Chemical Processing Magazine - 012013

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PROSPECTS BRIGHTEN FOR CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

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5 CHEMICALPROCESSING.COM JANUARY 2013

CONTENTS

Chemical Processing (ISSN 0009-2630) is published monthly by Putman Media Inc., 555 West Pierce Road, Suite 301, Itasca, IL 60143. Phone (630) 467-1300. Fax (630) 467-1109. Periodicals postage paid at Itasca, IL, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chemical Processing, P.O. Box 3434, Northbrook, IL 60065-3434. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Qualified reader subscriptions are accepted from operat-ing management in the chemical processing industries at no charge. To apply for a qualified subscription, fill in the subscription card. To nonqualified subscribers in the United States, subscriptions are $68 per year. Single copies are $14. Canadian and foreign annual subscriptions are accepted at $115 surface per year. Single copies are $16. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40028661. Canadian Mail Distributor information: Frontier/BWI, PO Box 1051, Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, L2A 5N8. Copyright 2013 Putman Media Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the copyright owner. REPRINTS: Reprints are available on a custom basis. For price quotation, contact Foster Reprints, (866) 879-9144, www.fostereprints.com. Putman Media also publishes Control, Control Design, Food Processing, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Plant Services. Chemical Processing assumes no responsibility for validity of claims in items reported.

16 29 33

COVER STORY 16 Prospects Brighten for Chemical Industry

Increasing demand from key end users and the competitive feedstock advantage of shale gas promise to spur growth for years and lead to an increasing trade surplus in chemicals.

FEATURESDESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION

23 Rethink Options for Large DriversMajor developments in high-speed electric motor technology and improvements in cost and performance of variable speed drive systems make large electric motor drivers a viable choice.

MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS

29 Heat Transfer Fluids Aim For ExtremesVendors are working to develop new products and support services to meet the increasing global demand for heat transfer fluids with greater thermal and oxidation stability.

INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL

33 Properly Handle Abnormal SituationsAn analysis of major incident reports identifies some key challenges and ways to improve development of procedure management systems that lead to better, safer operations.

MAKING IT WORK

38 Biorefinery BeckonsAdvanced biofuels are moving toward commercialization with large-scale biorefineries beginning to sprout around the U.S. A pioneer plant in Iowa will produce ethanol from corn stover.

COLUMNS7 From the Editor: Book Targets Chemical

Substitution

9 Chemical Processing Online: We’ve Sealed the Deal

10 Field Notes: Ease Packed-Column Commissioning

14 Energy Saver: Implement Energy Efficiency Measures, III

15 Compliance Advisor: EPA Keeps Close Eye on Cadmium

42 Plant InSites: Is Mist a Must?

50 End Point: Chemical Engineering Matters

DEPARTMENTS11 In Process: Milling Breaks Down Barriers

for MOFs | Sieve Layer Enhances Oxide Catalyst

41 Process Puzzler: Get Rid Of Problems

Not Just Off-Gas

44 Equipment & Services

46 Product Spotlight/Classifieds

49 Ad Index

JANUARY 2013 | VOLUME 75, ISSUE 1

Responsibility is part of our DNAShale formations in North America may help reduce the continent’s dependence on imported oil. But recovering oil and gas from tight rock 10,000 feet under ground requires a lot of skill. Even more than skill, it requires responsibility. Especially when the reserves are in close proximity to prime farmland and local communities. That’s why we remain committed to developing technologies that measure up to the toughest efficiency and safety standards. Because we know that what’s great today can always be improved tomorrow. It’s in our nature. Never being satisfied.

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FROM THE EDITOR

Many companies

agree with these

principles but

don’t know how

to implement

them.

THE HAZARDS that certain chemicals may or may not pose remain a subject of intense debate between chemical makers, regulators and other interested parties. Nonetheless, some users of these chemicals undoubtedly must feel that replacing suspect materi-als now rather than waiting for an ultimate decision about their safety is a prudent course of action.

Such firms should take a look at a new 64-page book called “The Guide to Safer Chemicals,” downloadable at www.bizngo.org/guide.php. It was issued in December by the Biz-NGO Working Group (www.bizngo.org), which calls itself “a unique collaboration of business and NGO [nongovernmental organization] leaders who are creating a roadmap to the widespread use of safer chemi-cals and sustainable materials in our economy.” Some large manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Shaw Industries — but no chemical makers — as well as retailers like Staples and Whole Foods are involved.

Previously, Biz-NGO had developed “Four Prin-ciples for Safer Chemicals,” namely:

1. Know and disclose chemicals across the lifecycle of products.

2. Assess and avoid hazards. 3. Commit to continuous improvement.4. Support public policies and industry standards

that make comprehensive hazards data avail-able, act to eliminate known risks, and promote a greener economy.

The group says that many companies agree with these principles but don’t know how to implement them.

“‘The Guide’ is the result of three-plus years of discussions, pilots and draft versions among Biz-NGO participants of how to implement the Biz-NGO Principles for Safer Chemicals,” it says.

The book is not about compliance with laws and regulations. It assumes companies already comply and want to move beyond that. Many drivers — such as addressing consumer demands, ensuring product development stays far ahead of regulations, expand-ing current markets and capturing new markets, and guiding innovation — can prompt taking a more-pro-active approach in use of chemicals, notes Biz-NGO.

The executive summary provides a good overview of the book’s purpose and content:

“‘The Biz-NGO Guide to Safer Chemicals’ is a unique resource for downstream users of chemicals. It is a hands-on guide that charts pathways to safer chemicals in products and supply chains...

“Chemicals are at the core of our materials,

products, and manufacturing systems, and as such should be at the core of our sustainability programs. Yet many a downstream business, those organiza-tions that use chemicals by virtue of the products they purchase, have avoided starting this journey thinking that the path to greener and safer chemicals is too clouded in complexity and uncertainty. ‘The Guide’ is our response to these uncertainties and is intended for both novices and experts.

“‘The Guide’:

and supply chains.

NGO Principles for Safer Chemicals.

benchmark.

started and advancing on their paths to safer chemicals.

“Users of ‘The Guide’ will learn how to:

of improvement, and track progress to safer chemicals.

organizations.

performance in moving to safer chemicals based on an independent metric.”’

Some corporate executives already are applauding the effort. For instance, Helen Holder, materials man-ager at Hewlett-Packard, says, “‘The Guide’ establishes clear steps for building a meaningful program for devel-oping and adopting better materials, and we have found it to be helpful in communicating across the supply chain how to implement a green chemistry program.”

The authors admit this initial version has many gaps in reporting and the benchmarks are imperfect and need refinement. “‘The Guide’ is a living resource and will evolve over time as we learn more about the challenges and opportunities that organizations face in implement-ing these benchmarks,” they say.

MARK ROSENZWEIG, Editor in Chief

[email protected]

Book Targets Chemical Substitution“How to” guide aims to help companies switch to safer chemicals

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Phone: (630) 467-1300Fax: (630) 467-1109

www.chemicalprocessing.com

E-mail: [email protected]/Customer Service:(888) 644-1803 or (847) 559-7360

EDITORIAL STAFF

Mark Rosenzweig,Editor in Chief, x478

[email protected]

Amanda Joshi,Managing Editor, x442

[email protected]

Traci Purdum, Senior Digital Editor, x428

[email protected]

Seán Ottewell,Editor at Large

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Andrew Sloley,Troubleshooting Columnist

Lynn L. Bergeson,Regulatory Columnist

Ven Venkatesan,Energy Columnist

Dirk Willard, Columnist

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Stephen C. Herner,Vice President of Creative Services, x312

[email protected]

Brian Hertel, Associate Art Director, x413

[email protected]

Rita Fitzgerald, Production Manager, x468

rfi [email protected]

EDITORIAL BOARD

Vic Edwards, KvaernerTim Frank, Dow Chemical

Ben Paterson, Eli LillyRoy Sanders, Consultant

Ellen Turner, Eastman ChemicalBen Weinstein, Procter & Gamble

Jon Worstell, ConsultantSheila Yang, Bayer

PUBLISHER

Brian Marz, Publisher, [email protected]

EXECUTIVE STAFF

John M. Cappelletti, President/CEOJane B. Volland, CFO

Jerry Clark, Vice President of CirculationJack Jones, Circulation Director

REPRINTS

Claudia Stachowiak, Corporate Account Executive [email protected]

Folio Editorial Excellence Award Winner 9 CHEMICALPROCESSING.COM JANUARY 2013

CHEMICAL PROCESSING ONLINE

Get answers to

sealing problems

that vex you.

AS YOU probably know, we’ve been tweaking our Ask The Experts section to make it more useful. Late last year we went to a forum format, which enables readers to add their insight or ask follow-up questions to expert answers. We also incorporated a “subscribe” feature so you can fol-low your favorite topics or threads. Now we’ve expanded our panel of experts — with a specialist on sealing technology.

Welcome Peter Petrunich. He is technical director of the Fluid Seal-ing Association and has over 30 years of functional and administrative experience with the technology and marketing of f luid sealing products. I’m sure you’ll want to take advan-tage of his knowledge.

Right now, because it’s new, his forum needs questions. So, it’s an ideal opportunity to get answers to sealing problems that vex you. Your queries will get him in the groove and make him feel at home. You can go directly to his page www.ChemicalProcessing.com/experts/sealing and click on the red button to the right that says “Pose a Question to Th e Experts.”

If you are wondering how we go about adding new topics, fi rst we ask ourselves if there’s a need for a certain area of expertise. In this case, a reader suggested we add sealing to our roster. We agreed that the optimization of

sealing systems off ers a signifi cant op-portunity to save energy and increase productivity. Additionally, proper seal technology can improve plant safety and environmental compliance, reduce water consumption, enhance equip-ment reliability and cut overall mainte-nance costs.

As a matter of policy we don’t have people from vendors as experts — to avoid any perception that we favor a particular supplier or that answers are not impartial. We had to put our heads together to figure out who would best fill the expert shoes. Remembering that Petrunich wrote an article for us several years ago (“Find the Best Value Seal,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/arti-cles/2005/567), Editor Mark Rosenz-weig asked him to join our team.

We hope you take advantage of his knowledge in the field of sealing technology. And remember that we have nearly 30 experts on call to answer your questions regarding everything from combustion and corrosion to process safety, pumps, solids processing and everything in between. Check out all the catego-ries: www.ChemicalProcessing.com/experts/. And if you think we are missing a good topic, let us know.

TRACI PURDUM, Senior Digital Editor

[email protected].

We’ve Sealed the DealA guru on sealing technology has joined our roster of experts

CHECK OUT SEALING ARTICLES ON CHEMICALPROCESSING.COM“Specify the Right Slurry Seal” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/specify-the-right-slurry-seal/; “Gas Up Your Sealing Knowledge” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2006/182/; “New Seals Get Their Turn” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2007/113/; “Mixer Seal Gets Major Makeover,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2011/mixer-seal-gets-major-makeover/.

JANUARY 2013 CHEMICALPROCESSING.COM 10

FIELD NOTES

Velocity controls

gas absorption

but is hard to

manipulate.

THE ACID absorber made weak acid; our scrubbers were acting as absorbers. For the next few exhaust-ing hours we stumbled through an ad hoc checklist. Eventually, we determined a ½-in. patch of filter was plugging the absorber’s spray nozzle. It probably escaped our inspection of the vessel bottoms. Packed towers demand a feedstock free of debris!

First, consider the basics. Velocity controls gas absorption but is hard to manipulate. Blower capabilities limit the influence of gas velocity, leaving only liquid velocity to adjust. Another factor is liquid distribution. The selection of the nozzle(s) and pump(s) affects this distribution. The effectiveness of the spray nozzle(s) and liquid re-distributor(s) in spreading the liquid over the packing impact the distribution. Problems will become apparent during commissioning.

Flush the tower with the spray nozzle(s) removed. Before starting the pump(s), inspect the sump, and disassemble and inspect the spray nozzle(s). Install a coarse basket strainer in the suction to avoid pump impeller damage from broken packing; keep the strainer in for several weeks. Size the mesh to less than half the spray nozzle orifice. Typically, the f low goes first through a coarse mesh then a fine mesh; 2 mesh for coarse and 12 mesh for fine is common. Filter area should be at least 2.5 times greater than the pipe f low area. I recommend a differential pressure gauge and duplex filters. Also, strain feedstock to prevent spray nozzle fouling.

