Process Engineering articles from April 2000

Process Engineering archives from April 2000

The ABC of fieldbus jargon.
April 1, 2000... ABB Automation is offering a free copy of its 20 page document which aims to put fieldbus technology into simple language. The document can be used by anyone with Word 97 or later. Almost 100 words and phrases are explained in the Fieldbus...

Extended offer for BOC Group.
April 1, 2000... Air Liquide, Air Products and the government panel on takeovers and mergers in the UK have agreed an extension of the period for the satisfaction or waiver of the pre-conditions to the offer for BOC. The date has been extended to 12 May 2000,...

China tightens up its interests.
April 1, 2000... DSM Fibre Intermediates and Guangdong Xinhui Meida Nylon will form a joint venture for the production of nylon-6 polymers in Xinhui. The new plant will have a capacity of 45 000 tpa and the production process will be based on advanced...

BASF pays $3.8billion for agrochem position.
April 1, 2000... With its proposed $3.8billion acquisition of Cyanamid, BASF is to double the size of its agrochemicals business, putting it into the top four players in the global crop protection market. Cyanamid is being bought from American Home Products...

HSE sounds the alarm.
April 1, 2000... The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published a new free information sheet on how to improve handling and management of alarm systems in the chemical industry. The guidance is part of an on-going strategy for avoiding future accidents by...

AMEC profits up in 1999.
April 1, 2000... AMEC has reported a 35 per cent increase in total operating profit for 1999 to #77.2million. The group continues to strengthen its engineering sector with the recent merger with Agra, reported in PE last month, which is is part of an overall...

Saudi orders following.
April 1, 2000... AMEC has secured two contracts from Saudi Aramco and its European affiliate, Aramco Overseas, to design and build a major ethane recovery facility in Saudi Arabia. The recovery unit will be built for Aramco's Berri gas processing plant which...

Chinese cracker.
April 1, 2000... China Petrochemical has awarded Stone & Webster a contract for the expansion and revamping of Shanghai Petrochemical's no. 2 ethylene plant, from a capacity of 400 000mta to 700 000mta. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd and licensors

Raising the roof.
April 1, 2000... Raising the roof - on the grand scale. Using two giant fans, the 770tonne roof of one of the biggest natural gas storage tanks in the world, being built by Kvaerner in Dabhoi, India, has been blown into position on top of the 80m diameter, 14m...

Engineers challenge Chancellor.
April 1, 2000... According to the Engineering Employers' Federation, the failure of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make any further reform to the Climate Change Levy in last month's Budget leaves many engineering and manufacturing companies facing...

Chemical engineers take top spot in salary survey.
April 1, 2000... The latest salary survey of chemical engineers, published this month by the Institution of Chemical Engineers, shows their pay rates to be not only ahead of all other engineering disciplines but also not far behind those of other professions....

Ciba to expand with Uniqema.
April 1, 2000... Ciba Specialty Chemicals and Uniqema are expanding their cooperation in surface modifiers for polymers. Ciba Specialty Chemicals will be the exclusive distributor for Uniqema's erucamide, oleamide and stearamide products which are used to...

Internet leads to name change.
April 1, 2000... PC Soft International, a supplier of web-enabled Scada and control software, has changed its corporate name to eMation to reflect the use of the Internet in its products. The company helps unlock information within businesses by using the web...

Consultancies form alliance.
April 1, 2000... Eutech and LINK Associates have formed an alliance to help businesses meet their licence-to-operate requirements in the areas of risk and emergency management. Both companies are well established in their respective fields. The partnership...

CIA responds angrily to chemicals allergy study.
April 1, 2000... The Chemical Industries Association (CIA) has expressed its anger and disappointed over a report published by the British Society for Allergy, Environmental and Nutritional Medicine. The report urged the government to tighten the regulation of...

Rockwell to join forces with Omron.
April 1, 2000... Omron and Rockwell Automation are to join forces on technological and product developments. The companies have signed a global agreement in Tokyo to address the current and future needs of manufacturing organisations, in particular, open...

