Articles covered in this issue:

Future Growth of Indian Chemical Industry mired due to dearth of building blocks
Manish Panchal, Karthikeyan K S and Sonal Sapale – Tata Strategic Management Group
The chemicals value chain is an intricately linked chain where downstream segments depend on key feed stocks such as naphtha, natural gas and petrochemical building blocks to grow. As we stand on the cusp of a disruptive development, there is an immediate need to access critical feed stocks and develop a roadmap to address pertinent challenges faced by the Indian Chemical Industry.

How Chemical Industry can benefit from the Cloud
Karan Kirpalani – Netmagic
This article explores how cloud computing can offer a range of benefits for today’s chemical industry. It also helps chemical sector analyze which applications, services and technologies should be considered for development and deployment “in the cloud” to meet the goals of their enterprise.

Trends and outlook for the Global olefins market
Saravanan Vaithi – Beroe Inc.
Highlighting the trend and outlook of global olefin supply and demand scenario, trade scenario, challenges ahead for olefin producers and the way ahead for downstream buyers
across the world this article focuses on the emerging trend in the key consumption centers of India.

Whither Oil and Gas?!
Chemical Industry Digest
Plummeting oil prices have sent shockwaves across global economies. The situation has been compounded by a slowing Chinese economy and looming global recession. On the flipside, this situation is working like a charm for Indian economy looking to achieve energy security and build world-class infrastructure. This article takes a closer look at the Oil &Gas industry and how it impacts India.

Indian engineering and procurement scenario –Challenges and expectations
Suhas Upadhye – Aker Powergas Pvt Ltd
The article discusses about the dynamics of project execution in the Indian chemical industry, during the engineering and procurement stage of the project and provides a detailed analysis of the issues involved in executing a project, as well as the mutual expectations from various stake holders, which differ at each stage.

Fertilisers – Will the scenario change?
Chemical Industry Digest
Riddled with policy inaction and starved of investments, India’s fertilizer industry struggles to find its feet. Whether, recent government initiatives help in reviving the fortunes of the industry remains to be seen. This article dissects the issues dogging the industry and details the measures that are imperative to the industry’s survival.

Articles covered in this issue:

Delayed coking deheading valves
Les Antalffy, Anil Rajguru, Barry Millet – Fluor; Ruben Lah, Critical Flow Solutions
This article briefly explains the old method of delayed coking drum deheading using the deheading cart and explains the benefits of the new deheading valves. It discusses details and features of the two deheading valves currently on the market explaining their features, how they operate and how these large valves (weighing in excess of 35 tons) must be installed.

Selecting the appropriate specialty valve
Pankaj Israni, Aker Powergas
This article helps in understanding the importance of valves, which are integral to process industries like refining, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, food processing, and oil & gas. It also gives information on the various types of specialty valves, their key features, and their selection.

LOPA – What it is and what can go wrong!
Shivendra Kapoor, Chola MS Risk Services
Every company wants to have its operating facility safe and free from any legal obligations that may possibly arise because of unsafe design or incomplete safety specifications amongst many other factors. Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) is one of the risk assessment techniques. This article highlights the experiences of the author while being involved in LOPA sessions.

Are unsafe fireproofing practices still being used in oil&gas and petrochemical processing plants?
Graham Boaler, Richard Holliday, Edward Walker, MMI Engineering
The pre-fire durability, explosion resistance, fire capability and reliability of the hollow encasement, box design fireproofing is found to be inherently flawed but remains a preferred method with some stakeholders in Asia, Middle East, Europe and the United States. This article discusses why the design is obsolete and reasons why the practice continues.

Protection of Industrial Assets: Cybersecurity in the Chemical World
Eric Knapp, Honeywell Process Solutions
By understanding what contributes to the risk of a cyber incident, plant facilities can work to minimize them and achieve a higher level of performance and predictability of process systems and networks. This includes preventing possible business outages and diminishing the threat of lost revenue due to serious safety, environmental and personnel catastrophes.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Monitor Ammonia plants from an energy consumption approach
Dr. M. P. Sukumaran Nair, Industry Consultant
The article examines how modern ammonia plants are monitored from the point of view of energy optimization. It focuses on the energy efficiency of the plant through increasing operational efficiencies in the plant.

Selecting the right centrifuge – The jargon demystified
Nils Schwarz, Schwarz Consulting
This paper provides information on what needs to be considered while evaluating centrifuges. The focus is on decanter centrifuges, but most of the principles raised would apply to other centrifuge types as well.