After flushing for half a day, re-inspect the sump, and install and set the spray nozzle(s). The nozzle-packing distance is crucial. You likely must refill the packing level because it shrinks, typically 1–3 feet, after use. Use the time for flushing to set the levels, test the tank overflow capacity, and adjust the feed flow loop. You’ll observe a sudden drop in the sump level as the packing fills; 8–15% is typical. Take care in setting the level trips. On one job the level was at 50% and tripped the entire plant off at 45% when the pumps started. It’s important to determine the cavitation point for the pump during this period.

The next step is crucial: test the feed flow to ensure the scrubber or absorber can operate over its full range. In one startup we were forced to order a replacement impeller because the pump couldn’t supply enough flow.

Cooling often is used to improve the capture efficiency of a scrubber where heat of absorption is exothermic. If the feedstock is cooled, care-fully check the temperature loop. It’s best to test the loop under high stress conditions; the heat of summer works best.

Properly setting the spray nozzle(s) is vital to maximizing the effectiveness of the liquid transfer coefficient. A viewport helps during startup but an open manway also works although the nozzle(s) will behave slightly differently under vacuum. Adjust the spray nozzle(s) manually so spray touches the wall without formation of either large droplets or atomized spray. Record the pressure versus feed-stock flow. Separate gauges and valves for multiple nozzles are best.

A common problem with multiple spray nozzles is interaction. Collision of sprays from different nozzles can create large droplets. This can cause serious distribution problems and efficiency losses because of dry spots, especially in the center of the tower where the gas velocity is strongest — that’s where you want the water to go.

In crucial applications, consider alternate spray nozzles to avoid poor distribution at the low and high range of equipment operation. It may be desirable to adjust the spray pressure accord-ing to the tower throughput. Also, be aware of variations in liquid density, viscosity and surface tension; the process liquid may differ in these properties from the water used during the test. Your vendor can run trials to evaluate droplet formation. Another concern is pump duty; some pumps serve many duties and this could affect spray nozzle pressure.

And, finally, there’s gas distribution. Ideally, gas should enter the bottom of the scrubber and be evenly distributed — although usually it isn’t. At best a distributor can spread out the gas. So, per-form a visual test by running the tower for several minutes, so the spray nozzle(s) can wet the packing. Then, allowing the gas to flow, turn off the water flow for a time and touch the packing to see if it’s still wet in the middle. If the packing is moist in the center and wet at the walls, the gas distributor is working well.

DIRK WILLARD, Contributing Editor

[email protected]

Ease Packed-Column CommissioningA few steps can avoid problems when starting up a tower filled with random packing


IN PROCESS

METAL ORGANIC frameworks (MOFs) are garnering increasing interest for a variety of appli-cations including for storing and separating gases (see, e.g., “Chemical Makers Think Small,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/chemical-makers-think-small/, “Adsorbent Eases Carbon Cap-ture,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/adsorbent-eases-carbon-capture/, “Hydrocarbon Separation Gets Easier,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/hydrocarbon-separation-gets-easier/ and “Process Speeds Up Enantiomer Separa-tion,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/process-speeds-up-enantiomer-separation/). The crystalline nanomaterials boast very high surface area, plus their structure can be tailored for specific services. However, producing MOFs on a commer-cial scale in a fast, economical and environmentally friendly way has posed challenges. Now, researchers at Queen’s University, Belfast, U.K., have developed a manufacturing technique based on milling that reportedly achieves all three aims (Figure 1).

“Now, for the first time, our patented technology allows the synthesis of MOFs without using any sol-vents, even water, and on greatly reduced timescales, by making use of mechanochemistry,” says Stuart James of the university’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. “By simply grinding together two cheap precursors in a basic milling machine, the MOF material is produced in a matter of minutes, in a powder form, ready for applications without further treatment, and without generating solvent waste.”

The approach offers significant benefits even over techniques that only use water, adds Tom Robinson,

CEO of MOF Technologies, Belfast, a spin-off compa-ny formed to make MOFs using the milling approach (www.moftechnologies.com). “Water is still a solvent and needs to be purified for reuse. It also needs to be removed from the pores of the MOFs after synthesis. Water-based synthesis can also only be achieved for a very narrow range of MOFs. Our process is very rapid compared with these solvent-based techniques and the process of activation and washing of the MOF after synthesis (to unlock the pores) is much simpler.”

MOF Technologies already has begun small-scale production and expects to ramp up manufacturing to commercial scale in a year, he notes.

Start of initial trials at a number of end-users, for gas storage and separation applications, should be underway by the end of 2012, Robinson says. “…Tailoring of the material properties will be the next step after initial trials. We will look at different MOF structures as well as functionalization, for example through postsynthetic modification.”

If the trials meet expectations, the materials may gain industrial use within the next 12 months, he

Milling Breaks Down Barriers for MOFsSolvent-free approach promises low-cost, environmentally friendly large-scale production

METAL ORGANIC FRAMEWORK

Figure 1. Milling approach enables making MOFs from precursors that aren’t soluble. Source: MOF Technologies.

Nov 11 Dec 11 Jan 12 Feb 12 Mar 12 Apr 12 May 12 June 12 July 12 Aug 12 Sep 12 Oct 12

$ M

illio

n

79.0

78.0

77.0

76.0

75.0

%

Shipments (NAICS S325) Capacity utilization

80.0

Chemical Activity Barometer

61,000

62,000

63,000

64,000

65,000

90.0

89.0

88.0

87.0

86.0

%

91.0

Shipments and the CAB continued to rise but capacity utilization slipped.Source: American Chemistry Council.

ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT


IN PROCESS

believes. The first commercial applications likely will be for separations. “The uniformity and tunability of the pore size and structure of these materials make them well suited to these applications. There are huge potential energy savings over distillation, for example,” Robinson notes.

“A bed of MOF material can be used for adsorp-tive separations, for example in a pressure-swing adsorption process. Here, the selective adsorption of the material is the key property. However, they can also be used in membranes, where molecular sieving dominates. Here, the well-defined and tunable pore size/shape of MOFs is advantageous,” he explains.

“As an example, acetylene/methane selectivities of more than 700 have been reported. Pore volume also is important. MOFs have higher pore volumes and, therefore, higher capacities than other solid adsorbents such as zeolites,” Robinson adds.

MOF Technologies expects to offer MOFs tuned for hydrocarbon separations within the next year. It plans to sell a general line of MOFs for such services as well as custom versions for particular end-users.

While the firm will produce commercial quanti-ties of the materials, it also is looking to license the technology for large-volume applications, he notes.

“We believe that mechanochemistry in general is a scalable, environmentally friendly platform technique that can replace solvent-based processes for the produc-tion of a wide range of materials,” Robinson stresses.

Sieve Layer Enhances Oxide CatalystA PROCESS that encapsulates particles in a sieve-like film to block unwanted reactants could improve the reactivity and selectivity of oxide catalysts say researchers from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., and Agronne National Laboratory, Lemont, Ill. They foresee it resulting in greener, more efficient conversion of biomass and glucose into fuels and other fine chemicals.

“The ability to conduct these reactions in a selec-tive way opens doors to new applications in green chemistry and sustainability,” says Justin Notes-tein, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. “Unlike current processes, which may require enzymes or precious metals, our method relies only on harmless, inert oxides.”

The researchers focused on photocatalytic oxida-tions to test their method. They deposited a template on a core particle of titanium dioxide and applied a

nanometer-thick film of aluminum oxide around but not on the template using atomic layer deposition. Removing the template then left the film with tiny holes, or “nanocavities,” less than two nanometers in diameter (see Figure 2).

The coating acts like a sieve, allowing only the smaller reactants in a mixture to slip through the holes and react with the titanium oxide, while larger reactants were blocked. The result was much higher selectivity (up to 9:1) toward the less hindered reac-tants. More details can be found in a recent article in Nature Chemistry.

Research is ongoing and the next step is to expand the application, “in particular, using more traditional redox-active and acidic oxides, and develop alternate synthesis methods, including those that do not use atomic layer deposition,” says Notestein.

“We expect that within two years we will have developed a number of targeted versions of this first, proof-of-concept catalyst system,” he adds.

The process was conducted at room temperature and required only a low-power light source. In fact, temperature limits are likely those of the phase trans-formations of the oxides composing the catalyst, says Notestein. “Although not discussed in the published manuscript, these materials are well behaved after a typical calcination step at 500°C.” He also notes that other researchers at Northwestern and Argonne have developed a related technique that helps stabilize supported metal catalysts against coking and high-temperature sintering.

Notestein says that because the sieving layer

Figure 2. A sieve-like surface allows access only to molecules small enough to penetrate the <2nm-diamater supermicropo-rous cavities. Source: Christian Canlas, Northwestern University.

NANOCAVITIES

Template grafting p-tertbutylcalix[4]arene(CAL)

adamantanecarboxylic acid

(ACA)

ditertbutyl catechol(TBC)

Atomic layer depositionof oxide

Template removal by O3

1-2 mm

IN PROCESS

More than three-quarters of respondents say their companies follow-through on safety.

41.7%Always

35.4%Most of the

time

4.2%Rarely

10.4%Some of the time

8.3%Never

Responses (%)

Does your company “walk the walk” not just “talk the talk” when it comes to safety?

TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS MONTH’S POLL, GO TO CHEMICALPROCESSING.COM.

is only as thick as a single molecule, they haven’t experienced any clogging in the traditional sense, but “like any other catalyst, it can be poisoned by strong chemisorption.”

“Optimizing catalyst formulations for specific applications will remain the primary challenge for some time. We expect that some of the more reactive catalyst surfaces will have challenges in template selection and film growth.”

Notestein believes the chemical compatibility of the sieving layer with the reactants and solvent is likely the biggest limitation, but also the greatest op-portunity. “If an oxide used as the parent catalyst or the sieving layer is incompatible with the solvent, for example, an additional layer can be added to passivate most of the surface,” he explains.

The team expects the materials to serve as drop-in replacements for other oxide catalysts and to offer comparable service lives for the particular applica-tion. “We hope that by improving selectivity we will decrease coking, improving catalyst lifetime before regeneration is needed,” says Notestein.

To further control and improve selectivity, the team is looking into template molecules that are smaller or

have larger aspect ratios. “Like a zeolite, we hypothesize that closer approach to molecular dimensions will im-prove reactant and product selectivity,” says Notestein.

The researchers have no immediate plans for pilot-scale testing.

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ENERGY SAVER

Implement Energy Efficiency Measures, IIIContinuous monitoring of energy costs offers added benefits

Monitoring

energy cost

shouldn’t be a

first or last step,

but a continuous

action.

IMPLEMENTATION ISN’T the final action in energy management. With gradually rising energy costs, efficiency becomes a moving scale. When the scale shifts, the energy management cycle repeats again with new concepts and new technologies. So, in a continuously running plant there’s no end for energy efficiency measures; they only reach a new level in the efficiency scale.

An interesting example explains this cycle: No traveler can miss the yellowish mountains around Johannesburg, the city of gold mines in South Africa. When the price of gold was $300/ounce, extracting gold at levels below 7 g from a ton of mined rock was uneconomical, and so several yellowish mountains grew. But today, when gold’s market price is over $1,500/ounce, the once-dumped mine rocks are fenced and protected for additional extraction in the future. So, an energy-savings opportunity ignored in the past could suddenly become a hot favorite to top management. Because energy management is a continuous improvement process, monitoring after implementation is a very essential step plant engineers shouldn’t ignore.

Many plants don’t pay much attention to energy management projects once implemented unless some-thing goes wrong. Such a situation rarely happens; so managers are satisfied with a one-time performance assessment of the implemented project. However, post-implementation monitoring can help:

1. Confirm a good, sustained performance that gives the plant operating personnel and energy engineer confidence to explore other processes for possible energy savings. This also can motivate other plant personnel who were hesitant to improve energy cost savings.

2. Verify that problematic issues are corrected. A below-par performance would force the plant person-nel, energy engineer and the vendor (if involved) to find out what went wrong and apply the necessary corrective measures.

