July

2005

How to Estimate
Operating Costs
www.che.com Page 33

Intelligent Valve Interfacing:

The Brains
Behind
The Positioner
Page 26

New Capabilities
for Mixers

Treating Organics-laden Get More Out of

Waste Streams API Separators

Facts at Your Fingertips: Serving as an

Organic Chemistry Expert Witness
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JULY 2005 VOLUME 112, NO. 7
Feature Report
www.che.com Preparation of operating budgets and
evaluation of plant-investment proposals
are but two of the occasions for which
the engineer must be able to prepare,
and to be familiar with, estimates of op-
erating costs. The procedures and guide-
lines presented here enable the prepara-
tion of estimates, of the budget or study
type, for operating and supervisory labor, maintenance, overhead,
raw materials, utilities, royalties, and the other cost categories that
make up the direct operating costs for a process plant

HOW TO ESTIMATE OPERATING COSTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Engineering Practice

Most practicing chemi-

cal engineers have
probably heard of API
separators, and many
doubtless have these
devices onsite at their
plants. But fewer are
Cover Story likely to understand
When added to a valve assembly, an intelligent valve in- how the separators can
terface not only provides precise valve-positioning control most intelligently be
with respect to a setpoint, but also also allows the valve employed in their role of removing the bulk of oil, plus suspended
to be interfaced to a supervisory control system using a solids, from wastewater stream before the latter continues onward
digital protocol. When used knowledgeably, these inter- to downstream cleanup. One key requirement is to make sure that
faces can bring a host of plusses to chemical-process- the separator is outfitted with the proper support equipment, such
plant operations as for sludge collection and pumping and removal, oil collection and
removal, and control of VOC emissions
INTELLIGENT VALVE INTERFACING:
THE BRAINS BEHIND THE POSITIONER . . . . . . . . . 26 GET THE MOST FROM YOUR API SEPARATOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
IN THIS ISSUE

COVER STORY
26 Feature Report Gaining Digital
Capabilities with An Intelligent
Valve Interface Digital positioner
technology enables higher process
efficiency, ease of valve setup, in-
tegration, and ease of diagnostic
work in control systems
NEWS
14 Chementator
• Electric field dewaters sludge • Al-
kali metals’ attractions without their
hazards • Stable reducing agents
• Surfactants suitable for thermal
breakdown (p. 14)
• Bigger onsite fluorine generator
nears commercialization • Micro-
reactors make a problem-reaction
sequence more tractable • A “Eu-
ropean style” valve now comes to
North America (p.15)
• Catalytic filter offers attractions
for removing pollutants from gas
streams (p. 16)
• Looking into nanoparticles’ pos-
sible hazards to health • Onsite
high-purity oxygen to aid analytical
laboratories • A fast test for Le-
gionella bacteria • A new film to
enhance optical disks (p. 17)
• Enols in flames could aid air-pollu-
tion control • Five finalists for Kirk-
patrick Award • Making aluminum
manufacture more eco-friendly •
New approach to protein purifica-
tion • Nanosilver (p.18)
20 Newsfront A
mixed bag of
mixers A variety
of mixers being
introduced to
the marketplace
address such
demands as
large sizes, ease
of scaling, sanitary operation, and
combining of gases and liquids
ENGINEERING
33 Feature Report How to estimate
plant operating costs For most
project analyses, capital-cost esti-
mating is only the first half of the
task. Procedures and guidelines
presented here show how to arrive
at estimates of a plant’s direct op-
erating costs
38 Engineering Practice The ins
and outs of API separators These
devices, up to now employed
mainly in petroleum refineries and
petrochemical plants, offer attrac-
tions for primary oil/solids separa-
tion from wastewater streams
43 Facts at Your Fingertips Or-
ganic chemistry Here for ready
reference are the major families of
aliphatic and aromatic compounds
of importance in chemical process
manufacture and related activities
44 Environmental Manager
Surveying the emissions-control
landscape When one is evaluating
the technology options for treating
organics-laden exhaust streams,
a range of variables must be con-
sidered

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 3

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Circle 06 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-06
 IN THIS ISSUE

Newsfront Environmental Manager

Virtually every chemical process plant employs one or mixers. Determining the most economical option for
As economic, technological and environmental pressures put a controlling airborne emissions at chemical
higher premium on efficient plant operation, mixer manufac- process plants presents several
turers in turn become called upon to to come up with better unique challenges. One
and more-advanced product offerings. Among the specific major complication is
improvements emerging nowadays are improved scaleup the fact that emis-
capability, easier cleaning — or “disposal” — for sanitary ap- sions sources can be
plications, enhanced high-shear capability, new static mixers, highly diverse; another
and more-effective methods for gas-liquid dispersion is the potential for wild
fluctuations in flowrate,
MIXERS OFFER AN ARRAY OF NEW CAPABILITIES . . . . .20 pollutant loading and the other variables that characterize
a particular source. The underlying goal is to achieve the re-
Chementator quired cleanup while minimizing the annualized total costs
-Õ`}iÊV>ŽiÊvii`
­nxÊqÊnnÊÜÌ°¯ÊÜ>ÌiÀ®
These technology advances are CHOOSING AMONG
profiled in Chementator this AIR-POLLUTION-CONTROL OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
month: use of an elecric field to
dewater sludge; availability of
alkali metals without their haz-
ards; a large-scale onsite fluorine ,œiÀ
generator; microreactors make
an organic-synthesis sequence
less difficult to run; a control
ÀՓ
­«œÃˆÌˆÛiÊiiVÌÀœ`i®
7>ÌiÀ
You & Your Job
A chemical engineer might well become
-Õ`}i
involved in technical litigation, testifying as
ˆÌiÀÊVœÌ… 7>ÌiÀ an expert witness or otherwise working on
legal cases involving, for example, personal
>ÌiÀ«ˆ>ÀÊ iÜ>ÌiÀi`ÊÏÕ`}iÊV>Ži
­˜i}>̈ÛiÊiiVÌÀœ`i® ­xäÊqÊÇäÊÜÌ°¯ÊÜ>ÌiÀ® injuries, product failures or allegations of gross
valve designed along European
negligence. Typically, Ch.E.s have little experi-
thinking now comes to Noth America; a filter teams up
ence with the legal process beyond court-
with catalysis to oust air pollutants; a European research
room-related impressions they may have
project will look for possible health effects associated with
formed from news reports and the entertainment media.
nanoparticles; high-purity oxygen generated onsite to aid in
An understanding of the case-preparation process, plus
laboratory analyses; a new film for optical disks; presence
guidelines on how to comport oneself, can help new experts
of enols in flames may aid air-pollution control; five finalists
be effective while protecting themselves when called to the
for Kirpatrick Award competition; grooming a greener, less
law office, the judge’s chambers or the witness stand
expensive route to aluminum; and more
DOS AND DON’TS WHEN
SPOTLIGHT ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES . . . . . . . 14
SERVING AS AN EXPERT WITNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

BUSINESS ment, as reflected by the Chemi- Classified Advertising . . . . 56 – 60

48 You & Your Job So You Are to
Be An Expert Witness Engineers
can render great service in the
course of lawsuits and other legal
activities involving product failure,
personal injury and similar matters.
But the legal landscape can be a
minefield, and it is important to
know how to tread knowledgeably
through it
63 Plant Watch; Mergers, Acquisi-
tions and Deals
COMMENTARY
7 Editor’s Page A perfect storm,
or at least a nice shower Relief
from extreme pressure on the
prices of chemical process equip-
Editor’s note 1: Chemical Engineering’s CE Plant
Cost Index (CEPCI) can now be downloaded from
our website. While regular CE subscribers will
retain access to the latest data in our printed ver-
sion (or pdf files on www.che.com/ei), upgraded
CEPCI users will have the ability to access, query
and print both current and historical databases.
NOTE: A special price of $295/yr — a $200
savings off of the regular $495 price — re-
mains available for a limited time.
This service is entirely separate from subscriptions
cal Engineering Plant Cost Index,
comes just as the CPI Operating
Rate suggests the possibility of an
onset of increased capital spending
DEPARTMENTS
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Bookshelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Who’s Who . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Reader Service page . . . . . . . . .53
Economic Indicators . . . . . . 63, 64
ADVERTISERS
Program for Chem Show
Educational Conference . . . . . . 12
Product Showcase . . . . . . . . . . 54
to CE’s print and online magazines, and will provide
realtime access to the following:
• Electronic notification (and eventual delivery) of
monthly updates as soon as they are available (up
to two weeks before the print copies arrive)
• All annual data archives (1947 to present)
• Monthly data archives (1970 to present)
• A selection of helpful cost-estimation articles
(in PDF format) that have run in past issues of CE
To sign up for this service, go to www.che.
com/pindex/subscribe
Advertiser Index . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
COMING IN AUGUST
Look for: Feature reports on:
Pumps and fluid flow systems, Filtra-
tion, and Instrumentation and control;
Engineering Practice articles on:
Optimizing inventory through codifica-
tion, and Process validation; News on:
Air pollution control; You and Your
Job on: Improving team effectiveness;
Facts at Your Fingertips on:
Henry’s Law constants;
Focus on: Analyzers and
monitoring devices; and more
Cover art: David Whitcher
Editor’s note 2: Chemical Engineering invites
you to check out its "Build Your Engineering
Library" Book Series. The detailed Table of
Contents for each of the 12 titles can be viewed,
and orders can be placed, at www.che.com
(Click on the CE Book Series icon on the left
margin of the home page). These books include
more than 3,500 pages of practical, "how to"
engineering articles," written by engineers, for
engineers" from the pages of Chemical Engi-
neering, and can be purchased as spiral-bound
books, perfect-bound books, or CD-ROMs.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 5

Circle 07 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-07
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Jenike & Johanson, Inc.
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MixTech, Inc.
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IIT Madras, India
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Fluor Corp.
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A perfect storm for some, at
ART & DESIGN
least a nice shower for others
he end of 2005’s second quarter is marked with two interesting hot spots
T
DAVID WHITCHER
Art Director
dwhitcher@che.com
on the radar screen; oil has hit $60/bbl and Chemical Engineering’s Plant
Cost Index (CEPCI) has taken its first monthly decline in nearly two
LINDA LEE NIGRA
Editorial Production Manager years. For those chemical process industries (CPI) on the receiving end of
lnigra@che.com high oil revenues, this conflux of circumstances is just the fuel they need to
PRODUCTION get their capital-improvement fires rolling. Even for those likely to take a
hit from expensive crude, the promise of softening capital costs could bring
MICHAEL D. KRAUS
VP of Production & Manufacturing revamps and new ventures back into the picture.
mkraus@accessintel.com
Credit for the capital relief is due to relaxing steel prices, which had
STEVE OLSON
Director of Production & reached near-epic proportions by the end of 2004. In fact, according to steel
Manufacturing analysts Meps International Ltd. (Sheffield, U.K.; www.meps.co.uk), 2004
solson@accessintel.com
worldwide steel demand was the highest it’s been since the early 1970s.
WILLIAM C. GRAHAM
Ad Production Manager
Bloated steel prices showed up sharply in the equipment costs repre-
bgraham@che.com sented by the CEPCI. By the time that annual 2004 CEPCI numbers were
CONFERENCES finalized (CE, May 2005, p. 78), the overall index had increased 13% since
SETH KERKER
2003. That’s a remarkable leap, considering that CEPCI’s annual change
Director, Global Events from 1947 to 2004 is around 3% on average and has exceeded 10% at only
skerker@chemweek.com
three other points in its history — 1974, 1975 and 1981.
DANA D. CAREY
Director,
What’s more, the index for the 2004 general equipment category climbed
Global Event Sponsorships 18%, and indices for two of its subcomponents broke the 20% barrier. The
dcarey@chemweek.com
biggest hike, of 34%, surfaced in Heat exchangers & tanks — the subin-
RITZEL TUAZON dex most susceptible to steel fluctuations. Shell-and-tube exchangers are
Senior Conference Programmer
rtuazon@chemweek.com approximately 50% steel, explains Gary Trumpfheller, sales manager of
SUSAN HUDGINS heat transfer for Graham Corp. (Batvia, N.Y.; graham.com), while other
Conference Marketing Manager
shudgins@chemweek.com
varieties, such as plate exchangers, contain as much as 75% steel.
The major data components that contribute to the CEPCI are series
BEATRIZ SUAREZ
Director of Conference Operations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Indexes. Par-
bsuarez@chemweek.com
ticularly relevant in this context are Hot rolled steel bars, plates and
CIRCULATION structural shapes and Hot rolled steel sheet and strip, which rose 54%
SYLVIA SIERRA and 29%, respectively, between December 2003 and December 2004. This
VP of Circulation
ssierra@accessintel.com year, however, those prices are down 4% and 12% from January to April,
VELMA ARTIS
the most recent month published in this issue (p. 64). The end result for
Fulfillment Director the CEPCI is its first decline (albeit a small one) since June of 2003.
vartis@accessintel.com
If one source is responsible for the recent ebb and flow of steel prices, it
STUART BONNER
Circulation Director would have to be China. Rapid industrial growth in that nation, coupled with
BEN CROSS
its 2004 status as a net steel importer, led to the worldwide surge in demand.
Circulation Manager Then, a few months ago reports of rising inventories began to surface from
RAY TESI producers like Stelco (Hamilton, Ont.; www.stelco.com) and ThyssenKrupp
List Sales, World Data 561-393-8200
AG (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp.com). Once again, the arrow
points to China — but this time on the supply side. According to numbers
BRIAN LANGILLE published by the International Iron & Steel Institute, China’s steelmakers
Division President
blangille@accessintel.com have added so much capacity that the country is well on its way to being a
net exporter of steel in 2005.
Whatever the cause, the timing of CEPCI’s peaking and downturn
couldn’t be better for the CPI. The CPI Operating rate
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— another measure reported on our back page — has
been teetering around 81%. That’s about 4 or 5 points
below the conservative benchmark where capacity
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limitations are thought to jumpstart CPI spending
— and in fact, some optimistic sources believe that the
benchmark is instead closer to 81%. Now that capital
relief is in sight, perhaps Ch.E.s can get back to the
drawing board, figuratively speaking. ■
Rebekkah Marshall
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 7
 Letters

Challenging a book review

Your May issue contains a review of my 2005 book, “Nano-
technology: Environmental Implications and Solutions.”
Contradicting our statements regarding the size-efficiency
relationship for high efficiency particulate collectors,
the reviewer states: “. . . , in reality, particle removal ef-
ficiency declines rapidly when particle size drops below 1
micron or 1,000 nanometers.”
The reviewer’s statement is incorrect. It has been a well-
known fact (for decades) that for particle sizes below 0.5-
1.0 microns, collection efficiency generally increases with
decreasing particle size. This has been verified by theory
(Einstein’s molecular diffusion effect and the Cunningham
correction factor) and demonstrated by experiment.
Louis Theodore
Theodore Tutorials, Consultant
The reviewer replies:
The curve on page 112 in the book shows 100% removal
at small and large particle sizes, and 98% at 1 micron.
The 98% does not ring true for such equipment as venturi
scrubbers and cyclones at 1 micron, where removal effi-
ciency are low even at high pressure drops. Graphs show-
ing much lower figures have been published. For ionizing
wet scrubbers, curves show decreased removal efficiency
for small particles but do not go down too far enough in
particle size to show whether the efficiency recovers.
Some data on HEPA filters suggest good efficiencies at
low particle size, as shown in the book; but HEPAs are in
only limited use in industry, when compared with venturi
scrubbers, baghouses, ESPs and other equipment.
Thomas McGowan
TMTS Associates, Inc. Atlanta, Ga.

Is engineering a sound career choice today?

In your May editorial, steps were discussed to create more
interest in our youth to pursue engineering disciplines,
but many folks have missed the root issue. I am a second-
generation ChE; the field was recommended by my father,
Circle 08 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-08

and I graduated with honors. But due to the fact that engi-
neers are all too often handled like contract labor and even
outsourced overseas, I could never recommend the field to
my son or daughters. Studies may have overlooked the fact
that many parents today are guiding their children away
from the field due to the economic situation in the world,
rather than the problem being a lack of focus at our school.
Richard Blong
Seneca Falls, N.Y.
Feedback from other readers about the viability of chemi-
cal engineering for a youngster today is encouraged. — ED.

Postscripts, corrections
January, Metallic Stacks: Estimate Corrosion Caused by
Acid Gases, pp. 61–63: In Equation (1), p. 61, replace ln p
SO3 with log p SO3. Thanks to reader Jean-Paul Cheppe
for questioning the equation as originally published.
May, Facts at Your Fingertips; Combustion, p. 29: In the
table, Combustion Constants, the 2.00 figure in the row
for Sulfur relates to sulfur dioxide (not carbon dioxide).
Thanks go to reader R. G. Agarwal for raising this point.
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 Bookshelf
Chemical
Engineering
Process Design
and Economics: A
Practical Guide.
Second edition.
By Gael D. Ulrich
and Palligarnai
T. Vaasudevan.
Process
Publishing, 34 Sheep Road, Lee, NH
03824. Web: ulrichvasudesign.com.
2004. 706 pages. $60.
Reviewed by David S. Dickey, Mix-
Tech, Inc., Dayton, Ohio
W
hile the book was obviously
written as a textbook for an
undergraduate process-
design course, it also can be an effec-
tive guide for an engineer or scientist
with limited experience in chemical-
process design. Both authors have
extensive teaching backgrounds with
When I grow up, I want to be a teacher.
10 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
some industrial experience. Professor
Ulrich published the first edition of
the book twenty years ago.
The book is organized into four
major sections: Process Design, Eco-
nomic Analysis, Process Design and
Society and Packaging the Result. As
expected from the title, most of the
book is focused on process design,
including chapters on Flow Sheet
Preparation and Short-Cut Equip-
ment Design. The second major
part of the book involves chapters
on Capital Cost Estimation and
Manufacturing Cost Estimation. The
remaining sections discuss safety,
pollution control and prevention and
report preparation. Appendixes pro-
vide tables and supporting calcula-
tions for example processes.
While the book is a well-organized
guide to process design, it is definitely
not a standalone book. The project
definition section, for example, refers
to the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of
When I grow up,
I want to be an astronaut.
Chemical Technology, 4th ed. (1991-
1998) and the Encyclopedia of Chemi-
cal Processing and Design, John J.
McKetta, ed. (1976-1999+) for actual
process information.
The chapter on short-cut equip-
ment design begins with a table that
lists different types of equipment in
alphabetical order and cross-refer-
ences by general category. However,
most of the equipment designs in the
book give only a brief description of
the equipment, a flow sheet symbol
and a reference to another source.
The key sources for actual design
information include books like Perry’s
Chemical Engineers’ Handbook, 7th
ed. (1997), Unit Operations of Chemi-
cal Engineering, 6th ed. (2001) and
Process Heat Transfer (1994). The
equipment design chapter also cites
a couple hundred other published
articles mostly from journals like
Chemical Engineering and Chemical
Engineering Progress. Many journal
When I grow up,
I want to be President.
 articles are dated after 1990, but a Inorganic Phos- McGraw-Hill Compa-
few go back as far as the late 1970’s. phors: Composi- nies, Two Penn Plaza,
Other book references at the end of tions, Prepara- New York, NY 10121.
some chapters are so old that they tion and Optical Web: books.mcgraw-
are out of print and would only be Properties. By hill.com. 2005. 800
available through libraries. William M. Yen and pages. $150.
The two process examples discussed Marvin J. Weber.
in the book are an alkylate splitter in CRC Press, 2000 Beyond Oil. By
continuous operation and a beta-ga- N.W. Corporate Kenneth S. Def-
lactosidase via escherichia coli batch Blvd., Boca Raton, feyes. Hill & Wang,
process. The authors have provided FL 33431. Web: crcpress.com. 2004. 19 Union Square West, New York, NY
examples of equipment design and 475 pages. $149.95. 10003. Web: fsgbooks.com. 2005. 202
process calculations for both processes. pages. $24.
The book contains several problems Design of Experi-
for class assignments. A website, ments in Chemical Piping Materials
www.ulrichvasudesign.com, has sup- Engineering. By Guide: Selection
plemental information and access to a Zivorad R. Lazic. John and Applications.
subscription, cost-estimation program, Wiley & Sons, 111 By Peter Smith.
EconExpert. River St., 4th Floor, Gulf Professional
Hoboken, NJ 07030. Publishing, 30 Cor-
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. By Web: wiley-vch.de. porate Dr., Suite
Bent Sorensen. Elsevier, 30 Corpo- 2005. 610 pages. $230. 400, Burlington,
rate Dr., Suite 400, Burlington, MA MA 01803. Web: gulfpp.com. 2005.
01803. Web: elsevier.com. 2005. 400 Semiconductor Manufacturing 345 pages. $74.99. ■
pages. $64.95. Handbook. By Hwaiyu Geng. The Joan Schweikart

When I grow up, When I grow up,

I want to be Chairperson I want to build a new kind of High Shear Mixer
of the Federal Reserve. that runs at 11,000 feet per minute
and makes emulsions even better than a colloid mill.

The remarkable new

X-Series High Shear Mixer
designed, built, sold, and supported
by the extraordinary people
at Ross.

Call Ross to learn more about

the world’s largest selection
of High Shear Mixers.
800-243-ROSS www.mixers.com

Circle 10 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-10
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 11
 QSFTFOUT

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Edited by Gerald Ondrey
ChementatoR July 2005

-Õ`}iÊV>ŽiÊvii`
­nxÊqÊnnÊÜÌ°¯ÊÜ>ÌiÀ®
Use an electric field to dewater sludge
and slash energy consumption
ludge from activated sewage treatment
S facilities has a high (99 wt.%) water con-
tent, making it too thin to convey (while also
too thick to pump). Mechanical dewatering
techniques, such as belt or screw presses,
can only produce a cake with 85–88 wt.%
water content, so the cake is usually dried
further using boiler-fed hot air — this con-
sumes considerable energy.
ÀՓ
­«œÃˆÌˆÛiÊiiVÌÀœ`i®
and the EP-1000, which costs about
$425,000 and handles 1 m.t./h.
The system (diagram), which is in-
7>ÌiÀ
stalled downstream of the primary
mechanical dewatering unit, consists ,œiÀ -Õ`}i
of a positively charged rotating drum
and a negatively charged caterpillar- ˆÌiÀÊVœÌ… 7>ÌiÀ
type conveyor belt, which is covered by
a polymer fabric filter. Sludge is grav-
>ÌiÀ«ˆ>ÀÊ iÜ>ÌiÀi`ÊÏÕ`}iÊV>Ži
Kawata Mfg. Co. (Osaka, Japan; edlinks.
che.com/4818-531) has commercialized a
sludge dewatering process, based on electro-
osmosis, which can dewater sludge down to
50–70 wt.% (a sludge-weight reduction of 50–
66 wt.%), while requiring less than a quarter
of the energy needed by thermal drying, says
the firm. The Super PeNe EP Series second-
ary dehydrator can easily be retrofitted into
existing activated sludge plants as an add-on
to reduce costs, says the firm. Kawata offers
two versions: the EP-500, which costs about
$230,000 and handles 500 kg/h of sludge,
Get the benefits of alkali metals without the hazards
lkali metals are strong reducing agents,
A and play an important role in synthetic
organic chemistry for such reactions as
Birch reductions and Würtz reactions. But
because of their hazardous properties, alkali
metals are underutilized for commercial
production; only about 10% of the industrial
potential is realized, says Michael Lefenfeld,
president of SiGNa Chemistry, LLC (New
York, N.Y.; edlinks.che.com/4818-532).
SiGNa Chemistry, whose vice president of
research is professor emeritus James Dye of
Michigan State University (East Lansing;
edlinks.che.com/4818-533), has developed a
new material that is a stable powder with
a long shelf life, yet has a similar reduc-
ing capacity for alkali-based reactions. The
material — nanoencapsulated alkali metal
in porous oxides — can be added to batch
reactors or packed in columns for perform-
ing continuous-flow reactions. In labora-
tory tests (both batch and packed column),
anthracene was converted to 9,10 dihydro-
anthracene (99% purity) in five minutes via
the Birch reduction. Slow alkali-metal re-
ductions of aromatic sulfur compounds have
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit number on p. 53, or use the website designation.
14 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
ity fed between the belt and drum and ­˜i}>̈ÛiÊiiVÌÀœ`i®
the electrodes operated at 40–80V d.c.
Besides the mechanical forces acting of the
sludge, the electric field causes three phe-
nomena to occur: electrophoretic movement
of the solids (which typically have a nega-
tive surface charge) towards the positive
electrode, electroosmosis of the liquid phase
through the pores of the filter cake, and cou-
lombic heating, which lowers the viscosity of
the water to enhance dewatering. Bacteria
cells are also broken, under the mechanical
and electrical forces, to release more water.
also been performed with the new material,
which could even desulfurize 4,6-dimethyl
dibenzothiophene.
The material is made by mixing molten
metal with silica gel, and slowly heating.
Depending on the temperature used, three
different forms can be produced with dif-
ferent reactivities and stabilities. Up to
60 mol. % alkali metal can be incorporated
into amorphous silica gel. Currently, a toll
manufacturer is producing tens-of-kilograms
quantities of the material for SiGNa, who
is distributing it to research and industrial
laboratories for testing. Production can easily
be scaled up, and the cost will drop to be near
that of the raw materials (sodium and silica
gel), says Lefenfeld. Sigma-Aldrich (Milwau-
kee, Wisc.; edlinks.che.com/4818-534) plans
to offer research-scale quantities on demand.
The encapsulated alkali shows potential
not only for organic synthesis, but also for
hydrogen production. Upon addition of water
to the powder, encapsulated sodium releases
H2 in a controlled reaction. Normally, the H2
from Na in water catches fire because of the
fast release of heat.
­xäÊqÊÇäÊÜÌ°¯ÊÜ>ÌiÀ®
Stable reducing agents
Aldrich, a division of Sigma-
Aldrich Corp. (St. Louis, Mo.;
edlinks.che.com/4818-548) has
produced and licensed a new
range of air-stable reducing
agents for chemical synthe-
sis applications. The lithium
aminoborohydrate reagents
were developed by professor
Bakthan Singaram and licensed
to Aldrich by the University of
California (Santa Cruz). The
reagents show a reactivity for
reduction and amination similar
to that of the widely used lithium
aluminum hydride, but do not
liberate H2 when quenched with
water, as does LiAlH4.
New surfactants
Researchers at Sandia Na-
tional Laboratories (Livermore,
Calif.; edlinks.che.com/4818-
554) have discovered the first
known surfactants that can be
thermally degraded in a benign
manner. Traditional surfactants
are difficult to remove from
processes in which they are
used, and require treatment
with an acid or base and costly
post-treatment, says Sandia.
The researchers have made five
anionic surfactants that incor-
porate hydrophyllic and hydro-
phobic segments that covalently
degrade at elevated tempera-
ture. The new surfactants may
be of use in textile processing,
electronics fabrication, and
wastewater processing.
Onsite F2 generator scaled up
OC Edwards (Murray Hill, N.J.;
B edlinks.che.com/4818-535) has com-
mercialized Generation-F 1600, its
largest onsite fluorine generator. With
a production capacity of 1,600 L/h, the
new generator is designed to support
fluorine plasma cleaning of TFT-LCD
(thin-film transistor, liquid-crystal dis-
play) tool platforms. Such processes can
consume over 100 m.t. F2/yr for clean-
ing operations, says Gus Hoban, BOC
Edward’s product specialist, fluorine.
Onsite generation not only produces F2
at lower pressures than that supplied
in cylinders (typically 20% F2 in N2 at
400 psig), but can also reduce chamber-
cleaning cost-of-ownership expenses by
about 30% compared to the alternative
cleaning agent, nitrogen trifluoride,
says Hoban.
In the generator (flowsheet), anhy-
drous hydrogen fluoride gas is fed to an
electrolytic cell containing an electro-
lyte (a fluoride salt solution), operating
Microreactors demonstrate precise control of a three-step reaction
he Moffatt-Swern reaction is widely
T used in organic synthesis to selec-
tively oxidize alcohols, in dimethyl
sulfoxide (DMSO), into carbonyl com-
pounds, but the reaction has to be per-
formed at temperatures below –50°C;
at higher temperatures, the yields are
very low due to the thermal decomposi-
tion of reaction intermediates. This se-
verely limits the commercial utility of
the reaction, say researchers at Ube In-
dustries, Ltd. (Ube, Japan; edlinks.che.
com/4818-536). In collaboration with
Kyoto University, Ube has developed
a microscale reactor and flow system
that enables the oxidation reaction to
Valve that reflects European thinking is now available in North America
n integrated, digital control-valve plat-
A form that has already made its mark
in Europe and Asia is being introduced to
the North American market by Emerson
Process Management’s Fisher Controls
Div. (Marshalltown, Iowa; edlinks.che.
com/4818-537) The GX-DVC2000 valve
offers a variety of features, among them
compactness, ease of maintenance (a
field-reversible actuator, fewer parts, and
an anticorrosion finish standard, for ex-
&
(&
(
!NODE
0URIFICATION
#ATHODES %LECTROLYTE SYSTEM
at a temperature of about 90°C. There,
fluoride ions are converted into F2 at the
anode and H+ ions reduced to form H2
at the cathode. The F2 is passed to a so-
dium fluoride trap, which removes traces
of HF to give a purity of 99.96%, and is
then compressed to 20 psig for storage in
a buffer vessel. When F2 is drawn from
the buffer for use in the process, the gen-
erator automatically makes more F2 to
replenish the buffer tank.
Generation-F 1600 was launched last
be performed at room temperature.
The system consists of three reac-
tor modules connected in series, each
composed of a piston-type micropump
(1–4-mL/min. flowrate), a micromixer
and a microreactor made of stainless
steel. In the first module, DMSO re-
acts with trifluoroacetic anhydride. The
product then reacts with an alcohol in
the second reactor. Finally, the product
intermediate reacts with a base, such as
triethylamine, in the third module. At
20°C, the system produces the desired
carbonyl compound with 71–89% yield.
The high yield is believed to be at-
tributable to the precise-temperature
ample), reduced engineering time (a link-
agefree, noncontact interface, and no need
for actuator sizing), ease of commission-
ing, and high reliability, says the firm.
Underlying the design of the device
is a strong present-day European influ-
ence, felt throughout much of the world,
upon the globally relevant standards
for control valves, points out Galen
Wilke, Fisher’s vice president for sliding
stem valves. For example, one respect
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
4OPROCESS
"UFFERVESSEL
#OMPRESSOR
month at FDP Taiwan 2005 (Taipei;
June 8–10), and BOC Edwards antici-
pates the first commercial installation
will be early next year. The company
previously launched smaller versions
of the F2 generator in 2003, which were
specifically designed for chamber clean-
ing in chemical-vapor-deposition appli-
cations. The large-scale generator opens
up new possibilities for other industrial
sectors that consume large quantities of
F2, says Hoban.
control possible in the small-volume
reactors with their high ratio of surface
area to volume, and extremely fast and
efficient mixing due to the short-diffu-
sion path in the micromixers. Precise
control of temperature and the time
for mixing and reaction means the
unstable intermediates can react with
substrate in a time as short as 0.01 s,
before decomposition can occur. The
short residence time also prevents side
reactions. Because the product quality
does not change when scaling up (num-
bering up) the reactors, the research-
ers believe the system is easier to scale
up than macroscale batch reactors.
in which the GX-DVC2000 valve is no-
table from a standards point of view is
its wall thickness, which can be varied
from valve to valve to suit the particu-
lar application (U.S. wall thicknesses, by
contrast, are fixed, points out Fisher).
This variability, and the high-precision
engineering it reflects, not only coincide
with the European design philosophy
for control valves but have also drawn
favor from U.S. valve users, Wilke adds.
15
C HEMENTATO R

