Process Engineering articles from March 2005

Process Engineering archives from March 2005

COMMENT.
March 21, 2005... Since its launch over 40 years ago, the goal of Process Engineering has been to keep its readers informed - about developments in technology that can improve their plants, about changes in legislation that can affect the way they operate...

Generics acquisition transforms Novartis.
March 21, 2005... Increasing pressure on healthcare budgets and an impending wave of drug patent expiries are behind Novartis's E5.65billion acquisition of German generics manufacturer Hexal and two-thirds of Eon Labs, a US generics maker owned by the same...

Costain wins nitrogen rejection technology contract.
March 21, 2005... Mexican state petrochemicals company Pemex has awarded a $150million contract to build the world's largest nitrogen rejection plant to Techint and its technology supplier, Costain Oil, Gas and Process. To be installed at the Ciudad Pemex Gas...

Fast cladding for pig launch.
March 21, 2005... Clean pipe solution: Arc Energy Resources helped North Yorkshire-based Pipeline Engineering to meet the demands of an Iranian EPC contractor for corrosion-resistant pig launch vessels for gas pipelines in the South Pars Gas Development...

Gas price risk to UK chemicals.
March 21, 2005... The government and regulators need to take action to protect manufacturing industry from high and volatile gas prices, according to the Chemical Industries Association. Recent price hikes have led some chemical companies with no option but to...

Patent success for Invensys.
March 21, 2005... Invensys has been awarded two patents for the core technology behind its Foxboro CFT50 digital Coriolis mass flowmeter. Both relating to signal processing techniques, the patents have been granted by the US patent office. The technology...

Safety certification.
March 21, 2005... A certified system integrator programme from Pilz Automation Technology will help system integrators (SIs) to complete any of their projects with safety-related aspects. 'While some projects are focused primarily on safety issues, there are...

CLIMATE CHANGE SEMINARS.
March 21, 2005... With the Kyoto Protocol now in force, the UK's commitment is under question following Tony Blair's admission that CO2 targets will not be met. Martin Fry, chairman of the Energy Systems Trade Association, is to chair a seminar on reducing...

CHINA PE FOR KVAERNER.
March 21, 2005... Aker Kvaerner has signed a contract with Univation Technologies for the basic engineering phase of a world-scale polyethylene plant in Quangzhou. The plant, with a capacity of 400,000tpa, will be operated by Fujian Petrochemical, a joint...

AMEC ENVIRONMENT.
March 21, 2005... AMEC has bought the Environmental Advice Centre (EAC) for #1.4million. The EAC provides ecological services and assessments, contaminated land remediations and air and water quality appraisals. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and...

Chiron restarts flu vaccine lines.
March 21, 2005... The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has lifted its suspension on vaccines maker Chiron's manufacturing plant in Liverpool, after the company answered concerns about bacterial contamination. The suspension caused a serious...

Pulp and power.
March 21, 2005... Siemens Power Generation is to supply three steam turbine-generators for Billerund, a major Swedish pulp and paper producer. The generators will supply electricity and process steam for mills in Karlsborg, Gruvon and Skarblacka. The contract...

Year of progress for AK.
March 21, 2005... Norwegian contracting major Aker Kvaerner had a year of 'solid progress' in 2004, with profits on a considerable upward streak. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were up 40%, to NKr1.4billion (#117million),...

Shell to build Sicilian LNG terminal.
March 21, 2005... Shell has signed an agreement to develop and build a regasification terminal for liquefied natural gas for ERG Power in Sicily. The plant, with a capacity of around 8billion m3 of gas per year, will cost some E400million. The proposed...

Constant flux deal.
March 21, 2005... Specialist reactor manufacturer Ashe Morris has signed an agreement with Powder Systems Ltd (PSL) to co-develop a range of reactors and bioreactors incorporating Ashe Morris's Constant Flux (Coflux) reactor technology (see PE February, p27)....

ABB takes on Mexico project.
March 21, 2005... ABB has won an $80million order for the outfitting and automation of an offshore oil and gas platform for the exploration and production arm of Mexican state petrochemicals company Pemex. The platform will be sited in the Ku-Maloob-Zaap...

Take the tube for hydrogen storage.
March 21, 2005... Carbon nanotubes could be a vital component in hydrogen storage systems, according to research from the University of Quebec a Trois- Rivieres. Zahir Dehouche and colleagues have been looking at the absorption characteristics of sodium alanate,...

