Articles covered in this issue:

Waste Water Treatment in Chemical Industries: The Concept and Current Technologies
Mohamed Osman Awaleh, Youssouf Djibril Soubaneh
Almost all chemical industries face formidable environmental regulatory challenges in treating their wastewater effluents. This article elaborates on physicochemical, biological processes and combination of such processes for effective wastewater treatment.

Development of an Innovative Design Concept to Operate Two Solar Driers for Achieving Continuous Product Drying by Incorporating a Fluidics Amplifier
Dr. Subramanya Krishna Bhat
Drying of the product is required to remove moisture and prevent unwanted contamination. Thermal energy harnessed from solar energy is an easy, feasible and economic approach for drying. In this article, the author discusses modification done to ‘indirect passive solar driers’ for effectively drying continuous products as well as batch products.

Intelligent Troubleshooting Pays
S Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Intelligent troubleshooting plant problems lead to enhanced safety, increased production, decreased maintenance, expenditure, survival of the company and saves jobs. This article discusses basic principles of troubleshooting with successful case study examples.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Tata Strategic report on Pumps, Valves & Process Equipment
This report analyses the current status of pumps, valves and process equipment particularly with regard to their innovation and technology capabilities. The report says that there is a dearth of new technology inputs except in a few cases. Only innovations and new product development can drive growth.

Seal Pressure Instruments without Sweat
S Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Seal pressure instruments pose many problems. In this article, the author elaborates on the alternative he developed to tackle these problems. The alternative is cost effective, avoids risky blind plant runs, and increases safety and productivity of a total recycle urea plant.

Recover Heat from Air Compression
Deepak Vetal, Atlas Copco Compressors
Compressed air is one of the most important utilities for the process industry, but the process is energy consuming. The electrical energy used to compress air is transformed into heat as byproduct. This article explains the use of byproduct heat to save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions during air compression.

Hydroprocessing of Heavy Feeds- Improvement in Recycle Gas Hydrogen Purity
Subrata Das, Ashish Logani, Fluor India Pvt Ltd
This paper explains the effect of different parameters that can be utilized along with modifications during the hydroprocessing of heavy feeds in the process flow scheme, to increase the recycle gas hydrogen purity without losing valuable hydrogen

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Articles covered in this issue:

An optimization of the Chemical Process Route to Alkali Blue (Aniline Blue)
– Dr. Manfred Haehnke, Germany
Alkali Blue (Aniline Blue) and its higher sulfonated derivates have applications in many industries. The established production processes of this dye suffer a number of limitations. This article elaborates on an optimized manufacturing process, generating remarkable cost savings for commercial scale production of alkali blue.

Bio-based routes for succinic acid
Anirudh Raghavan, Thadomal Shahani Engineering College.
This article reviews the prospects and potential of bio-based succinic acid. It covers bio-based routes including the challenges involved in bio-processes as well as its myriad derivatives making it an important platform chemical. This article also includes a summary of the commercial developments till date in the bio-based processing routes for succinic acid.

Surge Detection and Surge Control Systems for Centrifugal Compressors – Part 2
Neetin Ghaisas, Fluor, Todd Reitsma, Compressor Control Corporation
Surge detection and surge control of centrifugal compressors is complex and requires specialized knowledge. This article describes performance over-ride control, limiting loops and fallback modes, recycle piping and valve sizing considerations, hot gas bypass valve (HGBV) requirements and instrumentation considerations.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Cleaner Environment through Ion Exchange Resins
Lanxess Business Unit – Liquid Purification Technologies
Waste water is produced from various chemical manufacturing processes which can contain
chemicals in various combinations and concentrations. This article describes, with the help of case studies, the successful use of ion-exchanger systems for treatment of waste water in
different industries.

Advances in Membrane and ion-exchange processes driving manufacture of value added chemicals from biomass employing optimized biorefinery 
Dr Umesh Ingle, Dr Sasisankar Padmanabhan, Dr Pramod Kumbhar, Praj Matrix R&D Centre (Praj Industries Ltd) 
Separation of needed chemicals is a challenge in bioprocesses and employing a combination of membranes and chromatographic separations has addressed this challenge to a great extent as described in the article.

Indigenous Technology for Amorphous Boron Powder (ABP): A strategic material having versatile applications
A K Nandi, Dr R K Pandey, HEMRL, Pune.
Elemental boron is of strategic importance due to its applications in critical defence systems. It is also finding increasing civilian applications. A metallothermic reduction process for the production of boron developed by HEMRL is briefly described.

