Chemical Engineering July 2013

July
2013
Lifecycle
Costs
for
Capital
Equipment
PAGE 36
www.che.com
PAGE 30
Rotary Valves in
Pneumatic
Conveying
Systems
Getting the Most
Out of
Data Sheets
Facts at Your
Fingertips:
Polymer-based
Piping
Focus on
Level
Measurement
Cooling-tower
Water
Treatment
CO2
Utilization
Circle 6 on p. 56 or go to adlinks.che.com/45774-06
www.che.com
30
JULY 2013
VOLUME 120, NO. 7
COVER STORY
30
Cover Story Securing Industrial Control Systems

When it comes to security, modern industrial control systems have important differences from business networks, and also some unique vulnerabilities. This article takes a look at what is working to secure them
and what is not
NEWS
11
Chementator A salty way to scrub CO2; These scavengers of water

pollutants have a magnetic attraction; Burner technology enables
reduced NOx with short flame length; Improved corrosion control in
refinery steam systems; A biotech process that could benefit sharks;
and more
16
Newsfront CO2 Utilization

Researchers are developing new technologies for using CO2
as a feedstock to make a variety of chemicals*
20
Newsfront Cooling-Tower Water: A Hybrid Problem

Calls for a Hybrid Solution
In addition to traditional challenges, new issues are prompting
more complex solutions to treatment of cooling-tower water
16
20
ENGINEERING
28a Facts at Your Fingertips Polymer-based Piping
This one-page reference discusses the advantages and limitations of
polymer-based piping in the CPI
29
Equipment
Technology Profile Solution-based Production of LLDPE

This one-page profile describes the technology and
economic considerations for the production of linear low-density
polyethylene using a solution-based approach
Operation
36
Feature Report Equipment Lifecycle Costs in the CPI

Longterm equipment costs need to be fully considered in capital-cost
assessments
44
Engineering Practice Getting the Most Out of Data Sheets

Data sheets should function as the central document to guide the
procurement process
Lifecycle
cost
Maintenance
Decommissioning
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2013
36
1
47
Solids Processing Rotary Valves in Pneumatic Conveying Systems

Because of their wide application in pneumatic conveying systems, it is
important to understand how rotary valves are designed and used
EQUIPMENT & SERVICES

24
Focus on Level Measurement

Corrosive environments are not a problem for these meters; This explosion-proof meter displays level and volume; This capacitance probe
is flexible for tight fits; Submersible transmitters that measure depth or
level; Conduit fittings protect this level sensors cables; and more
27
New Products This compact digital heat-trace controller offers versatility; This jet fuel analyzer enhances safety through automation; Draw,
view and share molecular structures in realtime; Avoid cross-contamination with this lubrication system; Protect inventory and machinery with
this leak-diverter kit; and more
28I
New Products (International edition) An improved vacuum pump

has a longer service life; These motorized valves have very low power
consumption; Reduce commissioning time with this WirelessHART
gateway; Measure energy consumption with a module instead of equipment; Inline sampling enables NIR measurement in closed processes;
and more
47
COMMENTARY
5
Editors Page 2013 Kirkpatrick Award finalists Five finalists for the
2013 Kirkpatrick Award for Chemical Engineering Achievement have been annouced. The winner will be named an at awards banquet in September during
the ChemInnovations Conference and Tradeshow
53
24
The Fractionation Column Selling new technologies Convincing engineeers to adopt new technologies requires clear and concise
communication of laboratory and pilot data; and a little luck wouldn't
hurt, either
DEPARTMENTS
6
Letters
58
Whos Who
Bookshelf
59
Economic Indicators
56
Reader Service
ADVERTISERS
54
Product Showcase/Classified
57
Advertiser Index
27
COMING IN AUGUST
Look for: Feature Reports on Hazardous Waste Disposal; and Liquid Mixing;
an Engineering Practice article on Ethylene Oxide Absorber Optimization; a
Focus on Screening; A Facts at Your Fingertips on Heat Transfer; News Articles on Bio-based Chemicals; and Simulation and Modeling; and more
Cover: David Whitcher
*ONLY ON CHE.COM
Look for additional CO2
utilization coverage;
New Products;
Latest News; and more
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2013 Kirkpatrick finalists

e are happy to announce the five innovative technologies that
have been selected as finalists for the 2013 Kirkpatrick Award
for Chemical Engineering Achievement. The winner will be announced on September 25 at an Awards Banquet in Galveston, Tex. during the ChemInnovations Conference and Expo (www.cpievent.com). Here
is a brief summary about the finalists:
Braskem Sugarcane-based ethylene and polyethylene. Braskem
has developed a bio-based polyethylene (PE) that, at the end of its life, can
be reused, recycled, or incinerated to generate energy, with the main advantage of having neutral carbon emissions. The process starts with sugarcane,
which is fermented to ethanol that is in turn converted to ethylene monomer
via a high-yield dehydration technology. The bio-ethylene is then polymerized to produce various grades of bio-PE. The polymers can be transformed,
using existing equipment, into products for a wide-range of applications,
including blow molding, injection molding and films.
Eastman Chemical Co. Perennial wood. Alternatives to wood as
a building material have been developed to overcome the disadvantages
of using real wood, such as shrinking, swelling, rotting and warping. But,
many say that there is no substitute for real wood. Eastman has commercialized a wood that has been chemically modified through acetylation to offer a real-wood alternative that is said to be three times more
stable than unmodified wood. The acetylation modification permanently
modifies the woods cellular structure while leaving no toxic substances
in the wood.
Genomatica Bio-based butanediol. Working with its partner DuPont
Tate & Lyle BioProducts, Genomatica has successfully commercialized the
production of bio-based butanediol (BDO). A total of 5-million lb of product
was produced in only five weeks. According to the company, this is the first
time BDO has been produced at commercial scale from renewable feedstocks. The bio-based process is said to have a smaller environmental footprint and is designed for better overall economics than conventional BDO
made from fossil fuels. Genomatica credits its fast scaleup success, in part,
to good chemical engineering discipline.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Propylene glycol
from renewable resources (PGRS). Up to 2.5-billion lb of petroleum are
consumed each year to meet worldwide demand for propylene glycol (PG).
Scientists at PNNL have developed novel catalysts for producing PG from
renewable sources. PGRS is said to be the worlds first industrial-scale
process for producing U.S. Pharmacopeia-grade PG from renewable plant
sources, utilizing glycerol obtained from soybean processing. The process
is economically competitive with petroleum-based routes, and results in
up to 61% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, according to PNNL. The
technology was licensed to Archer Daniels Midland Co., which designed,
engineered and commissioned a new 100,000 metric ton per year production facility.
Rive Technology Molecular Highway catalyst
technology. Innovations in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC)
catalysts have largely focused on improvements to matrices, binders and additives rather than on the zeolite component. Rive has focused on the zeolite, and has developed
a mesoporous zeolite technology for improved mass transfer into and within the zeolite crystals. This technology
makes traditional zeolite cracking catalysts more accessible to large hydrocarbon molecules and thereby allows
increased production of gasoline and diesel fuels.
Dorothy Lozowski, Executive Editor
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Scholarship for Chemical Engineering Excellence has been
awarded to Adam Freitag,
who is a third-year chemical
engineering student at Rutgers, The State University of
New Jersey (New Brunswick,
www.rutgers.edu). Freitag
is president of Tau Beta Pis
(National Engineering Honor
Society) N.J. Beta Chapter. He
is involved with the Materials
Science & Engineering Dept.
and has received the Junior Merit Award for Chemical Engineering at Rutgers. Freitag graduated from
North Hunterdon High School (Annandale, N.J.).
About the scholarship

Bringing recognition to the chemical engineering profession and striving to continually advance that profession
have been goals of Chemical Engineering magazine since
its founding more than 110 years ago in 1902. To help
advance those goals, CE established the annual Chopey
Scholarship for Chemical Engineering Excellence in late
2007. The award is named after Nicholas P. Chopey, the
magazines former Editor-in-Chief who made many valuable and long-lasting contributions to CE over the 47
years that he devoted to it. To honor his contributions to
the chemical engineering profession, CE established the
scholarship in his name.
Applicant qualifications. The scholarship is awarded to
current third-year students who are enrolled in a fulltime
undergraduate course of study in chemical engineering at
one of the following four-year colleges or universities:
Columbia University
Rutgers University
SUNY Buffalo
University of Kansas
University of Virginia
The scholarship is a one-time award. The program utilizes standard Scholarship America recipient-selection
procedures, including the consideration of past academic
performance and future potential, leadership and participation in school and community activities, work experience, and statement of career and educational goals.
Donations. Donations can be made to the scholarship
fund, by sending a check to the following address:
Nicholas P. Chopey Scholarship Fund
Attn: Jennifer Brady
Chemical Engineering
11000 Richmond Ave., Suite 690
Houston, TX 77042
6
Checks should be made out to Scholarship America

with Nicholas P. Chopey Scholarship Program in the
memo area.
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Distillation Design and Control Using

Aspen Simulation. 2nd ed. By William
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Engineering Material 2: An Introduction to Microstructures and Processing. 4th ed. By D.R. Jones and Michael
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2013. 576 pages. $69.95.
Water Quality Engineering: Physical/Chemical Treatment Processes.
By Mark M. Benjamin and Desmond F.
Lawler. John Wiley & Sons Co., 111 River
Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Web: wiley.
com. 2013. 904 pages. $170.00.
Chemistry of Fossil Fuels and Biofuels.
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cambridge.org. 2013. 497 pages. $115.00.
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664 pages. 2013. 664 pages. $210.00.
Industrial Process Scale-up: A Practical Innovation Guide from Idea
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Handbook of Loss Prevention Engineering (two-volume set). Edited by Joel
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wiley.com. 2013. 1,154 pages. $405.00.
Non-destructive Evaluation of Polymer Composites: Techniques and
Applications. Edited by V.M. Karbhari.
Woodhead Publishing Ltd., 80 High Street,
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Advanced Water Injection Low Permeability Reservoirs. By Ran Xinquan.
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Cathodic Protection: Industrial Solutions for Protecting Against Corrosion.
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Gas Chromatography and 2D Gas
Chromatography for the Petroleum
Industry. By Fabrice Bertoncini, Marlene
Courtiade-Tholance and Didier Thibaut.
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Paris, France. Web: editionstechnip.com,
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Waste to Energy Conversion Technology. Edited by Naomi B. Klinghoffer and
Marco J. Castaldi. Woodhead Publishing
Ltd., 80 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge
CB22 3HJ, U.K. Web: woodheadpublishing.
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Editors Note: If you would like to review a recently published
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Edited by Gerald Ondrey
A salty way to scrub CO2
Scrubbed fluegas
as a catalyst to speed
up the reaction between
the CO2 and the potasSalt 1
sium carbonate, which
normally has a low rate
of absorption.
NH3-rich
>120C
The process is driven 20 40C
20 bar
by the regenerator,
where CO2 is released
Salt 2
from the solvent at about
120C. Jayaweera notes
that the gas is released
as dry CO2 at a pressure
of 2040 bars, so it could
Reboiler
be used for enhanced Fluegas
oil recovery, without
Regenerator
CO2 rich solvent
further treatment. The
solvent is separated by
Absorber
heat and pressure into
ammonia- and potassium-rich streams, the
ODC for Cl2 production
former being recycled to the bottom of the
Last month, ThyssenKrupp
absorption column and the latter to the top.
Uhde GmbH (Dortmund; www.
In laboratory tests the system has capuhde.eu) and Bayer Materialtured 99% of the available CO2, says
Science AG (BMS; Leverkusen,
Jayaweera, and the ammonia can achieve a
both Germany; www.bayermaCO2 load as high as 15 wt.%, as compared to
terialscience.com) commerless than 5 wt.% for amines. She estimates
cially launched worldwide
that the cost of a commercial unit could be
the oxygen depolarized
as low as one-half the current cost of about
cathode (ODC) technology,
which BMS and ThyssenKrupp
$60 per metric ton (m.t.) of captured CO2
Uhde/UhdeNora developed
for an amine-based process. SRI is seeking
to improve the efficiency of
partners to do a 100 cfm (~0.1 MW) demonmembrane chlor-alkali plants.
stration of the technology.
These scavengers of water pollutants

have a magnetic attraction
process that uses magnetic nanoparticles, coated with a reactive material,
to clean up contaminated water for human
use is being developed at Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.; stanford.edu). The
nanoscavengers, as they are called, are
distributed in the water to kill pollutants,
then are recovered magnetically for re-use.
Stanfords particles are discs that consist
of a layer of titanium, sandwiched between
layers of pure iron, with an outer coating
of reactive material. The discs, measuring
about 150-nm dia. by 60-nm thick, are fabricated by thermal evaporation.
The novel feature is that the direction of
the magnetic force in the top and bottom
layers point in opposite directions, thereby
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit number

on p. 56, or use the website designation.
>99% CO2
K-rich, CO2 lean-solvent
mmonia is a promising candidate for scrubbing carbon dioxide from fluegas, since each
ammonia molecule can absorb one molecule
of CO2, whereas amine absorbers require two
molecules to do the same job. However, because ammonia is volatile, the fluegas must
be cooled to about 10C. This requires a lot of
electrical energy, points out Indira Jayaweera,
a senior staff scientist with SRI International
(Menlo Park, Calif.; www.sri.com). Also, the
absorption rate of the ammonia is not fast
enough at this low temperature.
Jayaweera is program manager for a
new ammonia-based, mixed-salt process
that avoids these problems of the so-called
chilled ammonia route. In SRIs process
(flowsheet) a fluegas stream is injected into
the bottom of an absorption column and contacted with a counter-current aqueous solution of ammonium and potassium carbonates. The reaction takes place at 2040C, so
the absorption rate is about five times that
of chilled ammonia, says Jayaweera. The
main role of the potassium carbonate is to
reduce the vapor pressure, to avoid losing
the more-volatile ammonia. Absorbent in
the lower part of the column has a high percentage of ammonium carbonate, while the
upper part has more potassium carbonate.
The main reaction takes place in the bottom
of the column and unreacted ammonia flows
upward and is redissolved in the upper part.
Jayaweera adds that this ammonia also acts
July 2013
canceling the magnetic properties of the material, says Mingliang Zhang, of the Stanford School of Engineering. However, when a
strong electromagnetic field is activated the
opposing magnetic forces are aligned, making the particles strongly magnetic.
So far the researchers have used silvercoated nanoparticles to achieve 99.9% destruction of E.coli and E. hirae bacteria,
and are now testing titanium dioxidecoated particles for photocatalytic degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) and
N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). The researchers goal is to create nanoscavengers
that carry several reactants for recycling
water in developing nations or for treating
water in arid climates.
By replacing the electrode that

normally produces H2 in the
process by an
membrane(Continues
onoxyp. 12)
gen-depolarized cathode, O2
suppresses the formation of H2.
As a result, the plant produces
only caustic and Cl2, and the
electricity consumption for the
process is reduced by as much
as 30%, say the companies
(for more details, see CE, May
2007, pp. 5055). The ODC
technology has undergone two
years of industrial-scale operation in a demonstration plant at
Bayers Krefeld-rdingen site
(CE, May 2010, p. 11).
Oil hydrogenation
BASF Catalysts LLC (Iselin,
N.J.; www.basf.com/catalysts)
has developed new nickel
(Continues on p. 12)
11
C HEMENTATO R
Burner technology enables reduced NOx

with short flame length
o comply with increasingly stringent

regulations for NOx emissions, operators
of industrial plants often turn to low-NOx
burners to avoid much more costly postcombustion treatment approaches like selective catalytic reduction (SCR). But low-NOx
burners are plagued by significant losses in
efficiency and process throughput.
ClearSign Combustion Corp. (Seattle,
Wash.; www.clearsign.com) has developed
patent-pending technologies to address
this issue. The technologies can effectively
reduce the formation of NOx to less than
5 ppm during combustion without compromising fuel efficiency. ClearSigns Electrodynamic Combustion Control (ECC),
uses computer-controlled electric fields to
manipulate the movement of charged particles within and around burner flames. The
high-voltage, low-power fields are pulsed to
precisely control the physics and chemistry
of the flame, including its shape and heattransfer properties, explains ClearSign CEO
Rick Rutkowski. ECC can be applied to new
or existing burners.
ClearSign has also developed a novel
burner architecture with an upper and
lower tier (diagram) that allows the anchor
position of the flame to be manipulated so
that a large amount of fluegas is entrained
within the combustion

gas. The effect of the
entrained fluegas is to
dilute ionic and free-radical species that would
otherwise react to generate NOx. Because the NOx-forming species are less likely to come into contact and
react, lower levels of NOx are formed in the
combustion. The so-called Duplex burner
can maintain a stable flame over a large
operating range (natural gas through propane) even with low levels of excess oxygen
(13%) while dramatically reducing flame
length, says Rutkowski.
Using ClearSigns ECC and Duplex technologies, operators can realize overall efficiency gains of 2030% and NOx emissions
less than 5 ppm. In addition, particulate
matter generated during combustion agglomerates into pieces that are easy to remove. Major applications include petroleum
refining, electric power generation, ethane
cracking and other hydrocarbon processing.
ClearSign has demonstrated ECC with
the Duplex burner at scales approaching 250,000 Btu/h, and is now looking for
partners in the burner manufacturing
space to help move the technology toward
commercialization.
Improved corrosion control in refinery steam systems
E Power & Water (Trevose, Pa.; www.

ge.com) has introduced a novel, dualpronged approach to corrosion inhibition
for boiler and steam-condensate systems in
petroleum refineries. The technology is designed to prevent attack by acidic species on
steam-system surfaces, providing reliability
to the refining process and helping to maximize profitability.
Tradenamed Steamate Low Salt Amine
(LSA), this new series of products involves
a specially designed set of volatile amines
to neutralize acidic contaminants, primarily
CO2, in steam condensate. In addition, the
Steamate LSA series products can include a
unique, volatile, surface-corrosion inhibitor,
referred to as a polyamine, that forms a robust barrier film on boiler system surfaces
to restrict access of corrosive species.
Using newly developed chemical structures, the volatile neutralizing amines raise
the pH level of the acidic steam condensate
into the mild alkaline range (~9), which is the
12
ideal range for protecting the steel and copper alloys used in steam condensate systems,
explains Tony Rossi, GE product manager for
boiler chemicals. Further, GE uses specialized modeling to select amines based on the
property of salt-point temperature amines
with lower salt-point temperatures have
reduced potential to form corrosive aminechloride salt deposits on the interior of crudeoil distillation towers, where boiler steam is
used to improve fractionation efficiency.
Meanwhile, GEs polyamine barrier film
which Rossi likens to a protective wax finish
on a washed automobile also inhibits dissolved oxygen pitting, and is compatible with
the new neutralizing amines used in GEs integrated boiler and process-steam treatment.
An advantage of this protective barrier is
that it is more volatile than traditional filming
corrosion inhibitors, says Rossi, so it leaves
the boiler very efficiently with the steam, and
provides very effective coverage of the steam(Continues on p. 15)
ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com July 2013
(Continued from p. 11)

catalyst and activated clay technology for the hydrogenation of
edible oils and fatty acids that
improves activity with the same
level of metal. The greater catalyst activity allows food processors to shorten batch times, or
run reactions at lower temperatures, which reduces formation
of trans fats in processed oils.
also for the edible oil market,
BaSF has developed an acidactivated clay for the oil puriication process. The more active
clay allows users to employ
lower doses of clay to achieve
the same level of color removal
from the oil, the company says.
The sulfuric-acid-activated clay
is available in two grades, one
for standard oils and another for
tougher-to-bleach oils.
Graphite HEX
last month, Sgl group (wiesbaden, germany; www.
sglgroup.com) launched the
worlds largest graphite-plate
heat exchanger, which provides
lowrates of up to 250 m3/h,
the company says. used for
heating or cooling of corrosive
liquids, the large Diabon plate
heat exchangers are said to
require up to 75% less heat
exchanger area for the same
performance, compared to
annular-groove, block or shelland-tube heat exchangers. The
new exchangers are available,
globally, through Sgls partner,
alfa laval aB (lund, Sweden;
www.alfalaval.com).
Benign fertilizer
Sandia national laboratory (albuquerque, n.m; www.sandia.
gov) researcher Kevin Fleming
has developed a formulation
for the widely used crop fertil-
(Continues on p. 14)
A gas turbine with low NOx emissions
EDO (see story on p. 14) and Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo, www.

