Written by: Christopher J. Muntean, P.E. Senior Process Engineer at Process Engineering Associates March 18, 2024 Background Various assessments are conducted to promote the safe and reliable operation of process plants in the industry. Some of these assessments include: Hazard and Operability (HAZOP), Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), and Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA). During these workshops, a group of cross-functional individuals (often engineers and safety professionals), work together to identify the major hazards within process units. Once these hazards are identified, the team develo ..read more

PROCESS is pleased to announce that Matt Whitworth, working out of the Oak Ridge, Tennessee office, has just recently completed the requirements for and been awarded his P.E. license for the state of Tennessee. We congratulate Matt on achieving this significant accomplishment. Matt is the technical lead for the Industrial Services Group in the Tennessee office. PROCESS is also please to announce that Chris Muntean, P.E. as part of his continuing education and working out of the Oak Ridge, Tennessee office, has just recently completed the requirements for and been awarded his certificate f ..read more

Written by: Jackson Udy, PE Process Engineer at Process Engineering Associates October 24, 2020 Due to the current economic climate, many refineries and petrochemical plants are running at reduced capacities. Operating companies are more closely scrutinizing operating expenses in this low margin environment. As a process engineer or operations professional, we have the opportunity to find ways to reduce operating expenses by reducing energy consumption. One of the areas inside process plants that takes up significant energy is distillation and fractionation. Distillation consumes over 40% of t ..read more

Jackson Udy, PE Process Engineer at Process Engineering Associates May 18, 2020 _____________ Recently I saw a safety article that resonated with me. The topic, Trusting Plant Instruments. Few days go by where myself or a coworker don’t question an instrument reading at the plant I work at. And how could you not? Everyday, process engineers and operations personnel are looking at dozens or hundreds of instrument outputs. And every so often, we come across a reading that doesn’t make sense. But how operation personnel respond to an instrument that “doesn’t make sense” can have serious proce ..read more

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP is a long-time client of Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS).  Their subsidiary company, Montana Renewables, recently achieved design throughput capacity for processing renewable feedstocks into low-emission sustainable fuel alternatives at the operator’s renewables manufacturing plant in Montana. Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP subsidiary Montana Renewables LLC (MRL) has achieved the design throughput capacity for processing renewable feedstocks into low-emission sustainable fuel alternatives at the operator’s renewables manufacturi ..read more

written by Michael Tanzio, Process Engineering Associates, LLC; February 2021 The industrial literature is full of stories about poor separation in systems consisting of drops or particles in a separate continuous phase (gas or liquid).  Poor disengagement of the dispersed phase can lead to major, unwanted, economic consequences (poor product quality, reduced throughput, environmental and safety consequences, plugged piping, damaged equipment, etc.). Many times, this poor performance can be traced to the following: Use of poor design methods for sizing the separation vessel Lack of compl ..read more

Designing critical OSBL facilities for the Sadara Project presented the UPI team with some unique challenges, which required innovative solutions. Written by Mr. Joe Matherne, Chief Process Engineer, Process Engineering Associates, LLC December 7, 2020 The Sadara Chemical Company is a joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company and Saudi Aramco.  Sadara constructed at Al Jubail, KSA the world’s largest petrochemical complex ever executed in a single phase.  Total CAPEX for the Sadara project was approximately $20 billion.  Its 6-km2 site features 26 integrated, world-scale ma ..read more

By M. Tanzio, Rev. 0, 10/27/2020 Adsorption on Activated Carbon – Part 2 Part 2 of this blog topic continues the discussion from last month of some important aspects of adsorption on activated carbon in the process industries and both parts are intended to serve as an introduction to the topic. The references cited at the end of this article are good starting points for further information. Last month, in Part 1, we discussed some characteristics of activated carbon; the importance of understanding bed capacity; tradeoffs to be considered when choosing an adsorbent particle size; and fixed bed ..read more