Banks and oil firms to team up in net trading exchange.
April 1, 2000... BP Amoco, Shell and TotalFina Elf have joined forces with key names in finance, including Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, to establish an Internet-based market for oil trading. The exchange will specialise in trading over-the-counter...

C&I 2000 withdrawn - new show announced.
April 1, 2000... The Control & Instrumentation 2000 exhibition has been withdrawn by its organiser Centaur Exhibitions and will not now take place on 9-11th May at the NEC, Birmingham. The reason cited by Centaur for withdrawing this year's C&I exhibition...

Joint venture.
April 1, 2000... Kvaerner has recently been awarded two major contracts worth in excess of US$140 million each. The Integrated Deir Ez Zor Gas Project in Syria's eastern desert was awarded by Conoco and Elf Aquitaine and a polypropylene plant in New Jersey, USA...

Coal in China.
April 1, 2000... Strachan & Henshaw has been awarded a contract worth #5.25 million for the supply of a second rail car dumper system at Nanjiang Coal Terminal in China. The contract has been won through the main contractor for the project, Alstom Automation...

Orders are up.
April 1, 2000... As China overhauls its petrochemical industry, the polypropylene plant at Dalian has ordered #250,000 of anti-abrasive flanged valves comprising Worcester and Argus valves from Invensys Flow Control. The Dalian order is part of an expanding Far...

Sweet success.
April 1, 2000... Goodtech Vanpipe, the filtration amd process specialist, has completed a #300,000 contract to design and install three rota-flow filters to handle cane sugar for Dangote Foods in Nigeria. The company is working in conjunction with Tate & Lyle...

Management buyouts buck corporate trends.
April 1, 2000... Following a management buyout, the Coventry-based process engineering contractor CEL International is now an independent company. Formerly Courtaulds Engineering, CEL had been a business unit of the Acordis Group, the man-made fibres and...

ABB licenses simulation tools.
April 1, 2000... Following an exclusive technology and services agreement with Process Systems Enterprise (PSE), ABB Automation has added process simulation to its range of software tools for the process industries. Under the terms of the agreement, ABB is...

Honeywell names Bailie.
April 1, 2000... Honeywell has appointed Bruce Bailie (above) as director of its Industrial Automation and Control operations in the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, South Africa and English-speaking Africa. A chemical engineer, Bailie was previously director of...

Filter firms find new owners.
April 1, 2000... Hosokawa Micron International has sold its MikroPul and Menardi- Criswell subsidiaries to Beacon Industrial of Charlotte, North Carolina. Both MikroPul and Menardi are international companies whose existing ranges of product recovery systems...

CIA launches third party certification.
April 1, 2000... The UK Chemical Industries Association (CIA) has launched its Third Party Certification for continual health, safety and environmental performance. In preparing the Management Systems Guidance for Responsible Care, the CIA recognised that this...

Government backs the environmental cause.
April 1, 2000... The UK government and the Chemical Industries Association actively encourage environmental management systems. Tania Coates reports For at least the past decade the chemical sector has shown its commitment to the environmental banner of...

COMMENT: Winners in the salary stakes, but losers in the status race?
April 1, 2000... Once again, chemical engineers have been shown to be the highest paid of all engineering professionals. According to the latest biennial salary survey of its members by the IChemE (see page 5), on average chemical engineers are earning over 13...

Piping cost estimates (pt 6).
April 1, 2000... After last month's quick dart around the world of labour costs we return to our series on estimating the costs of pipework. The scope for this month's graphs is: Figure 13 - Direct field labour in manhours per lineal metre for erection of...

EXTENDING OUR COST DATA BOUNDARIES.
April 1, 2000... The countries listed here (right) were recently added to our long- standing international indices (below). The data is still somewhat inconsistent but we hope to have full details soon. The base for all data is 1996=100 INTERNATIONAL COST...