Seawater Desalination Processes & Energy Consumption comparison 
Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Fresh water supplies today are becoming increasingly scarce for requirements in industry, agriculture and for household needs. The sea is an abundant source of water. Many conventional desalination processes are not viable as compared to the use of membranes,
reverse osmosis etc in the article.

Removal of Black Powder and Other Contaminants in LPG/LMG Furnace Feeds
Ramraj Venkatadri, Pall, USA, Mark Brayden, The Dow Chemical Company
Many separation technologies are employed for removal of black powder, which is a corrosion product widely prevalent in pipelines that transport natural gas and hydrocarbon feed stocks. This paper discusses separation techniques.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Surge Detection and Surge Control Systems for Centrifugal Compressors – Part 1
Neetin Ghaisas, Fluor, Todd Reitsma, Compressor Control Corporation
Surge detection and surge control of centrifugal compressors is complex and requires specialized knowledge and experience. This article focuses on fundamentals such as dynamic centrifugal compressor map, operating envelope, surge cycle and surge detection.

Centrifugal Pumps – Part 2: Offer Evaluation Guidelines
Kiran Gosavi, Amol Patil, Aker Solutions
The article provides guidelines on specific and advanced topics for selection of centrifugal pumps. It also gives an insight on rotor dynamic studies required for special duty pumps.

A closer look at Impact test requirements of Piping Materials
Raghuraj Puri, Nikhil Jagtap, Anshul Singla, Roy Grichuk, Fluor Daniel Pvt. Ltd.
Brittle failure of piping materials occurs without prior warning and could lead to both human and financial losses. In order to avoid such mishaps the designer can select impact tested steels as per testing requirements. These requirements and also the essential factors that can improve the low temperature properties of piping materials are outlined.

Say no to Pressure Letdown Valves, but yes to Letdown Turbo Generators and Turbo Expanders
S. Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Reducing steam pressure through a steam turbine, liquid pressures through a hydraulic turbine and gas pressures through turbo expanders offer immense energy savings potential, while pressure letdown valves waste energy.

Hazard Analysis and Safety of Pipes against Internal Gaseous Explosions in Industries – Part 2 
Dr. (Ms.) Manju Mittal, CSIR – Central Building Research Institute
This article is a part of study undertaken at CSIR-CBRI, Roorkee, India, for safety in pipes in chemical and petrochemical industries and presents analysis of internal explosion hazards associated with pipes carrying flammable gases.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Sustainability & Responsible Care
Ravi Kapoor, Heubach Group of Companies
Various relevant ministries of the government and the Indian Chemical Council (ICC) have taken several initiatives such as Responsible Care, for instance, by ICC to ensure that these initiatives are encouraged and industry adopts them.

Zero-defect & Zero-effect: Crucial components of successful businesses
Dr Arup Basu, President – New Businesses & Innovation Centre, Tata Chemicals Ltd
Quality has become a holistic philosophy encompassing everything from resource efficiency to taking care of the environment to sustainability issues so as to ensure that quality products don’t have adverse ecological effects.

Valorization of exhaust CO2 to chemicals and fuels using bioconversions as core process
Deepak Pant, Linsey Garcia-Gonzalez, Heleen De Wever, Ludo Diels, VITO
A lot of R&D is going on worldwide on utilisation CO2 as a feedstock, which would also address the problem of global warming. One such case study on using CO2 via fermentation is covered.

Biorizon – The way to aromatics
Bio Joop Groen
Many household and other bio wastes can be converted into useful products – fuels, building blocks etc through bioprocesses. Biorizon is a consortium promoted Dutch project for this purpose, the details of which are outlined.

Opportunities for thermal waste treatment
Tobias Richards, University of Boras, Sweden
There are many wastes which are hard to treat, where what works is only thermal treatment. Developments with greater efficiencies in thermal treatment are covered.

Treatment of sewage water by using microalgae and membrane bioreactor
Gayatri S Gera, Swati N Yewalkar, Bhaskar Kulkarni, Sanjay Kamble
By employing microalgae and membrane bioreactor, cost effectiveness as well as other benefits are obtained in sewage and waste water treatment. Reviews all latest developments in this area including the work done at CSIR-NCL.

Systematic approach to process safety
Vijay Bhujle, GVS Cibatech Pvt Ltd
Article provides an overview of a step by step proactive approach to get to intrinsically safe operations – and the benefits it provides.

Hazard analysis and safety of pipes against internal gaseous explosions in industries – Part I
Dr (Ms) Manju Mittal, Fire Research Laboratory
Hazards in pipelines carrying flammable materials are analysed. Characteristics of explosions and practices to prevent such detonations are explained.

