In this section of the site contributing authors submit interesting articles relating
to the various services, industries and research & development efforts of Becht.
High temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) is the focus of the November Asset Intelligence Report by Inspectioneering.com. The article serves as an informative primer to provide an understanding of HTHA. This primer contains the following sections: Overview Susceptible Areas Nelson Curve Prevention/Mitigation Effective Inspection Techniques Remediation Codes, Standards, and Best Practices Further Reading HTHA is a time dependent intergranular […]
When a heat exchanger is cleaned the expectation should be that it will now deliver the maximum possible heat duty. But an evaluation of most post-clean operation will show that the cleaned heat exchanger is delivering only about 85% of what should be the clean heat duty. For critical heat exchangers which impact process performance […]
Article published in Decarbonisation Technology November Issue (digitalrefining.com) Assessing the options, risks, and viability of the biofuels refinery of the future In order to meet the mandates of the Paris accord, as well as carbon intensity and greenhouse gas emission reductions in traditional refining processes, fossil fuel-based transportation fuels will be substituted by a combination […]
Safety is the top priority for American fuel refineries, in fact it’s the entire point of my job. I travel around the country, and even to other parts of the world, auditing refinery safety systems, specifically those installed in and around units where hydrofluoric acid (HF) is used to produce alkylate—an essential component of the […]
Read Part 1 of this Blog Welcome back to Part 2 of the evolution of gasoline blending series. Just to recap, we established a framework in Part 1 regarding the types of refiners, layers of the blending ecosystem and a concept of stress testing. We also talked about quantifying each of the dimensions i.e., speed, […]
Rarely do heat exchangers cause catastrophic events in operating plants. For that reason, they tend to get ignored; little or no proactive maintenance is done and improvements are typically not made unless they become a critical problem. But, if you look at which equipment is responsible for the most economic losses over a period of […]
Article published in the Inspectioneering Journal July/August 2022 Issue. High-temperature IR Thermography was pioneered several decades ago as a method for understanding tube temperatures inside fired equipment. While the equipment continues to improve, completing accurate analysis of the data remains very challenging. It is a complex process to accurately measure tube wall temperatures due to […]
Becht experts (Scott Sayles, Mel Larson, Robert Ohmes, Roberto Tomotaki, and Gordon Lawrence) published in the PTQ Q4 2022 issue, ptq&a section PTQ Q4 2022 Issue (digitalrefining.com). Topics discussed include: refinery closures, coke market, CDU, increased fouling from UCO’s, waste gasification alternatives, refinery revamps, and staffing challenges. Below are excerpts of our contributions to the […]
The new edition of B31.3 is scheduled to be issued December 2022. As usual, there are many clarifications, updated references to codes and standards, updates to basic allowable stresses and additional listed materials. These types of changes are not described here. There are some substantive changes as well, the most significant of which are: Stress […]
With Ronald van Wolferen For more than half a century, Becht has maintained a valued reputation for exceptional innovation, service and partnership solving engineering problems for the energy, process, and power industries. Today, that reputation extends far beyond engineering! Becht has a full line up of services and resources where all your challenges and goals […]
