Vapor pressure is important to engineers throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). Knowledge of a compound's vapor pressure is required in the design of storage vessels containing the compound. In hazard analysis, knowledge of vapor pressure…
Since their inception, data buses have been highly acclaimed in the chemical process industries (CPI) for their potential to achieve interoperability and substantial wire-savings - advantages that are particularly easy to envision for a theoretical case in which…
The reason for installing a bus is generally four-fold: to reduce costs; to speed and simplify control system design, installation, and startup; to provide alarming and troubleshooting diagnostics; and to gather valuable information about the process itself. …
Emerson Process Management (Austin, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-544) and Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D; Nuremberg, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-545) are expanding their system interfaces to enable both companies to support global fieldbus standards. The companies will exchange technology and engineering support in order to…
At ARC's 14th annual forum (June 26-28; Boston, Mass.), OPC Foundation (Scottsdale, Ariz.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-549) released its latest interoperability solution, OLE for Process Control Unified Architecture (OPC-UA). This new series of specifications aims to provide secure, reliable interoperability for moving data…
These meters have no moving parts The Vortex PhD (photo) is an inline meter that measures flow of liquids, gas or steam. With a fully welded sensor construction, the Vortex PhD has no moving parts nor holes that…
The usage of Coriolis flowmeters for measuring mass flowrates has become widespread in the chemical process industries, and the range of fluids with which these meters can be employed is likewise diverse. Among those applications, Coriolis flowmeters can readily be…
The beauty of fiber-optical spectroscopy is that small, inexpensive devices with no moving parts bring their capacity to where the samples are, rather than the other way round. As a result, spectra can be recorded in almost real…
Corrosion has the chemical process industries seeing red in their metal tanks and pipelines — and on the bottom line, too. In the U.S., for example, chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical producers incur direct costs of $1.7 billion/yr for corrosion, or…
The infrared approach to temperature monitoring is especially useful in situations where process temperatures are extremely high, the target is in motion, and the need to avoid contaminants is significant Accurate temperature measurement can often be quite challenging, especially in…