Hydrocarbon Processing - September 2022 - 125

History of the HPI
The exploding torpedo was an explosive
device that would fracture the
surrounding rock at the bottom of an
oil well to stimulate flow. The torpedo
was an iron case filled with 15 lb-20
lb of gunpowder. It was lowered to the
bottom of an oil well and detonated via
a wire running from the shell to the surface.
The explosion filled the borehole
with water (i.e., fluid tamping), which
concentrated the explosion, providing
a more efficient fracture of surrounding
rock.270,271
After several successful tests,
Roberts patented his exploding torpedo
in 1866 (FIG. 3), eventually switching
from gunpowder to nitroglycerin.
Modern-day hydraulic fracturing began
in the 1940s with experiments conducted
by Floyd Farris of Stanolind Oil and Gas
Co. These experiments included injecting
1,000 gal of gelled gasoline and sand into
gas-producing limestone in the Hugoton
gas field in southwest Kansas (U.S.). This
was followed by injecting a gel breaker to
stimulate the well.273
Although the tests
were not successful in significantly increasing
well production, it did mark the
beginning of modern-day fracking.
In 1949, Halliburton Oil Well Cementing
Co. (Halliburton today) began its own
fracking experiments in Oklahoma (U.S.)
and Texas (U.S.), which were much more
successful. Over the next 30 yr, fracking
grew in prominence in the U.S. In
the 1980s and 1990s, George P. Mitchell
incorporated a new technique in oil production
that combined hydraulic fracking
with horizontal drilling-this technique
also used slick water, a combination of
water, chemicals and sand that could increase
the pressure in the rock formation.
Mitchell's company (Mitchell Energy
and Development Corp.) conducted several
successful experiments in the Barnett
Shale formation in Texas, which spread
into other shale basins in Arkansas, Louisiana,
Pennsylvania, West Virginia and
states in the Rocky Mountain region, thus
launching the modern-day shale revolution.269
By
2020, fracking enabled U.S.
producers to significantly expand domestic
oil and natural gas production-the
nation's oil production increased from approximately
7 MMbpd in the early 1990s
to more than 12 MMbpd, with domestic
natural gas production nearly doubling
to more than 1.1 Bm3
timeframe.274,275
y within the same
The proven success of
fracking propelled the U.S. to the forefront
of global oil and natural gas supplies
and had dramatic impacts on the region's
hydrocarbon processing capacity.
Prior to the 2010s, the U.S. was a major
importer of natural gas, with many investors
eager to build large-scale LNG import
terminals. However, that all changed
post-2010. As U.S. natural gas production
surged because of widescale fracking, the
nation had an abundance of natural gas
supplies. To monetize this commodity,
public and private companies invested a
significant amount of capital to build gas
processing plants, natural gas pipeline infrastructure
and grassroots LNG export
terminals or convert existing LNG import
facilities to export operations. By the
early 2020s, operable U.S. LNG export
capacity eclipsed 80 MMtpy, with additional
liquefaction trains under development
that will increase total U.S. LNG
export capacity to more than 100 MMtpy
by the mid-2020s. Within a decade, shale
gas production had enabled the U.S.
to reverse course from importing vast
amounts of natural gas to being one of the
largest natural gas exporters in the world.
Shale gas fracking also revitalized the
country's petrochemicals sector. Cheap,
readily available shale gas feedstock (e.g.,
ethane) enabled the country to become
one of the world's lowest-cost ethylene
producers-ethylene is the key building
block for the petrochemical industry; it
supports 70% of petrochemical industry
production and is used to manufacture
a wide variety of products for industrial
and consumer markets. In turn, more
than 11 MMtpy of ethylene production
units began operations from 2016-2020,
with an additional 5 MMtpy set to start
production by the mid-2020s. This wave
of investments in ethane cracking facilities
spurred tens of billions of dollars in
capital investments in ethylene derivatives
and specialty chemicals production
capacities, as well as ammonia, urea
and methanol production plants. The
increased production of chemicals and
petrochemicals also had profound effects
on the nation's chemical trade, increasing
chemical export revenues from $227 B in
2015 to more than $243 B by 2020.276
Digital transformation: Advancing
the HPI into Industry 4.0. The HPI's
digital prowess has dramatically evolved
since the first direct digital control computer
was installed in a refinery-the
Thompson Ramo Wooldridge 300 computer
was incorporated at Texaco's 1,600bpd
polymerization unit at the Port Arthur
refinery (Texas, U.S.) in 1959 (the
history of this event was chronicled in
the History of the HPI section of the
1950s). This event marked the beginning
of the computer-integrated manufacturing
era for the HPI.
The 1950s also witnessed the beginning
of computer-aided design (CAD)
and the advent of research into artificial
intelligence (AI). CAD was coined
by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
professor Douglas Ross, who was
known as the father of automatically programmed
tools, the language that drives
numerical control in manufacturing.277
This technology would evolve and heavily
influence advanced engineering and
design software for hydrocarbon processing
plants/complexes in the following decades,
enabling plant design, engineering
and construction companies to create advanced
models and drawings.
The field of AI research began in 1956
with the Dartmouth Summer Research
Project on Artificial Intelligence held by
John McCarthy in Hanover, New Hampshire
(U.S.) (FIG. 4).278
The 2-mos brainstorming
session included approximately
20 participants that discussed various
topics such as neural networks, computers,
computational theory and natural language
processing, among other topics-
several of these topics were influenced by
theories and concepts put forth by English
mathematician and computer scientist
Alan Turing within his paper " Computing
machinery and intelligence; " 280
his creation
of the Turing machine demonstrated
the concepts of algorithms and computation,
which is why he is considered to be
the father of theoretical computer science
and AI.281,282
Over the next 20 yr, research
into AI flourished, with heavy funding being
poured into the technology by entities
such as the British and U.S. governments.
However, research slowed in the late
1970s and funding ran dry-this period
was known as the " AI winter. " 282
In the 1960s, the invention of the
programmable logic controller (PLC)
by Bedford Associates (the company became
part of Schneider Electric in the
1990s) meant that large banks of relays
could be replaced by a single device (a history
of the PLC is detailed in the History
of the HPI section of the 1960s). PLCs
Hydrocarbon Processing's Centennial Anniversary | SEPTEMBER 2022 125
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