Steam conditioning & turbine bypass systems
S. Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Turbine Bypass System (TBS) is necessary for safe boiler start, stabilization, and smooth turbine runs despite severe load variations and even sudden trips. This article discusses steam conditioning and TBS in detail.

Shell and tube heat exchanger –Tubes and more
Souji Jose, Aker Solutions
This article explains the importance of finalizing the tube layout before actually venturing into the mechanical design of shell and tube heat exchangers. It also explains the difficulty faced through tube buckling and thickness of the floating head, with some of the options available to mitigate the same.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Are your Pumps aligned with productivity or aligned with huge spare parts consumption and heavy production losses?
Sankar Narayan, Yes Yen GraphiTech
Even the best pump misaligned to the motor leads to constant problems in service and reduces its availability. This article discusses how pump misalignment can lead to a loss of productivity and what measures need to be taken to rectify it.

Elimination of repetitive thrust bearing failures on a process air compressor
Manish Pitkar, Aker Solutions
This paper explains how the repetitive failure of a turbine is driven process air compressor in a petrochemical plant was eliminated.

Functionalized filter media for continuous vacuum filtration without vacuum and filtrate pumps
Harald Anlauf, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
This article discusses how by using special filter media and installation of barometric legs a complete renouncement of vacuum and filtrate pumps without losses of filter performance could be achieved.

Gasification technology for refuse-derived fuel
Dr. Anil Khadse, Sunil Hadkar, Ingenero Technologies India Pvt Ltd
Energy recovery from waste cannot only facilitate in meeting the energy requirements but also reduce the net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and divert the waste from landfills. Potential of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) gasification is explored in this article.

Regulatory aspects of pigments: Awareness is key!
Sadhana Kulkarni, Clariant
Pigments may contain certain impurities which may restrict their usability in sensitive applications such as food contact, toys, certain consumer goods, etc. This article highlights the various legislations, regulations, retailer standards available globally, addressing various application needs in various parts of the world.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Risks associated due to complexity in chemical transportation in India
Jasjit Sethi, TCI SCS
This article looks at how transporting chemicals presents unique logistics challenges because of the inherent dangers involved and potential impact on health, safety, security, and the environment (HSSE).

Computer models reduce need for real-world testing
Achema Trend Report
As engineers and scientists strive to do more with less, computer modeling has become essential to cut costs, speed development and reduce uncertainty when designing everything
from processes to molecules.

Boiler feed water quality – Does yours meet the standards?
S. Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Standards for residual impurities in Boiler Feed Water (BFW) must meet stringent quality standards to realize continuous steam turbine runs of four or even more years as expected of today’s plants to ensure economic viability.

Adapting valve designs to meet industry’s exacting requirements
Bryan Orchard
Hygienic diaphragm valves are needed for a wide variety of applications in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. Having paved the way for reliable aseptic production with its unique design years ago, the SISTO-C series is continually adapted to meet industry’s increasingly stringent requirements.

Managing Logistics of Risk in India chemical plants
Pavithran M Kallada, BDP International India
This article focuses on what multinational chemical producers and logistics companies are doing and ought to do to make supply chain safety and security a business imperative as sourcing migrates to India.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Troubleshooting FCC operations to improve performance
Dave Ferguson, Tracerco
Investigations of Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) operations using radioisotope technology tools provide a better understanding of the equipment. This information aids operations staff to make operational corrections or mechanical repairs to reduce losses and improve performance.

How to develop the optimal cleaning strategy for crude pre-heat trains?
Shelby Hegy, Sunil Patil, AspenTech
This paper outlines how process simulation software and heat exchanger design & rating software can be used to monitor fouling in crude pre-heat train and industry examples of success using this approach.

Domains of flammability and thermal ignitability for organic dust – polyethylene
Manju Mittal, CSIR-CBRI
This paper reports experimental data for particle size dependence of minimum explosible concentration (MEC) determined using CSIRCBRI 20-L Sphere at ambient conditions and minimum ignition temperature (MIT) of dust-air cloud measured in Godbert-Greenwald furnace for an organic dust- polyethylene.

An engineer’s guide to the design of multi-purpose chemical plants
D V Saraiya, Mott MacDonald
Products become obsolete or get phased out as new options enter the market. Therefore, it is necessary that the investments made in production facilities for chemical plants have the flexibility to change from one product to another. The concept of a multipurpose plant (MPP) has evolved from this need. This article covers major critical aspects of MPP design.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Case study: Rotordynamic instabilities during shop testing of a large centrifugal compressor train
Neetin Ghaisas, Steven Hallt, Fluor
This paper details the problem of a compressor experiencing excessive vibrations during testing and how a lasting solution was found. A structured fault diagnosis methodology
was used to minimize the time and effort being focused on issues that were not directly attributable to the problem.

