreatment and simple operation are critical.
The technology was developed by Engelhard corporation (now part of the BASF Group) and Guild Associates was involved from the earliest studies, first in pilot plant studies and ultimately for the supply of commercial units.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.moleculargate.com/nitrogen-rejection-N2-removal/Economic-N2-Removal-Hydrocarbon-Engineering.pdf
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Hydrocarbon Engineering, October 2011
From Mean to Clean
In early 2011, an independent comprehensive process design and cost analysis was commissioned for the SWAP sour gas application, covering a design for a typical well and one for cleaning landfill gases. The outside contractor was chosen because of his expertise in sulfur recovery technology and process design.
Free Full Text Source: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2TTYQhJ3xL4OGU4MDg1MDAtYTAwNS00MWQ1LTgzOTItYjY5NWM1N2Y4YzU5/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1
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Hydrocarbon Engineering, January 2012
Role Models
Gary Carson from Equamark explains how leveraging advanced technologies and the integration between the Intergraph CADWorx product range and the LEICA Total Station for laser scanning provides benefits to an engineering company and its clients. Creating as built models manually can be an extremely slow and inaccurate process. This article describes how companies can use Intergraph’s and LEICA’s advanced 3D tools to create as built intelligent 3D models with speed, ease and high level accuracy.
Free Full Text Source: http://iocsasia.blogspot.com/2012/02/hydrocarbon-engineering-rolemodels.html
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Hydrocarbon Engineering June, 2011
Encoding Safety
Gary Carson, Equamark Inc., USA, describes the important role that oil storage tank standards play in tank design and our environmental safety.
Steel aboveground storage tanks are a key link in the worldwide distribution of energy, buffering the cyclical needs of our society. Because of the need for these tanks to be close to populated regions any loss in the integrity of these units can cause catastrophic damage. There are obviously some natural disasters that cannot be designed for, such as the recent tsunami off the cost of Japan, but designing and building to strict standards can make for a safer, and therefore easier, coexistence between facilities and the communities they serve. This article also touches on what happens when things go wrong and the causes of these, mostly avoidable, disasters, and how software like Intergraph® TANKTM help make aboveground storage tanks safer.
Free Full Text Source: http://coade.typepad.com/coadeinsider/2011/08/article-hydrocarbon-engineering-june-2011-storage-tank-safety-and-standards.html
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Journees Scientifiques Et Techniques
Hilton Hotel, 18 to 19 November 2008, Algiers, Algeria
Dupont Clean Technologies Approaches For Modern Refining Sulfur Management, Emission Reduction And Clean Fuels Needs
Carlos Cavalca(1), Tom Hightower(1), Glenn Liolios(2), Andrew Tyas(2), Nick Confuorto(3), Ronan Goff(4) and Stuart Thomas(4)
DuPont Clean Technologies
cleantechnologies.dupont.com
(1)E. I. DuPont de Nemours 4417 Lancaster Pike, Wilmington DE 19805 U.S.A.
Phone (302)992 3413 Fax (302)992 5084 E-mail : carlos.a.cavalca@usa.dupont.com
Phone (225)755 3717 Fax (225)755 8340 E-mail : thomas.c.hightower-jr@usa.dupont.com
(2)DuPontTM STRATCO® Clean Fuel Technologies 11350 Tomahawk Creek Pkway, Leawood KS 66211 U.S.A.
Phone (913)327 3544 Fax (913)338 0003 E-mail : glenn.c.liolios@stratco.dupont.com
Phone (44)1252 816796 Fax (44)1252 812665 E-mail : andrew.tyas@stratco.dupont.com
(3)DuPontTM BELCO® Clean Air Technologies 7 Entin Road, Parsippany NJ 07054 U.S.A.