hitachi.com) have developed a new combustion technology that could reduce the emissions of oxides of nitrogen
(NOx) to below 10 ppm without the addition of diluents.
As part of the CCS-IGCC project (carbon capture and storage integrated coal gasification, combined cycle), the
researchers have developed a multi-hole, coaxial jet-flow
burner for use in a gas turbine combustor. The burner
enables stable combustion of the H2-rich fuel and NOx
emissions are suppressed below the 70 ppm required by
environmental regulations without having to add diluents,
which normally reduce the power-generation efficiency.
Tests have been performed at the facilitys Eagle pilot
plant using actual gas from a coal gasifier. The pilot unit
has six cans of multi-hole jet flow burners. The researchers
also confirmed stable operation of the system, all the way
from turbine startup to maximum power generation, and
during the fuel change from liquid fuel (at startup) to coalgasified gas. This is claimed to be first real application of a
CCS-IGCC plant that enables both reduction of NOx emissions and also high-efficiency power generation.
Nanowires improve the properties

of metal composites
Rule the Liquids

Extreme forces must be
safely under control.
Our separators do a perfect
job under the rough
conditions of the chemical
and petrochemical industry.
GEA Westfalia Separator Group GmbH

Werner-Habig-Strae 1, 59302 Oelde, Germany
Phone: +49 2522 77-0, Fax: +49 2522 77-2828
[email protected], www.gea.com
engineering for a better world

CP-214-1-012
reestanding nanowires exhibit ultrahigh elastic-strain

limits (of up to 7%) and yield strengths. However, it has
been difficult to exploit their properties in bulk composites, due to the mismatch between the elasticity of the
nanowires and the elasticity of the metals that form the
matrix. The nanowires will experience an elastic deformation of several percent, but normally the metals that form
the matrix can stretch elastically to no more than 1%. Beyond that, the matrix deforms plastically.
Now, a team from Australia, China, Japan and the U.S.
has produced a metal nanocomposite a combination of
Nb nanowires with a NiTi shape-memory alloy that allows the mechanical properties of nanowires to be exploited
in bulk materials. The trick is with the NiTi matrix a
shape-memory alloy with a special property in its martensitic transformation, says a team member, professor Yinong Liu, head of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering
at the University of Western Australia (www.uwa.edu.au).
The transformation can produce a deformation compatible
with the elastic deformation of the nanowires without plastic damage to the composite structure. This allows the nanowires to bear the high load and be super strong, he says.
The team developed a composite with a quasi-linear
elastic strain of over 6%, a low Youngs modulus of about
28 GPa and a high yield strength of about 1.65 GPa. The
team says this breakthrough opens the door for many
new applications. The low Youngs modulus matches that
of human bone, making the composites suitable for medical implants. The composites could also lead to improvements in properties of solid materials, such as electronic,
optoelectronic, piezoelectric, piezomagnetic, photocatalytic and chemical-sensing properties
C HEMENTATO R
A biotech process that might benefit sharks

qualane, an emollient used in cosmetics,
will be the first product of a biotechnology pilot plant now being started up by
Nucelis Inc. (San Diego, Calif.; www.nucelis.com), a spin-off from Cibus (also of San
Diego). The plant will use Cibus Rapid Trait
Development System (RTDS), a new geneediting technology, to enable naturally occurring yeast to increase their production of
squalene, the precursor of squalane.
RTDS (diagram) differs from genetically
modified organisms (GMO) in that it does
not involve the introduction of foreign genes
into a microorganism, says Sean OConnor,
president of Nucelis. Instead, the organisms
own natural repair mechanism is triggered
by the introduction of oligonucleotides,
which changes the way the cells work. After
doing their job, the oligonucleotides are broken down by the cells within 90 minutes.
OConnor adds that the process is more
precise than GMO.
Nucelis has focused on squalene initially
because it fits in the companys plan to make products

through sustainable processes, using low-value feedstocks that are outside the
food chain. At present the
main sources of squalene are
olive oil and sharks livers.
Nucelis produces squalene
from glycerol, a low-cost, unwanted byproduct of biodiesel fuel, then converts it to
squalane by conventional
hydrogenation. The product is 99.7% pure, versus
a purity of 95-99% for the
shark product and 9095% for olive oil, says
OConnor, and the process is competitive in
the market.
Initially, the pilot plant is using two 200-L
fermenters. Nucelis plans to add two more
200-L fermenters next year and two more in
2015, for a total capacity of 1,200 L.
Using low-temperature waste heat to make power

ew Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization
(NEDO; Kawasaki City; www.nedo.
go.jp) and Panasonic Corp. (Osaka,
both Japan; panasonic.net) have
begun testing a new type of power-generation system that uses anisotropic
solid-state composites that produce an
electrical current when a temperature
gradient is applied. A prototype has
been installed at Kyoto City Northeastern Clean Center where it will
recover waste heat from a 700-ton/d
waste incinerator and make electricity. The incinerator generates 232.82
GJ/d of heat that cannot readily be recovered by conventional methods due to the
low temperature of the exhaust stream.
Panasonics thermoelectric device consists
of a tube with alternating layers of slanted
discs composed of bismuth telluride-based
thermoelectric materials (Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3)
and nickel metal. This tubular composite of
Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3/Ni with cylindrical anisotropy
introduces effective thermoelectric tensors
so that a temperature gradient along the
axis causes an electric current to flow transversely. The tubular configuration allows for
direct and efficient heat transfer from fluid
heat sources.
Tests are being performed on a compact
14

izer ammonium nitrate that
prevents its use in improvised
explosive devices (IED), while
still maintaining its ability to fertilize crops. Taking advantage of
the weak binding between the
ions in ammonium nitrate, the
Sandia researchers developed
a formulation that includes iron
sulfate. The iron sulfate renders
the ammonium nitrate undetonable when mixed with fuel, as
in an explosive device. In the
presence of iron sulfate, a waste
product from steel production,
the ions trade, forming iron
nitrate and ammonium sulfate, which cannot be made to
explode. The iron sulfate has
added benefits for soil health,
creating less alkaline soils in
locations such as Afghanistan,
where a non-detonable fertilizer
would help prevent IED attacks.
Cold boiling
unit made of four parallel tubes, each 100mm with diameters of 10 mm (I.D.) and
14 mm (O.D.). The unit generates 10 W of
power (0.5 V 20 A) when the hot water
inlet temperature is 90C, and the cooling
water inlet temperature is 10C.
This NEDO project, which started in
July 2011 and runs through February
2014, is ultimately targeting a power generation of more than 400 W/m3 from lowtemperature unused heat, which is eight
times more than existing thermoelectric
devices. The power generated per installed
space is nearly twice that from solar panels, says Panasonic.
Researchers at the University of

Sheffield (U.K.; www.sheffield.
ac.uk) are developing a process
that causes water to evaporate
without boiling. The patentpending process involves injecting hot microbubbles to a thin
layer of liquid. The method has
been demonstrated for separating water from methanol, and
now the researchers are working on a pilot project with Carbon Sequestration Ltd. to dewater whey, which is commonly
used as animal feed. If whey is
overheated during dewatering, it
loses its nutritional value.
Partner with
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C HEMENTATO R
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condensate system when fed to the boiler feedwater.

Use of Steamate LSA has commenced in a small number
of commercial refineries, and the results have been positive, Rossi says. For example, because of the lower risk of
corrosion and deposits in distillation towers, petroleum refiners are able to run at lower top temperatures to maximize yields of middle distillates, such as diesel and gasoline, from crude oil.
Bio-butanol scaleup
moves ahead with trials . . .
. . . and a bio-butadiene plant is planned
n the heels of its successful scaleup of bio-butanol, Cobalt

is looking for pathways to use that molecule as a building block for other products. The company has announced
plans to build the first bio-butadiene plant in Asia. Projected to come onstream in 2017, the plant will utilize traditional chemical catalysis technology to take bio-butanol
to butadiene.
Cobalt CEO Bob Mayer says the company is developing
an intellectual property package for the bio-butadiene that
will be marketed worldwide. As a key raw material for automobile tires and other products, butadienes worldwide
market is eight times larger than the $5-billion annual
market for butanol, Mayer notes.
A01120EN
n April development tests, Cobalt Technologies (Cobalt;

Mountain View, Calif; www.cobalttech.com) produced
n-butanol at the fermentation scale of 100 m3 per run,
demonstrating lower production cost than butanol produced from petroleum. This represents production that is
a factor of 10 larger than previous trials conducted at the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL; Golden,
Colo.; www.nrel.gov), and one-tenth of full-scale commercial production. The trials were conducted at a site in
Florida owned by biofuels company LS9 Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.; www.ls9.com)
Cobalt is exploring opportunities in the U.S. for retrofitting an existing corn ethanol plant to eventually produce butanol from available biomass, explains Cobalt
CEO Bob Mayer.
Developed using a range of biomass sources, including
sugarcane bagasse, woody biomass, and other agricultural
residuals, the Cobalt bio-butanol process involves a carbohydrate extraction process that is integrated with fermentation and distillation. Cobalt employs fermentation strains
specially selected for their ability to metabolize both fiveand six-carbon sugars. The company has developed proprietary bioreactor technology that will allow continuous fermentation, as well as an advanced batch process.
By combining integrated extraction, continuous fermentation and strain selection technologies with an efficient,
reduced-energy distillation process and low-cost biomass,
the company can produce butanol at savings of 4060%
compared to petroleum-derived butanol, Mayer says.
With over 50 independent subsidiaries and more than 220 engineering

and sales offices spread across the
world, SAMSON ensures the safety
and environmental compatibility of
your plants on any continent.
To offer the full range of high-quality
control equipment used in industrial
processes, SAMSON has brought
together highly specialized companies to form the SAMSON GROUP.
SAMSON AG MESS- UND REGELTECHNIK

Weismllerstrae 3
60314 Frankfurt am Main Germany
Phone: +49 69 4009-0 Fax: +49 69 4009-1507 (Continues on p. 19)
E-mail: [email protected] www.samson.de
SAMSONCHEMICAL
GROUP www.samsongroup.net
ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2013 15
Newsfront
CO2 UTILIZATION
Researchers are developing new
technologies for using CO2 as a feedstock
to make a variety of chemicals
n May 9, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels surpassed 400 ppm
in Mauna Loa, Hawaii for the
first time since measurements
began there in 1958. This concentration is well above the 280 ppm levels
occurring prior to the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, according
to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California (San
Diego, Calif.; scripps.ucsd.edu). Todays
rate of increase of CO2 into the atmosphere is more than 100 times faster
than the increase that occurred when
the last ice age ended, says Scripps.
Efforts to stem the flow of this
greenhouse gas (GHG) into the atmosphere are becoming a priority in
some countries, which are investing
considerable funding for R&D projects
in carbon capture and storage (CCS;
see, for example Chem. Eng., May
2008, pp. 2836). Targeting the main
culprits combustion of fossil fuels
for power generation or cement production CCS projects over the last
20 years have primarily focused on
capturing CO2 from fluegas, and then
injecting the pressurized CO2 underground or into wells for enhanced oil
recovery (EOR).
More recently, another branch of
R&D has begun to blossom carbon capture and utilization (CCU)
whereby the CO2 captured from
fluegas is used as a feedstock to make
chemicals, such as polymers, methanol
and even the key chemical building
block, CO. Chemists and chemical engineers around the world are trying to
exploit a variety of technologies from
their toolboxes, such as developing
new polymerization catalysts, electrochemical and photochemical processes,
biotechnological methods and others,
in order to not only make use of the
CO2, but also to reduce the amount of
16
FIGURE 1. This miniplant in Leverkusen, Germany

is being used to develop CO2-containing polymers for
making polyurethane foam used in cars and furniture
petroleum-derived feedstock needed

to produce products.
In Germany, for example, the Federal
Ministry of Education and Research
(BMBF; Bonn; www.bmbf.de) has recently earmarked 100 million for
Technologies for Sustainability and
Climate Protection Chemical Processes and Use of CO2, with the objectives of lowering dependency on crude
oil and natural gas, using CO2 as a raw
material, doubling energy productivity
by 2020, and reducing CO2 emissions
by up to 40% by 2020. Among the 33
funded projects for the 20092015
timeframe are 11 for CO2 utilization
and seven for making chemicals.
The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE;
Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov), too,
has recently added CCU to its pallet of
technologies receiving funding through
its National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL; Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.
netl.doe.gov),. The DOE is also funding
startup companies struggling to commercialize CCU technologies. Some of
these projects are described below.*
Polymers with CO2 built-in
In February, the worlds first largescale production of polypropylene

carbonate (PPC) polyol using waste
CO2 as a raw material commenced.
Partially funded by a three-year,
$25-million grant from the DOEs Office of Fossil Energy, the PPC run was
conducted by Novomer Inc. (Waltham,
Mass.; www.novomer.com) in collaboration with Albemarle Corp. (Orangeburg, S.C.; www.albemarle.com), and
tested Novomers catalyst technology.
The batch run produced seven tons
of finished polymer a PPC diol
with a molecular weight of 1,000 g/
* A longer version of this article, as well as a
table of more R&D projects, can be found online
at www.che.com
mol that is being used to accelerate

product qualification and adoption in
a wide range of polyurethane applications, says Novomers executive vice
president, Peter Shepard. The PPC is
made by the catalytic copolymerization of CO2 and propylene oxide. Containing up to 40 wt.% CO2, the PPC
can be tailored to a range of material
characteristics, from solid plastics to
soft, flexible foams, depending on the
length of the polymer chains.
Novomers homogeneous, cobaltbased catalyst is 300 times more active than previous systems developed
to synthesize aliphatic polycarbonates. This enables the process to operate at much milder temperatures
of 3550C, says Shepard. Novomers
process takes place in the liquid phase
at 150300 psi, with the monomer acting as a solvent.
Novomer is talking to other toll
manufacturers for larger-scale production runs, and is positioning its
polymer technology to compete with
conventional petroleum-based materials for applications such as flexible,
rigid and microcellular packaging
foams, thermoplastics, polyurethane
adhesives and sealants, and coating
resins for food-and-beverage cans.
CO2-derived polyols are also being
developed at Bayer MaterialScience
AG (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; www.
bayermaterialscience.com), as part of
the three-year Dream Production project, launched in 2010 with funding from
the BMBF, and with partners RWE AG
(Essen; www.rwe.com), RWTH Aachen
University (www.rwth-aachen.de) and
the CAT Catalytic Center (a research
facility jointly run by the university
and Bayer). A new zinc-based catalyst
was developed as part of a forerunner
project, Dream Reactions, to enable the
efficient reaction of CO2.
Since the beginning of 2011, the

company has been running its Dream
Production Miniplant (Figure 1),
which is now operating continuously
and producing sample amounts (kilograms) for internal testing of the new
material, says project leader Christoph
Grtler. The miniplant uses CO2 that
has been captured from the fluegas of
a lignite-fired power plant operated by
RWE in nearby Cologne.
BMS is now testing the polymers for
potential applications. By mixing the
CO2-based polyether polycarbonate
polyol with isocyanates, the company
is producing samples of polyurethane
foam for testing. Initial results show
that the material containing CO2
match those made the conventional
way. If the new process continues to
produce good results, Bayer intends to
start industrial production of polyols
with CO2 from 2015.
Meanwhile, a lifecycle analysis
(LCA) has been performed by RWTH
Aachen University, and the results

were reported last month at the International Conference on CO2 Utilization (June 2327; Alexandria, Va).
The LCA analysis shows that the new
materials do have a better carbon footprint than those made by conventional
methods. This is mainly due to the
savings of fossil materials and replacing them by CO2, says Grtler.
Another dream reaction is the direct synthesis of acrylate from CO2
and alkenes, says Michael Limbach,
a chemist working at the Synthesis
and Homogeneous Catalyst Dept. of
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen; www.basf.
com) and the Catalyst Research Laboratory of the University of Heidelberg (CaRLa; both Germany; www.
carla-hd.com). Metal-catalyzed oxidative coupling of CO2 with alkenes or
alkynes is one of the most attractive
routes to acrylates, but finding a suitable catalyst has eluded researchers
for over 30 years, he says.
Until now. Last year, Limbach and

his colleagues from BASF, CaRLa,
and hte AG (Heidelberg; www.htecompany.com) reported the first synthesis of sodium acrylate from CO2,
ethylene and a base. The group developed a homogeneous organometallic
catalyst based on nickel as part of the
three-year, 2.2-million ACER project
funded by BMBF, with BASF and hte
adding an additional 1.7-million for
the next few years. Sodium acrylate is
a key ingredient for high-performance
polymers, such as superabsorbent
polymers used in diapers. The project
aims to further develop the direct route
to acrylates as an economical alternative to current production methods,
which use fossil-fuel-derived propylene or propane in a two-step oxidation
process, says Limbach. He estimates
the current global-market volume for
acrylic acid at approximately 4 million
ton/yr. Although CO2 is a cheap source
of carbon, a great deal of expensive
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17
Newsfront
energy is needed for thermodynamic
reasons, to make it usable. Production
processes would therefore only truly
consume CO2 if this energy were generated CO2-neutrally, he says.
Fermentation methods
A demonstration plant for the production of acetic acid from the CO2
in industrial offgases will be built at
an operating plant of Petronas (Kuala
Lumpur; www.petronas.com.my), Malaysias national oil company, under an
agreement with LanzaTech (Roselle,
Ill.; www.lanzatech.com), developer of
the process. Scheduled for startup in
late 2013, the plant will be similar in
size to a demonstration unit for a LanzaTech process that produces ethanol
and 2,3 butanediol (2,3-BD) from the
CO in offgases, says Mike Schultz, the
companys vice-president of engineering. That plant started up last April at
a Bao Steel (Shanghai) steel mill and
produces 100,000 gal/yr (300 ton/yr)
of ethanol (see Chem. Eng., December
2010, p. 12).
The CO2 process is similar to the
CO technology in that it uses fermentation media containing naturally occurring bacteria that have been optimized to obtain a product (acetic acid
in the case of CO2). Raw offgases are
sparged into the solution, and the CO2
reacts with H2 at 3540C to yield
acetic acid, plus water. The rest of the
components in the gases are inert and
pass through the reactor.
Schultz says that, unlike CO, CO2 is
readily soluble in water, which makes
the CO2 process more effective. LanzaTech plans to recover the acid from
the solution by counter-current solvent
extraction (the CO process uses distillation to obtain ethanol). He notes
that CO2 is present in the offgases
from many industrial processes and
can account for as much as 5060%
of raw natural gas. H2 for the process
can be provided from various low-value
sources, such as coke oven gas, hydrogen plant offgas, and refinery fuel gas.
Meanwhile, biotechnology is also
being tapped as a method for making acetone, a widely used solvent
that is also a key ingredient for making methyl methacrylate, isophorone
and bisphenol A. Today, acetone is
produced from fossil-based resources,
18
Catholyte
+
Formate/formic acid
(aqueous product)
+
H2 + CO
(gas by-products)
+
CO2 (unreacted)
Positive ions
Anolyte
+
O2 (gas)
reacting propylene and

benzene into acetone and
phenol. The goal of the
BMBF-funded COOPAF
project (CO2-based acetone fermentation) is
Catholyte
Ion
Anolyte
to develop a laboratory+
exchange
CO2
scale, gas-fermentation
Cathode membrane
Anode
process in which bactecatalyst
catalyst
ria produce acetone diAnode reactions
rectly from CO2 and H2. Cathode reactions
4OH- 2H2O + O2 + 4eCO2(aq) + H+ + 2e- HCOO- (aq)
Natural acetogenic bac- 2H+ + 2e- H2(g)
teria strains normally CO2(aq) + 2H+ + 2e- CO(g) + H2O
Source: DNV
metabolize CO2 and H2
FIGURE 2. Electrochemistry is one way to
into ethanol and acetate. reduce CO into chemicals. The process shown
2
In cooperation with uni- here makes formate or formic acid, depending on the pH
versities of Ulm and
Rostock, metabolic engineered aceto- duce the total cell voltage by almost 1
genic bacteria strains that are able to V compared to other electrochemical
produce acetone using CO2 are being routes. The electrochemical cell reacdeveloped. In contrast to other R&D tor has also been designed to reduce
efforts, this project uses only CO2 as the resistive losses by another 2 V.
the carbon source, says Jrg-Joachim As a result, the total cell voltage is
Nitz, group leader, reactor technol- decreased by about 60%, says Rode.
ogy, at Evonik Industries AGs (Essen, The lifetime of the cathode catalyst
Germany: www.evonik.com) Coatings has also been increased by at least 20
and Additives BL Crosslinkers times over literature values, he says.
The ECFORM process has been
business unit in Marl, Germany.
Already the group has confirmed tested in a semi-pilot-sized reactor
that it is able to produce acetone from with a superficial area of 600 cm2,
CO2 and H2.
which is capable of reducing about 1
One advantage of this biotechnologi- kg/d of CO2. This unit was assembled
cal gas-fermentation approach is that into a solar-powered trailer to demonpurified gases are not required as raw strate the operation using completely
materials. We can use CO2- and H2- renewable power. The reactor was modrich waste gas streams, says Nitz, such eled using gPROMS, a model-based
as synthesis gas (syngas) from biomass, flowsheet simulator from Process Systems Enterprises (PSE; London, U.K.;
and offgases from steel processing.
www.psenterprise.com). The model developed by DNV is also being used for
Electrochemistry
Over the last four years, Det Norske scaleup assessment, says Rode. The
Veritas (DNV; Oslo, Norway; www.dnv. next step will be a demonstration unit
com) has been developing its electro- for converting 1-ton/d of CO2, which
chemical process (ECFORM; Electro- Rode estimates will emerge in the
chemical Reduction of CO2 to Formate) next couple of years. Once developed
for making formic acid from CO2. In at that scale, the process will be easy
the process (Figure 2), dissolved CO2 is to move to commercial production
electrochemically reduced at the cath- scale by simply increasing the number
ode into formate ions (along with small of cells, he says.
Meanwhile,
Dioxide
Materials
amounts of H2 and CO) by a two-step,
catalytic reaction, explains Edward (Champaign, Ill.; www.dioxidemateRode, principle researcher at DNVs rials.com) is working on two aspects
Research and Innovation Group in Co- of CO2 electrochemical conversion to
lumbus, Ohio. At the anode, hydroxide fuels and chemicals: lowering the enions are oxidized into O2.
ergy requirement for the primary conDNV has developed a highly selec- version of CO2 into CO or HCOOH and
tive cathode catalyst, based on tin or O2; and expanding the market for the
tin alloys, and a mixed-metal-oxides subsequent products to large-volume
anode catalyst, which combine to re- chemicals. One of the main thrusts
CONFERENCE NOTE:
or the latest on CO2 utilization, readers may consider attending the 2nd Conference on CO2 as Feedstock for Chemistry and Polymers, which takes place October
79 at the Haus der Technik, in Essen, Germany. Organized by nova-institut GmbH
(Hrth, Germany; www.nova-institut.de), the event is expected to draw more than 300
participants from leading industrial and academic players in CO2 utilization.
is the use of bifunctional catalysts to