-*ÊL>Ãi` 7>ÌiÀʈ˜iV̈œ˜ Îʈ˜iV̈œ˜

Remove dust and pollutants >ÃÃÊvÕÀ˜>˜Vi -"ÝÊ`ÀÞ

ÃVÀÕLLˆ˜}
ӇʜÀÊ·vˆi`
-*
-
, œˆiÀ

with this catalytic filter

iÀ>“ˆVÊvˆÌiÀ 7>ÌiÀÊ -œÀLi˜ÌÊ Î
ceramic filter that combines high-
A temperature barrier filtration with
catalytic destruction of air pollutants
L>Ãi`

>ÃÃÊvÕÀ˜>˜Vi
ˆ˜iV̈œ˜ ˆ˜iV̈œ˜ ˆ˜iV̈œ˜

iÀ>vˆÊvˆÌiÀà œˆiÀ

has been commercialized by Madison

Filter Ltd. (Haslingden, U.K.; edlinks. with selective catalytic reduc-
Hä°Î““Ê
iÀ>“ˆVÊvˆ“
che.com/4818-538). Developed together tion, says Elliott.
with Haldor Topsøe A/S (Lyngby, Den-
i>˜i`
mark; edlinks.che.com/4818-539), the
Cerafil TopKat (CTK) ceramic candles
incorporate a “cocktail” of metal oxide
catalysts for destroying dioxins, vola-
tile organic compounds (VOCs), and
oxides of nitrogen (NOx). By combin-
ing dedusting and NOx removal into a
single step, TopKat can simplify flue-
gas cleanup and cut investment costs,
says Gary Elliott, general manager of
Madison’s Cerafil Division. For exam-
ple, the investment for a TopKat sys-
tem treating 150 Nm3/h exhaust from
a glass furnace (flowsheet) would cost
about €2 million, which is two thirds
that needed for the conventional treat-
ment using electrostatic precipitation
Circle 12 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-12
ÕÃÌʏ>ÞiÀ
The filter has a wall 10–20 mm
Õi}>Ã
thick, composed of a ceramic fiber }>Ã
£ä‡Ó䇓“ÊÜ>
matrix with the catalyst particles. ViÀ>“ˆVÊvˆÌiÀʓ>ÌÀˆÝ
The filter delivers dust emissions ܈̅ÊV>Ì>ÞÃÌÊ«>À̈ViÃ
below 2 mg/m3, and also protects
the catalyst from poisoning by dust. The cal-waste incinerator in the U.K. uses
catalyst enables a 95–99% VOC reduc- 270 1-m long CTK elements to treat a
tion at a temperature of 200–400°C, 2,000–2,500-Nm3/h gas flow at 155°C,
which is well below the 800–900°C re- reducing the dioxin from 75 to 0.55 ng/
quired by conventional thermal-treat- Nm3. And since January, an animal-fat
ment methods, says Elliott. When com- incinerator in France has incorporated
bined with ammonia injection, the CTK 80 3-m-long CTR elements to treat a
filter achieves a 80–95% NOx reduction, 3,000-Nm3/h gas flow at 220°C, achiev-
depending on the temperature. ing a NOx reduction of 70–97%, depend-
The filter has been demonstrated ing on the NH3-to-NOx ratio used. The
in two commercial applications, both filters are cleaned by reverse-pulsed jet
achieving a better than 99.9% dust re- of compressed air, and can be retrofit-
moval efficiency. Since October, a clini- ted into an existing baghouse.

Investigating the possible health hazards of nanoparticles
stablishing processes to detect, track
E and characterize nanoparticles is the
key goal of a €12.4-million European re-
search project, Nanosafe2, which started
in April. With scientists from industry,
startup firms and research institutions
from seven EU countries, the 23 partners
in the project will look at the entire lifecy-
cle of nanoparticles, from their production
and storage through transport and use in
final products. The results of the project
will be made available worldwide in the
Onsite pure O2 for analytics
ir Products (Lehigh Valley, Penn.;
A edlinks.che.com/4818-541) has com-
mercialized its Prism high-purity oxygen
generator for applications in analytical
chemistry laboratories. The generator is
based on ion-transport membranes, which
were developed in cooperation with Cera-
matec, Inc. (Salt Lake City, Utah; edlinks.
che.com/4818-542). When an electric cur-
rent is applied to the ceramic membrane,
only oxygen ions can pass through, to re-
Circle 13 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-13
form of databases, official handling proce-
dures, and workshops.
One of the major industrial participants
in Nanosafe2 is BASF AG (Ludwigshafen,
Germany; edlinks.che.com/4818-540),
which is investigating the possible health
risks associated with the inhalation of
nanoparticles. Because the emphasis of
Nanosafe2 lies on workplace and plant
safety, BASF is also involved in developing
physical measurement methods and mea-
suring equipment to detect nanoparticles.
combine on the other side.
The onsite generator produces 99.999%
O2 that is free of hydrocarbons, biological
or other chemical impurities. The tech-
nology will allow laboratories to elimi-
nate transportation and storage of O2
cylinders. Instrumentation manufacturer
LECO Corp. (St. Joseph, Mich.; edlinks.
che.com/4818-543), provided development
support, and will assist in bringing the
technology to market.
Legionella detection
Scientists at Sintef Health Research
(Trondheim, Norway; edlinks.che.
com/4818-551) have developed a
fast test that can identify Legionella
bacteria in water reservoirs or bio-
films. The new test is a real-time PCR
(polymerase chain reaction) method
specifically aimed at L. pneumophila,
the dominant infectious species in fatal
legionellosis, says senior researcher
Catrine Ahlén. The test takes only sev-
eral hours to perform, and is as sensi-
tive and reliable as cultivation, she
says; cultivation is the current method
of detecting L. pnemophila, and can
take 2–10 days to perform.
Sintef is currently performing
large-scale testing on cruse ships,
and also plan to apply the test for
mapping the occurrence of specific
Legionella in environments related to
the process industries.
BD breakthrough
Starting at the end of 2005, the Plexi-
glass Business Unit of Degussa AG
(Düsseldorf, Germany; edlinks.che.
com/4818-549) plans to manufacture
a special film (Europlex PC) for the
emerging optical-disc format Blu-Ray
(Continues on p. 18)

C HEMENTATO R
Enols discovered to be present in flames
n international team of researchers, lead
A by Sandia National Laboratory (Liver-
more, Calif.; edlinks.che.com/4818-544), has
detected a previously unknown class of com-
pounds to be present in flames. Although
the compounds (enols) are not new, their
presence in combustion processes has never
been observed before. The discovery is ex-
pected to have an influence on current com-
bustion models, which could have an impact
on air-pollution control and fuel cells, says
combustion chemist Craig Taatjes.
For example, the process of soot formation
is a balance between molecular-weight growth
and oxidation processes that break down
larger soot precursors. Enols may be suscep-
tible to addition of hydrocarbon radicals and,
hence, may be oxygenates that nevertheless
Five finalists vie for this year’s Kirkpatrick Award
he first round of judging in Chemical En-
T gineering’s 2005 Kirkpatrick Chemical
Engineering Achievement Award competi-
tion (CE, January, p. 24) has produced these
five finalists: Chevron Phillips Chemical
Co. (The Woodlands, Tex.) for a selective
process to produce 1-hexene; Engelhard
Corp. (Iselin, N.J.) for an adsorption system
to treat natural gas; Lurgi AG (Frankfurt,
Germany) for a “mega-methanol” process;
Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.) for an oxy-
gen-enhanced NOx-reduction process; and
Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany) for
Making Al at lower temperatures
with less greenhouse gas emissions
esearchers at the U.S. Department of Ener-
R gy’s Argonne National Laboratory (Liver-
more, Calif.; edlinks.che.com/4818-546) and
NorandaFalconbridge, Inc. (Toronto; edlinks.
che.com/4818-547) are developing a way to
produce aluminum at significantly reduced
temperatures. The four-year, $2.25-million
research project is one phase in a long-term
effort to improve the electrolytic cells used
for industrial production of Al.
In conventional cells, alumina, dissolved
in a molten electrolyte, is stripped of oxygen
atoms by an electric current and converted
into metallic Al. Because the electrolysis
takes place at 960°C, sacrificial carbon elec-
trodes have been used for the process; most
18 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
undergo molecular weight growth. This might
affect modeling of the soot-reduction capabili-
ties of oxygenated fuels, says Taatjes.
Enols are less-stable isomers of other well
known combustion intermediates. Their
discovery was made in the flame-chemis-
try probe operating at the Advanced Light
Source of the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (Berkeley, Calif.). Gas samples
from the flame are ionized by tunable vac-
uum-ultraviolet radiation from the synchro-
tron and analyzed by time-of-flight mass
spectroscopy. Different isomers are distin-
guished on the basis of their differing ion-
ization potential; for example, ethenol can be
ionized by light energy greater than 9.33 eV,
whereas its acetaldehyde tautomer requires
a photon energy greater than 10.23 eV.
single-column extractive distillation to re-
cover aromatics.
The aim of the biennial competition is to
honor the most noteworthy chemical engi-
neering technology to have been commercial-
ized during the previous two years, the key
criteria being the novelty of the technology
and the difficulty of the chemical engineer-
ing problems encountered and solved. Both
rounds of judging are carried out by panels
composed of heads of university chemical
engineering departments. The winner will
be announced this fall.
other materials cannot survive from the O2
generated inside the cell at these tempera-
tures, says Argonne metallurgist John Hryn.
Hryn and his colleagues have discovered
an electrolyte composition that can dissolve
alumina and produce Al metal at 700°C. The
process also produces O2 as a byproduct, in-
stead of CO2 and perfluorocarbons, which
are greenhouse gases generated as carbon
anodes are consumed. Using standard alumi-
num-bronze anodes in bench scale tests, the
researchers have demonstrated that the new
electrolysis cell can operate for 100 hours
without anode corrosion. The big problem
now is scaling up the process and observing
operation over long periods of time. ■ victims and surgery patients. ❏
(Continued from p. 17)
Disc (BD). BDs are the next gen-
eration of optical disc; they offer a
storage capacity of 50 Gigabytes.
The new format uses a blue ul-
traviolet laser (405 nm) instead
of the red (650 nm) laser used in
today’s CD and DVD drives.
Up to now, the cost needed
to make the 0.1-mm film having
stringent optical requirements
had been very expensive;
Degussa’s new film is said to
be the breakthrough needed
for cost-effective mass produc-
tion of BDs. As of mid 2006,
Degussa will have a production
capacity capable of manufactur-
ing Europlex PC film for up to
500 million BDs/yr.
Protein purification
Chemical engineers at Penn
State University (PSU; University
Park; edlinks.che.com/4818-550)
have demonstrated proof-of-
concept for a protein purification
process that combines high-
throughput ultrafiltration with high
specificity. The protein of interest
[in this case bovine serum albu-
men (BSA)] is bound or “tagged”
with a negatively charged dye
molecule that can easily be re-
moved. When the solution to be
purified flows through a negatively
charged ultrafiltration membrane,
the tagged protein is retained. In
laboratory trials, the sieving coef-
ficient for the tagged BSA was
reduced by more that two orders
of magnitude compared to
untagged BSA, says PSU.
Nanosilver
QuantumSphere, Inc. (Costa
Mesa, Calif.; edlinks.che.
com/4818-552) has been
selected by Dermacia, Inc.
(Newport Beach, Calif.; edlinks.
che.com/4818-553) to supply
nanosilver for Dermacia’s thera-
peutic cosmetics and skin-care
products designed for acne
sufferers. QuantumSphere has
developed a manufacturing
process for making high-purity
nanoparticles of metals with a
consistent particle-size distribu-
tion (CE, September 2004, p. 15).
Dermacia plans to further vali-
date the performance and value
of nanosilver and other nanomet-
als for their antibacterial, sun pro-
tection, and other properties. The
firm already offers therapeutic
cosmetics developed using nan-
otechnology, including a complex
that promotes healing for burn
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Newsfront
A MIXED BAG
OF MIXERS
Mixer makers are meeting user demands
for hygienic design, improved efficiency,
and massive scale up
n virtually every process, there’s a
I
mixer; this challenges mixer man-
ufacturers to continuously im-
prove designs for improved mass
transfer for all the different sec-
tors of the chemical process industries
(CPI). That means, for instance, ease
of cleaning and hygienic designs for
food, pharmaceuticals and biotechnol-
ogy; bigger sizes for mining and bulk
chemicals production; and better gas
dispersion for fine chemicals and envi-
ronmental treatment.
So although the fundamental de-
mand for mixers has not changed in
the last few years, the need for highly
effective design approaches has, says
Bernie Gigas, manager of research
and application engineering, SPX
Process Equipment, Lightnin Opera-
tion (Rochester, N.Y.). This has neces-
sitated the use of advanced computa-
tional fluid dynamics (CFD) and more
realistic experimental setups to im-
prove existing processes, he says.
Massive scaleup
One of the bigger challenges is scaleup,
says Gigas. While some applications
are being driven to smaller scales, a
number of commodity applications
are working to scale up to even larger
tanks. This challenges existing design
rules and requires careful analysis of
existing plant and experimental data,
he says. Users are demanding larger-
scale testing to make sure the con-
ventional scaleup equations are valid.
“You can be more confident of the
outcome when testing at a 3:1 scale
rather than 50:1.”
As the production of bulk chemicals
migrates towards the Middle and Far
20 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
ICL Dover
East, the only way to
sell products in this
growing market is if you
can increase the size of
the reactor vessel, says
Christian Watzelt, CEO
of Ekato RMT (Schop-
fheim, Germany). As a
result, the size of agi-
tators has increased to
meet the demand, he
says. For example, for
the production of puri- EKATO
fied terephthalic acid
(PTA), a single, contin-
uously stirred tank re-
actor is used to produce
about 1 million m.t./yr
of crude terephthalic
acid by the oxidation of
paraxylene. Classical
combinations of sparge Alfa Laval
rings and gassing turbines cannot
handle the enormous gas volumes in-
volved, he claims. Whereas five to six
years ago, the typical agitator weighed
20 m.t., now they weigh 50–60 m.t.
To meet this demand, Ekato has de-
veloped programs for finite-element
and modal analysis to determine the
stress and vibrations involved for
such large mixers. Three months ago,
Ekato shipped a reactor agitator with
a power of 1,900 kW (about 2,600 hp.)
for the for production of a polymer in-
termediate. The 55-m.t. agitator has a
shaft length of 14 m, and over-400-mm
shaft diameter.
Hygienic design
The most significant trend in the mix-
ing industry is that clients are de-
manding more hygienic equipment,
Bematek
Silverson
While mixers continue to
offer improved designs
for hygienic applications
(middle, right) as wells as
having disposable sur-
faces (top and bottom),
those for bulk chemicals
are growing into
massive sizes
(middle, left)
says Peter Mathiews, technical man-
ager at Silverson Machines Ltd. (Wa-
terside, Chesham, U.K.). Standards
set by the pharmaceutical and biotech
industries are now being requested in
other sectors, such as cosmetics and
food, he says. “Mixers to comply with
FDA, cGMP 3A, and EHEDG stan-
dards are being specified more fre-
quently, whereas even a few years ago
they were something of a rarity.”
In response to these demands, Sil-
verson has introduced the concept of
ultra-hygienic mixers. Its latest prod-
uct launch is the Ultramix, which is
claimed to employ one of the most hy-
gienic methods of in-tank mixing cur-
rently available, says Mathiews. The
unit features a single-piece dynamic
mixing head that is designed for clean-
in-place (CIP) and can be specified for
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sterilize-in-place (SIP). The Ultramix
is designed to bridge the gap between
conventional agitators or stirrers and
the intense high-shear provided by
rotor-stator mixers, he says.
Another example of contamination-
free mixing is provided by the patented
Clean Sweep (CS) mixer, which was
launched earlier this year (CE, March,
p. 20) by its manufacturer Chemineer,
Inc. (Dayton, Ohio). The system pro-
vides a hermetically sealed environ-
ment because no mechanical seal is re-
quired for a rotating shaft. Instead, an
elastomeric seal is used, which avoids
particle shedding that may occur from
the mechanical seals or magnetic drive,
in-tank bearings, says applications en-
gineer Mike Brown.
As its name implies, Clean Sweep
causes a sweeping motion in the tank,
which provides top to bottom mixing
in cylindrical vessels without the need
for baffles. Versions are available for
both laboratory and production scale
mixing applications.
Charles Ross & Son Co. (Hauppauge,
N.Y.) recently introduced a custom-
ized line of sanitary ribbon blenders.
Manufactured in Type 316 stainless
steel and polished for easy cleaning
between batches, the Sanitary Blend-
ers are available in sizes from 1 to 515
ft3. Shaft-seal rings are readily acces-
sible and easily removable to permit
cleaning of all product zone surfaces,
including the face of the agitator hub,
says the firm.
IKA Works’ (Wilmington, N.C.) Mas-
ter Plant features an integral spiral
agitator and the IKA DBA 2000 mix-
ing unit, which combine to provide
complete homogenization or disper-
sion, plus product transfer and system
cleaning. Both the agitator and mixer
are suitable for CIP and SIP cleaning.
In April, Lightnin introduced the
latest member of its family of SanStar
Mixers, the Bio-CIP top-entry MagMix-
ers. Claimed to be the first ever CIP
top-entry magdrive mixer, the BioCIP
is designed to meet the industry de-
mand for sealless bioreactor mixers.
Disposable instead of CIP
In the biotechnology and pharmaceuti-
cal industries, there is a trend towards
single-use or disposable systems, says
Alex Donofrio, vice president of single-
use products at AlfaLaval Biokinetics
(Philadelphia, Penn.). The basic fea-
ture of such systems is the inclusion of
process contact surfaces that are dis-
carded after each batch, which makes
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
it possible to eliminate CIP altogether,
says Donfrio. Another important ad-
vantage is the elimination of cross con-
tamination between batches. Although
disposable bags have been used as al-
ternatives to stainless steel vessels for
decades, the introduction of a mixing
device into the bag has been applied
just in the last 1-2 years, he says.
Alfa Laval recently introduced its
patent-pending mixer that creates
pumping motion inside a bag, and
provides mixing characteristics that
are “significantly” more efficient than
those of alternative disposable mix-
ing systems and traditional stirred
tanks. Batches from 5 to 10,000 L can
be handled. The company is develop-
ing a single-use bioreactor based on
the HyNetics technology, which will be
the first product to provide the ability
to culture organisms in up to 10,000-L
batches utilizing disposable surfaces.
In March ICL Dover LP (Frederica,
Del) launched the second generation
of its Flexmixer, which was developed
together with Wave Biotech (Bridge-
water, N.J.). The Flexmixer is claimed
to be the only single-use mixing vessel
that can mix materials of any viscosity
or density difference — without any
internal impeller or actuator. An in-
21
 Sulzer Chemtech
Newsfront
tegrated perforated diaphragm in the
mixing bag is moved up and down by
a simple, inexpensive mechanism. The
device can be scaled to over 10,000 L.
High shear
With the advent of health-enhanced
“functional” foods and beverages we
have observed a shift towards mix-
ers that impart high-intensity mix-
ing (high shear) to properly disperse,
deagglomorate, and emulsify products
containing active ingredients, such as
vitamins, organic herbals, emollients,
colorants and flavors, says David
Ekstrom, application specialist at Be-
matek Systems, Inc. (Beverly, Mass.).
The firm’s latest product launch is the
patented High-Shear Inline Mixer,
which features a flexible, modular
design. The mixing head is easily dis-
assembled to exchange the rotor-sta-
tor configurations to accommodate
short-run production and fast product
changeover, says Ekstrom. The mix-
Use your
mouse...
But don’t take us literally.
Answers and solutions to your dry particle
size reduction and classification questions.
It’s all online at Sturtevant, Inc.
www.sturtevantinc.com/ce
Circle 15 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-15
22 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
These static mixer delivers homogeneous
mixtures 3 pipe diameters downstream
ing head, with one to 12 shear-action
zones, consists of a high-speed rotors
and stators, which can produce shear
rates of 200,000 per second each.
Arde Barinco, Inc. (Nirwood, N.J.) of-
fers its reversible homogenizer, which,
by adjusting the rotor-stator gap in the
tank, allows users to control the shear
rate. Upward and downward flow
choices ensure efficient emulsification
of liquids and dispersion of powders.
The Process Systems & Equipment
Div. of Lee Industries, Inc. (Philips-
burgh, Penn.) now offers kettles that
provide scraped-surface agitation plus
high-shear mixing for difficult materi-
als that are hard to emulsify, such as
creams, lotions, and toothpastes. Stan-
dard high-shear designs handling up to
10,000 cP are available in sizes from 20
800-992-0209
to 1,000 gal. Alternate scraped-surface
designs for up to 1,000,000 cP and larger
capacity vessels are also available.
(For an in-depth look at how to apply
high-shear mixing, see CE, April, pp.
46–51.)
Static mixers
In recent years, we have observed an
increasing demand for static mixers for
polymer applications, such as polym-
erization reactors, mixers for injection
molding and extrusion, and disposable
mixers for reactive resins, says tech-
nology manager Felix Moser at Sulzer
Chemtech (Winterthur, Switzerland).
Also in the pharmaceutical industry,
there is a tendency to abandon batch
processes using stirred vessels and
switch to continuous process steps
using static mixing technology, he says.
The main incentives for this trend, ex-
plains Moser, are considerably reduced
investment costs and space require-
ments, as well as smaller fluid volumes
 A SHORT LIST OF MIXER COMPANIES
AlfaLaval Biokinetics
Arde Barinco
edlinks.che.com/4818-561
edlinks.che.com/4818-562
CCS ®

Bematek Systems
Charles Ross & Son
Chemineer
edlinks.che.com/4818-563
edlinks.che.com/4818-564
edlinks.che.com/4818-565
CLOUD
ConPro Tec
DeDietrich
EKATO RMT
edlinks.che.com/4818-566
edlinks.che.com/4818-567
edlinks.che.com/4818-568
This not only results in a high
gas holdup, and thus, maximum CHAMBER
ILC Dover
IKA Works
Lee Industries
edlinks.che.com/4818-569
edlinks.che.com/4818-570
edlinks.che.com/4818-571
mass transfer rates and short
batch times, but it also elimi-
nates the need for an external
SCRUBBER ®

Philadelphia Mixing
Quadro
edlinks.che.com/4818-572
edlinks.che.com/4818-573
Silverson Machines
SPX Process Equipment
Sulzer Chemtech
edlinks.che.com/4818-574
edlinks.che.com/4818-575
Wave Biotech
edlinks.che.com/4818-576
edlinks.che.com/4818-577
contained in the process. “This provides
cost, quality, and safety advantages.”
Sulzer Chemtech recently intro-
duced its CompaX mixer for turbulent
flow applications. Although primarily
for low-viscosity blending, it can also
be used for gas blending. The main
feature of the CompaX is that it is
designed to be clamped between two
pipe flanges, and requires very short
mixing distance; independent of the
mixing ratio, a homogeneous mixture
is achieved only three pipe diameters
downstream, with low (10–100 mbar)
pressure drop, says the firm.
ConProTec Inc. (Salem, N.H.) re-
cently introduced its Statomix line of
static mixers, which includes a variety
of plastic disposable mixers that are
used for low-cost two-component mix-
ing. The mixer element is molded from
polyacetal to withstand high pressures
generated by meter-mix machines.
Gas-liquid dispersion
Another trend facing mixing manu-
facturers is the demand for improved
gas-liquid mixing, says Werner Him-
melsbach, Ekato’s head of R&D. In
the chemical and biochemical sec-
tors, gas-liquid catalytic hydrogena-
tion, carbonylation, phosgenation and
ethoxylation reactions are commonly
used, and there is a large potential for
improvement. Most of these reactions
are fast; any improvement in mass
transfer means an improvement in
productivity, he says.
Ekato has developed a family of gas-
recirculation loop as used in the
past, says Himmelsbach. for Submicron
Introduced this year is the
Combijet, which is designed for Particulate –
gases with inert components,
like air. It makes no sense to re- Better than ESPs
circulate air, because eventually
you’ll only be moving nitrogen, says for 6 Reasons:
Himmelsbach. Bioractors, for example,
are typically tall tanks, and after the
primary dispersion, the air bubbles
1 Lowest operating cost of any
submicron particulate scrubber
tend to coalesce on the way up. The
Combijet redisperses these bubbles and 2 energy
Uses less than 10% of the
required by ESPs
provides flow patterns with a strong
axial component, which leads to short
blend times, he says.
3 System operating pressure:
0.40 to 0.80” w.g.
Combijet is a concave turbine that
delivers high power with virtually no 4 Simultaneously
3 2
removes HCl, HF,
HNO , H SO , SO , Cl , NH ,
4 2 2 3
losses, says Himmelsbach. Alternative H2S, other gases and fumes
systems can have a power drop of up
Proven effective for diesel
to 50%, and require a variable fre-
quency drive to maintain a constant 5 exhaust, float glass, container
power, he says. glass, fiberglass manufacturing,
Proper gas dispersion is also eco- chem plants, foundries, kilns,
nomically critical for fluegas desul- incinerators
furization plants, where calcium sul-
fite is oxidized with air into gypsum.
For this application, Ekato developed
6 Compatible with high-temp
gas streams, sticky particulate,
the Wingjet O2 system consisting of a soluble and insoluble particulate
rotating air sparger fixed on the pro- and condensables
peller shaft. Air is fed through a pipe
on the front side and injected through
three orifices into the zone of the high-
est shear in the propeller jet. This de-
sign prevents coalescence, and deliv-
ers a higher interfacial area compared
to conventional static-air lances, says
Himmelsbach. At the same power
input, an increase in O2 transfer effi-
ciency of over 30% has been observed
compared to those of static lances, he
says. The company is working to in-
crease the size of Wingjet O2, which
will allow for a new generation of ab-
sorbers above 20 m in diameter.
This month at the North American ®

sing impellers for handling such reac-
tions. The Phasejet, a primary disperser
for the incoming feeds, is a concave tur-
bine that has nearly a constant power
number under gassed conditions. For
dispersing pure gases, the Gasjet re-
circulates unreacted gas continuously
from the headspace back to the liquid.
Tri-Mer
®
Mixing Forum’s conference (Parks-
ville, B.C., Canada; June 26-July 1),
CORPORATION
Sulzer Chemtech launched a new
static mixer, called Contour, which is
designed for turbulent mixing of gases
(989) 723-7838
in large ducts, such as in deNOx and
other gas-treating processes. ■
www.tri-mer.com © 2005 Tri-Mer Corp.
Gerald Ondrey
Circle 16 on p. 53 or go to
adlinks.che.com/4818-16
 People

WHO’S WHO

Hansen Rullo Heider Murin Beisert

Air Liquide Large Industries U.S.
L.P (Malvern, Pa.) appoints:
Thomas Hansen to senior vice-
president, global chemical market.
Chris Clark to vice-president, U.S.
Gulf Coast Pipeline.
Johnny Wozniak to vice-president,
business development.
Fred Rullo is named director of sales for
BASF's (Florham Park, N.J.) intermedi-
ates division in North America.
Hans Hummel is appointed market
development manager for water treat-
ment chemicals in the performance
chemicals division in North America.
Achim Noack becomes managing di-
rector of Bayer Technology
Services Americas (Leverkusen,
Germany). He succeeds Wolfram Wag-
ner who is retiring.
Gerald Heider retires as worldwide
business director for glass systems at
Ferro Corp. (Washington, Pa.).
Halocarbon Products Corp. (River
Edge, N.J.) promotes Peter Murin to
chief executive officer.
Infilco Degremont, Inc.
(Richmond, Va.) appoints Joe
Giannone chief operating officer.
He remains president of Ozonia
North America.
Klaus Moll is elected chairman of the
executive board of Lurgi AG
(Bochum, Germany).
Total Petrochemicals USA, Inc.
(Houston, Tex.) appoints Stan Beisert
plant manager at its Bayport polyeth-
ylene plant in Pasadena. ■
Joan Schweikart

