Process Engineering articles from April 2005

Process Engineering archives from April 2005

COMMENT.
April 25, 2005... `The idea is eventually to offer consumers cars and trucks that perform just like today's and don't cost any more. The only significant difference is they will run on domestically produced, clean, safe hydrogen, rather than gasoline from...

BP begins Texas City investigation.
April 25, 2005... Investigations have begun into the explosion at BP's Texas City refinery in March, which killed 15 people and injured more than 70. BP America has established a team to investigate the remains of the isomerisation unit - the part of the...

Efficiency contracts for Babcock.
April 25, 2005... Mitsui Babcock has won four major contracts for projects at power stations run by Alliant Energy in the US, worth a total of $5.6million. The orders are all for equipment to improve efficiency and reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides. The...

Sailing away.
April 25, 2005... Advanced process control specialist Pavilion Technologies is to apply its expertise to an unusual field - yachting. The company, more used to providing process analysis and optimisation software to companies such as BP, Eastman Chemical,...

Nuclear project.
April 25, 2005... Aker Kvaerner is to build a facility to remove, sort and transfer nuclear waste from the Dungeness A power station in Kent. The project, valued at around #3.5million, was awarded by British Nuclear Group (BNG), the organisation responsible for...

Prices boost for BASF.
April 25, 2005... German chemical giant BASF achieved one of its best ever results in 2004, with sales climbing 13% to E37.billion. In many cases, according to chairman Jurgen Hambrecht, increases in sales values owed more to the company increasing prices, to...

Crompton in $1.8billion Great Lakes takeover.
April 25, 2005... Crompton, the US-based speciality chemicals group, is to buy Great Lakes Chemical, one of its main competitors, in a deal worth around $1.8billion. Both companies have facilities in the UK and across Europe. The merged company will have...

IN BRIEF: MARATHON PURCHASE.
April 25, 2005... Marathon Ashland Petroleum has bought one of Motiva Enterprise's three oil terminals in Fort Lauderdale. The terminal, which handles 388 000bpd of light product, increases Marathon's storage capacity at Fort Lauderdale by 70%. ...

IN BRIEF: YOUNG TO OPEN ET2005.
April 25, 2005... Baroness Young, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, is to open ET2005, the environmental technology exhibition taking place at the NEC from 24-26 May. 'The global market for environmental goods and services has developed hugely in...

IN BRIEF: HUNTSMAN JOINS USER GROUP.
April 25, 2005... The European petrochemicals division of Huntsman Chemicals has joined the Engineering Equipment and Materials Users' Association. 'In its drive to operate facilities to the highest standards of safety and reliability, Huntsman saw a need to...

Innovene unveiled.
April 25, 2005... BP has chosen the name Innovene for its olefins and polymers business, which begins trading as an independent company this month. Headquartered in Chicago, Innovene controls assets worth some $9billion, and has annual sales around $15billion....

Incoming gas supplies signal lucrative AMEC contract.
April 25, 2005... AMEC has landed a #53million contract to design and build a gas storage facility at Aldbrough near Hornsea, East Yorkshire, for Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE). The new facility is in response to the increasing trend for gas imports as...

Funds for future of nanotechnology.
April 25, 2005... The regional development agency Yorkshire Forward has announced plans to invest #5million in three university centres to develop micro- and nanotechnology. The investment is aimed at helping projects with 'substantial commercial potential' to...

IN BRIEF: Dynamic synthesis renamed.
April 25, 2005... Groupe Novasep has renamed the businesses it bought from Dynamic Synthesis, bringing the former Dynamit Nobel, Rohner and Finorga businesses under the single banner of Novasep Synthesis. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: YOKOGAWA LOOKS WEST.
April 25, 2005... Yokogawa Electric has opened a new office in Singapore to oversee its industrial automation activities in all regions other than Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

IN BRIEF: KEMUTEC BUY-OUT.
April 25, 2005... The management team of Kemutec have bought the solids processing specialist for an undisclosed sum, forming a new company to trade as Kemutec Powder Technologies. 'This is a massive vote of confidence in the future of the company which will...

IN BRIEF: MTL BUYS DISPLAYS.
April 25, 2005... MTL Instruments has bought the GECMA group of companies, which manufacture display units for use in hazardous areas. Based in Kerpen, Germany, the company's products are used in chemical and pharmaceutical plants. Copyright: Centaur...

