For producers of commodity products, profitability primarily comes from operational excellence—that is optimizing costs to run the process as efficiently as possible. In the U.K-based PTQ article, Refinery operations gain from advances in digital automation, Emerson's...
Posts by or with Tim Olsen
Essential Asset Monitoring – Pump Demonstration
In an earlier post, Remote Monitoring of Essential Equipment, we shared how wireless vibration sensors were making it possible to monitor assets previously not deemed critical enough for wired, continuous vibration monitoring. Here is a 5:18 YouTube video, Essential...
American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Q and A and Technology Forum
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (formerly NPRA) are holding a Q&A and Technology Forum October 1-3, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Emerson's Tim Olsen, whom you may recall from earlier refinery-related posts, shared with me that several Emerson folks...
AIChE Fuels and Petrochemicals Division Update
I caught up with Emerson's Tim Olsen, Chair of the AIChE Fuels and Petrochemicals Division (F&PD), to get an update of the work of this division. For those unfamiliar with this group, the AIChE's F&PD: …was established to further the application of chemical...
Monitoring Heat Exchangers for Fouling and Energy Inefficiencies
A ScienceDirect.com abstract highlights the importance of heat exchangers in refinery energy-efficiency efforts: Crude oil fouling in pre-heat train heat exchangers has been a major problem in oil refining for decades. The operating problems, increased energy...
Healthy Pumps, Healthy Hearts
OK, I confess to being an engineer in my core when I was explaining to my son the other day how the heart is a reciprocating pump. The systolic and diastolic pressures are the high and low-pressure peaks based on the heart's expansion/contraction cycle. Blood pressure...
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Emerson Exchange 365
This blog features expert perspectives from Emerson's automation professionals on industry trends, technologies, and best practices. The information shared here is intended to inform and educate our global community of users and partners.

