Edible Oil Refinery Plant - Chemical Refining

What is Oil Refinery and Edible Oil Refinery?

When talking about refinery, we need to be able to differentiate and identify an oil refinery from the edible oil refinery. Basically, the oil refinery (or petroleum refinery) is an industrial process plant where crude oil (from crude petroleum) is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas. This is the type of refinery mentioned in the 13 Days: Pythagoras Conspiracy Novel. An edible oil plant in the other hand, is almost similar to the earlier refinery accept it processes edible oil and involves the removal of fatty acid and a few more unwanted impurities. The edible oils are obtained from the likes of palm oil, soya bean oil, canola oil, corn oil, rape seed oil and others. In other words, the oil refinery process oil that cannot be consumed by human being while the edible oil refinery process oil that is edible (can be consumed by human beings).

I have no direct involvement in the oil refinery. However, I was a process engineer in an edible refinery plant before for quite some time. I had a really good taste of experience working in the refinery plant before. I strongly believe that if a chemical engineering student or a new chemical engineer wants to gain experience, he or she should work in a refinery. This is mainly because they will learn and apply all that they have learn in chemical engineering.

Edible Oil Refinery

Edible oil originates from crude oil such as crude palm oil (CPO), crude soya bean oil (CSBO), crude rape seed oil (CRSO), crude coconut oil (CCO) and so on. Edible oils have very high content of free fatty acids (FFA) and needs to be refined before using as cooking oil. However, the refinery process isn't only limited to remove FFA, it also removes the undesired components such as moisture, color and odour which may trigger negative impact on the final taste, odour and appearance of the oil product. The resultant oil is thinner without fatty acids, colorless and odorless.

It is imperative to note that the edible oil refinery can be divided into 2 primary types namely, chemical refining and physical refining. This time, I'll explain about the chemical refining plant.

Chemical Refining Plant

Chemical refining plant involve neutralization of crude oil by removing fatty acids. This is always referred to as chemical refining or sometimes Neutralizing process and its plant referred as Neutralizing Plant (NP). In this process the oil is neutralized in the neutralizer to remove the fatty acids by mixing with caustic soda (sodium hydroxide). Oil is heated up to roughly 60oC by and oil is stirred by stirrer. The fatty acids are settled at the bottom as alkali soaps which is called soapstock from where it is taken out into soap tank .

Typical Neutralizing Plant. Image credited to Oiltek Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian company that manufactures edible oil equipments. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Removal of impurities and color

Neutralized oil is passed through the second vessel called bleacher where color of oil is removed by bleaching process with the help of chemicals such as carbon black and bleaching clay. Oil is usually heated up to 110oC. Stirring is also carried on. Bleaching process is done under vacuum. Bleached oil then goes to filtration process where bleaching clay and chemicals are removed and cleaned.

Removal of unpleasant smell

Bleached oil is then passed through deodorizer where oil is heated above 110C and then live steam clean is used to the oil from the bottom steam nozzles. The temperature of oil is raised up to 200 to 220C through thermic fluid coils. Entire process is done under high vacuum. Thus smell is removed from the oil in the deodorizer. Then it goes to cooler where cold water circulating coils take away heat and oil is cooled.

Final Filtration

Final filtration is performed after cooling down the oil. This operation is carried out in a micro filter closet or filter bag/filter cartridge which makes the final edible oil termed as refined edible oil. This final filtration process is designed for more effective filtration and best quality of final refined edible oil. There are certain refineries that adopted Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) to completely ensure that the oil is free and safe to be consumed.

This is a typical physical refinery plant. The image is also credited to Oiltek. Click the image to enlarge it.

In the next post, I'll describe more about the Physical Refinery. This is where I gained the most of my hands on chemical engineering experiences. This is where I learned more about important unit operations such as heat exchanger, cooling tower, deodoriser, pack coloumn etc.

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13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy - A Must Read Chemical Engineering Fiction Novel

It is one of my dream to write a chemical engineering related fiction novel. My wife knows that fact. It will be cool to integrate the experience which I had in the industry and my chemical engineering knowledge in a book which can be read by everybody (but special for chemical engineers and those who are in related industry). What if the novel is adopted to become one of those Hollywood movies. Would that be great? However, I don't think I can make it in the near future. It's quite tough especially with my hectic schedule and my main target to complete my Ph.D. Well, enough about that.

However, the actual interesting point that I would like to share is a new Chemical Engineering related fiction novel that has been introduced to me by a friend in the United States. Honestly, I have never come across a chemical engineering related fiction novel. When I was told about it, I became curious and want to read this novel. Luckily, with the help of my friend, Diane, I managed to grab hold of this novel and finally it reached me 3 days ago.

The title of this brilliant novel is 13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy. The book is written by an author whom is also an experienced Chemical Engineer, Laura Starks. I was so excited and very eager to read the book upon receiving it. Back from work, I grabbed the book and read it at the playground in front of my house and continued reading for another 3 days until I finished.

