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…
Protecting process systems from overpressurization is a critical task in the chemical process industries (CPI), and rupture disks and safety relief valves are routinely used for this purpose. In certain situations, using rupture disks in combination with safety relief valves…
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…
Effective level measurement helps ensure smooth, continuous processes by maintaining material inventory at economic quantities, and maximizes plant output by preventing spillage, system clogging and process upsets. In chemical process industries (CPI) applications, level measurement of liquids, powders and slurries…
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…
To stay on budget, major capital projects often call for aggressive schedules. Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors often end up using work processes that are not part of an established or standard work procedure. This is especially true when…