How To Build Cooling System For Your PC

This is a very interesting video teaches us how to make a cooling system for our PC. We need small and cute heat exchanger, tubing, cooling water, cooling elements, cooling fan, thermal paste, flow meter, pump, cable, elbow, cable holders, header tank, and hard drive cooler. All of these items are related and can be associated with our chemical and process engineering field. Check it out and try it at your PC.

Some Short Updates

The pass few days were very hectic for me. Last week I gave a talk entitled "Chemical and Process Engineering - Sharing Knowledge and Experience" to the first year Chemical Engineering students at University Technology Malaysia (UTM). It was my first experience delivering such talk to more than 100 students. I guess it went well and I hope the students gain some valuable information from my talk.

Today, I just returned from a day trip to Kuala Lumpur. I'm still exhausted but I push myself to publish a post here. I met the design project group from University Technology MARA (UiTM) that I supervised as allied supervisor. They need some help on certain areas of the design project and I explained and assisted them. I think it's very good that UiTM introduce and include allied supervisor from industry to assist supervising the design project that the students are doing. Their report will be more realistic, accurate and they'll have better comprehension on the project.

At work, I was busy as ever. We stopped one of the plant and did a swift maintenance job to improve the plants process. I'm glad that the planning was good and jobs were well coordinated and executed. Supervisors, maintenance fitters and plant operators have done a brilliant job and the plant managed to be started smoothly after that.

In order to create a better and conducive working environment, the management initiated Super 5S which is part of the Japanese Kaizen system. 5S was already introduced earlier but it slowly faded as nobody was really monitoring it. Now, a steering committee was formed to lead, enforce and apply 5S. I was elected as one of the steering committee and that means additional job and responsibility for me. Part of my task is to be a 5S trainer and make sure everybody is well trained. Hmm....I got to start first my keeping my desk tidy!!....

Besides that, I also received few emails from various readers (of this blog) asking questions related to chemical engineering industry, career, plant process, data, information etc. I have answered some of them and I also have not answered some of it. Don't worry, I'll answer the emails as soon as humanly possible. Thanks for your emails...

Learning Process From Cleaning Plate Heat Exchanger

In my previous post "Some Updates", I mentioned about Process Plant - Heat Recovery View. The plate heat exchanger that has been thoroughly cleaned via "cleaning in place" (CIP) could not produced the desired output temperature (but we got the flow rate). I blamed the RTD for the output temperature not correct. Although the RTD has been serviced, it still shows the same reading.

Today, we realized what was wrong with the plate heat exchanger (or cleaning program). We only conducted (CIP) for one side only (cold oil 1) i.e. the side which we assumed dirty, contained scale and fouling. The other side (hot oil 2) which we thought was clean (free from scale and fouling) was not cleaned with hot caustic (main ingredient for CIP). We found out from the newly installed vortex flow meter that the 'hot oil 2' side flow rate is low i.e. about only 54m3/hr. The 'cold oil 1' flow rate can reached up to 105 m3/hr. This shows that the 'hot oil 2' side in the plate heat exchanger is partially blocked with probably scale and fouling. The heat transfer is therefore not efficient and effective. The 'cold oil 1' temperature should reached 240oC from 105oC. However, it only managed to reached 210oC which is not sufficient for the process.

Now that we know the problem, we are doing CIP for the 'hot oil 2' side. After 6 hours of CIP, the flow rate has became 76m3/hr which shows some sign of improvement. We'll circulate the hot caustic until the flow rate reaches at least 90m3/hr. I'm glad that we learned and experienced this. At least our understanding and comprehension, tricks and technique of handling the plate heat exchanger improved. Thanks to one of my supervisor who informed us about the slow flow rate of 'hot oil 2' which as a result could not heat up the 'cold oil 1'.

I hope this post provide some valuable infos for you. If you're confused or do not understand what I'm discussing here, feel free to ask.

Steam and Vacuum Related Q and A

I received 2 interesting questions at my "Vacuum Dropped Alert" post last June. I think its better for me to answer them in a new post for the benefits of others. I discussed the questions/problems with my colleague at work. I hope Mr Owais and Mr Vinay do not mind we discuss it here.

The first questions from Mr Owais (as adopted from the comment section);

"I'm working as a chemical engineer in GamaLux OleoChemical, Fat Splitting Unit.We're facing the same problem. Our main boiler is under maintenance and smaller one in progress time and again vacuum drop and our production get effected but when we don't have good vacuum then we hold the plant or lower down the feed input and product out put but the main problem is that if we lower down the product Fatty acid flow rate then it get chance to stuck in the pipeline then we have to flush the line which is more troublesome. What will u suggest me about how to solve the problem."

