Process Engineering articles from September 2004

Process Engineering archives from September 2004

Comment.
September 1, 2004... Small may well be beautiful, but it's not without its problems. Just over 30 years ago, when the economist Fritz Schumacher published his groundbreaking book Small is Beautiful--with its engaging subtitle Economics as if People Mattered--size...

Sellafield dispute.(News)
September 1, 2004... The European Commission has started legal proceedings against the UK government over plans for dealing with nuclear waste at Sellafield. The dispute is concerned with the verification of the safety of spent fuel, which is stored in a pond on...

Canada set for biodiesel.(News)
September 1, 2004... AMEC is to design the first commercial-scale biodiesel plant in Canada, thanks to a 1.9 million contract for detail engineering from Biox in Hamilton, Ontario. The plant, costing a total of $24 million, will convert vegetable oils, agricultural...

Olympic task.(News)
September 1, 2004... It's the biggest stadium roof in the world. The biggest transparent roof ever built. The biggest roof ever placed on a stadium after it was built. And, until just before the Olympics, many people doubted it would be finished in time. But the...

Seven dead in Sasol ethylene explosion.(News)
September 1, 2004... Seven people have died and over 100 were injured in an explosion at an ethylene plant in South Africa. The explosion, at Sasol's facility in Secunda, Mpumalanga, occurred during routine maintenance on the plant. The plant is part of the...

Green links for industry.(News)
September 1, 2004... A new organisation to support environmental technology research and development aims to foster stronger links between industry and academia and promote interdisciplinary engineering research at universities. The Centre for Sustainable...

Ethernet to grow.(News)
September 1, 2004... The industrial Ethernet market is set to grow at around 20% per year for at least the next five years, outstripping the growth rate of the automation market in general several times over, according to a report from IMS Research. In 2003,...

Degussa deal.(News)
September 1, 2004... German speciality chemicals firm Degussa has signed an agreement to buy process control systems for its plants from Yokogawa, including the company's Centrum CS3000 integrated production control hardware and software. [ILLUSTRATION...

Cramlington buy-out.(News)
September 1, 2004... BASF has agreed to a management buy-out of its active ingredients site at Cramlington, for an undisclosed sum. The site will be run by a newly-formed company called Aesica Pharmaceuticals. The site makes active ingredients for three...

Syngenta cryogenics.(In Brief)
September 1, 2004... Syngenta is to install a cryogenic emissions control system, developed by Air Products, at its facilies. The ExStream system uses low temperatures to recover VOCs from process streams at flow rates as low as 300[Nm.sup.3]/hr.

CHP takeup concern.(In Brief)
September 1, 2004... The Confederation of Paper Industries has expressed its concern over figures released by the DTI which reveal that 35 more combined heat and power schemes were closed than opened in 2003. It also said that total CHP capacity was now 4879MW,...

Eemua appoints Tayler.(In Brief)
September 1, 2004... The Engineering Equipment and Materials Users' Association has appointed Clive Tayler, a former editor of PE, as its new executive director, replacing Michael Darragh.

Science fusion.(News)
September 1, 2004... Chemical engineering and chemistry need to be more closely integrated at university level if innovation in the process industries is to flourish in the UK, according to the Chemistry Leadership Council. A report from the CLC's Innovation Task...

Celebrating Einstein.(News)
September 1, 2004... The year 1905 was a momentous one for science and, in particular, for Albert Einstein. Despite still working for the Swiss patent office, over the course of the year Einstein published five papers, including the ones which first set out the...

Tech roadmaps.(News)
September 1, 2004... Calibration specialist Sira Innovation is offering sensor, measurement and instrumentation companies a 'technology roadmapping' service, to help them identify the drivers influencing their business, and make the best investment decisions. ...

Gas contract for Fluor.(News)
September 1, 2004... Fluor has been awarded a $57million contract to upgrade the Statoil Kollsnes Gas Terminal, on the west coast of Norway near Bergen. The project, which includes the construction of a new gas compression train and a revamp of existing facilities,...

LNG valve contract.(In Brief)
September 1, 2004... Severn Glocon has won the contract to supply control valves to the world's largest LNG project, currently under construction on Sakhalin Island, Russia. The order is for nearly a hundred control, anti-surge and depressurising valves for Train 1...

