PTQ Q4 2025 Issue

Always do the test with plant staff (i.e., yourself). The water test was a repeat of a previous test many years earlier that found the Still to be ‘good’. There was no real record from the initial test, other than it was ‘good’, and no record of how well the test was performed. With a correct diagnosis, a column previously branded ‘unsuitable for fine product purification’ was revitalised by simple means. No new columns, no massive changes, negligi- ble carbon footprint. All that is needed is a correct diagnosis. Reaching out to the operators and listening to them can save a lot of expenses and headaches and reduce the car- bon footprint. The long-serving operator’s recollection that the column worked, and then it started to operate poorly, was a milestone in the path to a correct diagnosis. The world-class mass transfer expert was pointing to bed height, drip point density and other things, but he was wrong. One good measurement is worth more than a thou- sand expert opinions. In Part 2, which will be in a future issue of PTQ , there will be more case studies, mostly related to removing volatile components from sour water and the elimination of water from hydrocarbons. Acknowledgement The authors are grateful to Michael Debest and Carlos Trompiz (Fluor) and Abraham Kister (Texas A&M University) for invaluable reviews and comments. References 1 Lieberman, N. P., Process Engineering for a Small Planet , John Wiley and Sons, NJ, 2010. 2 1.4 natural gas combustion EPA. Available at https://www.epa.gov/ sites/default/files/ 2020-09/documents/1.4_natural_gas_combustion. pdf (Accessed: 24 January 2025). 3 https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calcu- lator-calculations-and-references#vehicles Henry Z Kister is a Fluor Corp. Senior Fellow and Director of Fractionation Technology. He has more than 35 years of experience in design, troubleshooting, revamping, field consulting, control and start-up of fractionation processes and equipment. He is the author of four books, the distillation equipment chapter in Perry’s Handbook , and about 150 articles. Kister has taught the IChemE-sponsored ‘Practical Distillation Technology’ course more than 550 times in 26 countries. A recipient of several awards, he obtained his BE and ME degrees from the University of NSW in Australia. He is a Fellow of IChemE and AIChE, Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and has been serving on the FRI Technical Advisory and Design Practices Committees for more than 25 years. Norm Lieberman has been a world leader in process troubleshooting, diagnostics, and practical designs for decades. He is the author of 11 textbooks and a large number of articles. Since graduating from Cooper Union in New York in 1964, he was a process design engineer for American Oil Corporation (AMOCO) and later worked directly for the owner of the Good Hope Refinery in Louisiana as a refinery field trouble - shooter. Since then he has been the Principal of Process Improvement Engineering in New Orleans, Louisiana. Lieberman has spent his time since 1984, consulting and instructing Refinery Troubleshooting Seminars, which have been attended by 24,000 engineers, at more than 1,000 seminars and webinars, and providing process designs for crude and vacuum units, delayed cokers, H 2 SO 4 alky units, sour water and amine systems, and many other process units.

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