This paper presents an integrated refinery scheduling model and its applications for a refinery located in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, P.R.China. The model integrates a crude oil unloading and storage area, a refining area, a blending area and a product storage area of the refinery. The scheduling model can be applied for optimizing the operation, configuration and production schedule of the refinery. T...

Considerable interest has been focused on miniature biofuel cells (BFCs) because of their portability and possibility to be implantable. Origami devices with hollow channels will provide novel insight into the assembly methods of miniature BFCs. Herein a miniature origami BFC has been fabricated from a MnO2-graphite flake consumed solid-state cathode. For further practical applications, miniatu...

A model predictive control (MPC) strategy is developed to determine the optimal solution of the short-term refinery production planning problem. The main objective of the proposed algorithm is to maximize the total profit and to minimize the costs regarding the refinery process over a planning horizon. The refinery planning problem is solved in discrete time over a pre-determined prediction hor...

Process simulation has been widely used in refineries for more than 30 years. Steady state and dynamic simulations are established tools for the design of new process units and optimisation (off and online) of existing facilities. While mathematical models of separation systems and other unit operations are available in most commercial process simulators, refinery reactors are very specialised ...

The conceptual framework of a new system, Collaborative Refinery, is motivated by a scenario involving the creation of an FAQ. The scenario introduces the concepts of collecting, culling, organizing and distilling. Distilling is a specialized form of collaborative authoring with support for content selection and genre. The Web-based user interface supporting access to the four conceptual functi...

Conclusions The highest incidence of allergy was recorded among refinery patients. The present study revealed that the percentages of 80 and 42 pathogenic strains were isolated from 74 and 39 allergic patients with respiratory infections from refinery and nonrefinery hospitalized patients respectively. The high incidence of asthma and respiratory infections in the oil refinery plant could be du...

This study examined the impact strategy, core competence, and involvement of HR executives in strategic decision making on the refinery managers' evaluation of the effectiveness of HR and refinery performance among 86 U.S. petro-chemical refineries. Survey results indicated that higher involvement of HR in organizational strategy was strongly related to perceptions of HR effectiveness, and that...

Caustic scrubbing is a technology that has been used for the removal of H2S and other acid species from gases in different industries for many years. Improvements in design and control strategies, favorable prices for caustic compared with other non-regenerable H2S scavenging chemicals, and the potential for sales value for the NaHS (sodium bisulfide) product have made caustic scrubbing an econ...

The continued reliance on non-renewable fossil resources has led to serious environmental issues. In light of these concerns, the transition from sources more sustainable ones have been explored, as exemplified by production bio-based lactic acid via lignocellulosic biomass bio-refinery process. Malaysia, second-largest producer palm oil in world, generates abundant, cheap, and underutilized fo...

The accumulative levels of SO2 in soil and plant's leaves around an oil refinery were monitored. Four different sites around the refinery area were chosen; west, south east, north east and the northern side. The refinery southern side was not accessible. In addition to the soil samples, leaves samples of the dominant plants species Myoporum pictum were randomly collected from all sites. Highly ...