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7ITHTHISTRENDPREDICTEDTOCONTINUEWELLINTOTHE
FUTUREISNTITTIMETHATYOUADVERTISEDWITHTHEONLY
#0)MAGAZINETHATCANDELIVERYOURMESSAGETOTHE
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Circle 17 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-17
24 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
JULY
Steritool
In cleanrooms, even
hand tools are sterile
This series of Critical
Clean stainless-steel lock-
ing pliers (photo, above)
are designed specifically
for sterile processing ap-
plications where mea-
sures must be taken to re-
duce the risk of airborne
particulates. Since stain-
less steel is a homogenous
material, there is no plat-
ing to peel, chip or flake.
The chromium contained within the
stainless alloy oxidizes to form a thin,
protective chromium oxide layer on
the surface. This invisible layer is
non-reactive, and therefore non-cor-
rosive. The introductory offering of
sizes includes a 5-in. and 7-in. curved
jaw, a 7-in. straight jaw, and 6-in. and
11-in. long nose models. — Steritool,
Brooklyn, N.Y.
edlinks.che.com/4818-331
Measure ultra-low flows with
HART functionality
This manufacturer has replaced its
time-proven DK 37 M (with mechani-
cal indicator) and DK 37 E (with elec-
trical indicator) variable-area flowme-
ters with the DK 37 M8M and DK 37
M8E all-metal devices (photo, bottom
left). While the device with mechani-
cal indicator merely has a different
designation, the DK 37 M8E has a
completely revised electronic sig-
nal converter (ESK), making it the
only HART-compatible variable-area
flowmeter with 4–20-mA output for
ultra-low flows, says the firm. Other
improvements include higher output
accuracy, thanks to improved resolu-
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit
number on p. 53, or use the website designation.
ITT Industries
Krohne
Emerson Process Management
tion of the digital-to-analog converter.
Instead of 8 bits, the DK 37 now has at
least 14 bits. Also, recalibration to new
operating conditions is more conve-
nient in that it can now be carried out
locally. — Krohne Messtechnik GmbH
& Co. KG, Duisburg, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-332
Predictive condition monitoring
for all rotating equipment
A new multi-patented, predictive con-
dition monitoring system, PROsmart
provides cost effective protection
for all types of rotating equipment
(photo, top right). PROsmart continu-
ally monitors rotating equipment (to
pre-stated parameters) for bearing
vibration, temperature, speed, seal
leaks, lubrication, cavitation and so
on, helping users eliminate problems
before they have a chance to manifest
into unexpected downtime or cata-
strophic failures. It also minimizes
the associated burden on manpower
by eliminating expensive mainte-
nance walk arounds. The monitored
information is sent via a built-in wire-
less communication system to a cen-
tral server where the data is analyzed
and compared to the pre-stated pa-
rameters for the given piece of equip-
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
ment. If a failure is predicted based
on the analyzed information, an alert
or alarm is then sent to the equip-
ment location, via cell phone message
or to a computer. PROsmart also is-
sues easy to understand reports that
can be compared on a period to period
basis. These reports are accessible at
all times from any location via a pass-
word-protected homepage. PROsmart
can be self powered, thus avoiding
expensive wiring costs. — ITT Indus-
tries, Seneca Falls, N.Y.
edlinks.che.com/4818-333
Calibrate these Coriolis
flowmeters from your desktop
Users of Micro Motion Coriolis flow-
meters can now verify process stabil-
ity and meter performance from their
office using a Calibration Verification
Snap-On application for the vendor’s
AMS Suite: Intelligent Device Man-
ager (photo, bottom right), eliminating
the need for external flow calibration
laboratories or costly standard refer-
ence devices. The Calibration Verifica-
tion Snap-On application collects and
analyzes flowmeter data to determine
if a change has occurred to the physi-
cal structure of the Micro Motion sens-
ing element. Changes can result from
24D-1
 New Products
Alfa Laval Inc.
product build-up, corrosion or erosion,
resulting in a corresponding change
in the density measurement from the
Micro Motion meter. For Micro Mo-
tion Coriolis flowmeters, there is a
correlation between density of a pure
fluid (water or air) and its specific flow
calibration factor. The Calibration
Verification Snap-On application in-
forms the user that the change to flow
calibration has occurred and includes
recommendations for determining
the specific conditions that may have
caused the change. In contrast with
traditional approaches, the AMS De-
vice Manager Calibration Verification
Snap-On application provides dem-
onstrated cost savings by minimizing
production interruptions and outages,
extending intervals between routine
verifications, streamlining verifica-
tion documentation procedures and
providing control charting of verifica-
tion data. — Emerson Process Man-
agement, St. Louis, Mo.
edlinks.che.com/4818-334
Sanitary jet head
cleans tanks automatically
Part of this firm’s Toftejorg line of
tank cleaning equipment, the SaniJet
20 Rotary Jet Head (photo, left) is a
sanitary, rotary jet head device that
cleans vessels (from 500-gallon tanks
to 500,000-gallon capacity silos) in a
360-deg. indexed pattern. Designed
for permanent installation, the de-
vice is completely self-cleaning and
24D-2 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
Spiroflow Systems
self-draining and has an integrated
self-cleaning downpipe. The drive
mechanism is located outside the
tank or process equipment, leaving a
minimum of parts submerged in the
product. All product surfaces in con-
tact with the product are either 316L
stainless steel or FDA-approved poly-
mer materials. It is especially suite for
highly viscous, foaming or thixotropic
products and chemical process appli-
cations where product cross-contami-
nation is unacceptable. — Alfa Laval
Inc., Richmond, Va.
edlinks.che.com/4818-335
Inline unit doesn’t require
much length for blending
The ITS Continuous Blender (photo,
right) is designed to fully mix powder,
granular, flake or pellet material over
a short length of material flow, and
boasts an accuracy potential up to 2%.
Using two integrated flexible screw
conveyors of different diameters, the
ITS feeds the two mixing components,
directly introducing the secondary in-
gredient into the center of the flow of
the primary ingredient. The tube of
the smaller conveyor extends beyond
the inlet hopper of the larger conveyor.
This ensures the flow of this minor
ingredient is introduced into the pri-
mary ingredient at the peak point for
thorough mixing. The ITS Continuous
Blender is available for use with rigid
bins, bulk bags or more permanent
batch-component holding vessels at
capacity up to 10 tons/h. — Spiroflow
Systems, Charlotte, N.C.
edlinks.che.com/4818-336
Wireless Ethernet radios reach
beyond hard-wired boundaries
The 905U-E Wireless Industrial Eth-
ernet Radio Modem is a convenient
solution for process control and auto-
mation applications, including PLC’s,
DCS, SCADA, data acquisition, and
wireless video. Each module can
handle multiple applications simul-
taneously and can be configured as
an access point, client, station, bridge
or router. The 905U-E’s industrial
strength 900MHz FHSS technology
boasts high immunity to interfer-
ence. Furthermore, the new module,
operating at 10/100 BaseT Ethernet,
is able to transfer wireless data up to
230Kbits/sec. The ELPRO 905U-E has
a range of up to 60 mi. outdoors, and
operates on a license-free radio band.
Meanwhile, store-and-forward re-
peater functionality increases the po-
tential wireless range even further. If
installed internally, the ELPRO 905U-
E offers impressive penetration in con-
gested industrial environments also
— over 3000 ft through buildings, fac-
tory walls and steelwork. The built-in
security features of the ELPRO 905U-
E feature multiple layers of error-de-
tection and correction. In the advent of
a wireless link failure, the unit is de-
signed to automatically changeover to
another Access Point ensuring secure
Have you heard about the versatility
of FOAMGLAS® Insulation?
Ambient & Above
Challenges and Characteristics
• Fire and Smoke
• Combustible Liquids
• Liquid Water Resistance
• Thermal Efficiency
• Corrosion
• Chemical Durability
• Dimensional Stability
• Compressive Strength
• CFC and HCFC Free
Circle 20 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-20
Cryogenic | Chilled Water | Steam | Tank Base | Roofing | Plaza/Parking Decks
There’s no need to search for several different insulations to withstand different
conditions. Whether your requirements call for insulation with chemical durability,
®
liquid water resistance, or thermal efficiency, Pittsburgh Corning FOAMGLAS
Insulation has the proven versatility and strength to perform in a wide variety of
applications and environments.
®
To download information about how FOAMGLAS Insulation can enhance the
insulation system for your specific industry, visit our website at
www.foamglasinsulation.com,
or call 1-800-359-8433.
I N S U L A T I O N
 New Products

data transmission continues. The unit that end, the Tablet Press Feeder can
also has military-grade AES security drastically reduce consumption of the
encryption of wireless data further en- lubricant, by as much as 97%, says the
hancing its capabilities. Firewall pro- firm. The Tablet Press Feeder is avail-
tection is provided via secure message able in both volumetric and gravimet-
filtering at MAC address level. The ric (loss-in-weight) models and can be
ELPRO 905U-E has two serial inter- offered on a portable cart. — K-Tron,
faces, RS232 and RS485 and a discrete Pitman, N.J.
channel for status I/O, for failure sta- edlinks.che.com/4818-338
tus or external status transfer. Config-
uration and diagnostics are handled Customize your high-purity valve
via the web-browser and remote con- — round, square, big or small
figuration and diagnostics are pos- This firm has introduced a compact
sible via the wireless link. — ELPRO K-Tron PTFE Bellows solenoid valve that can
Technologies, Stafford, Australia be customized for almost any high-
edlinks.che.com/4818-337 directly to the tablet press. Precise purity liquid application. The basic
control of the amount of lubricant used valve design is pressure balanced, and
Twin-screw feeder takes tablet in tablet press applications is essen- is rated for inlet pressures to 140 psi.
considerations to heart tial in order to reduce the compression Depending on the orifice size that is
An adaptation of this vendor’s sanitary force during tabletting, to avoid prod- specified, back pressure is rated up
pharmaceutical design twin-screw uct buildup on the tablet press tools, to 70 psi. While the valve is designed
feeder, the Tablet Press Lubricant to make the tablet surface smooth and for quick-opening, normally-closed ap-
Feeder (photo) incorporates a special- to assure overall product quality. If too plications, it can be modified for many
ized gas venturi for aspiration of the lu- much lubricant is added, the tablet can types of service. In larger pipe sizes,
bricant (such as magnesium stearate) often become softer than required. To a “pilot-assisted” design is available
for higher flow requirements. Cus-
tomizable attributes include the size,
Krauss-Maffei
Krauss-Maffei shape, mounting, body material, port
Process Technology configuration, piping connections and
coil type. Typical pipe sizes range from
delivers fast, efficient drying systems 1/4 to 3 in. The valve can be machined
square for manifold type mounting,
round for standard piping systems, or
in special shapes to fit within a spe-
Krauss-Maffei Process Technology offers a range of drying equipment, including continuous plate dryers and cific enclosure. Popular body materi-
batch processing mixer dryers. A staff of fully trained engineers and technicians at our Florence facility provide
local sales and service, including complete engineering assistance, an inventory of spare parts and als include PVC, CPVC, polypropyl-
comprehensive testing. ene, PVDF, HDPE and PTFE, but it
Krauss-Maffei Process Technology Mixer Dryers can be constructed of any machinable
utilize a unique bottom-drive design with a heated screw that provides 15-30% thermoplastic or thermoset material
more heat exchange area, increasing productivity and profitability.
that is compatible with the tempera-
Proven Technology
Because there are no internal drive components, our mixer dryers significantly tures generated by the solenoid coil.
decrease the risk of contamination, condensation and downtime. — Plast-O-Matic Valves Inc., Cedar
Consistent, Even Drying Grove N.J.
The heated screw coupled with direct product temperature measurement by a
central temperature lance, provides consistent, even drying batch after batch. edlinks.che.com/4818-339

Krauss-Maffei Process Technology Plate Dryers Hygienic diaphragm valves don't

combine conduction heating with continuous product flow to provide efficient drying of friable
products that is up to 80% faster. call for special treatment
Maximum Control of Product Integrity
This firm now offers low-sulfur-con-
A short retention time and uniform drying protect product from thermal degradation, tent forged bodies with extended weld
while separately heated and cooled plates provide precise temperature control. tangents in its’ Pure-Flo Hygienic
Ease of Operation e: Diaphragm valve product line (photo).
ew websit
The efficient design provides simplified startup, Vi s i t o u r n dryer The line features forged 316L stainless
operation and shutdown and is suited to a p t . n e t / m
wide range of particle size distributions. www.km
steel material, with sulfur content com-
Call Krauss-Maffei Process Technology about your next pliant to ASME Bioprocessing Equip-
separation project: ment 2002 Standard, Table DT-3. Addi-
1-859-547-1100 tionally the weld tangents of the valve
8070 Production Ave. bodies are equivalent to the weld tan-
FAX: 1-859-547-1098 gent lengths specified for ASME BPE
E-mail: sales@kmpt.net Florence, KY 41042
compliant fittings. The combination of
Circle XXX or go to www.info.ims.ca/34xx-xx
©2005 Krauss-Maffei Process Technology, Inc.

Circle 21 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-21
Circle 22 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-22
 New Products

these features eliminates the common

need for welded tube extensions and
allows the use of practically all com-
monly used orbital welding equipment,
without the need for narrow or offset
weld heads. From a welding perspec-
tive, this allows the valve (photo) to be
treated as any other fitting in the pro-
cess system. Extended tangent valve

bodies are available from 0.5 through

4-in. sizes. — ITT Industries, Pure-Flo
Solutions Group, Lancaster Pa.
edlinks.che.com/4818-340

Applications with large flow

imbalance do better on this plate
The Supermax all-welded plate heat
exchanger is designed as an alterna-
tive to shell-and-tube heat exchangers
for cases where elevated pressure and
temperatures are present. The Super-
max is particularly suited to applica-
tions having a large flow imbalance,
including gas or vapor condensers,
economizers and related process and
energy service, for pressures up to 70
barg (1015 psig) and at temperatures
up to 537°C (1,000°F) for standard
range units. With alternating chan-
nels for hot and cold media, the unit
Chemicals and Polymers – Think Mustang. can be configured to provide true
countercurrent or co-current flow. The
line offers two different diameters of
We get below the surface. circular plates. Nozzle sizes up to 300
The installation of a new chemical or polymer unit or expansion of mm (12 in.) can be accommodated on
an existing unit requires in-depth conceptual planning and front the shell side of the exchanger, offer-
end design skills. Often the ripple effect of support facilities and ing higher steam and liquid flowrates.
offsites, including utilities, tankage, silos and product distribution, Nozzles on the plate side can be up to
can be substantial. 100 mm (4 in.). — Tranter PHE, Inc.,
Mustang has vast experience in conceptual design, front end Wichita Falls, Tex.
loading, project planning and execution. Our veteran process edlinks.che.com/4818-341
design team is experienced in all areas of technology and design.
We have developed tools for conceptual planning that analyze the Multiple stages for
whole picture for chemical and polymer integration/modernization ultra-precise granulation
projects. Our goal is to provide you with options, tradeoffs and The IMD 69.5 Gran-U-Lizer is an ul-
relative costs during the front end planning process. traprecision particle-reduction device
At Mustang, our strong front end capability provides accurate that has the ability to integrate up to
project scope definition, cost estimating and fit-for purpose engi- five different grinder stages per unit.
neering from concept through commissioning. As a result, a high degree of single-
When you are planning your next revamp, upgrade or expansion, pass reduction is achieved to yield
contact Mustang. We get below the surface with great teams to final grinding targets with a narrow
guide you through your project with no surprises. particle-size distribution. The grinder
People Oriented... Project DrivenTM is suitable for product applications in
16001 Park Ten Place, Houston, Texas 77084 USA the chemical, pharmaceutical, miner-
Tel: +713/215-8000 • Fax: +713/215-8506 als, and dry-foods industries. The unit
Web: www.mustangeng.com
E-Mail: robert.stodghill@mustangeng.com is available with PLC control, inte-
grated touch screen, controlled grind-
ing atmosphere and GMP qualifica-
Circle 23 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-23
24D-6 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
 tion. — Modern Process Equipment,
Inc., Chicago, Ill.
edlinks.che.com/4818-342
Take membrane filtration for a
spin to eliminate fouling
The TRF (tubular-rotation filter) Fil-
tration is a patented membrane filtra-
tion system that cleans itself, and thus
reduces fouling. The filter cartridges or
disks are stacked with spacers on a ro-
tating arm. The entire assembly then
moves inside a holding vessel through
the liquid to be filtered, and the mo-
tion creates a turbulent flow over the
membrane. Flux rates with TRF Fil-
tration are usually 5–10 times higher
than conventional crossflow membrane
systems, says the firm. The TRF Filtra-
tion can be equipped with membranes
having pore sizes of 0.01–0.2 μm or mo-
lecular weight cutoff of 500 to 200,000
Dalton. — GTI FIB Industriële Bedri-
jven B.V., Leeuwarden, Netherlands
edlinks.che.com/4818-343
Lots of options
for this little flowmeter
This mini-flowmeter handles flow
ranges from 0.007 to 3.5 gal/min. in
twelve overlapping sizes. Several bear-
ing types are available, including hy-
brid ceramic ball bearings and sleeve
constructions in tungsten carbide
and carbon composites, depending on
media compatibility. The standard
connector for the Mini-Flow Series is
316 stainless steel with ms flared end
fittings. The flowmeter provides users
with a linearity of 1% over a 10:1 flow
range. — Hoffer Flow Controls, Inc.,
Elizabeth City, N.C.
edlinks.che.com/4818-344
Word-processing add-on checks
spelling of chemical terms
DT Chemistry Spellchecker provides
spellings for more than 95,000 chemis-
try terms that focus on organic chemi-
cal nomenclature. Simply instal the
software one time to enable your word
processing program to spell-check sci-
entific terms in a variety of documents.
The spellchecker adds more than 95,000
terms in all disciplines of chemistry
and covers nomenclature for organic
compounds, reactions, processes and
more. Misspelled scientific words are
not only flagged, but suggested correc-
tions are offered. The software is com-
patible with most versions of Microsoft
Word, Corel WordPerfect and Microsoft
Works. — Data Trace Publishing Com-
pany, Brooklandville, Md.
edlinks.che.com/4818-345
A mill for
making nanoparticles
When producing ultrafine grind-
ing material with a ball mill, certain
stress mechanisms are required to
ensure that the tiny particles can be
crushed at all. That’s why colloidal
grinding through mechanical stress
is usually done in liquid media. The
Planetary Ball Mill PM 100 has a high

HOCKMEYER’s Multi Tasking System (“MTS”)

Streamline your process –
Same Tank – Same Place – From Start to Finish
With the introduction of the HSD Immersion Mill into our multi-shaft
mixer, we have created what is unmatched by any other! We call
it a Multi Tasking System or “MTS”. This unit is essentially a “one
step processing” machine meaning you do the Dispersion, Milling and
Deaeration process all within one machine. The MTS consists of two
or three shafts, a High Speed Assembly, our patented HSD Immersion
Mill and a Low Speed Assembly with either a Helical or Sweep Blade -
depending on the viscosity of your product. The MTS can process liquid
dispersions and paste type dispersions typically run on a 3-roll mill.
As shown below, the MTS can be customized to meet your process
requirements.

252-338-4705 sales @ hockmeyer.com www.hockmeyer.com

Circle 24 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-24
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 24D-7
 New Products

energy input and pressure and shear-

ing forces that act upon the sample
material for producing nanoparticles
(those with diameter less than 1 mi-
cron). The counter rotating sun wheel
and grinding jar, the large effective
sun-wheel diameter, and the high-ro-
tational speed of the sun wheel, com-
bine to generate the energy necessary
to produce nanoparticles. Smooth
running and safe operation are guar-
anteed, even when heavy jar masses
are moved, thanks to the mill’s ex-
cellent mass compensation and free-
force compensation sockets. The mill
is available with 1, 2 or 4 grinding
stations. — Retsch GmbH & Co. KG,
Haan, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-346
Screw extruder provides
glimpse into pressure rise
This dual-purpose twin screw extruder
system (photo) has been introduced for
use in wide ranging color and related
ITT Industries, Pure-Flo Solutions
Group
dispersive-mixing applications. The
system includes either a ZSE-18, ZSE-
27 or ZSE-40 mm high-speed, twin-
screw extruder with a screw design and
process section configured for intensive
mixing. A gear pump is attached to the
front end to build pressure to drive
the melt stream through a fine filtra-
tion media, typically 300 to 400 mesh
screens, contained in a breaker plate
assembly. The vendor’s Macromatex
TSCS PC based control package allows
the pressure in front of the screen pack
to be tracked in a defined and repeat-
able way, with the results available
and archived in both spreadsheet and
graphical formats. Both masterbatch
and letdowns can be tested. When not
utilized for pressure-rise testing, the
twin-screw extruder can be mated
with a downstream pelletizing system
for concentrate compounding develop-
ment. — American Leistritz Extruder
Corp., Somerville, N.J.
edlinks.che.com/4818-347 ■
Rebekkah Marshall

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Circle 25 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-25

24D-8 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005

JULY
Keep tabs on
centrifuges, 24/7
The Cosmos centrifuge con-
dition-monitoring system
(photo, left) measures the
status of key components,
such as bearings, couplings,
bushings, bowls and other
moving assemblies, 24 h/d,
all year round. Sensors mon-
itor the vibration patterns in
each machine, and the data
is analyzed on a computer by
special software that trans- AlfaLaval
lates the signals into param-
eters that illustrate the rotational,
frictional and shock forces involved.
The system is “smart” enough to even
indicate if the wrong oil has been used
in the centrifuge’s gearbox. As a result,
downtime can be planned, spares can
be ordered in good time and signifi-
cant savings in time, lost production
and expense can be made, says the
firm. — AlfaLaval Copenhagen A/S,
Søborg, Denmark
edlinks.che.com/4818-400
Failsafe protection for
progressive-cavity pumps
This non-intrusive pressure sen-
sor (photo, top right) protects pumps
from both dry-running conditions and
high-pressure situations. The RM sen-
sor, composed of a sensor, a pressure
switch and a control box, is designed
to be fitted at the pump outlet. The de-
vice is easy to install and fits between
two standard pipe flanges, allowing
unobstructed fluid flow. A liquid-filled
gauge allows visual monitoring of
pressure conditions within the pump-
ing system. — Robbins & Myers UK
Ltd., Chandlers Ford, U.K.
edlinks.che.com/4818-401
A redesigned hoist for lifting
things, even in Ex areas
The newly designed Profi TI series of
air hoists (photo, middle) uses a pat-
ented motor-break system and cov-
ers the lifting range from 250 kg to 2
m.t. The design of the hoists help to
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit
number on p. 53, or use the website designation.
Robbins
& Myers
reduce the number of compo-
nents for cost-effective, low-
J. D. Neuhaus
maintenance operation, says
the firm. Standard equip-
ment includes a main-air
emergengy-stop valve. With
the new design, there are no
protruding control hoses or
elements that could be dam-
aged, thus making it suit-
able for horizontal pulling.
The compressed air drives
are suitable for use in ex-
plosion-hazardous areas. —
Krohne
J. D. Neuhaus GmbH & Co.
KG, Witten, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-402 twelve overlapping sizes. Several bear-
ing types are available, including hy-
Water flowrates are measured brid, ceramic ball bearings and sleeve
by this ultrasonic flowmeter constructions in tungsten carbide
The UFM 3030 (photo, bottom right) is and carbon composites, depending on
a universal flowmeter suitable for ap- media compatibility. The standard
plications in the water and wastewa- connector for the Mini-Flow Series is
ter sector. The ultrasonic device uses a 316 stainless steel with flared-end fit-
quasi-redundant, three-beam measur- tings. The flowmeter provides users
ing system. The flowmeter is factory with a linearity of 1% over a 10:1 flow
calibrated and has a measuring accu- range. — Hoffer Flow Controls, Inc.,
racy of ±0.5%. The device is suitable Elizabeth City, N.C.
for measuring water flow in district edlinks.che.com/4818-404
heating system, according to Euro-
pean Norm 1434, and is approved for Diaphragm valves
custody transfer according to OIML R for hygienic applications
117. — Krohne Messtechnik GmbH & These new multi-way diaphragm
Co. KG, Duisburg, Germany valves are made from a single stain-
edlinks.che.com/4818-403 less-steel block, thus eliminating
extra welding and intermediate pipe-
Lots of options work. All valve seats, connections and
for this little flowmeter cross connections are integrated into a
This mini-flowmeter handles flow single part, which guarantees that the
ranges from 0.007 to 3.5 gal/min. in valve is free of dead space. The valve
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 24I-1
 New Products
manifolds – with one or sev-
eral main passages possible
– are self-draining. Pneu-
matic electro-pneumatic,
and electrical actuators
can be retrofitted to the
valve. Surface finish from
6.3 down to 0.25 μm Ra guar-
antees the best possible clean-
ing results, making the valve
suitable for hygienic applications
of the pharmaceutical and food-and-
beverage industries. — GEMÜ Gebr.
Müller Apparatebau GmbH & Co. KG,
Ingelfingen, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-405
This pneumatic actuator
is more versatile
These pneumatic part-turn valve ac-
tuators (photo, left) are available as
double and single-acting versions. The
standard housing material is alumin-
ium in a variety of surface treatments,
making it suitable for almost any in-
Circle 26 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-26
24I-2 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
Aris
dustrial environment, says the firm.
A second housing version made of a
synthetic material, is also available
with a torque range of up to 60 Nm
and offers a “substantial” price advan-
tage over the aluminum version. The
actuator offers the possibility for ad-
justments of both the final positions
by ±10 deg without having to open the
actuator. An interchangeable ISO Flex
attachment ensures that the actuator
can be precisely adapted to any type
of process equipment. — Aris GmbH,
Hennef, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-406
Lutz-Jesco
Move dosing chemicals to where
you need them with this station
This mobile dosing station (photo,
right) is suitable for dosing liquid dis-
infectants when conditioning fresh
and well water as well as wastewa-
ter. All components are mounted on a
platform trolley with a loading area
of 1,000 by 700 mm. A polypropylene
collecting basin accommodates the
disinfectant tanks, and the dosing
pump — a solenoid-driven diaphragm
pump — is located at the back board of
the basin and communicates with all
standard control signals. Guards pro-
tect the discharge tubing and power
cords from stress caused by accidental
movement of the cart. — Lutz-Jesco
GmbH, Wedemark, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-407
Ethernet connection for
explosive zones
Unveiled at Interkama last April, the
Ethernet-Ex Converter makes it pos-
sible, for the first time, to directly in-
stall IEEE 802.3-compliant Ethernet
components in Ex Zone 1, with the
protection concept intrinsic safety
(Ex)i. Prior to this, networking into
the field could only be possible using
serial fieldbuses (with Ex 1 approval),
says the firm. Now it is also possible to
implement continuous communication
from the process control level up to Ex
field level using Ethernet. All stan-
dard protocols are supported, includ-
ing Modbus TCP, Ethernet IP, OPC,
and safeethernet for safe date trans-
mission. — HIMA Paul Hildebrandt
GmbH + Co KG, Brühl, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-408
This hygienic valve swings
apart for easy cleaning
Rotary valves that are used in hy-
gienic applications with frequent
product changes have to be quick and
easy to clean. This firm’s latest design
 ERA II of bulk solids measurement
The breakthrough: VEGAPULS 68 beats the noise
Truly exceptional: non-contact solids level measurement using radar.
Previously, where other measuring techniques with serious deficiencies were,
out of necessity accepted as the best available technology, the new compact
VEGAPULS 68 is ushering in Era II of bulk solids measurement. How?
Through a radar receiver a thousand times more sensitive than anything that
has gone before it. Incredible, but actually VEGA.

