Abstract
Pumps play an important role in the industry. Efficient and optimal operation of pumps can address the problems of any leakages, emissions and also ensure energy efficiency, making them more eco-efficient. Several examples have been stated in this article to achieve that and how the right kind of pump can help reduce environmental problems.

The relation between ecology and pumps is two-fold:
(1) Pumps are an important equipment in eco-management systems, such as effluent treatment, disposal systems, sewerage and drainage systems and ash-handling systems.
(2) Operation and performance of pumps should be eco-friendly, such that
(2-1) The carbon footprint of energy consumed by pumps should be as small as possible.
(2-2) The leakages and emissions in pumps should not be offensive to ecology.
Whereas pumps mentioned in (1) refer to pumps in eco-management systems, the concerns mentioned in (2-1) and (2-2) apply to all pumps, including pumps in eco-management systems.
One interesting example is of pumps in ammonia plants. Ammonia has multifarious uses. It is a refrigerant and a fertilizer-base. Since atmospheric air contains 79% nitrogen, it becomes an important source for producing Ammonia (NH3). The hydrogen component is obtained from natural gas, which is obtained during oil-exploration. This also means that ammonia plants suck huge amounts of air from the atmosphere and obtaining natural gas is sucking mother earth of its gas deposits! The chemical reaction of mixing nitrogen and hydrogen to produce ammonia is an exothermic process and that disturbs the temperature balance of the environment in and around ammonia plants. Since ammonia is hazardous, any leakage of ammonia from the ammonia plants is ecologically very offensive. Rather, almost every single aspect of production of ammonia seems to be ecologically offensive ! Every commoner world over is blissfully unaware of this !

I came to think of all this, only because construction of pumps for pumping liquid ammonia is a special construction. Most popular pumps for pumping liquid ammonia are Canned Motor Pumps. As is clear from the name, in these pumps, the motor and the pump becomes an integral unit. Actually, more than the pump, the motor is special, because it is canned motor. In the motor, what is canned is both the stator and the rotor is canned. A typical cross section of a canned motor pump is shown in Fig. 1.
There are many interesting features to be observed here. As shown in Fig. 2 a canned motor runs filled with the liquid being pumped. That in fact is the main reason, why the stator and the rotor are canned. Because the liquid flows across the motor also, it has no chance of leaking into the atmosphere. This makes a canned motor pump, a zero-leakage pump. As mentioned earlier, since ammonia is hazardous, pumps pumping liquid ammonia must be zero-leakage pumps.
Whereas one would like to compliment the ingenuity of the people who first designed and made a canned motor pump, one should also note that all technologies have compromises inherent. A canned motor pump is no exception.
Efficiency of an electric motor is directly related to the efficiency of the magnetic coupling between the stator and the rotor. The efficiency of the magnetic coupling is related to the gap or clearance between the stator and the rotor. The simple fact that the stator and the rotor in a canned motor pump have to be canned, means that the effective separation between the stator and the rotor will be larger in a canned motor than the clearance in a commonplace motor of equal rating. On the whole, one would have to accept that overall efficiency of a canned motor pump would be less.
The efficiency of any pump in any system directly affects its carbon footprint. For operation and performance of a pump to be eco-friendly, the onus rests with every stakeholder, the system-designer, the pump-designer, the pump-user and the pump-manufacturer. It would be interesting to take note of four statements.
1. An overrated driver is as much of a culprit as is an overrated pump.
2. A pump running trouble-free for a long time can be a case of an overrated driver.
a. In an example case, suppose a pump was running trouble-free for 25 years. When reviewing, it transpired that the driver was of 22 kW rating, whereas 3.7 kW was more than adequate. There was regular data-logging of the pump’s performance, but nobody noticed that the current drawn was almost and the equal to the no-load current of the 22 kW motor, part-load efficiency of any motor is very poor. That means that the pump was running with a very poor overall efficiency.
3. A system running trouble-free for a long time can also be a case of overrated pump.
a. In a coolant circulation system, temperature-rise of the coolant even after heat-exchange being insignificant can mean that flow-rate of the pump is excessive.
b. For another example case, if the rating of the boiler is 100 TPH at 110 bar, the BF pump having rating of 165 m3/hr at 170 bar with a 1200 kW (1.2 MW) driver is obviously excessive. Allowing for even 20% margin over boiler rating, for both flow-rate and pressure, the rating for the pump would work out to 120 m3/hr and 132 bar. At 75% pump-efficiency the driver-rating would work out to 575.2 kW, say 600 kW – half of 1200 kW (!) Note that the figures quoted in this example are not hypothetical. They were quoted to me by people operating their plants with quoted ratings of the boiler and of the BF pumps.
4. A pump running troublesome can often be a case of mismatch between the pump and the system i.e. of wrong selection, of wrong installation, of wrong operation or of improper maintenance.
a. In an example case, a plant engineer was replacing the impeller of a pump every three months. Failure analysis revealed that the pump, especially the impeller was suffering cavitation damage. Another pump in the same system did not suffer such damage. The pump suffering damage was a high-rpm, high specific speed pump and its required NPSH was high. The pump which was not suffering damage was a low-rpm, low specific speed pump and its required NPSH was low. Actually the system worked with flooded suction. That again is a great misconception, that for a flooded suction system, one need not check NPSH available in the system and NPSH required by the pump.
b. The above case is not only of wrong selection, but also of wrong maintenance. The plant engineer had kept on replacing impellers, because Root Cause Failure Analysis had not been done. Maintenance engineers, even plant managers are often so much obsessed with the responsibility of keeping the plant running with minimum downtime, that replacing the impellers is an insignificant cost. This causes everybody being oblivious to the fact that manufacture of every unwarranted impeller happens only after avoidable consumption of energy, right from mining the ore for the raw material of the impeller, its casting in the foundry, its machining and finally to its transportation to the user, all this apart from starting and stopping the pump, for replacing the impeller. It is an engineering fact that starting current of a motor is about seven times its full-load current.