3. Indicate performance variations due to changes in processing conditions and the seasons. Once the performance variation is correlated with these changes, optimization will be much easier.

4. Establish the financial performance of the energy project. Only then would the energy engineer’s credibility and requests for future funding be seriously considered.

The energy engineer who initiated the project, the manager who approved the funds and the operating

personnel should be interested in post-implementation monitoring. Hence, it’s necessary to define the monitor-ing methodology as well as the project scope. Sometimes the existing metering system may suffice; occasionally, additional metering provisions may be required.

In one refinery’s successful energy management project, the first step was to restart the Energy & Loss Index calculations and report these data to manage-ment monthly. The results were phenomenal and were sustained month after month with only marginal improvements. No big capital investments were made in the first year, but the monthly monitoring led to more saleable fuels released to the market.

Current information technology provides several options for improved monitoring through data collection, data analysis and better reporting for-mats. Industries differ in their energy-performance-monitoring methodologies. Thus, it’s essential for an energy engineer to be aware of improvement processes in other industries. Whatever the method, internal or external experts should review data peri-odically to enable global comparison and to include technological developments.

The most common key performance indicators (KPIs) relate to consumption of a specific fuel or elec-tricity per unit of output. Boiler efficiency is a globally comparable KPI, while Btu/lb of ammonia is specific to the plant. These KPIs also could be extended or modified to include different processing routes. In addition, it may be worth modifying older data processing methods with newer, faster methods that could generate energy-related KPIs directly, as well as correlate KPIs to cost. Vendors are a good source for learning about the latest technical developments.

When choosing the data processing method, it’s essential that it be capable of:

1. Acquiring data from the plant control database on a real-time basis.

2. Setting efficiency targets and evaluating the deviation between the actual and target.

3. Incorporating cost elements that are correlated from KPI.

4. Storing at least three years’ real-time data.Though this column stresses monitoring energy

cost as a post-implementation action, it shouldn’t be a first or last step, but a continuous action.

VEN V. VENKATESAN, Energy Columnist

[email protected]

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EPA Keeps Close Eye on CadmiumPrecedent-setting rule requires manufacturers to submit health and safety studies

ON DECEMBER 3, 2012, the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA) continued its use of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to regulate products — not just chemicals — in publishing a final rule adding cadmium and cadmium compounds to the TSCA Section 8(d) rule. In so doing, manufacturers and importers of cadmium must submit unpublished health and safety studies to the EPA (including use in materials that have been or are “reasonably likely” to be incorporated into consumer products). This article summarizes the rule and its implications.

BACKGROUNDIn 2010, several petitioners asked the EPA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to address their concern with the pres-ence and safety of cadmium in toy metal jewelry. They requested the CPSC to restrict the use of the material to prevent children’s exposure to cadmium from such products, and the EPA to seek health and safety data and to limit cadmium in toy metal jewelry.

Since then, ASTM International has issued a voluntary standard addressing CPSC’s concerns. The final rule reflects the EPA’s response to the petition-ers’ request. TSCA Section 8(d) authorizes the EPA to issue rules requiring manufacturers (including importers), processors, or distributors of targeted chemical substances to submit health and safety stud-ies pertinent to such substances.

Under the rule, companies that in the ten years preceding the date a chemical substance is listed either have proposed to manufacture or im-port or have manufactured or imported the listed substance must submit to the EPA a copy of each health and safety study that’s in their possession. The same requirement applies to manufacturers or importers that at the time the chemical sub-stance is listed propose to manufacture or import, or are manufacturing or importing the listed chemical substance. The studies must be submit-ted to the EPA by March 4, 2013.

Manufacturers and importers must submit a copy of all unpublished health and safety stud-ies, as well as any studies showing “measurable content of cadmium or cadmium compounds in consumer products.”

WHY THIS RULE IS IMPORTANT

This rule is precedent-setting for several reasons. First, the scope of the rule is vast. “Consumer products” is broadly defined to include items used in and around homes, schools, recreational areas and temporary residences. The rule applies to cadmium at “any measurable level.” This sweeps in a huge cross section of consumer products. It does exclude products where cadmium only ap-pears as an impurity.

Second, “health and safety studies” include any data that “bear on the effects of a chemical substance on health or the environment. . . .” Studies “showing any measurable content of cad-mium or cadmium compounds” are reportable.

Third, the requirement applies not just to the chemical, but to the product in which the chemi-cal is embedded regardless of whether there’s any potential for the cadmium to be bioavailable or present an exposure risk.

Finally, it’s unclear whether the rule imposes a duty to determine whether a product includes cadmium or if cadmium is “reasonably likely to be incorporated” into a consumer product. The rule offers no guidance on what this means or how to assess whether cadmium is “reason-ably likely” to be incorporated into a consumer product.

For all these reasons, this rule is troubling. Its issuance raises a raft of procedural concerns beyond the scope of this article. The rule extends TSCA’s reach under Section 8(d) well beyond chemicals to products. Because cadmium is found in thousands of consumer products, especially electronics, many entities subject to the rule may be unaware of its application. It’s all the more troubling that a rule with so many precedent-setting implications wasn’t subject to standard notice and comment rulemaking.

LYNN BERGESON, Regulatory Editor

[email protected]

Lynn is managing director of Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.,

a Washington, D.C.-based law firm that concentrates on

chemical industry issues. The views expressed herein are

solely those of the author. This column is not intended to

provide, nor should be construed as, legal advice.


GROWTH WAS fleeting in 2012, especially in China and in other emerging markets. In Europe, a crisis turned into an outright recession, which at the close of the year still showed no signs of abating. In the United States, a typical business cycle recovery has yet to emerge in many sectors. Although U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed its pre-reces-sion peak, growth was painfully slow in 2011 and 2012.

The atmosphere in Washington about issues such as the “fiscal cliff” has undermined business confidence, impacting investments and hiring. Recent regional surveys and other indicators suggest the strong manufacturing recovery in the United States has lost momentum and factory activity has peaked, hopefully temporarily. Moreover, the recession in Europe and weakness in Asia is hindering export sales, a pillar of growth during 2009–2011.

At this point, the consumer — bolstered both by lower debt and the apparently sustainable recovery in housing — is taking over from the business sector in

providing foundational support for the U.S. economy.One short-term indicator to watch is the Chemical Activ-

ity Barometer (CAB), which is a composite index of eco-nomic indicators that track the activity of the U.S. chemical industry (see: “How Will The U.S. Economy Fare?,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/how-will-the-u-s-economy-fare/). This activity generally occurs early in the supply chain, so the CAB provides a leading indicator for the overall economy and can reveal potential turning points. The CAB is signaling slow, tentative economic growth in early 2013 (see Economic Snapshot, p. 11).

The consensus forecast (our base case scenario) for U.S. GDP is for continued but anemic growth in 2013 — about 2.0%, which is well below the long-term trend (Table 1). This presumes Washington avoided going over the fiscal cliff, which it hadn’t done at press time. If so, economic growth should return to long-term trend levels in 2014. If not, the economy could shrink nearly 0.5% this year.

A variety of signs point to sustained growth by the U. S. chemical makers

By Thomas Kevin Swift and Martha Gilchrist Moore,

American Chemistry Council

PROSPECTSBRIGHTEN FOR CHEMICALINDUSTRY


CHEMICALS OUTLOOK

Many major end-use markets — especially those tied to exports and business investment — have recovered in the United States. However, others remain below their 2007 peaks. Growth in the manufacturing sector, which is the largest consumer of chemicals, abated in 2012 after gains from mid-2009 to 2011.

The two-speed manufacturing sector that emerged in 2011 (“What Will 2012 Bring?,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/ar-ticles/2012/what-will-2012-bring/) continues. Oil and gas, light vehicles and aircraft, as well as iron and steel remain strong.

Light vehicles represent an important market for chemicals (nearly $3,650 per vehicle), and production continues to in-crease. U.S. light vehicle sales are expected to rise in 2013 and in 2014 as pent-up demand, improving employment (and in-come) prospects, and better availability of credit foster growth. Housing, another large consumer of chemicals (over $15,000 per start), shows very encouraging signs, and was perhaps the

major economic news of 2012. Housing activity will start to stir in 2013 and 2014. Shortages have emerged in some local markets and prices have begun to rise nationwide. Moreover, demographic factors are re-emerging as a driving force. Activ-ity will remain well below the previous peak of 2.07 million units in 2005 but by mid-decade will approach the long-term underlying demand of 1.5 million units per year as suggested by demographics and replacement needs.

Overall, the spotty manufacturing recovery has damp-ened domestic chemical demand while the recession in Europe and weakness elsewhere have hindered exports. In general, inventories along the supply chain have become only slightly imbalanced and, barring a major recession, a large correction isn’t expected.

The weakness in exports to Europe and China has been partially offset by gains in other regions. Meanwhile, imports declined, as industrial demand weakened. In 2012, exports rose 1.8% to $190.2 billion while imports slipped 0.8%


to $189.5 billion. Thus, the U.S. chemical industry en-joyed a modest trade surplus, a welcome reversal from 2011 when it suffered a deficit.

This year the American Chemistry Council (ACC) expects trade in chemicals to continue to expand at moderate rates as global manufacturing activity remains fragile (Table 2). Exports will grow 4.7% to $199.7 billion in 2013 and then 6.6% to $212.8 billion in 2014. Imports will rise by 4.1% to $197.3 in 2013 and then 6.2% to $209.6 billion in 2014. As a result, the trade surplus in chemicals will expand to $2.4 billion in 2013 and $3.3 billion in 2014. (All totals in the table, including the 2014 surplus, reflect import and export values before they were rounded.)

Renewed competitiveness due to shale gas (and the resulting disconnect between U.S. natural gas prices and global oil prices) is prompting new investments — we count over 50 projects announced in the last two years, representing aggregate capital spending exceeding $40 billion — that will boost exports in the years ahead. The large surpluses in basic chemicals will continue to expand, as will surpluses in specialties and consumer products. These gains will more than offset continuing trade deficits in pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemi-cals, and result in growing trade surpluses.

The consensus is that U.S chemical output will improve during 2013. Volume of chemicals, exclud-ing pharmaceuticals, will increase 1.9% in 2013 and 2.3% in 2014. Strong growth is expected in plastic resins as export markets revive. Demand from end-use markets, most notably light vehicles and housing, will drive production of specialty chemicals. Gains in consumer products, which were strong last year, will moderate in 2013 and 2014. After a weak 2012, demand for agricultural chemicals will revive. In the long term, growth in U.S. chemicals will outpace that of the overall U.S. economy. Pharmaceuticals eventu-ally will emerge as a growth segment.

Although projected year-on-year growth rates for most segments during the next few years ap-pear good, they must be considered in the context of the exceptionally sharp declines seen in 2008 and continuing into 2009. It may take years for activity to recover from these steep declines and exceed past peaks. Another factor is that these projections reflect the consensus; mainstream forecasters’ models largely are demand-driven. The significant investment in shale gas is a supply-side response and suggests a much higher growth profile, as we’ll discuss later. Thus, the consensus outlook likely is too low.

The industry is sensitive to a number of risks. High and volatile energy costs are paramount in this regard, as are potential adverse regulatory and other policy ini-tiatives. Fiscal squabbles in Washington could dampen domestic industrial activity, while an even weaker world economy would adversely affect exports.

With a stalling of volumes, overall operating rates slipped during 2012. Looking forward, modest gains in chemical industry production volumes and stable capacity suggest improving operating rates this year; strengthening production volumes could boost capac-ity utilization even higher in 2014 and beyond. The more than 50 projects already announced will result in fairly strong gains in capacity through 2017.

INVESTMENT CLIMATE

U.S. investments in chemicals surged 19.8% in 2011. These gains continued into 2012; capital spending grew 15.5% to about $38.1 billion last year.