Continuously accurate values under all conditions:

Filling processes with dust and noise
Changing product characteristics
Process temperatures exceeding 1000°C
Measuring distance up to 70 m

www.vega.com/era Circle 27 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-27

The Quiet Work-Horse!
New Products

Coperion

of a rotor-extraction device is the Full-

Access System (FXS; photo), which
permits extraction and swiveling of
the rotor as well as both side covers
by more than 90 deg. Operators can
easily clean the valve without any ad-
ditional tools. The housing bore can
be closed with separate plastic cov-
ers for clean-in-place applications. —
Coperion Waeschle GmbH & Co. KG,
Weingarten, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-409

More sizes for this ‘dirty-service-

ECOTROL® control valve trim’ control valve
Advantages, The Fisher NotchFlo DST valve line
that should not be kept quiet! has been extended to include Class
600 rating, with 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-in.
● High reliability guaranteed by body sizes. These bodies are avail-
precision manufacturing processes able in carbon steel, chrome moly and
and quality control stainless steel. The NotchFlo DST
● Emission control and leakage control valve minimizes the cavitation
conforming to the highest international and clearance-flow problems typical
standards of high-pressure liquid applications,
● Tubeless, integrated mounting of says the firm. The trim features a lon-
positioners acc. to VDI 3847 gitudinal flow path that incorporates
a series of pressure-staging notches;
● Minimal working life costs
the notches achieve the required pres-
● A range of awarded patents
sure drop while avoiding conditions
Take advantage of the most technically that would cause cavitation and result
innovative control valve in a generation, in trim damage. — Emerson Process
up to 400 mm! Management, Stockport, U.K.
The «State
edlinks.che.com/4818-410
of the Art»
solution! Multiple stages for
Request ultra-precise granulation
Technical The IMD 69.5 Gran-U-Lizer is an ul-
Information or traprecision particle-reduction device
a Quotation: that has the ability to integrate up to
five different grinder stages per unit.
As a result, a high degree of single-
ARCA Regler GmbH, P. O. Box 2120, D-47913 Tönisvorst
Phone +49-2156-7709-0, Fax …-55, sale@arca-valve.com
pass reduction is achieved to yield
final grinding targets with a narrow
www.arca-valve.com particle-size distribution. The grinder
is suitable for product applications in
ARCA • Competence in valves, pumps & cryogenics
Flow Group • Subsidiaries and partners in Switzerland, the Netherlands,
the chemical, pharmaceutical, miner-
worldwide: India, P.R. China, Korea, Japan and Mexico! als and dry-foods industries. The unit
Armaturen AG ARCA BV
is available with PLC control, inte-
von Rohr von Rohr grated touch screen, controlled grind-

Circle 28 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-28
AD: www.gripa.it
© 2005 Costacurta S.p.A.-VICO

SINCE 1921...
AND WE
STILL LOVE IT

For more than eighty years, we at Costacurta have been

constantly and resolutely committed to the development
and manufacture of special steel wire and plate
components used in many different industrial processes.
Every day at Costacurta, we work to improve the quality
of our products and services and the safety of all our
collaborators, paying ever-greater attention to the
protection of the environment.
Within the wide range of Costacurta products you will
also find some, described below, that are used specifically
in the oil, petrochemical and chemical industries:
- RADIAL FLOW AND DOWN FLOW REACTOR INTERNALS;
- GAS-LIQUID AND LIQUID-LIQUID SEPARATORS;
- ARMOURING OF REFRACTORY, ANTI-ABRASIVE AND
ANTI-CORROSIVE LININGS.
For more information, visit our website or contact the
Division "Components for the oil, petrochemical and
chemical industries” at divc@costacurta.it
Radial Flow and Down Flow reactor internals

Costacurta S.p.A.-VICO Management systems

www.costacurta.it
via Grazioli, 30 certified by LRQA:
20161 Milano, Italy ISO 9001:2000
tel. +39 02.66.20.20.66 ISO 14001:1996
Circle 29 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-29
fax: +39 02.66.20.20.99 OHSAS 18001:1999
 New Products

ing atmosphere and GMP qualifica-

tion. — Modern Process Equipment,
Inc., Chicago, Ill.
edlinks.che.com/4818-411

A range extension for these

stainless-steel float switches
This firm now manufactures stainless-
steel float switches (photo, left) with
two liquid-level-switching positions
or continuous 4–20 mA output. Dual
level devices are available in lengths
from 100 mm to 3.5 m. Continuous
output devices have a measuring span
from 500 mm to 2.5 m, and the output
varies with level, in ten steps within
the measuring span. — Crydom Mag- Crydom Magnetics Retsch
netics Ltd., Dorset, U.K.
edlinks.che.com/4818-412 ensure that the tiny particles can be upon the sample material for produc-
crushed at all. That’s why colloidal ing nanoparticles (those with diam-
A mill for grinding through mechanical stress eter less than 1 micron). The counter
making nanoparticles is usually done in liquid media. The rotating sun wheel and grinding jar,
When producing ultrafine grind- Planetary Ball Mill PM 100 (photo, the large sun-wheel diameter, and
ing material with a ball mill, certain right) has a high energy input and the high-rotational speed of the sun
stress mechanisms are required to pressure and shearing forces that act wheel, combine to generate the energy

Over 38,000 PIERALISI centrifuge

systems in operation worldwide. THE WINNING RANGE FOR THE
And now highly-successful
solutions for numerous processing
PROCESSING INDUSTRY
applications.
Sep
The PIERALISI Decanter is an ideal FPC arator
an ter x 12 B
X-Ate T
choice for chemical applications
Dec ght E
gasti
including Polyolefins, HDPE and PVC, as
well as for the Biotech-Pharmaceutical
600 RS
sector (fermentation broth), for minerals
incl. ceramics, for 2- and 3-phase Bio-
FP
Diesel and Spent Grain/Stillage
applications, to list just a few of its uses.
The PIERALISI Disc Stack Separator
is the winning solution for hygienic
applications in the Biotech-Pharma-
ceutical sector. Compact in design for
aerosol-free operations, the Separator is
available as a complete unit. Moreover it
is also the perfect choice for Fine
Chemicals, for soot and for a wide range
of Bio-Diesel applications, not forgetting
all kinds of Food processing
D E U T S C H L A N D G mb H
applications, as well as for a host of
Ochsenfurter Strasse 2 - 97246 Eibelstadt - Tel.: ++49 93 03 / 90 82-0 - Fax: -20
24I-6Circle 30 on p.
CHEMICAL 53 or go to WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
ENGINEERING
other jobs. adlinks.che.com/4818-30 E-mail: pieralisi@pieralisi.de - Internet: www.pieralisi.de
 new feature of the Ethernet-capable I/
Os is the integrated three-port switch,
which makes it possible to attach more
Ethernet applications to devices via
the second RJ45 socket, thus leaving
ports on the structural elements free.
— Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co KG,
Blomberg, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-415
A way to handle HART
communications on Profibus
In the past, HART field devices had to
be configured using handheld commu-
nicators or HART multiplexers. Now
this firm has developed a remote I/O
interface for process-control systems
that can handle HART communica-
tions on Profibus. The new system is

Phoenix Contact We l c o m e t o o u r s e a l i n g w o r l d
necessary to produce nanoparticles. w w w. b u r g m a n n . c o m
Smooth running and safe operation
are guaranteed, even when heavy jar
masses are moved, thanks to the mill’s
excellent mass compensation and free-
force compensation sockets. The mill
is available with 1, 2 or 4 grinding
stations. — Retsch GmbH & Co. KG,
Haan, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-413

Make the most of business

models with this new release
The integrated modeling environ-
ment provided by the latest release
of MEGA 2005 allows for easy con-
struction of fully integrated business
processes and enterprise architecture
models within a single user interface.
Aimed at IT directors, operations di-
rectors, project managers and risk
managers, MEGA 2005 handles a wide

Dry running
variety of modeling-based projects, Burgmann AGS – the gas-
including EA, corporate-governance lubricated mechanical seals
compliance, and information-systems for agitators, mixers, knead-
management. All model information ers and other slow-rotating
is captured within MEGA’s object-ori- machines. Whether in chem-
ented repository, and new productivity
enhancements in this version include
preferences management, user-spe-
as if lubricated – ical or pharmaceutical in-
dustry, wherever sterility is
required, product contami-
cific work histories, favorite tracking,
and the ability to recover deleted ma- nation is undesirable
terial from the recycle bin. — MEGA
International Ltd., Sharon, Mass.
edlinks.che.com/4818-414
wear-free and and with ‘dry-running’ ap-
plications. Our AGS seals
combine state-of-the-art
sealing technology with eco-
Connecting I/Os to Ethernet
The new Inline Block I/O modules for
Modbus/TCP (photo) and Profinet en-
ables a simple and fast integration of
energy-saving nomic efficiency and fit all
standardized connections.
ironment.
env
I/O modules in Ethernet systems. Con- an
e

nection is established by mounting the

cl

modules onto a DIN rail, connecting

a
r

the power supply and network cable,

fo

Burgmann Industries
and assigning an IP address. Equipped
of

GmbH & Co. KG

ro

with 16 fixed inputs and 16 freely as- p D-82502 Wolfratshausen

signable I/Os, the modules are adapt- ak Tel. +49 / 8171 / 23-0
Le Fax +49 / 8171 / 23 10 95
able for use in many applications. A
Circle 31 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-31
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 24I-7
 New Products

based on HART messages being en-
coded for transportation by the Pro-
fibus protocol. While the DCS sends
out the HART commands, the remote
I/O interface decodes the messages
and modulates the current signals in
the transmitter supply. The remote
I/O is also available for intrinsically
safe applications in hazardous areas.
— CEAG Apparatebau Hundsbach
GmbH & Co. OHG, Bühl, Germany
edlinks.che.com/4818-416
Take membrane filtration for a
spin to eliminate fouling
The TRF (tubular-rotation filter) Fil-
tration is a patented membrane-filtra-
tion system that cleans itself, and thus
reduces fouling. The filter cartridges
or disks are stacked with spacers on
a rotating arm. The entire assembly
then moves inside a holding vessel
through the liquid to be filtered, and
the motion creates a turbulent flow
over the membrane. Flux rates with
TRF Filtration are usually 5–10
times higher than conventional
crossflow-membrane systems,
says the firm. The TRF Filtration
can be equipped with membranes
having pore sizes of 0.01–0.2 μm
or molecular-weight cutoff of 500
to 200,000 Dalton. — GTI FIB In-
dustriële Bedrijven B.V., Leeuwar-
den, Netherlands
edlinks.che.com/4818-417
Suspended-solids monitor now
has a Profibus option
This firm’s MSL600 sludge-blanket
level sensor, MSM400 suspended-
solids density meter, and MSP900SP
level sensor (photo) are all now avail-
able with Profibus, enabling cost and
efficiency savings for water process-
ing and industrial-effluent treatment
plants, says the firm. The Profibus
protocol allows system integrators
to multiplex a whole series of instru-
ments from different suppliers onto
Solartron Mobrey
a single, two-wire loop. Setup and
interrogation, including data logging
and analysis can be carried out from
a single PC or handheld communica-
tor. Systems are available for appli-
cations as basic as compliance with
environmental regulations for final
discharge, to more complex measure-
ments, including clarifier tank lev-
els and suspended solids measure-
ments, flocculent dosing and sludge
density. — Solartron Mobrey Ltd.,
Slough, U.K.
edlinks.che.com/4818-418 ■
Gerald Ondrey

3PRINGINTOTHENEW
SEASONWITHA4ARGET
OR,OGO!DIN
#HEMICAL%NGINEERINGS
"UYERS'UIDE
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TOOVERAMILLION
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WWWCHECOM 

Circle 32 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-32

24I-8 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005

 ISA EXPO 2005.
Automation.
Control.
Inspiration.
• Batch/Discrete/Process Control

• Cybersecurity

• Data Acquisition

• Hard/Soft/Remote Sensing

• Instrumentation & Measurement

• Networking & Communications

• Predictive Maintenance

• Productivity & Asset Management

• Safety Systems & Equipment

• Standards & Regulatory Compliance

• Systems Integration

• Wireless Technologies

Register now at www.isa.org/isaexpo2005. Enter passcode W24993 for FREE exhibition registration.

! a new Harley-Davidson
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Circle 33 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-33
 s!CTUATION
Feature
Cover Story
Report n"ROKENSPRING
n!IRLEAKAGE
DIAPHRAGMTUBING
n)MPROPERDRIFTSPRING
RANGECALIBRATION

Gaining Digital s3TEMGUIDINGSEALING

n(IGHFRICTION
n&UGITIVEEMISSIONS
s0OSITIONING

Capabilities with
n,OOSEIMPAIRED
LINKAGE
n0NEUMATICDEGRA
DATION)0RELAY
n#ALIBRATIONDRIFT
n)NSUFFICIENTCONTAM

An Intelligent

INATEDAIRSUPPLY
s4RIM
n(IGHFRICTION
n3EATLEAKAGE
n"ODYDAMAGE

Valve Interface
n#AGECLOGGED
s&LUIDHANDLING
n#AVITATIONFLASHING
n%XCESSIVENOISE
n6IBRATION
n)MPROPERVALVE
SELECTION
Overall process control is only as good FIGURE 1. A control valve consists
as the effectiveness of the final control element. of numerous moving parts that are me-
chanically interconnected and pneumati-
cally actuated. Degradation or failure of
Many problems that plague the sub-components of the control valve
assembly can result from normal wear
conventional control valve positioners — and tear, improper selection of the valve
itself, and exposure to harsh conditions
namely susceptibility to wear and poor calibration
— can be overcome with the use of a makes a valve “smart.” By contrast, a
digital positioner with relatively few
digital positioner and an intelligent valve interface moving parts can provide for reduced
wear and overall maintenance, but
Sandro Esposito, Dresser Masoneilan cannot exchange information with a
supervisory system.
ver the past decade, operat- of expensive and unplanned plant

O ing companies throughout the

chemical process industries
(CPI) have experienced changes
in their work environments
that have irrevocably changed many
plant operating environments. Among
the paradigm shifts that now charac-
terize many CPI work environments:
• The work force is routinely being
challenged with more tasks and re-
sponsibilities with fewer personnel
• Increasing global competition and
merger-and-acquisition activities
are driving increased pressure to-
ward productivity improvements
and cost effectiveness
• Increased environmental regula-
tions and associated auditing re-
quirements are resulting in greater
levels of reporting and compliance
complexity than ever before
• Aging emergency-shutdown sys-
tems with insufficient testing meth-
odologies are increasing the risk
26 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
shutdowns
• Increased focus on safety and reli-
ability is forcing plant managers to
develop and implement new coping
strategies and systems
In recent years, the intelligent valve in-
terface has emerged as a key enabling
technology — one that helps process
plant owner-operators to maintain
both reliability and profitability in the
face of all of these challenges.
Intelligent valve interfaces and digi-
tal positioners are not synonymous.
An intelligent valve interface is a de-
vice which, when added to a valve as-
sembly, not only provides precise valve
positioning control with respect to a
setpoint, but also allows the valve to
be interfaced to a supervisory control
system using a digital protocol. The
deployment of such a device, whether
it is designed into the control valve as-
sembly (i.e., integral) or designed to
mount onto a control valve assembly,
The nature of valves
Many things can and do go wrong
with control valves (Figure 1). Even
though control valve manufacturers
provide engineered solutions that are
designed for long, reliable service, the
fact remains that a valve will eventu-
ally wear. If progressive wear is left
untouched, or is not monitored ad-
equately, it will ultimately degrade
process control performance and could
lead to either unplanned downtime or
even catastrophic failure.
In too many instances, problems that
could lead to control valve failures in a
process plant are not discovered until
the valve assembly has already failed.
By the time the valve has failed, pro-
duction may have already been inter-
rupted or significantly impaired, and
where toxic fluids are involved, valve
failures can lead to serious safety and
environmental problems.
With an intelligent valve interface,
 FIGURE 3. Unlike conventional analog positioners,
today’s digital valve positioners have relatively few moving
parts, which reduces overall wear and maintenance requirements
FIGURE 2. In conventional valve position-
ers, many mechanical components (such
as bearings, cams, and feedback springs) #ONTROLSYSTEM -ONITOR 4REND #ONFIGURE #ALIBRATE $IAGNOSTICS 3TATUS #HECK
are continuously in motion. Equipped with COMMANDS
only an analog signal, these devices have 
VALVETOMOVE
limited utility as a data-transfer device  6ALVE 6ALVE
 6ALVEDOESNOTMOVE POSITION SETPOINT
process operators can now receive 
IMMEDIATELY

0ERCENT
early warnings of valve trouble and im- 
pending problems with enough time to  6ALVEDOESFINALLY 
address them before system failure or MOVEBUTNOTTOTHE 
damage has occurred. The ability to re- PROPERPOSITION

spond promptly to advanced warnings  6ALVEMOVES
allows operators to improve overall 
BEYONDPOSITION
valve reliability, maintain flow control 
quality, and increase process efficiency          
(by gathering the needed resources and
parts in advance), all of which directly
impact plant profitability.
Conventional vs. digital
As noted above, the introduction of
digital positioners has ushered in a
new era of smart control valve infor-
mation. Conventional (analog) valve
positioners, such as that shown in Fig-

ure 2, are not equipped with a micro-

processor, and by virtue of their ana-
log signal, have very limited utility as
a data-transfer device. They are also
designed with numerous mechanical
parts (including bearings, cam and
feedback spring) that are in constant
motion and require frequent adjust-
ments and maintenance to ensure re-
liable performance.
By contrast, valves that are equipped
with digital control have the following
benefits:
Maintenance and setup benefits
• Reduces the number of mechanical
components needed, thanks to algo-
rithm control and digital feedback
sensors. This results in:
– Decreased drift resulting from
wear and fatigue
– Valve performance that is based
on flexible algorithm control
– The ability to upgrade or add fea-
tures, such as an LCD display of
the field (mechanical positioners
cannot be upgraded with addi-
tional features in the field – what
you see is what you get)
• Replaces physical adjustments with
numeric adjustments; this results in:
4IMESECONDS
,EFTSIDE
 6ALVE 0ROCESS
(IGHPROCESS  COMMAND VARIABLE
VARIABILITYRESLTING
FROMVALVESTICTION
CONVENTIONAL
POSITIONER
2IGHTSIDE
REDUCEDVARIABILITY
WITHADIGITAL
POSITIONER
FIGURE 4. This valve signature illustrates an example of poor valve performance
resulting from high friction in the control valve assembly. The erratic valve positioning
that results from friction has a negative impact on process variability. In the smaller
illustration, the left-hand portion (where the amplitude of oscillation is the greatest)
represents loop performance with a conventional positioner; the right-hand portion
(lowest oscillation) is process performance after installing a digital positioner
– Increased precision and repeat- performance, and mechanical failure.
ability By comparison, today’s digital posi-
– Consistent calibration and valve tioners (Figure 3) have very few moving
performance parts, and, thanks to the more-precise
With the highly complex and vari- nature of digital control, actual compo-
able nature of the mechanical parts nent movement is minimal and tightly
on a control valve, the performance of controlled. In fact, some digital posi-
any conventional positioner is highly tioners use non-contact, magnetically
dependant upon the calibration tech- coupled feedback mechanisms, which
nique used. (So, from one technician eliminate moving contact between
to the other, from late Friday to early linkages, further limiting total wear.
Monday, the resulting positioning per-
formance and the resulting valve con- Embedded diagnostics
trol performance can differ greatly.) The control valve has the biggest im-
In short, process control quality de- pact on the quality of process control
pends on the effectiveness of the final in a flow loop, and inadequate respon-
control element. Not only are conven- siveness will lead to poor control and
tional positioners more prone to poor prevent operations from optimizing
calibration, but, due to their high the throughput. One major problem is
number of moving mechanical parts, stiction; according to one expert in loop
they are also susceptible to wear that tuning, 20% of control loops have high
can result in drift, poor positioning stiction. Stiction — the random jerky
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 27

Cover Story
motion of the valve shaft or stem that
results from high friction in a control
valve — significantly impairs valve-
positioning performance (Figure 4). In
many cases, stiction also prevents op-
erators from running the control loop
in automatic mode, thereby standing in
the way of optimal plant throughput.
The inability of a conventional
analog positioner to monitor stiction
impairs process quality and prevents
operators from tackling problematic
situations before it is too late. Mean-
while, without digital capabilities,
conventional analog valve positioners
are also unable to transmit to the pro-
cess control system other important
valve-related information, such as the
status of air supply, actuator pressure
and valve plug position.
There are some loop-tuning pack-
ages on the market that can detect
poor loop performance, and help iden-
tify the valve that may be responsible.
However, such packages are intrusive,
in the sense that they interfere with
normal operations. These programs
require “bumping the valve” (i.e.,
sending an artificial signal to move it)
and this requires the addition of travel
sensors to precisely quantify the valve
performance. And, these packages
often cannot detect early signs of per-
formance degradation. Rather, these
tools identify an impaired control
valve once the problem has already
become serious enough to potentially
impact the process.
By contrast, digital positioning tech-
nology allows smart valves to gather
and monitor critical valve information
and offer diagnoses of possible problems
related to the control valve. Such diag-
nostic information can be broken into
two categories: continuous and online.
Continuous diagnostic information
is defined as data that are saved in
the non-volatile memory of the intel-
ligent valve interface, and such data
provide valuable information to pre-
dict eventual failures or process con-
trol deficiencies, or to help determine
if the valve may have been improp-
erly selected for a given application.
This relevant valve information can
include: cycle count (number of valve
reversals), accumulated travel, time
spent closed, time spent near closed
and time spent open. Because the val-
28 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
A BIT OF HISTORY
oughly 20 years ago, microprocessor-based field devices — specifically digital
R transducers — were introduced to the process control industry. Acceptance of
this new concept in instrumentation was immediate, due to enhanced perfor-
mance and reliability that microprocessor-controlled devices offered. Field-main-
tenance personnel have discovered that microprocessor-based controls provide
greater accuracy and stability, while eliminating the drift in calibration. This results
in considerable time savings, especially during device setup and valve tuning.
Process engineers have also found that the increased accuracy and reliability of
digital instruments provided better production throughput and increased process
uptime. Some first-generation devices were based on open (i.e., not manufac-
turer-specific) protocols, such as HART, Foundation Fieldbus, and ProfiBus and
Modbus. Others used manufacturer-specific protocols. End users throughout the
CPI soon realized that open protocols provided the freedom to select the device
that was best-suited for an application, without the concerns of control-system
interoperability.
It was not until the early 1990s that microprocessors emerged in the final con-
trol element or the control valve, but once they did, it would change the future of
the control valve industry forever. The final control element is probably the most
critical device of the process control loop. Although control valves are versatile
and robust, the physical demands of controlling often hot, erosive, and corrosive
fluids, and withstanding vibration during operation, often lead to a deterioration
of process efficiency and an increase in maintenance costs.
The use of an intelligent valve interface can improve the responsiveness of the
control valve assembly in terms of responsiveness to a command signal, even in the
face of harsh operating conditions. This directly impacts the process control per-
formance, and thus can lead to an improved production yield. And, by providing
ongoing information on the status of the mechanical condition of the control valve
assembly, the intelligent valve interface simplifies the maintenance planning, by al-
lowing operators to focus their attention on those valves that need attention. ❏
ues are continuously monitored and The wealth of data collected by the
the data are saved by the intelligent intelligent valve interface can also
valve interface, the integration to a be extracted to produce results such
historian is seamless. In other words, as those shown in Figure 6. For ex-
such an assembly does not require ample, by trending runtime data, the
external software to ensure continu- user can determine if the valve in use
ous acquisition of key data. The smart is subject to premature trim wear, and
valve basically functions as a “field- if the valve selection is adequate for
server” of control valve information. the application. The wear condition
Online diagnostics consist of self- can also be validated with the use of
initiated device alarms (Figure 5) and vendor-specific software that conducts
performance monitoring with the help advanced diagnostics and produces
of monitoring software. Such software signatures, such as those shown in
has the ability to track trends in per- Figures 7 and 8 that identify the me-
formance degradation in a particular chanical health of the internal compo-
plant, and generate detailed reports nents of the valve assembly.
(Figure 6) of those valves in a plant
upon which the operations personnel Deciphering valve signatures
should focus, in order to avoid process When numerical data related to valve
control deterioration. operation are gathered during a test
The device alarms can announce to and subsequently plotted on a graph,
a supervisory system that the valve is the resulting image is called the con-
deviating from its setpoint, or that the trol valve “signature”. Signatures con-
positioner is struggling to maintain its tain a wealth of information, and offer
position. Some advanced intelligent a visual depiction of the valve’s opera-
valve interfaces can detect if the air tional health.
supply is critically low, if the pneu- However, the data interpretation is
matic amplifier is malfunctioning or if often complex, and requires a detailed
the actuation of the valve is obstructed understanding of valve mechanics,
(for instance, if a hand-wheel has been physics, instrumentation and device
left engaged, preventing the valve from interaction within the process control
fully closing). Should the intelligent system. Fortunately, a variety of soft-
valve interface experience any mal- ware tools are now available to help
function, the “online health alarms” operators decipher the resulting valve
will notify the host system, bridging the signatures and provide a synopsis of
information gap for the plant operator. the effects of current valve conditions.
 /PERATION #OMMUNICATIONS #IRCUIT 

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0OSITION
*œÃˆÌˆœ˜ÊiÀÀœÀ &IRMWARE
Ә`ÊÈ}˜>ÊÃi˜ÃœÀÊv>ՏÌ
*œÃˆÌˆœ˜ÊiÀÀœÀÊv>ˆÃ>vi -ivÊV…iVŽÊiÀÀœÀ 
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ˆ>ÃʜÕÌʜvÊÀ>˜}i *ÀiÃÃÕÀiÊ£Êv>ՏÌ
-œvÌÜ>ÀiÊiÀÀœÀ  0OORSEATING

Õ̜ÊÌ՘iÊv>ˆi` *ÀiÃÃÕÀiÊÓÊv>ÕÌ 'OODSEATING
>Ì>ʜÛiÀÀ՘  FROMFACTORY
*ÀiÃÃÕÀiÊÎÊv>ՏÌ
ˆ˜`ÊÃ̜«ÃÊv>ˆi` BASELINE
6ÊV…iVŽÃÕ“Ê *ÀiÃÃÕÀiÊ{Êv>ՏÌ

>ˆLÀ>ÌiÊv>ˆi` 
*ÀiÃÃÕÀiÊxÊv>ÕÌ         
,
ÊV…iVŽÃՓÊiÀÀœÀ 0RESSUREPSI
-Ì>˜`>À`Ê`ˆ>}˜œÃ̈VÊv>ˆi` 7>ÌV…`œ}Ê̈“iœÕÌ

ÝÌÊ`ˆ>}˜œÃ̈VÊv>ˆi` 7ÊV…iVŽÃՓÊiÀÀœÀ 67ÊÜÀˆÌiÊv>ÕÌ FIGURE 7. A valve signature can vali-

date wear condition. The blue lines shown
-ÞÃÌi“ʈ˜ÌiÀÀÕ«ÌÊv>ÕÌ here indicate poor seat and plug contact;

ˆÀÊÃÕ««ÞʏœÜ -Ì>VŽÊiÀÀœÀ
*ʜÕÌʜvÊÀ>˜}i the red lines show good seat and plug

VÌÕ>̜ÀÊiÀÀœÀ contact (the factory baseline signature)
#LEARFAULTS /i“«iÀ>ÌÕÀiʜÕÌʜvÊÀ>˜}i

FIGURE 5. Shown here are some of the typical diagnoses that can be made
when the valve assembly is equipped with an intelligent valve interface. When 
an alarm is triggered for any of these conditions, it is propagated to the supervi-
3IGNATURESUMMARYMASONEILANVALVE
sory control system i>ÃÕÀi“i˜ÌÊÃiÌ̈˜} ˜«ÕÌɜÕÌ«ÕÌÊ«>À>“iÌiÀÃ
 /i“«iÀ>ÌÕÀiÊ\Ê£™°™
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0OSITION
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(OURSCLOSED 
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CLOSED




        
 0RESSUREPSI
)NTEGRATED  FIGURE 8. Shown here is a valve signa-
DIAGNOSTICS ture with its analysis providing good in-

sight into the integrity of the control valve
 assembly

6ALVE! 6ALVE" 6ALVE# 6ALVE$ In fact, most intelligent valve inter-
6ALVENOTBEINGEXERCISED
faces have a special mode to conduct a
0OSSIBLESTICTION signature on a valve. When operating
in this mode, the device stops respond-
(IGHPERCENTTIME ing to the control system’s signal and
FIGURE 6. The wealth of data collected by the intelligent valve interface can be
extracted and displayed in a variety of ways to track performance results
Such insight is a powerful tool in the
operators “predictive maintenance
toolkit,” and can ultimately reduce
process downtime while increasing
process yield.
Some intelligent valve interfaces can
embed a valve signature in the non-
volatile memory of the device. That is,
the birth certificate information of the
control valve assembly (its signature)
can be stored in the memory of the in-
telligent valve interface when shipped
from the control valve manufacturer.
Once the control valve is received ,
installed, and commissioned, the end
user can run a new signature and com-
NEARLYCLOSED4RIMEROSION exercises the valve while gathering in-
OVERSIZEDVALVE
pared with the “as shipped” signature
to ensure proper startup of the newly
installed control valve. Figure 7 shows
a side-by-side numerical analysis of a
valve signature.
Operators should note that capturing
signatures like those shown in Figure
8 usually involves temporarily remov-
ing the control valve from its normal
operations. When this is done, the in-
telligent valve interface will be put a
mode whereby it can no longer track its
commanded positioning setpoint. This
usually requires that the operations
personnel temporarily place the loop in
manual operation mode.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
formation from its sensors. Because the
diagnostic signature mode “disconnects”
the capability of the control system to
control the valve, operations must inter-
vene to bypass the valve, or to put the
associated control loop in a safe state.
After the valve has been in service
for some time, the user can capture an
“installed” signature (which reflects the
current operating situation) and com-
pare it to the original (factory-validated)
birth certificate signature. Such a com-
parison will help to reveal any possible
valve degradation in performance.
It is also quite valuable to capture
data related to the thrust required by
the pneumatic actuator (the thrust
that moves the valve through its full
excursion). Thrust tests aren’t gener-
ally practical while the plant is in op-
29
 

EFFECTIVESPRINGRANGE
&RICTIONASOF /NBOARDINFORMATION
 
!CTUALCYCLECOUNT
.ORMALFRICTIONLEVEL (OURSINSERVICE
  #YCLESPERHOUR
CYCLESH

 
&EB -AR -AR -AR
$ATE

FIGURE 9. Online diagnostic packages  /NBOARDINFORMATION

can trend valve performance over time. !CTUALCYCLECOUNT
For instance, in this plot, the friction level (OURSINSERVICE
of the valve assembly is shown (expressed  #YCLESPERHOUR
in % of the effective spring range). The CYCLESH
white area of the trend is the normal fric-
tion level for this valve assembly 
>˜ iL >ÀV…
«Àˆ >Þ ՘i ՏÞ
Õ} -i«Ì "VÌ œÛ iV
eration, but can be done if the valve can
FIGURE 10. Shown here is an example of how the data provided by the intelligent
be taken out of service, or bypassed. valve interface can be used to set a maintenance schedule based on ongoing run-
For applications where taking certain time information from the valve
valves out of service is not practical,
#ONTROLSTATION !SSETMANAGEMENTENVIRONMENT
online software packages are available.
6ALVEALARMSACTUAL
These packages can monitor control POSITIONINTEGRATEDLOGIC !SSETMANAGER 6ALVE 3UMMARYOF
valves that are equipped with an intel- TRENDSVALVETIMERS CALIBRATION MONITORING DEVICEHEALTH
ligent valve interface, thereby tracking CONFIGURATION
the health and performance of a control LITERATURE
DIAGNOSTICS 6ALVESIGNATURE
valve without conducting any special of- )NTEGRATED USERFRIENDLY
fline valve tests, disturbing the process !SSET CALIBRATION CONFIGCAL
SETUPTOOL TROUBLESHOOT
or involving personnel resources. MANAGER
COMMISSIONING
Online software tools read data from /PERATORCONSOLE
the intelligent valve interface while 0LANTNETWORK
the valve is in normal operation and 3TANDALONE
without disturbing the process. Only CALIBRATION
)/
SETUPTOOL
0.1% to 2% of valve normal move- $EVICEALARMS &IELDNETWORK
ment is required to gather the data HISTORIANTIMERS
needed to conduct online diagnostics. VALVEODOMETER
The data are gathered periodically,
on a set schedule. The data are stored
automatically in the online software.
Using a series of complex algorithms
to interpret the sample, the software
generates a report with an assessment
of the valve’s performance. Information
such as friction, spring range, response
time, stiction, and so on are gathered.
To compute the results over time, the
software will collect data on a regular
basis, self-generate an analysis of the
valve’s condition, will alert the user to
the fault conditions it finds.
Online diagnostic software pack-
ages can trend valve performance
over time (Figure 9) and in doing so,
can predict impending valve failures
before they impact the process. Also,
such packages can help to determine
if any maintenance is to be expected
based on the running conditions. For
instance, the remaining lifespan of
packing, diaphragms, and bellow seals
is continuously updated with fresh in-
formation from the intelligent valve
interface, which in turn, allows the
maintenance planner to prepare the
work force and gather the materials
30 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
DEVIATIONALARMETC
FIGURE 11. A typical integration of an intelligent valve interface with a supervisory
system is shown here
involved to maintain the control valve
performance (Figure 10). As an ex-
ample, a more-efficient packing main-
tenance cycle can be efficiently imple-
mented with the use of the data from
the intelligent valve interface.
Interface with control system
Until recently, the intelligence provided
by the intelligent valve interface was
isolated, due to the lack of digital-ready
control systems and the high cost of
hardware to allow digital information
to flow from the field to the central con-
trol system. However, growing market
demand for improved valve diagnostic
information has led to the proliferation
of digital-based field instrumentation,
digital Fieldbus, and the availability of
digital-ready control systems.
Having a control system that is ca-
pable of exchanging data with a field
device is defined as “interoperability.”
The capability of a control system to
analyze the data from the intelligent
valve interface, and to translate it into
a language that is control-valve spe-
cific, is defined as “integration.” For
example, an intelligent valve inter-
face might provide two or more status
reports which, when combined, may
indicate a specific impending control
valve failure. Automation of this intel-
ligence is accomplished via the control
system and is available (as long as the
field device vendor has a partnership
with the control system vendor to pro-
vide embedded field device diagnostics
in the control system). Also, because
demand for embedding field device
diagnostics with control systems has
been so strong, the device descriptive
language (DDL) – the main interface
language protocol -- has improved
 Cover Story
Continuous Reliability
so that the field device data and the
methodology to analyze can now easily
be carried via the device driver. Figure
11 shows how these systems can inte-
grate into the overall plant network.