c. This point of starting current of a motor being about seven times its full-load current brings to mind the growing tendency to provide pumping systems in high-rise buildings as hydro-pneumatic pressure booster systems (See Fig. 3). The systems are designed to ensure water-supply at the farthest tap on the topmost floor. Inherently, it is a high-head system. Most high-head systems are likely to be less energy-efficient. Also, every release of pressure in the hydro-pneumatic reservoir causes the pumps to start and stop, maybe, 15-20 times per hour. That means the system draws the high starting current that many times. Since normal design of motors is for 4-5 starts and stops per hour, motors for pumps in hydro-pneumatic systems are special motors. People residing in high-rise buildings are not knowledgeable of all this. In the instance of failure of any motor, replacing the motor with a commonplace motor is hazardous, because the replacing motor may fail almost immediately.
d. Traditional pumping system in buildings has been raising water to the overhead reservoir. That concept continued to be followed even for high-rise buildings. So, water required for people staying at lower floors is also raised to the Overhead reservoir. This again is not energy-efficient. A simple analysis and option (See Fig. 4) suggests that energy-consumption can be reduced by almost 33%.
Of course energy-efficient pumping is an important aspect of eco-friendly pumping, but change in lifestyle especially in urban India is not helping ecology either. People buy the same things in malls, which they did in shops and markets. The difference is that a mall means an air-conditioned marketplace. A large volume of air-space being air-conditioned means as much larger energy-consumption and that much more offensive to ecology.
The various examples of pumping systems covering a wide cross section of users brings forth that almost every other pumping system across the world has the potential to reduce the energy-consumption.
Similar observation is noted in the following report at http://ietd.iipnetwork.org/content/pump-systems:
“… Pump systems are major energy users and responsible of around 20% of electricity use in industry. The use of pumps is highest in the petrochemical, the pulp and paper and the chemicals industry, although pump systems are to be found in most industries. Studies indicate that pumping efficiency in manufacturing plants can be less than 40%. Oversized pumps and the use of throttled valves were identified as the two major contributors to the loss of efficiency. Energy savings in pumping systems of between 30% and 50% could be realised through equipment or control system changes. With a through assessment of the entire system and implementation of other measures, additional savings can be realized. Similar to other motor driven systems, best results in efficiency improvement are achieved by adopting a systems approach in designing, installing, operating, and maintaining the pump systems.…”
Conclusion
A conscientious and intelligent pumping system is one of the methods to ensure a better environment for the future generation to live and breathe in.

Abstract
This article discusses the importance of pipeline transportation of oil and gas in a modern economy and spells out the hazards associated with cross country pipelines. The causes of hydrocarbon release from a pipeline are identified in the paper. The essential safety features to be adopted in a cross country pipeline system have been discussed at length. The need for developing a suitable emergency plan to deal with hydrocarbon releases is also emphasised.