Wooden heart.
April 25, 2005... Foster Wheeler is to build the boiler island and flue gas treatment system for a standalone biomass-fuelled power station at Wilton, Teesside, for SembCorp. The contract is worth some #28million. The contract names Foster Wheeler Energy,...

Process automation market set to recover.
April 25, 2005... The process automation market is showing signs of recovery, according to market research from the ARC Advisory Group, with regional and technological drivers causing an increase in demand. The market is expected to grow from some $50billion...

Clean coal win for Emerson.
April 25, 2005... Emerson Process Management has been awarded a $7.4million contract to automate the first large-scale coal-fired power plant to be built in China's Fujian Province. The Datang Ningde plant, which will run four 600MW turbines, is intended to...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Dumbell drugs.
April 25, 2005... DNA could be the key to the fast, efficient production of cancer drugs based on nanoparticles, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. The team, led by James Baker of the Centre for Biologic Nanotechnology at the university,...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Secret of the pyramids.
April 25, 2005... A high-surface-area form of iridium has promise as a catalyst from producing hydrogen from ammonia, according to researchers at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Using ammonia as a source of hydrogen for automotive fuel cells, rather...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Nanotech grants.
April 25, 2005... Eight nanotechnology projects across the UK are to receive a total of #20million in new funding from the DTI, according to science minister Lord Sainsbury. The grants, from the DTI's micro- and nanotechnology capital facilities programme,...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Gas deposits are frozen.
April 25, 2005... Gas hydrates may be one of the most important sources of energy for the coming decades. Occurring in sediments beneath the sea floor and in permafrosts, hydrates are cage-like structures of water molecules surrounding methane molecules. There...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Making light work of heavy oil.
April 25, 2005... A process developed by Californian firm Ivanhoe Energy could lead to a new source of light oil, a versatile feedstock for the petrochemicals industry. The process turns heavy oil, mainly used for lubricating oil grades, into a lighter...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Direct peroxide route to cut costs.
April 25, 2005... DegussaHeadwaters, a joint venture between the German chemical company Degussa and the American firm Headwaters, has successfully integrated a pilot plant that uses the direct synthesis hydrogen peroxide (DSHP) process into a propylene oxide...

PROCESS INTENSIFICATION: Delayed reaction.
April 25, 2005... Industry has been slow to adopt process intensification technologies, despite their potential for increasing efficiency and improving environmental performance. Clive Whitbourn looks at some of the reasons for this, and explains why...

PROCESS INTENSIFICATION: Spinning Disc Reactors.
April 25, 2005... In a spinning disc reactor (SDR), liquid is fed onto the centre of a rotating disc, which can be heated or cooled by an internally- circulating fluid. Intense interfering waves are formed in the liquid under the influence of the centrifugal...

PROCESS INTENSIFICATION: Oscillatory Baffled Reactors.
April 25, 2005... The oscillatory baffled reactor (OBR) offers uniform fluid mixing, excellent particle suspension, and better heat and mass transfer than conventional reactor systems. In a tube with diameter D, orifice-plate internal baffles are placed, spaced...

PROCESS INTENSIFICATION: Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers.
April 25, 2005... Printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs) are constructed by a process of chemically etching fluid flow channels into flat metal plates which are then diffusion-bonded together. This entails pressing the metal surfaces together at high...

HYDROGEN: A question of delivery.
April 25, 2005... With fuel cell vehicles now beginning to arrive on the roads, Neil Whitwell looks at how suppliers are opting to deliver hydrogen as a fuel. Availability of hydrogen supplies is one of the key issues facing developers of fuel cell...

HEAT TRANSFER: Take the TEMA test.
April 25, 2005... Specifying that workhorse of the process industries, the shell-and-tube heat exchanger, is usually a straightforward exercise in these days of computer-aided design packages, but you do need to ask the right questions. David Knightbridge...

HEAT TRANSFER: The standard-setting TEMA team.
April 25, 2005... TEMA, the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association, is a US trade association of leading manufacturers of shell-and-tube heat exchangers, which has pioneered the research and development of heat exchangers since its foundation in 1939....

ENERGY: Easier energy efficiency.
April 25, 2005... As a prelude to next month's National Energy Management Exhibition (NEMEX), Camilla Anderson looks at the issues behind the industry-wide drive to improving the energy efficiency of plants and processes, and argues that achieving that goal...