Environmental fallout
Predicting and preventing failures
not only has a positive effect on up-
time, but also enables environmental
regulations to be met more efficiently
at a lower cost, by reducing valve-re-
lated liquid leakage and vapor-phase
emissions. By effectively monitoring
the ongoing health of a control valve,
it is possible to carry out better pre-
ventive maintenance, and in doing so,
to prevent severe damage to internal
mechanical parts that can lead to
leakage and valve failure.
This includes early detection of trim
erosion and deterioration of intermedi-
ate pressure-reduction stages, or early
signs of leakage paths. Trends can be
identified by overlaying the actual
valve flow characteristic against the
factory tested characteristic or birth
certificate to monitor any deviation.
Containing process fluids, a critical
control valve function, depends on the
effectiveness of the packing to main-
tain the shaft-stem seal. The packing for chemical processing
must seal under pressure against often
corrosive high pressures or erosive flu- on endless steel belts
ids for tens of thousands of valve stroke
cycles. It is therefore no surprise that from Berndorf Band
packing is the most frequently moni-
tored and adjusted component part in
a control valve.
Information collected by an intelli-
gent valve interface provides the basis
for predicting the life expectancy of key
internal components such as valve trim
and packing. The challenge is to deter-
mine when the packing should be ad-
justed, maintained or replaced. In many
cases, packing and trim maintenance is
carried out on an ad hoc basis (i.e., re-
place it whenever it leaks) or in a pre-
ventative mode (i.e., replace it now, just
in case). Both of these approaches are
costly, ineffective and can potentially be
detrimental to the environment.
With an intelligent valve interface Berndorf Band GmbH
A-2560 Berndorf, Austria
recording stroke cycles, the operator Phone (+43) 2672/800-0
can build a data history of packing life. Fax (+43) 2672/84176
With this information and the lifespan band@berndorf.co.at
data provided by the packing supplier, www.berndorf-band.at
packing failure can be prevented by
Circle 19 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-19
 
PROPER PLANNING WILL ENSURE
 SMOOTH INTEGRATION
 ince the addition of intelligent valve interfaces will greatly change the way day-

S
0OSITION

to-day activities are carried out in a plant, an implementation program must be


properly planned and executed. This plan should involve continuous education of
6ALVE the work force at different levels (for instance, technicians, process engineers, instru-
 CLOSING
6ALVE ment engineers, maintenance supervisors, and health and safety managers). Continu-
 OPENING ous education is essential, especially if the plant is in an early adoption phase of such

technology.
      The transition from conventional positioning technology to a digital approach may
0RESSUREPSI
FIGURE 12. This trace of the thrust needed
to move an emergency shutoff device (ESD)
valve shows the amount of hysteresis expe-
rienced by the control valve assembly. The
greater the width of the traces, the greater
the hysteresis resulting from packing friction,
bushings and other sources within the valve
represent significant hurdles to the plant management, but in reality, such hurdles
can be alleviated or mitigated. The use of a standard digital communication protocol
eliminates problems related to field device interoperability with supervisory systems.
In terms of field device asset management software, plant operators must consider
standardizing on an open asset-management platform (meaning it can easily inter-
face with various field devices). This will minimize the infrastructure and knowledge
required to fully benefit from digital positioners. ❏

scheduling maintenance in advance
of anticipated stem seal degradation
that could potentially lead to hazard-
ous fugitive emissions and mechanical
wear of the stem.
Similarly, by gathering data related
to the valve plug position’s “time near
closed” (as shown in Figure 7), preven-
tive measures can be taken before valve
plug or seat wear leads to excessive and
potentially costly process leakage. Using
this preventive maintenance approach
based on actual operating data, enabled
by an intelligent valve interface, a plant
operator can plan and deploy mainte-
nance assets more efficiently.
Without the benefit of microproces-
sor-based controls, conventional valves
are often maintained with a philosophy
of “fix it now, just in case” or “don’t fix it
until it’s broken.” This approach results
in unnecessary intervention and ex-
pensive work, or worse, calls for inter-
ruptions in production. Recent studies
indicate that 53% of such maintenance
is unnecessary and 11% is harmful.
Emergency shutdown
Thanks to their capabilities, digital
positioners or intelligent valve inter-
faces have been embraced by many
CPI facilities for the most critical
valves in the plant — the emergency
shutdown device, or ESD. Typically in
an ESD application, the valves remain
either open or closed during normal
operation and will operate only if the
process control is in an uncontrollable
state that could lead to a catastrophic
plant failure.
Operators must evaluate the health
of ESDs in order to comply with envi-
ronmental and insurance company re-
quirements. and most of all, to ensure
personnel and public safety. However,
because of the increased demand for
high throughput and profitability ex-
pected from most plants, shutdowns to
validate the health of ESD valves may
not become possible for many years.
The conventional method for test-
ing ESD valves involves using complex
pneumatic panels and placing people
in situations where they may poten-
tially be exposed to the hazardous en-
vironment in order to partially move
the valve. Since an average process
plant may have several hundreds of
ESDs, this approach can become costly
in terms of the time required to execute
the test and document the results.
By contrast, when the ESD is
equipped with an intelligent valve in-
terface, it is possible to conveniently
stroke the valve from its fully opened
position to a predetermined partial
stroke (from 100% open to 85% open,
for example). During this test the intel-
ligent valve interface will capture the
thrust required to move the valve (Fig-
ure 12) and validate the mechanical
health of the ESD. There is no need for
any personnel to be exposed to the haz-
ardous environment, since the test can
be launched from the control room. The
test is fully automated and documented
and fully complies per IEC standards,
such as IEC61508 and IEC61511. Ear-
lier detection of impending mechani-
cal issues helps operators to prevent a
dangerous failure of the ESD.
Realizing the potential
Until recently, the intelligent valve in-
terface’s most tangible and perceived
benefits have been to improve posi-
tioning and process performance, ease
valve implementation and commis-
sioning, and increase reliability. How-
ever due to a lack of knowledge relat-
ing to valve-signature interpretation
and the limited capabilities of some
digital positioners to provide informa-
tion in a user-friendly language, the
diagnostic capabilities of the digital
positioner have long been overlooked.
However, with the use of an intelli-
gent valve interface — especially one
that supports a protocol that is widely
distributed and can interface seam-
lessly with the control system at hand
— critical digital information can be
collected and analyzed seamlessly.
This technology is continuously im-
proving and the capabilities are ex-
panding because of:
• Proliferation of partnerships be-
tween control system vendors and
field devices vendors to integrate
diagnostics with control systems
• Increasing ease of information gath-
ering using I/O cards that are ca-
pable of reading digital communica-
tions (HART, Foundation Fieldbus,
and others)
• Standardization of the DDL technol-
ogy (device description language),
providing easy integration of field
device data with software packages
• The availability of software packages
that can monitor valves equipped
with intelligent valve interfaces
Digital positioner technology has en-
abled higher process efficiency, ease
of valve setup, integration, and ease
of diagnostic work in control systems
throughout the chemical process in-
dustries. Now the technology is set to
unleash its full power. ■
Edited by Suzanne Shelley
Author
Sandro Esposito is the
valve diagnostics and Foun-
dation Fieldbus product mar-
keting manager for Dresser
Masoneilan (85 Bodwell St.,
Avon, MA 02322; Phone:
508-427-8996; Fax: 508-
941-5433; Email: sandro.
esposito@masoneilan.com).
Esposito holds a B.S. in me-
chanical engineering with a
specialty in instrument con-
trols, and is an ISA member of the SP 75.26.01
committee.

32 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005


Feature Report
How to Estimate
Operating Costs
For assessing the attractiveness
of a proposed new or retrofit project,
the capital cost estimate
is just the first element in the picture.
The profitability of the proposal hinges on
the operating costs it will incur
William M. Vatavuk, Vatavuk Engineering
uring evaluation of invest-
D ment proposals, preparation
of budgets, or other activities,
chemical engineers often have
a need to estimate operating
and maintenance (O&M) costs, also
referred to as direct operating costs,
for existing or proposed chemical-pro-
cess-industries (CPI) plants. Depend-
ing on their underlying purpose, such
estimates can be made with varying
degrees of accuracy. The estimating
procedures presented below are ap-
propriate for developing “budget” or
“study” cost estimates, the accuracy
of which typically ranges from plus-
or-minus 20 to plus-or-minus 30%;
estimates of greater accuracy involve
too much case-specific detail to allow
generalized treatment.
Direct operating costs include the
following variable and semivariable
costs:
• Operating and supervisory labor
• Maintenance (labor, materials, and
contract maintenance)
• Overhead (plant and payroll)
• Raw materials
• Utilities (electricity, fuels, water,
steam, compressed air, other)
• Laboratory charges
• Royalties
• Pollution control (air, water, and
solid waste)
The variable costs are those that vary
proportionately with the process an-
nual operating hours. At zero operat-
NOMENCLATURE
CL Operating labor cost ($/yr)
CLab Laboratory cost ($/yr)
CM Maintenance labor and materials cost ($/yr)
CO Overhead cost ($/yr)
CPC Pollution control cost ($/yr)
CRMi
CRoy
CSL
Cost of Raw Material i ($/unit)
Royalty cost ($/yr)
Supervisory labor cost ($/yr)
CUi
H
IB
IC
Cost of Utility i ($/yr)
Process annual operating hours
Index value, base date (dimensionless)
Index value, current date (dimensionless)
L Operating labor hours per shift
M Maintenance factor (fraction)
PB Commodity price, base date ($/unit)
PC Commodity price, current date ($/unit)
PL Operating labor rate ($/hr)
PPC
PProd
Pollution control unit cost ($/unit removed)
Product price ($/unit)
PRMi Price of Raw Material i ($/unit)
PUi Price of Utility i ($/unit)
Q Production rate (units/hr)
QPC Pollutants removed (units/year)
QProd Product production rate (units/yr)
QRMi Quantity of Raw Material i required (units/year)
ing hours (that is, when
the process is inoperative), QUi Quantity of Utility i required (units/yr)
variable costs are zero as R Royalty rate (fraction of product value)
well. Operating and super- TCI Total capital investment ($)
visory labor, raw materials, x Factoring exponent for labor requirements
utilities, royalties, and pol-
lution control fall into this category. above encompass the most commonly
Semivariable costs (maintenance, incurred direct operating costs in the
overhead, and laboratory charges) also CPI. Because the range of processes
vary with the annual operating hours, that fall under the CPI umbrella is so
but not proportionately. For example, wide and diverse, it would be imprac-
even when a process is inoperative, tical to cover each and every process-
a minimal amount of maintenance industries cost category, including
is needed. By the same token, the those relevant for only one industry,
amount of maintenance needed when in a single article. Instead, presented
a process is running at, say, 8,000 h/ below for each category is general es-
yr is less than double the amount re- timating guidance, including rules-of-
quired for 4,000-h/yr operation. thumb. Techniques for adjusting (es-
The so-called fixed (indirect) operat- calating) direct operating costs from
ing costs — taxes, insurance, adminis- one date to another also are given. (On
trative charges, finance charges, and the other hand, because the prices of
depreciation — involve other than engi- labor, maintenance, utilities, and other
neering considerations and lie outside direct-operating cost categories vary
the scope of this article. These expendi- so much by process and geographic
tures are incurred even if the process area, no actual cost data are provided.)
facility is completely shut down. Note Lastly, a detailed example is provided
that of these, depreciation is unlike to illustrate how the individual direct
the other fixed costs (and unlike the operating costs are calculated.
direct operating costs), in that it is not
a real expenditure, with funds being Operating & supervisory labor
transferred from one entity to another. Most CPI facilities are automated to
Rather, depreciation is an accounting some degree; many, in fact, require
(“book”) entry, made to offset taxable in- little or no operator attention. Nev-
come. For more information on calculat- ertheless, at least some personnel are
ing depreciation and other fixed costs, needed during each shift to monitor
refer to such texts as Reference [1]. the control-room instrumentation,
The eight cost categories listed make periodic process-area walk-
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 33
 Feature Report
throughs, and perform other routine
tasks. The following straightforward
equation can be used to estimate the
process operating labor cost (CL) in
dollars per year:
CL = (L)(H/8)(PL) (1)
where: L = operating labor hours
per shift
H = process annual operat-
ing hours
PL = operating labor rate, in
dollars per hour
Of the variables in Equation (1),
H is self-explanatory: it ranges from
0 to 8,760, the latter number repre-
senting 24 h/d, 365 d/yr. Division by
8 converts H from hours per year to
shifts per year. The operating labor
rate, PL, is quite fluid, varying by in-
dustry, facility, geographical area, and
other factors. In particular, geographic
differences in PL can be dramatic. For
example, according to the Engineering
News-Record labor indexes for the past
several years, common hourly labor
rates in New York City, have been ap-
proximately three times the rates in
Dallas, Tex. [2]; similar geographic
differences have been observed for the
prices of CPI skilled labor. In the U.S.,
labor rates can be obtained from such
sources as the Monthly Labor Review
(MLR), published by the U.S. Dept.
of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS). The MLR lists labor rates for
hundreds of industries and a variety
of geographic locations.
The required operating-labor hours
per shift, L, is less straightforward to
estimate. While L is a function of the
extent of the automation of the pro-
cess, it also depends on the number
of units (distillation towers, for in-
stance) in the process and the produc-
tion rate. Depending on these factors,
L can range from 1 to 40, 50, or more
labor hours per shift. The best source
for estimating the operating labor re-
quirement consists of plant records
for identical (or similar) processes,
whether in-house data or information
obtained from other facilities. How-
ever, if no such information is avail-
able, the following equation can be
used to roughly estimate L2, the labor
requirement for Production Rate Q2, if
the labor requirement, L1, at a differ-
ent production rate, Q1 is known:
34 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
PUTTING THE GUIDELINES TO WORK
A plant produces an organic chemical, C,
according to the following reaction:
A + 2B = C
For simplicity, we assume that the reaction
proceeds stoichiometrically, with no by-
products nor unreacted reactants. Being an
particularly “green” facility, the plant emits
negligible amounts of air, water, or solid
pollutants.
The molecular weights of the reactants
(pounds per pound-mole) are:
A = 129
B = 78
The plant was built in 2002, and the total
capital investment was $67,000,000
The plant’s capacity is 110,000,000 lb/yr
Given the following parameters, all expressed
in 2004 dollars, estimate the plant’s direct op-
erating costs, likewise in 2004 dollars:
Annual hours of operation: 8,000
Operating labor requirement: 36 h/shift
Operating labor rate: $25/h
Supervisory
labor factor: 15% of operating labor
Laboratory
charges factor: 15% of operating labor
L2 = L1(Q2/Q1)x (2)
where: L1 = known labor require-
ment for Production
Rate Q1
x = a factoring exponent,
ranging from 0.2 to 0.25
[3]
The supervisory labor requirement,
CSL, also varies by process. However, a
good rule-of-thumb is 15% of the oper-
ating labor cost:
CSL = 0.15CL (3)
Maintenance
The cost of maintaining process equip-
ment varies considerably according to
the equipment type, age and condition,
the geographical location, and the se-
verity of service. As with the operating
labor requirements, the best sources
of maintenance-cost data are facility
databases. In the ideal situation, a
well-designed and previously installed
Computerized Maintenance Manage-
ment System (CMMS) has consis-
tently, accurately and thoroughly ac-
counted for the hours worked by each
Maintenance
factor: 1.75% of total
capital investment
Overhead factor: 100% of total labor
Raw material prices: A: $0.67/lb
B: $0.49/lb
Royalties: $0.057 per pound of product
Utility requirements per pound of product,
and utility prices:
-- Electricity: 0.25 kWh; $0.057/kWh
-- Steam: 1.25 lb; $4.50
per thousand pounds
-- Cooling water: 2.75 gal; $0.22
per thousand gallons
Because the annual hours of operation
are 8,000, rather than the 8,760 hours
in a year, assume that the plant is oper-
ating at [100(8,000/8,760)] or 91.3%
of full capacity, and thus producing
(0.913)(110,000,000) or
100,430,000 lb/yr
Solution:
1. Determine the amounts of raw materials
required. Because we assume stoichiometric
operation, the amounts of raw materials and
product involved are:
maintenance employee; it similarly
has accounted for the maintenance
materials costs, as well as the cost of
maintenance contracts [4].*
In many situations, however, the
engineer charged with making a di-
rect-operating-cost estimate does not
have a CMMS to draw upon. In these
cases, he or she must either predict
the amount of maintenance labor and
materials the facility will require, or
estimate the total maintenance cost
as a percentage of the facility’s total
capital investment (TCI):
CM = (M)TCI (4)
where M = 0.01 to 0.025, typically [6].
Generally, the lower end of this range
applies to well-designed plants with
higher-than-average capital costs
and lower-than-average numbers of
*For companies who do not have a CMMS in
place or wish to augment an existing one, soft-
ware packages are available. These packages
claim not only to track maintenance costs, but
also to improve labor productivity, reduce equip-
ment downtimes, and perform other useful ser-
vices [5]. Some of this software is structured so
as to enable the recording of these data on an
equipment-specific basis (for instance, pumps,
scrubbers, conveyor systems).
 A + 2B = C
129 + (2)(78) = 285
Thus: lb A/lb C (product) = 0.453
lb B/lb C (product) = 0.547
2. Escalate the plant’s total capital invest-
ment from 2002 dollars to 2004 dollars
via the Chemical Engineering Plant Cost
Index (CEPCI):
CEPCI for 2002 = 395.6
(based on 1995 = 100)
CEPCI for 2004 = 444.2
Therefore, TCI in 2004 dollars =
$67,000,000(444.2/395.6)
= $75,230,000
= ($4.50/1,000)
3. Using the equations and guidelines in
the main text, estimate each component of
the plant’s direct operating costs.
(a) Operating labor, via Eq. (1):
CL = (36)(8,000/8)(25) = $900,000
(b) Supervisory labor, via Eq. (3):
(0.15)(900,000) = $135,000
(c) Maintenance, via Eq. (4):
(0.0175)(75,230,000) = $1,316,500
equipment items to maintain (such as
pumps, fans, evaporators). The higher
end of the range is generally more rel-
evant for less expensive, less well-de-
signed plants having higher-than-av-
erage quantities of prime movers and
other equipment requiring significant
amounts of maintenance. But these
guidelines for assigning a value to
M are very rough, and exceptions to
them abound.
This latter option is in many cases
the only practical recourse when the
estimate is for a proposed facility em-
ploying a new process, because no his-
torical data exist.
On the plus side, estimating mainte-
nance costs as a percentage of the TCI
requires just a single calculation. But
there are two drawbacks: First, this ap-
proach tends to overstate the costs for
maintaining expensive, well-designed
facilities, while understating the main-
tenance costs for plants having lower
capital costs. Consider, for instance,
two processes of identical capacity and
configuration, one consisting primarily
of carbon steel equipment, the other of
units fabricated from Type 304 stain-
(d) Overhead, via Eq. (5):
1.00[900,000 + 135,000 +
(1,316,500/2)] = 1,693,300
(e) Raw materials, via Eq. (6):
Raw Material A:
(0.453)(100,430,000)($0.67) =
$30,481,000
Raw Material B:
(0.547)(100,430,000)($0.49) =
$26,918,000
Total = $57,399,000
(f) Utilities, via Eq. (7):
Electricity: (0.25)(100,430,000) X
($0.057) = $1,431,000
Steam: (1.25)(100,430,000) X
= $564,900
Cooling water: (2.75)(100,430,000) X
($0.22/1,000)
= $60,800
(g) Royalties, via Eq. (8):
(0.057)(100,430,000) = $5,724,500
(h) Laboratory charges, via Eq. (9):
(0.15)(900,0000) = $135,000
Thus, the estimated total annual operat-
ing cost is $69,360,000, or $0.691 per
pound of product ❏
less steel. The total equipment cost,
and thus the TCI, for the latter process
might be several times that of its carbon
steel counterpart. But because it is more
corrosion-resistant, the more expensive
process is actually likely to require less
maintenance over its useful life.
The second disadvantage of using
the percentage-of-TCI method is that
in it, the maintenance factor is mul-
tiplied by the TCI, which is expressed
in the constant dollars corresponding
to the year(s) during which the facil-
ity was, or might be, built. Therefore,
even five, ten, or more years after the
facility comes on line, the calculated
maintenance cost is still equal to the
maintenance cost in the first year. To
compensate for this defect, the engi-
neer making the estimate should esca-
late the TCI to the current dollars cor-
responding to the year of the estimate.
This escalation is typically done via an
index, such as the Chemical Engineer-
ing Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; see p. 64
in this issue), which has been calcu-
lated by, and tabulated in, this maga-
zine for over 40 years [7].
Despite its disadvantages, estimat-
Circle 18 on p. 53 or go to
adlinks.che.com/4818-18
 Feature Report
ing maintenance cost as a percentage
of the TCI as in Equation (4) is far and
away the most commonly used method
for computing this expenditure. A com-
monly used rule-of-thumb with this
equation is to split the calculated cost
evenly between maintenance labor
and maintenance materials.
Overhead
Overhead is a charge assessed against
the total labor cost (the sum of oper-
ating, supervisory, and maintenance
labor). Some estimators split overhead
into two categories: payroll and plant.
Payroll overhead covers all costs that
the employer company pays for the
privilege of retaining its staff. These
costs include: Social Security (employ-
er’s contribution); Worker’s Compensa-
tion; life, medical, health, and dental
insurance; sick leave and vacations;
and other similar expenses. Plant over-
head is a charge assessed to cover such
items as plant lighting and protection,
employee amenities (cafeterias, locker
rooms, other), and common areas, such
as parking lots. The total overhead
charge, CO, varies according to the
firm’s accounting system. It can range
from as low as 50% to more than 150%
of the total labor cost. A mid-range es-
timate is 100%. The relevant equation
is, thus, simply:
CO = 1.00(CL + CSL+ CM/2) (5)
where:
CM/2 = maintenance labor
(keeping in mind the
rule-of-thumb men-
tioned at the close of the
discussion on mainte-
nance, above)
Raw materials
For estimating the raw materials cost,
the engineer must in the first place
have a thorough understanding of the
process, especially with respect to its
inputs and outputs. Before the oper-
ating-cost estimate is made, design
engineers should have developed com-
plete material and energy balances
around the process. These should in-
dicate, among other things, the extent
to which the production reactions are
carried through to completion. If the
reactants have to be present in greater
than stoichiometric quantities, the re-
36 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
quired amounts of these raw materials
will have to be adjusted accordingly.
Once the raw-material quantities
have been determined (typically, on a
mass-per-mass-of-product basis), ob-
tain the current prices of these mate-
rials. Again, plant records are the best
sources of this information, as they
reflect such plant-specific charges as
freight and storage. But if these re-
cords are unavailable, the engineer
should refer to such published sources
as Chemical Week or Chemical Mar-
keting Reporter (chemical prices) or
the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) Energy
Information Administration’s Monthly
Energy Review (fuel prices).
The total raw materials cost (-CRMi)
is simply the sum of the costs of the in-
dividual raw materials:
-CRMi = -QRMiPRMi
(6)
where:
QRMi = quantity of Raw Mate-
rial i required (units/
year)
PRMi = price of Raw Material i
($/unit)
Utilities
Every process consumes electricity
and one or more other kinds of utili-
ties. Electricity is required by motors,
heaters, instrumentation and other
equipment, as well as for lighting; it is
also essential to some reactions, such
as producing chlorine and caustic soda
by electrolysis of brine. Steam, com-
monly circulated through the plant
via multiple headers at various pres-
sures, plays a wide role in most process
plants: for heating, for such process
applications as stripping, and even in
some instances (such as steam-meth-
ane reforming) as a reactant. Process
water is used in many unit operations;
it is a reactant in some reactions; and
it serves widely as cooling water in
condensers, heat exchangers and cool-
ers. Compressed air has a variety of
purposes in process plants.
In general, the cost of each util-
ity (CUi) is the product of its annual
consumption (QUi, units/year) and its
price (PUi, $/unit):
CUi = QUi PUi (7)
The total utilities cost is the sum of
the individual utility expenditures.
In addition to plant records, sources
of utility prices include local power,
gas, and water companies and such
publications as DOE’s Monthly En-
ergy Review mentioned above. Steam
and compressed-air prices, however,
are rarely published. Rather, plants
generally calculate their values in-
ternally. For example, steam costs are
a function of the cost of the fuel used
to produce it, as well as the fixed and
other variable costs associated with
the steam generator itself.
Royalties
Many products are produced under
license from other firms. For being al-
lowed to make and sell each such pat-
ented product, a company (licensee)
must pay a royalty to the firm hold-
ing the patent. Under typical royalty
agreements, each royalty (Croy) is as-
sessed as a fraction (R) of the revenue
the licensee receives from making and
selling the product:
Croy = R(QprodPprod) (8)
where:
Qprod = annual production of
product (units/year)
Pprod = price of product ($/unit)
The value of R will vary, of course,
according to the licensing agreement
made with the patent holder.
Laboratory charges
Periodically, raw materials and prod-
ucts have to be sampled and tested to
ensure that they meet specifications.
The cost of the labor required to do
this is charged against the process.
Laboratory labor is usually figured as
a percentage of total operating labor.
While this assessment (CLab) varies
by plant, a rule-of-thumb is 15% of the
total operating labor, or:
CLab = 0.15CL (9)
Pollution control costs
During the past three or four decades,
the costs of controlling air, water, and
solid waste pollutants have increased
dramatically, due to: the increasing
stringency of federal, state, and local
control regulations in the U.S. and
comparable regulations in other na-
tions; pressure from environmental
 TABLE 1. INDEXES FOR COST ESCALATION
O&M Cost Index Number Index Name
Operating CEU3232500006 Manufacturing/Chemicals (avg. hourly earnings)
labor
CEU3232600006 Manufacturing/Plastics and rubber products
CEU3232400006 Manufacturing/Petroleum and coal products
Electricity wpu0543 Fuels & related products/industrial electric power
Natural gas wpu05310105 Fuels & related products/natural gas
organizations; and other influences.
Engineers preparing operating-cost
estimates should take care not to over-
look this source of expense. For some
chemical-process plants, admittedly,
pollution-control costs consist solely of
those for purchasing, installing, oper-
ating and maintaining a few pieces of
equipment, such as a thermal oxidizer
system. For other plants, however, con-
trol systems are extremely large and
complex — indeed, many are virtu-
ally process plants in their own right.
Prime examples are the lime- and
limestone-based fluegas-desulfuriza-
tion systems used to control sulfur di-
oxide emissions from large CPI-plant
boilers, and the elaborate wastewater
treatment facilities required for some
manufacturing processes and plant
locations.
Information on pollution control
costs is available in several published
sources, among them References [3]
and [8]. For purposes of making bud-
get/study estimates, the direct operat-
ing costs for pollution control (CPC)
are commonly assessed on a dollars-
per-unit-of-pollutant-removed basis:
CPC = PPCQPC (10)
where: QPC = quantity of pol-
lutant removed (gaseous, liquid, solid),
units/year
To avoid double-counting, this ap-
proach assumes that the direct operat-
ing costs dedicated to pollution control
(labor, utilities, etc.) are not included
in the various costs calculated via
Equations (1) through (9). Admittedly,
it may be difficult in some situations
for the engineer to separate process
costs from pollution-control-related
costs. For example, at a small facility,
an operator might be responsible for
monitoring both the production and
the pollution-control units. Here, allo-
cating a portion of the operator’s time
to pollution control might be arbitrary.
In other cases, a pollution control unit
(such as a gas absorber) might be used
to recover product, as well as to con-
trol regulated air emissions. For such
“
“ figures for their sectors. The PPIs and
“double duty” units, it is difficult to
distinguish the utilities, maintenance,
and other costs consumed for product
recovery from those applicable to con-
trolling emissions.
Nevertheless, an estimate of the
pollution-related operating costs is
usually wanted by plant and company
management, even when the prepara-
tion of that estimate involves difficult
or somewhat arbitrary allocations.
Furthermore, in many instances in
which the engineering project involves
a proposed modification to an exist-
ing plant in the U.S., estimates of the
pollution-related operating costs are,
in fact, required in the course of ob-
taining the necessary environmental
permits, such as PSD (Prevention of
Significant Deterioration) air permits.
Similar allocations must be made
when water, solid waste, and other pol-
lution control permits are developed.
Escalating the costs
A young man once asked Somerset
Maugham his advice on how to be-
come a writer. After staring at him
for a moment, Maugham solemnly re-
plied, “Don’t!” The same advice applies
to the escalating of direct operating
costs.
At any event, unlike current capital
costs, which can be difficult to obtain,
the current prices for labor, utilities,
and other O&M costs are readily
available from several sources: pub-
lications, utility companies, and com-
pany records. Thus, escalation of O&M
prices should not be necessary. Never-
theless, on those rare occasions when
these data simply cannot be found,
published indexes can be used in an
attempt to update the prices of some
direct-operating-cost components.
For usage in the U.S., Table 1 lists
two selected Producer Price Indexes
(PPIs), for natural gas and electricity,
and three labor price indexes, for the
“chemicals,” “plastics and rubber prod-
ucts,” and “petroleum and coal prod-
ucts” sectors. The labor price indexes
can be used in two ways: as escalation
indexes, and as actual hourly-earnings
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 37
the labor price indexes are compiled
by the U.S. Dept of Labor’s BLS. Up-
dated monthly, each index is available
from the BLS website [9]. To obtain
the index data, simply enter the index
number on-line in the box labeled
“Enter series id(s) below,” indicate the
year(s) for which index data are de-
sired, and click on “Retrieve data”.
To estimate the current price of a
commodity (PC), multiply the com-
modity price for the base date (PB) by
the index value for the current date
(IC), divided by the index value for the
base date (IB):
PC = PB (IC/IB) (11)
To repeat, however — escalation of
O&M prices should only be done as a
last resort. ■
Edited by Nicholas P. Chopey
References
1. Peters, Max S., others, “Plant Design and
Economics for Chemical Engineers,” 5th Ed.,
McGraw-Hill, New York, 2003.
2. Engineering News-Record, various issues,
McGraw-Hill, New York.
3. “EPA Air Pollution Control Cost Manual,” 6th
Ed., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Research Triangle Park, N.C., 2002.
4. Singer, Tom, “Industrial Maintenance &
Plant Operation: Accounting for Costs,”
October 2002, http://www.keepmedia.com/
pubs/ IndustrialMaintenancePlantOpera-
tion/2002/10/01/244779.
5. Proteus Maintenance Management Software,
Eagle Technology, Inc., 2005. http://www.ea-
glecmms.com/Industry/Industry_Process.htm.
6. Jones, Edwin K., “Comparing Maintenance
Costs.” http://www.mt-online.com/ cur-
rent/09-00mm.html.
7. Vatavuk, William M., Updating the CE Plant Cost
Index, Chem. Eng., pp. 62-70, January 2002.
8. Vatavuk, William M., “Estimating Costs
of Air Pollution Control.” CRC Press, Boca
Raton, Fla., 1990.
9. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of
Labor, http://data.bls.gov/ cgi-bin/srgate.
Author
William M. Vatavuk is
president of Vatavuk Engi-
neering (3512 Angus Road,
Durham, NC 27705-5404;
phone: 919-699-3336; fax:
413-638-1336; e-mail: wil-
liam.vatavuk@verizon.net), a
consulting firm specializing
in air pollution control and
chemical-process-industries
cost analysis. He retired from
U.S. EPA’s Air Programs Office
after a 30-year career. Vatavuk is the author of
two books, two book chapters, and scores of ar-
ticles on cost analysis. He created and regularly
updates the “Vatavuk Air Pollution Control Cost
Indexes,” which appear monthly in CE (see p. 64).
Vatavuk has a B.E. in chemical engineering from
Youngstown State University and is a registered
professional engineer in North Carolina.
 Feature Report
Engineering Practice
Get the Most out of
API Separators
The keys to maximizing performance
include a realistic, educated awareness
of the separator’s capabilities,
an understanding of how the device
functions, and an appreciation of
what it should have in the way
of support equipment
Thomas E. Schultz
USFilter
any chemical process
M plants, particularly petro-
leum refineries and pet-
rochemical plants, employ
API separators as their
first, and arguably the most impor-
tant, wastewater treatment step for
primary oil/solids separation (Figure
1). Employing gravity-driven settling,
the separators remove gross quanti-
ties of oil and suspended solids from
plant wastewater prior to subsequent
downstream wastewater-treatment
processes, the latter normally con-
sisting of a second oil/water-separa-
tor polishing step plus some form of
advanced (usually biological) treat-
ment for removing dissolved organic
compounds. An understanding of the
design, the operating principles and
the available options for these devices
can maximize the value derived from
them by process plants
Jointly developed more than 70
years ago by the American Petroleum
Institute (API) and Rex Chain Belt
Co. (now USFilter Envirex Products),
the first API separator was installed
in 1933, at Atlantic Refining’s Phila-
delphia refinery. Since then, hundreds
of refineries around the world have in-
stalled these separators in their waste-
water treatment plants (WWTPs).
The API separator works on the
38 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
FIGURE 1. API separators have long been
principle of Stokes’ Law. The tech-
nology, which allows oil to rise to the
surface of the device, is based on the
difference between the specific gravity
of the oil to be separated and that of
the wastewater. This difference is typ-
ically much less than the difference
between the total suspended solids
(TSS) and wastewater, so the majority
of TSS will settle in the unit. Thus, the
oil and TSS phases alike are removed
in the API separator.
Design standards and features
The typical API separator is basically
a long, narrow and shallow tank. A
further description can be deduced
from its design standards, the most
current version being set out in API
Publication 421, “Management of
Water Discharges: Design and Opera-
tion of Oil Water Separator.” Among
the most important design criteria are
the following:
• The minimum length-to-width ratio
is 5:1, to ensure that the operating
conditions are as close to plug flow as
possible, and to minimize the poten-
tial for short-circuiting in the unit
• The minimum depth-to-width ratio
is 0.3:0.5, to ensure that the sepa-
ration units are not excessively
deep. This provision minimizes the
amount of time needed for oil par-
workhorse devices for refiners and
petrochemicals manufacturers
ticles to rise to the surface
• The maximum channel width is 20
ft; the maximum depth, 8 ft
• The horizontal velocity is no more
than 3 ft/sec, to minimize turbulence
and consequent interference with
oil/wastewater separation
• Reaction jet baffles are recom-
mended, to diffuse influent flows
across the width and depth of the
API separator. The baffles help min-
imize the effect of high wastewater
inlet velocities, as well as the pos-
sible short-circuiting and decreased
oil-removal efficiency associated
with such velocities
• API separators can remove oil parti-
cles of 150-micron size or larger. Un-
less sizing adjustments are made to
compensate for removal of smaller
oil droplets, particles smaller than
150 microns will normally exit the
separator with the wastewater, and
will need to be removed by down-
stream treatment.
Employment of numerous design
features can ensure efficient treat-
ment, environmental compliance and
minimal need for operator attention:
• There should be single scraper/skim-
mer system in the tank to remove
the settled solids and floating oil.
This provision prevents solids and
oil from accumulating in the vessel
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FIGURE 2. For wastewaters containing substances that are toxic or
otherwise hazardous, it is prudent to specify steel tanks that are above-
ground. This approach also facilitates maintenance and inspection
and thus reducing separator capac-
ity. A four-shaft system employing a
chain and a flight collector can con-
vey settled solids to a sludge hopper
at the inlet end and floating oil to
a skimmer (see next phrase) at the
effluent end
• A rotating oil-skimmer pipe, or oil
roll skimmer, should be provided
to remove accumulated oil from the
surface of the fluid in the separator.
The design may also include an elec-
tronic or manual means of monitor-
ing the tank’s oil level
• A sludge pumping system and re-
lated equipment should be included,
to intermittently or continuously re-
move accumulated sludge from the
separator
• Abovegrade separators should be
equipped with a pumping mecha-
nism to deliver the wastewater to
the units
• The separator requires a system to
distribute and disperse the waste-
water at the inlet
• Airtight covers can be provided to
contain VOCs and other vapors,
usually with some type of inert-gas
blanketing system for safety
• Aboveground steel tanks should be
provided to contain potentially haz-
ardous wastes and wastewaters, as
shown in Figure 2.
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and is considering the
use of one should become
aware that there are at FIGURES 3 (top) and 4. Although the influent
streams to API separators can vary significantly
least two basic fallacies with respect to their content of oil, grease and total
about their performance. suspended solids, as well as pH, the quality of the
One fallacy is that sepa- effluent from a well-designed separator should
rators invariably remove prove to be not only acceptable but also consistent
a certain percentage of oil
plus TSS from wastewater. In truth, accurate to state that a well-designed
because every application is different, API separator should achieve effluent
the amount, size distribution and spe- oil and TSS concentrations of down
cific gravity of the oil particles and TSS to 50 to 200 mg/L in the water phase
particles in the wastewater can differ leaving the device, independent of in-
significantly. The removal efficiency fluent concentration. In this context,
of these constituents will also vary Figures 3 and 4 show how a properly
accordingly. Operational variables, designed separator can be expected to
such as ones concerning the pumping operate in a petroleum refinery. Note
the wastewater to the separators, can that the separator performance de-
shear oil particles into smaller ones picted in the graph does lead to fairly
and therefore hinder separation. In consistent effluent quality, despite the
short, the removal efficiency of oil and influent quality being highly variable.
TSS must be evaluated on a case-by-
case basis. The support equipment
Another fallacy is that API separa- The specifying and designing of an
tors should always be able to achieve API separator to operate properly re-
the effluent quality desired by its user, quires more than just running a siz-
regardless of influent oil and TSS con- ing calculation; the supporting equip-
centrations. In fact, site-specific issues ment must also be properly designed.
can have a significant impact on efflu- This includes the subsystems for: raw
ent quality. On the other hand, it is wastewater pumping (if used); sludge
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 39
 Engineering Practice
pumping and removal; sludge collec-
tion; VOC and vapor containment; and
oil collection and removal
Raw wastewater pumping: Many
new API separators are housed in
above-grade steel tanks, making them
easier to maintain and inspect. With
this type of tank, raw wastewater
cannot flow by gravity to the separa-
tor, but rather must be pumped to the
tank. The pumping action, however,
can shear and emulsify oil droplets,
which not only hinders oil removal in
the separator but also lowers the per-
formance of downstream wastewater
treatment processes.
So, it is wise to specify a pump that
induces low shear and low turbulence.
An Archimedes screw pump is ideal
for this application (Figure 5). Low-
shear centrifugal pumps have also
been used, although they are not as
effective at reducing pumping shear
forces.
Sludge pumping and removal: In-
effective sludge removal is the most
common cause of API separators not
operating properly. For this reason,
sludge pumping and removal systems
are perhaps the most important sup-
port equipment in the API separator
design. These systems remove accu-
mulated oily sludge from the separa-
tor, and prevent overloading the com-
ponents of internal chain and flight
collectors with excessive sludge.
When one is specifying or designing
a separator sludge-removal system,
the following points should be kept in
mind:
• The sludge that develops in API sep-
arators is heavy, viscous and sticky.
In sludge hoppers, it can quickly
bridge, plugging sludge withdrawal
points. To ensure continued removal
from the separator, it is essential to
fluidize and break up this compacted
sludge. Water or steam fluidization
nozzles within the sludge hoppers
can alleviate this situation
• Oily sludge also tends to adhere to
sludge-withdrawal piping. As a re-
sult, cleanout and flushing connec-
tions must be provided, to prevent
the material from accumulating and
eventually plugging the piping
• Sludge pump selection is critical.
Conventional centrifugal pumps
often have difficulty moving the
40 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
thick solids in API bottoms.
Positive-displacement dia-
phragm pumps and, to a
degree, centrifugal trash
pumps are acceptable in
such applications
• Whenever possible, sludge
pumps should be located
close to and at the same
elevation as the sludge
hoppers, to provide flooded
suction to the pumps and
to minimize plugging the
sludge suction piping. Due
to the sludge’s viscous na-
ture, it is not advisable to
locate the sludge pumps
above the separator’s water
surface
Sludge collector systems:
An API separator’s chain-
and-flight-collector system
skims the floating oil to a
common collection point and
scrapes settled oil solids (the
sludge) to a common with-
FIGURE 5. Archimedes screw pumps are good
drawal point. If floating oil choices for delivering raw wastewater to API sepa-
and settled solids are allowed rators’ aboveground tanks
to accumulate, the separa-
tor’s effective volume will eventually their cast iron or steel counterparts.
decrease. This accumulation will also Nonmetallic components are a more
affect oil- and solids-removal effi- recent introduction in collector chain
ciency, lead to increased oil and TSS technology. Many types and styles
concentrations in the exiting efflu- have been used in API separators,
ent, and adversely affect downstream their success depending mainly on
treatment processes. A well-designed their material composition. Certain
sludge collector system will prevent nonmetallic chains are prone to attack
this from occurring. from organic compounds in the waste-
In particular, the chain and flight water. Other types can expand unduly
collector components must be speci- in the presence of high wastewater
fied to accommodate heavy-duty ser- temperatures; this elongation may
vice. Although numerous styles are cause the chains to disengage from the
available, they are not all ideal for use sprockets and may also result in the
in API separators. collector system failing prematurely.
Metallic chains have traditionally Aside from the material-composition
been used in API separators, with issue, abrasive grit in the wastewater
varying degrees of success. Consist- can also cause excessive wear and pre-
ing of cast iron, cast steel or stainless mature failure on improperly designed
steel, metallic chain is much heavier chain connector pins. On the other
than non-metallic chain. Metallic hand, with proper selection of chain
chains’ weight can be a major disad- materials and design, the nonmetallic
vantage during installation. Cast iron chains can offer suitable resistance to
and steel components may deteriorate chemicals and abrasion, mechanical
over time due to API separators’ some- strength matching that of their me-
what corrosive wastewater and, as a tallic counterparts, and significantly
result, they may require periodic re- lower material costs and installation
placement. While not as susceptible to labor charges.
corrosion, stainless steel components Metallic and nonmetallic collector
are significantly more expensive than sprockets alike are available. They
FIGURE 6. In many cases, the components for modern chain and
flight collectors employ fiberglass as a material of construction
have the same advantages and disad-
vantages as nonmetallic chains, with
one exception: Motor-driven sprockets,
and ones for collector head shafts, op-
erate under a lot of torque, and some
nonmetallic sprockets acceptable for
use on idler shafts may not be suitable
for these high-torque applications be-
cause of material strength.
Collector flights were formerly made
of expensive redwood, whereas fiber-
glass material has become popular for
this role today (Figure 6). However, fi-
berglass flights’ suitability depends on
the type of resin used to make them.
The organic compounds found in refin-
ery and petrochemical-plant wastewa-
ter cause many resins to deteriorate,
and the flights to rapidly delaminate.
The strength and stiffness of the
flight also depend on the modulus of
elasticity of the material, as well as
the moment of inertia of the flight it-
self. Weak flights may bend or break
due to heavy sludge loads.
A typical chain-and-flight collec-
tor system has wear shoes: usually of
steel for metallic collectors, or of poly-
ethylene for nonmetallic ones. The
wear shoes ride on wear strips that
are attached to floor rails in the bot-
tom of the API separator as well as to
carrying tracks at the top of the unit.
Mostly, stainless steel is employed for
wear strips, because nonmetallic wear
strips could expand under heated con-
ditions and carbon steel wear strips
could corrode.
VOC and vapor control systems: In
many refinery or petrochemical-plant
installations, API separators require
either floating or fixed covers for con-
tainment and control of volatile or-
FIGURE 7. To prevent emissions of volatile organic com-
pounds, many API separators are outfitted with covers
ganic compounds (VOCs), as shown in probes in the separator covers to
Figure 7. Floating covers float directly monitor oil concentrations at vari-
on the liquid surface in the separator, ous depths in the units, or installing
whereas fixed covers are set above the sample taps on the side of an above-
surface. Fixed covers are more com- grade separator to manually monitor
monly used on new API-separator in- oil depth.
stallations, and floating covers on ex- Oil collection and removal sys-
isting ones that must become covered tems: Efficiency in removing oil from
for VOC control. the separator ensures that the oil
In evaluating the best cover selec-
tion for a given situation, consider the
following:
• Oil skimming efficiency (will inter-
ference be a problem?)
• Ease-of-access to, and maintenance
of, collector components
• Safe operation
• Capital and operating costs
• Regulatory compliance
• Maintenance requirements
Floating covers can sometimes inter-
fere with oil skimming devices that
extend above the water surface at the
effluent end of the separator. In such
instances, a fixed cover must be used
over that portion of the separator,
even if a floating cover is used for the
rest of it.
It is difficult if not impossible to see
into a covered separator to determine
the oil levels and the skimming needs.
This drawback results in oil either not
being removed often enough (causing
oil carryover to downstream treat-
ment processes) or being skimmed too
often (resulting in significant amounts
of water being skimmed with the oil).
Windows installed in the covers have
been tried to alleviate this problem.
But they usually become fouled with
oil and with water condensation, ren-
dering them useless. More-successful
solutions include installing electronic Circle 09 on p. 53 or go to
adlinks.che.com/4818-09
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 41
 Engineering Practice

