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Latest 15 news articles
QuantaRed Laser Technology Revolutionises Oil in Water Measurement
CFC-free measurements on site: the ERACHECK goes below 1 ppm The advent of Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) as a new, powerful mid-IR light source has opened the possibility to develop a fast and ecologically friendly method for quantifying oil in production water and wastewater. After extracting the hydrocarbons with cyclohexane or cyclopentane instead of ozone depleting freon, precise concentrations can be determined by means of mid-IR laser spectroscopy. The ERACHECK oil in water analyser wa...
A New Alternative Leak Survey Work Practice from The Environmental Protection Agency in the US
The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in the US has recently added an alternative work practice to the Method 21 leak surveys that gas processing plants and the like must perform annually. In this section we render the new rules as it has implications to the work with FLIR’s Gas Detection Cameras.
Full Refinery Gas Analysis in 200 seconds using the 19\" Flash RGA
The Refinery Gas Analyser (RGA) analyses various streams of gases that are normally produced in an oil refinery. Examples are LPG, stack gases, flare gases, reformer gases and by-products of cracking and catalytic processes. The composition of these samples can vary considerably; it is a challenge to analyse different components like permanent gases, hydrocarbons and sulphur components in one sample correctly. An exact measurement is essential in reaching optimal control of refining processes...
Parallel Fixed Bed Reactor Fuels Refining Productivity
As oil prices rise and regulations mandate the production of cleaner, high value fuels, petrochemical and refining companies are seeking breakthrough catalysts and processes to power their productivity and margins.
An On-line Fluid Property Analyzer Reduces World Demand for Oil and Improves Operating Profits
Conservative oil drain intervals protect the performance and health of engines, transmissions, hydraulic fluid systems, gear boxes and other lubricated operating equipment. Yet, the world demand and dramatic price increase of oil are stressing maintenance budgets and eroding the operating profits of vehicle and equipment owners. To reduce demand, while still protecting machinery and improving operating profits, we must make smarter use of the world?s limited oil supply. Drain intervals should...
Eco Support: Consistent Electronics Ease Biodiesel Production
Ecology is not only a subject that is talked about: despite some – mainly economic – problems, specific eco projects are successfully realized. The example of a biodiesel production shows that the right technology eases many a task. The chances of increasing ones economic share in the global eco market can be substantially improved by selecting suppliers with a very broad positioning. Since January 2007, every liter of petrol has to contain 1.2 percent biofuel. By 2010, this value is even to...
ISA100.11a Completely Obviates the Need for WirelessHART
As wireless networks and applications become more pervasive in the industrial market, users are faced with the decision of choosing a network based on one of two emerging technologies, ISA100.11a or WirelessHART. This paper addresses the users’ dilemma for selecting an appropriate infrastructure technology and demonstrates that the choice is easy: ISA100.11a offers a more powerful and comprehensive architecture which provides all the benefits of WirelessHART and more, therefore obviating the...
New Developments in On-line Calorific Value Analysis
An important parameter in the analysis of natural gas is the chromatographic determination of the calorific value, which is essential in many applications for monitoring the delivered quantity of energy. The demands placed on chromatographs with respect to analytical accuracy and reliability are extremely high in such applications. An intelligent and compact process gas chromatograph based on micro-machined systems is now available. In particular, the unique multiple and in-line analytical...
Calibration Insights: Calibrating Fieldbus Transmitters
Fieldbus is becoming more and more common in today’s instrumentation. But what is fieldbus and how does it differ from conventional instrumentation? Fieldbus transmitters must be calibrated as well, but how can it be done? Until now, no practical solutions have existed for calibrating fieldbus transmitters, but now Beamex has introduced the world’s first fieldbus calibrator – the MC5 Fieldbus Calibrator.
Drifting moisture sensors – a risk for every industrial plant!
After a convincing long-term test, TOTAL Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH now very successfully applies the fibre-optical trace moisture measurement instrument HYGROPHIL F 5672 made by BARTEC in order to protect the moisture-sensitive catalysts within the reactor of the reformer plant. Compared to the aluminium oxide sensors used so far, this new solution offers some decisive advantages in terms of long-term stability and reproducibility and it provides improved plant safety and availability...
Rapid Determination of Air Demand, Wobbe Index, and Calorific Value in Industrial Off-Gases
Off-gases, left over at chemical or petrochemical industrial processes as well as in the heavy industry are increasingly in use as a source of energy due to environmental reasons [1] and as a cost-saving alternative for natural gas. These off-gases used to be partially drawn off via a flare; however, nowadays they are used for the extraction of electrical energy and process heat. Yet, the composition of these off-gases varies strongly. On the other hand, a constant and controlled energy supp...
Viscosity Measurement by Houillon Method
The viscosity of a lubricating oil can be considered as its most important physical property. It must be monitored and controlled carefully because of its impact on the oil and the oil’s impact on equipment life and reliability. Basically, the viscosity can be defined as the property of a liquid characterizing its internal friction or resistivity to flow. Physics defines several types of viscosity and separate two families between Newtonian and non Newtonian fluids. There are mainly two r...
Gasoline Blending Using Near-Infrared Analysis - Successful and Quick Implementation
Near infrared analysers have been applied to numerous hydrocarbon processing applications over the past twenty years1:9 including realtime gasoline and diesel blender analysis and analysis of feedstock, intermediate and finished products of hydrocarbon processing units. We will show that the startup time for a NIR blender project can be significantly reduced through the use of existing calibration sample databases that include analysed samples from global sources.
Testing the Limits
We are at the dawn of the new age of sulphur limits in automotive fuels. So-called zero sulphur fuels (less than 10 mg/kg) were first available in the European Union in 2005 and will be mandatory by 2009. In the USA during 2006 there will be a nationwide transition of most diesel fuel from low sulphur to ultra low sulphur (ULS) diesel (less than 15 mg/kg) as a precursor to new 2007 diesel engines and vehicles. New stringent fuel specifications result in a need for improved testing methods and...
‘Right FirstTime’Acetylene Bottle Filling
SABIC Europe B.V has improved the efficiency of acetylene production at it’s Geleen plant by 30 %, thanks to tight control enabled by Emerson Process Management’s PlantWeb digital plant architecture. Costs have been reduced by 300,000 Euros due to predictive diagnostics, improved maintenance practices and lowered operator costs. In addition SABIC has increased throughput, gained better control over its business Key Performance Indicators, and - through a proactive maintenance programme - incr...