For those managing the reliability for large complexes such as refineries and petrochemical plants, protecting the rotating machinery that can number in the hundreds can be a daunting task. Recently a refinery manager asked Emerson's Gary Hawkins about options for...
Gary Hawkins
Improving Pump Reliability and Availability
Centrifugal and rotary pumps are used extensively in applications involving hydrocarbons. The American Petroleum Institute has an API Standard 682: Pumps—Shaft Sealing Systems for Centrifugal and Rotary Pumps. It: …specifies requirements and gives recommendations for...
Projects, Optimization and Risk Analysis at AIChE Spring Meeting
In an earlier post, we previewed some of the Big Data presentations which will take place at the upcoming April 26-30 2015 AIChE Spring Meeting here in Austin, Texas. There are several other presentation by Emerson folks I wanted to highlight. Laurie Ben will be...
Wired Versus Wireless Risk Analysis for Process Instrumentation Measurements
How does wireless communications compare against wired communications for process instrumentation? That was the subject of an Emerson Exchange presentation by Kenexis' Ed Marszal and Emerson's Gary Hawkins. Their presentation, Risk analysis of wired versus wireless...
Challenges in Processing Opportunity Crudes
Additional sources of oil, such as shale oil, coming into the market can pose challenges for refiners. The challenge comes from mixing these "opportunity crudes" with other types of crude oil that may have very different physical properties. As a Digital Refining...
Adding Missing Measurements in Refineries
We're now about six weeks away from the September 30-Oct 4 Emerson Exchange conference in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area. In fact, today, August 15, 2013 is the deadline for Early Bird registration—so if you were considering joining us, you'll want to act today for...
Fired Up About Fired Heater-Go Beyond Bridging the RP 556 Gap
Emerson's Pete Sharpe presented on the subject of fired heaters. His abstract [hyperlink added]:The newly revised API's RP 556, is a collection of best practices for fired heater instrumentation, control and protective systems. Emerson can go beyond performing a gap...
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...
Start with the Pipe Racks and Branches for Your Wireless Communications Infrastructure
In refineries and petrochemical plants, pipe racks are the "backbones" of the process units. It is also the place Emerson's Gary Hawkins, a senior refining consultant, recommends should be completely covered with an IEC 62591 wireless device communications...
Sharing Devices between Control and Safety Instrumented Systems
Emerson's Mike Boudreaux alerted me to a discussion in the Oil and Gas Instrumentation Club LinkedIn group. The thread referenced an earlier post on this blog, Field Device Sharing Between Control and Safety Systems that Mike had written. Mike quoted Emerson certified...
Pump Reliability and Safety Webinar
I saw an inside-the-firewall blog post from Emerson's Tim Olsen about an upcoming, no charge, HART Energy Webinar. The title of the webinar is Reliability and Safety Improvements with Pump Health Monitoring. It will be held September 28th at 10:00am CDT (13:00 UTC)....
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