Petroleum Refining: Technology and Economics, Fifth Edition

Petroleum Refining: Technology and Economics, Fifth Edition | James H. Gary, Glenn E. Handwerk, ... | Best text for refinery process engineering --- not saying much

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Petroleum Refining...

	Petroleum Refining: Technology and Economics, Fifth Edition James H. Gary, Glenn E. Handwerk, ... CRC, 2007 - 488 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Petroleum refiners must face billion-dollar investments in equipment in order to meet ever-changing environmental requirements. Because the design and construction of new processing units entail several years? lead time, refiners are reluctant to commit these dollars for equipment that may no longer meet certain conditions when the units come on stream.

Written by experts with both academic and professional experience in refinery operation, design, and evaluation, Petroleum Refining Technology and Economics, Fifth Edition is an essential textbook for students and a vital resource for engineers. This latest edition of a bestselling text provides updated data and addresses changes in refinery feedstock, product distribution, and processing requirements resulting from federal and state legislation.

Providing a detailed overview of today?s integrated fuels refinery, the book discusses each major refining process as they relate to topics such as feedstock preparation, operating costs, catalysts, yields, finished product properties, and economics. It also contains end-of-chapter problems and an ongoing case study.

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Excellent overview

I am an investment analyst and used this book to get up to speed on an unfamiliar industry. I found it to be clear, well organized, and containing all the info I needed to understand the dynamics driving the business and the lingo. There was more engineering and scientific info than I needed for my purposes, but it was useful to thumb through those chapters to get a high level understanding of the issues. Highly recommended for people new to the industry.

Best text for refinery process engineering --- not saying much

Oddly, only one reference book proved adequate, in my opinion, in explaining refinery science: "William Leffler's "Petroleum Refining." The others, including "Petroleum Refining, Technology and Economics," by James Gary, Glenn Handwerk, and Mark Kaiser, "Refining Processes Handbook," by Surinder Parkash, and even the venerable "Petroleum Processing Handbook," by Bland and Davidson. Leffler wins out because his process descriptions are fairly detailed compared to the others while balancing a need to be understood by the non-technically educated. Where this text, by Gary, Handwerk, and Kaiser fails is its lack of detailed process design information.

For example, I was somewhat disappointed in the section on hydrotreating. This process involves removal of nitrogen and sulfur and alkylation of alkenes, phenols and benzenes from a feed of gas oils recovered from a pipestill. Tables provided showed the expected performance for the catalyst beds; some discussion was presented of the differences between fixed bed reactors and moving bed reactors. Only scant information was provided on reactor design. Even though it might have risked going into detail about a particular catalyst at the expense of others there was no exploration beyond mere statements of information such as hydrogen consumption and space velocity requirements. A good example of the failure to provide detail design information is the authors' reluctance to provide hydrogen consumption information in section 9.5.

Instead, the reader is referred to a monograph written by W.L. Nelson in 1971 for the Oil and Gas Journal. Why not present the data?

This situation highlights the primary problem with this text and the others: a lack of process design information. This book would have to grow by another hundred pages to meet his ambitions goal of providing a good reference for petroleum refining. Only Leffler meets this goal ¯ and, he does it without the science and engineering required in the other references.

Unless you want incomplete details on the subject of petroleum refining, buy Leffler, not this text. However, of the others, this is a good reference book for the subject. Be prepared to fill in the copious quantities of gaps in information. Maybe, you should buy Leffler and this text.

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do you want to major in this field?

This subject enables much of modern civilisation. From producing fuel for transport, of course. But the entire plastics industry also depends on these refineries. So Gary explains to a reader who hopefully has had some exposure to chemistry, how this comes about.

The level of discussion is both at the molecular level of chemistry, but also at the engineering level of what this means in order to have an economically viable refinery. An undergraduate who is casting around, uncertain if she wants to major in chemical engineering, might be encouraged to read this book. It gives her a detailed perspective on the issues of the field.

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Good Enough but not deep

Oddly, only one reference book proved adequate, in my opinion, in explaining refinery science: "William Leffler's "Petroleum Refining." The others, including "Petroleum Refining, Technology and Economics," by James Gary, Glenn Handwerk, and Mark Kaiser, "Refining Processes Handbook," by Surinder Parkash, and even the venerable "Petroleum Processing Handbook," by Bland and Davidson. Leffler wins out because his process descriptions are fairly detailed compared to the others. Where this text, by Gary, Handwerk, and Kaiser fails is its lack of detailed process design information.

For example, I was somewhat disappointed in the section on hydrotreating. This process involves removal of nitrogen and sulfur and alkylation of alkenes, phenols and benzenes from a feed of gas oils recovered from a pipestill. Tables provided showed the expected performance for the catalyst beds; some discussion was presented of the differences between fixed bed reactors and moving bed reactors. Only scant information was provided on reactor design. Even though it might have risked going into detail about a particular catalyst at the expense of others there was no exploration beyond mere statements of information such as hydrogen consumption and space velocity requirements. A good example of the failure to provide detail design information is the authors' reluctance to provide hydrogen consumption information in section 9.5.

Instead, the reader is referred to a monograph written by W.L. Nelson in 1971 for the Oil and Gas Journal. Why not present the data?

This situation highlights the primary problem with this text and the others: a lack of process design information. This book would have to grow by another hundred pages to meet his ambitions goal of providing a good reference for petroleum refining. Only Leffler meets this goal ¯ and, he does it without the science and engineering required in the other references.

Unless you want incomplete details on the subject of petroleum refining, buy Leffler, not this text. However, of the others, this is a good reference book for the subject. Be prepared to fill in the copious quantities of gaps in information. Maybe, you should buy Leffler and this text.

If this review was helpful, please add your vote.

Thanks

for more information click here

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