Process Engineering articles from October 2003

Process Engineering archives from October 2003

ABB wins Thai Petchem study.(News)
October 1, 2003... Thai Petrochemical Industry has awarded ABB Eutech Process Solutions the contract to undertake a technical audit of its manufacturing facilities. The contract will include a site economic and critical study, a technology assessment, and a...

BOC to host safety workshops.(News)
October 1, 2003... BOC is to run a series of workshops to raise awareness of safety issues associated with industrial gases used in refrigeration. The workshops will be held on 29 October in Manchester, 30 October in Birmingham, 26 November in North London and 27...

NEU deal for Fairport.(News)
October 1, 2003... Engineering contractor Fairport has bought pneumatic conveying specialist NEU International. The company, which will be known as Fairport NEU Solutions, will sit alongside Fairport Process Equipment.

HSE seeks first aid opinions.(News)
October 1, 2003... The Health and Safety Executive is seeking opinions on the regulation of first aid at work. For more details, see its discussion document at www.hse.gov.uk/consult/live.htm.

Pipeline and plant plans spell investment for petrochemicals.(News)
October 1, 2003... Saudi petrochemicals giant Sabic, which bought DSM Petrochemicals last summer, is among the prospective partners for a propylene pipeline grid for Northern Europe. The project, which would cost [euro]180million, also includes Shell, BASF, BP...

Accreditation for AK.(News)
October 1, 2003... Aker Kvaerner's subsidiary, AK Engineering Services, has been awarded UKAS accreditation for in-service inspection of pressure systems. The approval applies to the company's fabrication, machine and valve overhaul works at Wilton, on Teesside....

NEL launches water environmental group.(News)
October 1, 2003... Produced water--the water associated with oil and gas fields and recovered along with hydrocarbons--is the focus of a new information-sharing group launched by technology services organisation NEL. Formerly the National Engineering Laboratory...

First carbon sector IPPC permit ties plant to improvement programme.(News)
October 1, 2003... Charcoal Cloth International's activated charcoal cloth production site in Tyne & Wear has become the first UK facility in the carbon sector to receive an Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) permit from the Environment Agency....

Profits slide across UK industry.(News)
October 1, 2003... Chemical industry chiefs in the UK may be looking with hope at the first signs of a recovery in Europe and the US, but a new report from business analyst Experian shows just how deep a hole the UK corporate world is in. On average, it says, UK...

CIA sets out 'sustainable vision' for chemical industry.(News)
October 1, 2003... The Council of the Chemical Industry Association has agreed on a set of principles for sustainable development, setting out what it believes are the main planks of its environmental, social and economic policy. Three years in the making, the...

Venturi meter sets new standard.(News)
October 1, 2003... Gas industry testing specialists at the Advantica Flow Centre in Durham have completed a big challenge, in calibrating a 1.2m diameter venturi flowmeter for ABB. The meter, the largest yet handled by Advantica, is for a Transco compressor...

Krauss-Maffei in thermal link.(News)
October 1, 2003... Krauss-Maffei Process Technology has agreed to act as the UK and Eire agent for Buss-SMS, which supplies thermal separation systems for difficult to handle mixtures.

James Robinson increases stake in India venture.(News)
October 1, 2003... Speciality chemicals producer James Robinson has increased its stake in its Indian photographic chemicals joint venture from 51 per cent to 66 per cent. The firm makes anti-fogging chemicals, and black-and-white and colour developing fluids.

Foster Wheeler wins Singapore safety award.(News)
October 1, 2003... The Singapore Ministry of Manpower has awarded Foster Wheeler two Occupational Safety and Health Excellence Awards, recognising its three-year record at two pharmaceutical project sites, for Merck Sharp & Dohme and Schering-Plough.

TOTAL pharma sponsorship.(News)
October 1, 2003... The International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering and the PharmaChem group--part of the PPMA--are to sponsor the TOTAL Pharma Centre of Excellence at TOTAL Processing and Packaging 2004, to be held at the National Exhibition Centre from...

Higham takes Automation role.(News)
October 1, 2003... Siemens Automation & Drives has named Mark Higham as its new general manager for industrial control and automation, replacing Gordon Carmichael, who has transferred to the Information and Communication Mobile division.

Windscale project three years ahead of schedule.(News)
October 1, 2003... The decommissioning of the Windscale Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (WAGR) is ahead of schedule, with the reactor core removed and work now in progress to dismantie the steel structures which supported the core's weight. Project manager Terry...

Elga is a blast from the past.(News)
October 1, 2003... What goes around, comes around, the saying goes, and it's certainly true in the process industries. The name Elga Process Water will be familiar to many readers, although it dropped out of use when the company was acquired by French...

