Oil refineries are facing many challenges, including heavier crude oils, increased fuel quality standards, and a need to reduce air pollution emissions. Global society is stepping on the road to zero-sulfur fuel, with only differences in the starting point of sulfur level and rate reduction of sulfur content between different countries. Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) is the most common technology u...

There is a widely held view that in the period since the early 1990s the European Union (EU) has overtaken the United States (US) as the leader with the most advanced or demanding environmental regulations. However, it is striking that there are very few robust comparative evaluations of the outcomes of environmental regulations or of levels of industrial environmental performance in the EU and...

One of the most critical activities in a refinery is the scheduling of loading and unloading of crude oil. Better analysis of this activity gives rise to better use of a system's resources, as well as control of the entire supply chain. It is important that the crude oil is loaded and unloaded contiguously, primarily for security reasons (e.g. possibility of system failures) but also to reduce ...

Crude oil and condensate refineries generate a large amount of wastewater that has both process and non-process origins. Depending on the type of crude oil, composition of condensate and treatment processes, the characteristics of refinery wastewater vary according to a complex pattern. The design and operation of modern refinery wastewater treatment plants are challenging and are essentially t...