Oil and Gas

Compressor Antisurge

Axial and centrifugal compressors are expensive, critical pieces of equipment that can be found at the heart of many industrial processes and across a multitude of industry segments. Implementing the correct, high performance compressor control strategy has direct impact upon the control of the process and the profitability of the plant. It is important to have control that is both responsive and stable to improve yield and ensure compressor availability is maximized. One of the main applications to ensure maximizing availability and throughput is Antisurge Control.

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Fluid Catalytic Cracking Flue Gas Slide Valve

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is an essential process in refineries, used to convert heavy feedstock oil into valuable gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel, amongst other products. During the FCC reaction coke builds up on the catalyst, limiting the catalyst’s ability to carry out the reaction. The spent catalyst is then transferred to the regenerator to burn off the residual coke.

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Furnace and Heater Stack Dampers

Furnaces are used in refineries and petrochemical plants to break down hydrocarbon fluids, converting them into fuels or chemicals such as gasoline, diesel, ethylene, and propylene. Furnaces can account for more than 50% of the total plant energy consumption, therefore small improvements in efficiency could have large financial returns. Continuously evolving federal and local environmental laws mandate refineries and petrochemical plants to carefully monitor and reduce cumulative CO & NOx emissions.

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Meter Balance Valve and Meter Back Pressure Valve

In transporting crude oil and pipeline petroleum products to refineries, storage tanks, and other delivery points, metering of the fluid is essential for determining flow rate, volume, and ultimately, cost. In situations where the flow in the input line may vary significantly, multiple meter runs are required in order to maintain flow rates within the optimum accuracy range of each flowmeter.

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Pump Station Pressure Control

A major midstream pipeline company is undertaking several projects to expand its capacity to meet the energy transportation needs of North America. One of the projects – a pipeline hundreds of miles long – will result in an increase in flow to more than 1,000,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the original design capacity of 400,000 barrels per day. The project will involve modification and upgrading of the existing pump stations, as well as the addition of a number of new pump stations.

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Turbine Speed Control Hydrogen Recycle Compressor

The turbomachinery operating within a refinery hydroprocessing unit requires some of the most capable actuation in the world. These compressors and pumps must be controlled accurately and reliably for a refinery to meet its operational goals. Typically, this machinery is driven by a steam turbine which converts thermal energy to rotational energy. A poor controlling or unreliable actuator can lead to inefficiency which erodes the bottom line and/or unplanned shutdowns which interrupt throughput.

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Chemical Processing Turbine Governor

Steam turbines are found in almost any processing plant or power generation facility. Used as the driver for other rotating equipment, steam turbines convert thermal energy to rotational energy — ultimately controlling the input speed or power of a driven device. Any turbine downtime negatively impacts the overall plant process. Therefore, reliable and repeatable control is imperative for efficient plant process and maximum profitability.

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Improved Air Control and Furnace Safety

REXA recently conducted a successful installation on a crude unit heater at a refinery in California. Furnaces help refineries and petrochemical plants break down and convert hydrocarbon fluids into fuels or chemicals such as gasoline, diesel, ethylene, and propylene. When making process improvements, these facilities tend to overlook improving furnace draft control. There are many instruments to choose from when optimizing the draft in a process heater. The challenge is safely elevating process fluid temperature to a target level, maximizing thermal efficiency and throughput and reducing O2, CO and NOx emissions.

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Steam Turbine Actuator Retrofit

Hydroprocessing in the O&G refining industry refers to two separate, yet similar, processes: hydrocracking and hydrotreating. The hydrocracking process converts a variety of petroleum fractions, including oil recovered from solvent extraction of petroleum residues, into more valuable, lower-boiling fuel products. Hydrotreating refers to the process of upgrading the quality of petroleum distillate fractions, such as catalytic and thermally cracked distillates, by decomposing the contaminants with a negligible effect on the boiling range of the feed.

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