Introduction
Pipelines have been extensively used for the transportation of oil and gas around the globe for a very long time. Pipeline transportation is commonly employed in the case of petroleum crude, petroleum products, natural gas, LPG and propane.
The wide network of natural gas and petroleum pipelines covering thousands of kilometres plays a crucial role in the economy of many countries like United States of America, Russia, Great Britain and Canada. Most of these countries have a vast experience in the installation, operation and maintenance of the cross country oil and gas pipelines.
At present, a gas pipeline network of more than 15,000 km length exists in our country. Government has focused to develop an ecosystem of national gas grid across the country. In order to complete the grid, another 15,000 km of additional gas pipeline has been planned.
The major oil and gas pipelines existing in India are listed below:
1. Naharkatia-Nunmati-Barauni Crude Oil Pipe-line
2. Mumbai High-Mumbai-Ankleshwar-Kayoli Crude Oil and Natural Gas Pipeline
3. Salaya-Koyali-Mathura Crude Oil Pipeline
4. Hajira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) Gas Pipeline
5. Jamnagar-Loni LPG Pipeline
Causes of Hydrocarbon Release from Pipelines
A hazardous substance, either flammable or toxic, is safe till it is fully contained and maintained at desired parameters during storage, operation and transportation. The chemical hazard is materialised only when it loses its confinement and is released to the atmosphere. On release, the chemical disperses in the air and forms a toxic/flammable gas cloud in the downwind direction. Flammable chemical forms a cloud which could be within the flammable range. Any source of ignition within the cloud could lead to fire or explosion.
Incidental or accidental releases of hydrocarbons are bound to occur, even though modern pipelines are safer in construction and have highly integrated leak detection systems.
The predominant causes of hydrocarbon release from the pipelines are as follows:
1. Failure due to external factors
The oil and gas pipelines are often laid belowground at a depth of 1.2 to 1.5 m, but can also be installed aboveground, if necessary. Failure due to external factors is generally caused by third party mechanical interference, which leads to a puncture or a gouge severely reducing the wall thickness of the pipeline. A catastrophic guillotine rupture of the pipeline can also occur as a result of third party interference. The failure may occur immediately or may occur sometime later due to fatigue.
A high probability of ignition is likely when flammable substances are released from a pipeline as a result of the immediate failure. A source of ignition may be provided by the adjacent hutments or vehicles moving nearby. Third party interferences can be either intentional or unintentional. Unintentional interferences occur when the third party is unaware of the presence of the pipeline.
2. Failure due to corrosion
The most commonly employed material of construction for hydrocarbon pipelines is carbon steel. Two types of corrosion are responsible for the failure of pipelines – internal corrosion and external corrosion.
Moisture in the ground and salinity of the soil are major factors causing external corrosion. External corrosion may manifest itself in the form of pinhole failures caused by pitting and more generalised corrosion leading to a reduction in pipe wall thickness over a plane area. External pitting corrosion leads to small leaks that are often difficult to detect. The pinholes caused by pitting gradually grow in size over a period of time. A reduction in wall thickness occurs due to external area or plane defects. This can cause catastrophic failure of the pipeline under pressure, leading to a large scale release.
Internal corrosion is caused by the corrosive nature of the hydrocarbon being transported. This also leads to failures similar to the ones caused by external corrosion. Failures are generally caused by the formation of acids resulting from the presence of water or sulphur compounds in the substance being transported. The corrosion effect caused by the presence of water could be more prominent in the bottom half of the pipeline.
3. Failure by miscellaneous causes
Pipelines can also fail due to a variety of other causes like construction defects, pipe material defects, human error, flood ground erosion, and earthquake. The most common construction defect is the mechanical damage caused by earth moving machinery during backfilling and is often discovered shortly after pressurisation. However, some of the defects such as inadequate welding, inadequate corrosion protection to joints and damage to corrosion resistant coating that occur during the laying of the pipeline will only be identified sometime later.
Safety Features of Hydrocarbon Pipelines
Modern pipeline construction has advanced considerably. The modern steel pipelines carrying hydrocarbons are installed and maintained by following the appropriate national and international codes and practices. The fabrication and erection of the lines shall be as per ASME B 31.4 or equivalent standards. The guidelines given in OISD – 141 (Oil Industry Safety Directorate – Design and Construction requirements for cross country hydrocarbon pipelines) shall also be followed in India. It is necessary to conduct appropriate tests to ascertain the quality of the materials being used including the welding rods. Weld joints would be subjected to radiography tests.
Following safety features are generally incorporated in a pipeline project:
1. The entire stretch of the pipeline is usually buried underground except at the booster pumping station. If an underground pipeline has to cross any existing underground water or gas line, cable, drain or other services, it shall be laid at least thirty centimetres below such services in a manner that will not obstruct the access to such services for inspection, repair or maintenance. The number of bends in the pipeline shall be kept to the minimum by proper grading of trenches or supports at crossing and other obstacles. The route of underground sections of a pipeline shall be indicated by markers, and not less than two of such markers shall be visible from any point along the route. Markers are usually installed at every 30 meters to indicate the position of the line.
2. The buried lines are protected with anticorrosive coaltar or epoxy coating. The process of providing the coating involves cleaning of the pipe by shot blasting, priming with synthetic primer, coating by successive layers of coaltar enamel, glass fibre reinforcement and glass fibre felt outer wrap. The coating is usually tested by high voltage holiday detector in accordance with NACE standard RP-02-74. The field joints shall be protected with heat shrink sleeves.
3. The entire underground portion of the pipeline would be provided with cathodic protection. Cathodic protection is a process that involves electrically connecting other metals to a pipe, which corrode more easily and protect the integrity of the pipe. Companies monitor cathodic protection constantly, conducting surveys on the pipe to ensure that adequate cathodic protection levels are maintained to minimise corrosion growth. They also periodically measure corrosion features using sophisticated in-pipe computerised instruments called inline inspection tools. If corrosion levels exceed the safe limits, repairs are undertaken to restore the strength of the pipe (by either replacing sections of pipe or installing protective sleeves).