Photosynthesis for hydrogen.
March 21, 2005... Generating hydrogen is one of the major obstacles in the way of the widespread adoption of fuel cells. The cells produce electricity while only making water as a by-product, but the most likely way of producing large amounts of hydrogen is by...

Hollow success.
March 21, 2005... The first hollow nanocrystals, created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have potential as catalysts for low-sulphur fuels, according to researchers led by Ken Suslick of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and...

'Space eye' checks fabric colours.
March 21, 2005... Technology developed to monitor the use of agrochemicals from space is finding a new application in the textile industry. Originally developed by a Finnish company called SPECIM, the spectrographic system can recognise over 30,000 colours,...

Hard wood could be a source of fuels.
March 21, 2005... Hardwoods could be an economic source of energy and chemical feedstocks, according to Dutch chemical engineer Mark Prins, of Eindhoven University of Technology. In a project sponsored by Shell Global Solutions and the Netherlands Energy...

Battery-free sensing.
March 21, 2005... Instrumentel, a spin-out from the University of Leeds, has developed a communications system which can act as both a sensor and an actuator, without requiring batteries. The system, which uses inductively coupled wireless telemetry, can be...

PLANT SAFETY: Integrated safety.
March 21, 2005... With two new safety control systems launched on to the market last month, the radical shift in the philosophy of the control of plant safety that began last year has clearly become part of mainstream thinking among the control vendors. Mike...

FILTRATION & SEPARATION: A faster service.
March 21, 2005... If your decanter centrifuge breaks down or needs servicing, you need it back in service fast. Derbyshire-based Centriquip, a manufacturer of decanter centrifuges, provides a comprehensive maintenance and repair service for all decanters,...

FILTRATION & SEPARATION: Magnetic attraction.
March 21, 2005... A new self-cleaning filtration technology from Axflow promises to reduce and simplify maintenance by using magnetism to revolve the cleaning disc. Developed by RPA Processing Technology, the magnetic coupling replaces the usual shaft-driven...

FILTRATION & SEPARATION: A sticky problem solved.
March 21, 2005... Nevill Chemical, a maker of hydrocarbon resins based in Anaheim, California, has turned to Russell Finex to boost productivity at its plant. The company identified the resin filtration system as a point where new equipment could improve...

FILTRATION & SEPARATION: That's another fine mesh.
March 21, 2005... Sieves and meshes, for the most demanding medical, pharmaceutical and bio-engineering needs, are now available from Tecan. They can be produced in standard and bespoke forms to offer, giving screening, filtering and particulate processing...

FILTRATION & SEPARATION: Stock options.
March 21, 2005... Following extensive market research and thousands of hours of product testing, Kemutec has now added a new sifter to its range of KEK easy clean sifters. This new range of standard cantilevered shaft sifters extends its capability into the...

FILTRATION & SEPARATION: Outstanding support from CUNO.
March 21, 2005... Improved flow-rates and more efficient removal of contaminants are claimed as the main advantages of a new filter system from CUNO. Aimed as a replacement for standard bag filters, the system is claimed to increase filter surface area by 62%,...

FOOD INDUSTRY: Preparing for PPC.
March 21, 2005... The Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations have been a fact of life for four years, yet are still hot news for the food industry. Jennifer Boniface provides an introduction to the application process and a few practical tips to ease your...

FOOD: A bhuna for control.
March 21, 2005... A joint effort between Mitsubishi Electric and BCH Group, a process engineering firm based in Lancashire, has helped a large manufacturer of cook-chill curries and pour-over sauces meet the stringent quality criteria demanded by the UK's major...

FOOD: Motors aren't run of the mill.
March 21, 2005... Cereform, the only soya flour miller in the UK, has slashed its energy and maintenance bills by replacing outdated electric motors with high- efficiency models from ABB. The 18 22KW motors, which spin the plates that grind the soya beans on...

FOOD: Big freeze helps Hill Station meet demand.
March 21, 2005... Premium ice-cream maker Hill Station, based in Calne, Wiltshire, has boosted production rates by 50% thanks to a new freezer provided by ice- cream industry specialist Alfred & Co. The WCB Ice-Cream MF600 freezer was the result of an...

FOOD: Sweet smell of success.
March 21, 2005... The latest generation of coffee makers from Philips and coffee company Douwe Egberts use ground coffee in 'pods' - a little like round teabags - which make a single cup of coffee. To keep the coffee fresh, Douwe Egberts packs the pods in...

