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Implementing Communication Buses

    The reason for installing a bus is generally four-fold: to reduce costs; to speed and simplify control system design, installation, and startup; to provide alarming and troubleshooting diagnostics; and to gather valuable information about the process itself.  …

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Optimization of Complex Distillation Columns

    Distillation, based on differences in the volatility of components, is the most common unit operation for separating homogeneous mixtures. In simple distillation columns, a single feed stream is separated into two product streams. Complex columns are those that…

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Specifying Equipment for High-Purity Fluid Flow

    In the pharmaceutical, biotech and food processing industries, ingredients are transported, mixed, heated and cooled assuming the assurance of product purity required by lawmakers and taken for granted by consumers. Integral to the design of fluid-handling systems that…

Prevent Plant Upsets

    For many years, the job of a control room operator at a petroleum refinery or chemical plant was seen as relatively simple: Keep the process running and fix it when it breaks. That perception is changing as more…

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Bring Common Sense to Pump Troubleshooting

    In widespread use throughout chemical process plants, centrifugal pumps are often employed (and taken for granted) in severe service conditions. Consequently, it is hardly surprising that problems can arise during their operation. A major difficulty facing the chemical…

Stream Selection Assemblies For Analytical Instrumentation

Intelligent selection and specification help to assure getting representative, uncontaminated samples from multiple process lines to a shared analyzer Process engineers rely heavily on analytical instrumentation to ensure product quality. Properly designed systems help prevent contaminated fluids and gases from…

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Don’t Fall For Common Misconceptions

    Myths and misconceptions become part of accepted practice if repeated often enough. They are propagated by lack of fundamental particle-technology knowledge and by certain commercial interests. The list of presented here is by no means exhaustive. We have,…

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Making Sense of Your Project Cost Estimate

    If your estimate for a project's capital cost is too high or too low, incomplete or wrong, a poorly developed scope is the mostly likely cause. In almost all cases, project cost estimating is more accurate than the…

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Materials of Construction for Low-Temperature and Cryogenic Processes

    Trends in the worldwide chemical process industries, especially a steep rise in the compression and liquefaction of gases to lower the costs of their storage and transportation, have heightened the engineer's need to have a working familiarity with…

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Flow Measurement in Bitter Cold

The usage of Coriolis flowmeters for measuring mass flowrates has become widespread in the chemical process industries, and the range of fluids with which these meters can be employed is likewise diverse. Among those applications, Coriolis flowmeters can readily be…