Phone (973)515 8903 Fax (973)884 4774 E-mail : confuorto@belcotech.com (4)DuPont de Nemours International 2 chemin du Pavillon, Geneva CH-1218 Switzerland
Phone (33)1 4197 4555 Fax (33)14197 4533 E-mail : ronan.goff@fra.dupont.com
Phone (22)717 5392 Fax (22)717 6159 E-mail : stuart.m.thomas@che.dupont.com
Abstract
The world-wide refinery industry is faced with increasingly difficult and challenging sulfur management needs, tougher emission reduction targets and progressively restrictive fuel specifications. These trends, which developed over time, have often been addressed as one-off problems within a refinery resulting in sub-optimized solutions. DuPont Clean Technologies provides customized sulfur & ammonia recovery, clean fuels (alkylation and hydroprocessing) and gas scrubbing environmental solutions to refiners which are designed to address in an integrated and sustainable form the above challenges. These integrated solutions are optimized to maximize synergies between technologies, minimizing cost to the refiner and offering the lowest environmental footprint.
Free Full Text Source: http://www2.dupont.com/Clean_Technologies/en_US/assets/downloads/SEA4%20JST8%20paper%20-%20DuPont.pdf
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Hydrocarbon Engineering, January 2011
Nitech™ Nitrogen Rejection with integrated helium extraction
Greg Hall, Vice President of Sales/Planning, BCCK Engineering
Formed through the radioactive decay of heavy metals uranium and thorium, the vast majority of the earth’s supply of helium permeates through the earth’s surface and, being lighter than air, eventually dissipates into outer space. As it is not currently feasible or economic to process the helium existing in the atmosphere, the majority of the world’s helium supply is processed from non-porous cavities which also contain high nitrogen natural gas. Should conditions merit, for gas processors fortunate enough to find helium reserves comingled in their low-BTU natural gas plays, the helium stream can be of significant monetary value. Since nitrogen rejection and helium recovery go hand in hand, the helium recovery aspect can greatly enhance the project economics for low-BTU gas processing and BCCK has proven the integration of helium recovery with the Nitech™ NRU process.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.bcck.com/articles-nitrogen-rejection-nitech/nitech-nitrogen-rejection-helium-extraction_0111.html
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Hydrocarbon Engineering, November 2011
No Strings Attached
Both upstream and downstream oil and gas facilities treat safety as a top priority and install a variety of safety equipment systems.  Nevertheless, changes in technology, as well as new standards, suggest that these companie should take a fresh look at their safety systems.  It may be possible to improve safety in facilities via the utilization of industrial wireless technology.
Free Full Text Source: https://www.honeywellprocess.com/en-US/news-and-events/Pages/article-reprints.aspx?r=publicationtitle%3D%22ARcBSHlkcm9jYXJib24gRW5naW5lZXJpbmcQAXB1YmxpY2F0aW9udGl0bGUBAl4iAiIk%22
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Hydrocarbon Engineering, April 2011
Making a Breakthrough
LP Oxo SELECTOR Technology Breakthrough Highlighted in Hydrocarbon Engineering Magazine
The article describes how customer discussions led to a significant breakthrough. Dow scientists achieved more than a 35 percent improvement in isomer selectivity and an economic solution to enable an existing conventional low-pressure oxo process to use the high selectivity low-pressure oxo process.
The advanced technology, which still utilizes the commercially proven NORMAX™ Catalyst, now delivers an isomer selectivity to normal butyraldehyde greater than 30:1 – setting a new standard for excellence as the highest commercially proven isomer selectivity – and a process that remains the most cost-effective route to producing normal butanol and 2- Ethylhexanol (2-EH) from propylene.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.dow.com/licensing/newsletter/archive/2011/november/201110b.htm
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Hydrocarbon Engineering, July 2010
Becoming more intelligent
Gary Carson, Equamark Inc., USA, describes how P&ID’s can be made to be useful and effective IF they provide the desired levels of content, quality and accuracy. Recent innovations in plant design software are helping to elevating P&ID’s to increasingly important roles in the plant design and engineering process.
Free Full Text Source: http://coade.typepad.com/coadeinsider/2010/11/hydrocarbon-engineering-july-2010-becoming-more-intelligent.html
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These alerts are produced by Jean Steinhardt (www.linkedin.com/in/jeansteinhardtresearch)