PROCUREMENT: A paean of praise for the UK.
April 25, 2005... Almost laid to waste in the 1980s, UK manufacturing is still proving itself a force to be reckoned with, according to a leading process equipment manufacturer that has resisted the temptation to move its production overseas. Mike Spear...

PRESSURE: Evolving range of transmitters.
April 25, 2005... Endress + Hauser has included a range of new features into its Cerebar S and Deltabar S Evolution series of pressure transmitters. Responding to customers' needs, they are said to meet the latest trends in legislation and directives such as...

PRESSURE: Application-specific threadless connection.
April 25, 2005... Parker Instrumentation has developed a novel instrumentation manifold that allows pressure transmitters to be connected directly to process pipelines without the conventional taper threaded connection. Designed for BP's Grangemouth oil and...

PRESSURE: Test gauge has data logger.
April 25, 2005... The recently launched, ATEX-approved XP2I digital pressure test gauge from Haven Automation now has an intrinsically safe data-logging accessory. The gauge can either be upgraded to the data-logging version by use of a software key or can be...

PRESSURE: High pressure at low cost.
April 25, 2005... Low-cost pressure measurement from 50 to 8000psi (6 to 550bar) is offered by the new MLH pressure transmitters from Honeywell, represented in Europe by Sensortechnics. Said to be ideal for a wide range of industrial applications such as pumps...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: VSDs improve power station pump reliability.
April 25, 2005... At Scottish Power's 1200MW coal-powered Cockenzie power station, two pairs of 250kW duty/standby slurry pumps are used to convey coal ash and precipitator fly ash produced during generation. The two types of ash are combined and turned into...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Steaming up for food producer.
April 25, 2005... Each year, Wigan-based Hitchen Foods processes more than 190million potatoes, 30million tomatoes and 1.5million peppers for the major supermarket chains. The company's recent installation of two additional cooking lines - one for pasta and one...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Essential upgrade for essential oils.
April 25, 2005... At the family-owned Lionel Hitchen (Essential Oils) factory in Barton Stacey, near Winchester, Hampshire, an equipment upgrade was recently required to comply with the latest ATEX standards. The company manufactures natural and concentrated...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Air motors aid safe aerosol filling.
April 25, 2005... Aerofil specialises in the design and manufacture of machines used to fill and cap aerosol cans - which, as their labels constantly warn us, contain highly flammable materials. ATEX-approved air motors from Parker Hannifin were an obvious...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Solving a sticky handling problem.
April 25, 2005... Solids handling equipment is often designed to accommodate very specific materials, which can have very different inherent flow characteristics. But when the material to be handled changes, then the equipment may not be able to cope. This was...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: A welcome in the valleys for tanks.
April 25, 2005... At its Iver, Buckinghamshire, water treatment works, Three Valleys Water has moved away from the industry-standard treatment process of using gaseous chlorine and SO2 to a less hazardous process involving liquid sodium hypochlorite and sodium...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Rapid powder blending boosts production.
April 25, 2005... At its plant in Folkestone, Kent, Silver Spring Soft Drinks has boosted throughput of its critical syrup production process with a Silverson Flashblend powder/liquid mixing system for dispersing and hydrating functional ingredients. ...

PRODUCT NEWS: Lifetime guarantee for PLCs.
April 25, 2005... What is said to be the first lifetime warranty for industrial automation equipment has been introduced by Mitsubishi Electric for its FX range of PLCs. There are six million FXs installed around the world, many of them first generation...

PRODUCT NEWS: Just what the TOC customer wanted.
April 25, 2005... Less operator time during measurements, fewer calibrations and easy maintenance - these were all part of a 'wish list' put forward when Ionics Instruments asked its customers what they would most like to see in a TOC (total organic carbon)...

PRODUCT NEWS: UV monitor wins US patent.
April 25, 2005... British UV disinfection specialist, Hanovia, has been awarded a US patent for its transmittance monitor. Used by drinking water, wastewater and process plants around the world, the monitor measures UV transmittance. Allowing disinfection...

PRODUCT NEWS: Energy efficiency for small air users.
April 25, 2005... Atlas Copco's new GA11VSD series of compressors are said to offer reduced energy costs and precise pressure control for the smaller compressed air user. The 11kW machines produce 10-13bar, 50Hz performance, with a flow range from 7 to 29 l/s...

UK and International Plant Cost Indices.
April 25, 2005... First appearing in Process Engineering in 1973, our long-running UK and International Plant Cost Indices provide important data for process design and project engineers. For the benefit of new readers, a brief explanation of the...