Process Engineering articles from March 2009

Process Engineering archives from March 2009

COMMENT: Should your kids become process apprentices?
March 12, 2009... Kevin Thrower, skills manager for the National Skills Academy Process Industries, has a 15-year-old son who is currently considering his career options. He comments: "I'd be delighted to see him enter the process industries on an...

Storm brewing after Lindsey.
March 12, 2009... Unrest continues at UK process sites in the wake of unofficial strike at Lindsey Oil Refinery More labour unrest at power station developments at Staythorpe, Nottinghamshire and the Isle of Grain, Kent appears likely after the GMB Central...

Tsar is born as demand for apprentices rises.
March 12, 2009... The Government's Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill has been welcomed as an opportunity for policymakers to reform the UK's further education (FE) and apprenticeship schemes. While it cautioned the bill's ambition for the...

Wireless to spy on processes.
March 12, 2009... A Manchester University team is developing 'spy' capsules to remotely monitor industrial processes. The Manchester team is being helped by Phoenix Inspection Systems in a programme that forms part of the Wireless Sensor Networks for...

IN BRIEF: European Commission.(Brief article)
March 12, 2009... Investment in EU energy infrastructure projects is a key part of a Euro5-billion economic stimulus package announced by the European Commission. A total of Euro1,750m is proposed for investment in gas and electricity interconnection projects,...

IN BRIEF: UCAS figures.(Brief article)
March 12, 2009... UK universities appear set for a record number of chemical engineering applications. Based on UCAS figures, provisional applications are up by almost one-fifth on last year's final figure, with more than 8,500 received. Copyright:...

IN BRIEF: Chemical Industries Association.(Brief article)
March 12, 2009... The Chemical Industries Association has called on government to do more to ensure that its "well intentioned words" are turned into urgent action to rebalance the economy. Its submission points out that government is saying all the right...

IN BRIEF: WRc.(Brief article)
March 12, 2009... WRc has launched the Water industry Alarm Systems Improvement Group (WASIG) in response to a need for enhanced safety systems at water companies that are reducing site manning levels and moving to more centralised management of operations. The...

ANALYSIS: A very British dispute.
March 12, 2009... The Lindsey Oil Refinery strike was more about how engineering firms in the UK secure, manage and deliver projects than where the workers came from. Patrick Raleigh reports The Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR) dispute not only highlighted...

PROJECT INTEGRATION: New deal for EPCs?
March 12, 2009... Integration opportunities could change the way EPCs deal out contracts, suggests Steve Royston A shrinking pool of engineering expertise is likely to make it harder for EPC contractors to manage and control the complicated procurement...

WIRELESS: Wireless signals stronger.
March 12, 2009... Perceived reliability and security issues remain a major obstacle to wireless adoption, but there are signs that this problem is easing. Patrick Raleigh and Nick Denbow report Wireless remains a "hot" topic at the moment, but how...

WIRELESS: Proprietary preference.
March 12, 2009... According to VDC, the majority of global wireless networking product shipments are for devices with wireless Ethernet (IEEE 802.11 standards) connectivity. Proprietary protocols account for the second largest share of shipments and in 2007...

CAREERS IN FOCUS: Seamus Gillan.
March 12, 2009... Process Engineering features the views of talented people at various stages of their careers in the process industries Seamus Gillan has recently been appointed to head up Bayer MaterialScience for the UK and Ireland region. He holds an...

SOFTWARE: Geometric process control moves into batch processing.
March 12, 2009... Data-crunching technology is now finding a whole new set of process applications, writes Robin Brooks Geometric Process Control (GPC) is a new technology for monitoring and exploring process data through the application of n-dimensional...

SOFTWARE: Tried and tested.
March 12, 2009... The Rio Tinto Alcan Gove bauxite mine and alumina refinery on the Gove Peninsula in Australia's Northern Territory has completed a $3-billion expansion, which, when fully commissioned, will increase alumina production from 2 million to 3.8...

SOFTWARE: Simulation seeds biofuel processes.
March 12, 2009... Renewable fuels development company Novus Energy LLC is employing simulation software - a Process Engineering Suite (PES) from Invensys Process Systems - in its efforts to design second-generation biofuels processes. The product is being used...

SOFTWARE: Samsung Petrolchemical Co.
March 12, 2009... Samsung Petrochemical Co. (SPC) has entered an agreement with modelling technology and process optimisation company Process Systems Enterprise (PSE). The partners aim to jointly develop a range of advanced process optimisation services to be...

SOFTWARE: EDEM for pharma.
March 12, 2009... Discrete element modeling (DEM) software company DEM Solutions has started a collaboration with the Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH (RCPE) of Graz, Austria - an inter-disciplinary research institute dedicated to providing...

SOLIDS HANDLING: New HSE guidance and enforcement.
March 12, 2009... Dust at work is a major occupational hazard that causes misery to hundreds of thousands of people, even shortening lives. Gus Bishop explains Dust at work has been one of the largest occupational killers of all time and has caused misery...