My first impression of the book

The book is quite thick. It contains 347 pages. I wondered when can I finish reading this novel after holding it on my hand since I must also do my study, read and write technical papers, work on my thermodynamics etc. However, after reading the first 10 pages, I could not stop!!! The fatal incident that suddenly occurred in the newly bought over refinery made me dying to know what had actually happened. Was the deadly hydrogen sulfide gas accidentally released or was it an evil sabotage? I must say that the storyline is very interesting and intriguing. I'm very much amazed and impressed with the details that the author has shown in her writing. It's everything about the real situation in a typical refinery. From a decision either to stop a running plant (which will be tricky and dangerous) to continuing running the plant despite of the tragedy. Those who normally run a refinery pretty much know that the biggest challenge in running a refinery is during the start-up and stopping it. A mistake will possibly end up to an unwanted tragedy.

The safety, health and environmental elements were clearly displayed along the storyline, which can provide perfectly good visualization on the real life situation to chemical engineering students and readers who have never entered a plant in this lucrative industry.

The author also took the initiative to explain some of the technical unit operations that might not be understood by the readers such as the one below which is taken on the beginning of Chapter 2:-

Reactors: vessels in which raw feeds are transformed into chemically and structurally different products.

Catalytic cracking: key process for converting heavy oils into more valuable gasoline and lighter products. Average reactor temperatures are 900-1000 Fahrenheit.

And the following are other description taken from the beginning of Chapter 13:

Hydrocarbon: any of a large variety of molecules containing primarily carbon and hydrogen and ranging from methane, a gas, to asphalt, a solid.

Sour crude: crude oil containing half a percent or more of sulfur by weight. Sweet crude contains less than half a percent of sulfur. Sulfur in sour crude is removed to meet gasoline and diesel specifications. Its removal produces poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas which is converted to sulfuric acid and elemental sulfur and sold to industrial buyers.

Looking through the acknowledgment page, I know that this book was carefully written, edited repeatedly and the author was very careful about all bits of detail.

Again, I must say that this is a superbly very well written book and could even be a reference of example OR a small case study for some chemical engineering subjects like Process Safety, Unit Operation, Mass Transfer etc. although it is a fictional story. I will definitely read Laura Starks writing again if she comes up with a new book. That's for sure.


Editorial Reviews

Reviews

"13 Days has an excellent plot....L.A. Starks has contributed a fine murder mystery to the genre." -- Alan Paul Curtis, Who-dunnit.com

"A knock-down conspiracy exposing the darkest secrets of the oil industry. Starks has made an impressive debut...." -- Michael Lucker, Screenwriter (Vampire In Brooklyn, Mulan II)

"A reverse femjep." -- Jack Quick - October 2006 BookBitch.com

Reviews from the Back Cover

A rogue force controlling the planet’s oil supply would hold a knife to its throat. The planet’s refineries, where oil becomes gasoline, may be an easier grab.

Lynn Dayton, 37, self-made refining executive, manages six vast complexes that transform oil into gasoline. Robert Guillard, 33, a suave Parisian intellectual believes, as did the cult around Pythagoras, that his genius confers moral authority. He directs the sabotage of US refineries, one by one. But his financing from an Asian refining cartel terminates in thirteen days unless he produces massive shutdowns.

Robert schemes to coerce Lynn into collaborating as he pursues his outwardly humanitarian goal of building refineries in Third World countries. If she refuses, he will hold hostage her sister, Ceil Dayton, 30, whom he has lured to Paris. Ceil, in turn, hides a brutal secret.

An industrial accident at Lynn’s troubled Houston refinery arouses her suspicions. Government officials conclude routine negligence caused the accident, but her own investigation leads Lynn to suspect sabotage.

Threats to Lynn’s life intensify. Desperate for the safety of her co- workers, whom she considers in greater danger, she works cease- lessly to find the real cause of the "accident" and the saboteur. Although her company security force notifies the FBI of her suspicions, the bureau considers her facts inadequate to justify adding resources. Within a few days, explosions and fires at nearby refineries claim victims. The resulting fuel shortage affects the lives of everyone in North America.

Then Lynn is kidnapped. She fights for her life on a catwalk above a storage tank of hot, sulfurous oil and escapes.

Deciphering the full extent of Robert’s scheme, she flies to Paris. But will she be in time to derail Robert’s plans and save her sister?

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Importance of Boiler Chemicals Water Treatment

Since I have written my experience visiting a boiler manufacturing company recently, I think it is good if I follow up with another article related to boiler. This time, it is about the importance of boiler water treatment chemicals. I remembered monitoring the boiler man blended and poured some chemicals (from Nalco) to be injected into the boilers.

[Flash back: Some of my boiler experience story (explosion) for you to read. Boiler Explosion Part 1 & Boiler Explosion Part 2.]

Do you know that like cooling tower, a boiler also requires chemical treatment for various reasons. When I was a process engineer, I got the opportunity to learn about the chemical water treatments for utility boiler and cooling tower. There are various chemicals with specific functions. The chemicals, which I will explain below will imperatively preserve the life of a utility boiler (in this case a low pressure boiler). A low pressure boiler in this case is one which is less then 200 psi. We shall look upon several chemical parameters, namelu the amines, alkalinity, sulfites and phosphates or polymers of the boiler water.

