Process Engineering articles from March 2008

Process Engineering archives from March 2008

COMMENT: I'm an employer, get me out of here.
March 27, 2008... In the News Analysis section (p10), Higgins describes an increasingly dog-eat-dog world as regards recruitment in today's process sector. Entire shifts of workers are leaving their companies en masse to join better-paying employers in the...

Foundation leads on fieldbus.
March 27, 2008... Process companies are turning to automation in growing numbers for both greenfield and brownfield projects, with Foundation Fieldbus cited as the technology of choice Foundation Fieldbus (FF) has a 68% share of the market for...

Yokogawa claims major DCS advance.
March 27, 2008... Yokogawa Electric Corp has unveiled a flagship platform for its VigilantPlant distributed control system (DCS) programme. The Centum VP system, it claims, will go beyond the traditional DCS function of controlling and monitoring by integrating...

Regulators stymie 'green' investment.
March 27, 2008... Chemical industry plans to invest in plants and process technologies that reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency are being thwarted by a lack of clarity over regulations. The situation has become particularly acute with the recent EU...

Nufarm snaps up AH Marks.
March 27, 2008... Organic chemicals manufacturer AH Marks and Company has been bought by Australian group Nufarm, a leading supplier of crop protection products, for #74.6 million. Based in Wyke, near Bradford, privately-owned Marks has a staff of over...

IN BRIEF: Aker.(Brief article)
March 27, 2008... Aker is investing NOK875m (#81m) to build a CO2-capture plant that will have capacity to remove 100 kilotonnes of CO2 annually from process exhaust gasses. The facility will be built near the natural gas-fired power plant and gas processing...

IN BRIEF: ABB.(Brief article)
March 27, 2008... 2007 results at ABB showed earnings (EBIT) up 57% to $4bn (#2bn) on sales 25% higher at $29.2bn (#14.6bn). Process automation sales improved 18% to $6.4bn (#3.2bn), providing an EBIT increase of 26% to $683m (#345m), helped by large orders in...

IN BRIEF: Alstom Power and Dow Chemical.(Brief article)
March 27, 2008... Alstom Power Inc and Dow Chemical Co have signed a joint development and commercialisation agreement for advanced amine scrubbing technology for the removal of CO2 from low pressure flue gases, particularly in fossil fuel-fired power plants...

IN BRIEF: Air Liquide.(Brief article)
March 27, 2008... Air Liquide has reported 2007 results showing sales up 7.8% to Euro11.8bn (#9.3bn) and net profit up 12.1%. Highlights over the 12 months included a doubling of capital expenditure to Euro2.7bn (#2.1bn) and strengthening of the portfolio...

ANALYSIS: Late chance for employers to reverse process skills decline.
March 27, 2008... The new National Skills Academy represents an key opportunity for the process sector to get its act together on skills and training, warns Stan Higgins of NEPIC The current skills shortage in the UK process industries sector - that is...

ANALYSIS: Will Cooper play safe with MTL?(Company overview)
March 27, 2008... Houston-based owner highlights hazardous area synergies, but MTL is focused on its development in the wider process control market. Patrick Raleigh examines the deal Houston, Texas-based Cooper Industries' #144-million acquisition of the...

PLANT VISIT - VICTREX: PEEK practice grows.
March 27, 2008... Process reliability is central to the Victrex polymer production site at Thornton Cleveleys, which has recently commissioned a second plant to meet growing global demand for its high performance engineering thermoplastic. Patrick Raleigh...

CARBON BALANCE: BASF offers 'green' blueprint.
March 27, 2008... Carbon calculations cover production through to use and disposal. Patrick Raleigh reports The chemicals giant claims to be the world's first company to present a comprehensive carbon balance for its operations. The calculations, it adds,...

ASSET MANAGEMENT - FINANCE: Smarter ways to pay.
March 27, 2008... The process industries are under increasing pressure to improve their operations by installing, updating and retrofitting new equipment. This, however, costs money that top management may be reluctant to provide, despite benefits such as...

ASSET MANAGEMENT: Finance options deliver savings.
March 27, 2008... Atlas Copco reports how a customer with an existing service contract on 15 fixed-speed compressors, all in excess of 20 years old, asked for a site audit. As a result, Atlas Copco recommended replacement of the existing equipment with two...

ASSET MANAGEMENT: Deal or no deal.
March 27, 2008... There will be a forced change in the attitude of industry towards different forms of financing, predicts Steve Barker, an energy management consultant for Siemens Automation & Drives. "A little lateral thinking," he said, "could go a long way...

ASSET MANAGEMENT - GUINESS: AM is good for you.
March 27, 2008... Diageo is rolling out a new asset management programme across its production sites worldwide, following the success of a three-year initiative at the St James's Gate brewery - the production centre for Guinness in Ireland. The famous...