My respond/answer;

First of all, I need more informations in order to answer this issue. What is the design requirement of the steam for the plant to get its vacuum? This should be known from the plant manufacturer or current practice. The steam from the boiler house must be supplied as per the requirement of the plant(s). Maybe your smaller boiler do not produce the same amount of steam as your main boiler. Hence, if your plant vacuum system is fragile, slight pressure drop or fluctuation from the small boiler will trigger vacuum dropped and destroy the oil quality.

As for your fatty acid, you probably need a better insulation for the piping and / or steam tracing along the line. This will prevent blockage in the line (hindering fatty acid from solidifying). Sometimes you need jacketed steam tracing if the product have a lower melting point.

If everything above is not an issue, check your cooling water temperature condensing the steam. Is the temperature low enough as per design. Is the pressure from the cooling tower sufficient? Is the strainer nearby the pump suction blocked?

If everything above is still not an issue, when you stop your plant, conduct a complete air test to check and find any leakages in the vacuum system. I hope I answer your questions.

Example of a fire tube boiler that produces steam for general heating and vacuum system.

The second questions from Mr Vinay (as adopted from the comment section);

"I am working in a textile plant as a maintenance engineer. My steam requirement is about 5500 kgs/hr. The main line from boiler to header is 4 inch. Can a smaller pipeline size lead to water carryover. We maintain TDS level in boiler of about 4000-4500. Our's is a water tube boiler."

My respond/answer;

First of all, I need more informations in order to answer this issue. Is it true your plant need 5,500kgs/hr steam? For me, that is very high. Or maybe your production capacity is very big that it require huge amount of steam. I'm just checking some information/facts...I fear, if you reduce the diameter of the pipeline, the flow rate of steam will be slightly affected/restricted. From my observation/experience, if the boiler deliver water carry over, and the water is still in the line (no where to escape), that means wet steam will occur. This will make the vacuum weak. Hopefully no water hammering takes place!!! That means, reducing the line would not help.

Install some steam trap along the line to eliminate water carry over. Spirax Sarco have a number of good steam traps (I'm not related to them).

I think your TDS is on the higher side. Do your water treatment chemicals work at more than 4000 ppm? Please check with your chemical supplier on this matter. For my case, we control the TDS at 2000, the most 2300ppm. This applies to any type of boiler.

I hope I gave a reasonably acceptable answer/suggestion/comment. If anybody want to further comment or discuss about those two issues, you are most welcome...

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Photo of the Day - Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

This is a photo of a very big shell and tube heat exchangers. "Outokumpu Stainless Tubular Products" (OSTP) unit in Fagersta produces heat exchanger tubes for heat exchanger evaporators, condensers and other equipment. I don't bother counting how many tubes they are in the shell and tube heat exchanger, but I'm guessing there are almost 1000 tubes. Do you want to count? Photo adopted from Chemicals-Technology.com.

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Health: Saturated, Monosaturated and Polysaturated Fat

As an educated person, we should be wiser in selecting our daily food consumption. By consuming more bad fats via our favourite food, it may affect our life and health in future. Few months back, I realized about this and reduced my chicken meal (for your information I love eating chicken, especially fried chicken, since the past 31 years). Chicken have high content of fats/cholesterol especially under the skin. I'm planning to eat a lot more healthier food with less oil. I want to reduced my BMI (body mass index).

Some source of polyunsaturated fats

Below are some interesting quiz/facts on making healthy choices about fat in your diet? The quiz is from the American Heart Association to help you face the facts about fats. Just answer true or false. You can find the correct answer below the questions.

1. A healthy diet includes some fats.

2 Bad fats are those that tend to be solid at room temperature, such as butter or shortening.

3. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are bad fats.

4. Different types of fats have different calorie counts.

5. All foods labeled "trans fat-free" are healthy foods.

6. Monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, avocados, peanut butter and many nuts and seeds, can have a beneficial effect on your health when eaten in moderation and when used to replace saturated fats or trans fats.

7. Monounsaturated fats are also typically high in vitamin E, an antioxidant vitamin most Americans need more of.

8. The fats in the foods you eat should not total more than 25 percent to 35 percent of the calories you eat in a given day.

Answers: 1) True; 2) True; 3) False; 4) False. There are 9 calories in every gram of fat, regardless of what type it is. 5) False. Foods labeled trans fat-free may contain saturated fats, or they may be high in sugar and low in nutrients. 6) True; 7) True; 8) True

I would like to recommend a good reading easy to understand information about saturated fat, Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated:

http://www.defence.gov.au/news/raafnews/EDITIONS/4424/health/story01.htm

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How To Make A Shell and Tube Heat Exhchanger

I would like to share a very good video on how to make a shell and tube heat exchanger. Before, this I never know how a shell and tube heat exchanger was made. I have 2 big shell and tube heat exchangers in my plant and it is very interesting for me to know how it they are created. The video is 2.58 minutes length and it shows a small shell and tube heat exchangers. It is a straight tube heat exchanger (one pass tube-side) and it has 2 baffles. Check it out...