UK and international plant cost indices.(News)
October 1, 2003... The format of Process Engineering's PREDICT plant cost indices has recently changed, as detailed in PE, September 2002, p11. However, a couple of typographical errors crept into that explanation. The correct equations for the Eq and Ci...

Modular drives.(Product News)
October 1, 2003... Danfoss has adopted a platform-based approach for its newest range of drives, allowing it to tailor the functions of the drives to their target markets. The VLT AutomationDrive FC300 series can be adapted to any AC motor and application, the...

On-line size analysis on the move.(Product News)
October 1, 2003... The Insitec Voyager is the latest in Malvern Instruments' range of on-line particle size analysers. The mobile system can be attached to fixed sampling ports at various points in a production line. It can also be used to sample from production...

Easier radar level detection.(Product News)
October 1, 2003... The Pulsar from Magnetrol is said to be one of the first radar level detection devices not to need external software, PC or any other external tooling. Sharing the same user interface as the Eclipse guided wave radar transmitter, the Pulsar can...

Valve packing passes stringent emission tests.(Product News)
October 1, 2003... Already the 'packing-of-choice' at many refineries and chemical plants, James Walker's Supagraf Premier valve stem packing has been shown to have emission levels so low that they could not be measured on site. In tests at the CETIM laboratory...

Machine vision for multiple cameras.(Product News)
October 1, 2003... National Instruments' new machine vision system allows operators to use a wide variety of cameras at low cost. 'For example, developers can connect a small, lightweight remote head camera for harsh industrial environments, a high resolution...

As we were saying on the way to the club house ...(Comment)
October 1, 2003... Once again various engineering professions are debating the merits or otherwise of joining forces under the umbrella of a one-size-fits-all 'super- institution'. In terms of raising the public profile of engineers the idea arguably has...

Events.(Calendar)
October 1, 2003... 13 October Process Plant Operations is one of a new series of Masters level short courses offered free of charge to engineers employed by companies based in England, Scotland or Wales. Run by Cranfield University with support from the...

Smart blend of plastics and chaos.(Research & Technology)
October 1, 2003... Researchers from Clemson University in South Carolina have developed a 'smart blending' process which, they claim, can help engineers fine-tune the properties of plastics to fit their intended use. Based on chaos theory, the technique works by...

Polymers from gas.(Research & Technology)
October 1, 2003... A new process which makes polypropylene from natural gas is on the verge of commercialisation, according to its developers at German process technology specialist Lurgi. The methanol-to-polypropylene (MTP) process has now been used by one of...

The bright lights beckon.(Research & Technology)
October 1, 2003... 'Lab-on-a-chip' devices are beginning to hit the market, using microscopic channels etched into silicon wafers to move tiny amounts of fluids around miniaturised analysis devices. The next stage in their development could do away with the...

'Bug batteries' make power.(Research & Technology)
October 1, 2003... The next generation of renewable power stations could use the same fuel as the human body, by converting sugars into energy. That's the conclusion of researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, whose work on remediation of uranium...

Crushing on a giant scale.(Equipment in Action)
October 1, 2003... Electrical control and distribution systems from ABB have been installed in the world's largest mobile mineral crusher and sizer, which has been assembled in Australia from modules shipped from the UK and manufactured in Australia from UK...

Thickeners record order.(Equipment in Action)
October 1, 2003... Alfa Laval's UK Environment Division has recently won its largest ever order for AL Drum sludge thickeners from Thames Water. Placed by main contractor Costain, the [euro]1.95million order is for six Mega-Duo thickeners, plus support...

Rapid analyser turnround.(Equipment in Action)
October 1, 2003... Servomex has recently delivered all the gas analysis and gas stream monitoring systems required for a major toluene diisocyanate (TDI) plant currently in the final stages of construction in Iran. The order was for twenty separate systems, each...

Keeping a watchful eye on the beer.(Equipment in Action)
October 1, 2003... Established in 1863, Manchester's Hydes Brewery produces more than 50 000 barrels of top quality cask and keg beers for a thriving UK market. In order to improve efficiency and reduce costs, Gary Green, Hydes' engineering manager, wanted to...

Severn meets tight schedule.(Equipment in Action)
October 1, 2003... Selected to supply, install and commission its Aztec 1000 series water quality monitors at eleven of Southern Water's wastewater treatment works, Severn Trent Services was given only a 60-day timeframe in which to complete the job. The...

Jet propelled.(Process Intensification)
October 1, 2003... The PDX pump combines an amazing range of process operations within a deceptively simple device. But that's not as surprising as the origin of the technology, as Stuart Nathan reports ********** There aren't many similarities between...

BHR conference focuses on drivers.(Process Intensification)
October 1, 2003... Despite its undeniable advantages in terms of increased efficiency in a smaller space than conventional techniques, uptake of PI has remained slow. Process intensification specialist BHR Group is putting the spotlight on the advantages of PI at...

