Process Engineering articles from January 2004

Process Engineering archives from January 2004

New UK office for Rietschle.
January 1, 2004... The UK business of Rietschle Thomas, formed by the acquisition of Rietschle by Thomas Industries, is to move to a new head office in Alton, Hampshire. The office will incude central pump and spares warehousing, refurbishment and repair...

Danfoss set for China expansion.
January 1, 2004... Danish drives manufacturer Danfoss is to invest [euro]25million to expand its manufacturing facilities in Tianjin, China to meet rapidly rising demand. The expansion, adding seven production lines to existing capacity, is the company's largest...

Foster Wheeler in Saudi project.
January 1, 2004... Saudi Arabia's Project Management and Development (PMD) has appointed Foster Wheeler as technical consultant for a new petrochemical complex in Al-Jubail. The complex, slated to cost some $3.5billion, wll be centred around a 1.35million tpa...

New owner for Pegler & Loudon.
January 1, 2004... Specialist valve producer Pegler & Loudon has been acquired by BSS Group.

Aveva and Autodesk announce alliance.(News)
January 1, 2004... In what in every sense could be said to be an A-list alliance, the process engineering IT company Aveva (formerly Cadcentre) has teamed up with the leading engineering drafting company Autodesk in a strategic alliance to provide extended design...

Honeywell links with Boehringer.(News)
January 1, 2004... Honeywell Process Solutions has been awarded a contract to automate a new biopharmaceuticals plant for Boehringer Ingelheim at Biberach in Germany. The largest such facility in Europe, the plant will be controlled by Honeywell's Experion...

PPMA aims to serve industries.(News)
January 1, 2004... The Process and Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA) has outgrown its original trade show focus and is to reposition itself as a fully-fledged trade association, its directors have decided. A new mission statement, to be released at the Total...

Man of steel for CIA.(News)
January 1, 2004... Alistair Steel, managing director of Rhodia UK, has been elected president of the Chemical Industries Association. He succeeds Tony Bastock, managing director of Contract Chemicals, and will serve a two-year term of office. [ILLUSTRATION...

Huntsman deal for Emerson.(News)
January 1, 2004... Emerson Process Management has agreed to supply DeltaV digital automation systems to upgrade Huntsman's plants in the UK and Europe. The project also includes projects using 'intelligent instrumentation' and Emerson's PlantWeb systems. The...

GSK fights US tax bill.(News)
January 1, 2004... GlaxoSmithKline insists that it will fight a multibillion dollar tax claim from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) dating back to before the merger of SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome. The IRS claims that the former Glaxo Wellcome owes...

Automation refocus for ABB.(News)
January 1, 2004... ABB is has marked the new year by merging its six automation units into three businesses, aiming to streamline and focus their operations. The new Process Automation business brings together products from across ABB's portfolio: control...

Old letters, new strategy for BASF.(News)
January 1, 2004... An increased focus on maximising profits and a determination to exploit the market potential of emerging technologies spearhead the business strategy of BASF's new chairman, Jurgen Hambrecht, but the most noticeable indicator of the new face at...

Cereal success for Wehrle.(News)
January 1, 2004... A membrane bioreactor system is helping Kellogg's to manage and recycle wastewater at the world's largest breakfast cereal plant, at Trafford Park in Manchester. Installed by the UK and German businesses of water treatment specialist Wehrle,...

BOC launches scientific brand.
January 1, 2004... BOC Scientific, a new business brand within BOC, brings together all of the divisions serving the scientific market. The brand will cover products such as certified caibration gases, instrumentation gases, and gas control equipment for...

Kirkpatrick Honour for Davy.
January 1, 2004... Davy Process Technology has won the Kirkpatrick Honour Award, presented biannually by the US journal Chemical Engineering, for its ethyl acetate-from-alcohol process technology. Proved at mini-plant scale, the process integrates dehydrogenation...

