Conference Alert: ERTC Call for Papers

“We bring together the best ideas - turning the meetings of our top managers into intellectual orgies.” -- Jack Welch, Jr., American business executive, author and chemical engineer; chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001 (born November 19, 1935)

The ERTC 19th Annual Meeting (http://events.gtforum.com/ertc-annual-meeting/static/call-for-papers) is scheduled for Tuesday 18th – Thursday 20th November 2014, Lisbon

Global Technology Forum, which sponsors the event, has issued a call for papers.  Here are the details …
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ERTC 19th Annual Meeting
CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE: FRIDAY 4th APRIL 2014
Global Technology Forum are excited to be bringing the ERTC 19th Annual Meeting to Lisbon in 2014, a new location for ERTC.
The ERTC Annual Meeting brings together over 500 oil refining industry professionals representing all international regions. The increasingly global conference leads the way as the industry meeting place, providing the ideal opportunity to network with industry peers, customers and colleagues.
Presentations at the event deliver high level market insights, project updates, best practices and case studies as well as the latest in process and technology advancement.
You are now invited to submit one or two original papers for grading and acceptance by the esteemed advisory board. Acceptance criteria will be originality and technical innovation.  At this stage, the only requirements are a working title, subject area and brief description of the proposed content (typically a 200 word abstract).
Preference will be given to papers giving case histories and actual operating experience. We would be pleased to receive abstracts from supply companies that are co-authored and will be co-presented with operating companies.
Some hot topics for the conference agenda are as follows. For a more detailed list of suggested topics please click here:
Market
Outlook on future of refining; regional refining overcapacity and depressed margins; a world view on energy including gas, coal, nuclear as well as oil; shale oil development in the USA and Europe; tight oil challenges and opportunities; sustainability of US diesel supply to Europe; decreasing natural gas price and its influence on refining; vehicle manufacturers fuel of choice; jet consumption, jet fuel standard
Regulation and legislation challenges
Update on the European Commission’s Refining Fitness Check; European Commission’s 2030 Climate and Energy Package; BREF; EU ETS reform; Carbon tax; MARPOL regulations; the impact of Russian policy on Europe
Emissions
Innovation in energy efficiency improvements and consumption reductions solutions; examples for improving energy performance; energy saving potentials; alternative solutions, with and without capex; CO2 and NOx development
Biofuels and renewable energy
Is the biofuel concept realistic within the EU? Progress on the NexBTL process penetration; blending challenges and technology solutions; actual car performance data; opportunities; 2nd generation fuels and sustainability
Petrochemicals
Petrochemical roadmap: European market evolution and external factors; future developments; integration case studies; converting naphtha and light to petrochemicals instead of gasoline; engineering solutions; bio-based petrochemicals
Processes and technologies
New technologies; cheap coke and the future of the delayed coker; liquid catalysts in hydrotreating; methods for removing contaminants in feedstock; solutions to meet changing product specifications; LPG recovery and conversion; the future of methanol blending; case studies on revamps of existent technologies; low capex solutions to combat low margins; challenged crudes processing; GTL / XTL technologies
Operability, maintenance, safety and reliability
Skills to optimise integrated operations between business areas; are ageing crude distillation units still fit for purpose? Tools to reduce the gap between reality and simulation; reliability; turnaround scope definition; operations excellence and best practice; holistic solutions to process safety; lifecycle strategies for ageing plants and assets; troubleshooting case studies; refinery reconfigurations
For a more detailed list of suggested topics please click here    
For more information about the ERTC Annual Meeting please visit the website where you will find details of the 2013 event which took place in Budapest: www.gtforum.com/ertc-annual-meeting. More information on this year’s event will be announced shortly.
Important notice:  Please note that supplier speakers are subject to the registration fees as outlined by Global Technology Forum.
In order to meet the conference-planning timetable and to ensure submission to the advisory board, please respond by Friday 4th April 2014. Please email your abstract to me at vicki.pope@gtforum.com
I look forward to receiving your abstracts.
Kind regards
Victoria Pope
Conference Manager
Global Technology Forum
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By way of context, I searched for presentations from ERTC 18.  The following is a brief description of one such presentation.