(which has economic value) dedicated oil-water-separation

will be collected, recovered and step may be used for just the de-
reprocessed, instead of either salter brine water, to break any
accumulating at the separator oil emulsions and remove the
unit or entering downstream majority of free oil before send-
treatment processes. ing the brine water to the sewer.
As already mentioned, the This can prevent overloading the
chain and flight collector skims WWTP separators with oil and
oil from the influent end to the consequently affecting down-
effluent end of the separator. stream treatment processes.
There, a skimmer pipe typically Spent caustic is less likely to
serves to remove the oil. This cause problems in most refiner-
slotted pipe extends partially ies and petrochemical plants. If
into the surface of the API sepa- sent to sewer systems upstream
rator, and is rotated so that the of oil/water separators, how-
slotted section is on the oil sur- ever, spent caustic can raise the
face. When the skimmer pipe’s wastewater’s pH and cause oil
slots are fully up, the skimming emulsification, especially when
temporarily ceases. turbulence (such as that due to
To help ensure that the wastewater pumping) occurs.
skimmed oil does not contain To avoid these situations,
excessive water, many API sep- FIGURE 8. Oil removal is vital for APi separators spent caustic should be added
arators also include an oil roll to the wastewater downstream
skimmer. This device is an externally separators. This oil is closer to the of oil/water separation equipment, or
rotated drum, normally made of metal specific gravity of water, and therefore should be disposed of by some other
(in many cases, stainless steel), that takes longer to separate by gravity. As means, such as separate on-site treat-
extends across the width of the sepa- a result, the separator’s efficiency may ment or off-site disposal.
rator and is partially submerged in decrease significantly. To offset this
the wastewater surface. As the drum complication, some refineries have In summary
rotates, free oil adheres to the drum’s greatly reduced wastewater genera- The API separator represents one of
specially prepared surface. Accumu- tion at their facilities through water the most important wastewater treat-
lated oil is removed by a doctor blade, conservation measures. In either case, ment steps for refineries and petro-
then flows into a collection trough and because of changing operating condi- chemical plants. Proper design and
out of the unit. The oil collected by an tions over the years, separators in- selection of support equipment are
oil roll skimmer is usually 95% pure stalled 20 to 40 years ago should be re- crucial to proper operation. Plant op-
and is easily reprocessed. viewed to ensure adequate protection erational activities, such as changes
The skimmer pipe will not remove of downstream treatment equipment. in crude oil slates or introduction of
floating debris or paraffins that may Oil emulsions in wastewater pose a spent caustic into the separators may
be present. It also has a limited capac- major problem to existing API separa- also affect the separator’s operation.
ity and can become quickly overloaded tors. As gravity separation devices, API By considering the tips presented in
by refinery or petrochemical upsets. separators are typically designed to re- this article, operators can improve the
For this reason, an oil skimmer pipe move free oil particles larger than 150 operation of existing API separators
is almost always used as a backup oil microns. Anything that increases the and ensure that new API separators
removal device. Oil may be skimmed percentage of sub-150-micron oil par- meet performance expectations. ■
using solely an oil roll skimmer, but ticles can significantly impact the sepa- Edited by Nicholas P. Chopey
such operation is difficult due to the rators’ efficiency. Desalter brine water
large skimming area, the water el- and spent caustic are two common op- Author
evation changes in the separator, and erational issues that can affect the size Thomas E. (Tom) Schultz
is vice president of sales and
inaccuracies associated with rotating of oil particles and cause oil emulsions. marketing for the petroleum
the skimmer pipe. The increased processing of heavier and chemical industries for
USFilter; his office is at 1901
crude oils all too often results in poorer South Prairie Ave., P.O. Box
Operational issues oil/water separation in the crude-oil 1604, Waukesha, WI 53187-
1604; Phone: 262 547 0141;
Many API separators in use today at desalter, and consequent emulsion email: schultzt@usfilter.com.
During the past 18 of his 23
petroleum refineries were designed formation. Significant amounts of oil years with the company, he
and installed several decades ago, and oil emulsions that can quickly has dealt exclusively with
water and wastewater treatment issues in the
when much lighter crude oils were overwhelm API separators, as well as petroleum industry. He holds a B.S. in civil/en-
being processed. As crude slates have other oil/water-separation equipment vironmental Engineering from the University of
Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and is an active mem-
become heavier, so too has the oil con- in downstream wastewater-treatment ber of the National Petrochemical and Refiners
tained in the wastewater that enters units. To deal with such situations, a Assn. and of the American Petroleum Institute.

42 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005

 ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY
"Y2EBEKKAH-ARSHALL

COMMON FUNCTIONAL GROUPS

Functional Example
Family group Formula IUPAC Name Common name
Aliphatic hydrocarbons

Alkane C—H and C—C H3CCH3

bonds Ethane Ethane

Alkene # # H2C=CH2 Ethene Ethylene

Alkyne # # HC>CH Ethyne Acetylene

Aromatic hydrocarbons

Arene C6H6 Benzene Benzene

Groups with single bonds to heteroatoms (atoms other than carbon or hydrogen)

Alcohol # /( H3CCH2OH Ethanol Ethyl alcohol

Methanamine or
Amine # . H3CNH2 Aminomethane
Methylamine

Ether # / # H3C–O–CH3 Methoxymethane Dimethyl ether

Halide # 8 H3C–I Iodomethane Methyl iodide

Sulfide # 3 # H3C–S–CH3 Dimethyl sulfide Dimethyl sulfide

Thiol # 3( H3C–SH Methanethiol Methyl mercaptan

Groups with multiple bonds to heteroatoms

/
#
Acid anhydride / (H3CCO)2O Ethanoic anhydride Acetic anhydride
#
/

/
Acid halide # H3CCOCl Ethanoyl chloride Acetyl chloride
8

/
Aldehyde # H3CCHO Ethanal Acetaldehyde
(

/
#
Amide H3CCON(CH3)2 N,N-Dimethylethanamide N,N-Dimethylacetamide
.

/
Carboxylic acid # H3CCO2H Ethanoic acid Acetic acid
/(

/
#
Ester H3CCO2CH3 Methyl ethanoate Methyl acetate
/ #

/
Ketone # # H3CCOCH3 Propanone Acetone

Nitrile # . H3C–CN Ethanenitrile Acetonitrile

 Environmental Manager

When evaluating the technology

choices for treating organics-
laden exhaust streams,
a range of variables
must be considered

Choose the
Right Emissions-Control Option
FIGURE 1. In a five-chambered catalytic oxidizer, such as this one, a noble or
base metal catalyst promotes oxidation of the exhaut stream at a temperature that
Steve Blocki is several hundred degrees less than that required by a regenerative thermal oxi-
Durr Environmental dizer. Lower oxidation temperatures reduce fuel needs and operating costs, and
allow the oxidizer to be built from less-exotic steels, reducing fabrication costs

D
etermining the most eco-
nomical option to control
airborne emissions during
chemical process operations
presents several unique challenges.
As with any add-on control system,
the goal is to minimize the annualized
total costs while maintaining proper
operation. However, the highly vari-
able nature of many industrial emis-
sion sources and the potential for wild
fluctuations among particular exhaust
stream variables (such as air volumes,
pollutant loadings, and varying com-
binations of pollutants) create addi-
tional challenges in terms of choosing
the optimum system, managing stable
operations and managing costs.
The types of industrial exhaust
streams that present particular pollu-
tion-control challenges include:
• Emissions from multiple sources,
which are often spread out over a
wide area
• Emissions from batch operations
• Unpredictable fugitive emissions
For the most economical treatment
by the centralization of the treatment
system, disparate airborne sources
are often collected and concentrated.
The goal is to create as few streams
as possible with the lowest overall air
volume requiring treatment.
For some sites, this calls for an ex-
tensive ductwork system to collect
and deliver the various emissions
44 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
streams to one location. An example
is a product storage facility that has
multiple tanks or vessels, each of
which vents small, irregular exhaust
volumes whenever product is loaded
and displaces the vapor phase in the
tank or vessel. Another example is
a facility that has many batch pro-
cesses, each of which vents pollut-
ant-laden emissions in unpredictable
concentrations whenever the process
is initiated or terminated.
Fugitive emissions should be col-
lected in the lowest air volume pos-
sible to minimize cost. Toward this
end, closely designed capture systems,
or add-on concentration technologies,
can be used effectively.
Exhaust stream variables
Since industrial emissions often vary
in terms of fluctuating air volumes, the
presence of multicomponent emissions
and the nature and concentrations of
hydrocarbons present, the emissions-
control system must be designed to
accommodate such variables. Other
variables that affect technology and
feature selection include the operating
characteristics of the emitting process,
the method of emissions collection, and
the number and magnitude of the dif-
ferent sources. How each of these fac-
tors affects technology selection is ex-
amined more closely below.
Control systems for airborne emis-
sions can either recover or destroy or-
ganic pollutants. If reuse of the chemi-
cal species is possible or presents some
economic opportunities, then recovery
is generally preferred. In most cases,
however, the only recovery value
for the airborne organics is as a fuel
source; the recovered hydrocarbons
are eventually burned to offset fuel
consumption at the facility.
Destruction options
For hydrocarbon emissions, the most
commonly applied form of destruction
is thermal oxidation. In this process,
hydrocarbons are converted at an el-
evated temperature to carbon dioxide
and water vapor. Several types of oxi-
dation systems are widely used today
(each is discussed below):
• Recuperative thermal oxidizers
• Regenerative catalytic oxidizers
• Regenerative thermal oxidizers
• Variable exhaust destruction sys-
tems, capable of efficiently treating liq-
uid, gas, or even solid waste streams
Recuperative thermal oxidizers
(recups) include a combustion cham-
ber with a primary heat exchanger to
recover waste heat from the hot, incin-
erated exhaust air and use it to pre-
heat the incoming emissions-laden air
stream. These oxidizers typically in-
clude a shell-and-tube heat exchanger
that is capable of up to 70% primary
heat recovery.
 FIGURE 2. Inside a three-chambered regenerative thermal oxidizer
(RTO), such as the one shown here, the chambers are filled with ceramic
heat exchange media, which capture heat in the treated exhaust stream,
and use it to reduce overall fuel needs. To ensure continuous operation,
the chambers operate in an alternating sequence so that at least one
chamber is operating in inlet mode while the other is in outlet mode