Aker Kvaerner completes China project.
January 1, 2004... Aker Kvaerner has completed the performance tests on a new 450 000tpa pure terephthalic acid (PTA) plant for Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fibres in China's Jiangsu Province. The plant uses DuPont's PTA technology, which Aker Kvaerner is also...

Larox to buy filters business.
January 1, 2004... Larox has agreed to pay some [euro]31 million for fellow Finnish company Outokumpu Technology's filters business. Outokumpo specialises in products for the chemical, mining and metallurgical sectors.

Fast service from Hosokawa.
January 1, 2004... Hosokawa Micron has launched a fast-track service for its powder and particle processing division, aimed at reducing the time from initial enquiry to equipment commissioning.

Fluor awarded Turbo Project.
January 1, 2004... Sasol has appointed Fluor to perform frontend engineering and design services for its Clean Fuels Turbo Project. Planned to start up in 2006, the project will use Sasol's Synfuels technology to make petrol, ethylene, propylene and polymers from...

Aspen and UOP team up on refinery simulation.(News)
January 1, 2004... Aspen Technology, the process simulation specialist, has announced an agreement with UOP, the process licensor to the petroleum refining industries, to market Aspen RefSYS, a jointly developed software product for refinery-wide simulation and...

Rhum deal for Wellman Graham.(News)
January 1, 2004... West Midlands-based heat transfer specialist Wellman Graham has completed a [pounds sterling]1.6million order with the delivery of five heat exchangers to the Rhum and Bruce oil platforms in the North Sea, both owned and operated by BP...

UK and international plant cost indices.(News)
January 1, 2004... The format of Process Engineering's PREDICT plant cost indices was last detailed in PE, September 2002, p11. However, a couple of typographical errors crept into that explanation. The correct equations for the Eq and Ci component indices are as...

Suppliers see the benefits in getting close, but not too close.(Comment)
January 1, 2004... Another year, and another round of companies coming together to make the most of what, for many, are still difficult times. Admittedly, this month's News pages (p2-4) have only a few mergers and acquisitions to cover (those involving Rietschle...

Events.(Calendar)
January 1, 2004... 9-11 February Freeze Drying is the subject of a comprehensive three-day course hosted in Amsterdam by Biopharma Technology. Topics covered include process engineering, pilot plant operation, formulation and process R&D and quality...

Fixing the cracks.
January 1, 2004... Cracks in polymers are often invisible, and in applications such as electronic circuits, medical implants, and aircraft parts, they can cause major failures. Polymers which can repair themselves would be a valuable commodity--and a team led by...

Bacteria clean up by breathing rust.(Research & Technology)
January 1, 2004... New insights into how bacteria interact with minerals could help scientists 'design' microorganisms to clean up specific types of toxic waste, according to researchers from Ohio State and Virginia Tech Universities. The team, including...

'Ice cages' can store hydrogen.(Research & Technology)
January 1, 2004... One of the major obstacles towards the 'hydrogen economy--generating power through fuel cells, rather than by burning fossil fuels--is how to store the hydrogen. So far, the most practical options have been liquefying or compressing the...

Leaves inspire fuel cells.(Research & Technology)
January 1, 2004... Fuel cell design is a matter almost as pressing as hydrogen storage--if the cells are to power a car, they need to produce as much power as possible, and this is dictated by the way that hydrogen and oxygen flow through the cell. Windsor-based...

PEEK performance from FIBC discharger.(Equipment in Action)
January 1, 2004... It does exactly what it says on the tin--or in this case, the design spec', says Jane Hutton, process engineer with Victrex in Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire. The design spec in question related to an FIBC (flexible intermediate bulk container)...

Happiness is a VSD compressor.(Equipment in Action)
January 1, 2004... Air supply plays a crucial role in the plant operation at JR Freeman's cigar factory in Cardiff where the company produces Gallaher's well-known Hamlet brand. Compressed air is needed both for the manufacturing machinery and, at a lower...