DRIVES & MOTORS: Repair or replace?
March 21, 2005... Faced with the high cost of downtime, the varying prices of electric motors, and a host of new methods for detecting and fixing faults, plant and maintenance engineers face a difficult decision of whether to repair or replace an ailing...

Exhibition Review: Vision takes the centre stage at sensor shows.
March 21, 2005... With the dedicated IPOT (Image Processing and Optical Technology) and Machine Vision shows as part of its nine-strong portfolio, it was not surprising that last month's mtec exhibition at Birmingham's NEC attempted to put its visitors in the...

Exhibition Review: Extending the boundaries of infrared thermography.
March 21, 2005... Thanks to new product development and the integration of the Indigo range, FLIR Systems says it now has infrared cameras to suit most manufacturing needs. From the world's smallest infrared camera to long- range, high-definition models, it...

Exhibition Review: While not forgetting the basic measurements.
March 21, 2005... Strongly featured though they were at the mtec shows, machine vision and image processing still took second place to the many exhibitors offering sensors and systems for basic process measurements. A typical example was Gems Sensors who...

Exhibition Review: ISA meets and greets.
March 21, 2005... The mtec event is not just about products; it is a genuine meeting place for all involved in automation and control. This is certainly the view of the ISA England Section, which hosted a series of seminars in the Industrial Networks Technology...

Exhibition Review: Machine vision now faces up to harsh conditions.
March 21, 2005... Machine vision systems have only recently been making inroads into the process industries, as the harsh, aggressive environments common to such applications have tested the reliability of systems developed originally for discrete...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Small, but significant, savings.
March 21, 2005... Today's process plants are increasingly run to tight margins, with small percentage improvements in performance bringing quantitative benefits to the bottom line. An example is the recent planned automation by SICIT 2000 of its new $30million...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: ABB helps keep Kodak in the picture.
March 21, 2005... An ABB control system is helping Kodak achieve 100% product quality at its synthetic chemicals plant in Kirkby, Liverpool. The system replaced an earlier Taylor system and controls logic, recipes and key process variables such as...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Silo-weighing system for hire.
March 21, 2005... Following a six-month trial on one of its 30m high, 500tonne soda ash silos at the Greengate float glass plant in St Helens, Pilkington has opted for AV Technology's Silo-Weigh system to give it the accurate inventory control it requires for...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Super order for superconducting magnets.
March 21, 2005... The leading coal company in China, Shenhua Coal Trading, recently placed a #2.6million order with Eriez Magnetics for six of the company's suspended superconducting electromagnets (SSE). Shenhua's ambition is to become the world's number one...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Peristaltics slash filling times.
March 21, 2005... SMA, a manufacturer of Seriprint digital print systems, was experiencing problems handling the specially-formulated, resin-based UV inks used by its range of digital printers. These inks are sensitive to light, heat and pressure, and are also...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: On-line sampler for off-line.
March 21, 2005... Through its equipment supplier, Incomsystems, the Russian gas company RAO Gazprom has chosen a Jiskoot fast loop sampling system to take representative samples of gas condensate from its process pipeline for further analysis under laboratory...

EQUIPMENT IN ACTION: Flow calibration rigs to meet China demand.
March 21, 2005... In yet another demonstration of the burgeoning market for process equipment in China, ABB has just completed two of three calibration rigs for its new instrumentation plant currently under construction in the country. Built at ABB's...

PRODUCT NEWS: Non-stop nitrogen supply.
March 21, 2005... Maxigas from domnick hunter [sic] is a range of nitrogen generators that produce nitrogen from compressed air, enabling manufacturers to make their own nitrogen at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods of supply. Advantages of the...

PRODUCT NEWS: Hosing out the water and waste.
March 21, 2005... Watson-Marlow Bredel has introduced two new direct-coupled hose pumps, which are said to be ideally suited to water and waste treatment applications. The SPX 10 and SPX 15 models are also said to offer improved durability, ease of maintenance...

PRODUCT NEWS: Pumping up performance.
March 21, 2005... The Wilden Pro-Flo V air distribution system from AxFlow is said to enhance the performance of the company's air-operated double diaphragm metal pumps. Supplied either as a complete pump build or for retrofitting, the Pro-Flo V system is...

UK and International Plant Cost Indices.
March 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...