Capital spending cycles generally lag cycles of industry activity — profits and operating rates serve as leading determinants of spending. (Other factors influencing the level of investment include the busi-ness cycle, long-term business expectations, taxation policies, the cost of capital, the burden of debt, the supply of credit, and mandated expenditures, e.g.,

% change is year/year unless noted otherwise 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Gross domestic product -3.1 2.4 1.8 2.1 2.0 3.0 3.2 3.0 2.9

Consumer spending -1.9 1.8 2.5 1.9 2.0 2.8 2.8 2.6 2.5

Business investment -18.1 0.7 8.6 7.3 3.7 6.4 6.8 5.1 4.9

Industrial production -7.0 5.4 4.1 3.8 2.3 3.1 3.5 3.0 2.8

Light vehicle sales, millions 10.4 11.6 12.7 14.4 14.7 15.1 15.7 15.9 15.8

Housing starts, millions 0.55 0.59 0.61 0.79 0.96 1.36 1.51 1.61 1.61

Consumer prices -0.3 1.7 3.1 2.1 1.9 2.1 2.2 2.2 2.2

10-year Treasury notes, % 3.26 3.21 2.79 1.84 2.11 2.67 3.46 4.21 4.71

Unemployment rate, % 9.3 9.6 9.0 8.1 7.8 7.6 7.0 6.4 5.9

Exchange rate, $/€ 1.39 1.33 1.39 1.28 1.24 1.24 1.26 1.28 1.31

PROSPECTS FOR CHEMICALS

Table 1. Growth will return to long-term levels in 2014.

due to regulations.) In general, improving production and utilization rates, cost containment from earlier cost-reduction eff orts, low feedstock and other raw material costs (compared to Europe and Northeast Asia) and higher selling prices resulted in a strong recovery of profi ts from 2010 into 2012. Given the new dynamics from shale gas, the current upswing in profi ts possibly will last longer than in recent cycles. In addition, utilization rates have risen, although they remain below the levels of several years ago and the long-term average.

With improving operating rates and profi t margins, and a low cost of capital, the U.S. chemical industry will increase investment in new plant and equipment. Th e need to replace worn-out and outdated assets is apparent and will spur some spending. However, improved U.S. competitiveness resulting from shale gas will be the most important driver. Th e industry’s invest-ment cycle clearly has re-engaged; capital spending quickly has surpassed the most recent peak.

Th e recovery will strengthen into an expansion by mid-decade, with greater capital spending for capacity additions expected during the next fi ve years. Th anks

to shale gas, the United States is becoming an increas-ingly preferred location for plants. Substantial new investments in petrochemicals and derivatives will arise from shale gas developments. Basic olefi ns capac-ity will increase by 35% to 40%, various industry consultants estimate. Double-digit gains are expected through 2015 with only a minor slowdown in capital spending after that. By 2017, capital spending by the U.S. chemical industry will reach $64.5 billion, more than double the level at the start of this decade.

SHALE GAS DEVELOPMENTS

Th e availability of gas from shale is possibly the most important domestic energy development of the past 50 years. Following a decade of high and volatile natural gas prices that destroyed industrial demand and led to the closure of many gas-intensive manu-facturers, shale gas off ers a new era of American competitiveness that will lead to greater investment, industry growth and employment.

Increasing domestic shale gas production is help-ing to reduce U.S. natural gas prices and create a more stable supply of natural gas for fuel and power. It

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also is leading to more-affordable supplies of natural gas liquids (NGLs), including ethane, which is a key petrochemical feedstock.

As we’ve already noted, U.S. chemical makers have announced more than 50 projects in the past two years to capitalize on the competitive advantage of abundant supplies of natural gas and NGLs. Such projects include new ethylene crackers as well as units for derivative products (i.e., polyethylene, ethylene oxide, etc.), methanol, ammonia and on-purpose ethylene co-products.

To illustrate the potential of these investments, Figure 1 shows ACC’s estimates of the incremental production from the 50 projects (in orange) overlaid on top of our baseline forecast (blue). Including production from new investments, growth likely will average 4.6% per year through 2017, more than double the 2.2% average annual growth of the consensus forecast.

Further development of the nation’s shale gas and ethane can drive an even greater expansion in domes-tic manufacturing capacity that goes well beyond the

chemical industry — provided policymakers develop balanced regulatory policies and permitting practices. (ACC supports a comprehensive energy policy that maximizes all domestic energy sources, including re-newables, alternatives, coal and nuclear as well as oil and natural gas; places priority on greater energy efficiency in industrial facilities as well as homes and buildings; and relies on sound economic approaches to encourage the adoption of diverse energy sources, including energy recovery from plastics and other materials and renewable sources. The United States must ensure its regulatory policies allow capitalizing on shale gas as a vital energy source and manufacturing feedstock, while protecting our water supplies and environment.)

EMPLOYMENT SITUATION

Following a decade of job losses, the chemical industry added jobs for the second year in a row in 2012. Total employment rose to 798,500, up 1.3% from 2011. This in large part reflects increasing production of comparatively more-labor-intensive


% change is year/year unless noted otherwise 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Total Production Volumes -11.3 3.4 0.5 -0.5 1.9 2.8 3.3 3.3 3.3

Pharmaceuticals -6.0 -7.3 -1.5 -3.3 1.8 3.5 4.2 4.4 4.3

Chemicals, excluding pharmaceuticals -12.1 10.3 1.5 1.5 1.9 2.3 2.6 2.5 2.5

Consumer products -9.1 1.0 12.5 5.0 2.4 1.8 2.1 2.0 1.9

Agricultural chemicals 5.1 4.3 -1.8 -0.9 0.7 2.0 1.7 1.6 1.3

Specialties -14.2 10.7 4.2 6.2 2.9 2.6 2.9 2.8 2.8

Basic chemicals -16.1 17.5 -2.6 0.7 1.6 2.3 2.6 2.5 2.5

Other Indicators:

Exports, $ billions 145.5 171.2 187.3 190.7 199.7 212.8 227.8 242.9 259.7

Imports, $ billions 145.7 166.6 191.1 189.5 197.3 209.6 223.6 237.6 253.3

Trade balance, $ billions -0.1 4.6 -3.7 1.2 2.4 3.3 4.2 5.2 6.4

Capacity, % change -5.9 -6.5 -2.4 0.3 0.8 1.5 2.5 3.0 3.5

Capacity utilization, % 68.0% 75.2% 77.5% 76.9% 77.7% 78.6% 79.2% 79.4% 79.4%

Shipments, $ billions 628.9 697.8 776.8 765.1 794.2 833.1 878.9 927.2 978.2

% change -14.9 14.5 11.3 -1.5 3.8 4.9 5.5 5.5 5.5

Capital spending, $ billions 26.56 27.52 32.96 38.08 43.40 48.75 54.00 59.30 64.50

% change -9.2 8.4 19.8 15.5 14.0 12.3 10.8 9.8 8.8

Employment, thousands 804.1 786.5 788.3 798.5 797.0 803.0 805.0 806.0 807.0

% change -5.1 -2.2 0.2 1.3 -0.2 0.8 0.2 0.1 0.1

PRODUCTION EXCLUDING PHARMACEUTICALS

Table 2. The U.S. chemical industry now enjoys a trade surplus and this should grow. Note: Entries are rounded but totals reflect numbers before rounding.

plastic resins, synthetic rubbers and manmade fibers. In 2013, productivity gains, which typically average around 2.5% per year, will outpace output growth. Thus, employment will slip by 0.2% this year before expanding by 0.8% in 2014.

However, the graying manufacturing workforce and decades of young people turning away from ca-reers in manufacturing and the trades raise concerns about the quality and quantity of workers that will be available. Government and industry likely will work together to ensure the American workforce is prepared for the jobs required in an emerging manu-facturing renaissance.

Moreover, the retirements of baby boomers — the average age of a chemical industry employee is over 50 — present challenges for retaining institutional knowledge. Today, many companies are ratcheting up efforts to avoid knowledge and skill losses (see: “Keep Know-how in Place,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2009/114/). They increasingly are using information tech-nology and other media to capture and store institutional knowledge, and transferring that

knowledge via project debriefings, mentoring, communities of practice, etc. In addition, they’re taking deliberate steps in career development

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Production volume from Incremental Production (left)

Production volume (left)

% change in volume from Incremental Production (right)

% change in volume (right)

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

10

5

0

-5

-10

-15

% changeyear/year

Index(2007=100)

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2011

2010

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

CONSENSUS OUTLOOK

Figure 1. New plants spurred by shale gas will boost production of chemicals excluding pharmaceuticals.

and succession planning, and employing phased retirements, etc.

Fortunately, the supply of new chemical engineers is on the upswing. After declining in the mid-2000s, chemical engineering enrollments now are increas-ing, somewhat alleviating what could be a critical challenge. Greater cooperation between industry and academia is playing a role.

PROMISING PROSPECTS

Th e global recovery stalled in 2012 with Europe slipping back into recession and manufacturing in China slowing sharply. In the U.S., uncertainty about the election, the fi scal cliff , and the overall pace of recovery curbed growth. More than three years since the offi cial end of the recession, the majority of manufacturing industries remain below their pre-recession peak. However, while growth slowed in developed countries, emerging market

economies continued to expand. Th is year, growth will accelerate across most regions of the world. Low-cost shale gas will enable U.S. chemical mak-ers to emerge as global low-cost suppliers of many petrochemical and plastic products. As balance sheets continue to improve and the nation’s shale resources are developed further, chemical producers and other manufacturers are bringing investment back to the U.S. Th is manufacturing renaissance off ers huge potential, not only to the millions of American workers it will employ, but also to the U.S. economy as a whole.

THOMAS KEVIN SWIFT is chief economist and managing

director of the American Chemistry Council, Washington, D.C.

MARTHA GILCHRIST MOORE is senior director, policy analy-

sis and economics, for the American Chemistry Council. E-mail

them at [email protected] and Martha_Moore@

americanchemistry.com.

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RELATED CONTENT ON CHEMICALPROCESSING.COM“How Will The U.S. Economy Fare?,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/how-will-the-u-s-economy-fare/“What Will 2012 Bring?,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/what-will-2012-bring/“Chemical Industry Bounces Back,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2011/chemical-industry-bounces-back/“Keep Know-how in Place,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2009/114/


Variable-speed electric motors can offer significant advantages

By Amin Almasi, WorleyParsons Services Pty. Ltd.

ADVANCES IN high-speed electric mo-tor technology along with improvements in the cost and the performance of vari-able speed drive (VSD) systems make di-rect coupling of a gearless electrical mo-tor to a turbocompressor or pump worth considering for many services requiring large drivers. Brushless synchronous mo-tors with two-pole rotors often suit high performance duties. Special applications may benefit from other options such as induction electric motors.

When using an electric motor driver, full power is available instantly over the entire site ambient temperature range and train speed range (including startup). The number of successive and cumulative start/stop and load cycles generally isn’t critical.

Variable-speed electric motors in the upper-megawatt power ranges (say, over 20 MW) usually have energy efficiencies exceeding 97% over the entire useful speed range (typically 70–105% of the rated speed). In a combined-cycle power plant, the electric drive’s efficiency gener-ally is 15–25% better than that of typical heavy-frame gas turbine drivers. In addi-tion, some of today’s electric motors don’t need scheduled maintenance for periods of up to 6 years of continuous operation and even after that don’t require replace-ment of costly parts.

Large electric drives always are custom engineered for an application, allowing, e.g., a turbocompressor to be optimized in capacity and speed for the process, rather than being limited by a given gas turbine rating. The rotor design and overall features of the motors closely match those of electrical generators; design and manufacturing of large (over 100 MW) generators is well established, and numerous units are operating successfully. However, motors are variable speed while generators usually are constant speed, and motors suffer from oscillating shaft torques during operation (particularly when starting).

MOTOR ISSUES

When designing large high-speed elec-tric motors, mechanical and dynamic problems must be solved carefully. Me-chanical stresses, vibration level, losses and cooling restrictions can limit the capacity and the maximum speed of a large electrical motor.

Rethink Options for

LARGEDRIVERS


In any high-speed electric motor drive applica-tion, mechanical excitations, electrical pulsations, rotor dynamics issues, balance problems and mechanical-dynamic considerations in general are of paramount importance in ensuring a smooth-running rotating train over the entire speed range and during all normal and transient operations. Also, prior to ordering, it’s essential to know the behavior of the train during any electrical fault conditions (the most severe probably being a short circuit at the electric motor terminals). VSD-fed electric motors continuously produce some small torque oscillations over the entire speed range. So, the design phase should include careful analysis of the eff ects of such torque pulsations, along with other excitations, particularly torsional ones.