Amines are used to increase the condensate pH to a range of 7.8 to 8.7. When generating steam, carbonic acid forms and as a result your steam pH is low. Amines are volatile and when introduced into the steam header or boiler water, amines will increase the condensate pH. A low pH will lead to excessive condensate pipe corrosion.

Alkalinity is used to increase the boiler water pH to above 10.5. This serves three purposes. pH above 10.5 will decrease your overall corrosion rates, it will keep a 3:1 ratio of total alkalinity to silica, and it allows the polymer to react with calcium. A 3:1 ratio keeps silica from plating in the boiler. A low pH will result in an over general corrosion appearance on your boiler tubes.

Sulfites are used to remove any dissolved oxygen from the water. Dissolved oxygen enters the boiler in make up water or as air is sucked into the system. Dissolved oxygen is extremely corrosive to your tubes and localized pits will form, ultimately resulting in premature tube failure. Maintain a 20 to 40 ppm residual of sulfite in your boiler water.

Phosphates and polymers are used to react with any calcium in the water. The polymer attaches itself to the calcium. The polymer and calcium then is able to exit the boiler through the surface or bottom blowdown. Phosphate reacts with the calcium and sinks the calcium to the bottom of the boiler. When using phosphates you must perform boiler blowdown daily to release the phosphate and calcium. Failure to use a polymer or phosphate will result in calcium build up on the tubes or as some call it boiler scale. This will decrease the over boiler efficiency and will drastically increase your fuel cost.

It is vital to note that water expands 100,000 times when it change from a liquid to vapor phase. A typical home water boiler 30 gallon system has enough energy to throw a 2,000 pound car over 100 feet in the air if catastrophically failed.

First Image credited to: www.johnstonboiler.com. Second Image credited to http://www.indiamart.com (Example of Nalco Chemical for boiler water treatment).

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Power Failure in Our Industry!

Once upon a time in the Chemical Reaction Engineering Research Laboratory

On a sweet Thursday afternoon (today) when I just started my experiment, a sudden power failure occurred without warning. I was actually in the toilet when the power cut off took place. My wife called and asked, "Do you have electricity there in the lab?". I answered, "We have power here in the lab and I just started my experiment". Then 2 lab assistants walk out from the polymer lab (which is next to the reaction engineering lab) and informed me that the power failure just happened. I was surprised.

Immediately I ran into the lab and discovered that the lab black out. Oh my God!!! This is not good. It's not really about my experiment. It's the Gas Chromatography (GC) which I'm more worried about. The GC is such an important equipment for me and the rest of the students as we use it to identify and quantify our products from the reactor. The GC is very sensitive and frequent power cut-off can jeopardize the equipment and interrupt our research activities. Repairing the GC cost huge amount of money and with limited research budget, we need to do everything to avoid the GC from malfunctioning.

After about 15 to 20 minutes the electrical power resumed. Thank God. I switched it on. I then checked the GC and its PC hoping that nothing will go wrong. When the power failure occurred just now, the oven temperature (of the GC) was 250oC. The standard operating procedure to switch off the GC is when the oven temperature is below 40oC. Sudden GC shut down is not recommended at all. It is strictly a big NO. Luckily the GC works well and nothing seems to be wrong. I restarted my experiment and completed it 3 hours later.

Power Failure in the Plant

The incident reminded me on the power failure that once in a while also occurred in the physical refinery plant I worked in several years ago. Such unavoidable power cut-off from the Electricity Company will firstly trigger chaos within the control room and the entire plant. The supervisor, shift leader and plant operators have to act fast to close all main valves manually from various sections. The flow, temperature and pressure from numerous unit operation equipment such as Niagara filter (filter leaves), deodoriser, packed column, heat exchanger need to be controlled until power resumed. The huge 3000 tonnes per day plant can only be minimally controlled via the PLC which was temporarily powered with UPS (uninterupted power supply) - which provided a few minutes power back up.

Secondly, the power cut off will result in substantial lost and I have to assess and make report about it. Even a milisecond power failure will result in vacuum drop in the plant in result to oil rejection (due to quality off-spec). That also will cost massive lost to the company.

What can we do?

As for my case, in the lab... nothing much can be done. I rest my faith to the God. It's good to install UPS for the GC. If UPS is the answer, then we must have 4 UPS unit in the lab as there are all together 3 GC's and 1 GCMS. However, having UPS alone will not entirely protect this expansive machines. For me, the power company (electricity supplier) must be responsible in providing smooth and reliable power for us (the customers). They should pay all the damage and losses that hit us. Maybe this does not sound like an engineer's solution...

Other option?

A more interesting option is to create and manage our own power system...but can we do it with our resources? I'm referring to solar, wind and frequency (Tesla) energy. I would love to develop one of this power sources AFTER I complete my study. I'll try and do it at my home first... :)

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Image #1 credited to: http://www.wkow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14691294&clienttype=printable
Image #2 credited to: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42761336/ns/us_news-life/t/refinery-warnings-way-life-texas-city/

Reduce Cholesterol By Lowering Your Trans Fat Intake

Before you read, I just want to let you know that there is no chemical engineering stuffs inside this article. I just posted this article as a reminder for me, my family and all of you. Let's live healthily.

