GineersNow Oil Refineries, March2020 chemical, crude, fuel, drilling, exploration, LNG, energy, offshore, onshore, petroleum, lubricant, petrochemical, energy, refineries, upstream, midstream, downstream

E D I T O R ‘ S N O T E
It is no secret that the majority
of the globe is still dependent
on oil for survival. With the
world’s dependence on
oil, it is expected that the
growing demand will put a
considerable increase in the
production of these chemicals
in the coming years. Although
it is noted that the number of
refineries across the globe
decreased between 1993 and
2007, the average capacity
produced by each refinery had
significantly increased by as
much as 30%. This surprising
increase in production may be
on account of bringing in new
and larger refineries to the
competition.
Latest Trends in
Oil Refineries
This rise in production,
however, calls for efficiency in
the oil processes themselves.
Process Control, which dates
as far back as the 1920s and
1930s, has been in continuous
use in the refineries and
chemical plants up until today.
It now serves as an essential
aspect of oil production,
ensuring the product quality
and the safety and reliability of
all the processes involved.
Some of the widely used
technologies in Process
Control include the
Proportional-Integrative-
Derivative (PID) controls
developed in the 1930s,
Advanced Process Control
(APC) that predicts real-time
quality, and Model Predictive
Control (MPC) that have
proven to be superior to PID
when dealing with MIMO
(Multi-Input, Multi-Output)
processes.
Smart controls are also
rising technology in the oil
production field nowadays.
With these intelligent systems,
jobs in the field become much
less taxing and stressful. The
efficiency of oil production
also increases dramatically
with this type of system,
subsequently growing the
profit margin and reducing
costs. Smart controls also play
a significant role in creating
safer plants, especially for
field workers.
There are already a handful
of companies utilizing these
types of technology in their
fields, and they can attest to
how much these trends helped
them in achieving a more costefficient
oil production.
4