Agility for Grangemouth.(In Brief)
September 1, 2004... Supply chain solutions specialist Agility is to embark on a three-month study at BP's Grangemouth complex, looking at site logistics activities, the route to market of its products, and supplier selection.

Clean fuels trial for Shell.(In Brief)
September 1, 2004... Shell International Gas and Shanghai Pudong Bus Transportation are to launch a trial of Shell's Gas to Liquids (GTL) fuel on the streets of Shanghai. The trial will involve 12 buses, eight of which will use a blend of 30% GTL with standard...

MES spells improvement.(News)
September 1, 2004... A survey sponsored by Rockwell Automation has found that industrial users of MES (manufacturing execution systems) software grew their profitability faster than installations which did not use such systems. Regardless of size of company,...

FCC contract.(News)
September 1, 2004... Foster Wheeler's UK arm, Foster Wheeler Energy, has been awarded an initial design contract for a fluidised catalytic cracking complex at the Salavat Refinery in Russia. The terms of the contract, which was awarded by refinery owner OAO...

Brazilian meters.(News)
September 1, 2004... Brazilian oil company Petrobras has awarded a $32million contract to Emerson Process Management to upgrade metering technologies aboard nine of its floating production units in the Campos Basin, off Brazil. The metering systems are vital for...

Diary dates.(Calendar)
September 1, 2004... 28 SEPTEMBER Environmental Compliance for the Oil, Gas and Chemical Industries is the subject of this one-day seminar organised by ABB Engineering Services. Aimed at those in the throes of preparing IPPC permits, or otherwise considering...

Hydrogen storage.(Technology Today)
September 1, 2004... With technologies for fuel cells now well established, one of the main stumbling blocks to their acceptance is in how to store large quantities of hydrogen. The answer may be to absorb the hydrogen into a solid material--and researchers in the...

Nanotech cleans up.(Technology Today)
September 1, 2004... The proteins which carry iron around the bloodstream are being used to make nanoparticles that could help clean up heavy metal residues from lakes, rivers and groundwaters. Researchers from Temple University in Philadelphia are using ferritin,...

Let the sun shine in.(Technology Today)
September 1, 2004... Australian scientists predict that a solar process to extract hydrogen from water could be practicable within seven years. Based on titanium dioxide ceramics, the process was originally invented in Japan, but the University of New South Wales'...

'Kitty litter' pigment absorbs and protects.(Technology Today)
September 1, 2004... A paint which, according to its inventor, acts like 'high-tech kitty litter' could help prevent corrosion on aircraft, ships and bridges. Containing clays that absorb corrosives and an anti-corrosion material which forms a self-repairing...

Citral switch.(Technology Today)
September 1, 2004... BASF has opened the world's first continuous plant for citral, with a capacity of 40 000tpa, at its Ludwigshafen headquarters complex. The plant's products will shift the company's synthesis routes, forming the starting point for vitamins A and...

Speeding up serpentine for greenhouse gas absorption.(Technology Today)
September 1, 2004... Serpentine, a commonly-occurring form of magnesium silicate hydroxide, is a natural absorber of carbon dioxide. However, it works slowly--geologically slowly. Researchers from Penn State University in Pennsylvania have now found a process which...

Encouraging entrepreneurs: our regular European correspondent, Gwilym Roberts, reports on the growing need for the Community to encourage its entrepreneurs in building on the successes of the Member States' researchers in developing innovative products and processes.(Europe News)
September 1, 2004... A PUBLICATION by the European Commission's Enterprise Directorate General indicates there is not enough entrepreneurial activity in Europe if our economic growth targets are to be met. Studies have identified a number of reasons, and many...

Consider on-site options: with charges for industrial effluent discharges having doubled between 1990 and 2000, and above-inflation increases expected for the future, Hannah Scott argues the time is ripe for even small companies to consider the potential cost savings of on-site effluent treatment.(Water & Waste Treatment)
September 1, 2004... EFFLUENT treatment plants have historically been viewed as high-cost capital equipment, limited to those sites with sufficiently large effluent volumes to justify the investment. But the rising costs of discharging effluent to drain, coupled...

Impeller importance: wastewater and sewage pumps are at the heart of water treatment plants but their efficiency depends on the selection of the correct impeller for the duty. Peter Maslin compares the various types of impeller available and suggests suitable applications.(Water & Waste Treatment)
September 1, 2004... ENGINEERS who design pumping stations and treatment plants, the contractors who build them, and ultimately their operators, all have to work under tremendous pressure to minimise costs. It therefore comes as no surprise that systems are often...