Recently we can observe occasionally people died from heart attack. One of the main reason for this is due to the cholesterol inside the blood. I'm very much concern about this nowadays and have been taking some steps in further understanding what food to consume and which to avoid.

Believe it or not, much of the processed food that we eat today will have some form of trans fat in them. Trans fats give more taste to a food and act as a preservative to certain foodstuffs ensuring that they have a longer shelf life. Thus they appeal to the consumer and the retailer of foodstuffs and have been phenomenally successful in the food industry. It is only in the last 20 years that research has concluded that Trans fats have detrimental affects on our health and can lead to high cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease. In many countries there are moves to limit or ban the use of trans fats in food. This article will discuss what trans fats are and how reducing them will lead to lowering cholesterol levels.

Trans fat was developed in the early 20th century by hydrogenating plant oil. Hydrogenation is formed by injecting hydrogen into oil to partially solidify it. This changes the characteristics of the oil, meaning that it has a higher melting point and does not oxidize as rapidly. Trans fat is easier and cheaper to produce than an equivalent fat that comes from an animals.

In terms of cholesterol, trans fat is thought to lower the amount of high density lipoproteins (HDL), sometimes referred to as 'good cholesterol'. Lipoproteins are responsible for transporting cholesterol through the blood stream. The 'good cholesterol' or HDL are thought to transport cholesterol to the liver where it is excreted as bile. If your HDL is lower, it cannot perform this vital function. Trans fat also raises your low density lipoprotein (LDL) levels or 'bad cholesterol'. This LDL is responsible for excess plaque buildup in your arteries which can cause decreased blood flow to the major organs and high blood pressure. Excess plague on the walls of the arteries can break free and cause blockages. A block in blood reaching vital organs like the brain or heart can lead to strokes or heart attacks.

You should avoid food that have trans fats in. Read the labels of all the foodstuffs that you buy. I do this whenever I do grocery shopping with my wife. Check out if they have trans fat in them. If they do not list the trans fat look for partially hydrogenated oil, that is another name for trans fat on food labels

Get to know the types of foods that contain or use trans fats. Popular food that use trans fats in cooking are cakes, biscuits and cookies. Other things include dough nuts, microwave popcorn and many deep fried foods from take aways.

If you have high cholesterol you will be advised to try to eat fresh food in your diet. The less processed food the better. It's tough because we are very much used to eating processed food but we need to try. I know this because I'm struggling to eat fresh food - fruits and vegetables. However, this should be applied to everyone not just people trying to reduce cholesterol levels. Eat more lean meats, fish, whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Following a non-trans fat diet will help to lower your cholesterol. A positive by-product of following such a diet will be that you eat healthier and fresher food.

Let's live a better and healthy live... ;)

Image credited to: http://www.salmonellablog.com/2005/11/articles/salmonella-watch/vegetables-fruits-cause-more-food-illnesses/

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Female Chemical Engineer - No offence please...

When I was working as a process engineer few years back, I came across an interesting and funny experience. A newly graduate chemical engineer just joined the company and I was instructed by my manager to bring her around the plants and facilities. She was so excited and I walked her through the plants, showed her the heat exchanger, vessels, distillation columns and almost everything. I also brought her to the control room and explained to her the process. Being young and energetic as well as equipped with the process PID diagram, she asked me thousands of questions.

After that, I showed her the cooling tower and she was also very excited to see a series of huge cooling towers. I asked her, "Do you want to climb the cooling tower?"

She answered, "Yes, I want to".

Then I asked her to climb first and I followed closely behind. She was so fired up to see the big fans and also the hot water flowing down the cooling tower...

But, after that...this happen...

[Click the cartoon to see larger view - What do you think of my cartoon? Is my drawing OK?]

She cried...and cried...she cannot go down the cooling tower... She can't afford to see the ground. She don't want to go down from the cooling tower. She's shivering. She's crying. She's holding my hand, not wanting me to leave her.

OMG...what should I do?

Anybody want to guess what happen next?

Renewable Energy Project Videos

Ever thought of a renewable energy projects? My research is involving a renewable energy reaction, but I'm not revealing it right now until I complete my Ph.D. haha.... But, here are some videos of some student projects that are quite interesting...maybe it can give you some ideas and inspiration...Check it out...

Student Project

Students at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering develop renewable energy projects for a summer course. The course, directed by Dr. Mahendra Sunkara, is the first project for the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research and Environmental Stewardship. Students were asked to develop systems using a variety of different backgrounds, from chemical engineering to physics.





Solar Tower - renewable energy green global warming

EnviroMission Limited (www.enviromission.com.au) produced this 5 minute video on the pilot plant in Spain. It is an older video (2000) but gives a decent understanding of the solar tower concept.

EnviroMission, Ltd. (US Market: EVOMY, Australian Exchange: EVM) is a renewable energy developer of sustainable "green" energy solutions for the energy market. EnviroMission aims to be one of Australia's leading producers of clean renewable energy. EnviroMission holds the proprietary rights to Solar Tower technology, a large-scale renewable energy technology based on simple fundamentals of physics -- hot air rises. Solar Tower technology has the potential to offer competitive renewable energy with equal reliability to fossil fuel generators.

