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03 Guest comment
05 World news
10 American gasoline: conditional love
Nancy Yamaguchi, Contributing Editor, examines changing
production, price and demand in the US gasoline market.
18 The next digital frontier: industrial
autonomous operations
Praveen Sam, Honeywell, USA, introduces a novel digital
operating approach within the oil and gas industry.
23 Digitalisation with a clearer view
Mika Kulin, Neste, explains how the company’s refinery
in Porvoo, Finland, is integrating its different digital
sources and automation systems into a single source of
information.
27 Fending off threat
Mike Hoffman, Dragos Inc., USA, discusses how refineries
can protect critical ICS/OT systems from cyberattacks.
33 Building resilient infrastructure
Leo Simonovich, Siemens Energy, USA, lists the important
steps to be taken in order to develop a more mature
cybersecurity posture.
36 A step change in catalyst development
Mark Stuckey, UNICAT Catalyst Technologies LLC, discusses
the emergence of next generation spherical catalysts and
their impact on yield increases and reduced carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions in tubular reformers.
THIS
MONTH'S
FRONT
COVER
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@HydrocarbonEng Hydrocarbon Hydrocarbon
Engineering Engineering
CONTENTS
March 2023 Volume 28 Number 03 ISSN 1468-9340
44 Racing to find the right separation
technology
Vic Scalco, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, USA,
details the importance of selecting the correct separation
technology in order to support growing petrochemical
demand.
51 Trays for mega towers
Ang Chew Peng, Hou Peng-Cheng and Senthil Krishnamoorthy,
Sulzer, discuss various types of high-performance trays for
large diameter propylene fractionators.
59 Lessons in VDU performance
Jim Lines, Graham Corp., USA, lists the VDU ejector system
field lessons learned by a performance improvement
engineer, through the lens of four specific case studies.
69 Time for a retrofit?
Nathan Hill, CALGAVIN, UK, discusses how to increase
product retention through retrofitting condensers.
73 Breaking down the barriers
Dennis Long, Watlow, USA, explains the role that electric
process heaters will have to play in the decarbonisation of
hydrocarbon processing.
79 Heater tube cleaning and verification
Tom Gilmartin, Zerosumheater and a consultant for
Quest Integrity, considers the effect of fouling on heater
services, and introduces a new approach for confirming coil
cleanliness.
85 Monitor, manage and minimise
Mark Naples, Umicore Coating Services Ltd, details how
connected gas detection technology can help companies to
comply with ESG needs.
UNICAT’s ‘next generation’ spherical catalysts have a
proven advantage of energy efficiency, lower CO2 emissions,
increased hydrogen production, and extended tube life.
Magcat has been shown to increase hydrogen production,
as well as reduce CO2 emissions by 10 – 20%, in ways
that are easily implemented and which avoid equipment
investment costs.
2023 Member of ABC Audit Bureau of Circulations
publishers endorse any of the claims made in the articles or the advertisements. Printed in the UK.
CBP006075
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 GUEST COMMENT
CONTACT INFO CHET THOMPSON
PRESIDENT & CEO, AMERICAN
MANAGING EDITOR James Little
FUEL & PETROCHEMICAL
james.little@palladianpublications.com MANUFACTURERS (AFPM)

I
SENIOR EDITOR Callum O'Reilly
callum.oreilly@palladianpublications.com n a tight refined product market – which is
ASSISTANT EDITOR Bella Weetch certainly how we would characterise much
bella.weetch@palladianpublications.com of the past two years – it has been US
SALES DIRECTOR Rod Hardy
refiners that have stepped up. Our industry
rod.hardy@palladianpublications.com ran full-out for most of 2022 making sure American consumers, our domestic
economic centres and our allies had enough gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to keep
SALES MANAGER Chris Atkin
chris.atkin@palladianpublications.com everyone moving. Our refining sector leads the world in liquid fuel production
and is effectively doing more than any other to bring better balance to the
SALES EXECUTIVE Sophie Birss
sophie.birss@palladianpublications.com global market.
This is a utilisation story. The US refining kit (which is how we refer to our
PRODUCTION MANAGER Kyla Waller
kyla.waller@palladianpublications.com collective refining machinery across nearly 130 refineries) is one of the two
largest in the world, with approximately 18 million bpd capacity. It is also the
EVENTS MANAGER Louise Cameron
louise.cameron@palladianpublications.com
most complex, which means we have the greatest capability to refine the
toughest types of crude oil.
EVENTS COORDINATOR Stirling Viljoen Our facilities process more crude oil every day than the US upstream
stirling.viljoen@palladianpublications.com
produces, and we make more finished fuels, collectively, than the US consumes.
DIGITAL CONTENT ASSISTANT Merili Jurivete For a kit of our size, to consistently have at least 90% of our refining muscle
merili.jurivete@palladianpublications.com
actively engaged in fuel production is a tremendous accomplishment, and
DIGITAL ADMINISTRATOR Leah Jones a testament to the men and women of our industry who maintain our
leah.jones@palladianpublications.com
facilities and keep them running safely. To say I am proud of their work is an
ADMIN MANAGER Laura White understatement.
laura.white@palladianpublications.com
Refineries regularly undergo maintenance, and every few years they undergo
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR larger scale ‘turnarounds’ where production is halted and up to 1000 specialised
Nancy Yamaguchi Gordon Cope workers – including engineers, electricians, pipefitters and steelworkers – come
in to inspect entire facilities, refurbish units and complete building projects. As
any veteran refiner will tell you, running full-out for as long as we have can be a
SUBSCRIPTION RATES source of wear and tear on facilities. And to maintain high utilisation rates when
Annual subscription £110 UK including postage the market was at its tightest, some facilities elected to reschedule planned
/£125 overseas (postage airmail).
Two year discounted rate £176 UK maintenance if that could be done safely.
including postage/£200 overseas (postage airmail). Safety is the key word. Everything we do in the refining industry begins and
SUBSCRIPTION CLAIMS ends with safety. While the US refining industry will continue to produce as
Claims for non receipt of issues must be made within 3 months of
publication of the issue or they will not be honoured without charge. much fuel as we safely can, there’s going to be some necessary dialing back for
maintenance. Of course, ‘dialing back’ is relative, because US refineries – even
APPLICABLE ONLY TO USA & CANADA
Hydrocarbon Engineering (ISSN No: 1468-9340, USPS No: 020-998) is while some facilities undergo maintenance – are still likely to maintain much
published monthly by Palladian Publications Ltd GBR and distributed
in the USA by Asendia USA, 17B S Middlesex Ave, Monroe NJ 08831. higher utilisation rates than the rest of the world and continue leading in fuel
Periodicals postage paid New Brunswick, NJ and additional mailing
offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to HYDROCARBON
production.
ENGINEERING, 701C Ashland Ave, Folcroft PA 19032. Refinery upkeep is a good thing because maintenance is a long-term
investment in safe operations and will help us be ready, if needed, to run
full-out for extended stretches in the future. And as an industry of ‘planners’,
refiners also have arrangements in place before any turnaround starts to make
15 South Street, Farnham, Surrey sure customers have uninterrupted fuel deliveries.
GU9 7QU, UK Even while facilities are being maintained, global fuel supply and demand
Tel: +44 (0) 1252 718 999 will continue rebalancing with our contributions and with significant refining
capacity projects preparing to come online around the world. This next phase
of US refinery leadership in a reconfigured global market is sure to be one to
watch.
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 WORLD NEWS
USA | EIA:
US refinery utilisation to average
more than 90% in 2023 and 2024
I n its February ‘Short-Term Energy
Outlook’ (STEO), the US Energy
Information Administration (EIA)
forecast that US refinery utilisation
will remain similar to 2022, at above
90% over the next two years.
It is forecast that US refinery
utilisation will average 90.8% in 2023,
and then decrease slightly to 90.3% in
2024.
In 2020, average refinery utilisation
dropped to 78.8%, the lowest annual
rate since the EIA began collecting this
data in 1997. However, by 2022,
utilisation rates averaged closer to
pre-pandemic levels at more than 91%.
Germany | First
Middle East LNG cargo
successfully delivered
A DNOC and RWE have announced
the successful delivery of the first
shipment of LNG from Abu Dhabi, UAE,
to the Elbehafen floating LNG terminal
in Brunsbüttel, Germany.
Produced by ADNOC Gas at
Das Island, Abu Dhabi, the shipment
of 137 000 m3 of LNG is the
commissioning cargo for the new
floating LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel,
and the first ever LNG cargo to be
shipped to Germany from the
China | Shell Catalysts & Technologies to support CSPC Phase III
S hell Catalysts & Technologies
(SC&T) has announced that it will
provide its technologies and catalysts
to the China National Offshore Oil
Corp. (CNOOC) and Shell
Petrochemicals Co. Ltd (CSPC) joint
venture (JV) Phase III expansion.
Incorporated by CNOOC and Shell,
CSPC is one of the largest
petrochemicals JVs in China. Following
the success of the existing Phase I and II
projects, CSPC Phase III will include a
Global refined product prices and
crack spreads, which represent an
estimate of refinery margins, grew
substantially in the US in 2022,
increasing refinery utilisation.
Slower economic growth is
predicted in 2023 and 2024, which
would reduce gasoline and diesel
consumption compared with 2022,
leading to a gradual decrease in
petroleum product prices.
It is also forecast that increased
production of finished petroleum
products as a result of high refinery
utilisation rates will contribute to
lower prices.
Middle East. This landmark cargo
follows the inaugural ammonia
shipment in October 2022, and
furthers cooperation on energy
security, decarbonisation, and
lower-carbon fuels between the UAE
and Germany. It also marks an
important milestone in developing
Germany’s domestic LNG supply
infrastructure, supporting the
country’s energy security with
natural gas.
new 1.6 million tpy cracker, creating
one of the world’s largest and most
flexible integrated complexes.
In Phase III, some of Shell’s
technologies will be deployed for the
third time in CSPC with the latest
state-of-the-art designs in terms of
energy efficiency, scale and flexibility.
In addition, CSPC will build the
largest linear alpha olefins (LAO) plant
ever designed as part of a JV. The LAO
are being licensed from Shell for the
Denmark | Technip
Energies awarded
FEED contract by
Arcadia eFuels
T echnip Energies has been awarded
a FEED contract by Arcadia eFuels
for the world’s first commercial e-fuels
facility for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
production in Vordingborg, Denmark.
Pre-FEED and early works recently
concluded, and the parties aim to
support plant start-up in 2026.
Arcadia eFuels will use renewable
electricity, water, and biogenic
carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce
e-fuels that can be used in traditional
engines and supplied to the market in
existing liquid fuel infrastructures.
The FEED covers the engineering of
the first e-fuels plant that will produce
approximately 80 000 tpy of e-jet fuel
and e-naphtha, using novel yet proven
technologies. It also covers the
engineering of a 250 MW electrolyser
plant to produce green hydrogen. The
plant will be designed with a flexible
product slate to allow for the
production of e-diesel. These fuels
allow airlines to cut carbon emissions
proportionally, therefore providing the
ability for airlines and heavy
transportation to meet voluntary
carbon reductions and proposed EU
mandates for e-fuels use.
first time. The rest of the process
includes the Higher Olefins and
Derivatives (HODer) value chain.
“We are very pleased to further
support the growth of CSPC which is
a world-scale asset,” said
Seng Yee Loh, Vice President Sales
Asia Pacific, SC&T. “The collaboration
with the local team will produce
operational efficiencies and is
expected to help bring economic
benefits to the facility.”
HYDROCARBON 5 March 2023
ENGINEERING
 WORLD NEWS
IN BRIEF
the netherlands
Sulzer has signed an agreement with
circular technology company, Fuenix Ecogy,
to acquire a strategic stake in its plastic
upcycling business. The partnership will
drive the development, commercialisation
and adoption of advanced, fully-integrated
solutions for plastic waste processing.
south korea
LOTTE INEOS Chemical has announced plans
to increase vinyl acetate monomer (VAM)
production capacity to 700 000 t with the
addition of a third VAM plant. The new plant is
scheduled to start up by the end of 2025.
canada
Flowserve Corp. has reached an agreement
to acquire Velan Inc. in an all-cash transaction
valued at approximately US$245 million. The
transaction is expected to close by the end of
2Q23.
europe
Neste and Wizz Air have agreed on the supply
of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation FuelTM from
2025 onwards. The agreement gives Wizz Air
the opportunity to purchase 36 000 tpy of
Neste-produced sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
over a period of three years for the airline to
use across its route network in Europe and the
UK.
china
Venture Global LNG and China Gas Holdings
Ltd have announced that the wholly-owned
subsidiary, China Gas Hongda Energy
Trading Co. Ltd, and Venture Global LNG
have signed two 20-year LNG Sales and
Purchase Agreements (SPA). Under the
deals, China Gas will buy 1 million tpy of
LNG on a free on board (FOB) basis from
Plaquemines LNG, and another 1 milion tpy
from the CP2 LNG export facility – both of
which are located in Louisiana, US.
March 2023 6 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
Colombia | Ecopetrol
selects Honeywell
technology for carbon capture study
H oneywell has been selected by
Ecopetrol S.A. to develop a
pre-feed engineering study for a
HoneywellTM Advanced Solvent
Carbon Capture (ASCC) modular
demonstration unit, which will be
used to evaluate carbon dioxide
(CO2) capture from Ecopetrol fluid
catalytic cracking (FCC) units.
FCC units are significant sources
of CO2 emissions, accounting for
15 – 20% of overall emissions in a
typical FCC-based refinery, including
Ecopetrol’s refineries.
Honeywell UOP’s ASCC
technology has been designed to
Belgium | INEOS secures financing for
Project ONE
I
NEOS Olefins Belgium has raised
€3.5 billion to support the
construction and operation of
Project ONE.
This is the largest investment in
the European chemical sector for a
generation. The new cracker, located
in Antwerp, Belgium, will have the
lowest carbon footprint in Europe
– three times lower than the average
European steam cracker, and less than
half that of the 10% of best
performers in Europe.
Europe | Growing LNG demand to intensify
competition with Asia
E
urope’s increased need for LNG
looks set to intensify competition
with Asia for limited new supply
available over the next two years, and
may dominate LNG trade over the
longer term, according to Shell’s
‘LNG Outlook 2023’.
European countries, including the
UK, imported 121 million t of LNG in
2022, an increase of 60% compared to
2021, which enabled them to
capture CO2 from post-combustion
flue gases, which are more challenging
to treat due to the low CO2
concentration and low pressure
inherent in these sources.
The design target of the
demonstration unit is to capture
30 tpd of CO2 from Ecopetrol FCC
flue gas. If implemented, the
demonstration unit will provide
valuable information into the
performance of this technology in
reducing FCC emissions, with
learnings that can be used to inform
deployment of commercial-scale
units in FCC service.
The plant also has the capability
to operate entirely with low-carbon
hydrogen, and has room for a carbon
capture facility and future electric
furnaces.
Jason Meers, CFO INEOS
Project ONE, said: “Project ONE is a
game changer for Europe. It will
bring new opportunities to the
chemical cluster in Antwerp as well
as strengthen the resilience of the
whole of the European chemical
sector.”
withstand a slump in Russian pipeline
gas imports following its invasion of
Ukraine. A 15 million t fall in Chinese
imports, combined with reduced
imports by South Asian buyers, helped
European countries to secure enough
gas and avoid shortages. Europe’s
rapidly rising appetite for LNG pushed
prices to record highs and generated
volatility in energy markets around the
world.
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 WORLD NEWS
DIARY DATES The Netherlands | Shell
and Hapag-Lloyd sign
multi-year LNG supply agreement
19 - 23 March 2023
AMPP Annual Conference & Expo
Denver, Colorado, USA
ace.ampp.org
S hell Western LNG B.V and
Hapag-Lloyd have announced the
signing of a multi-year agreement
Hamburg (Germany), Singapore, and
Shanghai (China).
Shell and Hapag-Lloyd have also
for the supply of LNG to entered into a strategic collaboration
26 - 28 March 2023 Hapag-Lloyd’s ultra-large dual-fuel agreement intended to accelerate
AFPM International Petrochemical Conference container vessels of 23 500+ 20 ft the further decarbonisation of
San Antonio, Texas, USA equivalent units (TEU). alternative marine fuels. Initial focus
afpm.org/events/IPC23
Bunkering for these 12 new will be given to developing the
12 - 14 April 2023 vessels is expected to commence potential of additional low-carbon
25th International Aboveground Storage Tank during 2H23, and LNG will be fuel solutions including liquefied
Conference & Trade Show supplied in the Port of Rotterdam, biomethane and the
Orlando, Florida, USA the Netherlands. hydrogen-based fuel, liquefied
www.nistm.org The modern ships will be e-methane. Liquefied biomethane as
deployed on Europe-Far East routes a marine fuel has the potential to
25 - 27 April 2023 and call at major ports including reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
Sulphur World Symposium
Rotterdam (the Netherlands), between 65 – 100%.
Edinburgh, Scotland
www.sulphurinstitute.org/symposium-2023
USA | ExxonMobilto utilise Topsoe
08 - 12 May 2023
RefComm
technology for hydrogen facility
Galveston, Texas, USA
events.crugroup.com/refcomm

22 - 24 May 2023
T opsoe has announced that it will
deliver technology to
ExxonMobil’s planned low-carbon
reduce the integrated complex’s
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by
up to 30%.
ILTA 2023 International Operating Conference and hydrogen production facility in To produce the large amount of
Trade Show Baytown, Texas, US. hydrogen needed by ExxonMobil,
Houston, Texas, USA
www.ilta.org
ExxonMobil’s low-carbon Topsoe will apply its SynCORTM
hydrogen, ammonia, and carbon technology, which enables mega-scale
07 - 08 June 2023 capture facility is expected to hydrogen production as well as
Valve World Americas Expo & Conference generate up to 1 billion ft3/d of cost-efficient carbon capture.
Houston, Texas, USA hydrogen, delivering low-carbon fuel As technology integrator, Topsoe
www.valveworldexpoamericas.com to the Baytown olefins plant and will guarantee the carbon intensity of
other Houston-area facilities. the integrated low-carbon facility, as
07 - 08 June 2023 Replacing natural gas with hydrogen well as hydrogen production and
Downstream USA 2023
at the Baytown olefins plant could carbon capture.
Galveston, Texas, USA
events.reutersevents.com/petchem/downstream-usa
USA | Freeport LNG to restart operations
13 - 15 June 2023

F
Global Energy Show reeport LNG Development L.P.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
www.globalenergyshow.com
has announced that it has
received regulatory approval to
10 - 13 July 2023 commence commercial operations
LNG2023 of its natural gas liquefaction and
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada export facility.
www.lng2023.org This authorisation provides for
the immediate full return to service
05 - 08 September 2023 of one liquefaction train that has
Gastech
already restarted, and the
Singapore
www.gastechevent.com incremental restart and full return to
service of a second train.
The restart and return to service
of Freeport LNG’s third liquefaction
train will require subsequent
regulatory approval once certain
operational conditions are met. A
conservative ramp-up profile to
establish three-train production of
approximately 2 billion ft3/d is
anticipated to occur over the next
several weeks as stable operation of
each incremental train is established
and maintained.

March 2023 8 HYDROCARBON

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 Nancy Yamaguchi, Contributing Editor, examines changing
production, price and demand in the US gasoline market.