4. The lines are buried with a minimum cover of 1.2 m. At road crossings, the lines will be installed with a minimum cover of 1.5 m through hume pipe protection using horizontal boring/trenching technique.
5. Railway crossings are provided with casing pipe protection. A minimum cover of 1.5 m is often given in such cases. The casing pipe shall also be protected with anticorrosive coating. Pipeline insulators are used to support the carrier pipe inside the casing pipe and electrically isolate the carrier pipe from the casing pipe. The annular space between the casing pipe and the carrier pipe, and carrier pipe at casing ends is sealed with casing-end-seals, in order to prevent ingress of moisture and water.
6. At river crossings, the pipeline is installed below the scour bed with a minimum cover of about 4 m. At the upstream and downstream of major water crossings, isolation valves with valve chamber shall be provided. Anti-buoyancy concrete weight coating should be provided on the pipelines in the water logged areas and river crossings to prevent lifting up of pipes due to buoyancy.
7. Pressure regulators, slam-shut safety valves and pressure relief valves are provided in gas pipelines to protect them against the occurrence of over-pressure.
8. All but weld joints in the pipeline shall be 100 per cent radiographically examined and fillet weld will be subjected to dye penetration test and ultrasonic inspection.
9. The entire pipeline will be tested hydrostatically at 1.25 times the design pressure. The test duration will be minimum 24 hours after stabilisation. The sections for crossing road, rail and river shall be pre-tested before erection.
10. Isolation valves are provided at critical locations along the pipelines to ensure quick isolation of the pipeline segments during any emergency. It should be possible to operate these valves from remote locations.
11. A computerised supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system is incorporated in the pipeline network to ensure smooth and safe operation. Any leakage in the pipeline will be immediately detected by the computer system and pumping of the fluid will be immediately stopped. Communication between the various stations along the pipeline is also achieved through SCADA.
12. Natural Gas is quite often odourised with mercaptan in distribution lines for early detection of gas leaks. Mercaptan adds an unpleasant odour to odourless natural gas to aid in the detection of a leaking natural gas. It is particularly effective in detecting small leaks in distribution lines in residential areas.
13. Daily patrolling is carried out along the pipeline route to complement periodical comprehensive maintenance.
14. No maintenance or repair involving cutting or re-welding of any pipeline shall be carried out except under following conditions, namely: –
(i) an experienced engineer shall inspect the section requiring maintenance or repair, before the work is undertaken and issue a written permit specifying therein the precautions to be observed and the procedure to be followed for carrying out the work. The permit so issued shall be preserved by the owner of the pipeline for a period of six months.
(ii) all work involving cutting or welding shall be carried out by an experienced person in accordance with the permit referred to in clause (i).
(iii) the section of the pipeline shall be isolated and drained before starting the repairs or maintenance.
(iv) only mechanical cutters shall be used for cutting the pipeline or any connection thereof, unless the section of the pipeline and its connections have been purged with an inert gas.
(v) no hot work shall be carried out on any pipeline until the section thereof requiring repair has been isolated, drained and purged with inert gas or steam or kept filled with water or until such section has been prepared in a manner approved in writing by the experienced engineer.
(vi) the section of the pipeline in which repair or maintenance work has been carried out shall not be used for transporting petroleum until such sections are replaced with hydrostatically pretested sections and the repaired weld joints pass the radiography test.
(vii) no section of any pipeline and no valve fitted to it shall be separated until an efficient electrical bond has been established between the parts to be so separated which shall not be broken until the separated parts have been rejoined.
Even with the advanced leak detection technology, the human role in pipeline monitoring is vital. A review of more than 1400 accident reports from Canada revealed that on-site employees and local residents were usually the first to detect and report a leak, whereas only 19.5 per cent of the reported spills were first detected in a control room. Since every small leak or slow leak may not be detected by remote monitoring, responsible neighbours need to be aware of the signs of a pipeline release. These signs include petroleum on the ground, fire and explosion, mist or cloud of vapour, dying vegetation in a green vegetative area, sheen or a film in water, and water bubbling or liquid in unusual areas. The other signs of a pipeline release include the sound of hissing, whistling, or roaring noise.
It is essential to carry out a risk assessment of the hydrocarbon pipeline as in the case of other major hazardous materials. The hazards associated with the pipeline are identified first using techniques like HAZOP. Maximum credible loss scenarios (MCLS) associated with different operational areas should be established. The consequences of the MCLS and worst-case scenarios are estimated using empirical and semi-empirical models. The estimated damage distances will aid in development of the emergency plan.
Emergency planning is an integral part of the overall loss control programme. This is important for effective management of an accident/incident to minimise losses to people and property, both in and around the facility. The important aspect in emergency management is to prevent the unintentional escape of hazardous materials out of the facility and minimise accidents and losses by taking technical and organisational measures.
Conclusion
The transportation of oil and gas is essential for the maintenance of modern lifestyles. Pipelines play an important role in this task. In order to ensure the safe transportation, it is necessary to take precautions right from the design stage. There should not be any compromise on the safety features of cross country pipelines. The hazards in the pipeline system need to be identified so that necessary steps can be taken to address them. It is important that we recognise the signs of pipeline spills and leaks, and know what to do in case of an emergency to protect the public and the environment.
References
1. Singh, R.: Pipeline Integrity Handbook: Risk Management and Evaluation, Gulf Professional Publishing, 2013.
2. Jo, Y.-D., Ahn, B. J.: Analysis of hazard areas associated with high-pressure natural-gas pipelines, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 15(2002), 3, 179-188
3. Luo, Z.-S., Gao, Y., Wang, H.-C., Liu, Q.-C.: Comprehensive quantitative risk assessment of urban natural gas pipeline, Fire Science and Technology, 6(2013), 38-43.