lower the voltage needed to convert
CO2 to CO or HCOOH. Bifunctional
catalysts are quite well known in industry, but they usually involve two
different metals or a metal and a metal
oxide. Dioxide Materials advance was
to develop novel bifunctional catalysts
that combined a metal and an organic
species (ionic liquids) to lower the
overpotential for the reaction (that
is, reducing the energy barrier for the
formation of the CO2 intermediate).
Dioxide Materials technology creates a new reaction pathway for the reaction, that does not require the highenergy intermediate so the wasted
energy is much less. Research (published in Science) showed that CO2
can be converted to CO and O2 at 80%
energy efficiency and 98% selectivity.
The initial work was done in a 1-cm2
cell, but Dioxide Materials recently won

a $5 million DOE Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA-E) award and
is collaborating on the project with
3M (St. Paul, Minn.; www.3m.com), a
sub-recipient of the ARPA-E award,
and is currently evaluating the technology. Since the ARPA-E funded work
started in February 2013, the team
has already increased the CO output
of the cell by three orders of magnitude
(from microliters per minute to milliliters per minute). The final goal of
the ARPA-E project is to increase the
output to liters per minute, in a design
that is scalable to the industrial (thousands of tons per day) scale.
Meanwhile, the BMBF-funded Sunfire project was started in May 2012
with the aim to produce Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) liquids from CO2 and H2O
using renewable energy. The three-year
project is lead by Sunfire GmbH (Dresden, Germany; www.sunfire.de), with

seven partners from German research
institutes and companies. The idea is to
produce syngas by the reverse watergas shift (RWGS) reaction (CO2 + H2
> H2O + CO) using H2 generated by
high-temperature steam electrolysis.
The syngas is then converted to liquids
(gasoline, diesel, kerosene, methanol)
and methane via F-T synthesis.
What makes the project unique is the
use of a 10-MW prototype, solid-oxide
fuel cell (SOFC) electrolyzer operating
under pressure. Using electricity generated from renewable sources (solar
or wind power), and by utilizing steam
generated from the downstream RWGS
and F-T reactions, the HT electrolyzer
has an efficiency of over 90%, according
to Sunfire. An integrated 159-L/d test
facility will be constructed and used for
validating the process under realistic
operating conditions.
Gerald Ondrey
19
BWA Water Additives
Newsfront
COOLING-TOWER WATER:
A HYBRID PROBLEM
CALLS FOR A
HYBRID SOLUTION
FIGURE 1. Processors are faced with

the traditional cooling-tower water-treatment issues, as well as new problems related to water scarcity and intake and discharge restrictions, which require a new
approach to water-treatment programs
BWA Water Additives
In addition to the usual woes,

new issues are creating a situation
that calls for a hybrid approach to water treatment
caling, fouling and corrosion have

long been the enemy of coolingtower water. While these issues
still present significant watertreatment hurdles, todays processors
are also dealing with impaired water
streams and increasing restrictions
affecting intake and discharge water,
among other challenges. This one-two
punch has necessitated a hybrid approach one that includes both advanced chemistries and modern, automated equipment to cooling-tower
water treatment (Figure 1).
senior vice president of corporate sales

with C.C.I. Chemical Corp. (Vernon,
Calif.; www.ccichemical.com). Every
program will differ because make-up
water will differ based on where it
comes from, the region in which the facility is located, and factors such as the
alkalinity, hardness, and other characteristics of the water.
Usually, a robust treatment program will include a balanced chemistry containing one or more biocides,
algaecides, biodispersants, corrosion
and scale inhibitors, anti-scalants,
and cleaners.
Classic treatment objectives

Cooling-tower water treatment is an
integral part of operations for processors because productivity and product
quality can be adversely affected by
scale, corrosion, fouling and microbiological contamination. These watertreatment problems can be very costly
when they lead to the loss of heat
transfer in the cooling tower, equipment failure, and health and safety
concerns, according to Narasimha Rao,
vice president, R&D and Automation,
with Nalco Co. (Naperville, Ill.; www.
nalco.com).
For this reason, delicately balanced
chemistries are used to prevent scale,
fouling and corrosion in cooling tower
water. A good water treatment company will create a tailored program to
help processors tackle the particular
issues that apply to the local stream
of make-up water, says Tom Falsey,
20
Todays treatment objectives

As if finding the proper chemistry balance were not tricky enough, a recent
set of water-related issues complicate
matters further. The scarcity of water
in many places and the tightening of
discharge permits are among some of
the reasons processors need to optimize
water use. Additional factors include
the anticipated U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA; Washington,
D.C.) regulation surrounding coolingtower intake water. Section 316(b)
of the Clean Water Act will require
that the location, design, construction
and capacity of cooling-water intake
structures reflect the best technology
available for minimizing adverse environmental impact. These anticipated
regulations will force processors to either install equipment that will reduce
fish entrainment at the intake or draw
FIGURE 2. Here, BWA scientists are

developing biodegradable, high-performance antiscalants for water treatment
their cooling tower water from elsewhere, says Kaveh Someah, global
director, oil-and-gas and refining and
petrochemical industries with Ovivo
USA (Salt Lake City, Utah; www.ovivowater.com).
For these and other reasons, its not
unusual to see a cooling system with
multiple sources of water blended together in varying ratios being used
as cooling tower makeup water, says
Eric Thungstrom, global cooling product manager, water and process technologies, with GE Power & Water (Trevose, Pa.; www.ge-energy.com). This
can lead to variable water quality, and
if a treatment program is designed
around a projected water quality, but
if that water quality is more variable
than what was projected, it may put
additional stress on the treatment
program and cause performance issues, such as corrosion or scaling.
CLEANING BEYOND
THE COOLING TOWER
ith so many processors using reclaimed water, the challenge becomes how to treat a reclaimed
water source and turn it into useable
water, notes Kaveh Someah, global director for the oil and gas industries with
Ovivo USA. Reclaimed water is often
high in nutrients, which can cause microfouling that leads to slime on the heat
exchangers. High salt, phosphate and
ammonia levels may coat metals and
create cracking in equipment, so proper
treatments must be found.
Traditional processes for handling
these issues might include combinations
of biological, physical and chemical
treatments. For example, multimedia
filters might be used to remove total suspended solids and floating solids. Then,
nutrients might be removed via a clarifier or other biological treatment, which
may be followed by reverse osmosis to
remove dissolved solids from the stream.
All this would be done prior to running
the water through the cooling system.
Although these methods combined
with chemistry in the cooling tower may
prevent scale from forming in the cooling
tower, scale will still eventually form. The
chemicals just delay where the scaling occurs, says Someah. As the water leaves
the cooling tower and heads into the process equipment where the temperature
rises, the salt precipitates out, which can
lead to scaling. However, an online cleaning system can be installed inside the heat
exchanger and condensers to prevent
and remove scale and fouling.
To assist, Ovivo offers the Automatic
Tube Cleaning System, which prevents
scale deposits and microfouling 24
hours a day, increasing reliability, performance, plant output and service life of
the equipment. The system injects elastomer rubber balls that are slightly larger
than the tube diameter into the water
supply line so that the flow of cooling
water forces them through the condenser
tubes. The balls wipe the tubes clean of
deposits including silt, scale, and biological fouling. A strainer section in the
cooling water outlet extracts the balls
and a centrifugal pump moves them into
a collector section where they are ready
for the next cycle. Balls can be recirculated continuously or intermittently to suit
the plant.
trated. This mixed, impaired water

stream can create a host of challenges,
says Thungstrom.
Adding to the water-source-related
issues are tightening discharge issues.
Processors now have to deal with
meeting regulations that affect effluent limitations, such as requirements
that demand lower discharge limits on
phosphorus, nitrogen, and BOD/COD

(biochemical oxygen demand and
chemical oxygen demand), says Nozi
Hamidi, vice president of marketing
with BWA Water Additives (Atlanta,
Ga.; www.wateradditives.com).
The cost of complying with such
limitations, combined with a global
awareness of environmentally re-
ThyssenKrupp Uhde
Engineering with ideas.
The key to our success is the creativity and resourcefulness of
our employees. And it is this that keeps turning major challenges
into solutions that are not only brilliant and innovative, but often
set the standard for the entire engineering sector.
www.thyssenkrupp-uhde.de
Often, processors use a blend of

waters, such as reverse osmosis (RO)
reject water, well water, river water
with suspended solids, blowdown
water from the boiler or cooling-tower
and municipal wastewater. In addition, many facilities are being forced
to achieve zero liquid discharge, so the
water sources may be highly concen-
ThyssenKrupp Uhde
21
FOOD PROCESSOR USES TECHNOLOGY

TO CONTROL COOLING COSTS
AND WHITE RUST PROBLEM
Newsfront
GE Power & Water
or one food processor, make-up water hardness was so low, alkalinity so high, and variation
in water chemistry so frequent that white rust corrosion of galvanized steel resulted in
capital cost expenditures of $750,000 to replace failed cooling towers.
White rust caused premature failure of galvanized-steel components. A white gelatinous or waxy
deposit often identifies white-rust corrosion. This deposit, a zinc-rich oxide, is porous and generally non-protective. High alkalinity, high pH and low hardness cause the problem. All of these
conditions existed at this facility and were aggravated by variations in water chemistry that made
control problematic.
The cooling-system make-up water contained 46 parts per million (ppm) of calcium hardness,
necessitating high-cycle operation to obtain the minimum 50 ppm calcium hardness recommended
by the Cooling Tower Institute (CTI; Houston; www.cti.org) to prevent white rust. Acid feed was also
required to bring the alkalinity within CTI guidelines.
New evaporative condensers were installed in November 2003, and a very small amount of white
rust became apparent upon inspection months later. Concerned that this condition would result in
further damage to the cooling towers, the plant engineering staff installed Nalcos 3D Trasar system in
January 2004. The technology measures key parameters related to system stress. When upsets occur,
3D Trasar technology takes timely, appropriate, corrective action. It then communicates with system
users, informing them of what happened, as well as the actions taken to compensate.
High-cycle operation required acid feed in order to reduce alkalinity. If the acid-feed system failed,
the tower pH would rise. At higher pH, conditions would be right for white rust formation. Timely attention to any failure of the acid-feed system was critical to preventing this operational problem. The
automated technology provided alarm notification via cell phone, text message, email, or digital pager,
ensuring the right people knew about any problem immediately and could take corrective action.
Weekly inspections are conducted on the cooling tower and results since installation of the technology have been excellent. The automation program has been able to better control the system water
chemistry, white rust has been abated and an expected $45,000 per year in cost savings has been
realized. An important key to the success of the program is the alarm notification feature. It contacts
Nalco via cell phone and communicates specific problems so that immediate response can occur.
This has helped keep the program in compliance more than 99% of the time.
No scale or other mild steel corrosion problems have been observed and cost savings have come
from longer expected evaporative condenser life ($25,000 per year), reduced cooling-water sewer
costs ($10,000 per year), reduced treatment chemical costs ($8,000 per year) and labor savings
from reduced testing ($2,500 per year).
FIGURE 3. TrueSense Online

for Cooling is an integrated
platform that directly measures
and controls applied chemistries that are critical for managing cooling-water efficiency
and preserving key assets in
industrial cooling systems
Nalco
sponsible use of chemicals, has caused

many processors to pursue controlling these factors within the plant
rather than passing them on to the
local water treatment facility, which
might be treatment limited or invoke
surcharges for wastewaters with high
levels of certain constituents, says
Hamidi. This has led to processors
targeting reduction or elimination of
any contributors to the plant effluent
that will tip the limits for phosphorus,
nitrogen and other constituents, she
says. Often, typical phosphonatebased cooling water chemistries will
be the largest contributor of phosphorus and nitrogen, and therefore will
spur substitution to P-free and N-free
cooling-water treatment chemistries.
Solving combined challenges

Between handling tough-to-treat
water sources and stricter discharge
limits, water treatment experts say a
hybrid water-treatment approach is
needed. New and advanced chemistries designed to meet the discharge
limits should be combined with tech22
nologies that can help consistently, accurately and automatically dose the chemicals and keep
track of making sure nothing is
off balance.
New and advanced chemistries
might include something like BWA
Water Additives Belclene 810,
which is a biodegradable PMA, or
polymaleic acid, that can be used in
cooling-water treatment programs
where the processor requires Pfree, N-free or metals-free formu- FIGURE 4. A technician looks inside a 3D
Trasar Controller, which helps maintain conlations and also wants to achieve trol over critical cooling assets
very high cycles of concentration
within the cooling tower to save water. ant used to control organic deposits
This chemistry is considered envi- that can develop on RO membranes.
In addition to chemistries that meet
ronmentally acceptable and is both
a threshold and a crystal growth in- modern discharge requirements, Thunhibitor, which makes it better at scale gstrom says processors also require
inhibition than phosphonates that more stable and effective chemistries.
are typically just threshold inhibitors, GE Power & Water offers GenGard
while meeting P-free and N-free treat- 8000 for control of corrosion and deposits in open recirculating cooling
ment objectives (Figure 2).
For the processor who has RO mem- systems. GenGard programs can be
branes in their operations, BWA has applied across the entire pH spectrum
also developed Flocon 885, a biode- from neutral to alkaline and ensure regradable, P-free and N-free antiscal- sults even under stressful conditions.
Nalco
Nalco
FIGURE 5. This image shows the 3D Trasar technology set up on a cooling tower.
The technology includes a stress-tolerant polymer (STP), alkaline-enhanced

chemistry (AEC) and halogen-resistant
azole (HRA) in combination with phosphate-based steel corrosion inhibitors.
Even with advanced chemistries,
chemicals alone are not enough, say
the experts. Likely the most important tool is one that can control the
treatment program, says Thungstrom.
And, with all the possible variation in
todays water streams, a sophisticated
control system is often needed.
Simple control systems will take
FIGURE 6. Here, the 3D

Trasar technology is set up for
a cooling water skid
a single input and turn the chemical feed pump on and off accordingly.
However, sophisticated monitoring
can make adjustments to the chemicals and send alerts when additional
actions need to be taken.
Among the sophisticated systems
is GEs TrueSense Online (Figure 3)
for Cooling. The integrated platform
directly measures and controls applied chemistries that are critical for
managing cooling water efficiency and
preserving key assets in industrial
cooling systems.
Nalco offers the 3D Trasar System

(Figure 46), which uses real-time
monitoring, patented control technology, stress-resistant chemistry
and 24/7 information management
capabilities to detect, determine and
deliver improved scale, corrosion
and microbiological performance
in cooling systems. It is able to detect the upsets that precede scaling,
corrosion and biofouling and then
deliver the appropriate chemical response. The result is a balanced, efficient and safe cooling system that
requires less maintenance, no overor under-dosing of chemicals, lower
operating costs, and maximum asset
protection.
While cooling-tower water treatment may present more challenges
than it did in the past, service providers are working hard to make sure
their offerings help processors continue to go with the flow.
Joy LePree
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23
BinMaster
FOCUS ON
Level Measurement
Vega Grieshaber KG
Krohne Messtechnik
Reliable switching
down to 196C
The Vegaswing 66 vibrating level
switch (photo) is said to be the first of
a kind for extreme temperatures. Especially suitable for cryogenic liquids,
the device switches reliably in process
temperatures from 196 to 450C, and
operates at pressures from vacuum to
160 bars. The level switch offers increased protection and safety for gasliquefaction plants and liquefied gas
tanks used for processing, transporting or storing liquefied natural gas
(LNG) or liquid nitrogen. The device
has standard approval for explosion
protection according to ATEX and FM,
as well as for use on ships and offshore
platforms. Vega Grieshaber KG,
Schiltach, Germany
www.vega.com
in storage or process tanks with process temperatures up to 250C and

pressures up to 40 bars. The unit has
been designed and developed for use
in SIL-2 safety-related systems according to IEC 61508. The polypropylene (PP) and polytetrafluoroethylene
(PTFE) Wave Horn antennas are process sealed by their antenna material
instead of a traditional O-ring seal
construction. These gasket-free antennas are therefore suited for extreme
corrosive environments, says the company. The new meter is compliant with
requirements such as SIL and Namur
recommendations NE 107, 21, 43 and
53, and offers a 420-mA HART communication with dedicated PACTware
DTMs. Krohne Messtechnik GmbH,
Duisburg, Germany
www.krohne.com
Corrosive environments are

not a problem for these meters
Launched in February, the Optiwave
5200 C/F is a new 10 GHz FMCW (frequency modulated, continuous wave)
radar level meter (photo) for liquid
applications up to 300-m measuring
range. The two-wire, loop-powered
device measures level and volume
This explosion-proof meter

displays level and volume
The PD6801 ProtEX F&I Level Meter
(photo) is an easy-to-read, explosionproof meter designed for safe or hazardous environments, such as oil wells
or chemical storage. The 420-mA
loop-powered input displays level in
feet and inches; a second line shows
24
Precision Digital
volume, percent or a custom label. The

meter also features a 20-segment tanklevel indicator that displays the height.
The meter is optimized for wide-angle
viewing of about 80 deg. The meter has
FM, ATEX, CSA and IEC Ex approvals, and is housed in a cast-aluminum
NEMA 4X enclosure. Precision Digital Corp., Hollister, Pa.
www.predig.com
This capacitance probe is
flexible for tight fits
This bendable capacitance probe
(photo) is designed to fit into tight
spaces or in vessels where obstructions prevent the installation of a
straight probe. The probe can be bent
to avoid obstructions in a vessel while
still allowing adequate probe surface
area to confirm the presence or absence of material. Mounted on the side
of the bin, the bendable probe can be
used in a wide range of solid materials
or slurries. These capacitance probes
work at 6 kHz far below the radiofrequency (RF) level of 9 kHz and
will not interfere with two-way radios
or other equipment operating in the
radio spectrum, says the company.
Standard probes feature a triple-
American Sensor Technologies
cal data, and can manage various

alarms and set permission levels
for various personnel. The system
notifies all relevant workers of
alarms via email and text messaging. Automation Products
Group, Inc., Logan, Utah
www.apgsensors.com
threaded, screw-off cover that allows

easy access to internal components
and an FDA-recognized powder coat
finish. BinMaster, Lincoln, Neb.
www.binmaster.com
Submersible transmitters that
measure depth or level
The PX709GW Series submersible
level/depth transducers and transmitters (photo) are designed to make precision level or depth measurements in
fresh water or liquids that are compatible with 316 stainless steel. The standard device has an accuracy of 0.20%,
and optional high-accuracy models
are available with 0.8% accuracy.
They are available with lightning and
surge protection, and have outputs of
420 mA, 05 V or 010 V. Omega
Engineering, Inc., Stamford, Conn.
www.omega.com
Conduit fittings protect
this level sensors cables
Since last August, this company has
supplied its liquid level sensors (photo)
with -in. NPT male conduit fittings
before the cable interface. This is beneficial if the sensor is going to be exposed to a liquid not compatible with
Control the level