March 2023 10 HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING
“
Americans love gasoline” is a statement that has been
accepted as a fundamental, evolving from images of a
car-crazy culture enjoying the freedom of a vast
country and the wide-open road. With gasoline
demand at approximately 8.8 million bpd, the US is the
largest market in the world. For comparison, Europe in its
entirety consumes only around 1.9 million bpd of gasoline. Yet
American love for gasoline is not unconditional. Today, a
more correct statement would read along the lines of
“Americans love cheap, plentiful gasoline, with reduced
emissions, in formulations specific to their locations, seasons,
and vehicles, with loyalty programmes and clean convenience
stores, perhaps from sellers less aligned with Greedy Big Oil.”
Recent years have brought extreme volatility to the
gasoline market, bringing back memories of past price spikes
and reviving consumer dissatisfaction. COVID-19 lockdowns
forced a massive collapse in demand, followed by an oil price
crash. Recovery came in fits and starts, hobbled by supply
chain problems, waves of COVID-19 variants, rising prices, and
inflationary pressures. Then, Russia invaded Ukraine in
February 2022, contributing to record-high gasoline prices
during the summer 2022 driving season. Consumers generally
find it easier to adjust to gradual increases in fuel prices than
to cope with sudden price spikes. The optics have not been
helped by the fact that the major oil companies are reporting
record-high profits, which were projected to be over
US$200 billion in 2022.
From the standpoint of ‘Greedy Big Oil’, the US is an
essential market, and the goal is to keep it a profitable one.
The US refining industry evolved largely to produce gasoline
for US consumers, and the presence of this massive
consumer base helped it to become the largest and most
sophisticated in the world. It is a close, symbiotic relationship,
but also one where both parties take the other for granted,
and have other interests.
Current energy prices are a key contributor to overall
price inflation. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
reported a jump of 29.3% in Consumer Price Index (CPI)
energy prices in the December 2020 – December 2021 period,
declining to 7.3% in the December 2021 – December 2022
period. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a huge
collapse-rebound cycle, the impacts of which are still
HYDROCARBON 11 March 2023
ENGINEERING
 affecting the market. Additionally, the Russia-Ukraine war
constrained supply just as demand was rising. This article will drop to 8.742 million bpd output in 2020.
focus on the US gasoline market, examining production, price
and demand, and noting how the market is changing.
A gasoline-maximising industry shifts
away from gasoline
Serving the world’s largest gasoline market motivated the
US refining industry to invest in a massive amount of
gasoline-oriented technology. Figure 1 compares the ratios
of three key gasoline-maximising technologies with crude
distillation unit (CDU) capacity in the US vs the rest of the
world. In the US, the alkylation to CDU ratio is 6.1%, relative of refinery yield. In 2022, this share declined to approximately
to 1.4% in the rest of the world; catalytic reforming to CDU
ratio is 18.3%, vs 9.6% in the rest of the world; and catalytic -0.1%/yr between 2004 – 2022. In contrast, the new focus has
cracking to CDU is 28.8% in the US, vs 13.9% in the rest of
the world.
These technologies helped the US industry to achieve and
maintain an exceptionally high yield of gasoline – the largest
output in the world. Figure 2 shows US refinery yield of
gasoline since 1993. The yield has ranged from a low of 44.2% in they were in 2004. In 2000, the US was a modest exporter of
2008 to a high of 47.8% in 2021, and it averaged approximately
46.1% in 2022. In volume terms, US refiners and blenders (who
finish gasoline-ethanol blends) produced 9.529 million bpd of
gasoline in 2021, and an estimated 9.574 million bpd of gasoline
in 2022. Production records of over 10 million bpd were set in
Figure 1. US refineries focus on gasoline-oriented technologies.
Figure 2. US refinery gasoline yield, % (source: EIA).
March 2023 12 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
2018 and 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a
Yet, while the US industry can easily achieve a 47 – 48%
yield of gasoline, there has been a shift away from gasoline
maximisation. In its continual quest to optimise refinery
operations, the industry has cut output of low-value fuel oil
and other products, reducing their yield from 13.7% in 2004 to
9.64% in 2022. This represents an average drop in yield of
-1.9%/yr between 2004 – 2022. In recent years, the focus on
maximising gasoline output has also shifted. Gasoline’s
percentage yield of output fell modestly, at a rate of -0.1%/yr
between 2004 – 2022. In 2004, gasoline accounted for 46.8%
46.1%. Yields of kerosene-based jet fuel also declined at
been on increasing the yield of diesel. Diesel accounted for
23.9% of output in 2004, and this grew to 30.27% in 2022. This
amounts to an increase in yield of 1.3%/yr on average
between 2004 – 2022. In volume terms, US refiners are
producing approximately 1.17 million bpd more diesel than
diesel. In 2022 (January – October average), US diesel exports
had surged to over 1.2 million bpd of diesel, and imports had
essentially vanished.
US refineries are therefore increasingly looking to export
markets, and the incremental barrel of crude processed is
processed for export. After years of being a
significant importer of gasoline and gasoline
blending components (GBC), the US has now
transitioned into a net exporter of these materials.
Figure 3 depicts this dramatic shift. In 2000, the US
imported approximately 650 000 bpd of gasoline
and GBC, while exporting 162 000 bpd. Imports
grew to 1.166 million bpd in 2007, while exports
remained flat. As will be discussed in the following
section, oil prices spiked in 2008, and the
Great Recession followed. Gasoline and GBC
imports fell, and exports rose as refiners tried to
cope with burgeoning inventories. Since then,
imports have bumped along in the range of
600 000 – 800 000 bpd, while exports have
continued to grow. In 2016, the two lines crossed,
and the US became a net exporter of gasoline and
GBC, with exports averaging 932 000 bpd, and
imports averaging 645 000 bpd.
When confronted with high oil prices,
consumers may look at exports with suspicion,
positing that these excess supplies should be sold
at discounted prices in the domestic market rather
than being exported. This is not rational behaviour
for a for-profit company. As domestic demand
stagnates and production rises, exports have risen
for nearly all petroleum products. Crude oil exports
have also risen, particularly in places where
pipelines are available to deliver crude oil to coastal
export terminals. Balancing supply and demand in
the US has always required two-way trades, but in
recent years export markets have become a key
determinant of the last barrels produced and
processed.
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 Volatility in gasoline prices
US consumers sometimes overlook the fact that gasoline
prices are strongly moved by crude oil prices, and that pump
prices will be influenced by geopolitics. The US Energy
Information Administration (EIA) calculated that, in
December 2022, the national average retail gasoline price was
US$3.21/gal., and the components of this price were:
nn 58% crude oil cost.
nn 9% refining cost.
nn 18% distribution and marketing cost.
nn 16% taxes.
In the US, crude oil prices have a relatively stronger
influence on pump prices because fuel taxes are low by the
standards seen in other OECD countries. The US average
pump price cited includes 16% tax; however, many
countries face much higher tax burdens – as high as 50% or
even 75%. A number of European consumers marvel at the
fact that US consumers find prices of, say, US$4/gal.
excessive, when they may pay twice this amount.
Nonetheless, consumers grow accustomed to what is
normal in their own markets, and they assess price swings
from their own baseline.
Figure 3. US exports of gasoline and gasoline blending
components, ‘000 bpd (source: EIA).
Figure 4. US retail gasoline price, all regular formulations,
US$/gal. (source: EIA).
March 2023 14 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
Figure 4 charts the course of retail gasoline prices over
the 18-year period from January 2005 through to January 2023
(data as of the week of 30 January 2023). The price spike
experienced in the summer of 2008 brought retail gasoline
prices to all-time highs of US$4.11/gal. in July. The
Great Recession in 2007 – 2009 was named the second-worst
economic crisis in US history. Gasoline prices collapsed to
lows of US$1.61/gal. in December 2008; unemployment rates
hit 10% in 2009 – the highest since the Great Depression,
when unemployment rates were estimated at over 24%.
Gasoline prices recovered to the US$2 – 3/gal. range in
2010 – 2011, before surging again to the US$3 – 4/gal. range in
2011 – 2014, pushed up by economic recovery and strong
demand for oil, particularly in the US and China. Conflict in
the Middle East and Africa constrained the supply side, which
further bolstered prices.
Demand growth waned, and the supply side received a
surprise when the success of US hydrofracking created a
major rebound in US crude production. Crude prices began
to slide when Saudi Arabia launched its oil price war,
intending to drive out some of the higher-cost producers.
Prices dropped sharply when sanctions on Iran were lifted.
Retail prices for gasoline fell below US$3/gal., and did not
recover. COVID-19 lockdowns caused another price
crash in 2020, with prices bottoming out at
US$1.77/gal. in April 2020. It took over a year for
prices to creep back to the US$3/gal. level.
From there, however, post-pandemic economic
recovery was underway, plagued by supply chain
issues. Prices began to climb; inflationary pressures
mounted. According to the BLS, the December 2020
to December 2021 period brought an overall CPI
increase of 7%, with gasoline showing the highest
jump at 49.6%. In 2022, the gasoline CPI fell -1.5%,
bringing some consumer relief, though the CPI for all
items rose 6.5%. In 2022, one of the largest jumps was
seen in airline fares, which rose 28.5%.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 caused
more market upheaval, and this long-lasting war is
creating untold misery in Europe, where many
consumers are facing a cold winter with high fuel
prices. In the US, gasoline prices spiked to a new
record-high of US$5.01/gal. during the summer
driving season of 2022. Although gasoline prices
retreated to below the US$4/gal. mark, they
trended up during January 2023, and it appears likely
that the 2023 summer driving season could see
prices back in the vicinity of US$4/gal. Consumers
widely perceive prices to be too high, particularly
when contending with what the BLS reports as 2022
CPI increases of 10.4% in food prices, 14.3% in
electricity prices, 19.3% increases in piped natural gas
prices, 8.3% increases in rent, and 28.5% increases in
airline fares. As will be discussed in the following
section, demand has not bounced back.
Gasoline demand flattens and
falls
US consumers are feeling the impacts of high fuel
prices and inflation, and a number have felt
 powerless as price-takers in the gasoline market. For many,
gasoline is an essential commodity; switching away is not
always possible in the short-term. However, each successive
price shock has flattened the upward trajectory of demand
recovery that followed. Figure 5 presents US annual demand
Figure 5. US product supplied of finished motor gasoline,
‘000 bpd (source: EIA. 2022 is the author’s estimate).
Figure 6. US gasoline supplied, annual growth rates by decade, %
(source: EIA, and author’s estimate of 2022).
Figure 7. US alternative fuelling stations by type
(source: Alternative Fuels Data Center).
March 2023 16 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
for gasoline from 1960 through to the January – October
period of 2022. Demand grew swiftly from 1960 until the
Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 – 1974. Demand recovered quickly
until the Iranian Revolution in 1979 – 1980, cutting demand
once again. US gasoline demand fell from 7.412 million bpd in
1978 to 6.539 million bpd in 1982.
By the mid-1980s, oil prices collapsed, and
demand growth picked up, peaking at
9.286 million bpd in 2007 before the price spike of
2008 and the Great Recession. It then climbed back
to 9.329 million bpd in 2018 and 9.309 million bpd in
2019. COVID-19 then caused a collapse to
8.049 million bpd in 2020 – a loss of 1.28 million bpd.
Demand has not recovered to its pre-pandemic
levels, and the author estimates that 2022 demand
will be 8.755 million bpd.
It is entirely possible that US gasoline demand
will never again recover to the 9.3 million bpd level
seen in the pre-pandemic years. Although the US
will remain the world’s largest gasoline market for
the foreseeable future, the rates of demand growth
have slowed, and have gone negative in recent
years, as illustrated in Figure 6. During the 1960s,
gasoline demand grew robustly at rates averaging
3.8%/yr. The 1970s brought two oil price shocks, and
demand growth rates fell to 1.3%/yr. The downturn
extended into the 1980s, when growth rates
averaged 1.0%/yr. By the mid-1980s, oil prices fell.
During the 1990s, gasoline demand grew at a strong
rate of 1.6%/yr. This was slashed to 0.6%/yr during
the decade 2000 – 2010, which included the
Great Recession.
The 2010 – 2020 decade included the COVID-19
pandemic, and demand for gasoline shrank at an
average rate of -1.1%/yr. The author estimates that
between 2019 – 2022, US gasoline demand shrank
by -2.0%/yr.
Alternatives to gasoline
Switching away from gasoline is a slow process, but
it appears that the US has turned the corner.
Demand has fallen, and Corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAFE) standards are also having a
sustained impact on cutting fuel use and emissions.
The government of President Biden is vigorously
promoting clean energy technologies and moving
to reduce carbon emissions.
Alternative fuels are picking up pace. The
Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) tracks the
number of fuelling stations each year for
alternatives including propane, methanol, LNG,
CNG, hydrogen, biodiesel, E85 and electric, shown
in Figure 7. Over the years, these alternatives have
contributed to the fuel mix, and many forecasts
expected strong if not spectacular growth across
the board. However, a number of these alternatives
did not flourish, and some seemed to compete
with each other rather than with gasoline. Methanol
in its M85 blend has vanished; a hydrogen economy
has not materialised; LNG as a transport fuel has
 stagnated; propane use has dwindled. Modest growth has
been achieved in stations dispensing CNG and biodiesel.
E85 (blends of approximately 85% ethanol and 15%
OGT | ProTreat®
gasoline) stations have shown recent growth. In contrast,
electric vehicle (EV) charging plugs have emerged in droves,
Process Simulation
and their numbers exceed all others by orders of
magnitude. In 1995, AFDC reported 188 electric charging
stations. In 2021, this number had skyrocketed to 128 474.
There are several alternatives to gasoline, but the
technological and economic advances in EVs have been

n T
astounding, while many other options have failed to gain
traction. The Biden Administration has set a goal to ensure
that 50% of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in
2030 are EVs. ve e

Pro

ch
Conclusion: a new phase in the
consumer-gasoline relationship

nol
Same
Gasoline is a valuable commodity; a single gallon of this
energy-dense liquid can propel a car and driver for
30, 40 or even 50 miles, in vehicles that are safe and

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comfortable, cool in summer, warm in winter, wherever
and whenever the driver wishes to go. What is all of that
freedom and convenience worth? In some countries, such
as Venezuela and Libya, government subsidies keep
gasoline prices absurdly low – pennies per gallon. In other
countries, governments place hefty taxes on gasoline to
control consumption, and prices may be US$6 – 8/gal., or
higher. In the US, prices are currently under US$4/gal. – well
below all other OECD countries. Yet many consumers
consider prices of US$4 – 5/gal. too high.
Gasoline producers and consumers are interdependent,
but high prices to consumers, when coupled with
record-high profits to oil companies, have heightened
public resentment – despite the fact that the lion’s share of
profits are being made in upstream petroleum, not in
refining and marketing. During the Great Recession and
COVID-19 lockdowns, for example, many refineries suffered
N ow w

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National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS)
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were owned by single-store operators rather than big oil

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fuel-neutral, and believe that their interests are more
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can squeeze the profits of a single-store operator. It takes a
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when confronted with high prices and a possible recession

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The relationship between the American consumer and
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gasoline is changing. From the price spikes of the 1970s until

b
now, each wave of demand recovery has been more
sedate. The existing fleet is more efficient and less
polluting; and more alternatives have emerged –
particularly EVs. COVID-19 has popularised remote work,
making it a permanent fixture. Refiners are thinking of
export markets for their marginal barrels of output. Perhaps
the relationship between gasoline producers and
consumers is a mature one, and both parties are pursuing
new interests. US gasoline demand may be on its way to a Optimized Gas Treating, Inc
long, slow decline, but not a farewell. 212 Cimarron Park Loop, Buda, TX 78610
www.ogtrt.com +1 512 312 9424
March 2023 18 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
 Praveen Sam, Honeywell, USA, introduces a novel digital
operating approach within the oil and gas industry.
W
e live in a world that continues to change and
adapt to different industrial, technological,
political and social realities. As a result of these
changes, the oil and gas industry will inevitably
need to adapt. The industry is responding to unprecedented
levels of change driven by factors such as an increased focus
on improving sustainability, new economic realities, and
adapting to the future of the workforce.
As such, it is important to rethink the role of industrial
digital transformation, which is now expected to deliver the
next step change in ensuring safety, improving sustainability
and reliability, enabling people, and increasing margin
predictability. Making this a reality requires a shift towards
industrial autonomous operations.
Envisioning industrial autonomous
operations
Industrial autonomous operations is a vision for the future,
where functions in operations embed higher levels of
intelligence and close the loop with people and systems. This
will enable people to focus on higher-level tasks. Although
the industry has not reached the highest level of full
autonomy, technology advancements have provided a good
set of ingredients to allow for autonomous operations.
Automation and control systems in a closed loop are
becoming pervasive, and they continue to be
complemented by different software-enabled capabilities
such as advanced process control, alarm management, asset
performance management, and remote monitoring. As
automation and control systems move closer towards
software and converge, current advances in cybersecurity,
self-learning intelligent systems, and digital twins allow for
increased autonomous operations.
With industrial autonomous operations, systems and
processes will have increased adaptive capabilities enabled
through self-learning capabilities. These systems and
processes will be bound by guardrails of cybersecurity, safety
and reliability, which will be built with explainable artificial
intelligence (AI) systems that utilise multiple simulation
models serving as digital twins. Together, this will bring the
next step change for industry, unlocking benefits that current
digital capabilities do not support by intelligently, reliably and
securely closing the loop with people and systems.
Setting objectives for the next digital
frontier
The next frontier in industrial digital transformation will be
the move towards intelligent and autonomous operations.
Industrial autonomous operations will provide a step change
in how the oil and gas industry can create its digital future.
Over the past 40 years, some of the defining moments in the
digital evolution of the industry include the adoption of
automation systems and manufacturing execution systems,
the implementation of applications such as advanced process
control, and the use of enterprise resource planning systems.
Currently, we are in a phase of broader adoption of cloud
and AI/ML technologies as more use cases become scalable.
The next major step will be closing the loop between
intelligence displayed on a software application and an action
through either people or systems. This will allow the industry
to envision higher targets for digital transformation. These
include:
n Zero-harm operations that keep people away from harm,
predict operational risk, and ensure the integrity of
operations.
n Significant sustainability improvements, achieved by
maximising efficiencies or supporting new products such
as renewable fuels.
n Maximising human potential by allowing people to focus
on higher-level tasks.
HYDROCARBON 19 March 2023
ENGINEERING
 nn Unlocking additional margin by optimising across a much
broader envelope.
nn Eliminating unplanned downtime, made possible by
prevention of failures or autonomous recovery.
Accelerated innovation in the last decade has allowed us
to create a path toward achieving this vision. As digital
Figure 1. Safety and people first: technologies such
as drones and robots will ensure safety and elevate
workers to focus on higher-level tasks.
Figure 2. Closing the loop between man and machine:
the next frontier in industrial digital transformation
will be the move towards intelligent autonomous
operations.
Figure 3. Remote operations: decoupling the need for
a physical presence, and connecting field workers so
that actions can be executed away from the control
room, is a big step forward.
March 2023 20 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
technologies continue to mature, they also become more
affordable, secure, and capable of faster value realisation.
The need for industrial-grade software
The road to an intelligent, autonomous future will require a
change in how software is built. Industrial autonomous
operations require industrial-grade software, which adds
greater levels of trust, safety and reliability to software. This
predictability is needed for autonomous operations. Some of
the ingredients that make industrial-grade software are:
nn Zero-trust cybersecurity: cybersecurity must move to a
higher level of zero-trust whereby implied trust within
each interaction is eliminated, and verification is built at
each interaction.
nn Explainable AI: AI provides intelligence, but autonomy
requires AI to be self-learning in order to adapt to
changes in the world over its life cycle. AI should also
be explainable, as workers need to know why AI does
what it does in order to let it autonomously control.
Similarly, AI-enabled actions should always be safe and
reliable.
nn Digital twins: digital twins support deep learning for new
AI models, and provide for verification before
implementation. They can also evaluate many what-if
scenarios to verify safety and expected results, before
recommending or performing controlling actions.
nn Secure integration with machines: software must also be
able to safely integrate with smart machines such as
control systems, robots, drones and other systems.
nn Openness and interoperability: software must embrace a
nature of being open, vendor-agnostic, and interoperable
in order to allow industries to maximise their existing
investments in multiple systems.
Opportunities for the industry
The future of autonomous operations is a vision that should
not be relegated to the impossible, or an all-or-none
ultimatum. Several aspects of industrial autonomous
operations have already been implemented, and have
generated value for the industry. Opportunities for applying
autonomous operations include:
nn Remote operations: decoupling the need for a physical
presence near the control system or at any part of the
operation is a big step forward – enabling control
remotely, digitally enabling and connecting field
workers with the control room, and permitting
execution away from the control room.
nn End-to-end optimisation: scaling optimisation from a
single unit to multiple sites through integration with
economic planning and scheduling allows for the
achievement of a much broader optimisation envelope.
Plantwide Optimizer is a proven technology in the
market that empowers autonomous operations with
intelligent closed-loop optimisation.
nn Enterprise intelligence: setting the foundation for
closing the loop between man and machine, industrial
analytics deliver production insights at an enterprise
scale, which delivers real-time monitoring of operations
and analysis of multiple what-if scenarios to support
decision making.
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Keeping people at the centre
Moving towards autonomous operations is a journey.
This journey is human-centric and should not be viewed
as a means to replace people. It allows us to rethink the
future of work in the industry and adapt to changing
workforce realities. As the industry continues to struggle
with rebuilding lost expertise, worker enablement
provides support for the emerging workforce through
greater degrees of human inclusion, and elevates the
current workforce to focus on higher-level tasks.
Leaders who embark on a journey of autonomous
operations must continuously embrace a human-centric
approach.
Where to begin?
Realising value through intelligent operations requires a
shift in mindset and the execution of a structured plan. In
addition to setting targets for digital transformation,
leaders should take the following steps:
nn Prioritise the right function to prove value with
autonomous operations: prove value with a
digitally-mature use case of high business value.
Opportunities such as end-to-end process
optimisation or closing the loop with economic
planning and scheduling demonstrate results that can
create interest in attaining even higher objectives.
nn Create an organisational foundation with supporting
policies and practices: adapt organisational policies
and digital practices to support industrial
autonomous operations. Carefully designing
organisational roles and responsibilities, security and
audit policies, safety functions, and technology
governance are necessary practices.
nn Create a technology foundation with industrial-grade
software: while industries can reuse most of their
technology investments, leaders must strategically
rethink the need to adopt new capabilities.
Capabilities such as OT cybersecurity, explainable AI,
monitoring for AI, and managing digital twins must be
set up to ensure reliability of closed-loop functions.
nn Continue to keep people at the centre and organise
for change: everyone should be taken along as part
of this journey toward autonomous operations.
Managing change for people, supporting them
through new processes, and elevating them towards
higher-level tasks is necessary to ensure the
long-term success of autonomous operations.
nn Build the right governance and guardrails: increasing
levels of AI and self-learning capabilities will require
proper governance and guardrails to manage safety
and reliability, including organisational practices that
monitor the health and functioning of all AI systems.
Honeywell is building towards industrial autonomous
operations with industrial-grade software that profitably
improves safety, sustainability and productivity. The
company brings learnings through its experience in
shifting the industry towards greater levels of
autonomous operations, and can effectively help drive
this transformation.
 Mika Kulin, Neste, explains how the company’s refinery in
Porvoo, Finland, is integrating its different digital sources and
automation systems into a single source of information.

I
n 2019, Neste Corp. started to further develop the digitalisation of its refinery
in Porvoo, Finland. The refinery is in the Kilpilahti industrial area, which is the
biggest chemical industry consortium in the Nordics. Its production capacity is
approximately 12.5 million tpy, with the most important products being
transportation and marine fuels, and base oil. It employs some 1000 people.
It is a very complex plant comprised of four production lines and more than
40 production units, including two units that produce renewable diesel made
from different types of waste. As a single product can have tens of different
qualities, the refinery requires a high level of digitalisation and skilled personnel to
enable efficiency.