Seeing inside Sellafield's reactors.
January 1, 2004... Perhaps more than any other, the nuclear industry has a great interest in non-invasive process monitoring techniques. A recent example is at BNFL's Sellafield site where, following a successful demonstration, the company has decided to trial...

Damping down the foam.(Equipment in Action)
January 1, 2004... Foaming can be a significant problem in many processes, affecting both product quality and production efficiency. At Zeon Chemicals' nitrile rubber and polymer processing plant in Sully, South Wales, for example, foam generated by the use of...

Design into business: the new generation of intensified reactor designs are beginning to move from the laboratory to the plant, especially in the speciality chemicals sector. Richard Bahu explains how these business needs can influence the design process, and vice versa.(Reactor Design)
January 1, 2004... Since the earliest days of the process industries, the focal point for production has been the reactor and the catalytic processes that it contains. Therefore, it surprises many external observers that much of the industry still relies on...

Explosive limit: extreme conditions sometimes call for unorthodox solutions. Stuart Nathan reports on how Dynamit Nobel designs plants which use and manufacture highly explosive products, and on the new developments which could transform their practices.(Hazardous Chemistry)
January 1, 2004... It's dark in the bunker, and cold. Tunnelled into a small, wooded mound, the walls are lined with blackened planks and studded with shards of twisted metal. 'We place the sample in here,' says the technician, indicating a clamp set three feet...

Monitoring mill effluent: paper mills use enormous volumes of water, much of which is discharged under strict IPPC regulations. Monitoring water quality is therefore a vital part of the production process, as shown in this look at Aylesford Newsprint's mill in Kent.(Pulp & Paper Industry)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2004... One of the largest paper mills of its type. Aylesford Newsprint's plant on the stretches of the River Medway broke a world record for newsprint production in December 2000. Sold under the Renaissance brand name, its products are 100 per cent...

Managing corrosion through plastics; post-chlorinated polyvinyl chloride pipes and fittings offer a combination of mechanical strength, temperature and corrosion resistance and low cost to meet process uses such as bleaching, says Gulnara Omarbekova.(Pulp & Paper Industry)
January 1, 2004... Long service life, minimum downtime and environmental compliance are critical requirements in today's highly competitive industrial environment. These factors can be particularly challenging in the pulp and paper industry where corrosion can...

Closing the loop: the last link in the control chain, the performance of control valves can have a dramatic impact on the overall profitability of a plant. Mike Spear reports from France on Emerson's valve and control loop test facility.(PAC)
January 1, 2004... At its valve manufacturing facility in Cernay, France, Emerson Process Management recently commissioned a 'PlantWeb Dynamic Performance Loop' test rig. One of five such loops set up by the company at various locations around the world, the...

A controlling hand for batch mixing: Bob McAlster describes how a manual batch mixing process was automated to follow the original method as closely as possible.(Process Control)
January 1, 2004... In a manufacturing process for fireproof fibre boards used in the automotive industry, five ingredients--a polymer flocculant, latex, alum, antifoaming agent and cellulose containing 4 per cent solids--had to be mixed by hand and dosed into a...

Keeping it simple.(Flow & Level Applications)
January 1, 2004... Intended for level measurement in liquid bulk storage in tank farms, or in simple process vessels, Siemens Automation & Drives' two-wire Sitrans LR20 pulse radar instrument is designed to be simple both to install and operate. An instrinsically...

Low-cost level sensing.(Flow & Level Applications)
January 1, 2004... Vega Controls has added the Vegason 60 series of ultrasonic level sensors to its low-cost plics family. The new sensors handle non-contact measurement of level for liquids and solids, with a measurement range of 5m to 70m depending on product...

Tax breaks for water industry.(Flow & Level Applications)
January 1, 2004... The Water Technology List, a new government initiative under the Enhanced Capital Allowance umbrella, allows companies who process and use water to write off the full cost of certain items of equipment against income and corporation tax in the...

Valve controllers.(Flow & Level Applications)
January 1, 2004... Tyco Valves & Controls has launched an integrated system of valve control accessories, all suitable for hazardous area or general process applications. Named AVID (Actuator Valve Interface Devices), the range includes position monitors,...