in hazardous areas
The Fisher L2e level controlOmega
Engineering
ler (photo, p. 26) uses a rugged
force-balanced displacer sensor
to detect the level of a single liquid or the interface of two liquids.
the material. It also The controllers new knife-edge sensadds stability in turbu- ing design combines with aerospacelent tanks. For instal- quality switch technology to provide
lations where the level rugged, reliable and accurate level
sensor is threaded into control, says the company. The L2e
a tank, users prefer to zero and span adjustments enable tuninstall conduit to protect ing for a wide variety of level-loop apthe cable from the work plications. Additionally, the controller
environment. AST 4500, is certified for use in hazardous areas
4510 and 4520 level sen- and is NACE-compliant for sour sersors are Class I Div. 1 vice. By scanning the QR code on the
intrinsically safe, Group inside cover of the L2e, instrument
C and D when installed with a barrier technicians have access to 24/7 field
as well as ABS (American Bureau of support for setup, calibration and loop
Shipping) certified. Pressure ranges tuning. Emerson Process Manageare available as low as 01 psi (27.68 ment, Marshalltown, Iowa
in. water column) American Sensor www.emersonprocess.com
Technologies, Inc., Mt. Olive, N.J.
www.astsensors.com
This switch has a SIL2 rating
and many approvals
Monitoring tanks remotely
The FLT93 Series FlexSwitch (photo,
through the cloud
p. 26) is a precision flow/level/temTank Cloud Remote Monitoring (photo) perature switch for use in liquid, air,
is a cost-effective remote tank-level- gas or interface service. Suitable for
monitoring system that enables users oil-and-gas upstream production or
to monitor facilities and processes downstream refining, storage and
from anywhere with an Internet con- distribution, the FLT93 Series Flexnection, 24 hours per day, 7 days per Switch provides dependable reliefweek. Using the companys propri- valve monitoring and flare-gas flow or
etary remote level sensors and mod- leakage detection. The device is said
ules, or any sensor with a 420-mA to be the most advanced heavy-duty
output, Tank Cloud users can remotely thermal-dispersion technology flow
monitor level, pressure, temperature, and level switch available. SIL2-rated
flow, pH and other process variables for ultra reliability, the device also has
through an easy-to-use online inter- Ex agency approvals for the entire inface. Sensors and input modules con- strument, including FM, FMc, ATEX
nect to the users network via an Eth- and IECEx. Fluid Components Inernet cable and transmit data via the ternational, LLC, San Marcos, Calif.
users internet connection, whether www.fluidcomponents.com
landline, cellular, radio or satellite. On
Tank Cloud remote monitoring Web This weighing system also has
portal, operators and managers have a level-measurement feature
ready access to realtime and histori- Because raw materials are purchased,
25
Emerson Process Management
Focus
consumed and reconciled in
terms of weight, this companys products are designed to
provide direct weight measurement for bulk materials stored in silos. However,
because many operators use level
devices and then calculate weight from
data, which may be uncertain, this
company now offers a level measurement feature on its Solo product line
(photo), which combines the patented
StrainCell sensor with intelligent
electronics. As a result, users can see
silo weight and level on the display at
the same time. The technology has a
proven accuracy of 1% of full scale for
steel-legged silos and within 3% of full
scale for steel-skirted silos. Strain
Systems Inc., Bellevue, Wash.
www.strainsystems.com
This GWR transmitter has
three times better signal-to-noise
The Eclipse Model 706 guided-waveradar (GWR) transmitter is said to
be a best-in-class level-control solution. Designed to provide outstanding accuracy, reliability and safety,
the latest-generation features include enhanced signal performance.
The GWR circuitry achieves both a
higher transmit-pulse amplitude and
improved receiver sensitivity, which
leads to a signal-to-noise ratio that
is three times higher than competitive GWR devices, says the company.
Unlike other GWR transmitters that
use algorithms to infer level readings
in top-of-the-probe dead zones, the
Eclipse 706 measures true level to
within specification all the way up to
the process flange. The new transmitter also features advanced diagnostics, with LCD diagnostics conveyed
in realtime waveform and trend data.
Magnetrol International, Inc.,
Downers Grove, Ill.
www.magnetrol.com
A multiparameter transmitter
now includes batch controlling
In March, this company introduced
the second generation Signet 9900
Transmitter, which includes a Batch
Controller option along with the features of the original version. This
new transmitter supports multiple
parameters that include level, flow,
26
Fluid Components International
pH/ORP, temperature, pressure and

more and now
also for batch systems. Users can convert
their
second-generation
9900 transmitter to a
batch controller system by
simply plugging in the new
Batch Module and Relay
Module, thereby maintain- Strain Systems
ing the products original
intent of consolidating multiple platforms into one while increasing their
service level and reducing inventory,
says the company. GF Piping Systems, Tustin, Calif.
www.gfpiping.com
Measurements from remote sites
right to your desktop
AutoLog GSM Wireless Probe is a
new compact and robust device that
performs liquid level measurements
and sends the data to your desktop.
The system uses widely spread GSM/
GPRS networks as communication.
Operators can access data from any
computers Web browser, anywhere
and at any time. The system does
not require a separate control room,
server PC or special maintenance
staff, so investment and operating costs are low. Data logging and
sending is possible at programmable
intervals. Measurements, alarms,
trends and reports from objects can
be shared by all users. FF-Automation Oy, Vantaa, Finland
www.ff-automation.com
An imersion sensor
that measures interfaces
The Turbimax CUS71D ultrasonic immersion sensor is used for interface
measurements in processes where
suspensions are separated into their
liquid and solid components by sedimentation. The device can continuously monitor the separation and
transition zones of the clarification
and settling phases. The sensor uses

a piezoelectric crystal to generate
ultrasound, and measures the time
required for the signal to reach solid
particles in the separation zone, and
then return to the receiver. The sensor is used with the companys M
CM44x
multi-parameter/multiplesensor transmitters one sensor
for the CM442, and up to four can
be connected to a CM444 or CM448
transmitter. Endress+Hauser, Inc.,
Greenwood, Ind.
www.us.endress.com
Level control is simplified
with non-steady-state tuning
This companys software includes
non-steady-state (NSS) modeling features for integrating control loops.
These tools are said to provide fast,
simple modeling and tuning of level
controls. Unlike temperature, pressure and flow, level controls have
different dynamics, and these new
tools make it simple to tune level controls, even while the level is moving,
says the company. NSS tuning integrates seamlessly with the companys
PlantTriage and PID Loop Optimizer
software. These tools also provide capabilities for both tight control and
surge-tank scenarios. NSS modeling
is included with PlantTriage Version
11 and higher, and with PID Loop Optimizer Version 21 and higher. ExperTune Inc., Hartland, Wisc.
www.expertune.com
Gerald Ondrey
Chromalox
This compact digital heat-trace

controller offers versatility
The new ITC Series intelliTRACE controller (photo) is designed for line- or
ambient-sensing heat trace applications in hazardous (Class I, Division
2) or non-hazardous areas. Available
in single- and dual-circuit models, the
ITC features a high-resolution display
and may be used in either freeze-protection or process-control temperature
applications monitoring all process
variables both locally and remotely. The
ITC is a microprocessor-based system
with solid-state-relay power control,
selectable soft-start program, current
load, dual resistance-temperaturedetectors (RTD) sensor input for each
circuit, and ground fault equipmentprotection monitoring. There are three
user-selectable control modes available
on the ITC: manual, off or auto. The
ITCs compact enclosure facilitates
electrical connections for the heating
cable, the a.c. power, and the RTD sensors. This controller may be used with
constant wattage, mineral-insulated
or self-regulating heat-trace cables.
Chromalox, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa.
www.chromalox.com
This jet fuel analyzer enhances
safety through automation
The Alcor JFTOT 230 Mark IV (JFTOT
IV) is a new jet-fuel thermal oxidation
analyzer (photo) designed for increased
safety and simplicity. New safety measures in this compact model ensure minimal jet-fuel vapor-exposure to personnel and the environment through the
sample and waste containers. The sliding test door also prevents exposure to
the high-temperature heater-tube test
section. The JFTOT IV simplifies operational capabilities through automation of tasks, such as priming the pump,
monitoring sample flow and aerating
the sample. The JFTOT IV is listed in
Table 1 of ASTM D3241-13, Standard
Test Method for Thermal Oxidation
Stability of Aviation Turbine Fuels,
as an acceptable instrument model.
The Petroleum Analyzer Company
(PAC), L.P., Houston, Tex.
www.paclp.com
PAC
PerkinElmer
Draw, view and share molecular

structures in realtime
New ChemDraw and Chem3D apps
for iPad tablets (photo) provide mobile
access to robust molecular drawing
and viewing tools for use in education,
R&D and publishing. The apps feature
the unique Flick-to-Share tool, which
gives users the ability to rapidly share
molecular structures across mobile devices, eliminating the need for emails
and cloud storage services. Chem3D
is a molecular viewer app where scientists can explore structures in three
dimensions by using the touchscreen to
rotate, expand and contract models for
a clearer display of spatial properties.
Chem3D can display 3-D models of proteins, DNA, crystals and assemblies in
many formats, such as ball-and-stick,
wireframe, space-filling and cartoon.
PerkinElmer, Inc., Waltham, Mass.
www.perkinelmer.com
Use this vertical blender for lowshear mixing or vacuum drying
This companys vertical blenders
(photo, p. 28) are used for low-shear
blending and vacuum drying. Compared to other blender varieties, verti-
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit number

on p. 56, or use the website designation.
cal blenders are gentler, allowing for

mixing of powders, pellets, granules
and fibers in delicate and abrasive
conditions. In vacuum drying operation, the blenders can accommodate
slurries, wet cakes, pastes and flowable solids. Requiring only low heat
to drive off moisture or solvents, vacuum drying in a vertical blender dries
heat-sensitive materials without risk
of thermal degradation, while also
consuming less energy. The blender
features a mechanical arm that rotates an auger around the conical vessel. The auger turns on its own axis.
Spray nozzles may be installed for liquid addition and coating purposes.
Charles Ross & Son Co., Hauppauge,
N.Y.
www.mixers.com
Avoid cross-contamination with
this lubrication system
This Lubrication Storage and Dispensing System (photo, p. 28) consists
of two 65-gal containers and one 130gal container. Features to the customizable system include three-way
product diverter valve assemblies,
individual pumping systems, and
27
New Products
New Pig
tems, and 10-m filters. Products are

pumped in and out of the system via
individual pumping systems, which
prevent cross-contamination. The
three-way diverter valves, in combination with the individual pumping
systems and filters, allow product to
be pumped through the filters into
the containers, and then pulled back
out of the containers through the filters with the transfer units. Product
can also be pulled from the containers, cycled through the filters and
sent back into the containers. For further protection against product spills,
an optional spill-containment system
is available. The IFH Group, Inc.,
Rock Falls, Ill.
www.ifhgroup.com
This process monitor offers
several display options
Designed for monitoring flowrate,
total, limit, batch and ratio measurements, the MX 9000 Process Monitor
can also report pressure, temperature,
and information from other devices
with analog signals that can be monitored. The MX 9000 comes installed
with new plug-in option boards, backlit
display with color-coded indicator and
a USB port. The backlit displays red,
green and blue color-coding also allows
for alarm indication visibility. The display board facilitates multiple display
modes and variable-programming options with its graphic LCD module and
four push-buttons. The board can be
customized for special projects or applications and an optionboard slot allows for features such as relay outputs,
networking, voltage/current inputs,
and frequency outputs. AW-Lake
Company, Franksville, Wisc.
www.aw-lake.com
28
The IFH Group
Spirax Sarco
Protect inventory and machinery

with this leak diverter kit
The recently introduced Quick Deploy
Leak Diverter Kit (photo) provides a
fast response to roof and pipe leaks.
It catches nuisance leaks by diverting
them to a floor drain or collection container. Complete with a discharge hose
and fittings, the Quick Deploy can be
installed by simply hooking the handle
over a pipe or ceiling truss. Pinched corners help funnel liquid toward the center of the diverter for better drainage.
The included PVC drain hose channels
the captured liquid to a collection container, drain or other containment device. The Quick Deploy is vinyl-coated
for strength and flexibility and resists
punctures, ultraviolet light and mildew.
New Pig Corp., Tipton, Pa.
www.newpig.com
This flow transmitter provides
high signal strength
The EFT10 Electromagnetic Flow
Transmitter (photo) measures all
types of conductive liquids, including
those used for applications in mining,
slurries, waste, and low-conductivity
media. The EFT10 provides bidirectional flow signal and combines the
pulse hybrid method of coil excitation
with digital communications. Customi-
Charles Ross & Son
Oven Industries
zable with keyboard programming, the

transmitter features a 10-year memory,
batch control, and a scalable pulse-frequency output. Combining the EFT10
with this companys UniMag flow tube
provides a useful option for measuring
low-conductivity liquids due to its ultrastable flow signal-to-media noise ratio.
Spirax Sarco, Inc., Blythewood, S.C.
www.spiraxsarco.com/us
This controller gives dual options
for setting in the field
The very compact 5R1-1400 a.c. Temperature Controller (photo) can deliver
up to 15 A of load current from a zero
voltage switched, low-noise solid-state
relay. Featuring temperature resolution of 0.1C, the 5R1-1400 exhibits
an ambient operating range of 20 to
70C. The controller has options for
integrated potentiometers (for set temperature and process-integral control)
and PC-programmable logic (for set
temperature and process-integral-derivative control). The set temperature
range is determined by thermistor type.
Accessories for the 5R1-1400 include
temperature sensors, flange mount
and a USB interface cable. Oven Industries, Inc., Mechanicsburg, Pa.
www.ovenind.com
Mary Page Bailey
Polymer-based
Piping
Department Editor: Scott Jenkins
olymer-based piping systems offer a
number of advantages, along with
some limitations, compared to metallic
and other non-polymeric pipe materials. The
use of thermoplastic piping in the chemical
process industries (CPI) must be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis
because of the constraints introduced by
various CPI applications. Polymers remain
only a small (~10%) part of the global CPI
piping market, but their technical potential
may encourage wider use.
Polymer-based pipes can manage almost
any chemical load up to temperatures of
100C in the moderate pressure range
(pressures less than 10 bars). There is a
general trend toward more pressure-resistant and stiffer pipes.
Advantages
of polymer
piping
Chemical resistance
(dened by the
polymers chemical
identity)
Cost-to-performance
ratio
Low weight
Electrical and thermal
insulating properties
Availability of parts
Versatile jointing
Limitations
of polymer
piping
Comparatively high
thermal expansion
Longterm creeping
under mechanical
load
Signicant reduction
in mechanical properties under increasing
temperatures
Non-destructive
monitoring of corrosion process is not
sufciently developed
for plastics
Most projects in the CPI require at least

one or more of the following constraints for
piping:
Considerable safety margins
Sufcient chemical resistance
Predictable or manageable corrosion
Uniform corrosion behavior for all
components in contact with the media
Simple maintenance
Attractive price-to-performance ratio
High level of availability of the
components
Availability of eld references
Ease of installation
Although polymer-based piping systems
have not reached the level of usage of
metal-based piping in the CPI, there are
a variety of industry segments where the
specic advantages of polymer pipes have
been understood systematically and successfully exploited. The global chlorine industry,
basic-chemical synthesis, logistic partners

for chemical media, surface technologies
(for example, galvanizing and pickling),
pulp-and-paper and power plants are the
most important elds of application.
Some polymer-based piping vendors offer
complete harmonized systems encompassing a wide range of dimensions and pressure ratings. Such systems cover integrated
solutions of measurement and control units,
as well as various valve systems.
Wide range of chemical

resistance
Attractive cost-toperformance ratio
Availability, package
approach
Plastic pipe jointing

Versatile jointingThermal welding and
technology
solvent jointing are
predominately used in
Established quality assurthe CPI for plastic pipes.
ance and standardization
The welding of polymer
piping in the CPI can be
divided into socket-, butt-,
Variability of the
fusion- and rod-welding.
piping concept
Socket and butt-welding are
used for pure thermoplastic pipFIGURE 1. Polymer-based piping systems deliver
ing. Fusion- and rod-welding are
many advantages, such as those listed here
used for ber-reinforced thermoplastic piping (dual laminates).
When solvent-based glues are
used for cement jointing, various types are
Thermoplastic polymer
used the respective formulations are nematerials used for piping
tuned to match the individual requirements
dened by the polymer type and the eld of
Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)
application. As soon as the dimensions of
Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC)
fabrication tolerances of pipes and ttings
Polypropylene (PP)
exceed a certain limit, solvent-cement jointPolyvinyl chloride (PVC)
ing becomes no longer practically feasible
Polyethylene (PE)
due to both the gaps that need to be
Polybutylene (PB)
bridged and the procedure of assembly
(required forces, application of the cement
Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)
and so on).
Cross-linked polyethylene (PEX)*
Corrosion and chemical attack
A substantial body of research and case
studies has been built over time surrounding
the corrosion of various polymer materials
when in contact with different chemical
media under different conditions. In terms
of the integrity of plastic pipes, two types of
interactions permeation and direct attack
are most important.
Solvation or permeation involves gas, vapor or liquid molecules passing through the
polymer, without chemical changes occurring to the polymer itself. However, physical
properties may be affected. Permeation
may not harm the polymer material, but can
have application-related effects. In general,
thermoplastic pipes should not be used
where a permeating chemical surrounds the
pipe and could compromise the purity of
the fluid inside.
Direct chemical attack occurs when
exposure to a substance causes a chemical alteration of polymer molecules by
chain scission, crosslinking, oxidation or
substitution reactions. Direct chemical attack
may cause profound, irreversible changes
that cannot be restored by removal of the
chemical. Chemical attack frequently causes
Polyamide 11 (PA11)
Polyketone (PK)
*crosslinks remove thermoplasticity
severe reduction of mechanical and physical

properties, such as tensile strength, ductility,
impact resistance and susceptibility to cracking from applied stress (stress cracking).
A number of factors can accelerate
chemical attack. Three signicant ones
are: concentration, temperature and stress.
Generally, the resistance of a particular
plastic to a specic chemical decreases with
increasing concentration. The resistance of
a particular plastic to a specic chemical
decreases with temperature increases, and
generally decreases when applied stress is
varied or cycled. Combinations of different
chemicals should also be considered.
References
1. Plastics Pipe Institute. Technical Report 19:
Chemical Resistance of Thermoplastics Piping
Materials. PPI, Irving, Tex., 2007.
www.plasticpipe.org.
2. Schuler, Stephan, Polymer-based piping
systems in the CPI. Chem. Eng. Sept. 2010,
pp. 3236.
SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
SEPTEMBER 25 26, 2013

CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION
Practical Solutions for Plant

Management and Operations
Register today with VIP code JULY
to qualify for advanced discounts!
GALVESTON, TX
MOODY GARDENS HOTEL
& CONVENTION CENTER
Presented by:
www.cpievent.com
SESSION HIGHLIGHTS
KEYNOTE SESSION: The Shale Gale is Blowing:
Plotting a Course That Avoids the Shoals and Rocks
Shale gas has revitalized the Chemical Industry in the U.S. The economic benefits have been
widely described, but there is little discussion if the impacts of the great increase in ethane
cracking. The shifting feedstock slate creates both challenges and opportunities for new
technologies. The shoals and rocks caused by the shale gale will be described and a course
described that can provide an even brighter future for the industry will be described.
David S. Bem, Ph.D.,

Global R&D Director,
The Dow Chemical Company
Occupational Safety in the

Chemical/Petrochemical
Process Industries
CSB Updates on Chevron in Richmond, California,
the Fertilizer Plant in West, Texas and How
Incidents Drive Recommended Guidelines
Beth Rosenberg, ScD, MPH ,