High level of digitalisation

The refinery already had a high level of digitalisation and automation before the
new project, Nappi, started up three years ago. The problem was that, for example,
data from the processes, the material flow and the laboratory were split on
different systems, making it hard to obtain an overall view of what was going on at
the different process stages, and to optimise the process at any given time.
When the project started in 2019 it was like a ‘digitalisation rehearsal,’ carried
out as an agile development process in incremental steps. By not having a
predetermined goal for the project, and by continuously listening to the end users,

HYDROCARBON 23 March 2023

ENGINEERING
 it was possible to smoothly adjust the solutions according
to the input from operators and other staff involved.
The overall goal for the ongoing project is to provide
the operating personnel, refinery management and supply
chain management with new tools to monitor and adjust
the processes according to changes in feedstock qualities,
product requirements, and laboratory readings,
for example.
The project started with the panel operators and the
shift managers in mind, and in the beginning around
200 people had access to Nappi. Now, the system is
expanding within the refinery; it has more than 500 users,
and this number is rising.
More transparent process
Neste has put a lot of effort into digitalising the refinery’s
process during the last few decades, using state-of-the-art
tools to optimise the different processes in a number of
ways. One of the key suppliers of the software solutions
used at the refinery is NAPCON – a company that
specialises in solutions for the process industry, and is also
managing the Nappi project.
The problem was that although all of the systems at the
refinery continuously collected a lot of information and
were great tools for running production, they lacked
transparency. As such, Neste decided to develop a kind of
parachute system that was able to show a large amount of
relevant data in a single view that could be expanded when
needed, and was accessible to anyone involved in
production at the refinery.
The term ‘agile’ is the key word in the process, as the
project is light-footed and open to new ideas at any point
during the course of the process. By involving operators and
other potential end users at the refinery from day one, it
was possible to change direction immediately if the users
felt that the selected path did not live up to the real needs.
This means that Nappi is not just another refinery
digitalisation programme; the key thing is the organisational
change that the system enables. In essence, the system is an
online platform that provides real-time situational
awareness, enabling the whole organisation to be more
efficient, and making it possible to react quickly to changing
market needs, for example.
Centralised view
For different user groups at the refinery, the project means
somewhat different things. While the refinery leadership
team mainly uses the system for overall performance
monitoring, a shift manager may enter production targets
into the system for operators to follow, and to monitor
how well the targets are achieved. For operators, the system
offers an easy way to check the production targets and how
they are met.
The way a modern refinery is working with the aid of
digitalisation is not news to anybody working in the
business, but one common challenge is that different
systems run different parts of the refineries. With Nappi in
place, it is now possible to gather and share common
information in a centralised view and to combine it with the
different dashboards used in production. The system also
March 2023 24 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
enables more efficient communication within the refinery,
which in turn leads to continuous performance
improvements.
Gaining popularity
An example of how Nappi has evolved over time is that
the system’s main screen has changed from a view with a
lot of subgroups that was comprehensive but quite difficult
to navigate, to a view now consisting of only a few
dropdown menus and two important gauges: the refinery’s
utilisation rate, and the number of production key
performance indicators (KPIs) alarming. More precise data is
then available through the expandable menus beneath the
gauges, where the user can dig into the flows, qualities,
scheduled targets, production constraints, blending
performance and analysers.
It is now easy for any user to choose only the required
information. Initially, Nappi was about providing data for
end users, but further development has made it possible for
end users to write data back into the system. Plant
engineers are now using Nappi to inform users of changes in
capacity constraints. These background comments enable
organisation-wide learning. The simplified screen is a result
of the fact that the users could offer their input throughout
the project’s progress. Now, it is also possible for
development ideas to be added into the system through a
dedicated menu – a feature that is being used increasingly.
A fundamental consideration when developing Nappi is
that the use of the system is totally voluntary. When
analysing its usage over a period of two years, it is striking
how this has constantly grown as new features have been
introduced to meet the exact needs of the users. This
demonstrates the strength of agile development compared
to normal, large digitalisation projects with slow feedback
circles.
Complex facility
As mentioned, the refinery is a complex plant, producing a
number of different products – from gasoline and diesel, to
base oil and renewable diesel. As the product mix is not
based on four product lines producing strictly one quality
each, but rather four production lines sharing the same
assets while producing several different products, the
system forms a complex four-way, end-to-end supply chain.
When all the parameters are right, it is very efficient, but
demands a lot of automation and harmonised production.
There were two main reasons why the refinery started
to develop Nappi as an overall management system that
utilises multiple pre-existing digital systems: to maintain the
production at a high and profitable level, and to ensure the
production of just the right quality of any product.
Nappi also offers the opportunity to have a long-term,
future-oriented overview of the production, using
data-based management, to an even larger extent than
before. At the same time, the maintenance systems have
also been improved by connecting them to Nappi, thus
enhancing the transparency and improving the predictability
of production. This has raised the safety and energy
efficiency at the refinery, resulting in more carbon-efficient
refining.
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Utilising existing systems
However, Nappi does not mean that the traditional way of
working itself has changed at the refinery; panel operators
are still using the same dashboards as before to make
fact-based decisions on how to improve performance, and
how to utilise the full potential of the feedstock. Instead, it
is a shortcut to utilising the huge amounts of data that are
constantly collected in the distributed networks regarding
feedstock, flows, temperature and pressure, for example.
Another big change is that the system provides both
the operators and the staff involved in the production with
an instant view over the process and the state of it, without
them having to dig into different dedicated systems. As an
example, the numerical targets that previously had to be
sent by email or were found in different files can now be
shared within Nappi. When considering all of the different
organisational levels that might need the information, this
feature alone has hugely streamlined the process at the
refinery.
Smooth transformation
Nappi aims to optimise the processes of the four production
lines as an entirety at the refinery. Because the system makes
it possible to look at the processes from different angles, it
also provides an opportunity to optimise the overall product
mix by enhancing how the feedstock, energy and additives
are used when producing different products.
Since the project started in 2019, the world has changed
significantly due to COVID-19, the energy crisis, and the war
in Ukraine. The refinery has successfully and smoothly
adapted to the changed world thanks to the overall level of
digitalisation, and due to the advantages that Nappi offers
the whole plant with regards to planning the production
efficiently.
For example, the refinery management, engineers and
maintenance have their own information needs, each of
which were addressed during the project. It is now possible
for maintenance to better plan and schedule service actions
through Nappi, so that the production is disturbed as little
as possible. The next step is to make the system even easier
to use, but the refinery’s gap between targeted and realised
production goals has already decreased thanks to the
project.
A different project
As a result of the agile development praxis used while
developing Nappi, feedback from the users was
continuously sent to the developers at NAPCON. The
project was quite different from most other digitalisation
projects that the company has been involved in; the biggest
difference being that large industrial systems are usually
developed out of sight of the real users until it is time to
release version A. It can then be a time consuming and slow
process to change the system if needed. By being
continuously able to adapt the system according to
immediate feedback at every small step along the way, the
system has gradually grown according to the real needs of
the users.

Mike Hoffman,
Dragos Inc., USA, discusses
how refineries can protect
critical ICS/OT systems
from cyberattacks.
G
eorge, an industrial control systems (ICS) engineer at a large
petrochemical plant, is monitoring operations when he notices
something amiss with a burner management system on the
sulfur recovery unit (SRU)’s thermal reactor, which appears to be
malfunctioning and is on the verge of releasing high amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2)
and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from the incinerator stack.
George’s first thought is that it is an equipment failure, but he should have been
alerted by the base layer control system. The safety instrumented system (SIS) that
is monitoring the burner management systems to ensure that processes stay within
their defined engineering limits has failed to trip the unit.
This is the first sign that the incident is not the result of an equipment
malfunction, but rather of a targeted attack – one that George and the plant’s
cybersecurity team are unprepared for. The adversary carrying out the attack has
been lurking in the plant’s network for nearly a year, dwelling unnoticed in the
network and developing malware capabilities targeting emergency shutdown
systems – ultimately leading to the first of two plant shutdowns.
This scenario, drawn from a 2017 TRISIS malware attack on a
Saudi Arabian plant, underscores the potential threats to
oil and gas refineries and the lack of protections and
detections that many plants have for their ICS and
operational technology (OT) environments. The plant,
being unable to identify the TRISIS intrusion, was
blindsided by the attack, and did not have a robust
plan for such a response. Ultimately, the plant was
fortunate that the damage it suffered was not
worse, because it very well could have been.
The question is: how do attacks like this
happen? And what could the plant have
done differently?
The threats are real
The downstream segment of the
oil and gas value chain remains at
risk of cyberattacks. Refining
facilities are a key target for
adversaries due to the
centralised nature of operations,
the presence of control
systems, and the possibility for
damage or destruction from
highly-volatile processes.
HYDROCARBON 27 March 2023
ENGINEERING
 All industrial operations are increasingly under attack. A 2021
Ponemon Institute study of industrial cybersecurity found that
63% of respondents said their organisations experienced an
ICS/OT cybersecurity incident in the previous two years, at an
average cost of nearly US$3 million per incident.1
Many industrial facilities are not especially well-prepared for
these types of attacks, owing to a historic cultural divide
between IT and OT security. Most industrial sites have partly
integrated their IT systems with ICS/OT to improve efficiencies,
but cybersecurity has not kept pace.
The study found that only:
nn 43% of respondents said that their organisation’s
cybersecurity policies and procedures were aligned with
their ICS and OT security objectives.
nn 35% said that IT and OT teams have a unified security
strategy that secures both the IT and OT environments.
IT and OT may be linked via a plant’s network, but they are
different. A lot of OT components are older and were not
designed with security in mind. Whilst newer equipment is
designed with security features, it can take a while to replace
hardware that typically will run for 20 – 25 years. IT security
methods will not work well with older OT systems, which
require a different approach to deal with the type of threats that
it faces.
In planning to protect ICS and OT, the downstream segment
needs to be aware of the following types of attacks:
Targeted disruptions
Nation-state attacks on infrastructure and industry, such as those
regularly occurring in the Russia-Ukraine war, can have serious
consequences.2 The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack,
attributed to the DarkSide group based in Russia, shut down the
Figure 1. Common plant IT/OT architecture.
March 2023 28 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
pipeline for almost a week and caused jet fuel shortages for
many airlines, panic buying of gasoline in southern US states, and
other disruptions.3
Attacks can have direct and indirect consequences. Many
refineries have communities that have been built up around
them, which would be affected. Shutting down a refinery will
also affect the supply chain, for instance, because petroleum
byproducts are used as feedstocks in many chemical processes.
Vendor compromises
These facilities receive frequent visits from vendors – for
maintenance and for a variety of other reasons. A vendor
might be upgrading a vibration monitoring system by installing
a new server into the control network, for example. That
vendor could very easily plug an infected laptop or USB drive
into the network and unintentionally introduce malware into
the OT environment.
Vulnerabilities of OT systems
Refineries are replete with physical safety systems, such as
pressure release valves, flare systems, etc. As plants undergo
process upgrades and debottlenecking projects to increase
throughput, these physical systems are often not upgraded due
to cost. As such, they are no longer capable of providing the
protection required. As a result, plants, realising the need to
mitigate residual process risks from these changes, have turned
to safety instrumented systems (SIS).
SIS are highly-available systems that include sensors, logic
solvers and actuators to monitor critical process systems and
take action to shut the process down if predefined limits are
exceeded. These systems provide the ultimate target for an
attacker if the goal is to cause a catastrophic event.
In a scenario such as the Saudi Arabian plant attack, an SIS
could be compromised and disabled so that it does not act.
For example, it may be modified so that no trip is issued when a
process reaches unsafe levels. If an attacker then goes after the
distributed control system (DCS) that runs the plant and moves
the pressures, flows or temperatures of a particular process
outside of its operating envelope, an explosion could occur.
Today, plants generally have common architectures with a
demilitarised zone (DMZ) or buffer zone between IT and OT to
allow for remote access, file transfers, and other data movement.
Many plants, however, rely on older ‘best practice’ architectures
that are relatively flat across systems with the same functional
level as opposed to smaller ‘zoned’ networks. These flat
networks are ripe for lateral movement by adversaries, especially
if they are protected with atrophying controls.
Many attacks will start by targeting corporate systems via
phishing and other attempts to gain access, and then try to get
through the DMZ – if one exists. Next, adversaries work to get
past the operations systems (Level 3), supervisory controls
(Level 2), and basic controls such as DCS controllers and
programmable logic controllers (PLCs) (Level 1) to perform their
final action or objective, which may include process
manipulation (see Figure 1).
Firewalls typically sit between each functional level, or zone,
including the firewalls that create the DMZ, but the fact is that
many operators do not properly maintain their firewalls and are
unaware of the actual data flows going across them, because
they are not monitoring the network. Without having visibility
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 into network traffic flows, it is challenging to ensure that firewall
rule sets are correct.
Preparing for an attack
Refineries need to be sure that they have a defensible
architecture, which starts with having equipment in place to
monitor operations effectively. Monitoring can help detect
attacks early on, before a physical impact is realised.
Adversaries performing targeted attacks must slowly work
their way through an OT environment looking for DCS, SIS or
PLCs, and they can spend months inside a network before
acting. Such an attack requires a considerable amount of
reconnaissance and reverse engineering before realising the
action on objective. The numerous months that the adversary
spent inside the Saudi Arabian system while developing TRISIS
might be unusual, but the average ICS/OT cybersecurity
incident is a nearly year-long event.
The amount of time it takes to carry out a targeted attack is
one advantage that defenders have within OT. If the right
protections and monitoring are in place, this gives defenders
that much more time and opportunity to catch the attack
before equipment or process manipulation occurs.
The necessary steps in preparing for an attack include:
Develop an incident response (IR) plan
Plant operators need to have a documented plan in place in
order to respond to unusual activity involving OT. Practically all
organisations have IR plans for IT, but those plans fail when
leveraged directly in OT because of the differences in how the
technologies operate and the actions to take on the systems
once an incident is called. A response plan should address
several important stages.
Detection
When unusual activity is detected by a SIS, for example, it is
important to consider that there may be a cyber element at
play. Equipment malfunctions, but times have changed, and the
industrial community is beginning to adopt a cybersecurity
mindset.
The first thing to do is determine whether an event is
malicious through network security monitoring, collecting logs
from systems and hosts, and analysing them. If the activity looks
at all suspicious, the event can be raised to the level of an
incident, which will trigger a response from the appropriate
teams.
An IR plan serves as the foundation for every other stage of
response, but only comes into play once equipment
malfunction has been ruled out.
Containment
Once an event is raised to the level of an incident, the response
stage shifts to containment. This involves scoping the incident
to determine affected systems, which often includes collecting
forensics evidence from systems, reviewing logs, and performing
network monitoring. Foundational to containment is
preparation by having contingency plans in place to understand
what systems are required for minimal operation, or when a
controlled shutdown may be required. Planning for containment
is a team effort that should involve engineering, ICS/OT
security, and operations.
March 2023 30 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
This stage is likely to be when the plant would begin to
isolate networks. During the Colonial attack, pipeline operators
separated their OT from IT as part of containment. Isolating the
OT network is one of the primary containment steps, but this
can also have indirect business impacts. Containment can be
broadly applied across OT and processing units, or isolated
down to individual system(s), depending on the respective
network architecture and intrusion scope.
Eradication
As systems are scoped for intrusion and contained, eradication
begins to immediately remove the threat from the
environment. There is no clean break in each of these steps,
and containment, followed by eradication, is very much an
iterative process. After systems are cleaned, monitoring levels
must be drastically increased to ensure that the malware or
adversary is completely removed from the environment.
Otherwise, the threat may regain a foothold and start
successive attacks.
Recovery
Once systems have been cleaned and the threat removed, the
plant can bring systems back online. Crucial to this step is
understanding minimal operating requirements and order of
restoration. For example, domain controllers, application servers,
and critical human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are often needed
first before other OT systems are brought online.
An important part of recovery is having reliable back-ups.
This is one area where OT and IT are similar, taking regular
snapshots of servers and databases to aid in recovery.
One step to consider is having offline back-ups, which are
essential in cases of ransomware, for instance. Ransomware
actors will often target connected back-up systems along with
production systems to prevent quick recovery and ensure that
ransom payments are made. A secondary back-up that is
disconnected or replicated to a secure cloud storage system
can help speed up the process of restoring systems.
Conclusion
Current adversaries have shown that they can conduct attacks
in the downstream segment while new, increasingly
sophisticated adversaries are emerging. Refineries must adopt
controls to counter these growing threats. A primary control
that can be implemented is to have a tested incident response
in place for OT, which includes steps for detecting a cyber
event, followed by containment, eradication and restoration.
Network security monitoring is foundational to enabling these
incident response steps. Whilst ‘defence is doable’, it takes a
plan with the right protective, detective and responsive
capabilities to safeguard critical refinery operations.
References
1. ‘2021 state of industrial cybersecurity’, Ponemon Institute,
(November 2021), https://hub.dragos.com/hubfs/Reports/2021-
Ponemon-Institute-State-of-Industrial-Cybersecurity-Report.
pdf?hsLang=en
2. ‘Relentless Russian Cyberattacks on Ukraine Raise Important Policy
Questions’, (5 October 2022), https://www.darkreading.com/threat-
intelligence/russian-cyberattacks-ukraine-raise-important-policy-
questions
3. ‘Colonial Pipeline hack explained: Everything you need to know’,
(26 April 2022), https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Colonial-
Pipeline-hack-explained-Everything-you-need-to-know
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 Leo Simonovich, Siemens Energy, USA, lists the important steps to be
taken in order to develop a more mature cybersecurity posture.

P
ipelines make money by moving fuel. But on
9 May 2021, no fuel was moving through the US’
largest refined petroleum product pipeline. As
the Colonial Pipeline’s operators scrambled to
understand the extent of the cyber breach, the pipeline
– responsible for moving nearly half of the
transportation fuel used on the Atlantic Coast – was at a
standstill. A ransom of US$4.4 million had already been
paid, but this represented a fraction of the mounting
economic impacts felt by the breach, as roughly
100 million gal. of fuel went undelivered each day.
Consumer prices at the pump jumped to seven-year highs,
and gas stations ran dry across the US southeast. Airlines
rearranged flight schedules; the President of the US
weighed in to prevent further economic disruptions,
declaring an emergency.
All of these impacts flowed from a single cyberattack
targeting the billing department of the Colonial Pipeline
operators. When these operators were confronted with a
clear breach in their information technologies (IT)