UK AND INTERNATIONAL PLANT COST INDICES.
April 1, 2000... Process Engineering's PREDICT plant cost index for the UK is made up of five components covering mechanical IM, electrical IE, civil engineering IC, site engineering IS, and project overheads IO. These are all calculated to the base 1996=100,...

Sign up with ICI.
April 1, 2000... Simon Carves has renewed its agreement with ICI to provide the supporting engineering services for new and existing chlor-alkali plants worldwide. Other technologies include monopolar electrolysers and bichlor bipolar electrolysers. In December...

Mercury detection device wins innovation award.
April 1, 2000... An alliance between industry and academia has won PS Analytical the 1999 Industrial Innovation Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. The award was for a new way of detecting the presence of mercury, which has specific application for the...

IFP success.
April 1, 2000... A joint venture between Petro Vietnam and Zarubezhneft has selected IFP's R2R technology for the first residue catalytic cracking unit to be built in Vietnam. The IFP R2R process is a new conversion technology that will produce high yields and...

Government announces latest round of Foresight Link funding.
April 1, 2000... The government has allocated funding to 14 projects through the Foresight Link Awards(FLA). The government funding of over #7 million is being more than matched by industry to make a total investment of #16million. The Foresight Link awards...

Research to prove asset in acetyls.
April 1, 2000... According to a new study by Tecnon Consulting the world acetyls business will be dominated by companies who research into new technology. Consumption, capacity and production for both acetic acid and vinyl acetate will grow in East Asia, South...

Feeling the pinch.
April 1, 2000... Pinch technology is a method of applying process integration and improving energy efficiency in a variety of industrial processes. Pinchtechnology.com is an independent website that describes in detail the concepts and benefits of the...

Tax credit for research.
April 1, 2000... In the March Budget, the chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced a new research and development tax credit for small and medium sized businesses. The new R&D tax measure forms part of the government's strategy to stimulate enterprise and...

A dream of Californian wine.
April 1, 2000... Californian Beringer wine estates has optimised filtration in its diatomaceous earth (DE) unloading and winery waste filtration area. The winery has replaced a manual DE unloading system with an automated bulk bag unloader from Flexicon. ...

Frothy lager is a level challenge.
April 1, 2000... Kronenberg beer, producing premium lagers at its facilities in Champigneulles, France, was faced with a problem of excessive foaming which affected the level detection device on storage vessels. Too much oxygen in the product resulted in...

Filter takes away oily waste water.
April 1, 2000... Koyo Bearings, manufacturers of heavy duty roller bearings, handle increasing volumes of oily waste water which are not suitable for direct discharge to sewer. The company initially decided to use a dissolved air flotation (DAF) plant for the...

A double dose of dough.
April 1, 2000... Warburton's Tyne bakery is using a double dough detection system designed by Lucas Power & Control with ultrasonic sensors from Siemens Automation and Drives. As dough is placed in each compartment of the baking tray a double dose of dough may...

Gas boiler fuels away bills.
April 1, 2000... Scott Bader Chemicals has installed a new Byworth YSX series Yorkshireman steam boiler with savings of 14 per cent on fuel costs. The three-pass wetback boiler has replaced a dryback steam boiler that was no longer useful. The new boiler is...

SENSORS and sensibility.
April 1, 2000... Invensys' research collaboration with Oxford University has produced a family of sensors that can diagnose and correct their own faults. Stuart Nathan reports The best control system in the world is no use if it's running the process on...

A process with POLISH.
April 1, 2000... The use of electrolysis to render a stainless steel surface ultra- smooth is underrated by industry in the UK, as Janet Webber and Stuart Nathan explain The chrome-nickel alloys which come under the heading of `stainless steel' are highly...

DRYER DESIGN and specification.
April 1, 2000... Drying poses many process engineering challenges and often requires expert advice to get the best results. Stuart Bryan explains the main considerations involved in dryer specification and design Whatever the method, the general principle...