Coat of many properties: combining the actions of a mill and a mixer, Hosokawa Micron's dry coating machines can create versatile powder coatings without using solvents or generating waste.(Process Intensification)
October 1, 2003... Dry coating is a relatively new technology which is used to create new generation materials by attaching submicron-sized guest particles to large host powders without using any solvents or producing waste. Previously, coating depended on wet...

Bringing simulation closer to reality.(Process Simulation)(Cover Story)
October 1, 2003... The increasing power of CFD is opening up new approaches to process simulation. David Kinnear explains how its application to packed bed catalytic reactors brings real benefits ********** The increase in the use of computational fluid...

Between a rock and hard place.(Process Control)
October 1, 2003... PLC makers are beginning to target applications which were previously the preserve of DCS companies, but are finding it difficult to convince their new markets. Mark Jacobs argues that a difference in culture might be to blame. **********...

Meeting the scrapheap challenge: sophisticated furnace control systems, including the use of fuzzy logic, have significantly improved the efficiency of the recycling process for scrap aluminium.(Process Control)
October 1, 2003... Typically, recycling scrap aluminium requires only 5 per cent of the energy needed to produce the same amount of metal from bauxite ore. Clearly, this makes the process very attractive, both in financial and environmental terms. If, however,...

Safety first for the Macallan.(Control Applications)
October 1, 2003... The ATEX directive made its presence felt at one of Scotland's most famous whisky institutions. The Macallan's Easter Elchies distillery at Craigellachie. Following a risk assessment and re-zoning exercise, the company decided to replace all of...

PC control for rubber process.(Control Applications)
October 1, 2003... Textile and chemical manufacturer, Milliken, has opted for a PC-based control system from Hayes Control Systems for a new rubber calendering installation at its Manchester site. 'We looked at several alternative types of control system,'...

Loctite controls sticky process.(Control Applications)
October 1, 2003... So-called 'superglues' are as well-known for the mishaps they cause as their prowess in DIY, but their flesh-sticking properties are increasingly being used in medicine. Loctite has recently developed Indermil, a glue designed to seal small...

Control to the Finnish.(Control Applications)
October 1, 2003... If there's one thing Finland has in abundance, it's trees, and because of this, the country has a flourishing industry based on timber products. One such product is crude tall oil, a hydrocarbon-rich compound used as a raw material in the...

Diagnostics cuts maintenance time in half.(Control Applications)
October 1, 2003... At its Anti-Infectives plant in Delft, Netherlands, DSM has slashed maintenance times in half by making use of the diagnostics capabilities of the PlantWeb digital plant architecture from Emerson Process Management. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Cooler calibration for dew point humidity measurement.(Control Applications)
October 1, 2003... For twenty years now, Michell Instruments has offered full traceability to national standards for its humidity calibration systems. These standards are held by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at Teddington near London, and by the...

Solartron helps on Beckton.(Control Applications)
October 1, 2003... A new differential level monitoring system from Solatron Mobrey has saved Thames Water some [pounds sterling]20 000 on a refurbishment project at Beckton Sewage Works. The system allowed Thames Water to replace mechanical flowmeters but still...

Fresher fish in half the time.(Control Applications)
October 1, 2003... By investing in Bizerba's NT server and fish traceability system, Newlyn, Cornwall based fish processor Fresh From the West has halved its processing times. The investment was prompted by a major contract to supply a prominent high-street...

Versatile data acquisition.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... Tempatron has launched an upgraded version of the Sigma data acquisition system. Sigma is a distributed, modular system with IP55 protected measurement units catering for all types of sensor from single temperature measurement to full bridge...

Code makers.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... DVT and Veritec have announced an agreement to integrate Veritec's industry-leading VeriCode symbol reading capabilities into DVT's Legend Ethernet-enabled Smartlmage sensors. Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, Smartimage Sensors...

Mills need less energy.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... 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...

Versatile Pt sensor amplifier.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... In a single, easy-to-use unit, the versatile TR2 measuring amplifier from IFM Electronic meets the needs of virtually all common temperature sensing applications that use platinum (Pt) temperature sensors. The TR2 is compatible with two-,...

Crane cuts costs on actuators.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... 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...

Membrane treatment.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... Eco Technology has launched the Ecomem 1000 UF system, which uses ultrafiltration to treat aqueous industrial wastes and reduce volumes by up to 99 per cent. Suitable effluents include soluble oils, semi-synthetic coolants, wash waters and...

Online steam.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... A free online training programme that enables engineers to cover vital topics on the design and maintenance of steam systems in just 30 minutes has been launched by Spirax Sarco. The Distance Learning site requires no log in or registration....