HYDROCARBON 33 March 2023

ENGINEERING
 systems, the operational technologies (OT) systems also
had to cease operations – the workflows could not be
separated. That disruption caused headaches up and
down the supply chain. As the US Secretary of Energy
pointed out, “it certainly is a reminder that we need to
take a hard look at how we need to harden our necessary
infrastructure, and that includes cyber threats.”1
Even after the highly public example of a ransomware
attack halting real-world operations, it is already clear
that this will not be the last of such incidents. In
December 2022, a ransomware attack against the
Copper Mountain Mining Corp. prompted a shutdown of
its mill while the company’s team determined the effects
of the attack on their control systems.
The digital age
Cybersecurity is now a make-or-break capability for
many companies that do not yet think of themselves as
digital companies. Workflows seamlessly integrate digital
tools with physical equipment, and cannot operate safely
when the digital components of said workflows are
compromised.
This is particularly true for hydrocarbon supply
chains. At every stage from wellhead to pipeline, and
refinery to distribution, digital technologies are deeply
integrated with physical systems. The separation
between IT and OT has blurred. The same capabilities
that give pricing algorithms up-to-the-minute reports on
how much product has been shipped, for example, also
unavoidably create connections that bad actors can
exploit. At the same time, the sophistication and scale of
cyberattacks have escalated. Robust for-profit
Figure 1. Cybersecurity is a make-or-break capability
to protect hydrocarbon supply chains at every
stage – from wellhead to pipeline, and beyond
(source: Siemens Energy).
March 2023 34 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
ransomware attacks target energy infrastructure, while
geopolitical motivations lead government-backed
hacking groups to seek backdoor access to energy
infrastructure in rival nations.
Problems faced
For leaders in the hydrocarbon industry, this poses a new
set of challenges. Increasingly, chief information security
officers (CISOs) must protect not just IT, but also OT.
Even for CISOs who have a background in OT, the
cybersecurity needs of a changing asset base, as well as
the moving target of regulatory compliance for
cybersecurity, pose ongoing challenges. How long will IT
systems that have support cycles averaging four years
really be able to protect OT systems with expected
life cycles measured in decades? What is the right
investment strategy when cybersecurity advancements
become available years faster than regulatory guidance
for defending the equipment in question? How can an
organisation buy down risk, when cyber insurance
offerings do not match the identified risk profile?
These are high-stakes questions for organisations of
every size. Moderately-sized companies are particularly
challenged because they cannot expand budgets to hire
more cybersecurity personnel, or research, develop and
deploy their own systems for risk management. Yet even
major organisations with resources that are available for
internal solutions are susceptible to disruptions when the
value chain breaks at its weakest link.
Finding solutions
Cyber defences need to evolve. In the wake of the
Colonial Pipeline attack, US government and private
sector officials have moved to prevent and mitigate
future disruptions. A wave of new regulations, policies
and industry actions seek to address key vulnerabilities
and build more resilient cybersecurity into critical
infrastructure. The Transportation Security
Administration (TSA), in particular, has worked to
transform pipeline security in the US.
The TSA’s new risk-based approach, published in the
security directive ‘Pipeline Security Mitigation Actions,
Contingency Planning and Testing’, calls for new
technologies, procedures and planning guidelines to
protect against cyber threats. Companies are encouraged
to leverage artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing,
and big data for cyber hygiene, incident reporting, and
anomaly detection.
This change is an important paradigm shift. The old
regulatory model was designed around a less
sophisticated operating environment. Networked
physical systems used to be separated from other IT
systems. This air gapping approach aimed to prevent
cyberattacks by ensuring no digital pathway could
connect from the internet to the infrastructure that
actually carries fuels. The TSA collected voluntary
reports of cyber incidents, but did not have mandatory
reporting requirements.
Today, the competitive business environment drives
close integration in IT and OT in order to maximise
 efficiency and seek every competitive advantage possible.
That integration means that attacks can – and will – affect
both IT and OT, even if the attack does not directly
penetrate OT systems. The TSA rightly embraces that
reality in its new regulatory requirements, emphasising the
need for expansive and detailed understanding of the IT
and OT devices that are connected to their network and
the need to identify anomalous behaviour. Instead of
assuming that cyberattacks will not breach air gaps, the
idea is for companies to identify and intervene in attacks
as swiftly as possible, and quickly share information about
said attacks.
In order to comply with regulations and succeed in
the face of escalating cyber threats, CISOs and their
security teams must build new capability. There is a need
to monitor billions of connections between physical
assets, industrial control systems, and corporate IT
software on a minute-by-minute basis. Companies need
to sift through that information at machine-like speeds
to detect the interactions that could indicate a nascent
cyberattack. If a breach is detected, pipeline security
teams must be able to isolate the attack and prevent its
spread to other physical or digital assets, and must
report the incident to the Department of Homeland
Security within 24 hours.
Such swift and capable cybermonitoring only recently
became feasible. Teams of human analysts manually
reviewing OT device data would be too slow and costly.
SmartPMHalfPgResize_final.pdf
Meeting the required scale 1 and
8/9/22 12:25
speed callsPMfor
technological assistance. Purpose-built monitoring and
detection technologies can leverage AI and cloud
computing to identify threats within company networks,
notify relevant authorities, and begin impact mitigation.
Using such systems, relatively small analyst teams can
quickly review anomalies and understand their likely
consequences for workflows and equipment. This type
of threat hunting shifts the balance of power from
attackers toward defenders. In an actively-monitored
system, it is difficult for attackers to learn their way
around operating technologies without alerting
defenders to their presence.
Conclusion
Combining AI-driven automation with reporting
requirements will help to rapidly harden targets across
the energy ecosystem. These are important steps toward
a more mature cybersecurity posture for the industry.
This is how defenders diminish the reach and power of
novel attack methods – by detecting attacks quickly, and
sharing detailed threat intelligence quickly and widely.
This will result in reliable and resilient infrastructure being
built and sustained.
Reference
1. ‘Remarks as Delivered by Secretary Granholm at the White
House Daily Press Briefing on the Colonial Pipeline Outage’,
US Department of Energy, (11 May 2021), https://www.energy.
gov/articles/remarks-delivered-secretary-granholm-white-
house-daily-press-briefing-colonial-pipeline
 Mark Stuckey, UNICAT Catalyst Technologies LLC, discusses the emergence
of next generation spherical catalysts and their impact on yield increases and
reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in tubular reformers.
D
esigns of tubular steam methane reformers (SMRs)
have, wherever possible, been optimised around the
limitations of key component capabilities, i.e.
dimensions and high temperature creep of tubes,
together with the pressure drop and activity of the
conventional catalysts within the tube. Over the years, tube and
catalyst manufacturers have improved their respective products,
but limitations of conventional catalyst carrier manufacturing
processes have slowed any significant developments over the
last 20 years.
The next generation of catalyst required a step change in
carrier manufacturing processes. It is generally known that
spherical shapes pack better in tubes than alternate cylindrical
types, but it has been difficult to manufacture spheres in
volume, so all conventional carriers have been non-spherical.
However, 12 years ago, UNICAT, knowing the packing benefits,
introduced the first spherical catalyst into a tubular steam
reformer.
This article will detail two industrial cases which
demonstrate the effect of catalyst shape optimisation – moving
to spheres from non-spheres. The first case will be UNICAT’s
March 2023 36 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
plain spheres, with 12 years of operation in a 450 Tube DRI
reformer. The second is a US refinery installed with UNICAT’s
Magcat Textured Sphere technology.
Background
The overarching efficiency of a reformer is derived from the
efficiency of heat transfer through and into the tube. This heat
energy, combined with the catalyst, promotes the reaction
between the process gas (steam and methane) to produce
hydrogen.
The effectiveness of getting heat into the tube and
facilitating the efficiency of the reforming process is highly
dependent on the flow of the process gas through the tube.
The aim is to facilitate the lowest amount of process gas flow
restriction whilst allowing for sufficient time for the reforming
reaction to take place.
The catalyst shape and how the thousands of individual
catalysts pack impact the flow dynamics of the process gas.
Conventional catalysts pack chaotically due to their
non-spherical shape, and this leads to uneven flow, flow
bottlenecks, and sub-optimal heat transfer.
 Conventional catalysts are produced using either extrusion
or hydraulic pressing. As a result of these manufacturing
techniques, only mono-directional shapes are able to be
manufactured. Holes are added to try and reduce the shape
pressure drop issues and to introduce mathematically-calculated
geometric surface area.
However, this has a limited benefit. Firstly, the
mono-directional shape and alignment of holes within that
shape will not pack within a tube with the holes aligned to the
process gas flow. Secondly, process gas will always look to
follow the easiest path through a restricted tube. The majority
of the flow will preferentially look to find the voids between
the shapes, and these voids in a tube packed with conventional
catalysts are chaotic.
Spheres pack uniformly, naturally resulting in the voids being
the same shape and size, meaning even distribution of the
process gas across and through the tube. The benefit of this
even distribution effect with spheres is that the process gas
restriction (pressure drop) is lower, allowing for significantly
more flow through the tube. Additionally, because the process
gas evenly reaches every individual catalyst sphere within the
tube, all of the active surface area is available and involved in
the reforming.
UNICAT’s plain spheres (see Figure 1) have a low geometric
surface area (GSA) relative to their volume, and so deliver the
pressure drop benefits but are not optimised for active surface
area. The Magcat technology added golf ball-like surface
texturing, maintaining all of the process flow distribution
benefits of spheres whilst optimising the active surface area.
Tubular SMRs are used extensively in the production of
hydrogen, generating 96% of hydrogen produced worldwide.1
On average, 65% of global refinery hydrogen demand is satisfied
by reforming and cracking processes, and 32% is provided by
on-purpose units.2
Sphere catalyst technology
Generation 1.0 technology is based on plain four-holed spheres,
under the brand MYD-S (see Figure 1). The sphere was
introduced to facilitate uniform packing and flow. The holes
were added for customer visual acceptance rather than any
process benefits. The sphere manufacturing technology is
economically-viable for the larger > 20 mm spheres, and as such
HYDROCARBON 37 March 2023
ENGINEERING
 was only offered to the Direct Reduction of Iron (DRI) market in Next generation SMR sphere catalyst
July 2012. technology
27 mm four-holed spheres were supplied into a Magcat Textured Spheres’ manufacturing processes and shapes
450 x 11 in. dia. tube DRI SMR in the Americas. Tubes were were designed to optimise the compromises of plain spheres.
loaded with the same-sized 28 mm MYD-S sphere containing Essentially, the manufacturing process was developed to enable
between 8 – 11 wt% nickel. They replaced a previous charge of the mass production of any sized spheres with surface textures.
ribbed cylinder-shaped catalysts. Magcat is compatible with all tubular steam reformers
The customer referenced the following differences in (primary reformers) used for SMR, and is now installed in over
performance in March 2018: 27 hydrogen plants worldwide.
nn The overall reformer pressure drop had fallen by 60% as Generation 1.0 spheres and Generation 2.0 Magcat have
compared to the previous charge. been shown to increase hydrogen production and reduce
nn Reformer gas quality remained equal. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 10 – 20% in ways that are
nn Approximately 15% energy savings were achieved. easily implemented, and which avoid equipment investment
nn An increase in total plant capacity to 210 tph from 190 tph.costs. Spheres demonstrate lower pressure drop than previous
nn No intermediate plant shutdown was required over the charges, which in turn allows for higher process gas flows.
five years for dust removal. Traditionally, SMR pressure drop is reduced by moving to larger
catalyst pellet sizes. Larger pellets provide more voids, which
The customer could have increased plant capacity further, translates to lower pressure drop. However, the trade-off of
however they were limited due to the compressor capacity. larger size pellets is lower total bed surface area, which results in
The change from cylinders to spheres delivered other physical higher methane slip, particularly late in cycles. The use of
benefits which will be explained in the following sections. spheres and, more recently, externally-textured spheres,
decouples concerns with surface area and
pressure drop.
This premise is supported by SMR
operating data (see Figure 2) for a site that
installed Magcat in early 2022. The data
demonstrates that, for fixed conditions, this
technology generates 10 psi (0.7 bar) lower
pressure drop at all corresponding feed rates,
compared to previous installations of
conventional, cylindrical SMR catalyst.
Counterintuitively, Magcat of smaller size
than the previous catalyst was loaded into
this reformer to prove the advantage of
Figure 1. Examples of SMR catalysts in traditional cylindrical shapes, spherical shaped catalyst in promoting
UNICAT’s Gen 1.0 plain spheres and Gen 2.0 textured sphere (left to right uniform flow. To make use of this benefit,
conventional cylinders, MYD-S plain spheres, Magcat® textured sphere). total feed to the reformer (feed gas plus
steam, at constant or lower steam-to-carbon
ratio) can be increased 10% at
constant pressure drop or
observed hydraulic limit.
Operating at constant feed rate,
this pressure drop benefit
significantly offloads feed gas
compressor duty at fixed
reformer outlet pressure, reducing
unit power consumption. Magcat
and MYD-S spherical shapes have
no straight edges, reducing
excessive pressure drag associated
with cylindrical pellets. Plain
spheres have a drag coefficient of
0.47, textured spheres 0.27, and
cylinders between 0.82 – 1.15.3 The
lower the drag coefficient, the
lower the pressure drop.
Additionally, a regular surface
Figure 2. Operating data from a top five US refiner comparing throughput to unit flow over the sphere is
pressure drop with different SMR catalysts. maintained (see Figure 3/4),
adding symmetrical spheres into a

March 2023 38 HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING

Figure 3. Flow simulation comparison of gas passing over a smooth
spherical catalyst next to Magcat® textured spherical catalyst (gas
moving from bottom to top).
Figure 4. Flow simulation of gas passing over a
half, static Magcat® textured spherical catalyst (gas
moving from bottom to top) and a half ribbed cylinder
showing the flow differences.
tube naturally generates repeatable and predictable packing
patterns not otherwise associated with random loadings of
cylindrical pellets.
Effects on fluid flow from uniform packing vs chaotic
packing are profound. Gases entering tubes filled with spheres
divide evenly to flow around full hemispheres of each sphere.
Uniformity of spherical packing creates unbiased and equal flow
paths for the entire cross-section. Upon exiting the initial layer and the avoidance of common points of failure.
of spheres, via regular and homogeneous void apertures
between adjacent spheres, reactant gas flow immediately
encounters the next layer of uniformly-packed spheres, over
which it will again divide and reconnect with contiguous flow
paths. This ‘snaking’ fluid flow across spheres encourages
March 2023 40 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
excellent mixing and intimate gas-to-surface
contact. More crucially, lateral movement
promotes heat collection from the tube wall and
transportation of heat energy to the core of the
tube to satisfy endothermic reforming reactions
and equilibrium conditions favouring conversion
to hydrogen at high temperatures.
In comparison, tubes packed randomly with
cylinders induce high pressure drag over bluff
bodies in most aspects, and generate chaotic
fluid flow paths, resulting in dead spots;
back-eddies; bypassing; and hosing through
catalyst holes when vertically orientated, thus
diminishing lateral movement that is critical for
effective radial heat transfer.4 Spherical catalysts
generate numerous, predictable pellet-wall
contacts disturbing convectional boundary layer
thickness along the wall and redirecting heated
flows laterally into the bed (see Figure 5).
Magcat’s SMR catalyst does not incorporate holes. Literature
lists the advantages of multiple holes in cylindrical pellets as:
increased voids (associated with lower pressure drop in
conventional loadings), and increased active surface area.
Magcat is not limited in either, due to expanses of surface area
from external texturing and internal porosity, and substantial
and regular voids between particles when packing solid
spheres.5
Another benefit is lower inherent pressure drop imparted
by spheres in comparison to other common SMR catalyst
shapes. Further, observed void increases during bed movement
of textured sphere packing during heat up, which allows smaller
Magcat sizes to be selected than would be traditionally
expected for an application.3 Smaller spheres further increase
surface area, wall contact points, and promotion of radial flow
without compromising overall system pressure drop compared
to a loading of larger cylinders.
Disadvantages for holes that are listed in literature are
particle weakness and reduced radial flow. Additionally, holes
will not offer the gains proposed unless available to flow by
being orientated vertically or near-vertically. Random packing
results in proportions of pellets not oriented in ways that are
beneficial. Without strength, surface area or pressure drop
concerns, Generation 2.0 Magcat spheres exclude holes to
maximise radial heat transfer, which benefits steam reformers
the most.
Radial heat transfer is key for efficient hydrogen production
in SMR. Energy movement from externally-heated tube surfaces
to the inner bed core replenishes energy debts generated by
net endothermic reforming reactions. UNICAT’s Generation 1.0
and Generation 2.0 Magcat applications observe much lower
tube wall temperatures (TWT), typically decreasing tube failure
due to creep by at least 40%. Further, hot spots and red bands
are less likely in spherical catalyst loadings as uniform packing
minimises bridging. This means further increased tube lifetimes
The same industrial user observed that, after switching to
Magcat, the same methane slip could be achieved at
significantly lower combustion outlet temperature under other
constant conditions as a result of the heat transfer
improvements discussed (see Figure 6). It is this unlocking of

Figure 5. Simulation of gas flow in packed tubes with Magcat® (left)
and cylindrical catalyst (right), emphasising preferential flow path
differences.
Figure 6. Increases in reformer outlet temperature through operating
cycle using conventional SMR catalyst compared to low outlet
temperature with Magcat® installed.
Figure 7. Cut through tube view of spherical catalyst (left) showing
even and supported fill, and conventional catalyst (right) showing
crushing impact of tube thermal cycling due to lack of support
facilitating catalyst dropping and crushing.
March 2023 42 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
constraints, particularly the most challenging
and most limiting factor of improved radial heat
transfer, that allows MYD-S and Magcat users to
increase hydrogen production above nameplate
capacity and historical maximums via increased
throughput.
A further advantage of spherical catalysts
can be seen in Figure 7. As the tube cycles from
hot to cold for any number of reasons, it exerts
radial pressure on the catalysts packed in the
tube. The sphere packing, due to its uniform
nature, provides support for all of the spheres.
This limits the voids between the pellets to less
than half the diameter of an individual sphere,
and creates a relaxing effect with subsequent
hot/cold/hot tube movements. As there is
nowhere for the spheres to go, the radial
pressure pushes the spheres closer to each
other on cooling, and opens up the voids
slightly during heating – stopping the catalysts
from crushing each other. The opposite
happens with a conventional cylinder packed
system, i.e. on heating, holes are opened up
between catalysts, allowing corners or edges to
drop into gaps that have opened up; and on
cooling the tube diameter closes, crushing
catalysts against each other.
Conclusion
UNICAT’s MYD-S and Magcat spheres are
demonstrating excellent performance in tubular
SMR reformers, as shown in one such example
operated by a top five refiner in the US, and as
referenced by a global steel company operating
a DRI reformer. These benefits can be clearly
understood from underlying effects on fluid
dynamics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer of
spheres vs conventional shapes. Energy
efficiency, lower CO2 emissions, increased
hydrogen production, and extended tube life
are some of the advantages of next generation
spherical catalysts.
References
1. TAGLIABUE, M., ‘Refinery off-gas in hydrogen
production’, Air Liquide, PTQ (Q1 2022), https://cdn.
digitalrefining.com/data/articles/file/1002727-q1-
air-GBPiquide-dr.pdf
2. ‘Low-carbon hydrogen demand in refining could
reach 50 Mtpa by 2050’, Wood Mackenzie,
(June 2022), https://www.woodmac.com/press-
releases/low-carbon-hydrogen-demand-in-refining-
could-reach-50-mtpa-by-2050/
3. HOERNER, S. F., ‘Fluid-Dynamic Drag : Practical
Information on Aerodynamic Drag and
Hydrodynamic Resistance’, 2nd Edition, (1965),
pp. 3 – 17.
4. DIXON, A., BOUDREAU, J., ROCHELEAU, A., TROUPEL, A.,
ERTAN TASKIN, M., NIJEMEISLAND, M., and STITT, E. H.,
‘Flow, Transport, and Reaction Interactions in Shaped
Cylindrical Particles for Steam Methane Reforming’,
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, (2012).
5. TURNER, J., ‘Hydrogen Consumption for Fuels
Production’, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL), (2013), p. 5, https://www.hydrogen.energy.
gov/pdfs/htac_oct13_9_turner.pdf
March 2023 44 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
 Vic Scalco, General Atomics
Electromagnetic Systems, USA, details
the importance of selecting the correct
separation technology in order to
support growing petrochemical demand.

T
he global pandemic, economic slowdown,
and instability caused by regional conflicts
have significantly impacted the
approximately 735 petroleum refineries
worldwide. Today’s highly complex and competitive
refining environment, coupled with eroding profits and
difficulty maintaining a positive bottom line, is forcing
over half of these refineries to seek new market
opportunities from the bottom of the barrel in order
to remain competitive. In addition to this, compliance
with tougher climate regulations is further taxing
refineries’ ability to invest in technology innovations
to help keep pace with changing market demands,
while maintaining profitability.1
Refining management’s balancing act between new
technology investment and increasing revenue
potential is driving a trend toward utilising severe
catalytic cracking technology to increase profits while
taking advantage of the existing crack spreads. Over
18 million bbl of crude oil are processed daily through
a fluidised catalytic cracking (FCC) system, along with
three-quarters of worldwide gasoline. FCC systems
have become the refinery’s most versatile operating
units to improve the bottom line. With the increase in
crude prices, environmental compliance cost, and
current International Maritime Organization (IMO)
2020 regulation enforcement, the spread between
lighter, less severe crudes and heavier, opportunistic
crudes will become a bigger part of the refining
sector’s economics. The FCC’s capability to convert
heavy atmospheric gas oils, vacuum gas oils, and
atmospheric resids into more valuable gasoline and
middle distillates can be exploited to support more
positive profit margins.2
Heavier, opportunity crudes are pushing the limits
of catalytic cracking. Refiners are increasingly
considering the utilisation of more complex
technologies for deeper conversion of challenging
feedstocks arising from the processing of opportunity
crudes. There are a range of technologies tailored for
processing heavier crudes and producing high-quality
final products. As the future of refining has the
industry moving towards the use of higher severity
conversion units and synthetic crudes, the FCC will
remain the workhorse of the refinery.