Sustainability is not only in terms of complying with environmental regulations, reducing emissions etc. It calls for efficiencies across the entire value chain of manufacturing from the supply chain to the manufacturing process, good maintenance to the end product and its disposal. Emerging digital technologies likes Al, Blockchain, IIoT, data analytics, cloud etc can create a paradigm shift in manufacturing efficiencies that will greatly enable sustainable operations.

Introduction

In today’s highly regulated and competitive environment, chemical companies must look beyond traditional industrial conventions and business norms and focus on achieving the desired outcomes to remain sustainable, via digital transformation.  For many companies, this need is reinforced as competitors, partners, suppliers, and customers begin employing digitized business processes of their own.  By exploiting the convergence between operational and information technologies, these companies are connecting their enterprises internally, and externally throughout their supply chain.  This both requires and supports new business models, processes, and technologies.

Intelligent connected products and assets, along with network communications, software, and advanced analytics allow companies to redefine their approach to business processes including enterprise asset management (EAM), product lifecycle management (PLM), and supply chain management (SCM).  The resulting digital enterprises can design, manufacture, deliver, and support products faster, more efficiently, and at the lower cost.

Thanks to digital transformation, chemical industry participants are realizing the following advantages:

• PLM and chemical formulation processes are moving towards closed-loop product and chemical formulations to support continuous product improvement
• EAM processes are expanding to encompass predictive and prescriptive maintenance, thus reducing unplanned downtime, cost, and risk
• SCM processes can now support omni-channel supply chain concepts improve both the highly integrated chemical supply chain and customer experience
• Sustainable processes to protect the environment and boost economic growth

Challenges faced by chemical manufacturers

Recent economic and technology trends have had major impacts on the global chemical industry.  This applies to both the specialty chemicals and bulk chemicals sectors.  The industry has also seen an increase in merger and acquisition activity in recent years, and this trend is likely to continue.

The persistently low oil and gas prices, particularly in North America, have had a major impact on the industry, since both are key feedstocks for both specialty and bulk chemical production and provide much of the energy (either directly or indirectly) for these energy-intensive sectors.

While, until recently, North America had seen few greenfield or expansion projects for specialty chemicals and virtually none for bulk chemicals; the competitive advantage provided by shale oil and gas created a wave of activity in both greenfield and capacity expansion projects.

In general, there’s been a trend for global bulk and specialty chemicals manufacturers to shift production from well-established production centers in Europe, Japan, and (to a somewhat lesser degree) North America; to cost-advantaged China and India and feedstock-advantaged Saudi Arabia, which has been making a major push to increase the value of its exports and diversify its economy.  We’re seeing significant investments in state-of-the-art, world scale chemical production facilities in all these countries.

Increased global competition drives the need for greater efficiencies and cost reductions across the industry.  While the scale and complexity of bulk chemical manufacturing appears to be increasing; specialty chemicals manufacturers, particularly in Europe, are exploring increased modularization of production assets.  This includes development of new modular “micro” production plants that can be easily located close to either feedstocks or end customers to reduce logistics costs.

In addition to growing pressures to reduce both project-related and operations-related costs and expenditures, chemical manufacturers face increased governmental regulation.  This includes mandates to increase safety and reduce potentially harmful emissions.With the increasing attention on sustainability issues, the public also expects companies to ensure both new chemicals, and those already in a company’s portfolio, are more environment-friendly. Responding to this need, global initiatives such as Together for Sustainability (TfS) have been launched to audit, assess, and implement sustainability practices (environment, health and safety, labour and human rights, and governance issues) in the chemical industry.

In general, the entire chemical industry is seeing a move towards increased automation to reduce costs and compensate for the growing skills shortage. Increased digitization across the value chain is another clear trend. Digital technology offers higher levels of connectivity and speed in accessing, processing, and analyzing huge amounts of data. Besides mobility, cloud and in-memory computing, the Internet of Things, machine learning and blockchain will start acting as gamechangers in the chemical industry.

Transformation of Product Formulation and Lifecycle Processes

Continuing success in the chemical industry will depend on the ability to quickly create and produce new products to meet consumer trends and changing customer requirements and to ensure existing products continue to meet changing regulations.  Although product lifecycle management (PLM) approaches originated in the discrete industries, chemicals companies are increasingly taking advantage of the benefits that effective PLM offers for product development, manufacturing, sales and support.

As products become more specialized, product development requires greater collaboration with customers, ingredient suppliers, and packaging suppliers. Companies that effectively employ PLM to collaborate and manage data, will develop new products faster, introduce them at lower cost, and bring them to market in less time.  In addition to enhancing external collaboration, PLM for process manufacturing closes the design-to-production loop and enables users to fine tune product formulation based on yield measurements and fluctuating cost elements.  The continued adoption of digitalization among customers and suppliers extends this information loop and supports utilization of field experience to drive product innovation and sustainability. The chemical industry must continuously develop new technologies to keep resources circling in closed loops to reduce the carbon footprint.

The expanding markets in emerging economies, combined with nearly continuous regulatory changes in established markets, make it imperative for chemical companies to be able to quickly and confidently document formula and label compliance with industry, national, and regional regulations.  The data required to do so varies greatly depending on the regulatory group and can come in a variety of data formats, structured and unstructured.   Despite this complexity, the document management capabilities of chemicals-specific PLM solutions can help ensure that products meet regulations from concept to retirement, even as regulations change. Furthermore, incorporating batch lot tracking and other operational tools that tie into a product database, enable rapid decision support in the event of emergencies or recalls.

Transformation of Maintenance and Operations Processes

A modern enterprise asset management (EAM) system provides the visibility, planning, and execution capabilities needed to improve industrial asset uptime, increase asset longevity and safety, control costs, and support the executive need for high return on assets (ROA).  Reliability studies show that 82 percent of all assets have a random failure pattern.  Thus, only 18 percent of assets benefit from preventive maintenance based on calendar time or usage.   To avoid failures on the 82 percent of assets, new, IIoT-enabled proactive solutions replace conventional reactive or preventive maintenance with far more effective predictive and prescriptive maintenance approaches.  With more accurate and efficient automated data collection, IIoT dramatically expands the number and variety of parameters that can be monitored cost effectively with engineered algorithms or machine learning to identify problems well before they become failures.