A large electric motor requires a complex and heavy rotor assembly. For example, the assem-bly can weigh 6–35 tons for 20–120-MW units. Balancing such a rotor assembly is an extremely diffi cult job. (Some expensive assemblies actually have been scraped after many unsuccessful attempts to balance them.) Coarse balancing of an electric motor rotor usually gets to within 0.015–0.03 mm of mass center off set; fi nal balancing for some high-speed electric motors, for example, may require getting to within around 0.002 mm of mass center off set. Advanced systems such as active magnetic bearings also could be used to further improve the variable-speed electric motor driver.

LCI TECHNOLOGY

Most variable-speed electric-drive systems rectify alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) and invert DC to variable frequency AC. For a VSD system with a rated output of over 60 MW, two popular and fi eld-proven inversion options are a load commutation inverter (LCI) and a gate

commutated turn-off thyristor (GCT). Other op-tions, such as a voltage source inverter (VSI), may not be mature enough for rating above 60 MW. A grey area where both VSI and LCI technologies are feasible exists between 30 MW and 60 MW.

Today, LCI technology is the most popular VSD converter system. It’s a mature technology; disadvantages and solutions to minimize its prob-lems are well known. It commonly is teamed with dual-star two-pole synchronous motors with supply frequencies between 50 and 80 Hz.

If the electric power supply is interrupted (for example, due to a temporary problem in a generator or a power transmission malfunction), the turbo-compressor or other driven equipment will deceler-ate rapidly and may trip a protection system (e.g., for lubrication oil low-pressure or anti-surging). Th is may prevent the unit from re-accelerating when power is restored. So, all protection system issues deserve detailed study.

Th e main issues for the VSD converters are:

reliability, etc.);

capability;

torque oscillation; and

dard feature for an LCI converter with synchronous

should back up the power to the control system. Th e arrangement and layout of the converter system should prevent a domino eff ect (i.e., the loss of one part shouldn’t disturb other parts as far as practical).

Like any nonlinear system, a frequency con-verter produces harmonic currents. Th erefore, con-ducting a harmonic study (and usually providing a harmonic fi lter package) makes sense. Th e analysis should look at the complete electrical network (in-cluding VSD converter) over the entire frequency spectrum, calculating the voltage total harmonic distortion (THD) under all system operating and upset conditions. Usually, a network short circuit when the system is under no-load (or the minimum load) conditions constitutes the worst case.

A harmonic fi lter is connected to the network or to a third secondary winding of the system trans-former. Th e choice mainly hinges on cost and usually depends on the network voltage level. For 33 kV and

UNDERLYING ADVANCES BOOST MOTORSSome major developments have made large (>20 MW) electric motor drivers possible:

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below, the connection most often is on the network. For 110 kV and above, a third secondary winding generally is selected. In between, the decision must be made on a case-by-case basis. (Th e design and manufacturing of large power transformers with three secondary windings is a diffi cult technical challenge; only a limited number of manufacturers are capable of implementing such designs.)

To minimize the harmonics eff ect (particularly on the electrical network), large LCI systems usu-ally have 12-pulse topology. Even if an LCI system has multiple pulse rectifi er confi gurations to reduce the harmonic current level emission, the reactive power consumption of the LCI rectifi er may require use of a power-factor compensation system (usually a capacitor harmonic fi lter). In LCI-type converters, the harmonic excitation generates a constant nomi-nal fl ux in the motor air gap, which could result in train mechanical excitations.

Th e main issues related to the harmonic fi lters are:

entire electrical network);

rank; and

over-compensation at special operating points.Harmonic studies should provide drive output

current spectra, harmonic details (order, amplitude and phase), and how these vary with the compressor train speed. In multi-drive installations, the super-imposition of individual harmonics and the sizing of harmonic fi lters for an entire installation require special calculations and simulations. Calculated harmonic levels must be compared against stan-dard limits (for example, those in IEEE 519). Th e harmonic study contains two parts: one dedicated to calculating the electrical natural frequencies, and the other aimed at minimizing the harmonic distortion to optimize the design of the harmonic fi lters. Th e study should determine potential reso-nances in the entire system. Power generators usu-ally give rise to some harmonics that could interact with VSD systems. Restrictions should be imposed

on train torque ripple (usually under 1–2% peak-to-peak) to preserve the torsional stability. Th e THD of the line-side voltage should be within certain limits (most often 2–3%) to minimize disturbances to the other electrical loads connected to the same plant electrical network.

VSI TECHNOLOGY

LCI technology suff ers from some well-known drawbacks — e.g., high torque ripple, poor power factor, relatively high losses and harmonic pollution. Th ese disadvantages can make LCI-based variable-speed drives inadequate to reach the increasingly demanding performance required in some applica-tions. In such cases, a VSI may provide the solution for turbocompressors and pump drivers.

Indeed, quadruple-star four-pole synchronous motor technology fed by four pulse-width modula-tion (PWM) multilevel VSIs is getting considerable attention. Based on today’s targets for low torque ripple and low harmonic distortion (particularly low grid-side harmonic pollution), the PWM-VSI-based variable-speed drive design has been selected for several large turbocompressor projects. A cascaded multilevel converter topology usually is chosen. Each converter phase is obtained by series connecting several transistor cells. Th e choice of this topology makes it possible to attain some important goals like:

tric motor) that approaches the sinusoidal waveform as the number of cells is increased — providing the possibility of operating the electric motor at a near-unity power factor;

a faulty-cell bypass function; and

In fact, with LCI-based drives, having more than two supplying converters may be theoreti-cally feasible, although this may pose commutation overlapping issues.

In the PWM-VSI technology four converters commonly are used. Th e decision to supply the

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electric motor with several (four or more) three-phase converter units naturally leads to the split-ting of the stator winding into independent three-phase sets, each to be fed by a converter. The stator design needed for this purpose often is referred to as “split-phase” because it results from splitting the winding into multiple star-connected three-phase sets. The most common arrangement uses four convert-ers; the associated electric motor design is known as quadruple-star winding. The phase currents contain harmonics of orders 5, 7, 11, 13, 17 and 19; all the result-ing space harmonic fields in the electric motor air gap are very low because of the mutual cancel-lation effects.

Today, turbocompressors and

pumps may benefit from a new electric drive option based on a VSI-fed quadruple-star 100-Hz four-pole synchronous electric motor. Compared to traditional LCI-based options, it provides particular advantages:

than 1–2% peak to peak;

the four-pole design;

the four-star four-converter topology; and

-cy, usually above 98%.

Because of the large number of phases (12) and the four-pole design, even for high power levels the stator winding can be done with coil technology (instead of complex/expensive “Roebel” bar construction) with

noticeable manufacturing and cost benefits. The 100-Hz supply frequency doesn’t give excessive core losses. Stator phase currents may show fifth and seventh cur-rent harmonic distortions as a consequence of the electric mo-tor internal electromotive force. However, these harmonic distor-tions don’t negatively impact torque performance. The design also could be scalable to relative-ly high power levels (above 50 MW) by increasing the number of supplying converter units and possibly expanding the electric motor driver size.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Transformers play an important role in any VSD system. Inrush current limitation requirements and protection philosophies of transformers are important.

A VSD electric motor system employs various cooling water pumps. A cooling pump’s normal operating point should be as close as practical to the pump’s best

cooling flows preferably should

The cooling-pump characteristic curve is very important for a trouble-free, smooth and proper operation. A cooling pump curve should exhibit the characteristic of stable continuously rising head from the rated capacity to the shutoff (preferably 10% head rise from the rated to the shutoff).

Typically, a VSI system’s footprint is less than 75% of that of a comparable LCI system. In addition, it usually weighs less than 70% of a comparable LCI system.

AMIN ALMASI is lead rotating equip-

ment engineer at WorleyParsons Services

Pty. Ltd., Brisbane, Australia. E-mail him at

[email protected].

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Makers respond to demands to run processes at lower and higher temperatures

By Seán Ottewell, Editor at Large

THE GLOBAL heat transfer fluid (HTF) market is hot. By 2017 its value will reach $2.56 billion, a rise of almost $1 billion from 2011. So says market researcher MarketsandMarkets, Dallas, Tex. in a new report.

Published on November 24, 2012, “Global Heat Transfer Fluid (Thermic Fluid/High Temperature/Synthetic Heat Transfer Fluids) Market — by Prod-uct Type (Mineral Oils, Silicone & Aromatics, PAG & Glycol Based Products & Others), Application & Geography — Forecasts to 2017” notes that Dow,

ExxonMobil, Shell and Solutia (now part of East-man Chemical) accounted for 76% of the market in 2011. It goes on to say that demand in the chemical industry for HTFs with greater thermal and oxida-tion stability will increase significantly over the next six years.

One such demand is coming from reaction cool-ing, a trend noted by Air Products, Allentown, Pa. “We are using liquid nitrogen (LIN) to cool HTFs as low as -90°C. There is even a trend now to go colder, even down to -120°C. This represents a challenge

Heat Transfer Fluids Aim For

EXTREMES


because it’s difficult to get many HTFs to operate at this temperature,” notes John Tremblay, technical manager, cryogenic applications, Basingstoke, U.K.

Such low temperatures cause viscosity problems with many traditional HTFs and thus require vendors to adjust their formulations accordingly. However, vendors often can’t easily get down to the required temperatures in their own laboratories. In response, Air Products has built a test rig that evaluates the performance of different HTFs in a pilot-scale heat exchanger.

“It’s rated at 10 kW at -90°C. We’ve tested five or six different fluids on it. There is a definite move away from methanol and other solvents to silicone fluids and other lower-flammability-risk fluids,” says Tim Boland, research associate, cryogenics, Allentown.

“Companies that produce HTFs often want us to do testing for them. Also, it’s important for us when we get a new enquiry from a manufacturer to be able to show that we can cool their HTFs without freezing them and causing all the associated process problems,” adds Tremblay.

Although originally constructed in Allentown, the rig currently is operating at Air Products’ technology center in Shanghai, China (Figure 1).

Users wanting a single HTF that can handle many different, often multi-step processes is another trend Air Products notices. “So, the pressure is on us to deliver LIN cooling that will achieve this and we have done a lot of testing on it,” says Tremblay.

Customers scaling up from bench to pilot to full-scale production also are turning to Air Products. “Along the way they typically change cooling tech-nology from flammable-solvent-type solutions, such as acetone/dry ice, to more production-friendly HTFs. They often need our expertise when it comes to choosing the best HTF for these scaleups,” ex-plains Boland.

A good example of this, he says, is when custom fine chemical houses want to extend their product lines but don’t have the knowledge or experience to operate below their typical -20°C lowest temperature. Here, Air Products can offer support such as showing how to run reactors at much colder temperatures.

LIN itself offers a very attractive pricing strategy for many customers because it’s a variable cost, for example when used by toll manufacturers, Tremblay contends. “LIN can also get to lower temperatures than many much more expensive mechanical refrig-eration processes,” he notes. LIN has further appeal, too. First, its associated plant is simple to operate and easy to maintain. Second, costs can be further offset by recycling and using it for other applications, such as inerting and blanketing.

In terms of the market, Air Products is seeing more companies who traditionally use refrigerants moving to HTFs and particularly to the more robust silicone oils.

“The market is moving from flammable HTFs to combustible HTFs to non-combustible HTFs. Con-cerns over health and safety and the environment are driving this, along with lower temperature processes,” says Boland.

TEST RIG

Figure 1. Unit for evaluating heat transfer fluids now is operating at Air Products’ Shanghai technology center. Source: Air Products.


Tremblay believes future developments will involve smaller, more efficient plants capable of leaner processing: “The reaction kinetics here could get more volatile, generate more heat and therefore need more cooling.”

For Boland, growing environmental awareness in Asia is important. “We are already seeing a much greater use of low temperature condensation technol-ogy in China, for example.”

EXTENDING THE RANGE

Meanwhile, in response to demand for HTFs suitable for higher temperatures, Paratherm, West Conshohocken, Pa., has added to its portfolio two new aromatic-based HTFs for closed-loop liquid-phase heating: Paratherm GLT for use up to 288°C and Paratherm HR, which is good to 343°C in fired heaters and 357°C in waste-heat-recovery and full convection heaters.