HYDROCARBON 45 March 2023

ENGINEERING
 Asia joins the race
In Japan, approximately 30 petroleum refining
companies are utilising FCC or resid fluid catalytic
cracking (RFCC) units to produce propylene, LPG,
gasoline and light oil. S-Oil Korea installed its first high
severity FCC, and PERTAMINA Indonesia is investing in
new RFCC units to increase overall international market
supply. India is expanding its ability to produce
polypropylene through RFCC units, as petrochemical
feedstock production is in high demand. New products
generated from these RFCC units can be consumed in
the global market for transportation, power generation,
and petrochemical supply, or shipped as a product
blended for marine fuel. With years of operation in the
RFCC market, Asia is now faced with a need to generate
increased profits in a competitive environment, and will
have to address applications for the bottom of the
barrel streams from these units ladened with
concentrated catalyst.1
The challenge
Creating greater profits from an FCC unit comes with a
cost. Driving the FCC technology into higher severity for
increased propylene demand for petrochemical
feedstocks is a growing trend. Along with fuel gas, C3S
and C4S, FCC units also produce a 650+°F heavy aromatic
oil, known as slurry oil, as a byproduct. Slurry oil
nomenclature refers to the catalyst fines carried over
from the FCC reactor which end up in these bottoms.
Because catalyst fines must be separated or be allowed
to settle out of the oil, the product is more correctly
referred to as main column bottoms (MCB), decant
clarified oil (DCO), clarified oil (CO), or clarified slurry oil
(CSO).3
Figure 1. Carbon black industry supply.3
Table 1. Typical slurry market feedstock properties4
CSO market/opportunity CSO clarity (ppm)
Carbon fibre feedstock 5 – 10
Carbon black feedstock (specialty) 10 – 20
Hydrotreater feedstock 10 – 50
IMO 2020 marine fuel 50 – 60
Pitch feedstock 25 – 100
Needle coke feedstock 25 – 100
Refinery fuel 50 – 100
Carbon black feestock (tyre) 100 – 500
Hydrocracker feedstock 200 – 300
March 2023 46 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
Slurry oil is the lowest-value stream produced by an
FCC unit (FCCU), representing only 3 – 7 vol% of the total
products. A typical 50 000 bpd FCCU would produce
2000 bpd or 125 000 tpy of slurry oil as a byproduct. The
quality varies according to numerous factors including
crude oil origin, FCC design, and fractionation
equipment. The two most important factors affecting
quality are catalyst type and conversion level. Quality
may also vary for marketing reasons by dilution in the
FCC fractionator with heavy cycle gas oil. Table 1 shows
the typical concentration range of catalyst in marketable
slurries.3
Meeting market demands
Severe FCC feed hydrodesulfurisation can reduce the
sulfur content of slurry oil to less than 0.5 wt%, however
the hydrotreating would result in decreased slurry
aromaticity unless conversion is greatly increased.
Currently, approximately 40% of the US FCC feed is
hydrotreated primarily at mild conditions so that slurries
contain 0.5 – 1.5% sulfur. Refiners do not desulfurise FCC
feed just to lower the slurry oil’s sulfur content; they
have other objectives such as lowering gasoline sulfur,
reducing sulfur emissions from catalyst regeneration,
improving product yields and quality, or meeting new
market requirements. Efforts to meet the IMO 2020
marine fuel regulation entail a joint process of
hydrodesulfurisation to less than 0.5%, and fines removal
to comply with less than 50 ppm catalyst fines required
by MARPOL IV.2, 5
Sediments are composed of large particles that are
greater than 20 µm, while filterable solids are composed
of smaller particles typically in the range of 20 µm to
submicron level. The sources of the solids are iron
sulfide, silica, clays, scales, ash, coke, and catalyst
fines. Feedstock contamination starts upstream
after the desalter, reaching downstream of the
catalytic cracking unit. While new catalysts,
co-catalysts and additives benefit the process,
they simultaneously add more sediments, solids,
and poisoning metals to the bottom of the
barrel, creating more challenges facing the
removal of these contaminants. Severe catalytic
cracking activities come with the challenge of
producing a higher concentration of these
sediments and filterable solids within the slurry
oil stream.6
Ash, or catalyst fines, are a particular problem
for slurry, especially for heavy and viscous oils
that require long residence time to allow for
catalyst settling. Obtaining low ash (less than
0.05 wt%) requires dedicated techniques, such as
specialised catalyst selection, heating, chemical
additives, separation technology, electrostatic
precipitators, centrifuges and cyclones. The
selection of an attrition-resistant catalyst helps
to a great extent, and a few refiners buy
higher-priced hard catalysts to alleviate ash
problems in slurry oil. If a higher-priced catalyst
or the idea of a new upper cyclone system is not
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 an option, the challenge of catalyst fines separation and
the recovery of lost profits can be efficiently addressed
by adopting the right (MCB) separation technology.7
The race for profits
Higher severity FCC units operate at critical conditions and
concentrations in the production of higher ends for
petrochemical feedstock supply. This makes the process
more challenging, especially at the bottom of the barrel
where high concentrations of solids, contaminants and
catalysts are undermining the possibility of upgrading the
slurry oil stream. Upgrading catalytic cracking technology
must coincide with increasing efficiency, reducing
maintenance cost, and improving the catalyst equilibrium
cycle. Removing solids and ultimately increasing the
lifespan of the FCC system is part of this equation, and is
directly related to incrementing the bottom line in
refining.
The success of higher severity production relies on
providing clarified slurry oil at < 50 ppm to maintain a
marketable DCO. Several different filtration and separation
technologies have been reviewed to find the most suitable
solution capable of upgrading the challenging DCO stream.
Many refiners ‘de-ash’ with chemical aids to accelerate ash
settling in storage. These chemicals are polymeric
compounds that adhere to the catalyst surface, causing
agglomeration of the fine particles to accelerate
separation.8 For some time, refiners have found it
economical to cat crack increasing quantities of 1000+°F
boiling material. Current analysis shows that approximately
40% of the industry is cracking some resid. Cracking an
unhydrotreated resid might result in a heavier, more
viscous slurry oil with low aromaticity and high metals
content. When resid is added to an existing FCC, ash
separation might be more difficult because the catalyst
removal system must handle a greater volume of more
viscous slurry.9
Settling tanks for decanting slurry oil have been in use
for more than 40 years, and this remains the most popular
separation process for removing catalyst in slurry oil.
Today, over 61% of refineries use settling tanks to separate
catalyst and other contaminates from slurry oil. The
settling process is very lengthy and creates a larger
challenge once the tank is full of sediment. Refineries must
resort to using settling agents to assist in speeding up the
process. This creates sludge, hazardous waste, and
Figure 2. Slurry oil settling tanks.
March 2023 48 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
increased cost over time for the refinery. One tank per
year can cost a refinery US$40 000 in settling agent,
US$500 000 in cleaning and maintenance, and US$150 000
in landfill and waste disposal fees. This represents
approximately US$690 000 in increased costs to
accomplish a bunker fuel at 500 ppm. DCO resulting from
the settling tank process will continue to experience rising
costs as environmental laws direct the handling of
hazardous waste, and as the decline in construction causes
stockpiles of dried catalyst to collect at concrete kilns.8
In addition to recovering profits eroded by tank settling,
by installing catalyst fines separation technology at the
outlet of the FCC slurry oil rundown, most of the fines can
be collected and sent back to the riser. With this
technology in place, the returned catalyst fines would
support fresh catalyst reactivity while finding more
acceptable avenues of escape via gas scrubbers,
electrostatic precipitators, and spent catalyst collection
hoppers, ultimately leaving through the flue stack.
Additional profit recovery occurs by removing fines from
escaping through the bottoms circuit and rundown to tank
settling. By keeping the fines out of this process, the refiner
can realise additional profit by adding the now-retired
settling tank to a refinery’s marketable inventory tank list.
This is an added benefit to any refinery, and could be worth
as much as US$1 million in annual revenue.9
World demand for refined products is unique to the
domestic market and international demand for each region.
North American FCCs operate at high severity to maximise
gasoline and polypropylene. The result is a very heavy,
aromatic decant oil. Due to low fuel oil production and
specific-gravity limits, US refineries are only able to blend
low quantities of decant oil in resid, allowing the excess to
be sold for other uses such as carbon black feedstock.10
The quality of CSO for carbon black feedstock can
generate as much as US$18.00/bbl of increased revenue,
and increase middle distillate inventory. With separation
technology in place, a refiner can increase annual revenue
by not having to use heavy cycle oil (HCO) or light cycle
oil (LCO) as cutter stock with the CSO to meet lower
concentration specifications, and more middle distillate
can be used to produce lighter products such as diesel.
Regarding the use of LCO, mechanical filtration is limited
in backwash mediums, and costly HCO/LCO is required for
back washing the filters. Electrostatic separation, however,
provides an economic advantage over other processes.
This technology uses raw feed from the FCC/RFCC for
back flushing and does not decrease the overall
production of the reactor or rob valuable lighter products.
Middle distillate production is therefore increased, along
with profitability.3
CSO used as carbon black feedstock carries the best
value in lower conversion markets. When sourcing markets
for MCB production, whether it is marine fuel or
highly-profitable specialty carbon black feedstock, a
refiner must decide to increase the quality of the CSO to
meet the unique specification for each market. The
efficiency and reliability of the fines removal technology is
critical to realising increased profits from these markets.
The properties of MCB make it difficult to find a solution
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 without understanding the downsides of each technology.
Centrifuges have been found to be unsafe and inefficient
over time. Decanting or settling is only able to provide
bunker-grade products with long residence time. With the
heavy asphaltene and coke content in severe RFCC or FCC
operation, mechanical filtration solutions become blocked
or severely eroded, requiring complete disassembly or
replacement of costly cartridges in order to continue
operating. Other technologies are susceptible to plugging
or blocking due to the inherent plugging properties.6,7
An electrostatic separator system, referred to as the
‘Gulftronic® Electrostatic Slurry Separator’, has been found
to work in concentrated slurries without plugging or
blockage. The electrostatic separator for slurry oil
operates continuously without plugging or blockage from
asphaltenes, with an efficiency at the outlet averaging
< 10 ppm catalyst fines after separation. To successfully
increase refinery profits from the bottom of the barrel,
proven robust technologies such as electrostatic separator
technologies are needed to handle the challenges
accompanying high severity processing while driving the
FCC to increase propylene yield.2
Active response
There are three factors that should be considered when
determining the feasibility of separation applications to
downstream refinery processes. The first is refinery
economics. Not all refineries with the FCC or RFCC
process have the economic parameters needed to justify
the installation of a catalyst fines removal system. The
second is the severity of the fines. Controlling the quality
of the slurry oil produced can influence the refinery’s
marketable products and downstream maintenance. The
third is the cost associated with the environmental impact
of removing catalyst fines and particulates from the
settling tank.
Not all refineries using FCC/RFCC have a market or
economic requirement for producing CSO < 100 ppm.
Slurry oil is typically 6% of the overall production of the
FCC when the focus is on making transportation
feedstock. If an FCC is smaller than 30 000 bpd, the
economic driver to upgrade a small amount of slurry is not
beneficial, and it becomes more economical to blend
cutter stock to meet desired specifications. Larger
complex refineries processing over 30 000 bpd are in the
best economical position to increase profits from
departiculating process streams such as slurry oil.10
Aside from the profitability of increased production
and middle distillates, consideration should also be given
to decreasing downstream maintenance and downtime.
With over 60% of the fines in slurry oil’s distribution being
< 15 µm, it is very difficult for mechanical filtration or
centrifuges to capture smaller fines. Instead, these
processes allow them to pass through. The corrosive
element of catalyst passing downstream erodes valves and
other critical piping systems.
Taking control
A reactor running at 80 000 bpd can produce 5600 bpd of
slurry. At this production level, over 16 t of new catalyst is
March 2023 50 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
added to the FCC. With constant unit operation, cyclones
in the reactor release fines and, over time, larger catalyst
can escape through this process. With the proper
separation technology in place, lost catalyst, especially in
older FCC units, can be recovered and sent back to the
riser. This adds greater attrition to the life of the catalyst
equilibrium cycle in the FCC, and assists in better
production and operation of the unit. With the recovery
of 1900 tpy, savings of over US$1.6 million could be
claimed just in catalyst loss and environmental savings.
Conclusion
The evolution of the refining industry is racing toward
more severe catalytic cracking technologies that are
capable of processing heavier opportunistic crudes and
meeting the profitable petrochemical demand. Refining
improvements and petrochemical integrations are allowing
for refineries to make increased profits from every barrel
processed. Implementing more severe catalytic
technologies is an important step toward improving
refinery flexibility. However, as licensors begin to develop
new innovative processes and the demand for new
synthetic pyrolysis oil blended crudes becomes more of a
reality, the need for selecting the right separation
technology is critical.
Regardless of the separation path chosen, spent
catalyst removal and waste management will remain one
of the most difficult processes in the refinery. Settling is
expensive in terms of lost time and profits. Mechanical
separation processes are limited and come with costly
downtime and maintenance schedules. The refining
industry has evolved away from centrifuges, and filtration
technology is becoming harder to operate in the more
concentrated slurries. Electrostatic separation is a proven
solution for trouble-free separation of high severity FCC
and RFCC slurries. The solution exists with the technology
of today to increase profits from new markets or recover
profits from lost revenue for every refinery with an FCC or
RFCC. It is now up to the refiner to take advantage of this
solution.
References
1. Website data from http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/
2. SCALCO, V. M., ‘The plight of the modern refinery: racing to meet
IMO 2020 regulations’, Hydrocarbon Processing, (November 2019),
pp. 69 - 73.
3. GUERICO, V. J., ‘US Producing, exporting more slurry oil’,
Oil & Gas Journal, (4 October 2018).
4. ‘Methodology and Specifications Guide, Petroleum Product & Gas
Liquids: US Caribbean and Latin America’, Platts, (January 2021).
5. SCALCO, V., ‘AFPM ‘19: IMO 2020 and beyond’, (19 March 2019),
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/conference-
news/2019/03/afpm-19-imo-2020-and-beyond
6. HOUSER, T., GIBSON, S., and SCALCO, V., ‘Confronting
unconventional oil’, Hydrocarbon Engineering, (October 2018),
pp. 57 - 62.
7. BAI, Z., WANG, H. L., and TU, S. T., ‘Removal of Catalyst Particles
from Oil Slurry by Hydrocyclone’, Separation Science and
Technology, (2009), pp. 2067 - 2077.
8. MINYARD, W. F., and WOODSON, T. S. ‘Upgrade FCC
Slurry Oil with Chemical Settling Aids’, World Refining,
(November/December 1999).
9. SILVERMAN, L. D., WINKLER, S.., TIETHOF, J. A., and WITOSHKIN, A.,
‘Matrix effects in catalytic cracking’, presented at the 2018 AFPM
Annual Meeting, (23 – 25 March 2018).
10. ‘S&P Global Commodity Insights’, S&P Global, https://www.platts.
com/IM.Platts.Content/InsightAnalysis/IndustrySolutionPapers/
SR-IMO-2020-Global-sulfur-cap-102016.pdf
 Ang Chew Peng, Hou Peng-Cheng
and Senthil Krishnamoorthy,
Sulzer, discuss various types of
high-performance trays for large
diameter propylene fractionators.

T
he demand for ethylene and propylene is
growing at approximately 4% annually due to
the rapid increase in demand for polymer and
plastics material used in the packaging,
construction and automobile industries. These basic
raw materials are produced either in gas- or liquid-based
crackers, and propane dehydrogenation units. With the
increase in the capacity of world-scale olefins plants,
the column diameters for ethylene and propylene
splitters are also increasing.
Propylene fractionators, operating in the range of
8 – 20 bar, are characterised by a high number of trays
and high reflux rates. The low relative volatility between
propane and propylene requires tall columns with
200 – 300 actual trays in order to meet the stringent
product specifications of more than 99.5 mol% for
polymer-grade propylene. While minimising the
propylene loss to usually less than 1 mol% in the bottom
stream, these propylene fractionators normally operate
at high reflux ratios, typically in the range of 10 – 15. Due
to the high liquid loads and large diameter in these
columns, high-capacity trays with high-performance
valves and enhanced downcomers are the preferred
mass transfer equipment for these super-fractionators
for an optimised column design.

HYDROCARBON 51 March 2023

ENGINEERING
 Propylene fractionators can be designed with different
types of trays. These columns, with low density difference
between the vapour and liquid phases, require careful tray
design that is optimised to handle the high liquid and
vapour volumetric flow rate.
This article will discuss the various types of
high-performance trays that Sulzer designs for large
diameter propylene fractionators. It will also describe the
selection of the number of liquid passes as well as the
type of downcomers and tray valves, and share a few
successful case studies of commercial propylene splitters.
Selection of number of liquid passes
As with any large columns, the propylene fractionators
may require multi-pass trays with chordal downcomers.
The number of liquid passes usually increases with column
diameter. For example, 2-pass trays for column diameters
in the range of 3 – 4 m; 4-pass trays for column diameters
in the range of 5 – 6 m; and 6-pass trays for column
diameters of more than 7 m. Increasing the number of tray
passes as the column diameter increases is the natural
geometrical progression. As the requirement for tray
active area increases to meet the higher vapour loads, the
downcomer area and weir length also need to increase
proportionally to handle the corresponding high liquid
loads.
Figure 1 shows the geometrical comparison between a
1 m and 2 m 1-pass tray. The image illustrates that doubling
the column diameter quadruples the active area and
Figure 1. Geometrical comparison of 1 m and 2 m
1-pass trays.
Figure 2. Sulzer high-capacity V-Grid.
March 2023 52 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
downcomer area, while the weir length only doubles.
Increasing the number of liquid passes of the 2 m column
to two, while maintaining the same downcomer area,
would increase the overall tray weir length by at least 70%.
Similarly, the weir length of a 4-pass tray will be 2 – 3 times
longer than that of a 1-pass tray, with the same column
diameter, downcomer and active area. The longer weir
length will result in lower weir loading, thereby reducing
the tray clear liquid height on the deck. This will also
increase the vapour capacity of the trays.
As such, as the column diameters increase for the
same service, the number of liquid passes progresses
from 2-pass to 4-pass, and even to 6-pass.1 Case study 1
details two propylene fractionators in a series that were
designed with both 4-pass and 6-pass trays, for different
diameters.
Case study 1
This propylene splitter, built in 2014, is equipped with 228
actual trays in two physical columns. The end user
preferred conventional straight or sloped downcomer
trays for these new columns, for the possibility of
revamping to high-performance trays for future capacity
expansion. The upper column, C3 rectifier of 8.8 m dia.,
was designed with 6-pass MMVGTM trays, while the lower
column, C3 stripper of 6.3 m dia., was designed with 4-pass
MVGTM trays.
The tray flow path lengths of these trays are
approximately similar, at 0.9 m. MMVG and MVG are
Sulzer’s high-performance V-GridTM valves, as seen in
Figure 2. To ensure that the multi-pass trays were
balanced for the optimum mass transfer, Sulzer applied
picket fence weirs to the centre and off-centre
downcomers, to control the liquid split. This propylene
splitter achieved a top propylene specification of more
than 99.7 mol%, while the propylene loss in the bottom
stream was less than 1 mol%, achieving an overall tray
efficiency of 95%.
Application of enhanced downcomer to
improve hydraulic performance
Multi-pass trays such as 2, 4 and 6-pass have two layouts,
whereby the layout with the side downcomers will have
the shorter total tray weir length. For example, in 4-pass
trays the layout with two off-centre downcomers will have
a longer total weir length, compared to the layout with
one centre and two side downcomers. To increase the
total weir length of the tray, Sulzer ModArcTM
downcomers, as seen in Figure 3, can be applied to the
side downcomers of multi-pass trays. Application of the
ModArc side downcomers will minimise the weir length
difference between the layouts, ensuring consistent
hydraulic behaviour on all trays in the section.
The ModArc profile also improves the distribution of
liquid exiting the bottom of the downcomers. Push valves
are applied at specific locations, especially at the tray
inlets, to ensure that liquid is well distributed across the
tray decks for optimum tray performance. Case study 2
details a successful application of 6-pass trays designed
with these downcomers.
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 Case study 2
This new propylene splitter, built in 2017, is equipped with
248 trays in two physical columns: Tower 1 with 127 trays of
7.8 m dia., and Tower 2 with 121 trays of 8.2 m dia. For these
Figure 3. 1-pass tray with ModArc downcomers.
Figure 4. 6-pass trays with ModArc side downcomers.
Figure 5. Sulzer 4-pass VGPlus with ModArc side
downcomers and MVG fixed valves.
March 2023 54 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
new trays, 6-pass trays with ModArc downcomers were
applied, as seen in Figure 4. This propylene splitter
achieved a top propylene purity of 99.94 mol% as
compared to the design specification of 99.6 mol%, and
the bottom propylene loss was less than 0.5 mol% as
compared to the design specification of maximum 2 mol%,
obtaining a high overall tray efficiency of 100%.
Application of high-performance trays
with high-capacity fixed valves
For new columns, reducing the column diameter through
the use of high-performance trays, especially when the
column diameters are large, can result in significant savings
in capital investment. Sulzer high-performance trays,
VGPlusTM, as seen in Figure 5, are designed for multi-pass
propylene fractionators. They feature high-capacity MVG
or MMVG fixed valves which boost vapour handling
capacity while minimising tray pressure drop. This is
essential for super-fractionators with high tray count.
These trays also feature enhanced downcomers such as
ModArc side downcomers, as well as truncated
downcomers to maximise bubbling area.
The efficacy of the tray technology has been
demonstrated at the independent Fractionation Research
Institute (FRI), in the iso-butane/n-butane system at both
7 and 11 bar. The trays deliver approximately 30% higher
capacity than conventional round valve trays.
For revamps, Sulzer VGPlus high-performance trays are
effective in debottlenecking columns that are fitted with
conventional trays, with proven successes in the revamps
of numerous propylene fractionators. Case study 3
summarises the revamp of propylene fractionators from
4-pass conventional trays to 4-pass VGPlus with ModArc
downcomers for higher capacity, while case study 4
discusses the revamp of propylene fractionators from
4-pass sieve trays to 4-pass VGPlus with ModArc
downcomers for higher tray efficiency.
Case study 3
This propylene splitter is equipped with 263 trays:
C3 rectifier with 170 trays of 7.8 m column dia., and
C3 stripper with 93 trays of 6.6 m column dia. These
columns were originally equipped with 4-pass
conventional float valve trays before being revamped to
4-pass VGPlus trays with MVG valves to handle a 30%
increase in capacity in 2019. ModArc downcomers were
also applied to increase the tray weir length. The
propylene splitter achieved a top propylene purity of
99.79 mol% as compared to the design specification of
minimum 99.6 mol%, and the bottom propylene loss was
less than 4.07 mol% as compared to the design
specification of maximum 4.3 mol%, obtaining a high tray
efficiency of 95%.
Case study 4
This propylene splitter is equipped with 200 actual trays in
two physical columns of approximately 8 m dia. The
column was originally equipped with 4-pass sieve trays.
During the operation, the column suffered significant loss
of propylene in the bottom product at more than
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 15 mol%, as compared to the design specification of less
than 2 mol%. The calculated tray efficiency was around
64%. The original sieve trays with tray dimensions specified
by the engineering company did not employ any tray
balancing techniques, resulting in different vapour/liquid
ratio in each flow pass of the tray design.
Sulzer revamped the columns with 4-pass VGPlus with
MMVG tray decks and ModArc side downcomers, applying
picket fences to the centre downcomers to control the
liquid split to the panels. After the revamp, the column
achieved the top propylene specifications of more than
99.6 mol%, and the bottom propylene loss was less than
0.98 mol%. Based on the match back of operating
condition with measured reflux flow rates, the propylene
splitter achieved a tray efficiency of more than 95%, which
is an increase of more than 30%. Additionally, the steam
flow rate used to drive the heat pump compressor was
reduced by 25%, resulting in substantial savings.
Multi-downcomer trays for propylene
fractionators
Multi-downcomer trays such as Shell HiFiTM trays, as seen
in Figure 6, are also often applied in columns with high
liquid loads – including propylene fractionators. These
trays have multiple downcomers and can have more
downcomers than chordal downcomer trays (2-pass,
4-pass, 6-pass) at the same column diameter. A Shell HiFi
tray of 5 m dia. can have eight downcomers, analogous to
a 7-pass tray, while a Shell HiFi tray of 7 m dia. can have
12 downcomers, analogous to an 11-pass tray. Their large
downcomer top area can handle high liquid loads, while
the longer weir length results in a lower weir loading,
which may improve vapour handling capacity, thereby
reducing the column diameters. These trays are also
self-balanced as they allow for liquid communication on
the tray decks.
Case study 5 summarises one successful application of
Shell HiFi Plus trays in propylene fractionators. These are
Shell HiFi trays enhanced with Sulzer high-capacity valves
such as MVG or MMVG.
Case study 5
This new propylene splitter is equipped with 238 trays in
two physical columns: C3 rectifier with 187 trays of
6.9 m dia., and C3 stripper with 51 trays of 5.2 m dia. These
columns were designed with Shell HiFi Plus trays with
high-capacity MVG valves for an optimum column size.
The C3 rectifier had 10 downcomer boxes, and the C3
stripper of smaller diameter had eight downcomer boxes.
The propylene splitter achieved the top propylene
specifications of 99.66 mol% as compared to the design
specification of minimum 99.5 mol%, and the bottom
propylene was less than design, achieving a high overall
tray efficiency of 100%.
All of these propylene fractionators success stories are
summarised in Table 1.