A balancing act for water.
April 1, 2000... One of the most water-intensive industries, pulp and paper above all needs accurate flowmetering. Tania Coates reports Spillage of toxic waste from pulp and paper mills has serious implications for waterways and their users. As major water...

Paper pushes chemical demand.
April 1, 2000... The world demand for pulp and paper chemicals is forecast to increase by nearly four per cent per year, to nearly 78million metric tonnes in 2003, according to The Freedonia Group. However, the greatest change is the use of chemicals in paper...

How to build better BUTTERFLIES.
April 1, 2000... Developing new valves combines market analysis with an understanding of the costs and benefits of alternative materials and production techniques, as Kees Hartkoorn explains The recent development of a range of modern, economic butterfly...

Easy installation for air boxes.
April 1, 2000... A new range of air boxes from IFM electronic will make controlling pneumatic actuators from AS-i systems a far simpler process, the company says. Instead of having to install and wire separate solenoid- operated pilot valves and AS-i slave...

Data logger aids support.
April 1, 2000... The `next generation' of intelligent valve actuators, from Rotork, includes a data logger to store operating information, commissioning settings and valve position. According to Rotork, the IQ actuator range brings `the benefits of the 21st...

Proximity switches ensure safety on boiler gas feeds.
April 1, 2000... Designed for natural gas and LPG lines, KV's type 43 safety shut-off valves are finding uses in feeding burners in combined heat and power plants. The valves are approved by British Gas, and can operate reliably from zero bar with no...

Composites resist it all.
April 1, 2000... The Phalanx range of corrosion resistant automated ball valves can withstand `virtually all corrosive environments, both inside and outside the valve', claims its manufacturer, Dresser. The valves feature the only all-composite construction...

Alfa Laval offers `Unique' tailoring for all applications.
April 1, 2000... Alfa Laval's sanitary mixproof valve range, dubbed `Unique', provides greater levels of security than any other type of valve currently available for these applications, the company claims. Each valve can be tailored precisely to the end-use,...

Tyco rebrands.
April 1, 2000... Tyco Valves & Controls is to streamline its marketing, setting up a single company to sell all its valve models. The individual manufacturing operations will keep their familiar names - Keystone, Raimondi, Fasani, Vannessa, Hindle, Winn,...

Virgin materials to carry ultra-pure compounds.
April 1, 2000... Gas and liquid control distributors Boiswood is supplying the Furon UPM 1000 range of diaphragm valves, which are designed for safe transport of ultra-pure but highly aggressive chemicals. With virgin PTFE body mouldings, the valves are...

Hindle has a ball at mega-complex.
April 1, 2000... Exxon Chemical has chosen Hindle ball valves for the emergency shut-off system at its petrochemical complex in Singapore, currently the largest plant of its type in the world. The complex, due to open at the end of the year, is being built by a...

Sempel's single-screw set.
April 1, 2000... Intended for isolation duties on medium to high pressure pipelines, the VA500 series from Sempel combines versatility with ease of maintenance. The inner parts are secured in place by a single screw, and can be removed from the body as a...

Safety features first for Blackfive sampling valves.
April 1, 2000... Blackfive Engineering has added two new valves to its range of manually- operated pipeline sampling valves. Both are capable of operating at full vacuum to 6bar pressure and temperatures up to 200 degrees C. The series 10 models are lever...

Slurry with a froth on top.
April 1, 2000... Asco Joucomatic's solenoid valves are the key to an aeration system that keeps stored slurries in a pumpable state. Much cheaper than impeller agitation, the system uses a series of 11/2" valves to blow a high volume of air through the slurry....

Fluctuating future forecast for plant.
April 1, 2000... On a sector by sector basis, the demand for process plant remains as variable as ever, according to the latest market development forecasts published by research company Market and Business Development. After strong levels of capital...

Remote sewage treatment works have a flare for safety on gas burners.
April 1, 2000... Safety control boxes have been installed on process burners for use with aerobic digesters at water treatment and sewage works. Biogas from sewage treatment works is piped from the digesters to boilers which provide heating for various...