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ENI’s ERTC presentation preview
Today the most important challenge facing the downstream industry is related to the dramatic drop in refinery margins because of a decline in global oil consumption and changes in demand patterns for refined products.
 
In the coming years, the current trend in bottom of the barrel reduction will continue to require new technologies that are able to cope with the overall refined products demand that is clearly moving toward higher quality fuels, with middle distillate spreads likely to maintain a premium over gasoline and light/heavy crude oil spreads are projected to increase towards 2015.

Moreover, in the last few years, energy policies have adapted to a changing context and refiners have to look at ways to process alternative lower cost crude oils.

Definitely, technologies for the optimum use of residues and extra heavy crude are among these topics for at least two reasons. One to exploit our oil resources efficiently in an environmentally sustainable way; two to increase the profitability of the refining system by increasing their feedstock flexibility.
 
While delayed coking has been the technology of choice in the past, this option is going to be more and more hindered by low yields and poor quality distillate products and low grade coke productions. Today a hydrogen addition route is likely to be the right choice for refineries due to higher conversion, high diesel selectivity and Euro V grade products.
 
However, conventional hydrocracking solutions like fixed bed and ebullated bed technologies, suffer from limitations on feedstock quality as well as problems related to residue stability that limits the maximum conversion achievable.
 
In response to the needs for increased distillate yield and residue conversion, eni has developed a new proprietary technology, EST. This slurry hydrocracking technology makes use of nano sized hydrogenation catalysts and an innovative process scheme, which allows complete feedstock conversion to valuable distillates, avoiding the production of residual byproducts, such as pet coke or heavy fuel oil.

EST has been successfully tested on pilot and demonstration scales. Following the positive results obtained, eni took the decision to build, at the Sannazzaro refinery, the first full scale industrial plant based on EST technology. This unit (23 000 bpd capacity) enables the refinery to convert bottom of the barrel into high quality diesel and other valuable refinery streams (LPG, naphtha, jet fuel, catfeed). EST represents a proven technology solution to reduce fuel oil production in both new and existing refineries; moreover, due to the extremely high feedstock flexibility, EST can be successfully applied to very low quality crude oils such as heavy and extra heavy oils and oilsands bitumen.
 
EST configuration incorporates the most advanced technical solutions deriving from the experience achieved in more than seven years continuous tests and operation at the 1200 bpd demonstration plant at eni’s Taranto refinery. Many innovations have been brought to the project, from some special items to up to date construction methodologies, which have made extensive use of preassembling of large structures, foundations and even process heaters. Reactors of maximum size in terms of internal diameter and weight have been installed to set a sound reference for future industrial initiatives.

Eni will be presenting full details and findings on this technology at the ERTC 18th Annual Meeting taking place in Budapest, 19th – 21st November 2013. To book your place at the conference please visit www.gtforum.com/ertc-annual-meeting.

Published on 10/10/2013

Source: http://www.energyglobal.com/news/special-reports/articles/The_last_word737.aspx
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SABIC (Saudi Aramco’s Kid Brother)

“What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can't move, with no hope of rescue. Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances seems more likely, consider how lucky you are that it won't be troubling you much longer.” -- Douglas Adams quotes (British comic Writer, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 1952-2001)

SABIC – Saudi Basic Industries (http://www.sabic.com/corporate/en/) – is not as well-known as oil giant Saudi Aramco.  SABIC focuses on petrochemicals.  In that arena, the company is a major player.

As you would expect, Saudi Aramco has more oil-related patents in its IP portfolio than SABIC.  And yet, surprisingly, in the category of Oil Processing - Clean Fuel - Refining catalysts and additives, SABIC outshines Aramco, with more than 80 patents compared to Aramco’s 60 or so.