Board Member,
U.S. Chemical Safety and
Hazard Investigation Board
A solution-based
route to LLDPE
By Intratec Solutions
olyethylene (PE) is the worlds largestvolume commodity polymer. Along with

high-density (HDPE) and low-density
(LDPE) polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) is one of the three main types
of PE. The global market for LLDPE is over 20
million metric tons per year, corresponding to
about 30% of the total PE produced.
In LLDPE production, three major types of
low-pressure technologies are used: slurry,
solution and gas-phase processes.
FIGURE 2.
Each mark on the map
corresponds to an
existing SclairTech
LLDPE plant. The
nominal capacity
of each plant follows
the legend below
The process
LLDPE is produced by copolymerization of
ethylene with alpha-olefins using Ziegler-Natta
catalysts. The most common co-monomers used
in LLDPE production are 1-butene, 1-hexene
and 1-octene.
Figure 1 illustrates the process for butenebased LLDPE production via a solution technology similar to Nova Chemicals (Calgary,
Alta.; www.novachem.com) solution-phase
technology, known as SclairTech (Figure 2).
The process shown is a swing process, which
is also capable of producing different LLDPE
and HDPE grades by utilizing other alphaolefins as co-monomers.
The process can be divided into four main
operation areas: purification and catalyst preparation; reaction; distillation; and finishing.
Purification and catalyst preparation. The cyclohexane solvent, ethylene and comonomers are
sent to fixed-bed adsorption systems to remove
water, oxygen and other polar impurities. The
catalysts used in the process are based on
mixtures of titanium and vanadium compounds,
in conjunction with aluminum alkyls cocatalysts.
These components are mixed with solvent and
pumped to the polymerization reactor.
Reaction. Ethylene and 1-butene comonomer
(in case of butene-based LLDPE) are dissolved
in cyclohexane solvent and sent to the reaction
step. The polymerization is carried out in a
solution phase, at a temperature above the
melting point of the resulting polymer. The reaction system consists of a tubular reactor and a
continuous-stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). The low
residence time of the reactors enables a high
flexibility for grade transitions, as well as verButene
Up to 149,000 ton/yr
From 250,000 to 349,000 ton/yr
From 150,000 to 249,000 ton/yr
At least 350,000 ton/yr
satility for the production of resins with a wide

range of densities, melt indexes and molecular
weight distributions. The reactor output stream
is fed into separator vessels, where unreacted
ethylene and co-monomers, solvent and any
other volatile matter are separated from the PE.
The polymer is sent to the finishing section while
the light stream moves to the distillation system.
Distillation. The distillation step comprises
five distillation columns in charge of recovering the unreacted ethylene and co-monomers;
recovering the solvent; purging impurities,
such as oligomers (also called grease), catalyst
and deactivators residues; and avoiding the
buildup of inert components, such as isomers
of the co-monomer.
Finishing. The resulting polymer from the reaction area is fed into an extruder, which is used
to incorporate the required additives, and to
pelletize the polymer. The product is then sent
to the product blending and storage stage.
Storage of products is equal to 20 days

of operation, and there is no storage for
feedstock
Outside battery limits (OSBL) units considered: steam boilers, cooling towers,
propylene refrigeration system, heat-transfer
fluid unit, control room and administrative
buildings
The estimated capital investment (including
total fixed investment, working capital and
other capital expenses) to build the LLDPE plant
is about $220 million, and the operating cost
for butene-based LLDPE production is about
$1,220/ton.
The swing process depicted here allows
manufacturers to participate in major PE
market segments by producing both LLDPE and
HDPE resins. Thus, the producers can select the
best product mix, aimed at premium markets
with higher margins.
Edited by Scott Jenkins
Economic performance
An economic evaluation of the solution-phase
LLDPE process was conducted based on data
from the fourth quarter of 2012. The following
assumptions were taken into consideration:
A 350,000 ton/yr unit erected on the U.S.
Gulf Coast (the process equipment is represented in the simplified flowsheet)
Editors Note: The content for this column is supplied

by Intratec Solutions LLC (Houston; www.intratec.us)
and edited by Chemical Engineering. The analyses
and models presented herein are prepared on the basis of publicly available and non-confidential information. The information and analysis are the opinions of
Intratec and do not represent the point of view of any
third parties. More information about the methodology for preparing this type of analysis can be found,
along with terms of use, at www.intratec.us/che.
Ethylene
to Fuel
RF
CW
Cyclohexane
1. Adsorption system
2. Tubular reactor
3. CSTR polymerization
reactor
4. Separators
5. Extruder and pelletizing
6. Low boiler column
7. Ethylene column
8. Comonomer column
9. Solvent column
10. Grease column
11. Refrigeration unit
12. Heat transfer fluid unit
13. Cooling tower
14. Boiler
BFW
ST
BFW
CW 6
ST
CW
4
9
HF
HF
ST
CW
CW
Additives
3
5
ST
ST
to Fuel
LLDPE
Catalyst and
cocatalyst
10
Deactivator
HF
to Fuel
FIGURE 1. Solution-phase LLDPE production process similar to Nova Chemicals SclairTech
RF
11 CW
13
HF
12
ST
14
HF
CW
RF
ST
BFW
Heat transfer fluid

Cooling water
Refrigeration fluid
Steam
Boiler feed water
Feature
Cover
Story
Report
Securing Industrial
Control Systems
ICSs are vulnerable
targets to cyber attacks.
More than conventional
IT-security solutions are
needed to protect them
Andrew Ginter
Waterfall Security Solutions
ecurity of SCADA (supervisory

control and data acquisition) and
other industrial control systems
(ICSs) is a complex subject, and
one that has received much attention
in recent years. While modern industrial control systems use many of the
same computers, operating systems
and networking components as conventional business networks, the two
kinds of networks are managed very
differently. As a result, what is common wisdom on business networks
can be utter nonsense on control system networks.
On the other hand, control system
networks are notoriously vulnerable to certain kinds of attacks, and
whether common security wisdom
works on these networks or not,
these vulnerabilities must still be addressed. This article looks at what the
differences between control-system
and business networks are, what is
working and what is not, and at what
leading security practitioners in the
chemical process industries (CPI), as
well as other industries, are doing to
address these problems.
Safety first
Cybersecurity concerns for business
networks are prioritized according to
confidentiality, integrity and availability, in that order. Most existing
advice for industrial cybersecurity
30
suggests that on industrial networks,

these priorities are often reversed so
that availability and integrity are the
highest priorities for industrial networks. While this was the best wisdom
available when much of this advice
was written, we know better now.
Every time any group of people at
a chemical facility gathers for a meeting, the first order of business, without
exception, is safety. The discussions include familiar statements, such as Are
there any newcomers in the group? A
long, continuous alarm means evacuate the building. The emergency exits
are around the corner to your left, and
so on.
Safety is the highest priority at every
industrial site, and also for every control system network. For every change
to any control system component we
always ask how likely is it that this
change will kill anyone? or will it
create a public safety risk? or will it
cause an environmental catastrophe?
When we have acceptable answers to
those questions, we ask how likely
is it that the proposed change will so

badly impair the operation of the control system that we are forced to shut
down this billion-dollar physical asset,
because we are no longer confident of
our ability to operate it safely? Safety
is always our first priority, and reliability is our second. And yes, sometimes we have trade secrets to protect
as well.
What does this mean for cybersecurity? Consider the business network
in any large enterprise. Millions of
Web pages and hundreds of thousands
of emails are pulled into the network
every day. Each of those Web pages
and each of those emails is a potential
attack. Business networks are under
constant attack. How do professionals deal with this constant, pervasive threat? In part, they deal with it
through constant, aggressive change.
Stay ahead of the bad guys. Update
anti-virus signatures several times
per day. Apply the latest vendor security updates within two days of the
vendors release.
This is the exact opposite of how

control system networks are managed. Control system networks are
generally configured to be unable to
exchange information directly with
the Internet, and so are not under
constant attack. The biggest risk to industrial networks is the connection to
the business network.
The discipline used to keep a control
system safe and operating reliably is
called engineering change control.
Every change to a control system is a
potential threat to safety and reliability. Anti-virus signatures can cause
false-positive matches that shut
down and quarantine essential parts
of control system software. Security
updates can contain arbitrary changes
to operating system and application
code, and must be assessed, tested
and very cautiously rolled out in order
to preserve safety and reliability. Because of their constant change, antivirus systems and security updates
are very costly programs to roll out
on control system networks, and everyone has a horror story to tell about
the impact of these programs on at
least reliability.
Vulnerabilities
The bad news is that vulnerabilities
and security problems do not go away
simply because IT (information technology) solutions to those problems
work badly. Control system software
is notoriously vulnerable to even very
simple attacks. Back-of-the-envelope
calculations suggest that there are
at least 100,000 buffer-overflow vulnerabilities, alone, waiting to be discovered in control system software.
Security researchers who look for
vulnerabilities confirm this calculation. They report that after only a
mornings effort, they typically find
up to a dozen critical vulnerabilities
in every bit of industrial software
product they examine.
The problem is not limited to bufferoverflow vulnerabilities. Until very
recently, cybersecurity was simply not
a design criterion for industrial-software product development. Industrial
control-system products are notoriously vulnerable to everything from
SQL (Structured Query Language)-injection attacks, to hard-coded vendor
passwords, to simple denial-of-service

network flooding attacks.
A confusing factor associated with
these vulnerabilities has been the
responsible disclosure debate. How
should new vulnerabilities be disclosed? Responsible disclosure holds
that details of newly discovered vulnerabilities should not be disclosed
publicly until the vendor has had an
opportunity to produce a fix for the
problems, and anti-virus and intrusion-detection vendors have had an
opportunity to craft new signatures.
Security researchers who have disclosed vulnerabilities outside of this
process have been sharply criticized.
But think about it how much
less secure are we if someone publishes a serious security vulnerability
in industrial software before a fix is
available? Most industrial sites are
unable to apply security updates in
a timely manner because of safetyand-reliability-focused testing requirements, even if those updates are
available. Worse, any attacker worth
their salt can spend a morning with
the software and find their own half
dozen zero-day undisclosed, critical vulnerabilities themselves. They
dont need disclosed vulnerabilities
when finding their own undisclosed
ones is trivial.
The extreme vulnerability of control system software is compounded
by well-known problems, such as the
use of plain-text communications protocols and very old software components. An attacker with access to an
industrial network can simply send
plain-text commands to any device
on the network and those devices will
carry out the commands without question. Very old equipment presents a
similar problem. How many anti-virus
vendors still support their products on
Windows NT systems? Does Microsoft
issue security updates any more for
Windows 2000 systems?
All of these problems will take a
very long time to solve, if that is even
possible. Control systems administrators have proven to be very reluctant
to deploy device-communications
encryption because of the impact on
maintainability and reliability. Old
software versions on old operating
systems are often essential to the op-
eration of old equipment equipment

that is extremely costly to replace, because the testing and scrutiny necessary to ensure that replacement hardware and software are sufficiently
reliable and are configured and deployed correctly.
Deploying a new version of software is more than a process of a little
testing. Deploying sweeping changes
to control systems or to the physical
process itself, as often occurs at long
intervals during site refurbishment,
is a daunting task. The task involves
months and even years of planning,
then an intense burst of effort deploying and upgrading everything, and
then additional weeks of all hands on
deck effort to bring the plant back online, safely, to full production.
Take all this together and it is easy
to see that while control systems use
technologies that are similar to IT systems, control systems are constrained
in ways that are alien to IT systems.
As a result, a wide array of IT-style
cybersecurity approaches are either
ineffective on control systems, or are
in fact counter-productive on control
systems, resulting in net impairments
of safety, or reliability, or both.
Cyber-threat spectrum
If control systems are more vulnerable than IT systems, what are they
vulnerable to? Who are we worried
about? Todays cyber-threat spectrum
is outlined in Table 1.
Organized crime. Organized crime is
still responsible for the vast majority
of malware circulating on the Internet.
Professional virus authors produce
products that steal credit-card and
banking information, and that harness compromised machines to send
spam and launch denial-of-service attacks. Organized crime has resources
(money and talent) to spend producing
sophisticated attack tools. And by and
large, the resulting attacks are autonomous they spread automatically to
as many machines as possible.
Insiders. Disgruntled insiders are a
perennial threat, one typically dealt
with via personnel and background
checks, as well as via detailed auditing. With sufficient auditing, it is difficult for an insider to be confident
of causing damage without being
31
Cover Story
caught and prosecuted. In addition,
well-meaning IT-security practitioners who do not have a clear sense
of the change-control discipline that
must be applied to safety-critical and
reliability-critical networks are a
special problem. These individuals
may not mean to do harm, but examples abound where IT administrators
with the passwords and permissions
to reach through firewalls and modify systems by remote control have
applied corporate policy to critical
networks without understanding the
consequences of undisciplined change,
and have caused plant outages or
batch failures as a result.
Advanced/targeted attacks. These
are the so-called advanced persistent
threats, which have been in the press
for some years. These attacks are generally attributed to nation-state military and intelligence agencies. These
organizations have tremendous resources (money and talent) to direct at
the problem of attacking specific targets. These adversaries have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to bypass conventional IT defenses. These
attacks have been credited with the
theft of source code, trade secrets, and
other intellectual property valued at
up to several trillion dollars. The preferred method of attack of these adversaries is low-volume malware that
is operated by interactive, manual remote control. They spread cautiously
so as to avoid detection and they steal
enormous amounts of information, or
more. While information theft is by
far the most common motive for these
targeted attacks, cases of sabotage
have also been reported using these
same techniques.
Cyber cold-warriors. This class of
attacks does not have a widely accepted name. Some lump these attacks
in with advanced persistent threats
but the methods and objectives of this
class of attack differ sharply from
that of the advanced attacks. Some
call this class of attack cyber warfare and maintain that a cyber war
is in progress. This is akin to saying
a naval war is in progress, without
war having been declared, and without any other kinds of military forces
having been mobilized.
In many senses, this class of attack
32
TABLE 1. THREAT SPECTRUM

Threats
Resources Motives
Methods
Examples
Cyber coldwarriors
High
Sabotage
Highly targeted,
autonomous
Stuxnet,
Shamoon?
Advanced
threats
High
Industrial
espionage
Targeted, manual Flame, DuQu,

remote control
Gauss, APT
Targeted
attacks
Medium
Industrial
espionage
Targeted, manual Night Dragon,

remote control
hacktivists
Insider with ICS

network access
Low
Sabotage
Targeted: social
engineering
Maroochy
Insider with IT
network access
Low
Sabotage,
or benign
Targeted: social
engineering
IT errors and
omissions
Organized
crime
Medium
Identity theft, High volume,

spam, distrib- automated
uted denial of
service
has more to do with cold war tactics

than with anything else. Stuxnet is
credited with destroying 1,0002,000
Iranian uranium gas centrifuges. The
worm was apparently crafted using
detailed insider knowledge of the
control system, which was the target
of the attack, and with similar knowledge of how that target was defended.
The Shamoon attack is credited with
effectively erasing the hard drives
of over 30,000 computers in MiddleEastern petrochemical firms. There
is speculation that the worm was
planted in the target networks by
insiders. The motive of this class of
attacker is clearly sabotage, and the
preferred weapon is malware that
spreads and operates autonomously.
Much has been written about Stuxnet specifically, and how to defend
against the worm. Much of that information pits the artifact, which is the
Stuxnet worm, against one kind of cybersecurity technology after another.
This technology would have stopped
the worm but that technology would
not have. Such analysis very much
misses the point.
For every defensive technology deployed, there is an offense or attack
that will defeat the technology. There
are no silver bullets. If a site has
trusted, sleeper insiders planted in
its workforce decades ago by enemy
nations, and those insiders are exposing detailed intelligence as to the design of the control system network and
of the control-system cybersecurity
Zeus,
Conflicker
defenses to enemies willing to spend

tens of millions of dollars to devise an
attack specific to that site, then that
site does not have a cybersecurity
problem. That site has an espionage
problem. No additional cyber-defenses
will prevent a Stuxnet-class attack. A
site with this kind of problem needs
to escalate the problem to its own national intelligence authorities.
Advanced persistent threats are a
different matter. It is absolutely possible to protect industrial sites against
these attacks, but there is a strange
reluctance in some organizations to
apply the protections. The reason is
that so far, the vast majority of these
incursions have had only industrial
espionage stealing information
as a motive. Some industrial sites feel
this is reason to be complacent, because they have no information that is
worth stealing, and so they feel they
will never be targeted.
This is akin to saying There is
a hole in our perimeter fence, and
heavily armed criminals are wandering in and out through the hole
at will. And then saying But thats
OK, all they want to do is steal stuff,
and they arent finding what they
want to steal in our site so theyre
really not doing that much damage.
This is nonsense. Anyone with this
kind of hole in their perimeter would
say Close that hole. Close it now.
Unauthorized, untrained individuals
on the other side of the planet with
remote control of industrial control
ADVANCED THREATS HOW DO THEY DO IT?

Advanced attackers have demonstrated that they can bypass conventional IT cybersecurity mechanisms, essentially at will. They have demonstrated that they can take over
industrial control-system computers just as easily as they take over IT systems.
The disturbing thing about these attacks is that while they are called advanced
and they sometimes do use very clever malware the majority of these attacks are not
terribly advanced at all. Most often, these attackers simply apply basic security-hacking
techniques the techniques taught at widely available, legitimate security-training programs. Persistent application of these techniques is all that is required in order to breach
IT defenses, even at very large, and presumably very well-protected organizations. The
techniques include the following:
1. Do homework on social networking sites. Learn everything possible about a handful
of target individuals at the target site
2. Craft custom malware that anti-virus systems have never seen before. Attach the
malware to a very convincing forged email, or via a link in the email
3. Send the email and trick the target into executing your malware, which then connects
to an internet command-and-control center for instructions
4. Over time, send instructions via the control center, to learn about the targets network
and steal passwords
5. Take over a domain controller with stolen administrator passwords. Create accounts
for attackers on VPN servers, business computers and industrial computers
6. Log into computers with new or stolen passwords there is no need to attack
vulnerabilities any more
7. Search for the information of interest and steal it
system computers are a safety threat.

They need to be stopped.
Old-school defense in depth

What are different kinds of organizations doing about these threats and
these vulnerabilities? The common
wisdom, among both industrial security practitioners and IT security practitioners is defense in depth. Given
that for any defense, there is some kind
of attack that will get around it, standard advice is to put many layers of
defense in place in order to slow down
attackers and to increase the probability of identifying and neutralizing the
attacks before they do damage.
In recent years, anti-virus systems
and security-update programs have
been widely deployed in the CPI. By
the standards of most industries,
chemical plants are huge. These protections have been deployed in spite of
their limited effectiveness due to enormous numbers of latent vulnerabilities, and huge numbers of run-of-themill viruses being created every day.
CPI sites are deploying anti-virus and
security-update programs, and are
absorbing the significant cost of these
constant change security programs.
Old-school defense in depth wisdom, as expressed in documents such
as NIST 800-82, the DHS Defense in
Depth Guidelines and the ISA SP-99

standards, generally includes IT-type
protections, including intrusion-detection technologies. The theory, espoused
for years, is that intrusion detection is
always the last line of defense. This
theory has gained widespread acceptance in IT circles in recent years
because of the widespread success of
these advanced/targeted attacks.
Organizations are no longer confident
of their ability to block targeted attacks at their IT network perimeter,
and are deploying internal protections
and surveillance. Common wisdom is
evolving to hold that until you assume you have been compromised by
this class of adversary and you start
looking really hard for these attacks,
you will never find them they are
that good.
As a result, organizations are deploying intrusion-detection technologies of various types on corporate
networks. They are sometimes deploying these technologies on industrial
networks, and they are gathering all
of this cybersecurity surveillance data
together into security information and
event management (SIEM) systems
to try to make sense of it and find enemies on the networks.
This common wisdom is not wrong.
Intrusion detection is always the last
layer(s) of defense-in-depth strategies, even though intrusion detection

may be costly to deploy. Why is this?
An intrusion-detection system is not
effective if you tune it so aggressively
that it never raises an alert, even if
there is a real intrusion. Tuning a detection system less aggressively yields
a certain number of false alarms or
false positives from time to time,
and every alarm must be investigated
to determine if it is a real intrusion or
a false alarm. As anyone in the physical security realm knows, surveillance
is costly, and responding to false positives costs even more.
This common wisdom is not wrong,
but it is not completely right either,
or at least it is not the whole story. In
the last half decade or so, a number of
technologies have been developed that
add different and very effective layers to defense-in-depth programs, but
these technologies are not yet represented in standards and guidance.
These additional layers go by the
name of compensating measures.
When security vulnerabilities cannot
be eliminated directly, either because
there are too many undiscovered vulnerabilities, or because the security
updates cannot safely be deployed in
a timely or cost-effective way, sites in
many industries are deploying compensating measures.
Safety and protection systems