SOLIDS HANDLING: Bagging sulphur in Alaska.
March 12, 2009... Spiroflow has supplied two bulk bag fillers for the recycling of over 36,000 tonnes of sulphur - a by-product of diesel fuel that's applied to the land as a fertiliser, amongst its many other uses - to an oil refinery in Kenai, Alaska. ...

SOLIDS HANDLING: US buys Clyde.
March 12, 2009... Clyde Process Solutions plc has been awarded a #9.3-million order by one of North America's leading providers of food ingredients and sugar products. This new order for the unidentified customer follows an initial #1.8- million order...

SOLIDS HANDLING: With the grain.
March 12, 2009... Grain and seed merchant McCreath Simpson & Prentice has reported "easier bag handling and better plant logistics" following its installation of a Chronos Richardson FIBC weigh-filling system. The Berwick-upon-Tweed-based company ordered the...

SOLIDS HANDLING: Palm Island dredgers sand and deliver.
March 12, 2009... Palm Deira in the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Arabia will be the third and last of the region's new Palm Islands. At 18km long and 9km wide, it will be the largest man-made island in the world when construction is completed some time...

SOLIDS HANDLING: AstraZeneca adds nitrogen-purged milling system.
March 12, 2009... AstraZeneca has installed a new nitrogen-purged milling system from Hosokawa Micron Ltd for delumping an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) prior to packaging. The unit was designed in conjunction with AstraZeneca engineers to provide...

HEAT TRANSFER: Care is needed for cooling tower fans.
March 12, 2009... They are only handling air at low rotational speeds but, warns EEMUA, serious problems can result if care is not taken of tower fans At first sight, a Cooling tower fan is straightforward in its design, being essentially an axial fan to...

HEAT TRANSFER: EEMUA publishes new guide.
March 12, 2009... EEMUA, the Engineering Equipment & Materials Users' Association, has published a new guide covering the design, maintenance and operation of industrial cooling tower fans and fin fans. Developed through the input of EEMUA's Machinery...

HEAT TRANSFER: Heat exchangers for slurries and solids.
March 12, 2009... Designing out blockages when handling process liquids that contain solids in suspension, or produce solid scaling. Nick Denbow reports Rather than putting up with the downtime caused by scaling and blocking of heat exchangers, process...

TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION: Robust mixer needed.
March 12, 2009... Since last November, the treatment of chemical wastes prior to landfill has to be carried out under much more tightly controlled conditions. In particular, the mixing of waste with binding agents must be carried out in a closed vessel inside...

TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION: Waste-to-energy venture.
March 12, 2009... United Utilities and Interserve have selected Energos, part of UK-based sustainable power group ENER-G, as technology provider for a joint venture project to build a thermal conversion waste facility in Derbyshire. The energy-from-waste plant...

TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION: Carbon capture task.
March 12, 2009... TUV NEL has started a new project to investigate measurement issues and challenges associated with the accurate monitoring of CO2 for different carbon capture and storage (CCS) applications. The work is being carried out within the...

TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION: Wessex displays renewables dash.
March 12, 2009... Wessex Water is installing new dashboards to monitor the energy performance of its combined heat and power (CHP) plants at six of its UK sites to allow operators and managers to continuously track plant performance. The installations are part...

TECHNOLOGY IN BRIEF: McKinsey & Co.
March 12, 2009... The world could reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 70% in 2030 and keep global warming below 2degC, but only with immediate global cross-sector action, according to a McKinsey & Co report. The study identifies the potential to abate...

TECHNOLOGY IN BRIEF: DIUS.
March 12, 2009... R&D spending by leading UK firms rose by 6% in 2007 - reaching #21.6 billion - according to new figures from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). The UK850 increased its spend by 7% over the last year; the fastest...

TECHNOLOGY IN BRIEF: National Grid.
March 12, 2009... Biogas could give the UK a new reliable source of green energy as the North Sea gas reserves run down, according to the National Grid. Currently, there is a small quantity of biogas from landfill and sewage plants in the UK, but it is mostly...

TECHNOLOGY IN BRIEF: BBSRC.
March 12, 2009... The UK is to establish a #27-million science centre to support the development of the emerging UK sustainable bioenergy sector, with a focus on plant-derived automotive fuels. The new Sustainable Bioenergy Centre represents the biggest ever...

TECHNOLOGY IN BRIEF: Dow Chemical and Sud-Chemie.
March 12, 2009... Dow Chemical Co and Sud-Chemie have agreed to research ways to convert synthesis gas (syngas), which can be derived from resources such as coal or biomass, to building block chemicals. As a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, syngas can...

FLUIDS MAINTENANCE: Slurry valves for goldmine.
March 12, 2009... Tyco Flow Control has supplied a pneumatically-operated cyclone distributor consisting of 18 Clarkson KGD slurry valves to a goldmine in Western Australia. To install the valves the customer's cyclone distributor was removed from the mine...

WIRELESS: 'Rugged' warning.
March 12, 2009... Specifying wireless communication systems can seem a case of 'if it isn't broken, why fix it?' says Paul Taylor, business manager for industrial communications at Siemens Automation and Drives. But, he warns, this approach can lead to...

