Hydrocarbon Processing Industry Research Articles

The hydrocarbon processing industry in Siberia

The hydrocarbon processing industry in Siberia

The Hydrocarbon Processing Industry In West Siberia

An American expert on the energy and chemical industry of the former USSR and a Russian specialist and economic advisor to the government of Tyumen' Oblast survey current problems in hydrocarbon processing (e.g., the petrochemical industry) in the former USSR's most important oil and gas producing region. The paper also traces the evolution of the hydrocarbon processing industry through three stages of its development, identifies major factors influencing that development, and examines changes that will be affecting the way that it functions in the future. 4 tables, 19 references.

Design considerations for high-risk safety systems

Rises in energy and toxicity levels in the hydrocarbon processing industries have caused much public and political debate. Human operators continually interact with process control systems and can become unreliable when stressed by emergency situations. Automated stand-alone safety-alone systems are needed having higher orders of availability, reliability, and maintainability than operator/process control system combinations. System performance should be related to process hazard and demand rates. Reliability engineering practices should be utilized instead of relying on intuitive decisions. Electromechanical relay, hardwired solid-state, and microprocessor systems are discussed.

Safe storage of dilute ethylene oxide mixtures in water

AbstractIn the past industry has had to rely on a number of “rules of thumb” to provide a means of reasonable analysis for many design, operation, safety and similar issues. The lack of readily available computing facilities made the use of “rules of thumb” a necessary part of doing business in the hydrocarbon processing industry. And these “rules of thumb” have proven useful and allowed many tasks to be accomplished successfully. Today, however, availability of mainframe computers or desktop computing facilities has provided a tool that has decreased the need to rely on “rules of thumb.” And in many cases processing improvements can only be accomplished by replacing “rules of thumb” with more rigorous analysis. In the ethylene oxide producing/consuming industry a widely‐used “rule of thumb” concerns the storage of ethylene oxide water solutions. A well‐publicized “rule” stated that solutions in excess of 1‐2 weight percent ethylene oxide in water should not be stored [1]. This “rule” is certainly valid in many situations. However, this guideline may be unnecessarily restrictive in other cases. The impact of several key process parameters impacts the amount of ethylene oxide in water than can be safely stored. This study will show that higher concentrations of ethylene oxide in water can be safely stored under the right circumstances. The study will also discuss the key variables that determine whether aqueous ethylene oxide solutions can be safely stored. Finally, a methodology used in determining how much ethylene oxide in water can be safely stored will be outlined.

Direct observation by molecular beam mass spectrometry of the photolytic enhancement of hydrocarbon reactions by concentrated sunlight

Photolytically induced free radical reactions at 150 °C in simulated concentrated sunlight have been studied using a molecular beam sampling mass spectrometer and a 1-kW xenon arc image furnace. The 1000-sun light source was focused on the entrance of a fused silica reactor maintained at 150 °C, where hydrocarbons and free radical initiators (such as acetone) were introduced. Reactions of the photolytically produced methyl radicals resulted in the formation of higher hydrocarbons from the initial hydrocarbon reactant. When the initial hydrocarbon reactant was an unsaturated species such as ethylene, propylene, or butylene, the observed product slate contained both unsaturated and saturated species. When the initial reactant was an alkane, only higher alkanes were observed. Similar results were obtained using acetaldehyde as the initiator. The observed effect is an example of the specific use of concentrated sunlight to influence chemical reactions of interest to the hydrocarbon-processing industry.

Universities and industry

I could not agree more with Judy Redfearn's comments on research and development priorities (Physics Bulletin December 1975 p528). As a physicist who moved from reactor physics to solid state physics in the 'never had it so good days' of the 1960s and is now 'applying classical physics to a high level of sophistication', primarily in the steel and hydrocarbon processing industries, I feel qualified to comment more forcibly on certain points raised in this article.

An Analysis of the Convergence Pressure Concept For Hydrocarbon And Hydrocarbon Non-Hydrocarbon Systems

Abstract This paper evaluates the convergence pressure concept for the correlation of K-factors in hydrocarbon systems. It is shown that, even in the case of binary and ternary systems containing non-hydrocarbon components, the concept breaks down and leads to unacceptable errors in the predicted K-factors. INTRODUCTION THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE PRESSURE as a parameter for the correlation of K-factors has been accepted by worker's in the hydrocarbon processing industry for many years. Working charts of tables for these K-factors are available in many forms, but undoubtedly the most systematic and comprehensiv treatment for hydrocarbon systems is the one prepared by the Natural Gas Processors Suppliers Association and made available through their Engineering Data Book Although the concept originated more than two decades ago, and although its shortcomings have long been recognized, it is still widely accepted and widely used. Calculations based on K-factors obtained using the convergence pressure principle will continue to be made for many years to come. Within the past five to ten years, several alternative methods for allowing for the effect of temperature, pressure and composition on K-factor calculations have been suggested. Significant among these are correlations based directly on an equation of state such as the RWR equation, on the regular solution theory incorporated into the Chao-Seader(3) correlation or on the recent work of Prausnitz and Chueh(9). It can be argued that these approaches are more sound theoretically, but in spite of this they all have their limitations ill one way or another. For this reason, many situations exist in which K-factors based on convergence pressure are still as reliable as any. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the concept by making some comparisons between K-factors for hydrocarbons in the presence of other hydrocarbons with the same hydrocarbons in the presence of hydrogen sulphide OR carbon dioxide, evaluated at the same convergence pressure, pressure and temperature. The analysis will show that the basic convergence pressure postulate breaks down even in the case of binary and ternary systems when non-hydrocarbons are present. CONVERGENCE PRESSURE CONCEPT The convergence pressure concept has been clearly explained by Katz and Kurata(7) for a binary system, The convergence pressure for a binary system is the critical pressure of the particular binary mixture that has the temperature in question as its critical temperature. Thus, for a given binary system, the convergence pressure depends only on temperature. Basically, the postulate means that the K-factor for component A in an A-B binary should be the same as for component A in an A-C binary wherever the systems have the same temperature, pressure and convergence pressure. The basic convergence pressure concept has also been analyzed quantitatively by Holland(8) for ternary and more complex systems. It is shown that for a ternary system only one graph of log P vs log K, exists for each component at a given temperature and convergence pressure. Thus, for ternary systems the concept should be just as valid as it is for binary systems.