One widely applied tactic, for example,
is to increase the investment in a variety of mechanical, electro-mechanical
and digital safety systems and equipment-protection systems. These systems are designed to constantly monitor for unsafe conditions, and bring
the plant back to a known safe state
if an unsafe condition is detected
often by triggering a safety shutdown
of one of the large systems in the plant,
such as a boiler or a catalytic cracker.
Safety systems are designed to protect human life and the environment,
while protection systems are designed
to protect equipment from damage.
Often protection systems have indirect safety benefits, since conditions
that are able to cause damage to very
large equipment are frequently also
dangerous enough to pose a threat to
workers and the environment.
33
Cover Story
Control system network
Business network
TX agent
host
IP
Plant
historian
RX agent
Hardware-enforced
one-way communications
TX gateway
appliance
RX gateway
appliance
IP
Replica
historian
FIGURE 1. Unidirectional security gateways can replace one or more levels of irewalls. In this example, the RX software on the
outside network populates replica servers with the data
The goal is to design safety and protection systems so thoroughly that no

matter what the cyber attack, these
systems are able to detect unsafe conditions and trigger a safe shutdown.
To accomplish this cybersecurity function, the safety and protection systems must themselves be thoroughly
protected from attack, often by physically controlling access to the systems,
and by isolating them, to some degree,
from the plant network. If this design
succeeds and protecting against all
possible cyber-sabotage is not easy
then the cyber threat is reduced to a
threat to reliability only, not a threat
to safety. In many industries, reliability is a business problem, not a public
safety problem, and can be addressed
with mechanisms such as buying insurance if additional cyber protections are cost-prohibitive. In other
industries, such as the power grid, or
in geographies where petroleum refineries or other installations perform
functions that are essential to society
or national security, reducing a safety
threat to a reliability threat is a step
in the right direction, but more action
is needed.
Unidirectional gateways
Unidirectional security gateways are
a security technology that replaces
one or more layers of firewalls in a
defense-in-depth architecture. The
technology consists of both hardware
and software.
The hardware is a pair of network
appliances called gateways, connected by a short fiber-optic cable.
The transmit (TX) gateway contains
34
a laser, and the receive (RX) gateway

contains a photocell. Together, the
two are able to transmit information
out of a control system network, without any risk of any attack penetrating back into that network.
With firewalls, every connection
through the firewall that allows data
out of a network, also allows attacks
back into the network. Firewalls do not
provide access to data on protected networks; they provide access to systems
on those networks. With the gateways,
it does not matter what kind of attack
is launched on the receive-side of the
gateway no signal at all, not a message, not a byte, not a bit can pass
through the unidirectional hardware
to interfere with the safety-critical or
reliability-critical network.
Now, since nearly all modern communications protocols are fundamentally bi-directional, no normal protocols can be used to push data through
the unidirectional hardware. Instead,
the gateway software replicates servers. The software runs on conventional
computers on the control system and
external networks. The TX software
on the control system network gathers
data from servers, such as production
historians, or OPC servers, or even
PLCs (programmable logic controllers), which are Modbus servers in
TCP (transmission control protocol)
parlance. The data are sent over the
unidirectional hardware using custom
protocols. The RX software on the outside network populates replica servers
with the data. Users on the outside
networks access the data they need
by connecting to the replica servers.
Server replication is, in general, very

possible. Protocol emulation or proxies generally are not possible over
unidirectional hardware.
This technology is being deployed
widely in conventional power generation as well as nuclear-power generation plants. The cybersecurity regulations for nuclear power generation
have encouraged hardware-enforced
unidirectional technology for some
years already. In more conventional
power generation, the new North
American Electric Reliability Council
(NERC) critical infrastructure protection (CIP) regulations (NERC-CIP V5)
have been updated to recognize the
strong security offered by this alternative to firewalls.
Power plants even nuclear sites
tend to be much smaller and simpler than chemical plants or petroleum refineries, though. Most deployments in the power industry use the
gateways to replace the layer of firewalls between the plant network and
the business network at a site. At CPI
sites, deployment models are more
varied. Some sites are deploying the
gateways at the high-volume connection between the plant network and
the business network, but not all of
them. Some large sites are associating their reliability-critical assets
with smaller control network segments. These sites manage the plantwide network in much the same way
as their corporate network. These
sites deploy the gateways deeper into
the defensive architecture, replacing either the firewalls protecting
individual DCSs (distributed control
systems), or sometimes the firewalls

at the perimeter of safety and protection systems.
In principle, safety and protection
systems really should not be connected
to control networks or plant networks
at all. These systems should be as
safe from outside interference, and
as tightly change-controlled, as possible. In practice, there is enormous
value in monitoring all equipment at a
site, including the health and activity
of safety systems. Connecting these
systems to networks via firewalls is
dangerous. Making data from safety
and protection systems available to
outside consumers using hardwareenforced unidirectional gateways is
much safer.
Application control
An infected USB stick could still be
carried into the industrial network.
To protect this soft interior of control system networks, industrial sites
are starting to deploy application control software, or whitelisting as it is
sometimes called, to protect the interior of industrial networks. These systems are effective at controlling the
execution of software, not just from
hard drives on industrial systems, but
also software coming in via USB sticks
and other removable media as well.
Application control systems work
by producing a list of software that
is allowed to run on a protected computer. This list may include names,
signatures, cryptographic checksums
and other characteristics. When a program asks to run another program, or
to load a library, the application control subsystem springs into action.
Application control asks the question
is the requested software allowed to
run? by checking the characteristics
of the software against the allowed
list. If there is a match, the software
is allowed to run. If there is no match,
then this software has never been seen
before, and is not permitted to run.
Contrast this with anti-virus systems, which generate lists of millions
of signatures, trying to identify specific pieces of malware that should
never be allowed to run. New malware
exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities
takes time to appear on the list. Custom malware that is used to attack one
site, and none other, will never appear

on a signatures list. Application control simply blocks all software that is
not explicitly approved to run, assuming that everything new or changed
is forbidden, no matter whether the
software comes from a USB stick or a
network connection.
The allow only known good software approach is a good match for
change-controlled networks. On such
networks, every unauthorized, untested change is a threat to safety and
reliability. Application control adds
extra steps to the software deployment process, but these are exactly
the steps that change-controlled environments demand. The extra steps
validate the changed software, add it
to allowed lists, and send those lists
to equipment where it is safe to execute the new software.
Application control is recognized in
the new CIP V5 standards protecting
the power sector. It is supported by
a growing number of control system
vendors, and is starting to be deployed
in control systems in many sectors.
The vendors who are most mature in
terms of their adoption of this technology are the device vendors. A good
number of modern PLCs and other industrial devices are based on realtime
Windows-operating-system variants of
one sort or another. These vendors are
embracing the application control approach because their embedded Windows systems are seen as uniquely
vulnerable. These systems often cannot be updated to the latest Microsoft
security updates in a timely way, and
so benefit disproportionately from the
strong security protections offered by
application-control systems.
Looking forward
The SCADA/ICS security picture is a
complex one. This article has focused
on emerging trends rather than measures that most sites are deploying
routinely, such as using physical security as a compensating measure
for control system vulnerabilities, or
using additional layers of firewalls
as a compensating measure for plaintext communications.
SCADA security programs can become very confused when IT experts
not familiar with safety-critical or
reliability-critical change control imperatives are put in charge of security

programs. This confusion is becoming
commonplace, as the trend is toward
consolidating operations network engineering and cybersecurity teams
with corporate IT teams under a single CIO/CSO executive.
CIOs need to start asking their IT
security experts the same questions
that operations teams are asking
those experts: how likely is it that
this change youre proposing will kill
one of us? CIOs need to start asking which operations-specific security
technologies these experts are considering, or if they are simply assuming
that confidentiality-protecting technologies will somehow also work to
protect safety and reliability.
CEOs need to start asking their
CIOs what they are doing to protect
the safety and reliability of the plants
controlled by the industrial systems
those CIOs now have authority over.
What programs are in place to ensure
that leading-edge safety-preserving
and reliability-preserving technologies
and approaches are in place, in addition to the confidentiality-preserving
systems the CIOs have known about
for decades?
SCADA security is difficult. Blindly
applying conventional IT security solutions to safety-critical and reliability-critical systems is a costly undertaking, and the constant change that
comes with such programs increases,
rather than decreases, the risk of
plant outages. While cybersecurity
for industrial control systems is not
easy, it is do-able, provided we keep
safety and reliability priorities foremost in our minds.
Edited by Dorothy Lozowski
Author
Andrew Ginter is the vice
president of Industrial Security at Waterfall Security
Solutions (Calgary, Alberta,
Canada;
Email:
andrew.
ginter@waterfall-security.
com; Website: www.waterfallsecurity.com). He spent 25
years leading the development of control-system software products, control-system
middleware products, and
industrial cybersecurity products. Ginter represents Waterfall on ISA-SP99, NERC-CIP and
other cybersecurity standards bodies, and writes
and speaks frequently on industrial cybersecurity topics. He holds a B.Sc. in applied mathematics and an M.Sc. in computer science, both
from the University of Calgary (Alta., Canada).
35
Feature Report
Lifecycle Costs for

Capital Equipment
In the CPI
Operation
Longterm equipment costs

need to be fully considered
in capital-cost assessments
36
Lifecycle
cost
Maintenance
Decommissioning
FIGURE 1. Initial capital costs alone

are too often the primary criteria for selecting process equipment
Jeff Hoffmann
Paul O. Abbe
hen considering project proposals for new processes in
the chemical process industries (CPI), capital equipment costs often become the primary
focus. The purpose of this article is
to provide a detailed examination of
the total cost of process equipment
and the implications that the initial
equipment cost has for longterm costs
over the full life of the process.
Aside from equipment costs, other
critical costs to consider include, operation, maintenance and decommissioning (Figure 1). Also, since a process generates revenue only when it
is operating, downtime must be added
to the total costs. When the whole lifetime of a process is considered, equipment costs may account for as little as
510% of the total cost (Figure 2).
There are a number of questions
that should be considered before moving ahead with projects. How should
you define the product output, quality,
unit operations, support equipment
and profitability? Who is responsible
for operating and maintaining the
process? Do the demands for process
performance conflict with operating
and maintenance realities? What is
the likelihood that the equipment
will operate trouble-free? Are replace-
Equipment
ment parts available for both routine

and non-routine maintenance?
Minimizing total cost

The emphasis on total operating
costs over the life of a process does
not imply that the initial equipment
costs are unimportant. On the contrary, it is precisely the investment
in the correct equipment in the first
place that is to be examined. The purpose of the procurement of process
equipment is to perform a particular
function within a unit operation. The
goal is not the purchase of a particular piece of equipment. If we add the
dimension of time, then our definition for process equipment becomes
a piece of equipment that performs a
specific function under various conditions over a prescribed period of
time. Therefore, we should not focus
on equipment with the lowest initial
cost, but rather on the realistic longterm cost of that purchase.
In the early 1980s, Edward Deming
the father of quality management
stated that organizations should
end the practice of awarding business
on the basis of price tag alone and, instead, minimize the total cost. This
sentiment is consistent with evaluating lifecycle cost.
Lifecycle cost
The purpose of lifecycle-cost (LCC)
analysis is to make informed decisions based on available alternatives
in order to achieve the most economical process from inception to decommissioning. LCC takes into account
the design, equipment selection, operation, maintenance and final disposition costs of a project over its
lifespan. LCC is useful for engineers
in justifying equipment and process
design based on total costs rather
than the initial purchase price of
equipment alone.
Procurement strategies focused on
lowest initial costs are more likely
to lead to higher longterm costs. We
are often directed to reduce costs and
work within budgets. In the short run,
this approach can make us and our
department appear efficient. However, the lower initial capital costs
may come with maintenance or other
problems that eventually will be realized by the company shareholders in
the coming years and decades. LCC
can help avoid unnecessary downtime
and help make a process more competitive and profitable. At the very
least, an LCC analysis may prompt
engineers to consider a wider range
of possibilities.
Installation
5%
Environmental
3%
Flush water
7%
Process
requirements
Downtime
32%
Subcontract
all or part of
process
Define unit
operations
Decommissioning
8%
Supplier
designs
Define
equipment
Capital costs
9%
Installation
Operating cost
9%
Causes of failure
Maintenance
14%
FIGURE 2. Initial capital costs represent a small fraction of the total lifecycle costs
for process equipment. The graph depicts the case of a worst case situation with
considerable downtime costs (see Table 1, scenario 1, p. 41)
The remainder of this article presents a more-or-less qualitative view

of the LCC analysis process and the
elements that go into LCC. The Further reading list at the end of the
article refers readers to several more
analytic versions of LCC, including Weibull analysis, risk-based cost
analysis, Monte Carlo modeling, and
other what-if analyses.
The main goals of LCC are: 1) To
identify risks to process operation
and efficiency; 2) Quantify these risks
in terms of downtime; and 3) Determine how to avoid these risks and
subsequent losses early in the design
of the system (Figure 3).
LCC for the CPI

Of all the industries and all the types
of manufacturing plants in the world,
it is safe to say that the process industries are some of the most variable
and complex. With more than 70 million identifiable chemicals and a nearinfinite number of combinations, and
given the number of unit operations
possible, there are many opportunities to examine process costs. The four
primary components involved in the
LCC are:
Capital equipment costs
Operating costs
Anticipate
downtime risk
Operation
Electric
13%
Maintenance costs
Decommissioning costs
These components are further subdivided (Figure 4).
Maintenance
Equipment design
Proper operation
Maintenance
Parts availability
Decommission
FIGURE 3. The LCC analysis process

shown here is designed to minimize total
cost, even if initial capital costs are higher
STEPS IN LCC ANALYSIS

LCC considers everything in the life
of a process, starting with a definition
of the process, its unit operations, and
the equipment required to fulfill those
unit operations, as well as operating
costs, maintenance costs and finally
decommissioning costs. The following
are the major steps involved in determining LCC.
Assess process requirements.

Tasks to consider when undertaking a
new process include the following:
Determine present and future capacity for the product
Anticipate the lifetime of the process. Some processes may have a
lifespan of anywhere from a year or
two to decades. Anticipating process
lifetime will either concentrate or
extend cost impacts and affect the
long-term maintenance and reliability of the process
Define product quality based on customer requirements
Determine process flexibility. How
easily can the equipment and sys-
tem be modified to accommodate increased output of product, changes

in formulation or the addition of a
step in the process?
Quantify waste. What percent of
waste is acceptable? What is the cost
of waste disposal? How can waste be
minimized by a change in the process? Can off-specification product
be reprocessed or sold off-spec to a
different market?
Define unit operations

This step involves identifying the unit
operations and types of equipment required by the process.
Subcontract. Subcontracting one or
more operations in a process is something often overlooked, but can increase cost efficiencies and flexibility.
Few manufacturers of process equipment manufacture everything motors, gear drives and bearings are not
manufactured in-house. Likewise,
chemical companies do not manufacture all of their raw materials, nor
do they necessarily perform all tasks
37
Feature Report
in-house. Subcontracting is, for most
businesses, a matter of degree rather
than a yes-or-no decision. Some steps
in a process may not be cost-effective
to execute in-house. For example,
high-pressure reactors, spray-drying
or packaging may best be outsourced
operations, at least until the operation grows and the investment can be
better justified.
Continuous, batch or a combination. The decision for a continuous or
batch process (or a combination of the
two) is sometimes dictated by the process, and sometimes optional. Within
this decision, a set of factors should
be considered:
Continuous process operations can
often have much higher output
and may require less equipment,
but they may have more variability in quality and reworking
off-spec product in a continuous
process may be difficult
Batch operations may require more
storage and intermediate buffer
tanks and larger equipment, but
they have the advantage of consistency and often have a better
chance to re-work off-spec product
Storage strategy. In anticipation of
routine or emergency shutdown, a storage strategy should be created. Can the
finished product be stored and, if so,
can the downstream process or packaging accommodate a surge in capacity?
Process bottlenecks. Which aspects
of the process have the most variation?
For example, liquid mixing is fairly
consistent, whereas solids drying can
vary considerably with particle size.
Does a dryer need excess capacity?
Evaporator capacity can fall off quickly
due to tube fouling either on the product or heat-transfer-fluid side. In the
example on page 39 (Figure 5), the
performance of the evaporator falling
below 600 gal/hr can be the result of
scale build-up or fouling. Investing in
a water demineralization system may
be worthwhile if the bottleneck affects
productivity and profitability. Likewise, too large an evaporator with low
velocity may be more prone to fouling.
Bigger is not always better.
Define required equipment

Process equipment has many variations in basic design and design op38
Equipment
sizing and design features
Pipes, valves,
fitting, electrical
Installation
rigging
permits
Foundations
and structure
Warranties
Equipment
Raw
material
supply
Preventative
maintenance
Operation
supervision
monitoring
Waste stream
treatment and
disposal
Utilities:
electric,
gas, water
Maintenance
training
Operation
Lifecycle
cost
Unexpected
failure
maintenance
Maintenance
Parts supply
chain
Gases
N2, CO2
Parts
inventory
Decommissioning
FIGURE 4. Each of
the four main LCC
components can be
further broken down
into speciic cost
factors
Dismantling
and removal
Cleanup
Waste disposal
(including contaminated
pipe, insulation,
and so on)
tions. Discuss your requirements with

equipment manufacturers and gather
information on: performance; design;
options; installation; foundation and
support requirements; utility requirements; mean-time between failures;
and recommended spare parts for
the first few years of operation. This
is also the time to start gathering information on refurbished and used
equipment (discussed later). The steps
are as follows:
1) Identify suppliers and dealers for
new versus used versus reconditioned
equipment. Identify alternate designs
(for example, shell-and-tube versus
plate-and-frame heat exchanger, or
fluid-bed versus vacuum dryer).
2) Identify design features that may
improve product quality, increase uptime and reduce maintenance. These
might include automatic lubrication,
and monitoring devices for vibration,
over-temperature and low-level protection. Evaluate whether a clean-inplace (CIP) system would be cost-effective, or whether the equipment would
Demolition
Sell or scrap
equipment
be better cleaned manually. Also,

it is important to understand what
level of operator exposure to product
and cleaning chemicals is acceptable.
Other options might include maintenance-reducing features, such as additional access hatches, sight glasses
and lights, split seals and bearings
and replaceable wear liners.
Equipment installation
Installation costs may equal or exceed
equipment costs, depending on the size
and complexity of the equipment. An
important consideration during the
layout and installation of equipment
is the accessibility to allow preventive
maintenance and future repair. Sufficient space must be provided for the
extraction of shafts, rotors and motors,
as well as to provide access to seals and
bearings. Overhead structure should
allow for portable hoisting chains or
permanently installed hoists.
Although not routine, anticipating
the removal of large pieces of equipment should not be made impossible
FIGURE 5.
Certain aspects
of a process
have higher
potential to
present process
bottlenecks than
others
1,100
Minimum
Design
1,000
gal/hr
900
800
700
600
500
Metering
pumps
Mixer/
reactor
Evaporator
Filtration
by physical constraints. Without clear

access, preventative maintenance
may suffer and repair time may be extended. Factors involved in the installation cost may include the following:
Machine foundations
Accessibility for maintenance and
repair
Support structures and mezzanines
Piping, valves and fittings
Instrumentation
Electrical controls
Monitoring equipment
Electrical switchgear
Operation
Operation and maintenance are two
areas that are critical to avoiding
downtime and both are affected by
equipment selection, design and operating procedures.
If the equipment was sized properly, there should be no reason to operate it beyond safe design capacities.
Many types of equipment are tested
at, or designed for 150 to 200% of the
rated capacity, but operating at these
capacities may risk shortening the
life of the equipment. Other aspects
of operation costs include the training of operations personnel, utilities
(electricity, gas, water, steam and
cooling tower capacity) and the time
that the equipment is offline for preventative maintenance.
The costs of raw materials, water
treatment (demineralizing, pH adjustment), purge gas (N2, CO2) and waste
disposal are also key operations costs.
Most CPI processes, even in the food
Packaging
Dehydrator
industry, have to dispose of waste product or waste streams from washing, offspecification product or simply contaminated water coming from a wash step.
Maintenance
Generally, maintenance can be classified into two types: preventative and
repair. Some failures occur randomly
and cannot be predicted, but other
failures occur as a result of a lack of
preventative maintenance (PM).
PM is an area that has evolved into a
service that can be subcontracted and
may be economical when considering
the total longterm value provided. PM
companies often have superior knowledge of pumps, drives, lubrication and
routine maintenance issues, including
good record keeping. The PM record
keeping can also help support any
warranty claims and avoid disputes
with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The cost of subcontracting
PM must be considered against the
benefits of avoiding downtime. Parts
availability is important in avoiding
downtime both for PM and unexpected
failures. Questions to consider in having parts available when required are
the following:
Do you know the supply chain for
the parts you need?
Do you know your OEM parts and
service contacts?
Are you considering non-OEM or
counterfeit parts?
Do you have a recommend parts list
for each machine for the first few
years of operation?
What are the availability of standard parts?