Conclusion
Large propylene splitters with high liquid loads have been
designed with a variety of tray designs, ranging from
4-pass and 6-pass high-performance trays, to
multi-downcomer trays.
This article has discussed the selection of a number of
passes and how the features of VGPlus high-performance
Figure 6. Shell HiFi Plus trays with MVG valves. trays, such as high-capacity MVG and MMVG fixed valves
and enhanced ModArc downcomers, can deliver high
vapour and liquid
handling capacity as
Table 1. Summary of Sulzer propylene fractionators well as enhanced
separation
Case study New/revamp Column Column dia. (m) Tray type Overall tray
performance. As
efficiency (%)
evidenced by the five
1 New C3 rectifier 8.8 6-pass MMVG 95
case studies, optimised
C3 stripper 6.3 4-pass MVG design of high-capacity
2 New Tower 1 7.8 6-pass VGPlus 100 trays is crucial to
Tower 2 8.2 6-pass VGPlus achieving superior
3 Revamp C3 rectifier 7.8 4-pass VGPlus 95 performance of these
super-fractionators.
C3 splitter 6.6 4-pass VGPlus
4 Revamp Upper column 8.0 4-pass VGPlus 95
Reference
Lower column 8.0 4-pass VGPlus 1. ANG, CP., and PILLING, M.,
‘Tray design for high
5 New C3 rectifier 6.9 Shell HiFi Plus trays 100 liquid load applications’,
Digital Refining,
C3 stripper 5.2 Shell HiFi Plus trays
(July 2014).

March 2023 56 HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING
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Jim Lines, Graham Corp., USA, lists the VDU ejector system
field lessons learned by a performance improvement
engineer, through the lens of four specific case studies.

R
eliable vacuum distillation unit (VDU) performance rests on a number of
variables and equipment that support the distillation process. Proper
ejector system performance is vital to successful operation of the VDU,
and for a refiner to achieve economic goals. For decades, ejector systems
have been the mainstay for evacuating vacuum column overhead vapours and
ensuring that desired column pressure is maintained. Much has been written about
ejector systems – how they operate, what variables impact performance, how to
troubleshoot performance, and best practices. This article discusses recent ejector
system performance issues that a refiner experienced, how the root cause was
diagnosed, and the steps taken to achieve required performance.
Actual VDU process operation is often different from the original design,
especially over two or three decades of service. Process simulations,
request for purchase (RFP) design data sheets, crude slate characteristics, utility supply
conditions, and extent of fouling over time, as examples, all may be different in
operation than was originally designed. The lessons learned from the four case studies

HYDROCARBON 59 March 2023

ENGINEERING
 outlined in this article are not unusual as they cover fouling,
overhead loading composition, replacement parts that are not
from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), and
mechanical failure. Fouling is common in a process such as crude
oil vacuum distillation, be it shell side or tube side fouling.
Overhead load variation from design is typical with changing
crude slate or as refiners strive to push for more yield or
throughput. For expediency or cost, local fabricated equipment
suppliers may provide replacement equipment rather than the
OEM. Mechanical issues can arise with ejectors or condensers
over the life of this equipment, which is typically 30+ years. Each
can create ejector system performance shortfall, with significant
economic consequences for a refiner.
The cases that will be covered are from the many sites
visited and performance assessments conducted by ejector
system performance improvement engineers. The author wishes
to acknowledge that these case studies are from Graham
performance improvement engineer reports where detailed
notes, observations and customer exchange were documented.
No two performance issues may be exactly alike and it is best to
consult with specialists in ejector system design, construction,
integration into process units, and troubleshooting. Failure to do
so may extend the search for root cause or lead to corrective
action that may not resolve a particular performance
shortcoming. The original equipment supplier is typically the
best choice for diagnosing what is causing a performance
shortcoming with equipment. If the cause is upstream of the
ejector system, then it makes sense to bring in other
stakeholders, such as a process licensor or process
troubleshooting specialist, to complement the ejector OEM.
Case study 1: intercondenser excessive
fouling
A refiner observed deteriorating vacuum column pressure
between turnarounds (see Figure 1). Shortly following initial
commercial operation, a benchmarking pressure and
temperature survey was conducted. Column pressure was 1 torr
above design, however this was acceptable given that the charge
rate was higher than design. Performance throughout the system
appeared satisfactory, with cracked gases below design level
Figure 1. Case study 1: pressure and temperature survey.
March 2023 60 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
given the operating pressure of the second and third stage
ejectors. Both the second and third stage ejectors were
operating at pressures below design values, while cooling water
temperature was essentially at the design inlet temperature,
indicating low cracked gas level and low air leakage.
As time progressed, pressure of the vacuum column
overhead increased to above 20 torr, and the first stage ejectors
broke performance. This increased vacuum tower residium and
lowered gas oil yield, causing economic loss for the refiner.
Fouling was suspected, however this could not be completely
confirmed without inspecting the tube bundles. An engineer
was dispatched to the site to conduct a pressure and
temperature survey ahead of the shutdown, and they remained
onsite to inspect the tube bundles once they were removed
from the shells. Tube side fouling was expected due to pressure
drop, as the first intercondenser on the tube side was
approximately three times design. Figure 1 illustrates the design
pressure and temperatures, along with those from the
benchmarking and last survey before shutdown.
From the benchmarking survey (red) nothing stood out as a
problem. It is observed that the first intercondenser had an
elevated shell side pressure drop. That does not necessarily
suggest a problem. The system is operating with fewer
non-condensible gases than design, as evidenced by the lower
pressure for both the second and third stage ejector. What
occurs in such a circumstance is the ejector downstream of a
condenser that will set the condenser’s outlet temperature,
outlet pressure, or both in order to match that ejector’s mass
flow handling capacity. It is referred to as ‘over venting’. The
ejector pulls more mass flow rate from the condenser than if the
condenser could independently establish its thermal equilibrium.
When this is occurring and the ejector system has parallel
ejectors in operation, one can observe that the pressure drop is
reduced in the preceding intercondenser and vapour outlet
temperature may lower, when taking one of the ejectors offline.
Note: this should only be done if over venting is appreciable,
suggesting one of the ejectors may be shut down.
The survey just ahead of the shutdown (purple) highlights a
problem at the first intercondenser. Tube side pressure drop is
up significantly, and shell pressure and vapour outlet temperature
are elevated compared
to the benchmarking
survey. It was believed
that fouling was the
issue. The tube bundle
was pulled for inspection
and cleaning, and
extensive fouling
build-up was evident on
the shell side of the first
intercondenser. The
cooling water inlet side
of the tubesheet had
substantial debris and
tube hole blockage. As a
result, operating pressure
for the first
intercondenser rose to
112 mm HgA. This was
well above the

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 maximum discharge capability of the first stage ejector
and, consequently, performance broke down, resulting in
vacuum column pressure increasing to an undesirable level.
When thermal efficiency declines due to fouling, a
condenser will respond by increasing its operating pressure.
This in turn increases log mean temperature difference (LMTD)
to compensate for a lower overall heat transfer rate
(Uobserved < Udesign). Tube hole blockage may render a
portion of the surface area unutilised. Hereto, condenser
operating pressure will rise. It must be understood that a
condenser downstream of an ejector will reject the exhaust
duty of the ejector. What is important is the pressure at which
that occurs. If it is below the maximum discharge capability of
the preceding ejector, then there should not be a problem.
However, if above, then the ejector may break operation and
dissipate its compression shockwave.
Case study 2: excessive hydrocarbon flow
A refiner was unable to achieve VDU column pressure from the
commencement of commercial operation. Design column
overhead pressure was 10 mm Hg abs. For most of the year, the
overhead pressure was in the 12 – 15 mm Hg abs range. In the
summer months, when cooling tower water was warmest,
pressure would jump higher, to 20 torr or greater. The refiner was
losing approximately US$10 million/yr in lost yield, due to
increased vacuum tower bottoms.
There were a number of site visits by an engineer to perform
pressure and temperature surveys of the ejector system (see
Figure 2). A pressure and temperature survey of the ejector
system in operation identified that the exhaust temperature for
the first stage ejector was well below what is expected.
Measured exhaust temperature was 190˚F, but was expected to
be above 300˚F. There are two possibilities for the low exhaust
temperature: poor quality motive steam supply conditions (wet
steam), or liquid in the VDU overhead load. Steam supply
conditions proved to be perfectly fine, with steam to the
ejectors dry and superheated. This left two-phase VDU
overhead as a possibility. The engineer requested trend
Figure 2. Case study 2: pressure and temperature survey.
March 2023 62 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
information on the slop oil from the three-phase separator in
order to understand mass flow rate and composition of the
hydrocarbon carried over from the vacuum column.
Hydrocarbon loading was confirmed to be excessive – three
times the design level. Additionally, it was much heavier (higher
MW and higher normal boiling point composition). The
hydrocarbon in the overhead had a composition more weighted
toward kerosene/diesel cut point material.
A rough estimate of vapour-liquid equilibrium indicated that
at 12 – 15 torr and 150˚F, the hydrocarbon in the overhead load
would consist of 8500 pph liquid mist droplets, and 5500 pph
vapour.
The engineer and refiner discussed what might be causing
such unusual levels of overhead hydrocarbon load, and why it is
two-phase flow. The refiner advised that the tower top reflux
spray distributor was allowing a lot of liquid entrainment in the
overhead load. The engineer discussed their concerns, which
were two-fold. Liquid droplets in the overhead load would
negatively impact ejector performance; and the excess
hydrocarbon and the fact that it enters the condenser as a
two-phase flow would suppress the overall heat transfer rate
within the condenser.
There are two adverse consequences from excess
two-phase hydrocarbon loading in the overhead. One is that the
first stage ejector maximum discharge pressure capability is
reduced. Steam ejectors are momentum transfer devices,
transferring momentum from high-velocity steam to entrain and
accelerate vapours/gases. The presence of liquid droplets or mist
diminishes the momentum transferred to gases due to the
density of liquids being so much greater than that of gases.
The second is that the first intercondenser overall heat
transfer rate will become suppressed due to the presence of
much greater mass flow rate of hydrocarbon that initially wets
the tubing at a much hotter temperature.
In this case, 8500 pph of entrained liquid in the overhead
reduced the maximum discharge capability of the first stage
ejector 4 to 5 torr. Additionally, the first intercondenser operated
with a reduced overall heat transfer rate due to the excess
hydrocarbon. The design
outlet temperature was
95˚F, yielding 3400 pph
of steam equivalent load
to the second stage
ejector. Due to excess
hydrocarbon, the
condenser was thermally
limited, only able to cool
and condense down to
100 – 101˚F. This resulted
in the steam equivalent
load to the second stage
ejector increasing
approximately 35% to
4500 pph. To reject the
necessary heat and
match the capacity of
the second stage
ejector, first
intercondenser
operating pressure
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 rose 3 to 4 torr, thereby increasing LMTD to compensate for a
lower overall heat transfer rate. As a result, the first stage ejector
operated in a broken condition during the summer months.
The refiner understood the issues at that point. Next came
how to resolve the poor performance problem to achieve
design capacity and yield from the VDU. Both the engineer and
refiner felt that it was necessary to address the excessive
hydrocarbon two-phase flow in the overhead. This would be
addressed by adding a trough distributor into the vacuum
column during an upcoming shutdown in order to reduce liquid
entrainment.
The refiner then asked whether it was possible to provide
greater summertime flexibility and ensure no breakdowns during
operation, and jump up into the 20 – 25 mm Hg range. The
engineer felt that eliminating the excessive hydrocarbon loading
along with droplets would be enough. However, the ejector
motive steam nozzles could be replaced. Using the same motive
steam consumption and the installed first stage ejectors, the
new motive steam nozzles would have 5 mm Hg greater
discharge capability – 80 mm Hg in lieu of current 75 mm Hg.
Providing this added discharge capability would safeguard against
performance break for up to 2.5 – 3˚F increase in water
temperature above the design basis. However, the trade-off was
1.5 – 2 mm Hg increase vacuum column overhead pressure. The
refiner went in that direction, willing to trade off 1.5 – 2 mm Hg in
operating pressure to avoid 15 mm Hg higher tower pressure in
the summer months.
The revamp added a trough distributor and the new steam
nozzle for the first stage ejectors. Vacuum column overhead
pressure after the revamp was 7 – 10 mm Hg, and slop oil rates
confirmed hydrocarbon overhead load was closer to the
4000 pph design basis. The refiner realised anticipated economic
gains from the revamp, and did not have summertime
performance breakdown. In circling back to the refiner, it was
confirmed that performance of the VDU was on-spec and there
had not been a summertime performance break since the revamp.
Case study 3: non-OEM replacement
equipment
A refiner had a vacuum distillation ejector system that was
originally supplied in 1980 but that had its first intercondenser
Figure 3. Case study 3: pressure and temperature survey.
March 2023 64 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
removable bundle replaced in the late 2000s (see Figure 3). The
bundle was designed, built and supplied to the refiner by a local
shell and tube company rather than the OEM. The company did
not have the OEM fabrication details for an in-kind replacement.
After installing the new bundle, the refiner was unable to achieve
required vacuum column operating pressure. Vacuum column
overhead pressure was more than twice the expected operating
pressure, holding 24 torr at the overhead at 50% of charge rate vs
a design of 10 torr at full charge rate. The economic impact on
the refiner was untenable.
The refiner returned to the ejector system OEM for
assistance. A performance improvement engineer was
dispatched, and a partial system pressure and temperature
survey was completed for a quick assessment of how the system
was performing. The first intercondenser was operating above its
design operating pressure, even though the refiner was running it
at about 50% charge rate. Motive steam supply condition was
good; the first intercondenser performance did not hint at
fouling or cooling water supply issues.
A thermographic scan of the first intercondenser was carried
out. It was clear that there was maldistribution that lead to poor
performance, as it appeared that flow was compartmentalised
with certain cross passes unable to vent non-condensible gases.
The engineer requested the replacement bundle drawings or
any pictures of it before they were installed. The drawings
indicated that while a longitudinal baffle was included, as was
true for the original design, the baffling was actually full tube
supports. This resulted in compartmentalising flow. Each
cross flow section of the bundle – the space between full tube
supports – trapped gases and uncondensed vapour, as they were
unable to pass longitudinally to the condenser vapour outlet
connection, rendering a large percentage of the effective surface
area unusable.
The shell and tube supplier, unfamiliar with vacuum
condenser design, built the bundle like a complete condenser
without noncondensible gases, assuming 100% of the flow
would condense. That is never the case for ejector system
condensers operating in VDU service or simply operating under
vacuum. There was no way to make the existing new bundles
work aside from adding a vapour outlet connection for each
cross flow compartment, which was not practical. On an
emergency basis, the
refiner ordered a
replacement bundle
from the OEM, built to
the original design.
Performance
returned to satisfactory
condition upon installing
a correctly-built first
intercondenser bundle.
It was a costly
undertaking for the
refiner to replace
recently-purchased tube
bundles, and the process
incurred lost revenue
from an unscheduled
shutdown between
turnarounds.
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 Case study 4: mechanical damage Conclusion
A refiner was experiencing poor vacuum column performance An ejector system does provide reliable performance and enable
and had noted differences in the thermal scan imagery between refiners to achieve the established operating objectives for
parallel 50% precondensers. The imaging suggested that there VDUs. As with any process equipment, performance limitations
was some type of flow maldistribution negatively impacting one or shortcomings can arise. Having trend data for the ejector
precondenser (see Figure 4). Flow maldistribution led to poor system, as well as system performance surveys that collect
condensation and heat rejection by the precondenser, ultimately relevant pressures, temperatures and flow rates, is always helpful.
increasing vacuum column pressure. It is best to not jump to conclusions or take corrective action
It was not necessary to conduct a performance survey. It hastily, but rather to conduct a methodical performance
was evident that there was a mechanical issue with one of the evaluation and outline potential root causes, working through
precondensers; most likely there was failure at the seal strips, the analysis with the ejector system OEM and process licensor
which aid in blocking flow from entering a particular section of when appropriate. Ejector system suppliers with staff dedicated
the tube bundle and directing flow into the primary condensing to field performance assessment and improvement have a
section. wealth of experience that can be brought to bear for a unique
The engineer requested that the bundle be pulled from the performance shortcoming. Additionally, suppliers with R&D and
poorly-performing precondenser. It was confirmed that the Production Test Facilities will have thousands of data sets for
sealing strips had failed, and this permitted short circuiting of the
how ejectors respond to various operating conditions.
vapour flow bypassing the primary condensing section of the It is always beneficial to have a benchmarking performance
bundle and flowing directly to the vapour outlet connection survey during summer months. This is when an ejector system
(see Figure 5). is usually operating under the most extreme conditions, when
Sealing strips can become damaged during bundle insertion cooling water is warmest. From a planning perspective, carrying
or pulling, and due to corrosion or erosion. In this case, the brass
out a performance survey approximately 18 – 24 months
sealing strips experienced corrosion or erosion damage where before a planned shutdown/turnaround is also a good idea. If
the vacuum column overhead vapours entered the large maintenance CAPEX is needed, this planning will permit
precondenser at 300 ft/sec. To provide operational reliability, the
ample time to identify opportunity for performance
bundles were replaced with a design that did not require seal improvement and to fabricate required replacement or
strips. An alternative consideration was to replace the tube upgraded equipment.
bundles with duplex tubing, bundle cage and sealing strips. Bringing ejector system suppliers into troubleshooting early
However, the refiner elected to utilise a TEMA ‘E’ vs an ‘X’ shell
can quickly help a VDU to perform well. Bringing together three
configuration. key stakeholders to discuss the performance issue is also
valuable. It is not
uncommon that the
views and
interpretation of the
observations or root
cause will vary.
Sometimes this is
because data and
background may
unwittingly not be fully
provided by
stakeholders. Through
healthy and open
dialogue among the
Figure 4. Thermographic image of properly and improperly performing parallel vacuum
precondensers. stakeholders, a deeper
understanding evolves,
resulting in consensus
for root cause and
remedy. All three
stakeholders have the
same objective: enable
the refiner to achieve
operating and
economic objectives.
When all three come to
the troubleshooting
table with refiner needs,
ahead of self interest,
Figure 5. Failed sealing strips (left), proper flow pattern (middle), and improper flow (right). the best outcome for
the refiner is found.

March 2023 66 HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING
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 Nathan Hill, CALGAVIN, UK,
discusses how to increase
product retention through
retrofitting condensers.
T
he processing and refining industries commonly use
tube-side condensers when driven by requirements
such as low inventories, use of expensive pressure- or
corrosion-resistant materials, or as a necessity in
air-cooled heat exchangers.
When condensing single-component vapours, heat transfer
coefficients tend to be high. The situation changes when
condensing multi-component mixtures. Under such conditions,
the performance of condensers is often controlled by the
additional limitations of vapour cooling and mass transport
between the liquid and vapour phases, particularly when
designing for low vapour velocities.
It is possible to improve several aspects of the tube-side
condensation process. The flow regime can be significantly
altered, allowing for potential benefits to heat and mass transfer.
This article will use an industrial case study as an example of
how to ascertain which variables are important to consider in
order to determine whether it would be beneficial to install
tube-side enhancement technology.
Condensers: an introduction
Condensers are an important piece of equipment for the
chemical processing and refining industries. They are a necessary
component of many processes, i.e. overhead condensers for
distillation columns, and as separators of volatile and
condensable products. They are also a key feature of HVAC-R
systems.
There are different options for the design of shell-and-tube
condensers in particular, with condensation possible on the
shell-side or tube-side, and in vertical or horizontal
arrangements. When the condensing fluid is allocated to the
tube-side, the presence of two-phase flow introduces
complexities in the thermal design. An incremental calculation is
needed, and it becomes necessary to consider how different
flow regimes will affect the heat and mass transfer within the
tubes. This can make the creation of an efficient and reliable
design more difficult.
The application of tube-side enhancement devices can
provide significant benefits in many applications.
HYDROCARBON 69 March 2023
ENGINEERING

Figure 1. A hiTRAN wire matrix element.
Figure 2. Temperature profile across a vapour-liquid
interface.
CALGAVIN’s hiTRAN® Thermal Systems technology is a form
of a removable wire matrix-type enhancement device,
consisting of a pattern of wire loops supported by a central
core wire (see Figure 1). In general, it increases the single-phase
convective heat transfer coefficients, helping to accelerate the
rate of vapour cooling. Also important in multi-component
condensation, the device improves mass transfer and disrupts
the interface between the two phases. This can ensure that
condensable vapour is continually transferred toward the cold
tube wall, and that the liquid is redirected into the bulk flow.
Pure component condensation
It is useful to first consider the simplest case of pure
component condensation – where there is only a single
substance present within the tubes – and how the
characteristics affect heat transfer.
In pure component condensation, there is no change in the
concentration of the condensing substance throughout the
tube. As such, there is no mass transfer resistance preventing
the vapour from reaching the cold liquid interface. Meanwhile,
the bulk temperature is uniform and equal to the saturation
temperature at the corresponding vapour pressure.
As the vapour condenses, a layer of liquid forms on the
tube wall (see Figure 2). The thermal conductivity of the liquid
film causes additional thermal resistance, reducing the rate of
heat transfer from the condensing vapour. The thermal
resistance through the liquid condensate often dominates.
Only at near-complete condensation, where the vapour
velocities are much slower, does the convective heat transfer
of the vapour become a significant factor.
Because the thermal conductivity is an intrinsic property of
the liquid, applying hiTRAN in pure component condensation
tends to have a minimal effect on the heat transfer rate. The
increase in pressure drop also tends to decrease the saturation
temperature, therefore reducing the effective temperature
difference, which often offsets any heat transfer increase. An
overall benefit may be realised towards the end of the
condensation process, where the flow velocities are lower, by
enhancing the convective heat transfer.