This higher maintenance maturity level supports broader business benefits that go beyond reducing maintenance costs. These include improved on-time shipments, revenue, customer satisfaction, quality/yield, and safety.  Users have reported that moving from preventive maintenance to predictive or prescriptive approaches provides 50 percent savings in maintenance labor and MRO materials. Moreover, with predictive and prescriptive maintenance, near-zero unplanned downtime for critical equipment can be achieved.

What more can be done? Operations and maintenance processes must become resource efficient and sustainable. The solutions deployed must be environment-friendly, cost-effective, and socially acceptable throughout the lifecycle process; partnerships must be created across the value chain; and safety issues must be addressed.

Transformation of chemical supply chain

With the traditional chemical supply chain logistics model in which only one component at a time can be optimized, companies are forced to view their respective supply chains as a cost center instead of a strategic, competitive work process.

However, increasingly, a company’s global supply and trading network represents a living (ideally connected) ecosystem of supply chain partners and e-commerce.  In this emerging business model, the focus is on interactive collaboration among carriers, shippers, forwarders, suppliers, and even customers.  When supported by a common SCM platform, this approach can drive a powerful network effect with the benefits of universal connectivity among participants. Instead of micro-level optimization, which only allows for cost-savings within your own supply chain, the doors are open to macro- level optimization—finding those optimization opportunities that lie between several systems.  But this requires those systems to be connected via a common platform. Many newer technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and machine learning or semantic search require changing the way technology leaders think about people and technology architecture and process.

With the growth of the chemical industry comes the added responsibility of being sustainable. There must be continuous improvements in efficiency, environment, health and safety; and the industry must move from a linear route to a circular one that re-uses resources. We are all linked: industries – people – and our planet.

The Gamechangers in the Chemical Industry:

Industrial Internet of Things/Industrie 4.0

The Industrial IoT promises improved performance of manufacturers’ service operations through remote connectivity as well as incremental connectivity-based revenue streams that represent entire new opportunities. Clearly, the value proposition for the IoT opportunity extends beyond simple connectivity into the ability to build new products and services and achieve competitive differentiation.   Overall, IIoT can act as a solution that helps the chemical industry keep up with changing times and better meet the needs of shareholders and customers. However, having clean and abundant data available to train algorithms and build high quality models which predict high quality results are pivotal to success. Over the last few years, the “asset-intensive” chemical industry has focused its efforts towards optimizing plant and asset operations. However, there is huge untapped potential to develop innovative, customer-centric business models and services.

Big Data

Industrial Big Data is software that converges the details created from processes, and turns that data into knowledge. Big Data plays a vital role in decision making, and transformational technologies such as analytics, mobility and others are incomplete without this.  With advanced analytics, users can get Big Data from anywhere and everywhere and can perform massive calculations, complex algorithms, and analysis for faster decision making.

Mobility

Today, smartphones and tablets provide workers with the latest information at their fingertips to increase the speed of decisions. The information and applications vary depending on the worker’s role.  Maintenance workers will have work orders, repair instructions, and spare parts availability and ordering capabilities, and the like.  Operators will have real-time plant operating information and the ability to predict process events.  Executives will have rollup performance information and drill-down capabilities.  For maintenance workers and production supervisors, using mobile devices allows access to information at the point of need, without requiring the user to return to a desk or central location.  In addition, apps to speed machine setup are already available.

The emergence of the smartphone has made several other devices obsolete as it converges multiple functions, such as: camera, calendar, calculator, recorder, GPS, alarm clock, thermometer, MP3 player and many more.  Wi-Fi and other Internet technologies are increasingly necessary to support mobile devices and new sensor connectivity. As production assets are equipped with more sensors, together with local intelligence and communications capability, robust, secure W-Fi and Ethernet connectivity are increasingly important.

Cloud

The cloud (public and hybrid) can not only dramatically increase business agility but also speed delivering solutions by offering a cadre of application tools – everything from re-useable machine control algorithms to previously established troubleshooting and diagnoses, or simulations for production scenarios.  Manufacturers could also use it to compare line performance, therefore becoming a repository of best practices.

Analytics

Increased data capture by companies requires corresponding focus on obtaining value from the information.  With more connected sensors, automated machines, and devices generating data, the support infrastructure must also expand.  As investments in the networks and systems that collect, manage, deliver and store this data increase, so does the expected computing power to deliver the value of the information through analytics.  Speed becomes the essential ingredient with analytics.  Information availability to make an operational decision based on a complete picture requires a high performance infrastructure.