Increasing demand from the biomass fuel industry, which uses even higher temperatures in its processes, is prompting the company to work on other new HTF formulations.

At the other end of the temperature scale, Paratherm also is keeping busy. When Bedoukian Research, Danbury, Conn., a maker of aroma and flavor ingredients, needed to expand its product line, lower temperature processing became even more of a critical issue. “We were looking for a long time to find a thermal fluid that would do what we need it to do,” says general manager Greg Pignone.

Bedoukian uses a range of 50–200-gallon reactors to manufacture its products and needed cooling down to -60°C. The company chose Paratherm CR HTF.

“Many fluids used for cooling thicken or even freeze up below a certain point, usually at -50°C to -60°C. Paratherm CR doesn’t do that. It allowed us to use colder temperatures,” notes Pignone.

Since the changeover, Bedoukian has achieved higher yields and cut production time by more than 50% for batches. “We are able to run some of our cooled chemical reactions twice as fast now, and run at much lower temperatures than before with better heat transfer. This opens the door for us to produce custom syntheses that we couldn’t have attempted before,” he adds.

Customers are asking for more than just fluids suitable for extended temperatures, explains Para-therm’s technical director Jim Oetinger. “There has been a trend for more after-sales support over the last eight or nine years and this has really acceler-ated over the last couple of years — mainly because

maintenance has been skinned to the bone. A lot of expertise has been lost, particularly on the older equipment. Much of our support today is to do with planned maintenance; because the in-house experi-ence has gone, the queries and requests are coming back to suppliers.”

As part of its service package, Paratherm always has included an annual HTF test for customers. For many this simply involved sending in a sample of their HTFs. Today, the company is getting many more “what if?” type calls. “The audience is a lot more receptive to what we have always been saying about maintenance — that it’s better to have a quarter of a day of maintenance every year than weeks of outage through breakdown. This equipment should run for years, not months,” notes Oetinger.

At the same time, insurance companies are taking a tougher stance on fire issues. “We do hear about fires from time to time and there have been more of them recently. But the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Quincy, Mass., has put out a recommended practice for fluid heaters (NFPA 87), so clearly this problem is being recognized.”

NFPA 87 covers, e.g., thermal fluid heaters and process fluid heaters in which the fluid is flowing, under pressure, and is indirectly heated.

“Up to now there have really been no national standards for fluid heaters, with people relying on information from the suppliers. Now the insurance companies are looking at the NFPA guidance and requiring users to meet the standard,” he adds.

LIFECYCLE FOCUS

Service also plays a key role at Solutia, St. Louis, Mo., now a subsidiary of Eastman Chemical, King-sport, Tenn. The company’s Total Lifecycle Care (TLC) program long has been a cornerstone of its Therminol HTF business.

“The TLC program offers a suite of services to support the use of Therminol heat transfer fluids throughout their entire lifecycle, from design to startup to operation and maintenance,” says Ravi Prakash, global business director.

To emphasize the importance of such services, Prakash points to a recent project success in Brazil at Resitol Indústria Química, Palmeira. The company is a major producer of crude sterol from tall oil extracted from byproducts of pulp and paper production.

Resitol uses a high-vacuum molecular distil-lation unit to extract sterol from the tall oil. The company relies on a secondary coolant fluid (SCF) rather than costlier direct cooling to achieve -70°C,

a temperature necessary to maximize separation effi ciency and reduce product degradation.

Following two leaks of SCF from its heat transfer system and the inability of its fl uid supplier to replen-ish the missing material in a timely manner, Resitol contacted the local Solutia team. After discussions between the team and Resitol engineers, the existing silicone-based fl uid was switched to Th erminol LT, a synthetic aromatic HTF that can be used in both the liquid and vapor phase between -70°C and 315°C.

“Our local Solutia Th erminol engineers provided us with comprehensive guidance for draining our old fl uid, fl ushing the system and refi lling with the new Th erminol LT. Th ey also provided on-site support as needed throughout the process until the system was started up. We have never received this level of expert support with our previous supplier. Th ey also

have local stock in case of emergencies,” notes Resitol maintenance and production manager Charles Souza.

Solutia boasts a 16-strong family of synthetic fl u-ids for indirect heating or cooling over a broad range of temperatures and applications. At one end of the temperature scale is Th erminol VLT, which is aimed at single-fl uid heating and cooling systems between -115°C and 175°C. At the other end is Th erminol VP-1, a synthetic HTF for vapor phase systems from 257°C to 400°C, or liquid phase systems from 12°C to 400°C.

“Our fl agship products, Th erminol 55, Th erminol 66 and Th erminol VP-1, serve diverse and dynamic end markets that change from year to year. Two markets that are strong for us now are the oil and gas market and the concentrating solar power market,” adds Prakash.

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USE OF procedures is an integral part of operat-ing a large industrial process to achieve consistent, safe production. Industry regulations, e.g., OSHA 1910, require companies to provide written operating procedures that contain clear instructions for safely executing activities for startup and shutdown as well as normal, temporary and emergency operations. This article discusses some key challenges with pro-cedural operations identified in an analysis of major industry incident reports by the Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) Consortium, www.asmconsor-tium.org, and recommended practices to mitigate the associated risks.

In the context of this article, the term “pro-cedure” refers to a written document containing step-by-step work instructions to complete a single objective such as starting up a process unit. The common business drivers for use of procedures are to avoid safety and environment incidents, establish efficient and effective operations, and supplement employee knowledge and experience.

The ASM Consortium defines an abnormal situ-ation as an event disturbing a process that requires the operations team to intervene to supplement the control system. This definition specifically is used to distinguish among normal, abnormal and emergency situations from the perspective of console operations.

The objective of abnormal situation management is to return the process to normal before safety systems are engaged.

The consortium’s focus on the use of procedures has been to examine whether enhancements to the procedure management system might enable operators to more effectively prevent or respond to abnormal situations.

PROCEDURE EXECUTION FAILURES

To better understand how to improve use of proce-dures, the ASM Consortium conducted a study to investigate procedure execution failure modes associ-ated with abnormal situations [1]. A team examined root causes of failures covered in a previous analysis of 32 process industry incident reports. That earlier analysis [2] indicated that ineffective use of proce-dures significantly contributed to major incidents and represented 8% of all root causes.

The team assessed whether the procedural failure occurred prior to or during an abnormal situation; those arising beforehand were deemed irrelevant to procedure execution during the abnormal situation. The analysis showed that 40 of the 70 identified procedure-related root causes, i.e., 57%, were linked to procedure execution failures in abnormal situations (Table 1).

Properly Handle Abnormal SituationsProviding effective operating procedures is crucial to success

By Peter T. Bullemer, Human Centered Solutions, LLC


How these root causes manifest themselves provides better insight into how to make improve-ments in operations practices than the more generic root cause classifi cations [2]. Examination of the 40 identifi ed root causes showed the most common manifestation was associated with lack of knowl-edge about appropriate responses to the occurrence of an abnormal situation while executing a proce-dure (Table 2) — followed by the failure to detect the presence of an abnormal equipment or process mode while executing a procedure, and the lack of understanding the impact or eff ect of performing or not performing a procedural action. In total, these three accounted for 87.5% (35 out of 40) of the procedural execution failures under abnormal situations.

Based on this analysis, the study team identifi ed the need for eff ective procedure content in the follow-ing areas to improve operations’ performance during abnormal situations:

an abnormal situation in the execution of the procedure;

in abnormal mode and whether there are any latent abnormal conditions;

range and knowing the indications of the occur-rence of an abnormal situation; and

procedural action and the repercussions of not following the procedural instruction.

ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES

Th e analysis of common root causes and root cause manifestations suggests a need for improvements not only in the content of procedures but also in the procedure management system itself. Based on this

member representatives identifi ed three challenges to reduce the risk of procedure execution failure during abnormal situations:

1. Organizational culture that fails to enforce an eff ective policy on use of procedures. Th is is a symptom of a failure to establish a policy that’s compatible with the pragmatics of the operations work environment. Even if a formal policy is in place, it typically just notes that employees are expected to follow proce-dures at all times. Often the policy doesn’t clearly state whether “following procedures” means personnel may recall the procedure from memory or must have the written procedure in their hands during its execution.

individual operators decide how they will use a proce-dure document. Any given operator may be expected to know and follow dozens of procedures. Th e frequency, complexity and potential risks may diff er quite signifi -cantly among these procedures. However, the typical policy doesn’t distinguish between a simple, routine procedure with low risk, such as swapping pumps, versus a complex, non-routine plant startup procedure

individual, whether a procedure document is used prior to or during execution can vary substantially.

eff ective practices is to establish a risk-based meth-odology to classify procedures in terms of usage. Th e methodology rates procedures based on expected fre-quency of use, complexity and potential consequences

procedures are classifi ed into three categories:

complexity and serious consequences;

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF KEY LEARNINGSSince its inception in 1994, the ASM Consortium has studied the use of procedures in the process industry. The consor-tium has documented its key learnings over the years in “Effective Procedural Practices” [3]. This article draws upon some of the recommendations detailed in that book.

Basic Cause Root Causes Number of Incidents %

Procedure wrong Situation not covered 20 29

Facts wrong 2 3

Procedure not used or followed Not used 9 13

No procedure 7 10

Procedure used incorrectly Check-off misused 1 1

Format confusing 1 1

Total 40 57

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

Table 1. More than half of inadequate responses to abnormal situations stemmed from procedure execution failures.


2. Lack of eff ective methods for determining what abnormal situations procedures should address.

LITERATURE CITED1. Bullemer, P.T., Kiff, L. and Tharanathan, A., “Common Procedural Execution Failure Modes During Abnormal

Situations,” J. of Loss Prevent. in Proc. Ind., pp. 814–818, 24 (6), 2011.2. Bullemer, P.T. and Laberge, J.C., “Common Operations Failure Modes in the Process Industries,” J. of Loss Prevent.

in Proc. Ind., pp. 928–935, 23 (6), 2010.3. Bullemer, P. T., Hajdukiewicz, J. and Burns, C., “Effective Procedural Practices: ASM Consortium Guidelines,”

Abnormal Situation Management Consortium, Minneapolis, MN, 2010.

Common manifestations Defi nition Number of incidents

Inappropriate action Failure to know what the appropriate response should be to the occurrence of an abnormal situation in the execution of the procedure 15

Fail to detect abnormal condition Failure to detect whether equipment of process is in abnormal mode or whether there are any latent abnormal conditions 12

Lack understanding of impactFailure to understand the correct impact or effect of a procedural action or failure to know the impact of not following procedural instruction

8

Fail to detect abnormal situations Failure to know when normal operating range is exceeded or know the indications of the occurrence of an abnormal situation 4

Unaware of hazard Failure to know of the existence of a hazard or the potential of a hazardous situation from not following as specifi ed a step or steps 1

Total 40

PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS

Table 2. Inappropriate action most often compromised procedure execution during abnormal situations.

the procedures in the analysis of risk, the procedure developer must pinpoint risk specifi cally associated with procedure execution failure.

Th e strategy of using risk-based assessment meth-ods for procedure development isn’t a new concept to the ASM Consortium members. However, using a risk-based methodology specifi cally to address the procedural execution failures associated with abnor-mal situations is a new emphasis evolving out of the recent incident analysis study.

Th ese best practice guidelines represent a starting point. However, a gap still seems to exist in addressing the challenge associated with the procedure develop-ment strategy for determining what abnormal situa-tion or condition might arise that impacts continua-tion of the procedure.

So, to get a more comprehensive grasp of sources of risk associated with execution failures under abnor-mal situation management, consider:

of an abnormal situation, when examining potential safeguards the reviewers should determine whether an action or actions would allow the procedure to continue or whether it should be aborted.

3. Insuffi cient metrics for understanding the causes of procedural failures. Th is implies a need to enhance incident reporting to provide better information on the weaknesses of the procedure management system. Any solution must address both metric defi nitions and metric reporting.