ASSET MANAGEMENT - TURBOMACHINERY: Spin doctors weigh in.
March 27, 2008... Customers are moving to integrated systems from single-service providers for monitoring their heavy rotating machinery. Patrick Raleigh reports Turbomachinery generally operates at high speeds, often generating huge levels of rotating...

SIMULATION/CONTROL: Dynamic simulation can accelerate APC payback.
March 27, 2008... Despite scepticism in some quarters, simulation is proving an effective tool for implementing advanced process control projects, writes Andy Coward The answer to that question lies with simulation. Since the process and equipment design...

P&ID SOFTWARE: Smarter and faster software.
March 27, 2008... New piping and instrumentation software simplifies many of the routine design tasks when upgrading process plants A Norwegian company SPECIALISING IN LIQUID handling systems and technology for the global oil & gas offshore and marine...

P&ID SOFTWARE: Martin extends DEM deal.
March 27, 2008... Martin Engineering, a global supplier of solids handling systems, is to expand its use of EDEM software from DEM Solutions of Edinburgh, Scotland. The US-based company uses the software in design optimisation and development of its engineered...

P&ID SOFTWARE: Managing explosion risk.
March 27, 2008... The FLACS (FLame ACceleration Simulator) from GexCon is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software tool for modelling ventilation, gas dispersion, vapour cloud explosions and blasts in complex process areas. It is designed particularly...

P&ID SOFTWARE: Petrobras extends CFD usage.
March 27, 2008... Brazilian oil & gas major Petrobras has extended an agreement with Ansys covering the use of its simulation and modelling technology for process design applications across its production, refining and processing operations. Engineers use...

FLUIDS/SOLIDS: British Sugar stirred by the challenges of ATEX/DSEAR.
March 27, 2008... British Sugar plc operates four sugar beet processing plants in the UK producing more than one million tonnes of sugar a year - around half the UK's sugar demand. Reflecting the potential for sugar dust to create explosions, the company has...

WATER SUPPLY: Raising the quality bar.
March 27, 2008... End-users in the water industry are increasingly focusing on pump reliability amid increasing emphasis on regulatory compliance European water regulations are increasing customer focus on quality and reliability of fluid handling equipment...

WATER SUPPLY: Major savings.
March 27, 2008... Sanofi Aventis has fitted a Hydro multi pump controller (MPC) booster set with three CRE32-3 variable speed multi-stage centrifugal pumps at its pharmaceuticals production site, in Dagenham, Essex. The booster set provides the water...

SILO MONITORING: Solids radar keeps the factory warm.
March 27, 2008... Furniture manufacturer William Ball of Grays, UK, generates significant volumes of waste wood dust, which is collected from various manufacturing units via a pneumatic extraction system and fed to a central silo. The wood dust is then used to...

TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION: Data system takes the biscuit.
March 27, 2008... Ryvita, part of the Associated British Foods Group, has achieved a 90% reduction in manual inputs across the production system at its Poole, UK site through the installation of a new MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) system. The...

TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION: Zero-waste recycling.
March 27, 2008... Osaka, Japan-based electronics major Panasonic has developed a recycling technology that enables the recovery of metals from plastic- coated wires and plastics used in electric and electronic equipment without causing hazardous side-effects....

TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION: Largest-ever pipe clamps.
March 27, 2008... South Wales-based Vector International has produced eight of what it believes to be the largest pipeline clamp connectors ever made. The units are for Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4 - two of the world's largest LNG developments, which are expected...

TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION: Pigment process advance.
March 27, 2008... Researchers at the University of Leeds have developed a simpler, cheaper and greener method of extracting higher yields of titanium dioxide (TiO2), which is widely used as a white pigment. Despite its relative abundance in nature, TiO2 is...

PEOPLE: BASF.
March 27, 2008... BASF has named Dr Ulrich von Deessen as its first climate protection officer with a remit to coordinate all activities in this area worldwide. Formerly chief of staff to the BASF chairman, von Deessen joined BASF in 1987 with a doctorate in...

PEOPLE: Sulzer Wood.
March 27, 2008... Sulzer Wood (a JV between Wood Group and Sulzer Pumps UK) has appointed Graham Glen as general manager. Glen joins from a 17-year career with Howden Process Compressors in Renfrew, Scotland, where he was latterly general manager for...

PEOPLE: Netzsch Pumps.
March 27, 2008... James Harvey has returned to the UK as managing director of Netzsch Pumps, the Walsall-based company he first joined as an area sales manager in 1997. Harvey has almost 20 years' experience in progressing cavity pump sales - the last 10 within...

PEOPLE: Davy Markham.
March 27, 2008... Davy Markham has named John Watson as its new production director. After joining the company as a lathe turner, Watson moved from the shopfloor to gain experience of non-production processes. He moved through the management ranks, gaining an...

PEOPLE: Spiroflow.
March 27, 2008... Spiroflow has appointed Robert Hudson as managing director. Hudson was previously production director at Palamatic, prior to establishing his own engineering and management consultancy in 2006. After studying mechanical engineering, he moved...