A single 200MW Solar Tower power station will provide enough electricity to power around 400,000 households. The energy output will represent an annual saving of more than 1,960,000 tonnes of greenhouse CO2 gases from entering the environment when compared to brown coal emissions in Victoria. The greenhouse savings equate to the removal of approximately 500,000 cars from the road. The Australian Solar Tower project consists of six distinct phases, the first two of which (project optimization and pre-feasibility commercialization) have already been completed. The third phase (final feasibility), paving the way for the implementation of the next three phases (final design, construction, and commercial operation).




Mauritius Heading towards Renewable Energy

Life Alert in a Plant and Industry

I still recall when I was a process engineer working in a refinery plant, there are some operator(s) working alone in a small plant and he sits in a small control room. Similar scenario for a boilerman who normally operates alone in the boiler house on his shifts. This is a normal situation in a small plant(s) and I sometimes imagine what happen if suddenly something happen to this fellows? If suddenly they are sick and/or get a heart attack, what will happen to the guy and the plant/boiler or other units he is operating? Who will know what is happening at that instant? The fact that nowadays, we can see healthy people suddenly collapse, higher percentage would be due to high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack which is occasionally due to bad eating habit and unhealthy lifestyle.

I have thought of a device, tool or alarm to alert somebody, possibly an senior technician, supervisor, engineer or manager whenever anything bad happens to their operator or boilerman. I surfed and searched the net and I found a website called Brickhouse Alert that provide a device that can alert the other party whenever anything (that they define) happen. A message or signal will be instantaneously be sent to the other party to inform on what has happen. The product can be installed at home and and has a Fall Detection detector that alerts 24/7 emergency personnel that something or a person have fallen. The person experiencing the emergency can even push a button and an emergency signal is sent.

On top of that, there is also a monitored smoke detector and a help button that if someone falls on the ground, they can smack it and will get help, medication reminders, inactivity detector and so much more. Smoke detector can off course detect fire before it become worse. Interestingly, as I browsed further in the web, I found out that the device is really cleaver. It can be programmed to detect "no movement" or "movement".

I guess that if this kind of product which is provided by BrickHouse Alert can be modified or suited for process plant or manufacturing industry application, it will be great. If I'm still a process engineer, I'll recommend such product to my company. Before I left my ex-company, an integrated computer system a.k.a a centralized control system was in progressed that can allow the engineers and managers to monitor all the production and utility data online. Those are made in concern of business but having a life alert will be display any company concern to their manpower. I also believe this product should be installed in offshore platforms / oil rigs where safety is extremely crucial for the staffs there.

I'm not sure of you but, though the product is mainly to cater for any situation in a house, I believe applying it in a more diverse industry and operation can be a huge success especially when valuing safety and profitability factor.

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Walking in the Plant

For those of you who have not yet been in a chemical plant, I would like to share this very impressive animation videos that I found today in youtube. Credit to Cadmatic3D, the creator and submitter of the videos. For your information, the video shows (I mean simulate) a walk around in the plant.

In the first video, among the things that you'll notice are lots of piping, unconnected pipe flanges (not sure why it is not connected with bolts and nuts), many centrifugal pumps, air lines for valves and instrumentation, butterfly valves, staircases, small drain on the floor, small size plate heat exchanger, level sensor on tank, tanks and others. It's really a good experience simulating a walk around in the plant.




In the second video, it was almost like the first one. It displays I beam, more storage tanks, steam line, more centrifugal pumps (seems like floating) and others.




The videos were just uploaded yesterday and I found myself to be the second person to watch the first video and the 3rd person to watch the second video. Off course, the experience of really walking inside a plant is different but at least this should enable chemical engineering students to visualize what the feel to be walking in the plant.

Note: When you really walk in the plant, you'll listen to the noise, feel the heat from the heat exchanger, distillation column or boiler, see droplets of oil on the floor indicating there's a leakage above you and others. The floor might be slippery and you must be very careful. It's really a different experience. Imagine walking in a an offshore refinery... It was really awesome. I still remember the experiences when I work and visited several Petronas offshore platforms few years ago. Cool stuff...

Are you interested in designing such animation or plant? Alongside with the above video, I found another one which actually shows how to easily design, plan the plant layout and finally create a simulated version of the plant. All you have to do is to use the CADMATIC 3D Plant Design Software. It's fast, easy and simple. Created by engineers for engineers, it's proven to be fast solution for engineers to create and design plant in the shortest time possible. Also, imagine final year students using this powerful software to design their plants. Would that be super interesting? Check out the following video to learn the power of using Cadmatic 3D software...




For further reference or to learn more about this software, please visit www.cadmatic.com.
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Profiting from Ultrasound Steam System Inspection

Just to share some info / news that was delivered to my mailbox by PlantServices.com. It's actually a webminar (web seminar) that you can enjoy from the comfort of your home / office to learn about how to profit from ultrasound steam system inspection.