Blockchain

A blockchain is a public ledger used to record transactions or keep track of data. By understanding the impact of a blockchain on the chemical industry, you have a tool to help with the growth of your company. Innovation in the chemical industry is more important than ever before since new competitors and technologies are entering the market and product cycle times are continuously reduced driving to faster commoditization of products and services. By using blockchains, a chemical company may improve their ability to innovate and create interesting solutions for their customers. A blockchain facilitates close collaboration in an open or closed community (dedicated community of experts) via sharing information safely with all stakeholders in real-time following the rules set by this community without need for validation or authorization by third parties. As everybody works from the same data and information, costly and time redundant work can be avoided, hence overall Return on Innovation will be increased while reducing Time to Market.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning are now being used in the chemical industry. The chemical industry has begun using AI for raw materials load forecasting; preventive maintenance and asset management; prediction of phase diagrams; intelligent chemical processing; and alarms. AI can significantly reduce the effort analysing data and find patterns and outcomes in data that people simply cannot find. Opportunities exist in R&D to create higher value and higher margin products at a faster pace, particularly in specialty and crop protection chemicals. Advanced analytics and machine learning enable high-throughput optimization of molecules as well as simulation of lab tests and experiments for systematic optimization of formulations for performance and costs (“from test tube to tablet”). In addition, advanced analytics and machine learning can drive the allocation of best-available resources to research projects in line with portfolio priorities. They also enable screening of internal knowledge and patent databases to maximize use of intellectual property and fill gaps. Machine learning can also help chemical manufacturers run simulations on sustainability and environmental impact across a product’s lifecycle.

Strategies for Digital Transformation:

Develop Portfolio Approach to Digital Transformation

Changing business needs and expectations in the chemical industry must be addressed with a flexible and evolving business strategy, which in turn requires integration of business processes with manufacturing and engineering operations. This leads to a gradual evolution of large and more complex collections of IT solutions to support these business processes. These collections may include solutions from a variety of suppliers and employ a broad range of information and communications technologies.

Define Organizational Accountability and Responsibility

The definition of organizational accountability initiative will help to clarify the scope and charter between the various departments. ARC has identified the transformational technologies that are currently being piloted by chemical companies. These include: predictive and prescriptive analytics, cybersecurity, blockchain, public cloud, and mobility. These transformational technologies do require re-thinking support structures that go beyond the IT and OT functions. Agility and digitalization progress will be major business performance indicators as other chemical peers transform.

Improve Employee Change Management

Chemical companies could improve change management for its employees by creating a digital change capability. As an extension of Human Resources’ Learning & Development department, this would help develop passionate change leaders at all levels in the company, each capable of embedding digital knowledge and understanding into their respective organizationally accountable departments. Digital transformation initiatives and other technology-centric projects could benefit from formalizing a change process early in a project and embedding this into the technical organization.

Enhance Employee Knowledge Transfer and Sharing using Advanced Analytics

Chemical companies should consider building a knowledge management strategy with a foundation on semantic search or advanced analytics platform capabilities.  This would allow artificial intelligence systems to reach deeper into organizational intellectual property and improve knowledge transfer between employees.  Additionally, this would allow departments to utilize knowledge and information sharing fully to accelerate capability and competency and help remove the current data silos between departments and administrative areas.

Conclusion

Emerging technologies are not only driving the chemical industry, they are saving the environment by reducing waste, pollution and creating sustainable business models.  Sustainability is more than just about regulatory compliance – it can be a revenue generator and environment friendly. Most chemical companies are aware of the potential and already have a sustainability strategy in place. Consumers, the general public, and investors are vociferous about the concerns of chemicals damaging the environment etc.

Abstract
Waste is material which for some reason or the other we are not utilising back in our manufacturing processes. This article reviews how wastes can be extracted from effluent and other waters and utilised. Various valorisation methods are described and the process of how to go about it.