What is the availability of special
non-standard parts?
What is the cost to purchase and
stock the recommended parts?
Will your OEM put consigned stock
in your facility? What is involved in
administering consigned stock? Are
you prepared to safely store and protect the parts?
What is the cost to stock parts for
catastrophic failures? Some large
parts, such as motors, gear drives or
centrifuge scrolls and bowls, can take
weeks or months to obtain. The low
probability of failure may be offset by
the very long lead times and may require investment in costly parts that
may sit on the shelf for years.
Is maintenance staff knowledgeable
and prepared to identify symptoms
of failure early, and diagnose and
repair issues quickly and correctly
the first time? Check with the OEM
for guidance and training. Do you
have the installation and operating manuals on file? Have they been
thoroughly reviewed?
What are the anticipated preventative maintenance intervals?
What is the expected time between
failures for components like seals,
and bearings, and the expected time
between belt adjustments and filter
replacements?
Should all or some PM be outsourced?
Does the OEM offer PM services?
What is the repair turnaround time
for a specific failure?
Decommissioning
The concept of decommissioning is
not something most engineers tend
to consider as they are designing a
plant, but some plants will have finite
lives of just a few years due to licensing agreements, patents, changes in
markets or plans to shift to overseas
production in the future.
Planning for decommissioning a
process plant can vary from simple
tear-down and selling of equipment
to preparing for a sophisticated decontamination procedure. Chemical
process equipment has special considerations that can increase the cost
of decommissioning. Not only will
39
Feature Report
discover failure
and remove
from service
Teardown
Dagnosis
Obtain
parts
Repair
Restart
Monitor
waste material have to be disposed

of, but piping, insulation and flooring may have to be decontaminated
or treated as hazardous waste.
Other costs of decommissioning
include dismantling of equipment,
waste disposal of chemicals (unused
chemicals,
water-treatment
and
cleaning chemicals, as well as those
in above- and below-ground tanks,
evaporation ponds and contaminated
pipes).
Events per year
FIGURE 6. Downtime represents one of

the most signiicant and costly issues
for many processes
$500
$5,000
$50,000
$500,000
$5,000,000
$400
$4,000
$40,000
$400,000
$4,000,000
$300
$3,000
$30,000
$300,000
$3,000,000
$200
$2,000
$20,000
$200,000
$2,000,000
$100
$1,000
$10,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
$100
$1,000
$10,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
Costs of downtime
Process downtime is one of the most
significant and costly issues for many
processes. To properly take into account the costs of downtime over the
life of the process, engineers must
estimate how much cost is accrued if
the process fails, either in whole or in
part. Further, once it fails, the question becomes how long will it take to
restore operation?
In terms of equipment selection and
design, which equipment and design
features will be less likely to cause
downtime? Which will be most easily maintained? How quickly can an
expected failure be repaired so the
equipment can be put back in service?
The risks and costs of process downtime can be considered in a semiquantitative form by examining the
likelihood of an event occurring in a
given time period and the cost per unit
time of that failure.
Downtime Cost = frequency of
failure/year
x downtime/days
x $ losses/day
Downtime starts with the failure of
the equipment and stops when it is
put back in service. Better maintenance training can reduce the diagnosis and repair time significantly. The
basic sequence is the discovery of a
failure, followed by teardown, diagnosis, obtaining parts, repair, restart and
monitoriing (Figure 6).
40
Cost of event
FIGURE 7. A matrix can help quantify the costs of downtime in a process
One factor with a great impact on reducing downtime is the availability of

parts. The parts may be common, such
as O-rings or gaskets, seals or bearings,
or they may be less common, such as
pump housings or drive shafts.
If a complete shutdown costs
$100,000 per day, the expected frequency of a catastrophic shutdown
three times per year is a total of
$300,000. For a non-critical failure
that reduces productivity, but does
not shut down the process entirely,
an event cost of $50,000, with a frequency of five times per year would
total $250,000 (Figure 7).
The following examples (Figure 8
and Table 1) emphasize maintenance
training and parts availability in the
prevention of downtime. Suppose the
additional cost of training and parts
is $80,000. With downtime cost at
$20,000 per day, the investment of
$80,000 saved $86,000 compared to
without the training and parts after
just one outage event.
In a second example, a $70,000 design
feature reduces downtime by making a
routine and expected part replacement
faster, from three days to one day. Over
the 10-year life of the process, the saving is $890,000.

Those examples represent the costs
of just one critical unit operation and
one design feature. When considering similar analyses across an entire
plant, the cost savings can be substantial. The conclusion of the above
is that a relatively small upfront investment may save considerable cost
in the long run.
NEW, USED, REFURBISHED?

There is a saying that all process
plants run on used equipment, and
that is true. The LCC analysis is not
prejudiced with regard to used or refurbished equipment LCC considers
the balance of downtime prevention
and investment in equipment and preventative maintenance. If you know
your process requirements and have
the resources to keep used equipment
functioning as reliably as necessary,
then used or refurbished equipment
is the right choice. There are several
LCC issues to consider when deciding
between new, refurbished and used
equipment.
Not all buyers are in a position to
Downtime Costs
Dwell time, days

Sequential
step
Event
Scenario
1
Scenario
2
Preventative action
Annual
cost
$ 30,000
Discover failure
0.1
Maintenance training
Teardown
0.5
Diagnosis
0.5
Accquire parts
0.1
Parts in stock
Repair
0.5
Re-start
0.5
Monitor
0.5
Total days of downtime

Investment in training
and parts
11
2.7
$0
$80,000
Downtime cost $20,000/day
$220,000
$54,000
Total
$220,000
$134,000
Additional cost of
lack of preparation
$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
$ 50,000
$100,000
$ 80,000
$50,000
$0
Scenario
1
Scenario
2
$86,000
FIGURE 8. Different downtime scenarios for availability of parts and other factors can yield variable costs
TABLE 1. THE IMPACT OF VARYING DOWNTIME COSTS

Scenario 1
High-pressure
reactor mixer
Initial capital costs
Installation and
commissioning
Utilities - electric
($0.12/kwh)
- flush water ($0.04/gal.)
Operating costs
(normal supervision)
Maintenance costs
Downtime costs
($48,000/d x 3 d)
Environmental costs
Decommissioning
Total
Year
1
10
$380,000
$230,000
Total
$380,000
$230,000
$60,000
$60,000 $60,000
$60,000
$60,000
$60,000
$60,000
$60,000 $60,000 $60,000
$600,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000 $30,000
$40,000 $40,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000 $30,000 $30,000

$40,000 $40,000 $40,000
$300,000
$400,000
$60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $600,000
$144,000 $144,000 $144,000 $144,000 $144,000 $144,000 $144,000 $144,000 $144,000 $144,000 $1,440,000
$13,000
$13,000 $13,000
$13,000 $13,000 $13,000 $130,000

$350,000 $360,000
$347,000 $347,000 $347,000 $347,000 $347,000 $347,000 $347,000 $347,000 $347,000 $697,000 $4,430,000
Scenario 2
High-pressure
1
2
reactor mixer
Initial capital costs
$380,000
Split seal and bearing
$70,000
option
Installation and
$230,000
commissioning
Utilities - electric
$60,000 $60,000
($0.12/kWh)
- flush water ($0.04/gal) $30,000 $30,000
Operating costs
$40,000 $40,000
(normal supervision)
Maintenance costs
$60,000 $60,000
Downtime costs
$48,000 $48,000
($48,000/d x 1 d)
Environmental costs
$13,000 $13,000
Decommissioning
Total
$931,000 $251,000
$13,000
$13,000
$13,000
$13,000
Year
3
10
Total
$450,000
$230,000
$60,000
$60,000
$60,000
$60,000
$60,000
$60,000 $60,000 $60,000
$600,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000
$40,000
$30,000 $30,000 $30,000

$40,000 $40,000 $40,000
$300,000
$400,000
$60,000
$48,000
$60,000 $60,000
$48,000 $148,000
$60,000
$48,000
$60,000
$48,000
$60,000 $60,000 $60,000

$48,000 $48,000 $48,000
$600,000
$480,000
$13,000
$13,000
$13,000
$13,000
$13,000
$13,000 $13,000 $13,000 $130,000

$350,000 $350,000
$251,000 $251,000 $251,000 $251,000 $251,000 $251,000 $251,000 $601,000 $3,540,000
41
Feature Report
purchase new equipment beTABLE 2. COMPARISON OF NEW, USED AND REFURBISHED EQUIPMENT
cause of cost considerations
New
Refurbished
Used
or time. Used equipment may Application
Limited to none
Application definition Limited
and machine design
also be the appropriate alter- assistance
native when time is a con- Design feaUnlimited
Some variations or
None (whatever is
modifications possible
in stock)
sideration, either in terms of tures
as part of the rebuild
delivery or usage. Used equipprocess
ment is frequently available
Delivery
48 months
12 months
Immediate
for immediate delivery, com100%
4050% of new
2040% of new
pared to the relatively long Price
12 months from instal- 90 days to a few
None (as is)
lead times that are typical Mechanical
lation or 18 months
months
of new capital equipment. In warranty
from shipment
these cases, used equipment
Right to return None
None
1030 days
may provide the optimal alParts
In-stock or readily
The fact that the unit
Call OEM and find
ternative (Table 2).
availability
available
is being refurbished
out how available
The following scenarios
indicates that parts
parts are before purfavor the purchasing of used
are available from the
chasing. Parts availOEM. Variable parts
ability diminishes
or refurbished equipment:
availability
with time
When price is of prime imComplete technical
Limited
None
portance because of invest- Aftermarket
technical
support
ment limitations
support
When the equipment is
needed immediately for an
emerging market
tant to be sure you can obtain parts acquire equipment that will accommo When the equipment will be used when needed, especially if the OEM date your process.
for a limited time, such as a feasibil- is located in another country. Trying Mechanical warranty. Mechanical
ity study or short-production run for to get parts for an overseas machine warranties are a certainty with new
a special product or market
made 30 years ago, for example, may equipment, but their real purpose
When the equipment can be eco- be a challenge. Is the company still should not be overestimated. Warrannomically modified to fit the pur- in business? Where are their foreign ties are not substitutes for proper oppose. This will have a lot to do with offices? Some resourceful companies eration or preventative maintenance
your ability to refurbish and main- have recognized a gap in the supply and should not be construed as protain the equipment
chain and decided to manufacture cess guarantees. Mechanical warran When the process is routine, low parts for older domestic or foreign ties provide benefits especially during
output or low risk. Infrequently equipment. Once you find them, you the initial startup period. If faults
arise, they will likely occur during the
run equipment will have more op- may be in good shape.
portunity for PM and will be more Aftermarket technical support. initial warranty period.
Avoid surprises and disappointment
forgiving
With new equipment, the availability of good aftersale support is almost by verifying the specifics of the warranassured. But when purchasing used ties before purchasing.
Aftermarket support
Most companies that manufacture equipment, the OEM may or may not Delivery timing. The delivery time
process equipment would rather sell provide adequate technical support. for used equipment is typically just
new, but most are quite pleased to Find out if drawings, manuals and days, while new equipment will likely
parts lists are available. They may be months.
support their older equipment.
Not every company has the same charge $500 to $1,000 for these docu- Design features. Within limits, new
business model. It is important to ments, but it is a good investment to equipment can be outfitted with virknow your equipment and the parts ensure you have the right information tually every manner of control, CIP
systems, quick access to internal
on hand.
supply chain.
The following are some areas of com- Application assistance. There is no parts, and other features to improve
parison that must be considered when doubt that a new equipment manufac- productivity and uptime. Used equipdeciding between new, refurbished or turer has a vested interest in guiding ment is sold as-is, so you will either
you toward the correct equipment for need to find a good match or comproused equipment:
Aftermarket parts. This is a very- your application. Due to the nature of mise on the features you would like
important consideration for mainte- chemical processing, subtle changes to have. Refurbished equipment may
nance and repair turnaround time. in product characteristics can have present some opportunities for upNo matter if you are considering new significant effects on the process and grades and modifications.
or used equipment, you should con- the equipment, which is why process Price. New equipment is not expentact the OEM to find out the avail- guarantees are very rare. It is in the sive if you buy into Edward Demings
ability of parts. It is especially impor- best interest of the OEM to help you idea that you are purchasing total
42
value. If you only consider price, then

new equipment may appear to be more
costly. LCC is blind to new versus used
equipment, so let the risk data fall
where they may.
Right to return. With new equipment, once you have placed the
order, you are essentially committed
to the equipment. Backing out after
the initial deposit has been made
will have some definite costs. If you
buy refurbished equipment, you
are also committed once a deposit
is made and work is undertaken.

Most used equipment dealers will
allow equipment returns within 10 to
30 days if it does not work as anticipated. All dealers differ, so it is important to ask specifically before making
the purchase.
Concluding remarks
Understanding the lifecycle costs of one
piece of equipment or an entire process
requires examining not just the cost of
the capital equipment, but also the op-
erating, maintenance and decommissioning costs. The other major longterm

cost is the cost of downtime compared to
investments in training, preventative
maintenance and spare parts. Lifecycle
cost analysis can be done in a rudimentary fashion or it can employ complex
what-if algorithms, but in either case,
the benefits of taking a broader view of
the factors that may impact the longterm cost of a process will benefit you
and your company.
Edited by Scott Jenkins
Author
Further reading
Abernethy, Robert B. The New Weibull Handbook
(4th ed.). North Palm Beach, Fla., 2002.
Landers, Richard R. Product Assurance Dictionary, Marlton Publishers, Marlton, N.J., 1996.
Bloch, Heinz P. and Fred K. Geitner. Practical Machinery Management for Process
Plants,Volume 2: Machinery Failure Analysis
and Troubleshooting, 2nd Edition, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Tex. 1994
Bloch, Heinz P. and Fred K. Geitner. Simplified
Life-Cycle Cost Computations Applied in the
Hydrocarbon Processing Industries, Fourth

International Conference on Process Plant
Reliability, Gulf Publishing Company,
Houston, Tex., 1995.
Goble, William M. Evaluating Control Systems
Reliability, Instrument Society of America,
Research Triangle Park, N.C., 1992.
Ireson, W. Grant, Clyde F. Coombs Jr., Richard
Y. Moss. Handbook of Reliability Engineering and Management, 2nd edition, McGrawHill, New York, 1996.
Jeff Hoffmann is a vice

president at Paul O. Abbe
Co, (735 East Green Street,
Bensonville, IL 60106; Phone:
630-258-4720; Email: [email protected]). Hoffmann has an educational
background in chemistry and
a M.S. in industrial and organizational psychology. During
the past 20 years, Hoffmann
has held sales, marketing and
executive positions at several process equipment
companies. He also holds six U.S. patents for
various process equipment designs.
43
Process
Feature Report
Engineering
Practice
Process datasheet
(PDS)
Getting the Most

Out of Data Sheets
PFD
P&ID
Revise
P&ID
Revise
PFD
Mechanical
Instrumentation
and control
Electrical
Data sheets should function as the central document

to guide the procurement process
Mohammad Toghraei
Engrowth Training
or most engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) projects in the chemical process industries (CPI), the data sheets
developed at the beginning of the process provide the shopping lists that
guide the procurement group on the
purchase of equipment, system packages, instruments and more. Data
sheets should function as the central
document, into which all final result
of design or specification calculations
will be transferred, to commence the
procurement process.
During the operation of the facility,
well-crafted data sheets will be used
as key reference documents. They can
also provide crucial information during debottleneck and retrofitting projects on existing plants.
There are usually five disciplines
that deal with tangible goods (such
as equipment or instruments) in an
EPC project. They are the mechanical
group, the instrumentation-and-control (I&C) group, the piping group, the
electrical group and the civil group.
Another group the process group
does not typically manage the purchasing of items. Rather, the process
group is principally responsible for
designs and specifications. They dont
own any tangible goods (such as
equipment or instruments) and thus,
they usually dont manage the procurement process.
Each of these groups is generally the
owner and buyer of certain items
required by the project or facility. For
example, the mechanical group is the
owner and buyer (working through
the procurement group) of equipment
components. The I&C group is responsible for design and purchase of
44
the instruments and control software.

The electrical group is responsible for
designing and buying electrical items
such as electric motors. When it comes
to piping, the piping group does not
necessarily design the piping items
per se, but this group is responsible
for buying standard and off-the-shelf
piping components. Typically, the piping group provides a list of available
pipes, valves and fittings, and the design engineer selects the most suitable
items from those piping-specification
document.
For the piping items that are listed
and specified in the piping-specification documents, there is no need to
prepare separate data sheets for them.
However, there may be some items that
will be installed on or in the piping but
that are not listed in the piping-specification documents. These include specialty items, such as strainers, injection quills and more. These are items
that are not typically standardized in
the piping-specification document and
thus must be described in a data sheet.
As a result, the data sheet should be
provided for all specialty items.
As noted, the process group is the
only group that is not the owner (and
buyer) of any tangible items. However, this group is often the first group
that does the preliminary design of
items required by almost all other
disciplines, the process group is often
responsible to start preparing data
sheets for equipment components and
systems, instruments, specialty items
and even process-related civil items.
However, not all the data sheets
start with the process group. For example, some purely mechanical items
(such as gear boxes) might start with
mechanical group.
Usually the data sheet for inline elements, such as sensors, control valves
Datasheet (DS)
Requistion package
Vendors
Proposals
FIGURE 1. This low chart shows how

a given data sheet may work its way
through the different disciplines. Eventually, completed data sheets will guide the
discussion with vendors, and the data
from the inal revised data sheet will be
used to update other key documents,
such as the process low diagram (PFD)
and the P&ID.
and switching valves, is prepared by

the process group first. Then, the I&C
group completes the data sheet by
adding information that is required to
make the purchase.
However, the data sheet for the offline elements of control systems such
as transmitters and indicators can be
initiated by the I&C group, by using
process data that was already provided by the process group for the relevant primary elements. For example,
an I&C engineer can prepare the data
sheet for a flow transmitter based on
the information that was provided on
the flowmeter data sheet.
Equipment data sheets

The amount of information on any
given data sheet can vary greatly
from a few sentences on information
in a call-out box showing the equipment components in P&ID up to information in the equipment-specification
document. The information in that
datasheet should be more in-depth
than the information in the call-out
box but definitely more brief than the
information in the equipment-specifi-
EQUIPMENT TYPES FOR WHICH STANDARD DATA SHEET TEMPLATES

ARE AVAILABLE
Equipment
Industry standard
Centrifugal pumps
API-610, ASME B73.1, B73.2
Controlled volume (PD) pumps
API-675
Heat exchangers, S&T
API-660
Centrifugal compressors
API-617
Steam turbines
API-611
Rotary pumps
API-676
Reciprocating pumps
API-674
cation document (which may be a few

pages long).
Data sheets can be classified based
on the level of detail that design engineers are willing to show on them,
according to two types:
1. Black box (functional) data sheets
2. Conventional (detailed) data sheets
In black box (functional) data sheets,
the design engineer basically defines
what the feed is and what the required
product will be. Additional data, such
as the utility consumption table and
possibly assigned footprint area could
be added to black box data sheets,
too. Using this type of data sheet, the
vendor has the flexibility to select and
design different types of systems that
could meet the requirements of the client.
Conventional (detailed) data sheets
are those that include all the detailed
information that is needed for the
vendor to design the requested equipment. These offer less room for vendor/
manufacturer creativity.
Data sheet templates

There are generally two ways to develop data sheets. In the first method,
the process group starts with the
data sheet (specifically, a process data
sheet, or PDS). This group does the
work to create the first version of a
data sheet, and then the individual
disciplines amend and revise that
data sheet to add relevant, disciplinespecific information. The group then
issues the final data sheet to the engineering discipline, which is responsible for the procurement activities
(through the procurement group). For
example, in preparing the data sheet
for equipment, the mechanical group
will issue the final (amended) version
of the data sheet, which could then be
named mechanical data sheet (MDS).
Figure 1 shows a non-inclusive
flow chart of how a given data sheet
may travel through the different disciplines. As shown, the data sheets
will eventually be updated based on
Heating Bundle
Replacement
the communication and discussion

with vendors, and the data from the
final revision of the data sheet must
ultimately be used to update other key
documents, such as the process flow
diagram (PFD) and the P&ID.
In the second method, an established data sheet can be used as a
generic template, allowing all of the
blank cells to be filled out by the different disciplines. The second method
is more suitable for cases where the
company is already fully aware of the
detail of the equipment or package
they plan to buy. In this method, there
is no separate PDS or MDS and no interim data sheets.
For standard equipment such as
pumps and heat exchangers, a variety
of data sheet templates can be found
in the respective standards. The Table
shows a non-inclusive example of the
types of data sheet templates that can
be found in the industry standards.
For less popular or custom-made
equipment, the primary template
could be found in different technical books. For instance, Ref. [1] offers
a good collection of equipment data
sheets. If a package is to be bought,
the design engineer should develop
tailor-made data sheets.
Avoid poor practices