from 1,350°F or greater heat in the hot air is transferred tem-

With an oxidation temperature of
about 1,400ºF, such systems often
yield sufficient waste heat for second-
ary heat recovery, even after primary
heat recovery. This heat is typically
employed for process heating, or to
generate steam or hot water. Recu-
perative oxidizers are typically best
suited for those applications where
the excess heat that is generated can
be used to offset the relatively high op-
erating (fuel energy) cost for the unit.
A typical recup can handle a wide
variety of solvent blends, as well as
the fluctuating solvent concentrations
that are typically produced in CPI ap-
plications. As the inlet temperature
increases, the temperature leaving
the preheat exchanger also increases.
If this preheat temperature gets too
high, preignition of the solvents may
occur, resulting in thermal stress
and possible damage to the heat ex-
change tubes. Therefore, for high inlet
temperatures, (i.e., above 400ºF), the
oxidizer heat recover may have to be
redesigned to lower the heat recovery,
thereby lowering the preheat temper-
ature and the threat of preignition.
A recup will efficiently destroy halo-
genated compounds, but if such com-
pounds are present, more-exotic met-
allurgy is needed, often making the
recup a less economical alternative.
Pressure drop through recuperative
thermal oxidizers is steady, requiring
no automatic volume control. How-
ever, if the emitting process produces
exhaust streams of variable volume,
automatic control will be required to
ensure steady burner operation.
Regenerative catalytic oxidiz-
ers operate on the same principle
as recuperative oxidizers, but use
a catalyst to promote the oxidation
process at lower temperatures (Fig-
ure 1). The catalyst — either a noble
or base metal type — can reduce the
necessary oxidation temperature
to 600-800°F or lower.
This can reduce natural
gas consumption, and
hence operating cost,
compared to a recupera-
tive thermal oxidizer,
and allows the oxidizer
to be built from less-expensive steels
as well, resulting in lower equipment
fabrication costs.
The major disadvantages of a cata-
lytic oxidizer is the higher maintenance
costs that result from the need to moni-
tor the catalyst to ensure performance.
Heavy metals and halogens are known
to deactivate catalysts, as do certain
organic silicones, although some newer
catalysts have been developed to oper-
ate in the face of halogenated streams.
In general, before a catalytic oxidizer
can be specified, the user needs to be
very knowledgeable about the various
organic and inorganic compounds in
the exhaust stream. Also, the catalytic
thermal oxidizer is not recommended
for air streams containing changing
hydrocarbon blends and fluctuating
concentrations, and is a poor technol-
ogy for many of the exhaust streams
found in the CPI.
Regenerative thermal oxidiz-
ers (RTOs) consist of a purification
chamber located above three separate
chambers (Figure 2). These three en-
ergy-recovery chambers are filled with
ceramic heat exchange media. The hy-
drocarbon-laden air enters the inlet
header and is directed to one of the
energy-recovery chambers through
an inlet control valve (Figure 3). The
air passes through the heat exchange
media, absorbing heat. It then enters
the purification chamber at a temper-
ature very close to the oxidation tem-
perature, typically 1,400 – 1,550°F. If
the incoming gas contains sufficient
concentration of solvents, the energy
content of those organics provides
the necessary heat to raise the tem-
perature of the exhaust stream to the
combustion setpoint. In this case, the
burner will shut off, leaving only a
small pilot flame burning.
The purified air leaves the unit by
passing through the heat exchange
media in an adjacent chamber. The
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
porarily to the heat exchange media.
The clean air is discharged through a
stack to the atmosphere. The tempera-
ture of the air as it leaves the unit is
typically only 60–120°F greater than
the temperature of the polluted air en-
tering the RTO, signifying good heat
recovery and, thus, a very low natural
gas requirement.
During operation, multiple cham-
bers of an RTO operate in an alter-
nating sequence, so that at least one
chamber is always operating in inlet
mode while the second is in outlet
mode. The third chamber, necessary
for elevated destruction efficiency, is
on purge mode, as explained below.
The RTO is equipped with a purge
system that allows the evacuation of
solvent-laden air that may become
trapped below the heat exchange
media to be evacuated. The automatic
purge cycle forces this polluted air
into the purification chamber where
the hydrocarbons are destroyed. This
feature ensures a continuous high de-
struction efficiency up to 99%.
The advantages of an RTO include
very high thermal and destruction ef-
ficiency, NOx emissions as low as 10–
20% of levels produced by other oxi-
dizers, lower susceptibility to attack
from hydrocarbons, and lower overall
operating costs. The disadvantages of
an RTO include large size (resulting
from the need for very large ceramic
heat exchange surface), more expen-
sive installation and higher capital
cost, and more moving parts. Despite
these disadvantages, many features of
the RTO make it an ideal technology
for the CPI.
In some cases, design modifications
are necessary for the unit to safely
handle the wide range of exhaust
stream characteristics. The high ther-
mal efficiency of the RTO means fuel
costs are low for exhaust streams with
very dilute pollutant loads. However, if
the exhaust stream that the RTO unit
treats can at times emit very high hy-
drocarbon concentrations, the thermal
efficiency of the unit drops sharply. As
the organic concentration increases,
the excess energy available from the
heat of combustion must be exhausted
45
 Environmental Manager
to the atmosphere. In this situation,
some form of heat-rejection capability
must be built in.
When directed into the RTO
through the ceramic-filled tower (its
usual path), the process air enters the
combustion chamber at over 1,300°F.
During periods of high hydrocarbon
concentrations, the heat-rejection
system routes process air at inlet con-
ditions directly into the combustion
chamber of the unit, bypassing the
ceramic-filled tower. By doing this,
the inlet air acts as a cooling medium
for the excess combustion energy,
maintaining control over the combus-
tion chamber temperature.
The excess combustion energy must
still be exhausted to the atmosphere.
As a result, the stack temperature
gradually increases during periods of
high hydrocarbon concentrations, in-
dicating heat rejection.
Multiple emission sources, such as
process vents or small batch opera-
tions that have been ducted together,
can usually be treated with an RTO.
Among its other advantages are these:
the RTO has no exposed metal in the
combustion chamber, reducing its sus-
ceptibility to acid attack; excess heat
from high solvent loads can quickly be
rejected from the combustion chamber;
and its burner can quickly fire should
solvent levels fall. In short, this ap-
proach remains a flexible option dur-
ing the oxidation of most hydrocarbon
mixes or concentrations.
Additionally, the RTO can handle
a wide range of air volumes, typically
as low as 5–10% of design. Generally,
recycle capabilities can be installed
to ensure that even with inlet flow as
little as 2 to 4% of design, the unit will
operate at steady state with continued
design destruction efficiencies.
Rotary concentrators are used for
air streams roughly 20,000 scfm or
greater, with hydrocarbon concentra-
tions less than 3% of the lower explo-
sive limit to concentrate the emissions
into smaller air streams that can be
handled more economically. The hy-
drocarbon-laden air passes through
the rotary adsorption unit where the
hydrocarbons are adsorbed by zeolite
or carbon media. The purified air is
exhausted to the atmosphere, and
the hydrocarbons that have been ad-
46 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
sorbed by the media are then removed
by periodic desorption running a
small volume of higher-temperature
air through the adsorption media. The
desorbed air that now contains the
highly concentrated stream of organic
pollutants is then delivered to the oxi-
dation unit for destruction.
The rotary concentration system is
designed to continuously adsorb or-
ganic pollutants from an air stream
onto the zeolite or activated carbon,
and to discharge purified air through
the center of the cylinder. The adsor-
bent is carried on a moving adsorbing
wheel, a section of which is simulta-
neously desorbed while adsorption is
being carried out. This design elimi-
nates the need for twin beds operated
in an alternating sequence.
During operation, a portion of the
rotating cylinder is simultaneously
desorbed by passing hot air through
a section of the cylinder. The section
being desorbed is sealed off from the
remainder of the wheel by rotor seals,
so that very high efficiencies can be
obtained in the continuously operated
system. For example, organic-capture
efficiencies for this type of system may
be as high as 99%.
Rotary concentration systems can
be designed using either zeolites or
activated carbon as the adsorption
media. In certain applications — such
as when higher-boiling hydrocarbons
are present — a granular activated
carbon (GAC) prefilter is used up-
stream of the honeycomb rotor. Simi-
larly, if the process emits hydrocar-
bons in widely varying concentrations,
a GAC prefilter can also smooth out
the concentration fluctuations so that
the pollutant-laden stream reaching
the rotor is more consistent in compo-
sition (thereby improving the overall
removal efficiency of the system).
The advantages of rotary concen-
tration systems include relatively low
energy consumption and low operat-
ing costs compared to regenerative or
recuperative oxidizers, an absence of
byproduct NOx formation (because no
combustion is involved), low pressure
drop, good reliability, and ease of op-
eration and maintenance due to few
moving parts and reduced heat stress.
As with any adsorption system, the in-
coming stream must have particulate
levels below approximately 0.6 grains
per thousand scf. Otherwise, particu-
late filtration is required upstream of
the adsorber to prevent blinding of the
media. Simple bag filters are generally
acceptable for that purpose.
Today, many CPI facilities use hy-
brid systems, which combine rotary
concentration adsorbers to concen-
trate dilute levels of solvents in large-
volume air streams, and oxidizers to
destroy the concentrated hydrocarbon
stream. This combination is a very
cost-effective option for treating large
exhaust streams with relatively dilute
levels of organic emissions.
Variable exhaust destruction
systems offer a cost-effective and reli-
able method for the treatment of ex-
haust air or liquids in the chemical,
petrochemical and pharmaceutical in-
dustries. Because they feature direct
combustion with no exchange of air,
variable exhaust destruction systems
normally achieve a destruction effi-
ciency of 99.9%
Typically, such systems are used for:
• Exhaust gases with fluctuating
flowrates and pollutant concentra-
tions high enough to be within the
explosive range
• Exhaust gases with an oxygen con-
tent of 0-21 vol.%
• Exhaust gases burning only with
a backup flame, self-burning lean
gases and self-burning rich gases
• Exhaust gases containing haloge-
nated compounds, nitrogen and/or
sulfur (this group includes all toxic
and carcinogenic substances)
• Residual liquids and waste solvents,
plus wastewater with dissolved or
emulsified organic and/or inorganic
substances difficult to remove
• Waste and residual liquids that con-
tain or form salts and/or salt-bind-
ing substances
In the variable exhaust destruction
systems, the combustion chamber can
be either a single- or multipass com-
bustion unit that is insulated with
a refractory lining and designed to
withstand extremely high tempera-
tures. It provides a safe environment
in which to oxidize multiple types of
gas, liquid and waste pollutants. This
combustion chamber and burner form
the heart of the system.
Generally a variable exhaust de-
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!REAOFHEAT tine facility operations. At any given

RECOVERY time, the hydrocarbon mix within the
stream was virtually unknown and
contained concentrations ranging from
almost zero to several thousand ppmv.
The total air stream was ducted to
a regenerative thermal oxidizer. To en-
sure consistently high destruction effi-
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ciencies as well as smooth operation in
LADDEN EXHAUSTFLOW
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several features were designed into the
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unit. A heat-rejection system was in-
,OCATIONOFFLOWCONTROL corporated to control combustion tem-
VALVESNOTVISIBLE peratures even with extremely high
hydrocarbon concentrations. A vari-
able-frequency drive was also included
with the exhaust fan to automatically
FIGURE 3.
compensate for air volume changes.
The alternating
sequence of a typical For extremely low air volumes, an ex-
three-chambered 4RANSITIONSTAGE haust recycle feature interfaced with a
regenerative thermal WHENONEOFTHETWO fresh air inlet to provide stable opera-
or catalytic oxidizer
݅>ÕÃÌʜÀÊ EXHAUSTFLOWSWILLCHANGETOINLET tion at ultralow volumes.
is shown here ÀiVœÛiÀÞ ANDTHEINLETWILLCHANGETOFLUSHINGMODE
struction system uses a multi-fuel
burner that combines organics-laden
combustion air with natural gas or oil
as primary fuel source. Liquid and ex-
haust gas streams are added as auxil-
iary fuel and oxidized at temperatures
ranging between 1,500 and 2,000ºF.
In a single-stage, variable exhaust
destruction system, all of the liquid
wastes, exhaust gases and combustion
air are fed into the system through the
burner that is located at the back of
the combustion chamber. If the waste
stream contains very low oxygen lev-
els, the system is specially designed to
meet the combustion air requirements
for the specific waste streams. If the
process gases or liquids are corro-
sive, then the burner and combustion
chamber may require special materi-
als for construction.
Dual-stage combustion systems are
used to combust both process gases
and liquids in the same system when
a primary and secondary combustion
zone is required. This might be the
case where the formation of secondary
products of combustion, such as NOx,
is an issue. In a dual-stage system, the
process gas or liquids are injected tan-
gentially into the secondary zone, and
mixed with natural gas fuel from the
primary combustion zone.
The variable exhaust destruction
system has been proven to safely and
reliably process exhaust streams laden
with extremely difficult or dangerous
materials. Numerous add-on enhance-
ments (such as heat recovery), safety
devices (such as flame arrestors), flash-
back suppression, water seals, steam
generators, NOx-removal systems,
lower explosive level (LEL) monitoring,
and dilution air injection can also be
considered during system design.
A major advantage of the system is
its ability to operate at oxygen concen-
trations as low as 4%, often firing suc-
cessfully using the waste fuel itself, or
with very little support fuel (such as
residual liquids or solvents) while si-
multaneously minimizing the forma-
tion of NOx.
Applying the right technology
Here is an example of how the best op-
tion for a given situation was selected
and applied. A chemical manufacturer
has an onsite product storage facility.
As product is loaded into the vari-
ous tanks and vessels, hydrocarbons
trapped in the vapor space are vented
to the atmosphere. This hydrocarbon-
laden air is exhausted in small, irregu-
lar volumes and contains a wide range
of hydrocarbon concentrations.
By means of an extensive duct sys-
tem routed throughout the facility, all
sources of airborne emissions were
collected and concentrated. The total
air volume fluctuated between 10 and
100% of design over the course of rou-
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
The resulting system oxidizes more
than 98% of the incoming hydrocar-
bons to carbon dioxide and water vapor.
Operation is smooth and steady-state,
and requires no operator intervention.
To date, no problems related to the
wide range of inlet conditions have
been experienced.
When evaluating technologies to
address airborne emissions, first
begin with sampling to determine
the types and concentration of hydro-
carbons and/or toxics being emitted.
Tests should be conducted under a
variety of operating scenarios. Fu-
ture production needs must also be
evaluated. A careful review of current
regulations and any changes that are
being anticipated by industry groups
is necessary. Finally, local site con-
straints must be evaluated. Then and
only then can the most-appropriate
technology option be selected. ■
Edited by Suzanne Shelley
Author
Steve Blocki, P.E., is the general
manager of Durr Environmental
(40600 Plymouth Road Plymouth,
Michigan 48170; Phone: 734-459-
6800; Fax: 734-459-5837; Email:
stephen.blocki@durrusa.com), and
recently established Durr’s energy
management and abatement out-
sourcing program. Through the
Total Solution Outsourcing Pro-
gram, Blocki is responsible for the
energy-management and mainte-
nance of many pollution-abatement systems in operation
throughout the U.S. He holds a B.S.Ch.E. from the Univer-
sity of Michigan and an MBA in finance from Wayne State
University, and is a registered professional engineer.
47
 You & Your Job

So You Are to Be
An Expert Witness?
When engineers and scientists are called upon as
expert witnesses, their success in the courtroom
hinges on how well they prepare their analysis and
how clearly and persuasively they argue the case
Henry Nowicki and Barbara Sherman, PACS Testing and Consulting Services, Inc.

S
cientists and engineers have a
good chance of being involved
in technical litigation, testifying
as an expert witness or working
on cases involving, for example, personal
injuries, product failures or allegations of
gross negligence. In any given case, expert
witnesses may be retained by the defense
and/or the prosecution. Often such tech-
nical professionals have little experience
with the legal process beyond courtroom-
related impressions they may have formed
from news reports and the entertainment
media. Over the past decade or so, hardly
a day has gone by without often-excessive
media attention to some celebrity-related
or otherwise sensational legal case.
For engineers and scientists who are
entering the realm of expert witnesses,
the legal jargon and procedures can be
a major barrier to successful communi-
cations with the defense and plaintiff
counsel, judge and jury. This article
provides an overview of the preparation
process and offers recommendations to
help new experts be successful when
they are called to the witness stand.
For expert witnesses, their product
is the validity and relevancy of their
opinions. As technical professionals
prepare their expert evaluations, and
plan and execute their testimony, their
goal should be to convey high-quality
opinions in ways that are at the same
time convincing, persuasive and au-
thoritative — and easily understood
by the jury, whose members are often
lacking in scientific or technical edu-
cation or experience.
In almost every case, the majority of
48 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
an expert’s time is spent making site
visits, testing, researching and evalu-
ating the claims of the case, reading
depositions, and preparing his or her
findings. Cases that have arrived at
the stage where paid scientific or engi-
neering experts are needed tend to be
complex, and almost invariably, large
sums of money are at stake.
In many instances, an engineer-
ing expert might discuss a case with
legal experts in preliminary efforts,
and then these parties will not dis-
cuss the case again for a year (while
other legal proceedings move forward
slowly behind the scenes). Then sud-
denly, when the case begins to heat
up, the lawyers often demand that
the expert devote large amounts of
time to working on their case, and
expect relatively quick turnaround
for the findings and reports that have
been commissioned.
Experts should realize these pro-
tracted periods of downtime between
spurts of fast-paced activity are typi-
cal of the overall process. Once an ex-
pert has become involved with a given
case, it is perfectly appropriate for him
or her to periodically check in with
counsel, to determine the ongoing sta-
tus of the case.
Types of cases
In general, three categories of experts
exist:
• Those who provide calculations
• Those who test, measure or record
• Those who evaluate or critique
Because of this wide range of services,
and the enormous variation in the type
of cases and the nature of the injuries
or system failures that are litigated
today, it is hard to assemble a single
blueprint or detailed list of tasks for
every scientific or engineering expert
to follow. However, some widely ap-
plicable guidelines apply and they are
discussed below.
The expert’s opinion must be admis-
sible in court to have an impact on the
case. While the attorneys involved in
the case will provide guidance on spe-
cific admissibility issues, engineering
consultants who are called upon to pro-
vide expert witness testimony should
nonetheless become familiar with the
basic rules of admissibility (both gen-
eral, and case-specific). For instance,
for cases in the U.S., the expert needs to
ask early if the Daubert or Frye Rules
— the two key legal rulings that govern
the admissibility of scientific testimony
(which are discussed in the box on p.
50) — will be applied in the upcoming
case. Knowing this early will help the
expert to increase the probability that
his or her professional opinions will not
be ruled as inadmissible in court.
Not all trials involve a jury. On the
contrary, some cases follow a so-called
3A format, where both defendant and
plaintiff agree to the case being settled
by binding arbitration from three pro-
fessionals who are recognized experts
in the field in question. Meanwhile,
in other cases, the judge may act as
gatekeeper for the courtroom and be
the sole decisionmaker on matters rel-
evant to the case.
 Experts will need to prepare their
opinions, written reports and spoken
testimony differently for each situ-
ation. For instance, presentation of
opinions before recognized profession-
als in the field of interest calls for a
much different level of technical detail
and background explanation com-
pared to presentation to a jury whose
members typically have non-technical
backgrounds. Knowing the type of trial
that is likely to occur, in advance, can
help the expert to prepare materials
and remarks that are most appropri-
ate for the audience at hand.
Practice makes perfect
The expert and the retaining attorneys
will have worked together in advance
to discuss the technical aspects of the
case, and the expert’s analysis and
the anticipated testimony that will be
given. However, once the actual court
proceedings have begun, the retaining
counsel will only be able to ask short,
open-ended questions whose aim will
be to focus the jury’s attention on the
witness and his or her expert opinions.
Ideally, the attorneys and expert
witnesses should work together in
advance to practice and coach the
testimony, particularly as it pertains
to anticipated efforts by the opposing
counsel to cross-examine the expert
while on the witness stand. The expert
should ask the attorneys if they have
any recommendations on how the ma-
terial should be presented.
As a result, the technical expert and
counsel must rehearse to ensure that
the expert’s opinions and theories are
conveyed in a way that makes them
easily understood and accepted by
the jury. The engineer should strive
to articulate all ideas, opinions, back-
ground and explanations of underly-
ing science and technology in a clear
and concise manner without being pa-
tronizing to the jury.
Important decisions must be made in
advance as to the choice of words that
can and should be used. For instance,
if the judge at a preliminary Daubert
hearing (see box) asks the expert to ex-
plain a term, the savvy expert should
take this as a cue, and make efforts to
clarify this term better at the trial.
During the trial, direct examina-
tion by the retaining counsel lays the
groundwork for the opposing counsel
to conduct a cross-examination. At this
point in the testimony, all prior depo-
sitions, documents and statements
provided by the expert are fair game
for the opposing counsel to bring up in
court. Experts who have changed their
minds — based, for instance, on new
facts, new data or different reasoning
processes — need not necessarily be
discredited by this; rather, those who
plan to present technical opinions that
they know differ markedly from some-
thing they may have presented in past
cases, or published elsewhere, should
work with the retaining counsel in
advance, to address these issues and
prepare remarks or explanations to
use, should these apparent discrepen-
cies be brought up on cross-examina-
tion (opposing counsel often does this
to undermine the credibility of the
expert witness in the eyes of the jury,
judge or arbitration team).
Five steps that pave the way
Expert preparation is an ongoing pro-
cess with a lot of overlap between the
various tasks, but in general, the pro-
cess can be broken down into five logi-
cal steps, which are discussed below:
1. Case selection
2. Issue identification
3. Information exchanges
4. Data organization
5. Presentation of opinion
1. Case selection. In U.S. federal
courts and in most states, opinion-
based testimony (such as that offered
by engineering or scientific experts re-
tained by either the prosecution or the
defense) is subject to the following two
threshold questions:
1. Does the witness possess sufficient
scientific, technical, or other special-
ized knowledge?
This is a reason why experts should
provide an exhaustive, truthful presen-
tation of their educational background
and professional experiences. Once
the extent of the expert’s professional
credentials has been presented into
evidence at the deposition, the jury will
have access to that information.
In many cases, when an expert has
a particularly impressive educational
background and professional accom-
plishments, opposing counsel will
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
often simply acknowledge that the
person is an expert (for the record)
and request that the retaining coun-
sel move on to other matters, rather
than allowing the expert to showcase
in detail the breadth and depth of his
or her expertise. Opposing counsel
often does this for fear that such an
impressive display of the expert’s cre-
dentials may disproportionately sway
the jury’s opinions about that person’s
credibility and add weight to his or
her remarks on the witness stand.
2. Will the expert’s specialized knowledge
be helpful to the judge and/or jury?
It is the retaining counsel’s respon-
sibility to select appropriate case ex-
perts. Some experts do not keep their
résumé (curriculum vitae, or C.V.) and
publication lists and accomplishments
up-to-date for the attorneys they work
with. Experts should have a process
for updating this information — for
instance, they should pick a time (like
one’s birthday) to update and dissemi-
nate their C.V. on an annual basis.
Deciding to work on a particular
case, and deciding if you can have a
good working relationship with the at-
torney who hires you, are among the
most important (yet often overlooked)
considerations for engineering ex-
perts. Ideally the working relationship
between expert and attorney is steady
and strong. However, sometimes the
relationship must be disbanded. Coun-
sel may make a decision to drop an ex-
pert from the team for a long list of
reasons. The expert may never know
why he or she was dropped, because of
liability and other issues.
In some cases, the expert may re-
move him/herself from the case for
philosophical reasons. Retaining coun-
sel hires the expert with certain expec-
tations that the expert will be helpful
to the client’s case. There needs to be
a reasonable “comfort zone” between
the legal firm and the expert witness
on the major issues related to the case.
Scientists and engineers, by training,
often want to cover all of the issues,
while lawyers typically want to focus
on just a few key issues. Experts need
to remember that in this arena, they
are a service provider and a team
member. If differences of opinion or
philosophy exist between the expert
and retaining counsel, the expert wit-
49
 DAUBERT AND FRYE RULES OF ADMISSIBILITY
Here are some details that expert witnesses should know about the two key rulings
that govern the use of scientific and engineering evidence and testimony in U.S. court cases.

Daubert Rule
1. Trial judge gatekeeper.
In cases that have complex sci-
entific issues, the trial judge can
demand a preliminary Daubert
hearing in the courtroom. This
hearing allows the judge to focus
on the expert witness’s professional
experiences and credentials, in order to establish the
basis for his or her professional opinions. A Daubert
hearing can help facilitate a settlement between the
defendant and plaintiff, and educate the judge. From the expert’s
point-of-view, the written judgment that results from the Daubert
hearing determines what the expert will be able to express at trial,
and what may not be presented. Specifically, the Daubert hearing
will aim to evaluate information related to:
• Expert credibility. At the expert’s deposition, it is important
to showcase the expert’s credibility and professional/technical
experiences, especially those that are particularly relevant to the
case. In general, during the deposition, the retaining counsel
wants short, minimal answers from the expert. They do not want
to give the opposing counsel anything they may exploit later in
an attempt to undermine the case at trial. Experts must remem-
ber that deposition statements and those at Daubert hearings
can be (and often are) taken out of context at trial.
• Methodologies. The expert needs to fully understand all of the
scientific and technical methods used to obtain data and infor-
mation that will be presented to the decisionmakers. Because
analytical methods are always subject to change and improve-
ment, experts need to keep up with the science, and be able
to speak knowledgeably and authoritatively on the latest facts
during their deposition and trial.
• Reasoning. Many scientists have trouble understanding the dif-
ference in reasoning used in legal and technical science issues
in their daily lives. The often-used legal statement ‘more likely
than not’ is troublesome to engineering experts because they
are trained to think in terms of 95% and 99% confidence levels
when making technical decisions. Experts need to adjust their
reasoning process to the legal case at hand.
• Theory and opinion. Ideally the expert’s opinion is directly tied
to theories that have been widely accepted and widely tested by
the scientific community.
2. Level of support for theory, or is it ‘junk science’? The expert
needs to provide support for the theory, in terms of publications,
literature searches, cutting-edge science meetings, personal con-
tacts and even calling into court other experts who can com-
plete the presentation of the theory to the judge in the Daubert
hearing. For instance, in personal-injury cases, engineers often
work with medical experts to elucidate their full theory to the
jury. Without an adequate and persuasive presentation by a
group of experts with recognized credentials, the expert may
be deemed as presenting ‘junk science’ and thus ruled inadmis-
sable in court.
3. Rule applies in all federal court and some states. The Daubert
Rule (and Daubert hearings) started out in U.S. federal court, but
they are now used in many state courts, and the trend is toward
increased usage in the lower courts, as well.
Frye Rule
1. Tests and procedures have general acceptance. Experts need
to recognize that standard methods are considered preferable tools
under the Frye Rule. Experts should visit and audit any laboratories
that will be providing data to be presented in court, to assure that
the analytical work was conducted according to recognized scien-
tific methods and standards.
2. Innovative procedure requires data/publication. In a Frye
hearing, it is often more difficult to establish that newer proce-
dures are admissible in court, but it may be worth the effort. Sci-
entific methods often evolve and improve rapidly, while regula-
tory processes for recognizing the validity of such new methods
is relatively slow. The pace of scientific advancement can create
a gap between new “best available” methodologies, and what
is currently considered the generally acceptable methods by the
majority of the scientific community. Legal cases can apply pres-
sure to get scientists and instrument vendors to get these advanced
methods approved by third-party certification processes that are
defined by regulators.
3. The Frye Rule applies in some states. Again, the scientific or
engineering expert and his or her retaining counsel need to de-
termine whether the Frye Rule applies in the case at hand. Confu-
sion over the admissibility rulings that could result from a Frye
hearing often engender extra work and extra expense to make
late adjustments in order for the expert’s opinion to be admissible
in court. ❒