Multi-component condensation
When condensing mixtures containing multiple – or
non-condensable – components, the process can change
fundamentally. Firstly, the vapour temperature is not constant
along the condensing path. As each component condenses,
the mole fraction and partial pressure of the less volatile
components in the vapour reduce, and this in turn decreases
the associated saturation temperature. This introduces a
Figure 3. Temperature profile across a vapour-liquid requirement for sensible cooling of the vapour, in addition to
interface with inert components. the removal of the latent heat, in order to advance the
condensation process.
The second major difference vs single-component
Table 1. Geometry of the heat exchanger for case condensation is that the concentration of the different
study components is not necessarily uniform over the cross-section
TEMA type AEM of the tube. The less volatile components condense close to
Orientation Vertical the cold liquid film, depleting the region of condensable
Number of tubes 76 molecules (see Figure 3). Due to the change in concentration,
the local saturation temperature decreases and reduces the
Tube length 3.677 m
temperature difference across the vapour-liquid interface.
Tube diameter 19.05 mm Furthermore, the concentration gradient also creates a mass

March 2023 70 HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING
 transfer resistance, preventing condensable components from
reaching the liquid film.
Both of these effects can substantially affect the heat flux,
particularly towards the end of the condensation path where
the lower vapour velocities lead to lower vapour phase heat
transfer coefficients. It is in under these conditions that the use
of hiTRAN can offer the greatest benefit. Enhancement of the
single-phase heat transfer coefficients aids cooling of the
vapour, and the induced turbulence improves mixing of the
different components. Furthermore, the lower velocities in this
region bring about a lower pressure drop penalty and less
effect on the condensing temperature. Due to the effect of
momentum recovery, it is sometimes the case that the
pressure drop penalty with hiTRAN will be lower, compared to
an empty tube.
Case study
CALGAVIN was contacted by a customer to evaluate the
potential for correcting the observed under-performance of a
vent gas recovery condenser. The condenser was part of a
refrigeration system that utilised a mixture containing liquid
polypropylene as the refrigerant. It was a crucial component to
recovering the polypropylene from a waste stream, as this
stream would otherwise continue onto a flare header, resulting
in the irrecoverable loss of the product. The objective was to
reduce the mass fraction of polypropylene in the vapour by
increasing the degree of condensation.
Tables 1 and 2 show the key geometry information and
process conditions of the heat exchanger in question. The first
important observation is that the heat transfer coefficient of
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the condensing product on the tube-side was much lower
than that of the evaporating feed stream on the shell-side.
Hence, the overall heat transfer coefficient was more strongly
controlled by the tube-side, which meant that applying
enhancement to the tube-side would likely have a significant
effect overall.
Focusing on the tube-side heat transfer performance, a
plot of the cumulative duty against temperature and vapour
fraction highlighted the areas of concern (see Figure 4).
Throughout the full length of this condenser, the vapour
temperature decreases rapidly as the condensation proceeds,
indicating a significant requirement for vapour cooling. In total,
more than 40°C of sensible cooling was required simply to
maintain the vapour mixture at the condensing temperature, in
addition to the latent heat removal. Under these conditions,
the vapour phase heat transfer was controlling thermal
resistance.
Owing to the nature of the mechanical design of the
exchanger, which was made in three sections that were then
fixed together to form the body of the whole heat exchanger,
a full-length installation of hiTRAN elements was not possible.
Using the thermal design model that CALGAVIN had created, it
was established that the section of the interchanger where the
most significant duty took place was the bottom third. As
such, the hiTRAN elements were designed to fit only the
bottom section of the exchanger in order to provide the
maximum level of enhancement within these limitations.
After start-up, the measured plant data was able to
confirm the predicted increase in performance. The outlet
temperature of the condenser decreased from 10°C to -23°C
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 with the hiTRAN elements installed. The mass fraction of
Table 2. Process conditions of the heat exchanger
for case study polypropylene of the outlet stream correspondingly reduced
from 25% to 6%. The reduction in mass fraction was equivalent
Shell-side Tube-side
to a quantity of 476 tpy of the polypropylene at the design
Fluid Feed stream Waste stream flow rate. This led to a substantial improvement in operating
Mass flow (kg/hr) 412 843 costs of the process, as more product was able to be
Temperature in/out (˚C) -38 -21 27 -23 recovered, and less vapour flared off.
Economic evaluations carried out by site engineers
Vapour fraction in/out 0.1 1 0.74 0.41
concluded that the propylene savings made from this
Inlet pressure (bar) 1.55 40.3 installation had a payback period for the project of less than
Heat transfer 1000 160 one month, which exceeded initial expectations.
coefficient (Wm2-K)
Conclusion
Through in-house experimental data and customer feedback,
CALGAVIN has seen that the performance of hiTRAN can be
modelled reliably in condensing processes. Through modelling
and analysis, cases where there is a potential for enhancement
can be identified. While there is limited potential in pure
component and shear-controlled conditions, there are much
greater benefits in multi-component applications involving
gravity-controlled flow. The installation of hiTRAN can also be
targeted specifically in areas of the tubes where there is the
greatest benefit overall.
This article has demonstrated the benefits that
enhancement technology can offer to improve the
performance of existing condensers. The use of such
Figure 4. Integral condensing curve and vapour technology is not restricted to retrofitting existing equipment;
fraction along the condensing path. it may also be utilised in new designs to reduce the size of a
condenser and alleviate uncertainties in the calculations.

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P
rocessing and refining hydrocarbons ultimately
requires the use of high heat for a number of critical
steps, and heaters based on fossil fuels have
traditionally filled those roles. But with mounting
pressure to mitigate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and
advance long-term decarbonisation goals, engineers have been
exploring the potential for electric process heaters. This would
allow several heating steps to be completed using clean
electricity from renewable sources.
Importantly, replacing fossil fuel heaters with electric
heaters would allow for a reduction in Scope 1 CO2 emissions.
Scope 1 emissions are the direct result of burning fuels such as
natural gas or fuel oil for process heating. Scope 2 emissions
result from the need to import energy, while Scope 3 emissions
are produced while using a product (e.g. emissions from car and
truck tailpipe emissions). All three types of emissions must be
reduced in order to hit decarbonisation targets.
Dennis Long, Watlow,
USA, explains the role
that electric process
heaters will have to play
in the decarbonisation of
hydrocarbon processing.
What is holding back Scope 1 emission
reduction?
An informal survey of Watlow® customers and prospects has
revealed that 90% of oil and gas leaders are already actively
engaged in decarbonisation efforts. Hydrocarbon processors
are no longer focused on whether they should decarbonise,
but rather on how they will decarbonise.
The question is: why are electric process heaters not
more ubiquitous in the energy sector today? Surprisingly,
familiarity might be the main reason. Until now, such heaters
have only played very limited roles in hydrocarbon processing
and have tended to be smaller, operating at lower voltages.
Although larger heaters are easily imaginable, engineers
recognise that a number of questions then arise when it
comes to their control and maintenance. In short, no one
wants to be first when it comes to running larger
medium-voltage thermal systems.
HYDROCARBON 73 March 2023
ENGINEERING
 What engineers might not know is that medium-voltage
process heaters have been developed and used, and their
operation is already well understood. Implementing such
heaters simply requires having the right technical experience,
and this is experience that is made possible by contracting with
the right partners.
The good news for industry is that modern electric heaters
can provide the same – or improved – performance that
hydrocarbon engineers have come to expect from
fossil fuel-powered heaters, and thus can play a key role in
decarbonisation efforts.
Rethinking the size and scope of
electric heaters
To even consider replacing fossil fuel-burning heaters, there
needs to be a clear understanding of the current capabilities of
electric process heaters. Replacement does not make sense to
begin with if electric heaters do not come with the required
size and power needed to heat processes that currently
Figure 1. An electric heat exchanger.
Figure 2. The POWERSAFE solution.
March 2023 74 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
depend on fossil fuels. Many of those processes would require
larger electric heaters well above the well-known 1 MW variety,
for example:
nn Feed/product exchanger, 2 MW (or larger).
nn Dehydration inlet preheater, 3 MW (or larger).
nn Heater treater, 4 MW (or larger).
nn Molecular sieve regenerator, 6 MW (or larger).
nn Waste gas heater, 6 MW (or larger).
nn Once-through steam generator, 20 MW (or larger).
nn Crude heater, 28 – 200 MW (or larger).
nn Hot oil heater, 32 MW (or larger).
nn LNG vaporiser, 34 MW (or larger).
nn Thermal oxidiser, 54 MW (or larger).
nn Hot water heater, 56 MW (or larger).
nn FCC heaters, 150 – 200 MW (or larger).
Fortunately, heaters that can handle these power
requirements do exist. In terms of physical size, 60 in. nominal
pipe size (NPS) tubesheets are highly attainable. Nothing
prevents even greater sizes; the technology exists to produce
electric heat exchangers of physical size comparable to a shell
and tube heat exchanger. An electric heat exchanger of the
same physical size (as a shell and tube) will have a larger
available heating duty, due to the constant heat flux
technology.
With equipment of this size, a single vessel can have two
heat exchanger bundles. Such a set-up can produce a single
process vessel with a 15 MW duty rating or more. The few
suppliers providing electric heaters at this scale can raise or
lower the duty rating as technical requirements dictate. This
kind of size and power presents a viable alternative for
operations currently fired by fossil fuels.
What about control?
Some of the most common questions about larger process
heaters have to do with control:
nn What additional elements are needed to ramp up the
heater?
nn How does turn-on/ramp-up affect the existing electrical
system?
nn How is temperature monitored and controlled?
nn What additional safety precautions are needed?
Just because larger electric heaters have not traditionally
been used to heat all processes in the petrochemical industry
does not mean that the technology is theoretical or untested
– far from it. Field-proven power switching devices have been
in use for low-voltage electric process heaters and electric
medium-voltage motors in a number of industries for years,
and the ability to control voltage is well established.
Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and similar power
management systems bring heaters online in ways that do not
cause problems for other devices connected to the same
power source. The heater and controller are part of one
closed-loop system, which streamlines integration and yields
more control over the entire system. This technology’s tried
and true nature in other applications reduces the risk for
petrochemical process heating.
Watlow’s engineers have built such controls into the
company’s POWERSAFETM solution. This is a medium-voltage
 10-13 JULY
10-13 JULY
 heating and control solution that combines both an electric
heat exchanger and a control system. The system has been
proven to operate safely and reliably even at 4160 V and higher.
It also offers a flexible combination of a silcone controlled
rectifier (SCR) and contactor circuits of up to 25 MW within a
single control package, delivering high-efficiency power greater
than 99%, which reduces the overall size and weight of the
power controller solution. Medium-voltage connections result
in much lower amperage as compared to low-voltage, so the
end user realises much lower connection cabling costs.
The system meets strict requirements for safety and
reliability, too. It has been designed with a high-speed
protective relay, rapid shutdown breaker, optimal fluid
dynamics, and safety interlocks to maintain control over a wide
variety of thermal processes. Thus, control and safety are built
into the technology, offering a clean, safe and long-lasting
asset for engineers tasked with decarbonising thermal systems.
The other consideration: investment
and cost
While familiarity might be the biggest barrier to implementing
electric heaters into hydrocarbon processing, one cannot ignore
the fact that cost is also a huge consideration. There are three
primary types of expenses to consider when transitioning to
electric-powered equipment: CAPEX, OPEX, and human learning
expenditures.
CAPEX to change equipment
The equipment itself is the first significant cost associated with
electrification. Beyond the cost of new equipment, there is also
the cost of integrating electric process heaters into the existing
electrical grid and ensuring their smooth operation, including
technology to store electricity that comes from renewable
sources as well as control technology to ensure that the local
grid is not stressed or overloaded.
Figure 3. The HELIMAX solution. Top: CHF technology.
Bottom: fully-developed flow pattern.
March 2023 76 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
OPEX
OPEX includes things such as routine maintenance, as well as the
cost of electricity itself. The routine maintenance cost of electric
heating systems is typically lower than a natural gas or
similarly-fired system. Electrical systems have no burner to
maintain, and the heat exchanger bundle cleaning schedule is
typically the same as a non-electric shell and tube technology.
As for electricity, costs will vary by region if electricity is bought
from the existing grid. That said, the cost of renewable
generation systems themselves has dropped dramatically since
2010, and continues to fall. Many organisations may well choose
to generate their own renewable power anyway.
Human capital and the learning curve
Finally, there is the question of human capital and the
availability of relevant engineering expertise. Manufacturing
processes with fossil fuels are ubiquitous; as is the equipment
that runs said processes. Additionally, while most companies
will have electrical engineers or staff familiar with large
electrical equipment such as motors, not all will have extensive
field experience with electric process heaters. This means
something of a learning curve, though that learning curve is
much easier when an organisation can team up with a
knowledgeable partner.
Electrification is even more
worthwhile now
The discussion of costs might trigger some decision makers to
get their spreadsheets out. If there is going to be significant
CAPEX, not to mention operating costs and human capital costs,
when can operators begin to see a return on investment (ROI)?
What is the break-even point?
Of course, every organisation will have to factor in their own
local regulations and incentives, and so the mathematics might
look different in each instance. However, the pressure to reduce
emissions leaves little doubt that the pace of electrification will
only intensify.
There are other benefits of electrification to consider, too,
as well as new developments in the technology. Today,
processors are in an even better place when it comes to efficient
electric heaters for hydrocarbon processing than, say, five years
ago.
Additional advantages of electrification
Besides reducing the use of fossil fuels, electric heaters and
heat exchangers have other well-documented advantages,
including the following:
nn Less thermal lag: temperature is controlled through direct
application of electricity.
nn Safer operation: no fossil fuels to burn or combust.
nn Less coking/fouling: with the right electric heater,
coking/fouling becomes a thing of the past, meaning longer
heater life.
nn Increased watt densities: higher watt density ratings allow
equipment to be designed smaller, thus lowering capital
equipment costs, keeping costs down, and reducing the
overall footprint – while meeting temperature requirements.
nn Smaller overall footprint: constant heat flux capability results
in a smaller footprint as compared to the non-constant heat
flux in shell and tube heat exchangers.
 Different technologies
An example of a heater that achieves all of the above is Watlow’s
HELIMAXTM, which uses Continuous Helical Flow (CHF)
TechnologyTM. With CHF, the baffles within the heater do not
exist as discrete elements, but rather as a single continuous spiral
winding around the interior of the shell side of the heater. This
further forces the flow to be rotational and helical, resulting in an
even better heat transfer coefficient per unit pressure drop
compared with more traditional segmental baffles.
Because the flow is continuous and uniform, the heater does
not experience dead zones or areas with insufficient flow. There
are no disruptions to flow either, and so there is dramatically less
likelihood that hot spots can develop. Without hot spots or
dead zones where material can collect and adhere, there is
potential for greatly reduced fouling rates. The improved heat
transfer compared to legacy technologies also means that these
heaters have a much smaller footprint, thus allowing the process
machinery to make a much more efficient use of space.
A single, removable HELIMAX bundle can supply up to
5 MW of power duty range, even with a smaller footprint than
fuel-based heat exchangers. Combining this efficiency with the
reduced need for maintenance to address coking creates a
product that increases productivity even as it contributes to
decarbonisation efforts. This heat exchanger can also last longer
and avoid system failure because it is not as susceptible to
fouling.
Finally, modern heaters such as HELIMAX have been proven
to achieve higher watt density ratings. Note: watt density is the
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heat flux emanating from the effective heater surface, while a
heater’s watt density rating is used in thermal calculations to
determine approximate heater skin temperatures in the
application. Smaller heater package designs using higher watt
densities will always meet critical specifications for sheath
temperature, shell temperature, and other customer
constraints – while also reducing overall footprint.
Conclusion
Now is a good time for engineers who are not already familiar
with electric process heating systems and heat exchangers to
introduce themselves to new technologies. Gaining familiarity
with electric process heating systems now will reduce the
burden of the energy transition later.
Specifically, engineers are realising two things. First, there
are far more opportunities to use electric process heating
systems – and with far fewer size constraints – than previously
imagined. Second, control of these MW-size heating systems is
demonstrated in field applications, with precise control of
process and skin temperatures.
Companies such as Watlow are solving the world’s most
challenging and essential thermal problems. The work includes
breaking down the barriers to energy transition to provide
clean, efficient and reliable ways to electrify processes
traditionally heated with fossil fuels. Working with a reliable
partner to electrify process heating systems is one of the
surest ways to progress toward climate action goals without
interrupting productivity or profitability.
HYDROCARBON 77 March 2023
ENGINEERING
MAY
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
O P E R AT I N G
CONFERENCE

2023
& T R A D E S H OW

22-24
Houston, TX

Keynote Speakers
CLOSING KEYNOTE
Tuesday, May 23

Daniel Yergin
Global Authority on Energy, Geopolitics and the Business,
Economic and Societal Impacts of the Changing Energy
World; Pulitzer Prize-Winning, Bestselling Author;
Vice Chairman, S&P Global; Chairman, CERAWeek; Director, Council on
Foreign Relations; Trustee, Brookings Institution; Author, The New Map (2020),
The Prize (2011, Pulitzer Prize Winner), The Quest (2011) and The Commanding
Heights (2002); 2020 Energy Writer of the Year.

OPENING KEYNOTE KEYNOTE BREAKFAST

Monday, May 22 Tuesday, May 23

Jason Dorsey Captain Scott Kelly

Leading researcher, advisor and author
focusing on uncovering hidden insights
and new strategies that future-proof
organizations. He has led nearly 100
research studies to separate myth from
truth for leaders.Author, Zconomy:
How Gen Z Will Change the Future of
Business and What to Do About It.
History-making NASA Astronaut;
First to complete a Year-in-Space mission.
A former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, test pilot,
and veteran of four spaceflights, Kelly
commanded the space shuttle ENDEAVOUR
in 2007 and twice commanded the Interna-
tional Space Station. Author, Endurance:
A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery.

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 Tom Gilmartin, Zerosumheater and a consultant for
Quest Integrity, considers the effect of fouling on heater services,
and introduces a new approach for confirming coil cleanliness.
H
eater tube inspection is almost
exclusively looked after by the
inspection team at a facility. Innovative
inspection techniques such as smart
pigging and, most recently, Quest Integrity’s
Advanced Decoking and Cleanliness Verification
(ADCVTM) inspection (Figure 1), offer additional
information that is particularly useful to a
process engineer in order to avoid production
slowdowns or unplanned mechanical cleaning
(pigging) outages.
Even a small amount of fouling in the radiant
section of a vacuum heater adversely affects
nitrogen oxides (NOx), production run times, and
overall performance of the fired heater. What is
sometimes not realised is that even a localised
area of 5 mm of coke left in a coil can have a
significant impact on margin capture. This could
lead to a yearly loss in production of
US$12.6 million, or significantly more. Test results
discussed in this article will demonstrate the
benefit of knowing where fouling (e.g. coke and
scale) has formed in a heater coil, and why being
confident that the coils are cleaned properly
after a decoke or descale is crucial.
The consequences of some strategies that
may be used to alleviate high tube temperatures
caused by fouling will be expanded upon – from
running the furnace inefficiently, to cutting coil
outlet temperature and finally throughput. The
commercial impact of this will be discussed for
these cases. In short, using a more advanced
cleaning method, as compared to convection
mechanical decoking, can provide many benefits.
Example simulations and cases
Using a range of coke thermal conductivities and
thicknesses, a vacuum heater was simulated to
show the effect of coke laydown on heater
tubes, and its impact on heater performance in
terms of fired and process duty and
environmental emissions.
A 27.9 MW process duty vacuum furnace was
used to demonstrate the effect of fouling on the
overall heater performance. The heater coils are
horizontal, with four passes and incremental
tube sizes increasing in size towards the outlet.
The tube material used is 5% chromium (Cr) with
a maximum design temperature of 650˚C. A coil
outlet temperature (COT) of 383˚C was selected,
HYDROCARBON 79 March 2023
ENGINEERING
 as this bridges the temperature range used in vacuum and
crude heaters.
Nine cases were considered:
nn Base case (no internal fouling).
nn 1 mm and 5 mm fouling throughout the entire radiant
section tubes, with coke thermal conductivities of
1.5 and 3 W/mK.
nn Localised fouling with 1 mm and 5 mm coke, again in the
radiant section, with coke thermal conductivities of
1.5 and 3 W/mK.
Fouling thickness was held constant at 1 mm and 5 mm
for widespread and localised fouling, using the
aforementioned coke thermal conductivities. This reflects
the thermal properties of coke, which changes with the
temperature and morphology of the accumulated coke. As a
comparison, the thermal conductivity of 5% Cr is around
40 W/mK at 20˚C.
The process duty was maintained during this exercise,
with the firing rate adjusted to compensate.
The effect of the fouling on key aspects of the fired
heater radiant and convection section performance is shown
in Table 1 for fouling throughout the entire radiant section.
Review of data for heater performance
Environmental – NOx
nn 1.5 W/mK case: 2.4% increase (1 mm fouling) and 12%
increase (5 mm fouling) in the radiant section.
n 3 W/mK case: 1% and 6% increase. The driving
source is the added fire box temperature.