Transmitters take the pressure.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... Pressure transmitter housings and electronics are continuously exposed to moisture in many process applications. Vega Controls offers an ideal solution with its Vegabar 61, 64, 65, 74 and 75 transmitters. They have a sealed stainless steel...

Simplicity from OEM-friendly HMI.(What's New in Process Engineering)
October 1, 2003... InteractX, a Windows-embedded HMI system developed specifically for machine control and OEM needs, is no more daunting than a PLC to program, run, maintain or upgrade, according to UK distributor AJM Automation. The software is spared the mass...

Enhanced configuration.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Eurotherm has launched a powerful new version of its iTools configuration and monitoring package. Version 5 features enhancements such as the ability to create custom user screens, configuration Wizards to simplify controller configuration, and...

It makes sense.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... WaterSense is a service designed to reduce water bills in industries where water usage is particularly heavy, such as food and drink, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and paper and board manufacture. Provided by ESI, a member of the Concentric Group,...

All-stainless flowmeter.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Krohne's widely-used H250 variable flowmeter is now available with a stainless steel M9 indicator housing, creating the option of an easy to clean, totally aseptic unit, ideal for use in hygiene-critical applications such as food, beverage and...

Profibus gateway module.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Mitsubishi Electric has enhanced the flexibility of its FX family of control products with the launch of a Profibus/DP gateway module. The FX2N-32DP-IF module enables users to connect standard FX series I/O blocks directly onto a Profibus...

Enclosures for sealing to IP69K.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Rittal has announced four new sizes of KL style enclosures, manufactured in grade 304 stainless steel, which meet the high sealing requirements of IP69K to DIN 40 0509/5.93 due to the seal being perfectly compressed between two surfaces by...

PC-control free magazine.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Available free of charge from Hayes Control, the quarterly PC-control Magazine from Beckhoff is intended to keep customers and other interested parties up to date with the latest developments in PC control and industrial automation. The...

Instant air rate.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... The new Metris compressed air flow monitors from IFM Electronic provide a convenient and costeffective way of monitoring compressed air consumption, making it easy for users to ensure that this expensive resource is utilised effectively and...

Updated service website.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Mettler Toledo's Service Division is continuing to develop the TotalCare 21 range to offer users an individually tailored program to conform to their business needs as well as meeting the growing demands placed on them by their customers. As...

Positive results for Mono pumps.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Mono Munchpump packages have been installed at the Mont a la Brune sewage pumping station on the island of Jersey. Although the island authorities usually select submersible pumps, this particular pumping station had a low flow rate with a...

Combined washing unit.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... A new combined washing unit is being launched by Suncombe to offer both clean-in-place and cleaning-out-of-place from a single source. Suncombe--UK manufacturer of process and hygiene critical systems--is introducing the new system, designated...

Sample safely.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... True representative sampling of highly corrosive media is provided without process interruption by the Sapro in-line sampling system from Neotecha. The PFA-lined Sapro is installed directly into the process pipeline, and can employ a syringe or...

SIL2 standard for Vegapuls.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... For IEC 61508 and 61511 level applications or just those needing extra safety, Vegapuls radar level transmitters can now offer SIL 2 conformance. Their 'proven in service' reliability figures have established a high level of integrity,...

Easy-clean twin shaft mixer.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Winkworth Machinery has further extended its product range with the introduction of a new series of twin shaft fluidising mixers, featuring easy-clean overlapping profiled paddle blades. The range, from 20 to 2000litre working capacities, offer...

Long lifetimes for ATEX Torches.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Wolf Safety, the only company now manufacturing yellow right-angle and straight safety torches which comply with the 94/9/EC ATEX explosive atmospheres directive, is celebrating the success of its new ATEX Safety Torch range. Approved for...

Weighing to suit all sorts.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Thames Side-Maywood is now able to supply the Series 350 load cell for industrial weighing. This cost-effective OIML C3 approved shear beam load cell supersedes the company's successful T62 and T63 load cells. It features an industry standard...

Cool running.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Following the success of its air-cooled process chillers, Tricool Engineering has expanded its product offering with the addition of the Compac Series 2000 range. A product of extensive R & D, the range provides a trouble-free working life in...

Memory scanner.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Erwin Sick introduces the S3000 safety laser scanner, an intelligent safety system for the protection of personnel and systems in automated manufacturing and transport processes. Offering type 3 safety to IEC/EN61496-3, the S3000 features many...

Sandvik stainless catalogue.(Marketplace)
October 1, 2003... Sandvik Materials Technology in the UK, created earlier this year by the merger of Sandvik Steel UK and RGB Stainless, has published an updated 300-page manual for stainless steel products. It contains metallurgical, specification, standards...