Special reports

In this special report, Aashna Punwani, UptimeAI, discusses how AI tools can be used to speed up decision-making within refinery and petrochemical operations.

As CCS projects scale across Europe and beyond, insulation plays a vital role in efficiency, durability, and process reliability. PAROC® and FOAMGLAS® insulation solutions provide solutions across the wide temperature ranges found in CCS operations, helping reduce energy losses, minimise corrosion under insulation (CUI), protect personnel, and support long-term plant performance.

In the August issue of Hydrocarbon Engineering, Luis Alberto Torres-Morales, Jorge Luis Cabrera-Amador, and Leandro Ruiz-Ruiz, Braskem Idesa, alongside Ian Buttridge and David Lin, GTI Solutions, discuss how optimised demethanisers design can reduce methane slip and improve energy efficiency, with a particular focus on two retrofit projects.

In this special report, Antonio Dávila Ortega, the Netherlands, presents a conceptual framework for integrated pathway evaluation using KPI standardisation, compatibility assessment concepts, and MCDA methodologies for biofuel developments.

Recent Wood Mackenzie’s analysis warns that European gas storage at a historically low level, combined with renewed Strait of Hormuz disruption, has driven spot prices more than 50% above their June lows and placed winter 2026/27 supply security at risk.

Gulf crude exports fall 82% from January to June; Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar record zero exports as Strait of Hormuz remains severely constrained, Wood Mackenzie has reported.