British Petroleum operations

Survey of the patent Hterature reveals companies with processes for 1,4-butanediol from maleic anhydride include BASF (94), British Petroleum (95,96), Davy McKee (93,97), Hoechst (98), Huels (99), and Tonen (100,101). Processes for the production of y-butyrolactone have been described for operation in both the gas (102—104) and Hquid (105—108) phases. In the gas phase, direct hydrogenation of maleic anhydride in hydrogen at 245°C and 1.03 MPa gives an 88% yield of y-butyrolactone (104). Du Pont has developed a process for the production of tetrahydrofuran back-integrated to a butane feedstock (109). Slurry reactor catalysts containing palladium and rhenium are used to hydrogenate aqueous maleic acid to tetrahydrofuran (110,111). 

A completely new approach for BTX production has emerged in recent years. It converts to paraffins into aromatics using a modified ZSM-5 zeoHte catalyst which contains gallium (19). An example of this approach, the Cyclar process, has been in commercial operation by British Petroleum at Grangemouth, Scotiand since August 1990 (20). It uses C —feed and employs UOP s CCR technology to compensate for rapid catalyst coking. 

The process illustrated in Figure 4.6 was developed to production scale with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year. This process, developed by British Petroleum, was one of several in Europe and Japan that, although fully developed, was never operated substrate commercially. This was due to sharply increased substrate costs in 1973 and political costs and social pressures against the use of petroleum-based substrates (possibly contaminated with carcinogenic or toxic compounds). Such systems do operate in the former USSR, producing Candida guilliermondii as feed. 

Ferroflning A mild hydrotreating process for purifying lubricating oils. The catalyst contained cobalt, molybdenum, and iron (hence the name). Developed by the British Petroleum Company and first operated in Dunkirk, England in 1961. 

The press centre on the Website of British Petroleum pic (BP) is a good source of information, at http //www.bpamoco.com/centres/press/index.asp. For example, the page http //www.bpevo.com/bpevo main/asp/evo glo 0003.asp lists the terms used by most petrol companies, and http //www.bp.com/location rep/uk/bus operating/ manu ops.asp cites the amounts of the known carcinogen, benzene, found naturally in petrol. 

Currently the use of full-scale GAC systems in the U.S. petroleum rebning industry is very limited. Some rebneries used GAC as the secondary treatment process but have discontinued the operations. Two examples are the Atlantic Richbeld (Arco) system near Wilmington, CA, and the British Petroleum (BP) system in Marcus Hook, PA [17]. 

Traditionally, ethanol has been made from ethylene by sulfation followed by hydrolysis of the ethyl sulfate so produced. This type of process has the disadvantages of severe corrosion problems, the requirement for sulfuric acid reconcentration, and loss of yield caused by ethyl ether formation. Recently a successful direct catalytic hydration of ethylene has been accomplished on a commercial scale. This process, developed by Veba-Chemie in Germany, uses a fixed bed catalytic reaction system. Although direct hydration plants have been operated by Shell Chemical and Texas Eastman, Veba claims technical and economic superiority because of new catalyst developments. Because of its economic superiority, it is now replacing the sulfuric acid based process and has been licensed to British Petroleum in the United Kingdom, Publicker Industries in the United States, and others. By including ethanol dehydrogenation facilities, Veba claims that acetaldehyde can be produced indirectly from ethylene by this combined process at costs competitive with the catalytic oxidation of ethylene. 

The molecular sie es employed for this operation are synthetic siflco-alumioas which carry metallic ions, with uniform pore diameters between 3 and 10 A, and whose structure is comparable to that of natural zeolites. They are capable of separating linear carbon chains, which are specifically adsorbed, from those that are branched. Many technologies have been develops particularly by Exxon, BP British Petroleum), Texaco, UQP and 7fubn Carbide, which exploit their capacity for selective adsorption to isolate n-paraflins from their branched isomers as well as linear olefins from their branched homologues. ... 

British Petroleum at the beginning of the twentieth century is an international company, having operations in over 70 countries. Its key businesses are oil and gas exploration and production the refining, marketing and supply of petroleum products and the manufacturing and marketing of chemicals. 

More recently, British Petroleum (BP)37 39 produced two group III stocks, a 4 cSt BP HC-4 and a heavier HC-6 from the fractionator bottoms of their fuels hydrocracker at BP s Lavera, France, refinery. The total bottoms are solvent extracted to stabilize the final products, fractionated, and finally solvent dewaxed. The hydrocracker is operated in a severe mode (relative to lube hydrocracking) at a once-through conversion of 90% (in comparison, lube hydrocrackers may operate at conversions of only about 20%, and perhaps less with a very good quality feed). Like other hydrocracker-sourced group HI products, their compositions are virtually independent of feed source due to the extent of the molecular reorganization that occurs and the molecular structures that are required for those Vis. The properties of the HC-4 are compared in Table 7.26 with those of some competitive group I, II, and IV base stocks. It can be seen that the HC-4 closely resembles the more... 