The right mix: treating process water and wastewater requires a combination of technologies, from aeration to the addition of chemicals. Mixing plays a crucial role in all these operations, as David Bannister explains in a look at the uses of fixed and portable mixers.(Water & Waste Treatment)
September 1, 2004... IN process water treatment, the chemical additives used--for example, lime, activated carbon, flocculating agents and so on--are best added to the water stream in the form of a solution or slurry. This requires a premixing stage, the equipment...

Seaside specialism: a small business based in an unassuming South Coast town is tapping into a newly-developing market in on-site calibration, resulting from cost-cutting and outsourcing in the pharmaceutical and food sectors. Stuart Nathan visits Young Calibration.(Calibration)
September 1, 2004... THERE are certain industries that you associate with British seaside towns. Walking through sleepy Shoreham, near Brighton, it's no surprise to see chandlers and boat-builders, or even the small garage specialising in custom Harley Davidsons....

Opening up the field: as open systems start to spread, the need for easier communications with field devices takes on increasing importance. Armin Tesch discusses the dilemma of multi-vendor installations and explains how FDT technology can help standardise access to field devices.(Field Communications)
September 1, 2004... THE degree of automation in the process industries is growing enormously. Manufacturers of all kinds of devices are implementing more and increasingly complex functions in their products. As a result, the demands on operators are rising, while...

Let us spray: cleaning-in-place is an essential part of today's pharmaceuticals and, increasingly, food production processes. Although primarily concerned with hygiene, it can also help reduce production costs and minimise water usage, as Peter Rose explains.(Hygienic Processing)(Cover Story)
September 1, 2004... THE process industries are continually looking for new ways to achieve higher throughputs, superior process efficiency and better product quality. Mostly, they look to achieve these aims by improving the equipment that they use for the job of...

Avery lifts weight burden.(Applications)
September 1, 2004... A checkweighing system installed by Avery Weigh-Tronix at Caledonian Bottlers is helping the Scottish maker and bottler of fruit drinks and flavoured water to speed up its production. The system switches what used to be a largely manual process...

Browning version.(Applications)
September 1, 2004... A new technology for browning the top of ready meals is in action at Geest's plant in Milton Keynes. Rather than using the conventional methods of steam or convection ovens, or long-wave electrical heaters, Geest opted for a system from Protech...

Saucy solution speeds up cooking.(Applications)
September 1, 2004... Combining the actions of a pump and a mixer with steam heating, Pursuit Dynamics' PDX Fluid Handling System has reduced cooking times by 95% at sauces manufacturer Welcome Food Ingredients. Clean-down time between batches has also been cut by...

Beet a path for acetic acid scrubbing.(Applications)
September 1, 2004... An acetic acid scrubbing system from air pollution control specialist ACWa Air is successfully reducing emissions from a beetroot-processing facility near Cambridge to well below designed levels. The system, at G's Fresh Beetroot, was designed...

Glazing over on the line.(Applications)
September 1, 2004... The Glazing Conveyor, from Stourbridge-based Cox & Plant, is designed to improve the appearance of deep-frozen foods which may have been dehydrated during cold storage. Foods such as shellfish, meat, vegetables and berries can be sprayed with a...

Whisky galore.(Applications)
September 1, 2004... Emerson Process Management's new flow measurement system at Diageo at Cambus in Scotland is helping the drinks giant monitor operations for its spirits production facilities. Diageo has now bought a Micro Motion system to improve efficiency of...

Extracting the essence of oils without spilling a drop.(Equipment in Action)
September 1, 2004... Andover-based Lionel Hitchen (Essential Oils) extracts the essence from worldwide spices for use throughout the food and drinks industry. The essence is manufactured in small batches in 'percolators'--portable vessels in which solvents are...

Tough trials for peristaltic pumps.(Equipment in Action)
September 1, 2004... At its seven-line production plant in Grimsby Acordis Acrylic Fibres UK produces dyed fibres for the textile industry. A crucial part of the dyeing process is the replenishment of the dyebaths with cationic dye--which is 25% acetic acid--on a...

Terminal solution for sludge.(Equipment in Action)
September 1, 2004... Construction of the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport has resulted in a complete upgrading of the adjacent Perry Oaks sewage treatment works, which is Thames Water's main sludge treatment works for the population of west London and its...