Note that some units may have a fixed

maximum environmental-permitted NOx limit that
may lead to a consequential reduction in firing.

Fired duty increases slightly with

fouling added
Figure 1. Quest Integrity ADCV service. The overall heater efficiency decreases a small
amount with fouling, with a more significant
decrease in radiant section
Table 1. Fouling throughout the radiant section only (no fouling in convection) absorbed duty (0.7 – 3.5%
reduction for the 1.5 W/mK
1.5 W/mK thermal conductivity 3 W/mK thermal conductivity
case and 0.4 – 1.7% for the
No fouling 1 mm Change 5 mm Change 1 mm Change 5 mm Change
3 W/mK case). The reason
(base) thick thick thick thick
for this is less effective
Firing rate (MW) 33.55 33.56 +0.1% 33.7 +0.4% 33.57 +0.1% 33.6 +0.1%
heat pick up in the radiant
Bridge wall 736 746.3 +10.3 789.6 +53.6 741 +5.1 762.3 +26.3 section.
temperature
(BWT) (˚C)
As the radiant
Tube skin 419 463 +44 635 +21 441 +22 530 +111 section fouls, several
temperature (°C) *
things happen:
NOx (ppm) 25 25.6 +2.4% 28.2 +12% 25.3 +1% 26.5 +6% n Efficiency drops. The
Absorbed fire box 74.6 73.9 -0.7% 71.1 -3.5 74.2 -0.4 72.9 -1.7 effective heat pick up
duty (%) in the radiant section
Stack temperature 324.6 325.9 +1.1 330.4 +5.6 326.8 +0.6 327.6 +2.8 decreases. The
(°C) process duty
Total heater fired 82.9 82.9 - 82.6 -0.3 82.9 - 82.7 -0.2 absorbed in the
efficiency (%) radiant section
Note: a constant process duty of 27.9 MW was used for all cases reduces, dropping
*A bulk process temperature of 383°C is calculated at the referenced skin thermocouple location from a base level of

Table 2. Alleviating skin temperatures by running furnace at maximum oxygen

4% oxygen: no fouling 4% oxygen: 5 mm thick, 1.5 W/mK 9.7% oxygen: 5 mm thick, 1.5 W/mK
Firing rate (MW) 33.5 33.7 37.1
BWT (°C) 736 790 768
Skin (383˚C bulk) 419 635 606
NOx (ppm) 25 28.2 34.4
Absorbed fire box (%) 74.6 71.1 62.3
Stack temperature (°C) 324.8 330.4 364.2
Efficiency (%) 82.9 82.6 74.9

March 2023 80 HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING
 74.6% to 71.1% in the most fouled case. As such, an increase
in flue gas temperature to the convection section, as well
as an increase in NOx production, will occur.
nn Tube skin temperatures increase. In the worst case
scenario (1.5 W/mK, 5 mm) there is a significant impact
despite the fouling thickness remaining minor. Tube metal
temperatures increase from 419˚C to 635˚C to achieve the
same COT with a less effective radiant section. This is
close to the tube temperature limits for a 5% Cr tube
(650˚C). This article will go on to discuss why some
end users may use a lower temperature limit of 593˚C.
nn Radiant section fire box temperature is still acceptable
at a maximum case of 789.6˚C. Typically, fired heaters
have a maximum fire box temperature of 850 – 900˚C
in this service, partially to protect the tube hangers, and
also to reduce coking tendency of the feed in the
radiant coil. This limit is important when processing
opportunity feeds, which may be more sensitive to
thermal breakdown. Fouling is driving the radiant section
closer to these limits.
The following is a process engineer’s perspective on
these numbers during routine monitoring:
nn Tube skin temperatures: the largest noticeable change,
but assumes thermocouples are in the correct location.
nn BWT or fire box temperature: the next indicator with a
significant change.
nn Fired duty and heater efficiency: changes too small to
notice.
Hallwood_HE_March_05.pdf 1 15/02/2023 08:50


    
    
Visual inspection and thermography of the fire box can
provide further insights on fouling.
In addition to this, there is severe impact on tube
temperature limits and heater performance. In this service,
tubes are typically 5 – 9% Cr with tube metal temperature
(TMT) limits of usually 650˚C (5% Cr) and 705˚C (9% Cr). In
this simulation, using 5% Cr, API530 gives a limiting design
temperature of 650˚C, however this is for creep properties.
A more commonly used limit is 593˚C to avoid rapid
oxidation of the tube external surface. In this case, if 593˚C
was used instead of 650˚C, a cut back in heater operation
may be required. Options are considered in the next
section.
Options to deal with high tube skin
temperatures
nn Material choice: 9 Cr steel (705˚C limit) would provide
some headroom, but not much.
nn Special operational techniques: used to mitigate and
maintain run time – sometimes they work, sometimes
they do not. Increasing oxygen, cutting COT, and
cutting rate are discussed.
A technique sometimes used to alleviate skin
temperatures is to run the furnace at maximum oxygen in
order to move furnace duty from the radiant to the
convection section. Table 2 lists an example of this.
Skin temperatures have dropped by approximately
30˚C, but at the cost of a significant increase in fired duty.
     
      

 Additional fuel duty and furnace efficiency drop off
significantly. The NOx is likely to go up as well, requiring
correction.
Some critical comments on these
results
This is just a simulation. It is unrealistic to lay coke down
through the whole radiant section, with two exceptions:
nn There are times where an entire coil can coke up
quickly, such as a low flow situation occurring in a coil;
a coil control valve closing or jamming; incorrectly-set
low flow trips; or a slow response to a low flow event.
nn The heater has never been pigged and does not suffer
from high skin temperatures. In this situation, coke may
be present but has been accepted as the normal
baseline for heater operation.
The more common situation
Although fouling across an entire heater coil is not typically
seen, there tends to be specific areas that are most exposed
to formation in terms of heat flux. Data is reviewed again in
Table 3, this time ignoring all changes apart from skin
temperatures. The localised coke is driving up skin
temperatures. An important thing to note is that tube
temperatures are controlled by the effective heat transfer
across the tube.
Dealing with localised fouling
Here, only the simulated cases are used without the
additional allowance for skin thermocouple type.
The 1.5 W/mK case
The tube temperature needs to come down below the
oxidation temperature of 593˚C for 5% Cr, rather than the
API 530 limiting metal temperature of 650˚C. Increasing
oxygen in the previous example worked to an extent, but
reached a draft limitation. Shutdown for a mechanical
cleaning to remove this coke is not preferred. The other
options are as shown in Table 4:
nn Drop COT by 10˚C: tube temperatures reduced by 10˚C
to 626˚C, which did not help much, and column cuts
may go off specification.
nn Cut the rate: a 20% cut brings tube temperatures back
to the tube limit.
Commercial consequences of a 20%
rate cut
Example: 3250 bpd rate cut example at
US$10/bpd margin. US$12 million/yr
A unit must be ready to take advantage of margin capture
whilst it lasts. Even a small amount of fouling affects the
overall ability of the heater, reducing margins and run time.
A special case is outlined in Table 5, where just a 2 mm
increase in coke can have a dramatic effect on heater
operation. 7 mm coke is not that abnormal to find (in fact
10 – 15 mm is more common) after tubes have been
removed following a coking event. In this case, the heater
will need to go offline for unplanned pigging, with an
estimated outage of 10 days – not including time to replace
damaged tubes.

Routinely pigged
Table 3. Localised fouling in radiant section only (no fouling in convection) heaters
A coke layer increases tube
Tube skin temperatures 1.5 W/mK thermal conductivity 3 W/mK thermal conductivity
only metal temperature. Above
593˚C (5% Cr) the external
Constant 0 mm thick 1 mm Change 5 mm Change 1 mm Change 5 mm Change
process duty (no fouling) thick thick thick thick surface of the tube starts to
oxidise, removing tube
Tube skin 419°C 463°C +44°C 635°C +216°C 441°C +22°C 530°C +111°C
temperature thickness. Over time, the
for a tube develops a classic
383°C bulk bulge profile. The coke sits
process feed in that bulge (see Figure 2).
temperature
This is well documented:
Adding 439°C +64°C 655°C +236°C 461°C +42°C 550°C +131°C leaving this coke in place or
allowance for
in other places on the tube
thermocouple
design +20°C wall where conventional
mechanical decoking
Adding 459°C 503°C +84°C 675°C +256°C 481°C +62°C 570°C +151°C
allowance for cannot detect and remove
thermocouple it can lead to instant regret
design +40°C at start-up. Pressure drop
and coke fines during a
pigging operation is a very
Table 4. Dropping COT to reduce tube temperatures subjective method of
Condition Skin (˚C) BWT (˚C) Average heat flux Peak film cleanliness verification, and
(W/m2) temperature (°C) is rarely supervised by plant
Start COT 383°C 636 789 32 777 402 personnel.
COT reduction 10°C cut 626 - - - A question to ask is
Rate reduction -10% 612 761 30 078 400 whether it is sufficient to
carry out an ultrasonic (UT)
Rate reduction -20% 590 731 27 275 398
smart pigging run after

March 2023 82 HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING
NISTM
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STORAGE TANK MANAGEMENT
 mechanical pig cleaning in order to confirm cleanliness.
The answer is that whilst this works, operators have no
idea where the fouling was and what tubes were exposed
to it before the start of mechanical cleaning. Knowing this
information provides insight into the firing profile, correct
skin temperature indicator (TI) placement, where
thermography readings should be taken, future run time
forecasting, and possible carburisation and oxidation
damage locations – to name a few.
Innovative techniques
Standard mechanical pigging uses hard body metal
studded pigs that are oversized. There is an oversize limit
– too large, and tube metal is removed.
How does a pigging contractor know whether tubes
are clean? This can be accomplished by monitoring water
quality during cleaning operation and looking at the
pressure traces for each pass. However, this approach
leaves a lot of doubt. If there are bulges in the tube,
these will not show as being significantly different from
other areas. These areas may have coke present. Hard
fouling left over from previous cleanings can be left
behind in areas of non-deformed tubing, going
completely unnoticed during current mechanical cleaning
operations.
The ability of a mechanical pig to clean tubes is
typically based on two things:
nn Size and type of mechanical pig (studs).
nn Number of cleaning cycles required to grind out coke
(500 – 1000 cycles).
For stubborn areas of coke, there is a risk of damaging
(grooving) the actual tube in clean areas. ADCV has the
advantage of identifying areas of coke and allowing for
close attention of the pigging cycle in only those areas.
Initial inspection results
Localised areas of 5 mm coke were found in several crude
and vacuum heaters. ADCV was used to identify these
areas and selectively target them for coil cleaning,
completely removing the coke. The process impact of
these areas was not reported by the end users, however
the previous simulations offer a good indication of
potential consequences. Integrating the ADCV results
with heater process data before and after will assist with
the optimisation of the heater.

Outline of the process steps:

nn Initial ADCV survey using smart pigs ultrasonically
maps the location and thickness of the fouling.
nn Mechanical cleaning team removes the bulk of the
fouling using studded pigs.
nn Cleanliness verification using the smart pig checks the
result, fine tuning any additional mechanical pigging
operations.
nn Areas that were not able to be cleaned are reported
to the client for further investigation. These are
important areas; any bulging or major deformation in
a tube caused by overheating may not be cleanable
Figure 2. Coke in bulged tube. by a mechanical pig.

Conclusion
Table 5. Localised fouling in radiant section only Fouling in a heater makes a significant difference to a
excerpt (no fouling in convection) heater’s safety, environmental and commercial
Tube skin temperatures 1.5 W/mK thermal conductivity performance. As coke is the dominant reason for high
only tube skin temperatures for normal furnace parameters,
Constant 0 mm thick 5 mm Change 7 mm thick the thickness of the coke matters. Knowing that all of the
process duty (no fouling) thick fouling has been removed and where it initially formed
Tube skin 419°C 635°C +216°C 727°C – and where it did not – allows an informed view on past
temperature and future heater operations, and most importantly
for a 383°C bulk avoids running the heater sub-optimally until the next
process feed
temperature
turnaround.
Adding 439°C 655°C +236°C 747°C
allowance for
Notes
1. The original expanded version of this article is available as a
thermocouple white paper on Hydrocarbon Engineering’s website. Download a
design +20°C copy for added insights: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/
Adding 459°C 675°C +256°C 767°C whitepapers/quest-integrity/heater-tube-cleaning-and-verification-
the-effect-of-fouling-on-heater-services-that-are-prone-to-coking-
allowance for
from-a-process-engineers-perspective/
thermocouple 2. The author of this article, Tom Gilmartin (Bsc, Msc, C.Eng), is a 30-year
design +40°C BP veteran and the company’s former fired heater and flare advisor.

March 2023 84 HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING

Mark Naples, Umicore Coating Services
Ltd, details how connected gas detection
technology can help companies to comply
with ESG needs.
Figure 1. Capturing the natural gas or methane wasted
each year across the oil and gas industry would mean
progress for both the climate and energy crisis.
W
e cannot always see the
consequences of air pollution around
us, and there are communication
issues surrounding efforts to get
people to see the invisible costs of pollution. The
global economy loses more than US$8 trillion
annually, according to The World Bank1, but action
to identify its presence and catalogue its make-up
and levels still lags.
HYDROCARBON 85 March 2023
ENGINEERING

Figure 2. Corporations leading on climate action are looking for the
next generation of climate technologies to invest in and scale to meet
deep decarbonisation targets.
The problem is that when we visualise air pollution,
we tend to picture a blanket of smoke. However, just
because we cannot see visible clouds of pollution does
not mean that it is not affecting us. Not only are these
harmful pollutants invisible to the human eye, but they
are sometimes odourless and tasteless. Yet another
layer of difficulty is that they are often found in volatile efficiency.
and inaccessible environments. The most common
types of toxic gases found in modern industrial
workplaces include ammonia, methane, hydrogen
sulfide (H2S), chlorine, carbon monoxide (CO), and
carbon dioxide (CO 2).
Thankfully, huge advances in sensor technology have
activated a range of reliable options for gas detection,
and the enormous advantages of infrared (IR)
spectroscopy in detecting hydrocarbons and hazardous
chemicals are now well established.
Mitigating risks
It is incumbent on all of us across our industries to
deliver improvements in efficiency, embrace
technological advances, streamline our work, and
ultimately reduce the environmental impact of our
activities. The rise in environmental, social and
governance (ESG) focus is driven by a growing urgency
for individuals and corporations alike to tackle one of
the world’s most pressing problems: climate change.
Many companies are committing to the incorporation
of ESG and net zero targets into operations as they face
increasing investor and consumer pressure, mandatory
government climate risk disclosure, and stricter
environmental regulations. By adopting measures based
on data provided by intelligent sensors, organisations
can improve their ESG compliance and enhance their
contributions to people, the planet and profit.
With increased levels of corporate transparency,
organisations are exercising a high degree of moral and
ethical leadership, and companies are looking more
March 2023 86 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
closely at their health and safety,
environmental, and social practices to
ensure compliance with legislation and
ethical expectations.
By embracing data, the industry can be
empowered to make more informed
decisions to improve processes and drive
efficiencies. The net result is more
sustainable performance, heightened
productivity, better quality products,
reduced energy usage, fewer emissions,
and less landfill, and this is the sort of
future that we all need to invest in.
Technology is now more affordable
and accessible than ever, and can help
companies to comply with ESG needs.
Connected gas detection is not the
technology of the future anymore; it is
right here, and more money-saving,
sustainable and straightforward than one
might think.
Industrial gas is used extensively by
various industries – from medical oxygen in hospitals, to
being used in the production process to manufacture
chemicals, electronics and metals. Its critical position at
the heart of the industry presents an opportunity to
better track, monitor and assess gas usage to reduce
the industry’s environmental impact and boost its
The gas detection system market is expected to
grow at a CAGR of 8.64% through to 20262, and for
good reason. With increasingly critical decisions reliant
upon gas and particulate monitoring, the appetite for
meticulous IR gas sensing is growing.
It remains vital that technology is adapted to the
application. Increasingly, Umicore Coating Services is
working with clients at an early stage of sourcing, and
defining optimum solutions.
The hardware and firmware configuration can also
significantly affect the performance and stability of an
IR gas detector. The use of processors, algorithms and
optical hardware configurations can distinguish between
a highly stable device that minimises cross-interference
from other gases such as CO 2, and compounds such as
water, or a device that produces spurious alarms and
other operational issues.
Industrial gas detection is a mature market that
continues to expand as devices become cheaper at the
compliance end of the market, and smarter at the top
end. On the one hand, Umicore works with original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – stripping their
devices back to basics, focusing on functionality and
cost for low-cost markets. On the other, the company
assists in driving advances to open up new
opportunities and allow end users to use their devices
in ways that have not been considered before.
In today’s industrial workplace, if you are a safety or
operations manager looking to build or sustain a robust
safety culture, it is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’, but rather
a key requirement of the business.
 Keep sensing it
Climate change and its perceived impacts – from
projected warming of the Earth through to
anthropogenic global warming – have instituted
profound changes in how the world approaches energy
sources. The primary focus is on reducing CO2 and
methane – CO2 because it is by far the most prevalent
greenhouse gas (GHG), and methane because of the
intensity of its impact in the first several years after it is
emitted into the atmosphere. GHGs are generated at
almost every step in production, delivery, processing or
refining, and especially the consumption of fossil fuels.
Companies that are proactive in minimising leaks and
eliminating vents must acknowledge that the effort is a
long-term investment, requiring a multi-tool approach
and active engagement.
Regulation enforcement has increasingly restricted
the emissions that oil and gas producers may release,
but industry opinion and corporate responsibility have
pushed that objective further.
In the market for measuring emissions, there are
many different measuring technologies. Umicore’s IR gas
detection filters are essential to many of these.
IR emitters within the sensor generate beams of IR
light. And, having passed through a sampling chamber, a
filter in front of the detector blocks out light that is
not at the desired wavelength. In contrast, the detector
measures the intensity or attenuation. This is then used
to determine the concentration based on the
Keep Updated
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date with us to
hear the latest
downstream oil
and gas news

For more news visit:
www.hydrocarbonengineering.com
absorption of IR radiation as it passes through a volume
of the gas.
Among their benefits are fast response times and
accurate results, without the requirement of additional
gases for operation. Technological advances have also
resulted in detectors that continuously monitor
combustible gases and vapours within the lower
explosive limit, and provide alarm indications. These can
be deployed within oxygen-deficient or enriched areas,
require little calibration, and are immune to sensor
poison, contamination or corrosion.
Newer gas analyser instruments use a laser diode
mounted on a thermo-electric cooler to tune a laser
wavelength to the specific absorption wavelength of a
particular molecule. They exploit their high-frequency
resolution, which results in enhanced sensitivity – more
significant levels of interaction between gas molecules
and light in the order of parts per billion (ppb) – and
selectivity, as they are tuned to a specific compound of
gas. This absorption technology ensures precise gas
recognition, eliminating the potential for false alarms,
which is an issue with other commonly used gas
detection technologies.
Safety is not expensive; it is priceless
Even with the most reliable instruments, the likelihood
of workers being injured or killed on the job remains
high if the devices are not used properly. In an
organisation with a weak safety culture or poor
Discover
From prototype design to In-house dicing capability
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Tel: +44 1382 833 022 HYDROCARBON 87 March 2023
Email: coatingservices@umicore.comENGINEERING
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 processes, team members might not use gas detectors
correctly. Worse yet, they might not use them at all.
All teams – even those with the highest skills,
experience, and best intentions – need to be supported
by safety-conscious management. Too often, gas
detection data is collected, stored, and never reviewed.
Or worse yet, it is not reviewed until a catastrophic
event forces a post-mortem investigation of the
numbers. The best way to improve safety culture is by
using data. It is essential to take corrective action and
mitigate the hazards before it is too late.
As an increased focus on controlling emissions has
matured, concerns about evaluating the true depth of
individual company commitment to the cause have
arisen. These are driven in some measure by
environmental activists’ impatience with the rate at
which companies have made the energy transition a
core part of their focus.
In industry, corporate emissions mitigation metrics
are set at the C-level, while the critical details tied to the
detection and quantification of GHG emissions are
found at ground level. Optical gas imaging (OGI) cameras
excel at discovering and identifying such information,
which might otherwise be overlooked. They are at the
forefront and drive growing demand for Umicore’s
high-precision, thin-film optical filters from OEMs.
Ultimately, companies can positively influence their
bottom lines via responsible operations. Investors are
careful to avoid risk: if an oil and gas producer’s
contribution to climate change represents a business or
public relations risk, investors are less likely to judge it
worthwhile over the long-term.
From increasing disclosures to stronger investor
sentiment, we continue to see upward growth of ESG
initiatives in energy-intensive industries. Regulation
enforcement has progressively restricted the emissions
that can be released, but industry opinion has become a
driving force pushing that objective further. Many
businesses now view their emissions detection through
the lens of ESG. In effect, they hold themselves
accountable to their own responsibly-set targets.
References
1. ‘The Global Health Cost of PM2.5 Air Pollution : A Case
for Action Beyond 2021’, World Bank, (31 January 2022),
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/36501
2. ‘Gas Detection System Market Evolving Technology and Growth
Outlook 2020 to 2025’, Market Insights Reports, (8 April 2020),
https://www.openpr.com/news/2102892/gas-detection-
system-market-evolving-technology-and-growth

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