From the brief information provided, it mentioned how we can use ultrasound to inspect steam traps and valves which are very critical and important in a processing plant. I remembered how crucial the steam traps were when i was working in a production plant before. Whenever some steam traps fail to function and when the boiler unintentionally sent us wet steam, our vacuum pressure will drop and hence disrupt our product quality. We were forced to regularly monitor all steam traps in our 7 storey plant and maintain a checklist. Once in a while, i personally checked some of the steam traps using my bare hands.

I guess that's enough for my rambling. What I wanted to highlight here is actually the webminar organized by Plantservices.com. If you want to learn about it register yourself for the program. I don't think I can make it there due to other commitments. Read the rest of the information....

Presented by PlantServices.com

How to profit from ultrasound steam system inspection

Sponsored by: UE Systems
Content type: Webcast
Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008
Time: 12 PM ET/9 AM PT
Length: 60 minutes

This tutorial will demonstrate how to conduct an ultrasound steam trap and valve survey. Viewers will learn the basics of ultrasound technology followed by details, including sound samples of various steam traps in good and in failure conditions. Strategies for effective trap and valve survey preparation and methods of recording, analyzing and reporting results will be included, as well as how effective steam trap inspections help conserve energy and increase profitability!

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Featured Speaker: Douglas Waetjen - UE Systems, Inc.
Mr. Waetjen has been involved with ultrasound technology since 1986. He has lectured about the technology worldwide, written numerous technical articles, and has been instrumental in the program implementation of ultrasound for hundreds of companies. Mr. Waetjen is an active member of the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP) and is chairman of the Supplier Relations Committee for this organization. As a certified Level III, Mr. Waetjen teaches Ultrasound Level I and Level II courses. In addition to his efforts to educate and lecture, Mr. Waetjen is the director of worldwide sales for UE Systems, Inc.

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How Crude Oil Refined?

Do you know how crude oil is processed ore refined? If no, then I recommend you to check out this video. Even if you know, it's good to see it to learn other plants. It shows us how crude oil is refined. The video shows an American Refining Group, Bradford, Pa., which is the world's oldest and continuously operating refiner of Pennsylvania crude oil. Take a tour of the "Barrell House". It's like a 9 minutes technical plant visit. You don't see the oil but at least you learn something about the basic process. Perhaps, later we can have more of this type video technical plant visit to enrich our technical skills :) .



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Things That I Learned From A Simple Bolt and Nut

During the previous shut down, I got myself to become more hands on. Why? You can read this entry to know why in case you haven't read them.

There are lot to learn from a simple bolt and nut. There are various problems and difficulties that we can possibly encounter from a pair of bolt and nut. Followings are few things that I have learned from that small item (which are inclined to maintenance)...

1. If you over tightened those bolt and nuts, you might have some difficulties to open it later in future. If things get worse, the bolt and nuts can break. If it breaks, it will be difficult to open/dismantle the flange. In certain cases, you need to cut those bolt or nuts using oxy-cutting. However, we can only use oxy-cutting for bolt and but made from mild steel or GI. Stainless steel bolt and nut normally don't have any problem to be loosen because they do not corrode/rust.
Morale: Do not over tighten the bolt and nut. Just tighten it according to your normal human power.

2. Over paint... Sometimes you paint the bolt and nut for certain reason. One popular reason will be to avoid rust. One problem that our team faced during the previous shut down is to unscrew the nut. Oh my God, it was very tough because the paint covering the bolt and nut was so thick. We applied paint remover but still the stubborn paint would not completely removed. As a result, we took about 3 hours just to remove an 8" flange with 8 bolt and nuts. This affected our time and productivity.
Morale: do not over apply the paint.

3. Unsuitable length or size of bolt and nut. There were cases where we lost some bolt and nuts due to some slight work inefficiencies. When we want to replace them, we need to get suitable bolt and nuts. A shorter bolt will be required for a simple flange. However, a longer bolt will be required to sandwich a check valve between flanges.
Morale: Use the correct size and material of bolt and nut.

4. Grease the bolt and nut. After removing the bolt and nut from a flange, it's better to clean them if there are any debris or rust. Then apply grease to avoid rust and to ease screw and unscrew of it.
Morale: Get a cup of grease and ask your operator/fitter/worker to apply the grease.

5. Ensure there are sufficient stock of bolt and nuts. During a shut down or turn around, we normally dismantle flanges and manhole to clean vessel, pipeline, distillation column, deodorizers or others. Sometimes, a small number of those bolt and nuts broke and they need to be replaced. We must have ample stock of the correct bolt and nuts so that we can smoothly connect the flanges or close manholes.
Morale: Ensure your store has sufficient stock of the required bolts and nuts.

6. Tightening the bolt and nut. When tightening the bolts and nuts, we need to criss cross the arrangement. Normally a flange will have 8 holes for the bolts. Commence with 12 o'clock, followed by 6 o'clock. Then tighten 3 o'clock followed 9 o'clock and so on. This will ensure even compression towards the gaskets when we tightened the nuts.
Morale: Do it patiently and correctly. If not, the system may leak and we'll get in trouble (that is if we don't do a steam or air test before starting the plant).