Conductive level.(Flow & Level Applications)
January 1, 2004... Providing level control for electrically conductive media such as ionic compounds, acids, beverage and sewage, Lee-Dickens' two new Noflote controllers are the first new products to be added to the Noflote range since Lee-Dickens acquired the...

No sparks from safe jet pump.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... The Genflo S-pump--a robust, powerful jet pump with no moving parts--can be used to mop up or transfer slurries, powders and liquids including most acids, alkalis, oils and harsh abrasives. It is now available for hire or sale through Jet-Pump...

Sound the alarm.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... Klaxon has updated three core electric sounders within its Syrex range. The redesigned Syrex 5, Syrex LC and Syrex 6P now offer greatly improved usability and performance. Possessing an impressive 32 tones each, all units in the range now...

Pressure sensors.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... GE Druck has announced a range of high-quality low pressure sensors. The LP 1000 series offers an LCD display and a wide variety of mounting configurations, specifically designed for clean room, HVAC and similar low pressure monitoring...

Cartridge seals.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... John Crane has created a new cartridge seal family, the 4600 series, by introducing its new 4620P dual cartridge seal. Combined with an increase in the range of sizes offered by the original 4610 single cartridge seal, this move allows John...

No shocks.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... Shock and vibration, which can damage equipment during transit or poor handling and cause problems for suppliers and users, may be monitored and identified at low cost by the use of Brownell 'Shockmaster' compact mechanical devices....

Switches for arduous conditions.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... Delta Controls has launched a range of rugged, compact pressure switches in stainless steel. The Volume range is suitable for use in general purpose applications, aggressive atmospheres and hazardous environments across the process industry,...

Full range of C&I products.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... OEM Automatic has released its new Electrical Components catalogue for control and automation. The catalogue is split into three main product areas: panel products, featuring push buttons, cam switches, switch disconnectors etc; sensors and...

Calibration for oil systems.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... The Calibration Trade Centre (CTC) specialises in instrumentation for lubrication, heat transfer, fuel or hydraulics in oil systems. Its calibration flow rigs cover flow ranges up to 150l/m, at temperatures from 25-55[degrees]C, and up to 80l/m...

Hose catalogue.(What's New in Process Engineering)
January 1, 2004... The new Masterflex catalogue, presenting its wide range of technical hoses and connecting systems in a modern, user-friendly layout is now available. As well as providing comprehensive technical data on every product, a new technical appendix...

Upgrade for shear beams.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... Thames Side Maywood has launched an upgraded, high spec range of folded shear beam load cells to replace the company's successful VC8600 range. The stainless steel Series 650 load cells for commercial weighing applications are OIML C3 approved,...

Compact alarm.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... RTK is expanding its existing range of safe and hazardous area alarm annunciators with the UC625 compact annunciator. The unit is specifically targeted at the latest power generation, transmission and distribution applications where safety,...

Quick delivery.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... Tranter PHE has supplied gasketed and all-welded heat exchanger units for offshore crude oil processing duties on the Marlim Sul FPSO (Floating Storage and Production Offloading Unit) in Brazil. The units were designed, manufactured, and...

COD testing.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... The Palintest Tubetest system offers a simple, quick and convenient method of testing chemical oxygen demand (COD) which conforms to the new ISO standard on sealed-tube COD testing (BS ISO 15705:2002). The COD test is vital for assessing the...

Three steps to security.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... The new anti-tamper lock (ATL) from Smith Flow Control secures companies' assets by reducing the risk of human error or deliberate tampering. The standard condition of the device in service is locked (key-free) with the handwheel free-rotating....

Small, but accurate, doses.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... Newcastle-based hydraulic manufacturing company, Rotary Power, intends to meet increasing industrial demands for smaller displacement pumps with metering capabilities. The company has extended its proven 'C' range of chemical axial piston pumps...