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Articles covered in this issue:

How to select centrifugal pumps – Important guidelines
Kiran Gosavi, Amol Patil, Aker Solutions
Selecting centrifugal pumps – the workhorse of the industry – isn’t simplistic as made out. The article says that it is complex and many important factors have to be considered. Read this very comprehensive coverage on selection parameters.

Safety instrumented systems in EPC project lifecycle 
Shivendra Kapoor, Chola MS Risk Services
Including safety instrumentation ab initio at the project engineering stage is today crucially important and so EPC companies include the HSE aspects in the detail engineering, of any project. The author explains the analysis phase of safety instrumentation systems for any project.

Benzene supply & demand: Impact of crude oil prices & changing derivatives demand
Priyanka Mani, Beroe
A whole lot of derivatives are produced starting from benzene. Therefore, the supply, demand and pricing of benzene are important. The pricing depends as much on demand & supply as on the vagaries of oil & gas prices, says the author, against the backdrop of supply, demand & sourcing scenarios.

Increase chemical reaction rates
S Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Increasing reaction rates is important for improving productivity as well as for sustainability. The author gives a broad overview of the various factors impacting reaction rates and how it can be speeded up.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Layered approach to achieve optimization for modern process industries
Jaideep Bhattacharya, Honeywell Process Solutions
This article highlights how a layered optimization solution can comprehensively solve optimization related issues to achieve sustained benefits over the long term.

Innovations solve instrumentation ‘DDUDPs’S
RaghavaChari, Industry Consultant
Several problems related to instrumentation lead to delay in operations and other hurdles. The author presents a series of case studies to showcase the importance a multi-disciplinary approach in solving problems that were initially thought to be unsolvable.

Improve boiler efficiency and recover water from flue gas
Syamal Kumar De, Atul Ltd
Rising energy costs have made it imperative for companies within the process industry to periodically review their energy consumption and diverse methods to improve energy efficiency to improve operating margins. This case study highlights the advantages of a condensing boiler in reducing energy cost.

Corrosion monitoring in oil and gas industry – A piping material engineer’s perspective
Anshul Singla, Raghuraj Puri, Ankita Nagpal, Pranjal, Fluor
This paper broadly classifies corrosion monitoring techniques based on various technical aspects and applications. It throws light on each monitoring technique discussing its relative benefit and drawback. The article also takes a closer look on the widely used corrosion monitoring techniques in oil and gas industry.

Articles in this issue

Great Expectations
Akshay Panhale, Dhananjay Ambekar, Manish Pitkar, AkerSolutions
This article explains the expectations from the vendors, detailed engineering contractor and
client, as well as some of the experiences during a live project.

Ligno-cellulosic ethanol – Current status, economics, technology & its importance to India’s biofuel mandate
Dr D K Tuli, Ravi P Gupta, IOCL
The advancement in technology for cellulosic ethanol production and Indian efforts in this area are discussed in this article.

System Engineering – A completion and start-up driven project execution
Neil Iyer, Industry Consultant
This article provides definitions, objectives, implementation process through the various stages of a project and expected benefits.

Incorporating fluidics devices for optimising matrix heat exchanger operations
Dr. SK Bhat, Industry Professional
Can the incorporation of fluidic devices simplify and economise the operational features of matrix heat exchangers?

Lifecycle of a field instrument – an EPC perspective
Shivendra Kapoor, Chola MS Risk Services
All the key phases through which a field instrument (sensor and final element) has to pass for justification through in an EPC organization to finally reach the engineering site, get installed and be in operation.

Articles covered in this issue

Consider molecular management to maximize chemicals to oil advantage
Anil Rajguru, Srinivasa Orunganti, Leslie P Antalffy – Fluor
This article focuses on the fundamentals of petroleum refining processes, integration of oil
refineries with petrochemicals and / polymers for an optimum molecule management for improved return on investments.

Syngas from gasification as an alternate feedstock for chemicals, petrochemicals & power
Vivek Chate, Sunil Singhal, Paul Koppel, Ravi Ravikumar – Fluor
Gasification offers a promising option to convert low value carbonaceous feedstocks and waste into valuable products. This paper deliberates on various aspects of gasification as a viable alternative to the conventional process schemes to produce power/ fuels/petrochemicals etc. utilizing low value feedstocks and also weighs in India’s perspective on the same.

It’s time to invent in India
Veena Patwardhan – Special Correspondent
Despite a strong workforce and a huge pool of scientific manpower India lags far behind in the global innovation index. What ails R&D in India? Why aren’t we innovative? This article throws light on some of the barriers to quality research and innovation in India and how the country can overcome them to accelerate growth.