7. Prepare the correct size of spanar. It's a waste of time if we don't use the correct size of spanar to unscrew a nut from a bolt. Ensure you have the correct spanar size. If you are want to unscrew a nut of size 24, use spanar size 24. If you want to use an adjustable spanar, use the one that is closer to the size range. Do not use an adjustable spanar which is too big. If you use an over size adjustable spanar, you will get tired pretty fast or you might trigger an accident.
Morale: Ensure you have the correct size of spanar when dealing with bolt and nut.

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Engineering Students With Billion-Dollar Ideas

A bunch of chemical engineering students gathered in the Wu Conference Center at University of New Brunswick Fredericton, Canada to show case their projects in the Innovations and Opportunities Atlantic Canada Engineering Conference. the project carried out by those students were very interesting. One of the projects which was converting coal to fuel was pretty interesting. I know the basics of this technology while doing my masters few years ago (I did converting gas to liquid technology before). The coal to fuel was first develop by SASOL in South Africa. For them, they managed to create a process which is commercially viable. Now, the students have presented their ideas to establish the coal to liquid plant in Canada and it will be truly rewarding if their ideas will be executed. Continue reading the full news below:

FREDERICTON - From producing synthetic oil from oil shale to making diesel from coal, energy production projects dominated the Innovations and Opportunities Atlantic Canada engineering conference.

More than 130 university and high school students, faculty, government officials and industry representatives packed the Wu Conference Centre at the University of New Brunswick Fredericton recently to hear about nine capital projects designed to bring major investments and jobs to the province.

Altogether the student projects, if they were all built, would represent more than $6 billion in capital investments and would create more than 1,700 jobs.

Among the most intriguing ideas presented at the one-day event was a plant designed to turn coal from Minto into ultra-low sulphur diesel.

"Our economic analysis shows this plant is extremely profitable," said Blair Kelly, one of the three students who designed the $1.1-billion facility.

The plant, designed by Kelly, Stephanie Guay and Rebecca Appleton would produce 10,000 barrels of diesel fuel each day from 1,400 tonnes of coal. If built, it would be the first coal-to-liquid fuels plant in Canada.

The technology was first developed during the Second World War and is in use in South Africa as well as China.

Continue reading the full article HERE.

Photos: Rebecca Appleton, Blair Kelly and Stephane Guay, chemical engineering students at the University of New Brunswick, have designed a $1.1-billion coal-to-liquid fuels plant which could be built in Minto. The plant would produce 10,000 barrels per day of ultra-low sulphur diesel.

Power Surge From Local Power Supplier

There are simply a lot of problems in a processing or a production plant. I did mentioned a broad or general ideas on the problems before this.

It will be very frustrating if a problem arises from an uncontrollable source. For example, today, there was a power surge which came from the local power supply. It happened so fast and we felt the power interruption in a split second. Immediately, I looked through the CCTV and checkout what was happening from inside my office. The plant operators were running here and there checking the valves, pumps and other equipments. Three units of boilers which are supposed to supply steam to the plants shut off. The boiler man worked very hard to start up the boiler step by step. My colleague, a charge man, swiftly checked the LV (Low Voltage) room to checked on any problem or tripping on our site. Fortunately, everything was in perfect order. It was the 1 second power surge that affected us and definitely resulted in a terrible downtime to our production.

How to avoid such downtime?

For our side, we cannot avoid this. It must be control from the local power supplier, in our case, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). They must ensure their local power station is performing well and delivering sufficient power to surrounding factories and plants. Well, that's one kind of downtime that is very costly and unavoidable. A problem that is beyond our control.

Some Problems We Find in A Processing & Production Plant

As a process engineer or production executive, we shall always hope and wish that the plant will be smooth. A processing or production plant will always have a problem whether we like it or not. What will the problem be? Are they thought in the university? Can you get them in the text books? I bet you would not get those valuable informations anywhere there?

So, how can you get them? You'll actually get them when you work and experience those problems yourself. Another way of getting those precious information is by asking and learning it from experience executives and engineers.

I've been working for almost three years in my current work place and I observed all these problems. I think it might be useful if I share all those plant problems with you guys. There are a lot of problems and I shall post it in this blog from time to time. The problems varies and comes from various angles and areas such as (without any particular arrangement):

1. Utilities problems :
power, natural gas, steam, water, chemicals, LFO, diesel, processing aid, air etc. Processing cost can increase the overall production cost.

2. Maintenance & Equipment problems :
Pump, piping, instrumentation, pressure transmitter, level transmitter, temperature indicator, NPSH, cavitation, control valve, steam trap, leakage, insulation.

3. Human resource problems :
Disciplinary, Late coming, absent, failure to obey instruction, negligence, psychology.

4. Report & Documentation problems :
Daily report, monthly report, quarterly report, yearly report, ISO & GMP related documents.

5. Communication problems :
Miscommunication, instruction, network, PC, server, bad relationship with up line, down line and colleagues.

6. Quality problems :
Laboratory, lab checking, quality control, testing error, solution/chemical contamination.

7. Supplier problems :
Raw material - product - goods out of spec, cheating.

8. Supporting equipment problems :
Deterioration of cooling tower performance, heat exchanger performance.

9. Planning problems :
Administration interruption, supply demand, market, margin.

10. Control system problems :
Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Human machine interface (HMI) and PC, IT, network, softwares.

