Sinopec taps Siemens for wastewater system

Anqing, China, May 27th, 2011 - Siemens Water Technologies will provide a system to treat wastewater at Sinopec Corp.’s Anqing refinery, in Anhui Province, China.

The Sinopec refinery discharges its treated wastewater into the Yangtze - the third largest river in the world and the largest in China. Preserving and maintaining this major waterway’s water quality and ecosystems is one of the Chinese government’s main environmental initiatives.

The complete wastewater treatment solution will include Siemens’ powdered activated carbon treatment (PACT) system, a Zimpro wet air regeneration (WAR) hydrothermal unit, and a Hydro-Clear sand filtration system.

The three-tier system will be used to treat salty and oily wastewater from refining and petrochemical production activities from existing and upgraded units. The wastewater needs to meet the Chinese specifications for surface discharge. The system will become operational in 2012.

The 1,000 m3/h Anqing system will help Sinopec discharge a cleaner effluent and also generate approximately 500 m3/h of reusable water. The refinery will reuse the water in its cooling tower system, which will help to further offset the strain on China’s surface water bodies.

To treat the refinery’s wastewater, Siemens will install a PACT system, which combines biological treatment and carbon adsorption into a single, synergistic treatment step to remove organics. The solids are pumped as slurry to the Zimpro WAR unit where the carbon is regenerated and biological solids are destroyed.

As it will generate virtually no sludge that requires landfill disposal or incineration, the WAR system will help to lower operating costs for the Anqing refinery’s wastewater treatment, said Siemens.

The Hydro-Clear filter system makes it possible to filter large volumes of water and return it to the cooling circuit, resulting in large savings in the amount of fresh water required and thus further reducing costs, the vendor also claimed. - The Engineer

Oil plunges 9% to USD100 per barrel

New York, 5th May, 2011 - Oil plunged nearly 9 percent to settle below US$100 per barrel. Investors who had ridden a months-long rally fled the market Thursday because of concerns about weakening demand for fuel in the U.S.

The decline of $9.44 per barrel, or 8.6 percent, brings the week's loss for oil to $14.13, or 12.4 percent. Other commodities like silver and cotton have plunged as well.

Oil rose 35 percent from mid-February through the end of April. As it climbed above $100, economists warned that high fuel prices were taking a toll on the U.S. economy. Gasoline demand starting falling in March as motorists paid more at the pump; that trend was reinforced by industry and government studies released this week. On Thursday, worries about the job market ahead of Friday's key employment report added to concerns about fuel demand.

"More and more people were saying that oil was just too high," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. "That got a lot of investors ready to run for the door. That's what they're doing now."

A higher dollar also contributed to Thursday's sell-off. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for June settled at $99.80 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the lowest settlement since March 16. Oil last had a one-day percentage decline this big on April 20, 2009. Back then a barrel of oil cost less than half as much as it does now.

Analysts also said the lack of any terrorist retaliation of the killing of Osama bin Laden eased concerns about the safety of the world's oil fields.

Oil and other commodities have been on a roll since around Labor Day, when the Federal Reserve indicated it would take more steps to boost the U.S. economy. The Fed's announced a plan to buy back $600 billion in Treasury bonds. The move effectively lowered interest rates but also weakened the dollar and unleashed inflation fears. Investors poured that extra money into oil, precious and base metals and grains.

This year, uprisings in Libya and the Middle East gave a further lift to energy markets.

This week investors have reversed those bets on commodities and locked in profits.

The plunge in oil may be enough to keep pump prices from reaching a national average of $4 per gallon. Retail gasoline has surged 30 percent this year. It's risen for 44 consecutive days to $3.985 per gallon.

Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at Oil Price Information Service, a private research and consulting firm, said the national average probably won't get to $4 per gallon.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we dropped to about $3.50 by the middle of June," Rozell said.

Expensive fuel bills can crimp customers' spending habits. Earlier in the week, reports from MasterCard SpendingPulse and the Energy Department showed that Americans bought less gas in the final week of April.

On Thursday, some retailers warned that soaring gasoline prices are starting to cut into the spending power of lower-income customers who were already on tight budgets. Also, the government said that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits reached an eight-month high. Distress in the job market depresses gasoline demand, analysts say, because large numbers of Americans drive to work.

"Commuters are the bedrock of gasoline demand," Cameron Hanover analyst Peter Beutel said. When people lose jobs, "you're killing the best part of that demand - the part that will always be there as long as someone has a job."

Companies feel the squeeze of high oil prices as well. Four of the nation's top airlines combined to lose $1 billion in the first quarter, largely because of the high price of jet fuel.

Other energy futures fell sharply as well. Heating oil fell 25.61 cents to settle at $2.8869 per gallon and gasoline futures lost 22.71 cents to settle at $3.0954 per gallon. Natural gas gave up 31.3 cents to settle at $4.331 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude lost $10.39 to settle at $110.80 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The U.S. dollar rose strongly against the euro Thursday after the European Central Bank's president declined to signal that interest rates would rise again next month. Oil, which is traded in dollars, tends to fall as the greenback rises and makes crude barrels more expensive for investors holding foreign money. - AP