WIRELESS APPLICATIONS: E.ON.
March 12, 2009... E.ON has installed new non-intrusive ultrasonic flowmeters at its Kingsnorth power station to monitor the distribution and usage of treated water around the turbine hall, which is around 500m long, and houses the large turbines, metal pipework...

WIRELESS APPLICATIONS: Repsol.
March 12, 2009... Repsol has selected wireless pressure transmitters from Honeywell to maintain accurate monitoring of several oil, gas and water pipelines to remote water injector wells that cross underneath the Colorado River in Argentina. Security and...

WIRELESS APPLICATIONS: Total Petrochemicals.
March 12, 2009... Total Petrochemicals is employing wireless technology - Emerson's SmartWireless system - for condition monitoring at its plant in Carling Saint Avold. The introduction is providing new temperature measurement data, enabling the company to...

WIRELESS APPLICATIONS: Hexion Specialiy Chemicals.
March 12, 2009... Hexion Specialty Chemicals at Pernis in Holland has installed 18 Honeywell wireless transmitters to send alarm signals from smoke detectors installed around the warehouses on its epoxy resin plant. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and...

WIRELESS APPLICATIONS: Standic.
March 12, 2009... The Standic chemicals-to-oils storage and distribution centre in Dordrecht has installed Honeywell Enraf SmartRadar units to measure all tank levels, combined with a Honeywell OneWireless system. Having saved Euro30,000 through eliminating...

WIRELESS APPLICATIONS: StatoilHydro.
March 12, 2009... The Grane offshore platform, near Bergen, operated by StatoilHydro, is claimed to be the first offshore wireless installation in Europe. An Emerson wireless network is monitoring wellhead annular pressure and heat exchanger pressures at the...

WIRELESS: BP expands its networks.
March 12, 2009... BP has installed wireless technology at its Wytch Farm operation, where around 40 Rosemount wireless transmitters are monitoring well-head pressures. Two transmitters are mounted on each wellhead and a single SmartWireless Gateway, mounted...

FLUIDS MAINTENANCE: #10k bearings.
March 12, 2009... NSK estimates that its solid lubricant bearings are providing cost savings of almost #10,000 a year, as a result of solving a problem of premature bearing failure on an IHT conveyor at a UK milk processing plant. Difficulties in accessing the...

FLUIDS MAINTENANCE: Pump design allows 30-minute maintenance.
March 12, 2009... Mono NOV has launched a new pump design, which, it claims, reduces a day-long maintenance operation down to a 30-minute job. Billed as "the biggest leap forward in progressing cavity (PC) pump design for 30 years", the EZstrip unit offers a...

CONTRACTS: Emerson Process Management.
March 12, 2009... Bristol-Myers Squibb has selected Emerson Process Management to fully automate a new $750-million facility in Devens, Massachusetts. This large-scale cell culture manufacturing facility will produce commercial biopharmaceuticals and will...

CONTRACTS: Shaw Group.
March 12, 2009... Shaw Group Inc has won a contract from Honeywell Specialty Materials that expands and consolidates several existing maintenance, small capital construction, reliability and engineering services contracts in Virginia and Louisiana. The...

CONTRACTS: Jacobs Engineering Group.
March 12, 2009... Jacobs Engineering Group Inc has received three framework contracts to provide multidisciplinary, front-end engineering services to three Eni operating units: Refining and Marketing, Exploration and Production, and Polimeri Europa. Officials...

CONTRACTS: Edwards.
March 12, 2009... Edwards has won an order worth more than E1 million to provide vacuum pumps for an in-line glass coater for Interpane, the German flat glass manufacturer. In addition, the global vacuum specialist has secured a service contract worth...

CONTRACTS: Clyde Process Solutions.
March 12, 2009... Clyde Process Solutions plc has been awarded a #9.3-million order by one of North America's leading providers of food ingredients and sugar products. The new order follows an initial #1.8-million contract from this customer. It is the...

PEOPLE: Sheffield Forgemasters International.
March 12, 2009... Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd has brought in an experienced industry health and safety specialist to oversee operations for its subsidiary, Vulcan Engineering Services. Ian Frost brings 14 years of experience to take the role of...

PEOPLE: Autodesk.
March 12, 2009... Autodesk Inc has appointed Mark Paraskeva its new vice president of Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA) regions. Previously vice president of the company's northern Europe region, Paraskeva has over 25 years' experience in industry...

PEOPLE: SMX International.
March 12, 2009... SMX International has appointed Gary Walford and Marc Robinson to head up its sales activities in Europe, and the Middle East/ Asia Pacific, respectively. Both Walford and Robinson join SMX from Vector International. They bring extensive...

PEOPLE: Quantitech.
March 12, 2009... Dr Roberto Lopez-Garcia has joined the service department of Quantitech. Lopez-Garcia most recently worked for a US environmental consultancy, specialising in stack emissions and contaminated land. He holds a PhD in coordination chemistry...

PEOPLE: BJ Services.
March 12, 2009... BJ Services Co has appointed Ryan Elder as business development manager- Middle East and Russia for its tubular and completion assembly service line. Before joining BJ Services in l989, Elder worked as a technician for a tubular services...