Ring of confidence in Cumbria.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... 'O' rings in over 100 general and high-performance elastomers are now precision-moulded by James Walker at its Cockermouth plant in Cumbria. Material grades from medium nitrile, ethylene-propylene and silicones to explosive decompression...

Preventing explosions.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... The latest Servomex process oxygen analyser, the 2200, enables companies in the petroleum and gas industries to analyse the oxygen content of gas close to the burners of flare stacks while installing the actual gas analyser in a remote control...

Safe enclosures.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... Rittal introduces four new sizes of wall mounted enclosures that meet the demanding IP69K standard. Capable of withstanding 100 bar pressure at 80[degrees]C from the short distance of 100 to 150mm for two minutes, Rittal's IP69K compact...

Hard faced brochure.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... The range of wear- and corrosion-resistant coating technologies available from John Crane is detailed in a new brochure. A handy reference guide to the technical specification and performance details of various hard facings used in Crane...

Code makers.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... DVT and Veritec have announced an agreement to integrate Veritec's industry-leading VeriCode symbol reading capabilities into DVT's Legend Ethernet-enabled SmartImage sensors. Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, SmartImage Sensors...

Flowmeter with many fittings.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... The FT2 flowmeter system from Titan gives the OEM or machine builder the ultimate in connection flexibility. At its heart is a rugged, low cost, chemically resistant flow sensor, suitable for a 20:1 flow range between 0.01 to 160 l/min. Metal...

Mills need less energy.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... Netzsch Condux Jet Mills are taking the place of spiral mills, unidirectional jet mills and wet grinding systems. This is because they require less energy and have a more favourable price to performance ratio. The machines also produce less...

At your service.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... To ensure that its photometers provide peak performance and are maintained at the highest possible specification, Palintest now offers its customers a complete range of service options and upgrades. Depending on the instrument, photometers can...

Crane cuts costs on actuators.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... Crane Process Flow Technologies has introduced its new Saunders ES Modulator actuator range. Costs of ownership have been reduced through standardisation of the actuator spring cases (heads), and utilising an interchangeable bonnet assembly. By...

Precise dose without pulsing.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... Simple, controlled liquid dosing at very low flow rates is available with the new Liqui-Flow pump controller from Bronkhorst. In one simple combination a close-coupled mass flowmeter and pump accepts analogue or digital signals defining the...

Sensor for filling duties.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... LightPix is a new vision sensor from Matsushita Electric Works. It offers the set-up ease of a sensor combined with a comprehensive array of inspection checkers that ensures 100 per cent quality checking of production. LightPix is ideal for...

Static grounder.(Market Place)
January 1, 2004... The Bond-Rite self-testing static grounding clamp from Newson Gale helps prevent static related incidents by continuously testing its connection to drums, containers and other mobile plant to ensure static is safely dissipated. The Bond-Rite is...

Web watch.
January 1, 2004... BULK STORAGE Portasilo Ltd: www.portasilo.co.uk CONTROL SOFTWARE Cytek: www.cytek.co.uk National Instruments: www.ni.com Status Instruments Ltd: www.signatrol.co.uk MAGNETIC SEPARATORS Eclipse Magnetics:...

Contents.
January 1, 2004... WELCOME to this special publication from Process Engineering, focusing on the role of process engineers in the design and construction of process plant, large and small. In this new annual look at current and recently completed projects, we...

Ahead of the game: in the fast-moving pharmaceutical industry, contractors have to cope with the demands of their clients and the regulatory authorities--both of which can change at any point. Teamwork is the key, as Alan Cumming of Aker Kvaerner tells Process Engineering.(Comment)
January 1, 2004... THE money's big, but so are the risks. The pharmaceutical industry is the financial powerhouse of the process sectors. generating more profits than all the other sectors combined, and often seen as the safest bet in an uncertain economy--after...

