Articles about thermal fluid systems often start with a variation of the statement that “thermal fluid systems typically require little ongoing maintenance for the first few years of operation” and then go on to extol the various advantages of indirect…
The interior surfaces of your storage tanks are constantly at risk. You undoubtedly walk past a tank and do not give thought to what is happening on the inside, but that is because you trust the interior coating to protect…
The solubility of water in hydrocarbons contained in crude oil is very important. This importance will increase in the future in view of processing, safety, hazard and environmental considerations focusing on product quality and equipment sustainability. The following brief discussion…
Today’s plant turnarounds bear little resemblance to those of the past: Last-minute preparations and procurements combined with hurried work plans penciled into a notebook often led to undisciplined procedures, incidents and equipment that still operated with defective parts. Those bygone…
Single-fluid heat-transfer systems that both heat and cool a process require special considerations for trouble-free operation Thermal fluid systems that both heat and cool are often utilized in batch processes. They are also often found in continuous processes where heating…
In today’s climate of increased energy prices and tightening environmental emissions requirements, petrochemicals producers around the world are continuing to focus on optimizing energy consumption at their facilities. Over the past few years, while energy prices have been increasing, petroleum…
The benefits of field-device diagnostics are often acclaimed in qualitative terms, but on a much lower frequency in quantitative ones. Yet, an attractive cost-benefit analysis is necessary for almost any initiative to make it off the drawing board and into…
Pinch analysis is a systematic method to maximize energy recovery from process streams entering and exiting process equipment. Using this method, the minimum thermodynamic requirements for hot and cold utilities can be calculated for a process. This is useful to…
Water and steam are vital components of virtually all plants in the chemical process industries (CPI). And, a very important operation is the treatment of makeup water to produce the purity required for certain applications, most notably for use in…
For decades, plant-wide oil-mist systems have been used to lubricate rolling-element bearings in high-speed applications throughout the petrochemicals, textiles, pharmaceuticals, mining and other chemical process industries (CPI). Applications range from small motors to large rotating cylinders and a variety of…