Metric defi nitions should include both lagging

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“Is Your Process Safety Documentation Ad-equate?,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/is-your-process-safety-documentation-adequate/

“Improve Safety Despite Limited Resources,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2012/improve-safety-despite-limited-resources/

“Work on Workarounds,” www.ChemicalProcess-ing.com/articles/2011/work-on-workarounds/

“Tame Your Transient Operations,” www.Chemical-Processing.com/articles/2010/123/

The chain’s only as strong as the links that hold it together. We understand it is our job to be the strong links in your process line.

Our personal approach focuses on resolving your issues to improve plant performance and increase profitability through:

THE LINK TOYOUR SUCCESS

and leading indicators. For instance, establish a set of lagging indicators that addresses failures in procedure scope, content or design that stymie procedure execu-tion in abnormal situations. Likewise, create a set of leading indicators that identify failures in manage-ment system elements.

Leading indicator metrics should measure whether or not operations teams understand the plant policy on procedure use and whether personnel comply with the policy. Th ese metrics can help address the chal-lenges associated with “Procedure Not Used.”

Incorporate the new lagging metrics into a com-mon site reporting system that addresses all process safety incidents and promotes accurate and compre-hensive reporting.

Moreover, build the leading metrics into a com-mon site reporting system that encourages accurate and periodic reporting — e.g., use the behavioral safety protocol for process safety management interventions on procedures — not just behavioral safety (assessment, feedback and recommendations for improving; and necessary number of observa-tions per month). Th is may require adapting the protocol to align with metric needs. Validate the eff ectiveness of the metrics in terms of reductions in the number of procedure-related incidents (per lagging indicators) as well as procedural deviation observations.

It’s also crucial to establish an eff ective method for analyzing leading and lagging metrics over time to determine systemic failures in procedure development practices.

Th is suggested strategic approach to a more-com-prehensive metrics-based solution for understanding the nature of procedure execution failures associated with abnormal situations requires eff ort to defi ne procedure-related leading and lagging indicators and enhance the common site incident reporting system.

ACHIEVE EFFECTIVE PROCEDURES

In general, the ASM Consortium analysis reinforces the value of establishing an eff ective procedure man-agement system for the development, deployment, and maintenance of procedure work instructions. Th e out-lined approach to the analysis of incident reports can provide any organization with a good understanding of the specifi c ways to improve the procedural man-agement system for better operations performance.

PETER T. BULLEMER is senior partner at Human Centered

Solutions, LLC, Independence, MN. E-mail him at pbullemer@

applyhcs.com.

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MAKING IT WORK

Biorefi nery BeckonsIowa plant will produce ethanol from corn stover

By Jan Koninckx, DuPont Industrial Biosciences

AFTER ALMOST a decade of research, develop-ment and trials, advanced biofuels are moving to-ward commercialization. Five established companies intend to build large-scale biorefi neries in the U.S. over the next 12 to 18 months. When operational, these facilities will generate nearly 110 million gal-lons of advanced biofuels annually.

DuPont is in the process of constructing one of these biorefi neries — a facility in Nevada, Iowa, that the company broke ground on in November 2012. Th e plant will be one of the fi rst and largest commercial biorefi neries in the world making fuel from cellulose. Th e facility will take 18 months to complete and will produce 30 million gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol via conversion of corn stover from local farms. Specifi -cally, to supply the corn stover for the plant, DuPont will contract with more than 500 local farmers to gather, store and deliver more than 375,000 dry tons of stover per year to the Nevada facility. Th e stover will be collected from an approximate 30-mile radius around the new facility and harvested off of 190,000 acres.

How did we get to this point and what will it take to be successful? DuPont has invested millions of

dollars in advanced biofuels research and development over many years. In 2011, we purchased Danisco and its Genencor unit and added their expertise into a new unit: DuPont Industrial Biosciences. Th is integration allows us to optimize DuPont’s bioscience technology and commercialization capabilities with Genencor’s biofuel enzyme technology.

Genencor has made great progress in developing enzymes to convert a range of renewable nonfood feedstocks such as corn stover, switch grass and wheat straw, as well as municipal waste, to cellulosic ethanol. Its third-generation enzyme technology, released in 2011, converts glucan (C6) and xylan (C5) sugars with a greater ethanol yield per unit of feedstock. Du-Pont has been trialing these enzymes at its cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in Vonore, Tenn. (Figure 1). Th e ethanol produced there powers vehicles at the University of Tennessee.

With the major technical challenges of enzyme optimization and cellulosic conversion overcome, our attention has focused on developing a sustainable feed-stock supply chain for the Iowa plant and a model for the industry in years to come. Working in collaboration with Iowa State University and DuPont’s Pioneer divi-sion, we created the Corn Stover Harvest and Collec-tion Project in 2010. Our fi rst year, we worked with just six area farms totaling slightly more than 2,500 acres. Our harvest test program evaluated equipment options and confi gurations for corn stover harvest, collection, transportation and storage.

Th e following year, we increased the pilot program to 50 corn growers and 7,500 acres. We conducted criti-cal research and development to advance equipment productivity, improve feedstock quality and evaluate cost-eff ective approaches for minimizing feedstock losses during storage. A signifi cant learning from our overall project in 2011 was that most participating corn growers see agronomic value in having a portion of the stover removed from their fi elds. In addition, the major-ity reported agronomic advantages were the greatest overall value they derived from stover harvest.

In 2012, the project expanded to more than 100 corn growers and harvested corn stover from approxi-mately 25,000 acres. Th is represents approximately one-seventh of our fi rst biorefi nery’s annual feedstock requirement. Th e focus in 2012 was on conducting a commercially representative harvest operation and

DEMONSTRATION PLANT

Figure 1. Unit at Vonore, Tenn., can produce 250,000 gallons/year of ethanol from agricultural residues.

MAKING IT WORK

proving the business model for corn stover supply. Th ese pilots demonstrate the viability of a custom third-party harvest model — one of several corn-sto-ver-harvest options DuPont is developing to support commercialization of cellulosic ethanol production.

We specifi cally selected Nevada, Iowa, for the facility because Lincolnway Energy operates a corn-grain ethanol processing plant there. We will be able to achieve synergies in both energy and logistical management from this co-location with Lincolnway. Our ultimate goal is to partner with other companies and license these technologies to biofuel producers in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), Congress has enacted targets for increasing the use of advanced biofuels as transportation fuels. Th is RFS calls for the U.S. to produce 36 billion gallons/year of

advanced biofuels by 2022. Beyond cellulosic ethanol, DuPont is working to commercialize biobutanol via a joint venture with BP called Butamax Advanced Biofuels. It was formed in 2009 specifi cally to develop biobutanol technology. Biobutanol will provide improved options for expanding energy supplies and accelerate the move to renewable transportation fuels.

Today, we are on the verge of commercializing these biofuels. Th e next challenge will be to gain even larger scale and improved economics to ensure ad-vanced biofuels achieve their full potential for greater energy security, economic development and environ-mental benefi ts.

JAN KONINCKX is global business director, biorefi neries, for

DuPont Industrial Biosciences, Wilmington, Del. E-mail him at Jan.

[email protected].

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RELATED CONTENT ON CHEMICALPROCESSING.COM“Scots Take Apt Approach to Biofuel,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2010/159/“Bio-Based Projects Blossom,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2010/049/“DuPont Tate & Lyle Expand Biomaterials Production,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/industrynews/2010/022/“Biofeedstocks Still Grow,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/articles/2009/094/“DuPont Expands Portfolio of Renewably Sourced Polymers,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/industrynews/2009/063/“BP and DuPont Team Up for Biofuels,” www.ChemicalProcessing.com/industrynews/2006/055/


PROCESS PUZZLER

Get Rid Of Problems Not Just Off-GasA variety of factors may compromise performance of a thermal oxidizer

CHECK SEVERAL FACTORS

Your problems could be related to your gas composition, corrosives’ content and solids. Burner tips, when plugged, create misfiring and flame impingement. Burner tips’ erosion from solids and corrosives also creates these. If you did not customize your TOX for your gas composition and make the internals as robust as possible to withstand your combustion (and corrosive) components, this is what would be expected. This is common with rental equipment.

Sending the off-gas to the flare while the TOX is out of service would be of concern to your reli-ability and environmental people. Environmental issues depend on your emissions permit.

Regarding damaging your flare, it would depend on what it was de-signed for (i.e., gas compositions/combustion products, corrosives in gas stream/combustion products). Flares are designed robust enough to withstand natural elements as well as common combustion products. Depending on the gas corrosiveness, robust metallurgies are selected.

A quick calculation using your 2,500-lb/hr gas and its composition plus C1-C3 (assum-ing 26.3% C1, 6.23% C2, 0.94% C2=, 23.08% C3 and 3.64% C3=) shows the following mass flows to flare: H2 4.5 lb/hr; O2 13.0 lb/hr; N2 51.3 lb/hr; CO 114.0 lb/hr; CO2 35.8 lb/hr; C1 320.6 lb/hr; C2 152.1 lb/hr; C2= 21.5 lb/hr; C3

829 lb/hr; C3= 124.9 lb/hr; and H2S 833.27 lb/hr. Using our flare efficiency and NOX efficiency pro-gram, we estimated the following emissions: NOx 2.42 lb/hr (NO 2.30 lb/hr and NO2 0.12 lb/hr);

CO emissions would be 1.47 lb/hr and CO2 emissions 0.49 lb/hr. The amount of SO2 to the flare would be 1,568.5 lb/hr. The emission after destruction will depend on your flare destruction efficiency — compare the calculation against the permit to decide if you would incur permit violations.

As for the corrosion, some adjustment may be required. Our plant has three flares. Their service life span is 29 to 36 years. One services a gas stream that contains corrosive products. This one flare tip was changed 5 times. The last tip was re-designed.

Arbues Maymi, senior process engineer

CITGO Refinery, Corpus Christi, Texas

FIND A LONG-TERM SOLUTION

Let’s start with the temporary per-mit required. You’ll need such a permit when you install an amine system upstream of the flare. That should take care of any corrosion issues with the flare. There’s no way you should run a stream with this concentration of H2S to flare; it’s been done, though.

Another option is a stopgap TOX. As with all interim equip-ment, it will require a temporary operating permit. You’ll probably also need to pass a stack test, so you’ll want to plan for this during the repairs of the old TOX.

As for the liquid ring vacuum pumps, I would surmise the pumps failed because of contami-nated seal f luid. Scale buildup eventually would cause a liquid ring pump to seize up. If hard enough, the scale could damage the bearings, seals and internal components. Vacuum pumps may

THIS MONTH’SPUZZLER

Our refinery uses a thermal oxidizer (TOX) to dispose of vacuum off-gas. Currently, a steam jet pulls this off-gas because we’ve had reliability trouble with liquid ring pumps. We’ve suffered severe corrosion in the TOX’s burners and tiles. Startup problems with the TOX — particularly with the fire detec-tors and igniter system — have caused delays. What’s causing the problems and how can we improve the unit’s reli-ability? We also have a related concern: our production manager wants to send the off-gas to a flare while the TOX is out of service for repair, which will take a week. The typical composition of the off-gas by volume is 30% H2S,5% CO, 2.75% H2, 2.25% N2, 1% CO2,and 0.5% O2, with the remainder C1–C3

hydrocarbons. The vacuum is 40 torr, absolute, and the temperature is 120°F. About 2,500 pounds per hour would go to flare while the TOX is offline. Do we risk damaging our flare? What other problems might arise? What temporary measures would you suggest to avoid environmental issues?


PROCESS PUZZLER

be less reliable, and therefore, less suitable in this application.

Could there be a connection between the startup problems and the corrosion in the furnace? Perhaps, it’s the flue gases. The SOx, formed by burning the H2S, could reach saturation in the brick or on the shell wall of the furnace. This would cause severe corrosion of the brick and shell — periodically necessitating wholesale replacement of the carbon steel plate. The effect of saturated acid gases, such as SOx, partially could be mitigated by selective insulation and even heat tracing. The idea is to reduce the penetration of the acid saturation point into the brick; you’d rather have brick wear away at the hot face than have acid worm its way to the vessel shell where it can cause permanent damage.

