In recent years, a growing number of projects throughout the chemical process industries (CPI) have been carried out using Engineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) contracts. Because such contracts typically involve the work of numerous subcontractor parties, they tend to be complex. As such,…
I recently read Hydrogen-Pinch Analysis Made Easy Chem. Eng., June 2008, pp. 56–61. The paper presents an automated spreadsheet program to target the minimum fresh hydrogen resource for a hydrogen network. While the effort of the authors is appreciated, I…
This three-way valve improves temperature control This company has recently unveiled the GX 3-Way control valve (photo), which has the ability to accurately control the temperature of water, oils, steam, and other industrial fluids. Applications include heat exchangers and lubricating…
The American Society of Testing Materials (Conshohocken, Pa.; www.astm.org) has developed a new standard for measuring viscosity: ASTM D 7483-08, Determination of Dynamic and Kinematic Viscosity of Liquids by Oscillating Piston Viscometer (OPV). The new ASTM method is part of…
Last January, Chiral Photonics, Inc. (Pine Brook, N.J.; www.chiralphotonics.com) was awarded $500,000 in a Small Business Technology Transfer Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF; Washington, D.C.). The grant will be used to develop a new optical-fiber-sensor platform…
ABB Instrumentation (Warminster, Pa.; www.abb.com/instrumentation) has cut the cost of installing orifice-plate flowmeters by up to half with the launch of its OriMaster compact orifice DP flowmeter. The latest in the company’s FlowMaster range, the OriMaster comes fully factory configured…
Despite various studies and process automation supplier suggestions that wireless sensing technologies cost less and provide tighter control than their wired counterparts, chemical processors are still proceeding with caution when it comes to implementing wireless instrumentation. Wireless supporters hope the…
The new goVisc 500 is a compact, high-performance precision viscometer with realtime viscosity outputs. It can be used in any laboratory-scale application for continuous viscosity measurement, and it is especially suitable for automated applications. The hygienic sensor is an all-welded…
For safe operation of a flange joint, it is important to consider a number of parameters that have an impact on the bolts, gasket and flanges. The relatively large number of mathematical operations and the need for managing a large…
With the new Fluxus F601 ultrasonic flowmeter, a reliable flow measurement can be obtained in a few minutes. No zeroing procedure is necessary since calibration data and transducer parameters are saved in a transducer internal memory and automatically sent to…