Benefits of converting batch to continuous processes
Dr. Dimitrios Gerogiorgis, University of Edinburgh
In stark contrast to most chemical process industries, where continuous manufacturing
is the perennial standard, the pharmaceutical industry has traditionally relied on batch
processing for producing innovative products of extreme added value and societal importance. This article discusses continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing as a viable option to streamline product development and simultaneously improve process economics.

New impellers for stirred tank reactors: a brief review from the recent literature
Gunwant M. Mule, Amol A. Kulkarni, NCL
Continuous efforts are on to improve the performance of the stirred tank reactors in terms of mixing time, power consumption, gas dispersion and solid suspension. This article reviews some of the new impeller designs which address specific issues related to a range of mixing situations.

Swivel-angle tank mixers provide a solution in the crude oil tank farm
Chris Hastings, Philadelphia Mixing Solutions
The petroleum industry has to deal with the inherent problem of presence of basic sediment and water. If not addressed, it could lead to corrosion, causing serious damage to the floating roof. Swivel-angle side-entry tank mixer provides the most economical option to prevent this problem.

Reactor Maintenance Tips
Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
A reactor is the heart of a chemical process plant. Reactors operate at pressures as high as 350 bars and temp of 150 ˚C and of different materials of construction to suit the process conditions. This paper presents two case studies of innovative repairs done on a urea reactor that averted months of plant outages.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Minimizing VCM Emissions during VCM tank commissioning
S.Rajan, A.Mohan, TNV Satynarayana, Technip India
This article describes one of the novel approaches to minimize venting of VCM during commissioning of VCM storage facility. This method not only satisfies environmental needs but also saves valuable material cost.

Industry reduces its thirst for water
Achema Trend Report
This article takes a look at how companies are taking a new approach to effluent management. Technology is even available which can virtually eliminate effluents.

Pipeline Pigging & Smart Pigging
S Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Pigging is a pipeline maintenance operation that removes fouling and cuts down operating costs making it economical. This article discusses the significant role of pigging in maintaining pipeline safety, integrity and reliability.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Advanced Catalysts for Sustainable Development
D Mukherjee, B M Reddy and K V Raghavan, IICT
Catalysts are ubiquitous in natural and non-natural processes. This article provides an overview on the recent trends in the field of catalysis keeping in mind the current growing demands.

Hyphenated Analytical Techniques for Industrial Chemical Analysis
Dr. R. Nageswara Rao, IICT
Hyphenated techniques are useful in solving the most complex problems concerning not only the provisional identification or confirmation of the presence of analytes of interest but also the design of separation systems with improved efficiency. This article discusses the driving forces behind the development of hyphenated techniques.

IT in Lab Automation: Bright prospects in the lab
Achema Trend Report
Lab automation requires the integration of a wide range of suppliers of software and hardware. The challenge today is not to gather more data, but to make good use of the overwhelming amount of information.

Safety Valves – Salient Information
S Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Safety Valves protect pressure vessels and pressurized systems against overpressures and from resultant catastrophes such as burst vessels, burst pipes. This article highlights the salient information on safety valves to get the best out of them.

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Articles covered in this issue:

Pumps for high temp liquids
S. Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
This article addresses unique problems posed by high-temperature pumps. It also underlines the steps field engineers must take to preserve the built-in design features for trouble-free hot pumping service to ensure high productivity in mega power plants, refineries, fertilizers and other chemical process plants.

Surge prevention in centrifugal compressors
S. Raghava Chari, Industry Consultant
Centrifugal turbo-compressors are the workhorses of process industries and axial turbo-compressors of gas distribution systems. However, adequate protection is necessary against surges, a destructive phenomenon, which is adequately done through modern instrumentation.

Formula One racing and the outlook for fertilizers
Jim Gremillion, Emerson Process Management
What has Formula One racing to do with fertilizers? You can’t junk costly cars but you can incorporate latest technology and upgrade them. Similarly, new technology can give a competitive advantage to older, less efficient fertilizer plants through modern process control techniques.

Development of process technology and integration of technology with engineering
Shreedhar Chitanvis, Aker Powergas
This article reviews how a process needs to be scaled up and engineered to get a successful commercial technology.

Upgraded cooling system halves energy costs
Peter Montagna, King Industries
As energy costs go up, existing cooling systems should be upgraded to optimize energy use. This is a case study of how cooling systems can be upgraded to realise such benefits.

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