Where does process safety show up in these mission statements and explanations The current mission statements of nine major chemical and oil companies were examined [DuPont, British Petroleum (BP), Dow, Exxon, BASF, Chevron, Koch, Valero, and Bayer]. None of them mentioned process safety specifically. In the further explanation documents, some companies mentioned safety and environmental goals but there was no specific mention of process safety. This may be more understandable than it first appears. The audience is very broad, essentially everyone who is interested in the given company. Further, most people would not understand what process safety is, though some communities in which these companies operate understand very well what it is. It may also be that companies believe that operating without a process release is a given expectation in line with such basic expectations as accurate financial statements or obeying applicable regulations and laws. 

In 1996, British Petroleum announced an alternative methanol carbonylation based on an Ir-Ru-Mel catalyst. Like the Celanese Rh-Li catalyst, it was a low water process, but used about half the methyl iodide. The use of Ir as a catalyst was not new and had been disclosed by Monsanto contemporaneously with its disclosure of the Rh catalyst. However, it had very complex kinetics and was more difficult to operate. British Petroleum achieved this event by discovering a way to overcome a major shortcoming in the Ir process disclosed by Monsanto. 

What British Petroleum discovered was that Ru(CO)4l2 (as well as some other metals) catalyzed the exchange of iodide for CO in the transformation of MeIr(CO)2l3 to MeIr(CO)3l2 (equation [29]) allowing the Ir catalyst to operate without being slowed by the pesky, and previously rate limiting, carbon monoxide for iodide ligand exchange. Complete mechanistic details are available for the process. In the presence of Ru, Ir operated under the same conditions as the Rh based methanol carbonylation, was equally active as a catalyst, and had acceptable ease of operation. Advantages associated with the Ir process are that the Ir process used only half as much methyl iodide co-catalyst and the Ir and Ru catalyst components were (and continue to be) much less expensive than Rh. 

The Unipol process was first introduced by Union Carbide in its Seadrift, Texas, facility in 1968. Other companies such as Amoco and British Petroleum developed the technology further. Today over a 100 reactors are in operation (or in constmction) worldwide with an annual capacity of 19 billion pounds of HOPE or LLDPE resin. 

Another antimony-based oxide catalyst that was used commercially for propylene ammoxidation was Sn-Sb-0. This catalyst system was patented and used commercially in a fixed-bed process by Distillers Co. Ltd. (32). The Distillers catalyst and process remained in use in the United Kingdom at a plant owned and operated by British Petroleum imtil the late 1980s. Although studied extensively... 

British Petroleum (BP) has operated since 2002 an about 0.01 Mt per year GTL demonstration plant at Nikiski, Alaska. The FT reactor was a tubular fixed-bed unit. BP is now also investigating the use of a slurry bed FT reactor at Hull in the United Kingdom. 

Hoover-Diana production platform A joint venture by Exxon and British Petroleum (BP), the Hoover-Diana production platform goes into operation in the Gulf of Mexico. Within six months it is producing 20,000 barrels of oil a day. 

In order to connect one of its wells to its facility in the Badin distriet of Pakistan, British Petroleum Pakistan planned to constmct 5000 ft (1524 m) of 4-inch diameter spoolable reinforced composite pipe (SRCP). Python series 1500 cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) spoolable pipe was seleeted, offering a maximum operating temperature of 180°F (80°C). Table 18.3 reports the physical properties of the spoolable reinforced composite pipe. 

The leading companies, e g. DuPont and British Petroleum, have recognized the importance of sustainable development and have been incorporating it as a key strategic element in operating... 

Significant ethylene oxide production facilities are operated in Canada by Dow Chemical Company and Union Carbide Corporation affiliates and in Mexico by Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). In Western Europe, ethylene oxide is produced by a number of chemical manufacturers including BASF, British Petroleum, Bayer, Hoechst, Huels, Dow, Shell, and ICI. Producers in Japan include Mitsubishi Petrochemical, Mitsui Petrochemical Industries and Mitsui Toatsu, Nippon Shokubai Kagaku Kogyo, Nisso Maruzen, and Nisso Petrochemicals Industries. 

In 1966, the rhodium-iodide process for the catalytic production of acetic acid was initiated at the Monsanto laboratories.The first production plant based on this technology started operating in 1970 in Texas City with an initial capacity of 135 000 ton year In 1986, BP Chemicals (British Petroleum) acquired and further developed the technology while extending it all over the world. Nowadays, the global production of acetic acid reaches eight... 

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