Knowledge power: drawing parallels with the commodities markets, Ben Eazzetta of Intergraph Process Power and Offshore highlights the importance of engineering information and work processes to the future success of EPCs.(Comment)
January 1, 2004... MOST people think of commodities markets as places where traders buy and sell many of the world's essential goods--wheat, cotton, oil, gold and so on. The majority of this trading is accomplished through 'futures' contracts, where there is an...

A cracking revamp: following its acquisition by Russian oil giant Lukoil in 1999, Bulgaria's Bourgas refinery embarked on a six-year expansion plan. A core part of the plan is the revamp of the fluid catalytic cracking unit, overseen by Foster Wheeler Iberia.(Oil & Gas)
January 1, 2004... SITUATED on the shores of the Black Sea, the Lukoil Neftochim refinery at Bourgas is the largest petrochemical complex in the Balkans, with a capacity to process more than 7 million tonnes of crude oil a year, or 22 000tonnes a day. Its sale in...

Raising the safety standard: since its opening in the 1960s, the North Sea gas terminal at Bacton in Norfolk has undergone many changes. Its latest major refit involved a new control system designed to help the plant meet today's environmental and safety standards.(Oil & Gas)
January 1, 2004... THE BP gas reception and processing terminal at Bacton on the Norfolk coast was one of the first facilities to begin handling North Sea gas when this valuable energy resource was first exploited in the late 1960s. While the processes involved...

Clamping down on downtime.(Oil & Gas)
January 1, 2004... Furmanite International has recently been involved in two piping repair projects that have saved millions of pounds for its customers by avoiding costly unplanned shutdowns. At ExxonMobil's Mossmorran petrochemical complex in Scotland, a...

In the pipeline.(Oil & Gas)
January 1, 2004... Heavy duty, fluid-power valve actuators are being supplied by Rotork for the 477km PGN Sumatra to Singapore natural gas pipeline. Manufactured at Rotork's dedicated fluid system factory in Italy, the actuators are to be fitted to ball valves...

Outward bound for Bonga.(Oil & Gas)
January 1, 2004... Shown here leaving AMEC's integration facility at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, last October, this Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel is at the start of its voyage to the Bonga oil and gas field 120km off the coast of Nigeria....

Go east: the largest foreign petrochemicals investment in China, Shell's joint-venture olefins and derivatives complex with CNOOC in Nanhai, is a daunting task, and it's taking a major collaboration between EPCs, suppliers and sub-contractors.(Petrochemicals)
January 1, 2004... FOR the petrochemicals industry, China is the place to be. Growth rates are in double digits for the forseeable future, labour is cheap, and the market is huge and relatively untapped. Because of this, the region is currently home to some of...

Made it through the rain: the heaviest monsoon rains in years couldn't stop Aker Kvaerner from building BASF Petronas's major butanediol plant in Gebeng, near the port of Kuantan in Malaysia.(Petrochemicals)
January 1, 2004... IT rains a lot on the Malaysian coast. Construction projects in Malaysia are prepared for the monsoon season, but the start of Aker Kvaerner's project to build BASF and Petronas's joint-venture butanediol plant was an exceptional case. 'We had...

Critical factor: fine chemicals producer Thomas Swan is pioneering environmentally friendly 'green' chemistry through its new plant--the world's first full-scale organic synthesis facility to use supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent.(Chemicals)
January 1, 2004... WITH environmental issues higher on the agenda than ever before, chemicals producers are anxious to find cleaner methods to make and process their products. One way of improving the environmental performance of a process is to reduce--or...

Automation boosts productivity.(Chemicals)
January 1, 2004... Looking for ways to increase output without building new plant, polyester resin producer Scott Bader has turned to Rockwell Automation for an automation system that makes its existing systems more efficient. The system, a networked control...

Powder handling aids Syngenta expansion.(Chemicals)
January 1, 2004... Hosokawa Stott has installed new filling, discharging and weighing systems for agrochemical manufacturer Syngenta at its plant in Grangemouth. The new equipment will help Syngenta handle increasing demand for a new fungicide product, Acanto,...