Manufacturing came into existence to produce goods and meet the requirements of humankind. Explosive population growth lead to increasing the demand of almost every material thing and this demand gave birth to industrialization. Industrialization helped to meet the increased demand however, the same Industrialization also excreted tremendous pressure on our natural resources such as clean Air and Water. Resource stressed scenario is seen worldwide. Majority of manufacturing processes generates wastewater with varying quantities and characteristics. Manufacturing puts pressure on water cycle in two ways:
1. Consumption of Fresh Water
2. Pollution in Water Bodies
In comparison to other fresh water consumers such as agriculture and domestic, consumption of freshwater by manufacturing industry is low but the toxicity of wastewater generated by manufacturing industry especially by chemical industries is very high. Manufacturing is necessary but at the cost of our natural resources? That’s today’s dilemma.
In case of water, there is always a pull between Industrial and Domestic demand. In most of the cases, the domestic demand is always given priority and water supply is restricted to Industry. This is the same picture for many years near the Industrial Belt.
Wastewater: It is really a Waste?
Waste is something which does not have any use and hence a commercial value. As per the conventional understanding, water generated during the course of manufacturing does not have value hence the same is termed as “Wastewater”. “Wastewater” needs to be “managed” with the lowest cost, as there is no possibility of revenue generation from the same. Reports indicate that pollution levels are increasing. Discharging of untreated wastewater in water bodies had been reported. Apathy by manufacturing industry towards Industrial Wastewater is turning Wastewater into a modern day evil and the cost associated with wastewater treatment is the cause of this apathy.
The question is “Is wastewater really a Waste?”
Waste is a limitation of our understanding or imagination. A Waste will remain as a waste until we find out a better use of it. Once it has a use, a waste will be converted into a value or revenue.
Long time ago, a black, oily and viscous liquid was discovered which we know today as crude oil. For a very long time, this black liquid was a source of nuisance and had very limited uses such as medicines and lubrication etc. By mid of 19th Century petroleum refining came into picture and the whole world found a new source of energy and raw material. Thus, a great technology is able to convert a Waste into Wealth.
Industrial Waste Water is another such resource, which is waiting for a correct technology for its transformation. Sustainability will assured when profitability is associated with wastewater.
In agriculture-based industry, many examples of Waste Valorisation can be seen and now a days they have been standard norms e.g composting, biogas etc.
However, the same concept is new in technologically advanced Manufacturing Industry.
Wastewater is a typically a mixture of various chemicals. Most of these chemicals are known. Interesting point to be notes that the chemicals, which are present in wastewater, have significant value/market price when they are present in pure form. However, in wastewater, because of the mixed nature, these chemicals lose their value.
Wastewater Valorisation aims at generating value from wastewater by three ways:
1. Recover Chemicals in pure form: Recovered chemicals can be recycled to the parent process thus reducing the cost of fresh chemical purchase or these chemicals are sold thus generating additional revenue
2. Reduce the cost of treatment: Once these chemicals are recovered, the treatment cost of wastewater reduces.
3. Reduce the cost of fresh water purchase: In cases where post chemical recovery water recycle is possible, the cost of fresh water can be saved.
Wastewater valorisation not only generates revenue from waste but also helps to minimize the environmental impact of toxic waste. Investment in Waste Valorization can give attractive payback. In few cases, estimated payback of 3 to 5 years is possible.
Present Waste Water Management Scenario
Today most of the technologies of wastewater treatment are cost centric. These technologies treat particular type of wastewater invariably resulting into a cost. Almost all newer technologies talks about how the latest technology will lower the cost in comparison to the existing technologies.
Lets take a closer look at the existing technologies which are considered as Industry Standards.
A. In a conventional biomass based systems, a low TDS & moderate COD containing wastewater streams are first conditioned for correct pH etc. The stream is then sentto microbes for consumption of COD and produce the biomass, which again has to be disposed off.
B. In case of wastewater streams with moderate concentration of dissolved solids, first, the stream goes to Reverse Osmosis for increasing the concentration of dissolved solids. The reject obtained goes to evaporation system. In case of high TDS stream, the stream directly goes to evaporation system. Evaporation System helps to recover water but in the process generates mixed salts. As the mixed salts does not have any value, they has to be disposed off to secured landfills.
C. In case of high Organics containing streams, the material is incinerated. Incineration process generates gaseous pollutants and residue/ash. Gaseous pollutants needs to be contained by absorption this generating secondary wastewater and residue/ash needs to be disposed off.
As can be seen, most of the present technologies convert one type of waste to other type of waste at the expense of energy. An unmanageable waste is converted to a manageable waste at cost. Since cost is a pain, many small scale industries could not afford these solutions and end up adopting “Short-Cuts”. Scenario of untreated wastewater going in water bodies are perfect examples of these “Short-Cuts”.
If technology can generate profit from wastewater then the same can become sustainable. Wastewater valorisation aims for the same.
Basics of Wastewater Valorisation
Step-1: Segregation of Wastewater streams:
As per the conventional treatment philosophy, all wastewater stream are collected in equalization tank prior to treatment. However this step is against the wastewater valorisation concept. Implementation of Wastewater valorisation after equalization tank create following technical difficulties
a. Concentration Reduction: Wastewater Valorisation Technologies are generally separation processes, which works better with higher concentration of targeted chemical. When the concentration reduces, separation before challenging thus increasing the operating cost of Wastewater Valorization Technologies
b. Increased Hydraulic Load: Post equalization, the composite stream volume goes up. Again implementation of Wastewater Valorisation Technologies after equalization leads to larger equipment resulting in higher capital expenditure.
Step-2: Complete Characterization of Wastewater:
Conventionally wastewater is the most neglected part of the manufacturing process. The wastewater is generally characterised from treatment point of view such as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Dissolved Solids etc. In order to understand the value associated with the wastewater, its correct characterization i.e estimation of chemical composition and identification of chemicals present is wastewater is the deciding factor for successful implementation of valorization technologies.
Step-3: Identification of Correct Technologies
Wastewater valorisation technologies are separation process based on chemical engineering principles. Chemical Engineering Unit Operations are basics of Valorisation Technologies. Some of the examples of Wastewater valorisation technologies are as follows:
a. Selective Crystallization of Sodium Sulphate from Textile effluent
b. Selective Extraction of Acetic Acid from mixed wastewater streams
c. Recovery of Solvents from mixed solvents or wastewater
Large amount of literature is available which is published by Academia for chemical recovery from wastewater. A thorough literature search provide insight about the available alternatives for wastewater valorisation.
New Thinking
Conventionally the boundary of manufacturing ends at production of required material. Effluent treatment is a separate section in manufacturing setup and Production Team is not much concerned about the same. However, every Production Manager, Technical Team should look at Wastewater for its valorisation potential. Top Management of the manufacturing company, Manufacturing Heads, Effluent Plant Managers should look at wastewater stream closely and explore the possibility of valorisation. The strategic planner should choose sustainable Valorisation Technologies rather than quick-fixes such as Treatment Technologies.
Manufacturers producing similar products can join hand to create a Waste Valorisation Facility. This is particularly helpful for small-scale manufacturing companies. The partners along with the revenue generated can share the CAPEX burden.
Wastewater Valorisation has a potential change the approach of the manufacturing industry towards wastewater and make its management sustainable.