11. Stock, raw material, storage tank problems :
Network, false information, over flow, insufficient storage tank, contamination.

12. Stress, Pressure & Health Problems :
Meeting deadline, lack of time, inadequate knowledge, 24 hours alert and standby, meetings, reports, various crisis, inability to manage pressure from top management.

OK. That would be some very general and surface introduction on what problems we can expect from running a plant. I'll try to update and add more on those details from time to time. I welcome anybody who want to share problems that they faced in their plant. We can discuss it here and share it with the rest of the readers.

Doxford Power Ltd - Volume Potable Water and Power Production

I just received an interesting email (thanks Mr. Ray for forwarding it to me) mentioning about a special "Volume Potable Water and Power Production" product. It is believed that this product will be of interest to World Vision as it provides clean potable water as a by-product of electrical power generation, both of which are core fundamentals to health issues for the developing world. I believe, a lot more parties will be interested with such a brilliant revolutionary product like this.

Doxford Power Ltd. (DPL), a company based in UK, produces a 10MWe power station equipment or power stations complete on a supply or BOO (Build, Own and Operate) basis. These power stations are significantly different to current (fossil and alternative) power stations in that their primary fuel is derived from two sources, Biomass (Jatropha Curcas, Rapeseed, Palm oil etc) or waste (household or industrial). With that, the product has no reliance on fossil fuels, the chance for a developing country to meet its current and future energy demands from domestic agribusiness and a waste management solution which can be run in parallel to the agribusiness which can utilize what is normally sent to landfill sites as EfW (energy for waste).

DPL owns and utilizes a second technology called a Powereau Unit which drives considerable efficiencies into standard heat engines (generators and gas turbines) and also the DPL power units. A by-product of this intercooler technology is water, and it produce lots of it. A 10MWe power station will require approximately 25,000 tonnes of biomass oil per month but will produce as a by-product in excess of 100,000 tonnes of water per month and more in humid conditions. This water alone justifies the fuel source.

Fuel Source

The DPL 10MWe power plant can utilize Jatropha Curcas plantations to supply 100% renewable and sustainable fuel supply. The berry crop has the oil removed via crushing and filtration with the waste being made into briquettes for domestic heating and cooking use (thus avoiding cutting further trees) One key issue here is sustainable employment. One DPL power plant will require 2000 hectares of land on average to run every year if Jatropha Curcas is the crop of choice. This provides employment at usually a higher standard than current farmers receive of one job per hectare.

The core infrastructure resources for world health are water and power. This DPL power plant provides both of these and whats more, it can commercially reduce current power production costs.

It seems that this is a superb product and the company has began the business development for it. I understand that the marketing material for this product is being processed now. Hence, what you are seeing (from the power point slide presentation) is the core management marketing pre-graphic designers and is not the final professional presentation yet. The product will only be available from April 2008 onwards.

I tried to get further in depth information from the company's website; Doxfordpower.com, however, it could not be opened. I hope the problem can be rectified and interested parties can refer to it for more information.

Check out the NEW: Energy Production VIDEOS

Chemical Engineering Related Photo Sharing

I'm going to share some interesting photos with you. I'll first let you see, observe and analyzed what those photos are. Just imagine and think what are the equipments or situations... It's better if you figure out what the photos shows before I provide you with some answers and brief informations at the end of the photos. If you are a student, you will find this a good learning curve, I hope so. If you already work in a processing or production plant, you may already know about these photos.

(a) What is happening?

(b) Another view on what is happening in photo a.

(c) Another clue on what is happening in photo a. If you're tired guessing, check out the answer at the end of the post.

(d) What is this?

(e) Another close up on photo d.

(f) What is this?

(g) Another clue on what is photo f

Answers & brief explanations.

Photo a: A plate heat exchanger is leaking.

Photo b: You can see traces of fluid leaking/pouring out from the bottom of the plate heat exchanger.

Photo c: An example of plate heat exchangers' plate where fluid may come out when the incoming hot and cold fluid are not balance. Or, if the gaskets are no longer functioning due to damage, torn, not perfectly attached or various other reasons.

Photo d: This is the ball which originated from a 4" 3 piece body ball valve. It is made of stainless steel SS316.

Photo e: This ball was taken out from a damaged 4" 3 piece body ball valve. This type of ball valve is imperative in processing plant. It is more reliable than a gate valve and butterfly valve but is more expansive. To learn more about ball valve, check the following links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_valve
flow-control.globalspec.com/learnmore/flow_control_flow_transfer/valves/ball_valves
wisegeek.com/what-is-a-ball-valve.htm

Photo f: These are sight glasses. It is use to view and observe physically the flowing fluid in a pipeline or stream.

Photo g: This photo is an example on where the sight glass will be installed. By having a sight glass, it is easier to monitor and observe the condition and physical appearance of a fluid.
To learn more about sight glass and the types available in the market, check the following links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight_glass
visilume.co.uk/products.shtml?gclid=CNShy_rX8pACFQIsewodazLhqw
us.schott.com/special_applications/english/products/maxos.html

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