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Choosing Oil-injected Screw Compressors

  Screw compressors are widely used throughout the chemical process industries (CPI) and represent a substantial percentage of all positive-displacement compressors that are now sold and in operation in CPI facilities. In general, screw compressors are efficient, reliable, simple and…

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Designing Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers: Avoid Vibration From The Start

Mechanical integrity is an essential consideration in heat exchanger design. The most common threat to this integrity is tube bundle vibration. So, the computer programs used for heat exchanger design incorporate procedures that assess this threat. However, such analysis is…

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Ten Tips For Smart Project Managers

Projects have been undertaken by nations, private enterprises and individuals for more years than recorded history. Over the last three decades, project execution in the chemical process industries (CPI) has become almost standardized, with the general adoption of certain well-known…

Designing Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers: Consider Two-Phase Flow

In the chemical process industries (CPI) it is relatively common to use a homogeneous two-phase flow model to predict the pressure drop through the shell-side of horizontal heat exchangers that handle two-phase mixtures. Recent experimental studies reported by HTFS [1,…

Lubricating Rotating Machinery

      Lubricants in rotating machines reduce friction and wear, dissipate heat, protect surfaces, keep out foreign contaminants and remove wear particles. Commonly used liquid lubricants fall into two main categories: mineral (petroleum-based) oils and synthetic oils. Mineral oils…

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Designing Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers: Consider Two-Phase Flow

In the chemical process industries (CPI) it is relatively common to use a homogeneous two-phase flow model to predict the pressure drop through the shell-side of horizontal heat exchangers that handle two-phase mixtures. Recent experimental studies reported by HTFS [1,…

Avoiding Pressure Relief Problems

Pressure relief valves and rupture disks are critical safety devices for protecting personnel and processing equipment from overpressurization situations. Presented here are several engineering practices that can help to identify and address common problems with the pressure relief systems of…

Troubleshooting Heat Transfer Fluid Systems

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…

Preventing Tank Corrosion

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…

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Solubility of Water in Benzenes As a Function of Temperature

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…