Here are two recent SABIC patent applications …

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PATENT
Gas phase polymerisation of ethylene
Application number PCT/EP2013/062036, Publication date Dec 19, 2013
Also published as US20130337210
Inventors: Vugar Aliyev, Jose Fernando Cevallos-Candau
Applicant: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, Sabic Petrochemicals B.V.
Abstract
The invention relates to a process for the production of polyethylene by gas phase polymerisation of ethylene in the presence of a supported chromium oxide based catalyst which is modified with an amino alcohol wherein the molar ratio of amino alcohol : chromium ranges between 0.5 : 1 and 1:1, wherein the support is silica having a surface area (SA) between 250 m2/g and 400 m2/g and a pore volume (PV) between 1.1 cm3/g and less than 2.0 cm3/g and wherein the amount of chromium in the supported catalyst is at least 0.1 % by weight and less than 0.5 % by weight..
Free Full Text Source: https://www.google.com/patents/WO2013186214A1?cl=en&dq=inassignee:sabic&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cE75UuDCNKbbyQHYxoGYDQ&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBDgy
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PATENT
Process for producing a synthesis gas mixture
Application number PCT/IB2013/055080, Publication date Dec 27, 2013
Also published as US20130345326
Inventors: Ijaz CHAUDARY, Mubarik Ali BASHIR
Applicant: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, Sabic Petrochemicals B.V.
Abstract
Disclosed herein are processes for producing a synthesis gas mixture and for producing an organic chemical product. The process can comprise: (i) steam reforming a feed gas stream comprising one or more hydrocarbons to produce a reformed synthesis gas mixture comprising H2, CO and CO2; (ii) cooling reformed synthesis gas mixture obtained in (i) and removing H2O from the reformed gas mixture; (iii) subjecting reformed synthesis gas mixture obtained in (ii) to a reverse water gas shift reaction so as to decrease the H2/CO molar ratio of the reformed synthesis gas mixture; and (iv) removing CO2 from synthesis gas mixture obtained in (iii). A first stream of CO2 is added to the gas mixture in step (i) and a second stream of CO2 is added to the gas mixture in step (iii), and wherein the first and/or second streams comprise recycled CO2 removed in step (iv).
Free Full Text Source: https://www.google.com/patents/WO2013190500A2?cl=en&dq=inassignee:sabic&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cE75UuDCNKbbyQHYxoGYDQ&ved=0CGQQ6AEwBzgy
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Strategic Review of the Petrochemicals and Oil Processing Technology Landscape

“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” -- Dr. Carl Sagan (American Astronomer, Writer and Scientist, 1934-1996)

KACST-King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology- commissioned Thomson Reuters to produce a report titled Strategic Review of the Petrochemicals and Oil Processing Technology Landscape.  The report, which is available for free download at http://www.kacst.edu.sa/en/about/publications/Other%20Publications/STRATEGIC%20REVIEW%20OF%20THE%20PETROCHEMICALS%20AND%20OIL%20PROCESSING%20TECHNOLOGY%20LANDSCAPE.pdf has so much to offer I hardly know where to begin.  So, I will begin with the obvious.  Its primary purpose is to help Saudi Arabia position itself strategically within this global industry.

Using bibliometrics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliometrics), the authors of the report determine which entities produce the most peer reviewed papers in each of 40 technology categories.  They do the same for patents.

Table 20 of the report lists the top five entities in each technology in the peer reviewed paper realm. Interestingly, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://english.cas.cn/) is the top producer in 28 of the 40 technologies.

Table 37 lists the top five assignees of patents in each category.  The top two entities in all categories combined are China Petrochemical Co Ltd. and China Petro-Chem Corp., followed by UOP in the U.S., and Japan's Sumitomo Chemicals.

For a bibliographic researcher, this is gold.  I can use these lists to focus my search on the organizations most likely to produce results in any given category.

Table 5 lists the total papers produced from 1995-2011 in each of the 40 categories.  The top two are …

Petrochemicals Synthesis - Processes – Polymerization
Petrochemicals Synthesis - Processes - Oxidation

The keywords suggested by Table 5 are extremely useful in focusing my research in such a way as to produce fruitful results.

In this post I have just scratched the surface in tips on how to mine this resource.  Take a look at it, and let me know what you think.