Process Engineering articles from June 2005

Process Engineering archives from June 2005

BP accepts responsibility for Texas City explosion.
June 21, 2005... The explosion and fire at BP America's Texas City refinery, which caused 15 deaths and injured more than 170 people, was the result of failures in the start-up procedure of the isomerisation (ISOM) unit at the centre of the incident, the...

Fluor to design Saudi petrochemicals complex.
June 21, 2005... Fluor has won a contract for front-end engineering design (FEED) and project management for a major petrochemicals complex to be built in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia for Project Management and Development (PMD). The entire complex is expected to...

Blu-ray processing breakthrough boost.
June 21, 2005... A new film forming technique developed by German chemical company Degussa could help reduce the cost of manufacturing high capacity 'Blu- ray' optical data storage disks, tipped as the successor to CD and DVD formats. In Blu-ray disks (BDs),...

'Complacency' exacerbated Thorp leak.
June 21, 2005... The leakage of radioactive liquor into the fuel clarification cell at the Thorp nuclear fuel reprocessing facility at Sellafield was caused by metal fatigue to the piping from a suspended tank, according to an initial investigation from the...

Aker Kvaerner wins biofuel boiler contracts.
June 21, 2005... Aker Kvaerner has won a contract to supply a biofuel-fired boiler plant for paper and board plant in Sweden, and has also won several contracts for biofuel boiler modernisations in Sweden, Lithuania and Slovakia. The contracts are worth a...

IN BRIEF: Lanxess 'initial success'.
June 21, 2005... Lanxess, formerly the bulk chemicals and plastics arm of Bayer, posted a 65.7% rise in operating profit for the first quarter of 2005, to E116million, with sales up 7.4% to E1.7billion. The company is negotiating with employees over planned...

IN BRIEF: Arkema starts up MMP.
June 21, 2005... Arkema and US animal feed specialist Novus have started up a plant producing 3-methylthiopropion-aldehyde (MMP), a key constituent of amino acid feed supplements. The plant will allow Novus to produce 285 000tpa of its feed supplement, Alimet....

IN BRIEF: Dupont invests in MIT.
June 21, 2005... DuPont has announced that it to invest $25million into a research programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), continuing a relationship which began in 2000. The DuPont MIT Alliance programme looks at innovative materials and...

REACH 'an asset to competitiveness'.
June 21, 2005... The European Commissions proposed chemicals policy, REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) will 'give a push to competitiveness in Europe', rather than increasing costs for industry, according to Luxembourg's minister...

Haythornthwaite steps down.
June 21, 2005... Invensys chief executive Rick Haythornthwaite has made good his promise to leave the company once he had secured a turnaround. He is to step down in July, to be replaced by current chief operating officer, Ulf Henrickssen. 'I have...

John Crane achieves sales record.
June 21, 2005... Seals specialist John Crane has received a record order for its LaserFace seal, with a value of over E262 000. The order was placed by Italian firm Saras, for a hydrofluoric acid acylation plant at Sarroch, Sardina. The plant required a sealing...

IN BRIEF: Gas storage project.
June 21, 2005... Austrian, Russian and German gas producers RAG, Gazprom and Wingas are to join forces to convert the Haidach natural gas reservoir in Austria into the country's largest underground gas storage facility. The facility will be able to store...

IN BRIEF: Queen's award for Krohne.
June 21, 2005... Krohne has won a Queen's Award for Innovation for its Optimass Coriolis mass flow meter. 'Winning the Queen's Award is a tremendous achievement,' says managing director Trevor Fawcett. 'It recognises the immense skill and capability staff at...

IN BRIEF: Gas contract for Emerson.
June 21, 2005... Emerson Process Management is to supply $2million-worth of Fisher control valves to the Ormen Lange gas processing plant it Nyhamna, Norway. The valves will be used for applications which are subject to aerodynamic noise, and so will...

Iranian anger as Basell sold.
June 21, 2005... Executives at Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC) are blaming American pressure for their failure to land the world's biggest polypropylene producer, Basell. BASF and Shell, joint owners of Basell, sold the company to a consortium of...

Bayer Technology to build biofuel plant.
June 21, 2005... Bayer Technology is to provide key components for a plant to produce 60 000tpa of ethanol from wheat as a fuel additive, to be sited in Kazakhstan. The plant will be the first of its type in the country. The contract, which was awarded by...

Machine vision merger.
June 21, 2005... Machine vision specialist Cognex has bought its competitor, DVT, for $115million. The acquisition gives Cognex access to a wide range of distributors. 'This is the largest acquisition that Cognex has ever completed, in terms of price, in...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Microbial discovery raises 'gas farming' possibility.
June 21, 2005... A colony of bacteria living in an oilfield in Utah could be the key to a new type of fuel generation - 'farming' unrecoverable deposits of oil to convert it into methane gas. According to Luca Technologies, a company researching...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: BASF opens refinery laboratory in Russia.
June 21, 2005... As part of its efforts to consolidate its foothold in the Russian oil market, BASF has become the first company to set up a laboratory on the campus of the Gubkin State University of Oil and Gas in Moscow. The lab will operate as a technical...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: What acts like a crystal, but isn't a crystal?
June 21, 2005... Many electronic devices and sensors depend on crystals for their functions, but forming single crystals is notoriously difficult. Researchers from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, have now devised a method to make tiny crystalline...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Growing cells on plastic.
June 21, 2005... A method of modifying a conducting polymer so that human cells can bind to its surface could prove important in the manufacture of implants that promote nerve and blood vessel repair, according to researchers from the University of Texas at...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: New laboratory for solids handling.
June 21, 2005... The Wolfson Centre, which researches powder and granular solids handling techniques, is moving to a new purpose-built laboratory at the Medway Campus of the University of Greenwich. The lab, costing around #1million, will house the centre's...

TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Green method for making microcapsules.
June 21, 2005... A new method for making glass microcapsules - minute spheres that can be used to hold various kinds of active ingredients - could be used to hold enzyme catalysts for large-scale bioreactors, according to its inventors at Rice University in...

SEPARATION PROCESSES: Nitrogen on demand.
June 21, 2005... On-site generation of nitrogen can be an economic alternative to bulk supply of this important gas. Mike Spear reports from the Netherlands on one of the specialists in membrane separation technology and its application to air separation...

FLOW & LEVEL: Pressure for level.
June 21, 2005... Accurately determining the level of water/hydrocarbon interfaces is critical to the operation of equipment such as oil/water separators. Trevor Dunger argues that differential pressure measurement is the best of the available alternative...

FLOW & LEVEL: Switching channels.
June 21, 2005... Camcon Technology's low-powered, digitally-controllable valves and actuators, which can be switched from one position to another, could have applications in many process and engineering sectors. Stuart Nathan reports Valves are the point...

FLOW & LEVEL: Extreme level measurement.
June 21, 2005... When processes involve toxicity, abrasion, high temperatures, high pressures or baffles, conventional methods of data transmission tend to fail, and radiometric techniques come into their own. Endress+Hauser's Gammapilot M FMG60 compact...

FLOW & LEVEL: A matter of 'Echonomics'.
June 21, 2005... The Rosemount 5400 radar transmitter from Emerson Process Management is claimed to be the first of its kind to be able to handle three different types of complex signal processing. These are echosensitivity, the ability to detect weak radar...

FLOW & LEVEL: Coriolis for custody transfer.
June 21, 2005... Invensys has announced that the Foxboro CFT50 Digital Coriolis Mass Flow Meter has been certified internationally for custody transfer applications involving mass flow, volume and density measurements. The approval, from the Norwegian Metrology...

FLOW & LEVEL: Vega launches network conditioners.
June 21, 2005... Vega has launched two new signal conditioners for tank and silo level meters, designed to be connected to local and global networks. The Vegamet and Vegascan are ideal for local process control, tank farms and remote inventory applications...

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY: Waste lines for profit.
June 21, 2005... Finnish chemical company Kemira is coping with new European environmental legislation by using inorganic chemistry to transform waste streams into revenue-generating raw materials, as Sarah Houlton explains Chemical processes make waste,...

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY: Showing its mettle.
June 21, 2005... Based just outside Helsinki, Nordic Aluminium makes a million square metres of aluminium profile a year. Kemira now runs its water treatment plant, which produces aluminium hydroxide sludge. Kemira takes this to its coagulant production...

ASSET MANAGEMENT: Monitor machinery health.
June 21, 2005... Monitoring the performance of plant equipment plays a vital role in preventing unplanned shutdowns. Mike Spear reports on how real-time asset management is now being extended to rotating machinery such as centrifugal pumps and motors ...

ASSET MANAGEMENT: Lightening the load.
June 21, 2005... The pressure to maximise process efficiency has never been greater, and much of it is borne by the process engineering. Performance optimisation consultants can now offer solution by easing the load on hard-pressed engineers, explains Simon...

ASSET MANAGEMENT: Practical performance improvements.
June 21, 2005... Performance Plus is currently implementing a pump reliability improvement contract at the Sasol petrochemical plant in Secunda, South Africa, and is well on track to achieve its fourth year target twelve months ahead of schedule. Working...

PROCESS AUTOMATION: New slant on control.
June 21, 2005... With its small diagonal controllers, Honeywell's new DCS immediately looks different from its competitors. Stuart Nathan investigates the new look, and what lies behind it In some areas of technology, small is beautiful. We're accustomed...

PROCESS AUTOMATION: Rivals in safety compete for first place.
June 21, 2005... Honeywell and Yokogawa are both claiming that their respective safety systems, Safety Manager and ProSafe-RS Safety System, were the first to be certified for use in Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL3) applications by TUV Rhineland, the German...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Pump controllers cut energy costs.
June 21, 2005... Working with the Process Instrumentation & Analytics division of Siemens Automation & Drives, South West Water has cut its energy costs after the introduction of the EnviroRanger, Siemens' new pump controller. Following a trial with one unit...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Control upgrade keeps platform up to date.
June 21, 2005... Taking advantage of a planned production outage last September, ABB has upgraded the control system on BP's Lomond gas production platform in the North Sea. Five ABB Masterpiece controllers have been replaced with four of their modern...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Controlling pigment pollution.
June 21, 2005... At its Stockport factory, E C Pigments UK produces organic colour pigments for printing inks, coatings and plastics. Part of the process involves drying the powdered pigments on a band dryer, which can give rise to dust-laden exhaust gases. To...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: In-line dilution pays dividends.
June 21, 2005... A leading manufacturer of healthcare products required several deliveries a week of 28% SLES (sodium lauryl ether sulphate) to meet its production of toiletries and shampoos. The company needed extensive storage facilities for this, but by...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Drives set standard for power plant.
June 21, 2005... Dating back to the 1920s, when it was originally established by ICI, Terra Nitrogen's fertiliser plant at Billingham on Teesside has had its own power station to provide steam and power. At the time it was built there was no national...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Actuators prove worth in tough working environment.
June 21, 2005... The world's largest power stations to use oil shale as fuel are located in the city of Narva in Estonia. The Eesti and Balti power plants are fed with oil shale, which resembles very soft brown coal, from a series of belt conveyors, creating...

PLANT COST INDICES: UK and International Plant Cost Indices.
June 21, 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...