ness needs to remove himself or her-
self from the case early.
2. Issue identification. Early in the
hiring process, the lawyer has to tell
the expert what issues are important,
from his or her understanding of the
case. However, most lawyers have no
particular expertise in science or engi-
neering.
An important part of the expert
witness’s role is to educate retain-
ing counsel on key issues that are
relevant to the case at hand. Imbued
with broad technical and professional
knowledge, scientific and engineering
experts easily recognize issues about
a specific case that may be missed by
even the best attorney.
50 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
The expert needs to remain indepen-
dent to avoid being biased in the case.
Credibility in the eyes of the judge and
jury is obviously important. The expert
needs to help decide what documents
and data to consider and emphasize
in the preparation process. The expert
also needs to play the devil’s advocate
role, early in the preparation process,
to identify the key issues that are
needed to support the prosecutorial or
defense efforts, and provide significant
development of the case issues.
Reading case depositions and back-
ground documents is an early step in
the expert’s formulation and molding
of the issues. These readings should
be done before the expert expands his
or her evaluation to include additional
new topics. Throughout the discovery
process and the formulation of the
expert’s opinions about the case, the
attorneys and expert should work to-
gether; without proper guidance, the
expert’s proposed new topics could
lead to dead ends: maybe they are le-
gally irrelevant, not in the attorney’s
scope or plan, or disruptive to the spe-
cific case. Avoiding dead ends through
ongoing communication will avoid
wasting time and resources, and that
is in everyone’s best interest.
The expert must be given a defini-
tive statement of the key issues in the
case from the attorney. The expert also
needs to be fully prepared to testify
 You & Your Job
and be coached and rehearsed to deal
with depositions and cross-examina-
tions. The expert’s professional integ-
rity can (and likely will) be challenged
in court, as a way of discrediting his
or her technical findings in the eyes
of the jury. If the expert’s professional
analysis and opinions in the case turn
out to be incomplete, inadequate, or le-
gally irrelevant, his or her reputation
will suffer, and he or she may even be
sued by defense or plaintiff counsel for
inadequate work [1].
3. Information exchanges. Usually
retaining counsel provides an oral or
written outline of the facts. This is fol-
lowed up with information transfers
between the parties. Typically, early
information exchanges are initiated
by the attorney, but later, the expert
transfers information to the lawyer.
The expert needs sufficient docu-
ments and exhibits to use to arrive at
a credible professional opinion. The
expert should ask to look at all of the
evidentiary records. This helps to sat-
isfy the completeness responsibility of
the expert. The expert should request
site visits to view evidence in the case,
if appropriate. It is the expert’s re-
sponsibility to get enough case infor-
mation, because, to repeat, not just the
case outcome but also his or her pro-
fessional reputation are on the line.
Legal cases often take years before
they are tried in court, and most are
settled out of court. Often the expert
must reconstruct events and make as-
sumptions about situations that are
no longer accessible for direct obser-
vation and testing.
Documents associated with the rele-
vant location and timeframe can be very
useful for the person trying the facts in
the courtroom. It is the role of the ex-
pert to request relevant documents that
can help him or her to shape an expert
opinions related to the charges being
litigated. Examples of such document
include facility standard operating pro-
cedures, floorplans, safety records, test-
ing methods and lists of equipment.
These records are often messy and it is
often hard to extract clear and precise
relevant information.
The judge and jury like to see a
documented trail of preexisting docu-
ments in addition to those prepared
specifically by the expert for the case
at hand. However, a fine line must be
observed here. If the expert receives
all of the lawyer’s material on the
case, the expert is in trouble (as noted
below), and the legal staff may not be
doing its job. Ideally, counsel should
evaluate materials before they are
sent to the expert, but, for a variety of
reasons, experts often get too much or
not enough materials from counsel to
base their quality opinions upon.
Receiving too much (especially un-
related) material can swamp or mis-
lead the expert, cloud the important
issues, and drive up costs (i.e., billable
time) for the expert, resulting in un-
happy lawyers.
The expert needs to evaluate just
those documents that are relevant to
support his or her opinions, so selec-
tive information transfer from the
attorney is needed. When the expert
needs to request additional docu-
ments or prior records related to the
case — such as industrial hygiene
analyses, citations by regulators, cus-
tomer complaints, or concerns raised
by employees on product performance
— through the retaining counsel, he
or she should do this early, because it
takes time to obtain prior records, and
may even require the judge to rule on
a counsel motion.
Meanwhile, in most cases, the oppos-
ing counsel and their experts will have
views that are favorable to their side
of the case, and they will likely have
documentation and interpretations to
back up their claims. A good witness
will try to not only get all relevant pre-
existing documents, but to anticipate
what claims the opposing counsel’s
team may make. A good expert witness
who has a clear understanding of the
state-of-the art can readily spot things
that do not conform to good practice.
It is important to reveal any flaws in
the claims made by opposing counsel
to the retaining counsel and the jury.
4. Data organization. The amount of
paperwork associated with court cases
— especially when scientific or engi-
neering analysis is involved — can be-
come quite large. It must be organized
to be useful.
You will also need to date all docu-
ments to maintain an accurate time-
line. Especially as a case drags on and
the number of documents related to the
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
case grows, an expert’s memories can
grow fuzzy, so good data organization
is key to ensure solid recollection of the
case facts when it finally goes to trial.
The expert and attorneys will
need to have — and have rehearsed
— quick and accurate answers in the
court room to such basic questions as:
When the expert was hired? How did
the selection occur? Has the expert
worked with the lawyer before? When
did the expert learn about a particular
piece of data? And, how did he or she
get exhibits? Once the case is being
tried before the jury, any hesitation,
or the inability to recall these basic
facts, can bring the expert’s opinion
into question.
The expert must be sure to read and
understand all documents in his or her
possession; nothing should be over-
looked or glossed over. Filing documents
without reading and understanding
them is a dangerous practice, as docu-
ments have a high probability of get-
ting entered into evidence at the trial.
The expert should assume that
documents in the exhibit list could be
questioned on cross-examination. Also,
because the expert’s documents get vo-
luminous, they should be examined to
assure that the attorney did not send
a confidential document by mistake.
No matter how busy the expert might
be, he or she is responsible for the se-
lection, retention and organization of
his or her own case records.
The expert should not allow the legal
system to prevent his or her discovery
of new and relevant information. Op-
posing counsel often want to restrict
experts to their pre-trial depositions
and not allow them to express any
new ideas based on new knowledge
once at trial. Experts need to state in
depositions that “opinions [expressed
at trial] can be altered, if warranted
by new credible information.” Learn-
ing is an incremental process, and new
information often leads the expert to
pursue additional information and
knowledge. However, opposing coun-
sel will often try to limit an expert’s
51
 You & Your Job
opinion, and if such restrictions are
imposed, they may keep the expert
from being able to express the best
case opinion possible.
In modern jury trials, the expert can
expect that he or she will be able to
provide the ultimate opinion — a “bot-
tom-line” opinion after a long prepara-
tion process. This is a strong, concise
and direct statement of the expert’s
opinion. An example of an ultimate
opinion is that “the carbon monoxide
exposure caused the fetal damage.”
However, the expert needs a strong
basis to make so bold an expression.
Not surprisingly, the rendering of an
ultimate opinion will likely bring into
question the expert’s independence.
The opposing counsel will likely allege
that the expert is simply saying what
his or her retaining counsel wants him
to say, to endorse the ultimate outcome
of the case. It is important that the ex-
pert witness be prepared to stay calm
in the face of such cross-examination,
and maintain a sharp focus on his or
her presentation of factual materials.
The expert must also be skilled at
data interpretation — and adept at
articulating complex concepts clearly
and succinctly. The mark of a good ex-
pert witness is an ability to help the
jury to understand the complexities of
the case, particularly where scientific
or engineering analysis and interpre-
tation are required.
5. Presentation of opinion. Pre-trial
depositions tend to be less organized
and lack a logical flow of information
compared to the expert’s reports. De-
positions tend to evolve like dinner
table conversations, with many people
involved and the questioning often
taking quick directional.
By contrast, the presentation of opin-
ion at trial needs to be contained and
documented in formal pretrial reports
and depositions. These documents are
the basis of the expert’s opinion that is
presented before the jury.
Inside the courtroom, by way of the
one-on-one question-and-answer for-
mat in front of the judge, jury and/or
arbitration team, agile trial lawyers
often try to exploit the nervousness
or inexperience of scientific and engi-
neering experts. While depositions are
controlled by opposing counsel (who
can ask questions in a random manner
52 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005
meant to trip up the expert), formal-
ized, technical, expert witness reports
(whose content is controlled by the ex-
pert) set the tone for the information
presented inside the courtroom.
Under no circumstances should the
expert let the retaining counsel write
the expert’s reports, no matter how
much the two parties may agree on
the observations offered by the ex-
pert. If the expert sends a draft copy
to solicit comment from the retaining
counsel before preparing the final re-
port, then the draft document becomes
discoverable evidence and could be-
come an exhibit at trial. If the expert
can avoid submitting draft reports to
counsel, this is the best path to take.
The expert needs to maintain his or
her independence, even in the face
of constructive, ongoing interactions
with retaining counsel.
Remember — everything you say
over the phone, in e-mails, reports, and
through conversations with individu-
als outside of the case may be revealed
at trial. Always conduct your expert
witness practice in a professional
manner. Remember, your reputation
needs to be protected, and you don’t
want to incur any financial penalty for
poor or unprofessional behavior.
The presentation of high-quality re-
ports that formalize the expert’s analy-
sis and conclusions is useful to retain-
ing counsel. Most cases are settled out
of court and the presentation of well-
reasoned, well-written expert opinions
can often facilitate the two sides to
come together to reach an out-of court
settlement. Reports can also educate
the attorneys and jury and keep every-
one working in the same direction on
the relevant issues. The expert needs
to ask the attorney early if a written
report will be needed in the case. The
expert should outline the time and re-
sources he or she anticipates will be
needed to prepare a report once the re-
quest has been made to the expert.
In general, reports involving tech-
nical or scientific evaluations contain
several parts that the expert can pre-
pare in advance. Under federal rules,
the expert’s report must include:
• A complete statement of all opinions
to be expressed by the expert
• The basis and reasons for the ex-
pert’s opinions
• The data or information considered by
the witness in forming the opinions
• Any exhibits to be used as a sum-
mary of or support for the opinions
• The qualifications of the witness, in-
cluding a list of all publications in
the preceding ten years
• The compensation to be paid for the
study and testimony
• A list of any other cases in which the
witness has testified as an expert
(at trial or in deposition) within the
preceding four years
The expert always has the problem of
deciding how much information needs
to be included in his or her reports. No
matter how thorny the technical is-
sues are, reports must be written using
language that the jury and judge can
understand; at the same time, the ex-
perts must not offend the jury by talk-
ing or writing “down” to them. Expert
testimony, both written and spoken,
needs to be honest, accurate, complete
and precise, especially that presented
in formal, written reports. Prepara-
tion is the most important and expen-
sive part of the expert’s job. Experts
often need to take an active role in
their continuing education on their
technical subjects and develop an ap-
preciation on how their knowledge can
be used in legal cases. ■
Edited by Suzanne Shelley
References
1. Nowicki. H., and T. Bright, Expert witnesses
face new risks, American Laboratory, pp.
16–18, January 2004.
Authors
Henry Nowicki, Ph.D., MBA, is president of
PACS Testing and Consulting Services, Inc.
(409 Meade Dr., Coraopolis, PA 15108; Phone:
800-367-2587; Fax: 724-457-1214; Email:
Hnpacs@aol.com; Website: www.pacslabs.com).
Nowicki, who holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and
organic chemistry from St. Louis University, and
an MBA from Robert Morris University, has pub-
lished more than 100 technical articles, and has
been an expert witness 40 times in a wide vari-
ety of cases. He also provides laboratory testing
and consulting services to large and small firms
throughout the chemical process industries, and
is a recognized expert in activated carbon and
environmental sciences.
Barbara Sherman, M.S., manages the PACS
courses and conferences business for PACS
Testing and Consulting Services, Inc. (Email:
barbpacs@aol.com), including the following
PACS courses that are relevant to the prepara-
tion of expert witness analysis and testimony:
Expert Witness Practices, Toxicology, OSHA Lab
Standards, Product Liability, Environmental
Data Validation, Quality Assurance, Technical
Writing, Statistics and many more. She holds
degrees from the State University of New York
(SUNY Geneseo), and has been instrumental in
the development of PACS’ educational courses
and conferences, which are offered both in public
sessions, and in private, onsite sessions.
 New Product Information July 2005
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4 23 42 61 80 99 118 137 156 175 194 213 232 251 270 289 308 327 346 365 384 803 822 841 860
5 24 43 62 81 100 119 138 157 176 195 214 233 252 271 290 309 328 347 366 385 804 823 842 861
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7 26 45 64 83 102 121 140 159 178 197 216 235 254 273 292 311 330 349 368 387 806 825 844 863
8 27 46 65 84 103 122 141 160 179 198 217 236 255 274 293 312 331 350 369 388 807 826 845
9 28 47 66 85 104 123 142 161 180 199 218 237 256 275 294 313 332 351 370 389 808 827 846
10 29 48 67 86 105 124 143 162 181 200 219 238 257 276 295 314 333 352 371 390 809 828 847
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19 38 57 76 95 114 133 152 171 190 209 228 247 266 285 304 323 342 361 380 399 818 837 856

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by a full 1-year warranty.

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ATTN: RADIATION SAFETY OFFICERS

INDUSTRIAL GAUGE LEAK TESTS SINCE 1980

EVAPORATORS: 50,000 Falling FIlm, 20,000 Plate & 50.000 FC PROCESS FILTRATION EQUIPMENT FEE SCHEDULE LEAK TEST KITS
BOILERS; HOT OIL HEATERS; RO; UF; PROCESS EQUIPMENT JWI Filter presses with polypro recessed plates
Sparkler & Niagara horizontal plate filters, 1-20 $20.00 INDIVIDUAL SERIALIZED KITS
SOLVENT RECOVERY: 50 gph to 2000 gph; DRYERS & more... 21-50 $18.00 PROVIDED WITHOUT CHARGE
Model 33D17, 18S23, 1824S, 3348S
Komline 24” blood plasma bio tech sanitary press >50 $12.50
ENGINEERS & MANUFACTURERS; BUY & SELL Nutsche filter, 10 gal, 316 SS, 35 psi
Stainless Steel ERTEL & STAR Filter presses Palmetto Counting Systems (843) 763-1255
ALAQUA : 201-758-1577, FAX: 201-758-1522 1416 Drexell Drive fax (843) 763-3315
Avery Filter Company, Westwood, NJ Charleston, S.C. 29407
E-mail: alaqua@mindspring.com Phone: 201-666-9664 Fax 201-666-3802
Web: http//www.alaquainc.com/ E-mail: larry_avery@csi.com www.averyfilter.com PalmettoCS@aol.com
Circle 263 on p. 53 or go to Circle 264 on p. 53 or go to Instrument Calibration Services Available
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 59

 RECRUITMENT
Y O U R R E C R U I T I N G PA R T N E R
CLASSIFIED
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60 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005

 Advertisers’ Index
Advertiser Page number Advertiser Page number Advertiser Page number
Phone number Reader Service # Phone number Reader Service # Phone number Reader Service #

Aggreko Incorporated 16 Emerson Process FOURTH • Osi Software Gmbh 24I-8

866-310-0858 adlinks.che.com/4818-16 Management COVER 49-6047-952126 adlinks.che.com/4818-32
Alfa Laval Corporate AB 1 adlinks.che.com/4818-03 Pittsburgh Corning 24D-3
adlinks.che.com/4818-04 • Finder Pompe SPA-Italy 24I-2 800-359-8433 adlinks.che.com/4818-20
• Arca-Regler GmbH 24I-4 39 039 9982 1 adlinks.che.com/4818-26 Process Technology 24D-4
49 2156-7709-0 adlinks.che.com/4818-28 Hockmeyer Equipmenpt 1-859-547-1100 adlinks.che.com/4818-21
Bekaert 24 Corporation 24D-7 *Samson AG 8
770-514-2217 adlinks.che.com/4818-17 252-338-4705 adlinks.che.com/4818-24 49 0 69 40009571
Berndorf Band Gmbh & Co 31 Hoerbiger Kompressortechnik THIRD adlinks.che.com/4818-08
43 0 2672-800299 Holding COVER Sharplex Filters 35
adlinks.che.com/4818-19 adlinks.che.com/4818-02 91-22-2500-7606 adlinks.che.com/4818-18
• Burgmann 24I-7 Honeywell Process SECOND
49 0 8171 231453 Siemens A&D GC4,
Solutions COVER
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adlinks.che.com/4818-01
49 911/978-3321
Charles Ross & Son Company 10-11
International Exposition Company 6
800-243-ROSS adlinks.che.com/4818-10 203-221-9232 adlinks.che.com/4818-07 Silverson Machines, Inc. 4
Chemstations, Inc. 17 800-204-6400 adlinks.che.com/4818-06
ISA The Instrumentation, Systems,
800-243-6223 adlinks.che.com/4818-13 Solutia Therminol 2
and Automation Society 25
Comp Engineering And Exports 41 adlinks.che.com/4818-33 800-433-6997 adlinks.che.com/4818-05
91-20-25658205 adlinks.che.com/4818-09
Load Controls, Inc. 24D-8 *Sturtevant, Inc. 22
* Costacurta Spa Vico-Italy 24I-5 888-600-3247 adlinks.che.com/4818-25 800-992-0209 adlinks.che.com/4818-15
39-02-66-20-20-66
Metso Automation 19, 21 Therminol by Solutia 2
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adlinks.che.com/4818-14 800-433-6997 adlinks.che.com/4818-05
Emerson Process Management 24D-5
adlinks.che.com/4818-22 Mustang Engineering 24D-6 Tri-Mer Corporation 23
713-215-8000 adlinks.che.com/4818-23 989-723-7838 adlinks.che.com/4818-16
• International Section • Nuova Maip Spa 24I-6 • Vega Grieshaber KG 24I-3
* Additional information in 2005 Buyers’ Guide 49 93 03 / 90 82-0 adlinks.che.com/4818-30 49 0 7836-50283 adlinks.che.com/4818-27

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Classified Index July 2005 Company Page number Company Page number
website Phone number website Phone number
(212) 621-4958 Fax: (212) 621-4976 Computing Solutions, Inc. 57 Midwesco Filter Resources, Inc. 55
Send Advertisements and Box adlinks.che.com/4818-242 800-668-0830 adlinks.che.com/4818-207 800-336-7300
replies to: Helene Hicks Corzan Industrial Systems 55 Neuhaus Neotec 54
Chemical Engineering, adlinks.che.com/4818-206 216-447-7392 adlinks.che.com/4818-201
110 William St., 11th Floor, EcReCon, Inc. 59 Palmetto Counting Systems 59
New York, NY 10038 adlinks.che.com/4818-257 856-299-4500 843-763-1255
Flowphase Engineering Software 57 Plast-O-Matic Valves, Inc. 55
adlinks.che.com/4818-244 403-250-7522 adlinks.che.com/4818-204 973-256-3000
Advertisers’ Product Showcase 54-55
FPC National 60 Pulsair Systems 54
Computer Software 56-58 adlinks.che.com/4818-248 212-302-1141 adlinks.che.com/4818-202 800-582-7797
Consulting 57 Frain Industries, Inc. 59 Ross, Charles & Son Co. 59
adlinks.che.com/4818-262 630-629-9900 adlinks.che.com/4818-258 800-243-ROSS
Equipment, Used or Surplus New for Sale 58-59
Genck International 57 Rotex, Inc. 59
Radiation Safety 59 adlinks.che.com/4818-252 708-748-7200 adlinks.che.com/4818-261 800-854-5159
Recruitment 60 H&P Equipment Co., Inc. 58 SST Systems 57
adlinks.che.com/4818-255 973-335-9770 adlinks.che.com/4818-245 800-3000-SST
Company Page number Heat Transfer Research, Inc. 57 Sunrise Systems, Inc. 58
website Phone number adlinks.che.com/4818-247 281-491-7476
adlinks.che.com/4818-241 979-690-5050
ABM Sensor Technology Inc. 55 HFP Acoustical Consultants 57 Shell Canada 60
adlinks.che.com/4818-209 705-740-2010
adlinks.che.com/4818-250 888-789-9400 adlinks.che.com/4818-249
Alaqua Inc. 59 HunterLab 54 Topog-E Gasket Co. 55
adlinks.che.com/4818-263 201-758-1577 adlinks.che.com/4818-203 703-471-6870 adlinks.che.com/4818-205 800-527-7123
Applied e-Simulators Software 57 Indeck 58 Wabash Power Equipment Co. 58
adlinks.che.com/4818-243 509-967-5730 adlinks.che.com/4818-253 847-541-8300 adlinks.che.com/4818-254 847-541-5600
Applied Flow Technology 58 Intelligen, Inc. 56 Water Works 59
adlinks.che.com/4818-246 800-589-4943 adlinks.che.com/4818-240 908-654-0088 adlinks.che.com/4818-259 800-232-9334
Avery Filter Co. 59 Intersales Process Equipment 59 The Western States Machine Co. 59
adlinks.che.com/4818-264 201-666-9664 713-729-6500 adlinks.che.com/4818-256 513-863-4758
BOC Edwards 55 KnightHawk Engineering 57 Xchanger, Inc. 59
adlinks.che.com/4818-208 800-848-9800 adlinks.che.com/4818-251 281-282-9200 adlinks.che.com/4818-260 952-933-2559

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62 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005

 Economic Indicators

PLANT WATCH
Company / Contractor or Plant location Product Cost, capacity Startup
Licensor

Bayer AG Caojing, China Toluene diisocyanate 160,000 tons/yr; $1.8 billion 2009
BP Solar Tres Cantos, Spain Photovoltaic solar cells €28 million; add 20 MWp (MegaWatts Peak) 1st Q 2007
San Sebastián, Spain €4 million; increase by 20 MWp 1st Q 2006

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC)/ Dahej, Gujarat, India Ethane, propane and butane extracted 5 million m.t./yr 2007
Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. from liquefied natural gas (LNG)
Indian Oil Corp., Ltd. (IOCL)/ABB Panipat, India Recovered aromatics from pyrolysis gas 120,000 tons/yr 2007–2008
Lummus Global; GTC Technology

Akzo Nobel nv Stenungsund and Ethylene amines €26 million (for both); increase to 75,000 tons/yr End of 2006
Skoghall, Sweden New capacity of 35,000 tons/yr

Solvay Advanced Polymers, L.L.C/ Not disclosed Sulfone polymers Over $50 million 2006
Shaw Stone & Webster

Degussa AG Herne, Germany Isophorone solvent and derivatives High-double-digit millions of euros 2007

DSM Nutritional Products Salry, Scotland Vitamin C Optimize capacity to consolidate production 3rd Q 2005
Belvidere, N.J. from Belvidere plant closure
Fujian Jinlun Petrochemical Fiber Binhai industry Zone, Polyester staple fibers €30 million; 400 tons/d June 2005
Industry Co. Ltd./Zimmer AG Fujian, China

Arkema/Novus Beaumont, Tex. 3-methylthiopropionaldehyde $100 million; 285,000 m.t./yr June 2005
Oman Oil Co./Udhe/Axens Sohar, Oman Paraxylene and benzene 810,000 m.t./yr and 210,000 m.t./yr respectively Not disclosed

BP Berau, Ltd.JGC Corp./PT Brown & Teluk Bintuni, LNG $1.8 billion; 3.8 million m.t./yr 2008
Root Indonesia Indonesia

MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS AND DEALS

Buyer Other party Date Details
One Equity Partners Süd Chemie AG June 15 One Equity Partners, a private equity affiliate of J.P.Morgan Chase & Co., has reached agreement to acquire a
(New York) (Munich, 39% stake in Süd Chemie AG that was previously held by three corporate shareholders. The acquisition price of the
Germany) transaction amounts to €162 million and implies a market value for Süd Chemie of around €414 million. Following
clearance by the authorities, One Equity Partners plans to submit a voluntary takeover offer to all shareholders in the
second half of July. One Equity Partners aims to achieve a simple majority in Süd Chemie AG and also maintain the
public market listing of the company. One Equity Partners will support the existing management in further developing
the company’s market position, including additional capital contributions, to fund acquisitions and future growth.
Victrex plc Degussa AG April 1 Victrex has purchased the operations relating to the manufacture of BDF (the key material from which Victrex PEEK is
(Greenville, S.C.) (Dusseldorf, produced) from a subsidiary of Degussa AG for £16.3 million ($30.6 million) in cash. The transaction further consolidates
Germany) Victrex’s control of the BDF supply chain following the acquisition of the primary manufacturing stage of BDF in 1999.
In this transaction, Victrex has purchased the oxidation plant that forms part of a larger Degussa site at Seal Sands in
the northeast of England. in addition, Victrex has purchased the remainder of the assets adjacent to its existing site at
Rotherham where the primary manufacturing stage of BDF is conducted.
Chevron Corp. ChevronTexaco May 9 ChevronTexaco has changed its name to Chevron Corp. and has unveiled a redesigned version of the red and blue
(San Ramon, Calif.) Corp. logo. The company will continue to expand and support its global retail business through its powerful portfolio of retail
(San Ramon, Calif.) brands, Texaco, Chevron and Caltex.

Don Feng-Castrol Castrol June 8 Castrol, the lubricant brand of the BP Group, and Dong Feng Group are to form a joint venture company to supply
Lubricant Co. (TK) and Dong lubricants to the growing Chinese market. The new company, Dong Feng-Castrol Lubricant Co., Ltd. will be based in
(Wuhan, Hubei Feng Group Wuhan, the largest city in central China. Under the joint venture contract, BP,Dong Feng Motor Corp. and Dong Feng
Province, China) (Wuhan, Hubei Automobile Co. Ltdl will have equity stakes of 50:20:30% respectively for an initial period of 30 years. Total investment
Province, China) for the joint venture is RMB 120 million for a total production capacity of 50,000 tons/yr.
H&R Wasag Group ExxonMobil April 19 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued its approval of H&R Wasag’s acquisition of
(Salzbergen, Chemical ExxonMobil’s chemical pharmaceutical specialty business in Australia. The transaction was subsequently completed
Germany) (Houston, Tex.) on May 1. The two production and tank storage facilities have an annual turnover of €10 million through the sale of
waxes, white oils and other oil-based primary materials.
Frutarom, Inc. A. M. Todd June 15 Frutarom has purchased the flavoring extracts business of A. M. Todd Botanical Therapeutics, a Div. of A. M. Todd Co.
(North Bergen, N.J.) (Kalamazoo, The acquired ingredients will now be produced at Frutarom’s renovated North Bergen manufacturing facilities. Going
Mich.) forward, A. M. Todd will focus on increasing production of nutraceutical products at its Eugene, Ore. facility.

Degussa AG Jilln University June 3 Degussa and Jilin University have entered into a new joint venture for the production of high performance polymer
(Dusseldorf, Germany) (Northern China) polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and polyethersulfone (PES) , whereby Degussa will hold 80% and Jilin university will hold
the remaining 20%. The university is the technology provider in the venture and will also act as a research partner in
the future. Pending approval and permitting, the new business enterprise will be taking up work under the name of
JIDA Degussa High Performance Polymers Changchun Co. Ltd. (JIDA Degussa).

July 2005; VOL. 112; NO. 7

Chemical Engineering copyright @ 2005 (ISSN 0009-2460) is published monthly, with an additional issue in September, by Access Intelligence, LLC, 4 Choke Cherry Road, 2nd
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FOR MORE ECONOMIC INDICATORS, SEE NEXT PAGE CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005 63
Economic Indicators 2004 2005

DOWNLOAD THE CEPCI TWO WEEKS SOONER AT WWW.CHE.COM/PINDEX

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT COST INDEX (CEPCI) 

(1957-59 = 100) Mar. ‘05 April ‘05 April ‘04

Final Prelim. Final
Annual Index 
CE INDEX 468.3 468.1 437.9 1997 = 386.5
Equipment 544.8 544.8 498.7
Heat exchangers & tanks 518.9 518.9 449.2
1998 = 389.5 
Process machinery 519.5 519.4 484.4 1999 = 390.6
Pipe, valves & fittings 618.0 618.0 600.8
Process instruments 382.6 382.5 372.2
2000 = 394.1 

Pumps & compressors 753.4 753.4 715.8 2001 = 394.3

Electrical equipment 369.2 369.2 347.6
Structural supports & misc 588.4 588.4 519.2
2002 = 395.6 

Construction labor 302.4 301.8 307.4 2003 = 402.0

Buildings 445.9 445.7 423.7
2004 = 444.2 
Engineering & supervision 346.0 345.4 346.7 J F M A M J J A S O N D

CURRENT BUSINESS INDICATORS LATEST PREVIOUS YEAR AGO

CPI output index (1997 = 100)* May.‘05 = 105.6 Apr.‘05 = 105.4 Mar.‘05 = 105.7 May.‘04 = 104.2
CPI value of output, $ billions Apr.‘05 = 1,415.4 Mar.‘05 = 1,423.2 Feb.‘05 = 1,350.6 Apr.‘04 = 1,245.6
CPI operating rate, % May.‘05 = 80.9 Apr.‘05 = 80.8 Mar.‘05 = 81.2 May.‘04 = 80.0
Construction cost index (1967 = 100) Jun.‘05 = 690.3 May.‘05 = 688.7 Apr.‘05 = 684.8 Jun.‘04 = 661.9
Producer prices, industrial chemicals (1982 = 100) May.‘05 = 182.6 Apr.‘05 = 187.8 Mar.‘05 = 186.6 May.‘04 = 155.0
Index of industrial activity (1992 = 100) Jun. 4,‘05 = 242.1 May. 28,‘05 = 241.5 May. 21,‘05 = 241.1 Jun. 5,‘04 = 219.3
Hourly earnings index, chemical & allied products (1992 = 100) May.‘05 = 144.2 Apr.‘05 = 143.2 Mar.‘05 = 142.1 May.‘04 = 138.7
Productivity index, chemicals & allied products (1992 = 100) May.‘05 = 133.2 Apr.‘05 = 132.1 Mar.‘05 = 132.7 May.‘04 = 126.2


CPI OUTPUT INDEX (1997 = 100)

CPI OUTPUT VALUE ($ Billions) CPI OPERATING RATE (%)


  

  

  

  

  
J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D
*To convert to 1992, multiply by 1.1514684. To convert to 1987, multiply by 1.2495478. For an explanation and additional information, call 212-621-4612. Current business
indicators provided by DRI-WEFA, Lexington, Mass.

MARSHALL & SWIFT EQUIPMENT COST INDEX VATAVUK AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
(1926 = 100) 2nd Q 1st Q 2nd Q COST INDEXES (VAPCCI)
2005 2005 2004  (1st Quarter 1994 = 100.0)
M & S INDEX 1,257.8 1,241.4 1,164.3

Process industries, average 1,294.4 1,272.8 1,186.3 CONTROL 2004 2003 2002 1st Q 4th Q 3rd Q

Cement 1,288.8 1,271.5 1,180.3 DEVICE Avg. Avg. Avg.1 20052 2004 2004
1,271.9 1,251.2 1,165.1 
Chemicals Carbon adsorbers 135.9 113.0 106.8 148.0 145.8 141.9
Clay products 1,272.6 1,254.2 1,172.2  Catalytic incinerators 148.6 124.0 114.5 164.5 158.0 151.3
Glass 1,196.7 1,178.3 1,093.8
 Electrostatic precipitators 124.0 102.9 101.7 134.5 133.9 129.0
Paint 1,301.7 1,280.9 1,191.6
 Flares 134.2 105.2 101.7 151.1 148.0 143.1
Paper 1,238.1 1,218.4 1,134.7
1,359.7 1,333.1 1,243.1  Gas absorbers 121.8 117.3 115.6 126.5 124.5 123.2
Petroleum products
1,359.0 1,339.8 1,258.3  Refrigeration systems 119.6 108.8 106.6 128.0 125.0 122.8
Rubber
Related industries  Regenerative thermal
oxidizers 124.0 113.9 111.9 130.7 128.7 126.9
Electrical power 
1,162.3 1,144.6 1,056.4 Thermal incinerators 121.9 110.0 108.6 131.9 128.0 125.1
Mining, milling
1,326.5 1,304.8 1,218.6  Wet scrubbers 144.0 120.1 113.2 157.4 154.8 150.4
Refrigeration
1,519.3 1,495.6 1,397.2 
Steam power
1,246.1 1,227.2 1,135.7 ST ND RD TH 1. Effective fourth quarter 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) converted all
1UARTER
of the Producer Price Indexes (PPI’s) from the Standard Industrial Classification
(SIC) to the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). During this
Annual 1999 = 1,068.3 2002 = 1,104.2 conversion, many PPI’s were abolished — among them most of the PPI’s that
Index: had been key inputs to the VAPCCI’s. As a consequence, substitute PPI inputs
2000 = 1,089.0 2003 = 1,123.6
had to be found. The VAPCCI’s for fourth quarter 2003 and subsequent quarters
1998 = 1,061.9 2001 = 1,093.9 2004 = 1,178.5 reflect these substitutions.
2. All first quarter 2005 indexes are preliminary.

64 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2005

 Increase of reliability.
Reduction of operating costs.
Improvement of productivity.
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Contact us for more information:

Monitoring_CE@hoerbiger-compression.com

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Circle 02 on p. 53 or go to adlinks.che.com/4818-02