'Down well' down on the farm.(Equipment in Action)
September 1, 2004... At its Wytch Farm on-shore oilfield in Dorset, BP Exploration has standardised on double-block and bleed modular valves from TC Fluid Control-Klinger in a 'down well' application that requires a reliable seal-tight shut-off within a very...

Ringing the changes for severe service.(Equipment in Action)
September 1, 2004... Faced with an O-ring service life of only two months on its UCN-L magnetic drive pumps on a particularly severe duty, Italian pump manufacturer CDR Pompe switched to Kalrez Spectrum 6375 perfluoroelastomer parts from DuPont Dow Elastomers. ...

Automation system shows its full metal.(Equipment in Action)
September 1, 2004... ABB's recently launched System 800XA automation system (see PE April 2004, p44) has been ordered by the world's leading producer and refiner of cobalt, and the world's fifth largest producer of nickel, for its Manchester plant. OM Group...

Centrifuge/dryer packages boost anti-cholesterol plant.(Equipment in Action)
September 1, 2004... At its Avlon site near Bristol, pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca has installed two new drying lines to help meet the increasing demand for its anti-cholesterol group, Crestor. The two lines comprise two new conical dryers and two new...

Don't be (too) alarmed.(Product News)
September 1, 2004... Yokogawa's new AAASuite alarm management system is said to improve operator performance by providing timely notification of only necessary alarms, thereby preventing the problem of alarm 'flooding'. The software automatically detects...

Logical approach to fieldbus.(Product News)
September 1, 2004... The Rosemount 848L logic transmitter from Emerson Process Management allows the integration of logic and discrete I/O capability on to a Foundation fieldbus H1 segment, without any need for a separate discrete I/O bus. The 848L accepts up...

Pumps have 5-year warranty.(Product News)
September 1, 2004... The Magmax total containment pump from HMD Sealless Pumps now comes with a 5-year warranty. According to the company's md, John Veness, 'this is the first time in the pump industry that a manufacturer has had the commitment to offer a full...

UK and International Plant Cost Indices.
September 1, 2004... 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 background...

Instant information.
September 1, 2004... NOW in its second edition, the Process Engineering Buyers' Guide aims to serve as a reliable source of information for the buyers and specifiers of the whole range of process plant equipment and services. Whether involved in turnkey project...

Water drives markets.(Process Equipment)
September 1, 2004... IN recent years, regulatory compliance has become probably the most important driving force in many process-related markets. The need to reduce emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases, improve energy efficiency and minimise waste affects...

Blurring the boundaries.(Fluids Handling)
September 1, 2004... THE effect of the process industries' eastward expansion is making itself felt in the valves market. Although the US is still the largest purchaser of valves, according to market research from the Mcllvaine Company, China is closing the gap; by...

Look east for business.(Solids Handling)
September 1, 2004... SHIFTING markets, and shifting regulations, are the dominant concerns for the solids handling sector. The main manufacturing base for powdery and granular materials is moving eastwards, with many companies winning major contracts in China and...

Upgrades on the upturn.(Process Automation & Control)
September 1, 2004... AS any EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor can confirm, new plant builds have been few and far between in the past year or so. With the obvious exceptions of burgeoning economies like China and the oil-driven markets of...

Regulatory demands.(Process IT)
September 1, 2004... POSITIONED in what was once that nebulous netherworld between process control and business level IT systems, manufacturing execution systems (MES) have long struggled to break out into the limelight enjoyed by those opposite ends of the process...

In search of the best.(Health, Safety & Environment)
September 1, 2004... BY 2007 some 6000 industrial sites in the UK will have to comply with the IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) regulations or risk losing their licence to operate. However, as with most health, safety and environmental legislation...

Using less, making more.(Plant Utilities and Services)
September 1, 2004... INDISPENSIBLE, but expensive: plant utilities such as power, water and sewerage are major entries in the 'debit' column for most process plants. Methods of making more efficient use of these services are therefore high on the agenda. ...

A-Z company listing.
September 1, 2004... ARI Armaturen UK Ltd 01684 275752 Acrison International (UK) Ltd 0161 877 9955 ALLDOS LTD 0121 328 3336 Alfa Laval 01276 413632 aSap Ltd 020 7814 6618 Atlas Copco 01442 261201 Aucotec ...