Likewise, the sulfur-tar residue formed in burning the gases could be fouling the fire detec-tors, giving false signals the burner pilot is off; the residue could choke the burner, adversely affecting the flow dynamics controlling mixing of the fuel and combustion air inside the burner tunnel. If

the burner tile were severely corroded, enough to cause tile cracking, it would not act as a heat sink, allowing the fuel gas and air to heat to ignition temperature. In this type of situation, where dam-age may be unavoidable, reliability cost savings are in avoiding unanticipated catastrophic failures and by improving ease of repairs. Sometimes, re-dundant, isolated in-line spares might be a means to avoid fouling problems with fire detectors — controls alone are not the answer.

A search for a better material of construction should be weighed against the cost and long lead times of exotic materials, the learning curve of maintenance with new materials and techniques, compatibility issues, and cost of retrofitting. Sometimes, that cheap steel bolt that must be replaced in six months is a better choice than one of an expensive hard-to-find nickel alloy with an unpredictable reliability history. This same logic can be applied to cladding, which is another ap-pealing option.

Dirk Willard, consultantWooster, Ohio

Our refinery, which is located in the upper Midwest, runs into problems pumping liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from stor-age bullets to tanker trucks during the summer. Except for low tank level, we can pump 600 gpm in the winter without any issues but have trouble pumping at all by late morning in the summer. That’s when we divert propane, with some difficulty, to underground pipelines.

The bullet pressure reliefs are set at about 500 psig. The op-erating pressure starts at about 140 psig when the bullets are full but is only about 105 psig at about 15% full, which is as low as we can go. We feed four bullets at a time to the pump. During filling, pressure can spike at above 200 psig on a hot day.

Suction piping: the bullets have a single 4-in. discharge through a ball valve; flow is through about 150 ft of above-ground 8-in./10-in pipe. Discharge piping: two dryer tanks separate liquids from the LPG; there also are two filters and a strainer. (We haven’t kept maintenance records for the dryers or filters.) A 600-ft above-ground run of 6-in. pipe goes from the 8-in. pump discharge to the flow control valve; a 2-in. hose connects the skid to the truck.

Typical loading of the rack, with 600 gpm, is at about 225 psig, immediately upstream of a 4-in. equal-percentage globe valve (CV = 220) with a final pressure of about 150 psig at the tanker truck. A turbine meter immediately upstream of the

valve measures flow erratically. During startup, the flow is 100 gpm at 30 psig, with a pressure of 270 psig into the valve.

We need to address vapor lock of the valve during startup and pump cavitation during low level. We’re seeing a one-year life on the seals in these multistage inline vertical LPG pumps. During the summer we always have trouble starting a pump once it has stopped. A manual vent line at the pump bowl connected to a flare is used to bleed off the gas. We always see a surge when we start the pump, hot or cold. There are secondary 2-in. lines at the top of each bullet for manually venting them to flare.

What is the cause of our pump problems? Would using a smaller valve help? What can we do to improve this operation?

Send us your comments, suggestions or solutions for this question by February 11, 2013. We’ll include as many of them as possible in the March 2013 issue and all on ChemicalPro-cessing.com. Send visuals — a sketch is fine. E-mail us at [email protected] or mail to Process Puzzler, Chemi-cal Processing, 555 W. Pierce Road, Suite 301, Itasca, IL 60143. Fax: (630) 467-1120. Please include your name, title, location and company affiliation in the response.

And, of course, if you have a process problem you’d like to pose to our readers, send it along and we’ll be pleased to consider it for publication.

MARCH’SPUZZLER


PLANT INSITES

The goal is

to create

humidification

cooling when the

water evaporates.

Is Mist a Must?Water sprays may boost performance of air-fin exchangers

AN AIR-FIN exchanger is a cross-f low exchanger on the air side. Even with multiple tube passes, getting close approach temperatures is difficult. Air-fin exchangers often pinch out against air inlet temperature on very hot days (see: “Cope with Condenser Constraints,” www.Chemical-Processing.com/cope-with-condenser-constraints). Against a pinch, higher air f low rates provide little benefit — the only effective technique to improve air-fin performance may be to drop the air temperature. Spraying water into the air can do this.

The objective isn’t to put bulk water on the exchanger but instead to create a mist in the air that leads to humidification cooling. So, let’s look at when a mist is useful; how fine a mist is needed; and how to make the mist.

The goal is to create humidification cooling when the water evaporates. Psychrometric charts detail the difference between various relative hu-midity levels as air becomes more saturated. The charts include dry bulb and wet bulb tempera-tures. The dry bulb temperature is the starting

air temperature. The wet bulb temperature is the achievable cooling by saturating the air. A quick glance at a psychrometric chart shows very little temperature drop is possible once air gets to ~85% relative humidity. To cool air at 115°F to 110°F requires starting with 70% humidity and increasing the humidity to 83%. Consider-ing a 5° cooling as the minimum performance to make the expense worth the effort, a site should have a relative humidity of 70% or less. Check-ing the required temperature drop against the site conditions will clarify if mist cooling might make sense.

The benefit of humidification comes from evaporating water upstream of the air-fin — by creating a mist immediately underneath the air-fin. Only a short distance is available for the water droplets to evaporate before they enter the exchanger. Based on observation of operating misting systems, my own rule-of-thumb is to get a spray pattern that creates a nominal 50-μ (or smaller) droplet at 3 ft below the air-fin bundle.

However, rather than just relying on that rule-of-thumb, let’s delve into the issue a bit more. Figure 1 shows expected distance for a droplet to evaporate versus droplet size. It’s based on 115°F air at 70% relative humidity with a face velocity of 10 ft/sec into the exchanger. The analysis involves too many assumptions to list here but, rest assured, I took care to ensure the simplif ications aren’t all in one direction. The analysis starts with Beard and Pruppacher’s work on droplet evaporation (“A Wind Tunnel In-vestigation of the Rate of Evaporation of Small Water Drops Falling at Terminal Velocity in Air,” J. of Atm. Sci., November 1971) and modifies its

Water droplets diameter, microns

40 80 120 160 200

Dis

tanc

e to

eva

po

ratio

n, ft

40

30

20

10

0

EVAPORATION PLOT

Figure 1. Larger droplets require more distance to evaporate.

PLANT INSITES

assumptions to better f it the conditions of typi-cal hot (above 100°F) air-f in operation.

Figure 1 indicates that droplets 60 μ and smaller should evaporate in 3 ft. However, spray nozzles don’t create uniform-size droplets but, instead, a distribution of droplet sizes. These droplet sizes most commonly are character-ized by Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD), which is the diameter whose ratio of volume to surface area equals that of the entire droplet distribu-tion. Other useful parameters include the peak diameter (PD), which is the droplet size that matches the peak in the droplet size distribution, and the mass median diameter (MMD), which is the diameter that has 50% of the total volume smaller than this size. For most sprays, the SMD is 80–84% of the PD. The MMD is larger still. A few small but large particles contain much of the mass in the spray.

For an SMD of 50 μ, the PD is 50/0.8 = 62.5 μ. Figure 1 shows that the distance required for this diameter is 3 ft. Less than 50% of the mass evaporates at that point. Achieving the target air cooling may require a ratio of roughly 3:1 of sprayed water to minimum water. The excess water enters the exchanger and then rapidly vaporizes.

How do we create such a fine mist? Either air atomizing or fine spray nozzles might meet the requirements. Air atomizing nozzles generally cre-ate the smallest droplets. They use a gas stream to physically break a liquid stream into droplets. This requires adding an air system as well as a water distribution system. A fine spray nozzle uses pressure drop to do the job. It comes in two versions: one forms spray directly while the other creates the spray by bouncing a jet of liquid on a surface. In either case, what makes a fine spray is high pressure drop and a small nozzle. Drop-let size distributions are extremely difficult to predict. What you need are data. Work with the nozzle vendor, explain your objective and circum-stances, and get a nozzle that’s been thoroughly tested. In any case, expect a high pressure drop. Some units require pressure drops of up to 400 psi to achieve small droplet sizes.

ANDREW SLOLEY, Contributing Editor

[email protected]

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CLOG-RESISTANT SPRAY NOZZLES NOW AVAILABLE IN MORE SIZESMFP FullJet® nozzles reduce costly clogging problems even when using debris-filled liquid. A unique vane design provides the largest free passage of any full cone nozzle and produces a more uniform spray pattern for superior performance in cleaning, cooling and other applications. Request Bulletin 703 to learn more about the expanded line.Spraying Systems Co.800-95-SPRAY, www.spray.com

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Chemical Engineering MattersU.K. professional society addresses areas where engineers could make an impact

THE INSTITUTION of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), Rugby, U.K., has published a new report, “Chemical Engineering Matters,” which identifies four priority areas where chemical engineers can make a positive impact: energy, food and nutrition, water, and health and wellbeing.

The report is a much-needed update of the Institu-tion’s 2007 technical strategy, according to IChemE di-rector of policy and communications Andrew Furlong. “The original document was seen as too restricting. The 20 position statements that it contained are still valid, and IChemE will still work in order to deliver against those propositions, but the original roadmap took some criticism because its didn’t focus strongly enough on wealth creation and it didn’t really take into account external matters,” he explains.

“Chemical Engineering Matters,” Furlong says, is more about what chemical engineers can actually do.

The report also describes IChemE’s current thinking in three fundamental underpinning areas: safety and risk, education and training, and research and develop-ment. It also discusses external influences that affect the way today’s chemical engineers operate.

The document ends with ten specific actions for IChemE’s leadership and staff team to pursue. They are:

Safety. IChemE is committed to initiating a new international qualification for process safety professions.

Talent. IChemE aims to keep talent flowing via a constant review of its course accreditation guidelines.

Research. The institution will place priority on encouraging multidisciplinary work and the effective exchange of knowledge and ideas between the research base and teaching.

Energy. IChemE says it will argue for robust lifecycle analysis and promotion of the fullest understanding of thermodynamics for all proposed solutions — from carbon management to wave power.

Water. The organization believes the chemical engineer’s role in delivering sustainable solutions has been underplayed. In response, IChemE says it will provide additional support to chemical engineers in the water community to explore new ways of promot-ing process technology.

Food and nutrition. IChemE plans to exert signifi-cant influence over development of processes and tech-nologies that reduce waste and optimize food supply.

Health and wellbeing. The institution says it will do more to highlight the impact of the discipline in both the bioscience and pharmaceutical sectors.

Politics. The politically neutral organization claims it will work with constituent member groups and lo-cal leaderships around the world to develop coherent policy goals that will form the basis of engagement with opinion-formers and policy-makers.

Economics. Here, the IChemE will continue to highlight the role of chemical engineers in improving process efficiency and reducing costs for the worldwide, $3-trillion downstream chemical industry.

Public understanding. The report notes that over the last 30 years public mood swings have driven scientists to retreat into their laboratories. Meanwhile, it says, engineers of all descriptions have never really excelled at promoting their efforts and explaining their work’s value to laypersons. Chemical engineers are in a particularly difficult place. The absence of historical heroes with the visibility of Brunel, Faraday or Watt has confined the discipline to relative obscurity: “Given the upstream na-ture that characterizes much of the chemical engineer’s work, it’s hardly surprising that public polling carried out by IChemE consistently revealed that it’s generally unclear, even to the educated observer, exactly what chemical engineering is all about. IChemE members frequently express dismay at this state of affairs because, as this report clearly illustrates, chemical engineering is fundamental to progress in the key challenge areas of energy, water, food and nutrition, and health and wellbeing,” notes the report.

Rising to this challenge, IChemE encourages mem-bers to engage productively in public conversation about the impact of chemical processes and products. IChemE also will work with science media centers and other non-governmental organizations to address the disconnect between lifestyle commentary and chemical realities.

“This is not just a document that will sit on our desks,” says IChemE CEO David Brown. “It will guide policy development and how we plan our work for the future. Chemical engineers have a long history of ac-tion. They are innovators who have brought numerous benefits to society from pharmaceutical developments such as the scaling up of penicillin to the production of high-power rechargeable batteries that are used in many of our devices from mobile phones to laptops.”

The full report can be downloaded from the IChemE’s website at www.icheme.org/media_centre/chemical-engineering-matters.aspx.

SEÁN OTTEWELL, Editor at Large

[email protected]

The absence of

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Chemical Processing Magazine - 012013

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Transcript of Chemical Processing Magazine - 012013