The process of preparing strong, relevant data sheets will be improved by
avoiding the following poor practices:
1. Using TBD (to be determined)
notations. If the TBD convention is to
be used as a place-holder until final
details can be gathered, be sure to follow up to make sure the missing information is provided in suitable time.
2. Using by vendor in places that the
data should really be provided by the
client or engineering company. To be
more specific, all of the boundary information (such as pressure, temperature and so on at the edge or border of
vendors scope of work) should be provided by the engineering company. For
example, engineering company must
s
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45
Engineering Practice
report the required pressure at the
edge of the package boundary.
3. Failure to clarify definitions of key
terms. The engineering company and
vendor should clarify the definitions of
critical terms, such as normal, design,
rated, maximum, design and rated capacities. In some companies, rated
and design are two names for the
same concept, and maximum doesnt
necessarily mean the design parameter.
4. Failure to define potential materialcompatibility and corrosion issues.
There are two approaches for specifying materials of construction for specific equipment components and packages. Using the strict approach, the
engineering company or client wants
to have the equipment with a specific,
stated material. In this approach, instead of reporting potentially corrosive materials that the components
may be exposed to, the material of
construction should be requested directly. For example, if the team wants
to have equipment built from an acidresistant material in Region two of
NACE 175, reporting the corrosive
agents and their concentrations may
leave the decision open to vendor to
interpret the data and suggest sour
or non-sour materials. If the design
engineers intend to leave the material-selection decision on the vendor,
they need to choose the second option,
which reports corrosive or erosive species with their concentrations.
5. Using brand names instead of generic names for required equipment
and packages. Brand names should be
avoided as much as possible to ensure
the fairest, most competitive bids from
all vendors.
6. Risking errors by inserting information or data that should more appropriately come from other disciplines.
Sometimes the boundaries between
the disciplines are not very clear. In
such cases, the test question should
be Am I completely competent to provide this number or information? For
example, in pump-related data sheets,
specifying the rpm of the impeller is
not generally the responsibility of the
process group. However, if the pump
will be handling oily water or water
with fragile, suspended solids, the
process engineer could have some spe46
cific mechanical requirements, such

as maximum rpm or the clearance of
the pump. It is better to cover these
limitations in a note within the data
sheet rather than in the main body
of the data sheet, because process
requirements are not the only criteria required to specify the rpm of
the impeller.
7. Putting extra notes in note area. The
use of notes should be avoided unless
it is truly justifiable. Notes typically
have several inherent issues. First,
they are often overlooked. Second,
they introduce the chance of being in
conflict with the information in the
main body of the data sheet. If one
data sheet has too many notes in the
note area, it suggests that the selected
data sheet template was not suitable
for the required equipment. The template should be designed in such a way
that the data are mentioned in the
main body of the data sheet, as much
as possible.
8. Including too much information.
Putting in information that is not related to manufacturing the equipment
can be confusing for the vendor. The
engineering company should be careful to put in just the most relevant
information. For example, for a pump
data sheet, the normal and maximum
flowrate must be specified. However,
for the pump to work in different
services and flowrates, the engineering company might choose to put one
representative condition (including
flowrate and required head) in the
pump data sheet. In such cases, the
engineering company (not the vendor)
is responsible to verify whether the
proposed pump can handle all of the
operating cases properly.
In some cases, the manufacturing company may be willing to work
closely to cooperate with the engineering company if competing operating
scenarios are complicated.
9. Erratic management of data sheet
revisions. The procedure for revising
the data sheet during the design and
procurement process should be agreed
to by all parties. The procedure could
be more complicated if there are more
than one data sheet for an equipment
like process data sheet (PDS) and mechanical data sheet (MDS). All participants should agree on confusing issues
ahead of time. For instance, if an MDS

is developed based on a PDS and the
process group changes a number in a
design, should they go and reflect the
changes directly in the MDS, or do they
need to start from the PDS? Similarly,
if the vendor (with the agreement of
the client) decided to change a number in the equipment design, should it
be reflected only on MDS, or on both
MDS and PDS. All participants should
agree on these issues ahead of time.
10. Inconsistency with other documents. The information on the data
sheet should be consistent with other
documents that have similar content,
such as P&ID or LDT. For example, a
line-designation table (LDT) which
is basically a list of all pipes in the
plant specifies the design temperature and design pressure of the pipes.
These parameters on the data sheet
should be matched with the parameters on the LDT. However, matching
doesnt mean the numbers should be
identical. For instance, a designer can
decide to put a lower design temperature and pressure (on the instrument
data sheet) for a sensor in a pipe with
higher design temperature and pressure. This is acceptable as long as the
residual risk of this action is within
tolerable range of the client.
Considering the above practical
points during the preparation and issuing the data sheets will minimize
the debate with vendors and decrease
the number of frustrating cost-adders during the project.
n
Edited by Suzanne Shelley
Reference
1. James, R.,and W. Roy Penney, James R. Fair,
Chemical Process Equipment: Selection and
Design, 2nd Ed., Gulf Professional Publishing, 2009.
Author
Mohammad
Toghraei,
P.Eng., is an instructor and
consultant with Engrowth
Training (Phone: 403-8088264; Email: engedu.ca),
based in Calgary, Alta. He has
more than 20 years of experience in the field of industrial
water treatment. His primary
expertise is in the treatment
of wastewater from oil and
petrochemical complexes. He
holds a B.Sc. in chemical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, and an M.Sc. in
environmental engineering from Tehran University, both in Iran. He is also a member of APEGA
(the Assn. of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta).
Solids Processing
Rotary Valves in Pneumatic

Conveying Systems
Because of their wide application in pneumatic
conveying systems, it is important to understand
how rotary valves are designed and used
Amrit Agarwal
Pneumatic Conveying Consulting
otary valves are used almost universally in pneumatic conveying

systems. They serve three main
functions: 1) to provide a pressure-seal (airlock) between two adjacent
processes, 2) to provide solids metering
(feeding) and 3) to provide a combination
of solids metering and a pressure-seal
for feeding solids into a pneumatic conveying system.
Rotary valves are common devices
for feeding solids into a pneumatic
conveying pipeline, and they function
in different ways in different circumstances. For instance, rotary valves
can function as follows:
As an airlock at locations where an
air-seal is needed, such as at the end
of a pneumatic conveying system
where the conveyed solids are discharged from a receiving vessel into
a storage hopper, bin or silo
As a feeder when they are used
to discharge a fixed or a variable volumetric flow of solids from
an upstream process to a downstream process
As a combination airlock and a
feeder when they meter solids into a
pneumatic conveying pipeline
Key aspects of how rotary valves
are designed and used are discussed
below.
Types of rotary valves. Rotary valves
are generally made in the following
three varieties:
1. Drop-through type
2. Off-set or side-entry type
3. Blow-through type
In a drop-through valve (Figure 1), the
solids inlet and outlet are vertically
inline and are generally of the same
Bulk solids
inlet
Line
injector
Gas
inlet
Gas and
solids
outlet
size. When the rotor starts

to turn, the empty rotor
FIGURE 1. In a drop-through valve, the solids inlet
pockets are filled by the
and solids outlet are typically the same size and are
solids flowing vertically
vertically aligned. As the rotor turns, the empty rotor
down from a hopper above
pockets are illed by solids that low vertically down
from a hopper located above the valve
the valve. These valves
can have square, rectangular, or round inlets and
FIGURE 2. In a side-entry rooutlets; the square shape
tary valve, the solids inlet and
is more common because
solids outlet are typically offset
it provides a larger openfrom the vertical low line by
3045 degrees. This allows the
ing area compared to a
upcoming empty rotor pocket
round-shaped opening.
to be illed only partially as the
In a side-entry valve
rotor turns, helping to minimize
(Figure 2), the solids inlet
shearing and jamming of solid
particles during operation
is offset from the vertical,
solids-gravity-flow line by
30 deg. This offset allows the upcom- pocket, and carries the solids to the
ing empty rotor pocket to fill only par- opposite end of the rotary valve and
tially when the rotor turns past the directly into the conveying line. These
valve inlet. This partial filling mini- valves are used for materials that are
mizes shearing of the solid particles sticky and have difficulty in flowing
that sometimes get trapped between out from the rotor pocket.
the rotor and the valve housing. Par- Rotary valve construction. Rotary
tial filling also prevents jamming or valves have three main components: A
seizing of the rotor by solid particles cylindrical body with both ends closed,
that sometimes becometrapped be- a horizontal rotor that rotates inside
tween the rotor and the valve housing. this body, and a drivetrain that drives
The volumetric fill efficiency of the the rotor. These components are deempty pocket depends on the solids scribed below:
flow properties, but it is generally Rotary valve body. The valve body is
about 60%. These valves should have a horizontal cylinder with a top inlet
an adjustable slide plate in their inlet and a bottom outlet, and with vertical
section to allow for the increase or de- plates to close both sides of the cylinder. The body is generally cast from a
crease of pocket filling.
Blow-though valves are similar to metal such as cast iron, carbon steel,
drop-through valves except that they stainless steel or aluminum, although
are installed directly in the conveying other materials are used for special
line without any intermediate device. applications, such as very high temIn this design, the conveying gas en- peratures or highly abrasive solids.
ters from one end of the rotary valve, All internal surfaces of the cylindriblows through the emptying rotor cal body are made smooth by polishCHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2013
47
Solids Processing
Design
clearance
ing or chrome-plating because
smooth surfaces are needed to
maintain the required tight clearPipe tap for
ances between the valve body and
purging
(2) each end
the rotor. A surface finish of 2B is
desirable.
The valve rotor is of weldedsteel or stainless-steel construction with eight or more pockets.
Its horizontal shaft is also steel or
stainless steel.
The entire valve is designed
3/4 in.
to withstand the maximum and
minimum pressures and temperatures to which the valve will be
exposed. These include both process and ambient conditions.
FIGURE 3. In an open-bottom rotary valve,
To maintain the required clear- solids that may have entered the clearance
ances, in locations where the between the rotor ends and valve body are allowed to drop out. This option is not viable for
valve is exposed to extremely low feeding solids into positive-pressure conveytemperatures (such as 40F), the ing systems, but they are suitable for vacuumvalve body is jacketed, heated and type conveying systems, such as airlocks
insulated. The heating medium
is a heat-transfer fluid that is circu- ured inlet plow in their inlet section.
lated throughout the body to maintain This plow prevents solids from entera constant and uniform temperature. ing the clearance between the rotor
Alternatively, the valves can be in- and the valve housing, thereby prestalled inside heated enclosures that venting the resulting jamming or seizare provided with easy access for the ing of the rotor. The plow is V-shaped,
is cast or welded into the downstream
valves inspection and maintenance.
In locations where temperatures side of the rotary valve inlet, and diare not extreme, electrically heated rects the solids flow into the rotor
blankets placed over the valve body pocket.
can be used to maintain a uniform Rotors. Rotors are of welded construction with rectangular-shaped blades
body temperature.
The valve bottom may have an open that are welded to a shaft. Blades are
or closed space between the rotor and evenly spaced around the rotor, formthe valve body. As shown in Figure 3, ing triangular pockets. The bottom
open bottoms allow solids that may of the pockets can be flat or curved,
have entered the clearance between depending on whether the solids are
the rotor ends and the valve body to free-flowing or sticky.
The number of blades is at least
drop out. Open-bottom rotary valves
are unsuitable for feeding solids into eight for any size rotary valve. Large
positive-pressure-type conveying sys- size valves, such as thouse with 4 ft3/
tems, because they allow the conveying rev. capacity or larger, can have have
air to flow upward into the clearances, 10 or 12 blades.
thereby increasing the potential for
Blade tips are generally hardened
conveying air leakage. These valves with stellite or tungsten carbide to recan be used in vacuum-type convey- duce their wear. When handling coarse
ing systems such as airlocks, or as a solids, such as plastic pellets, tips are
feeder. In most pneumatic convey- generally relieved at a 45-deg angle on
ing applications, closed-bottom rotary their trailing edge to prevent clipping
valves, such as that shown in Figure 4, of the pellets and the resulting binding
are more commonly used because they of the rotor inside the valve housing.
provide a better air seal between the
The two ends of the rotor can be
rotor edges and the valve body.
open or closed. In open-end rotors,
For feeding coarse particles such as rotor pockets are fully open on both
plastic pellets, drop-through rotary ends. In closed-end rotors, rotor pockvalves are provided with a well-config- ets are fully closed by full-size plates
48
Design
clearance
Pipe tap for

purging
(2) each end
3/4 in.
FIGURE 4. Closed-bottom rotary

valves are widely used in pneumatic
conveying applications because they
provide a good air seal between the
rotor edges and the valve body
that are welded at each end. Blades

are welded to the shaft and also to
the two end-plates, thereby providing strength and rigidity to the rotor.
Closed-end rotors are, therefore, more
rigid and sturdy, and are less prone to
flexing and bending under high differential pressures than open-ended
rotors. They are used for a large variety of materials. Open-ended rotors
cost less but are more susceptible to
bending and rubbing with the internal
surface of the valve housing, resulting
in its wear and erosion.
In closed-end rotors, the clearance
space between the end plates and the
valve housing is generally about
to in.
Rotary valve drive. Rotary valves are
generally driven by a gear-head motor,
instead of by a separate motor and a
gear box, because this method is more
economical. The gear-head motor reduces the output speed to about 30
rpm. From this motor, the rotary valve
rotor is driven by chain and sprockets to arrive at the valve speed that
is needed. This motor can be installed
either at right angles to, or parallel
to, the rotary valve. Parallel installation with a chain-and-sprocket drive is
preferable because valve speed can be
changed easily by changing sprockets.
Right-angle installation is more difficult because it requires changing of
worm gears to change the speed.
Bin hopper
Bin hopper
Deflection of the rotor at the

midpoint of its axis due to this
differential pressure drop must
not exceed 0.001 in.
Pipe sized to
Pipe sized to match
The internal vacuum or presmatch bin flange
feeder flange
and extend into
sure rating of the rotary valve
feeder throat
Insert sized to match
housing should be 10% higher
Vent connection
feeder throat. Cut on
use maximum
Sized to match
than the maximum operating
approximate radius
slope
feeder flange
of rotor. About 1/4 in.
vacuum or pressure to which
clearance from rotor
Cut on radius
the housing will be exposed.
about equal to
Most standard rotary valves
rotor radius
Solids-injection
about 1/4 in.
device
have a 150-psig housing design
clearance
from motor
pressure.
Conveying
Rotary valve clearances.
line
Clearances between the rotor
and the rotary valve body must
be as small as possible, and they
must be concentric. Typically,
Line size smaller than feeder flange
Line size equal to or larger than feeder flange
circumferential clearances are
between 0.004 and 0.008 in.,
FIGURE 5. This installation shows a rotary valve venting system for a dilute-phase conveying system, to evacuate leakage between the rotor and valve housing. The solids-feed chute
and end-clearances are 0.006
extends into the rotary valve, as shown. The feed chutes bottom matches the outer contour
to 0.0010 in. To minimize conof the rotor with a space of 1/81/4 in. between it and the rotor. A leakage gas vent chamber is
veying gas leakage, the design
installed above the rotary valve. The annulus between the feed chute and this vent chamber
clearances should be the lower
is 2-in. minimum. Leakage gas lows into ths annulus and exits via a vent nozzle to a dust
value of these ranges.
collector and exhaust fan
Binding or seizing of the
FIGURE 6. Air leakage between
rotor inside the housing should be
From feed hopper
Vent line to
the rotor and the valve housing
dust collector
prevented by maintaining these minimust be vented so that it does not
mum clearances at the highest and
interfere with the low of incoming
lowest operating temperatures of the
solids. In this venting installation,
Pocket
for a dense-phase conveying sysincoming solids and of the ambient
carry-over
Leakage gas tem, a solids-feed chute extends
gas vent line
conditions.
vent line
into the rotary valve, as shown. The
The rotary-valve vendor should perfeed chutes bottom matches the
form
tests to measure the clearances,
outer
contour
of
the
rotor
with
a
Leakage and
carry over gas
and the air leakage as a function of
space of 1/8 in. between it and the
Solids
accumulator
rotor. A leakage gas-vent chamber
feed chute
rotary valve speed, before the valve is
is installed above the rotary valve.
accepted for use. This test should be
Leakage gas
The annular space between the feed
Vent nozzle
vent chamber
run under the actual operating conchute and this vent chamber is 2 in.
ditions, such as ambient and process
minimum. Leakage gas lows into
this annular space and exits via a
temperatures and pressures. Hot air
Annulus,
vent nozzle to the top of the leakage
2 in.
may be needed to heat the valve when
Rotary valve
minimum
gas and pocket carryover gas acit is operated under temperatures
pocket vent
cumulator. Carryover gas from the
higher than the ambient.
rotor pocket and body vent is also
Leakage-venting methods. In presvented to this accumulator
sure-type conveying systems, presThe rotary valve shaft extends be- is installed on the driven shaft to de- surized conveying air that fills the
yond the side plates of the valve hous- tect chain breakage and the resulting returning empty rotor pockets is carried over to the inlet side of the roing using outboard, spherical-roller, valve stoppage.
dust-sealed-type bearings between the Rotary valve pressure rating. For tary valve. To prevent this air from
shaft and the housing. For shaft pack- pneumatic conveying systems, rotary interfering with the flow of incoming
ing, a long-wearing material such as valves are designed so that the rotor solids, this air is vented out from the
Teflon with Neoprene gaskets is typi- can withstand the maximum pressure valve before it reaches the valve inlet.
cally used. The normal speed range differential across the valves inlet and This is done by providing a vent port
of rotary valves is 15 to 22 rpm. For outlet. In most cases, this pressure is on the return side of the valve body.
rotary valve sizing, the typical speed 15 psi for dilute-phase conveying sys- To prevent increasing air leakage, this
tems. However, instead of using 15 psi, vent port is located so that there are
used is 16 rpm.
Rotary valves used in continuous the differential pressure rating should at least two rotor pockets between the
production operations are provided be based on the actual design pressure valve bottom and the vent port. The
vent port size should be large enough
with a zero-speed motion switch that of the conveying system.
Slide gate
49
Solids Processing
Region of complete
pocket filling
Feedrate
Maximum feedrate
Bulk solids
inlet
Line injectors are used to connect the

rotary valves to the conveying lines
Their design is important because
excessive turbulence in this region has
an adverse effect on the performance of
the conveying system
Rotary valves should be installed at right
angle to the conveying line
Direction of rotation should be clockwise
facing so that the gas inlet is on the left
Region of partial
pocket filling
Feedrate
decreasing
with rotor
speed
Feedrate
increasing
with rotor
speed
Line
injector
Gas
inlet
Gas and
solids
outlet
FIGURE 8. When the rotary valve is used to feed solids into a conveying line, the
rotary valve and the line injector below it are perpendicular to the conveying line.
Rotor speed
FIGURE 7. Rotor speed impacts the

feed rate of a rotary valve, as shown
here. Theoretically, the solids-throughput
rate should increase linearly with valve
speed, althought as shown here, the feed
rate decreases after reaching a maximum rate over a typical speed range of
1522 rpm
to completely vent out the entire air

volume contained in the rotor pocket.
For large valves, a rectangular-shaped
vent port about one-half the length of
the pocket width is recommended.
When conveying powders or fine
granular materials, air that is vented
out from this vent port may contain
significant amounts of these solids.
To prevent their loss, these materials
should be fed back into the rotary valve
using a properly designed vent hopper
installed at the rotary valve inlet.
In addition to the carryover air described above, there is also air leakage from the circumferential and end
clearances between the rotor and the
valve housing. These leakages should
be vented out so that they do not interfere with the flow of incoming solids. This is done by using a specially
designed insert that extends from the
inlet of the valve up to its rotor tips.
This insert provides an annular path
between the insert and the valve body
to vent out the leakage air. This insert
should extend from the inlet of the rotary valve up to the rotor surface with
a gap of about 1/8 in. between the rotor
and the insert. Details of this venting
method are shown in Figure 5 for dilute phase systems and in Figure 6 for
dense-phase systems.
50
Leakage-calculation
methods.
Complete information on rotary valve
leakage calculations can be found in
Ref. [1].
The flowrate of clearance leakage
can be calculated using Equation 1:
Q = C A ( 2 g )( dp )
1/ 2
Q =
C =
A =
g =
ft/s2
dp =
Leakage flowrate, ft3/s

Orifice constant = 0.5
Clearance area, ft2
Gravitational constant,
(1)
32.2
Pressure differential across the

rotor, lb/in.2
As shown in Equation 1, leakage flow
is directly proportional to the clearances between the rotor and the valve
housing. For medium-sized rotary
valves, this clearance is 0.0040.006
in., or 0.100.15 mm.
The flowrate of carryover air can be
calculated by using the following relationship:
Carryover air flowrate (ft3/s) equals

Rotor displacement (ft3/rev) multiplied by rotor speed (rpm/60)
Rotary valve capacity. Figure 7
shows the solids-throughput rate
attainable in a rotary valve versus
rotor speed. Theoretically, the solids
throughput should increase linearly
with the valve speed that is, with
the number of valve rotations.
In practice, however, throughput
increases only up to a maximum
value, and then starts to reduce when
the speed is further increased. This
happens because while falling from
the rotor pocket to the valve bottom,

solids face both gravitational and centrifugal forces. At high rotor speeds,
because of centrifugal forces, some
of the solids remain in the emptying
pocket. This results in reduced fresh
material that can flow into the valve
inlet, thus reducing the fill efficiency
of the valve.
The capacity of a rotary valve (CFR)
is calculated using Equation 2. It is
expressed as volumetric flow per revolution of the rotary valve (ft3/rev of
solids flow):
CFR =
W
B N E 60
(2)
where:
CFR = Capacity of a rotary valve,
ft3/rev
= Solids flowrate, lb/h
W
B
= Solids bulk density, lb/ft3
N
= Valve speed, rpm
E
= Pocket-fill efficiency
Pocket-fill efficiency. Shown below
are typical pocket fill efficiencies for
different types of rotary valves:
Side-entry rotary valve: 40 60%
Drop-through, flood-fed valve: 60
80%
Drop-hrough, flood-fed valve with
body vent and leakage-air inlet insert: 9095%
In general, the following factors provide better fill efficiencies:
Lower valve speeds
Lower P across the valve
Proper venting of the leakage gases
from the rotary valve
Rotary valve installation. Rotary
valves that are used to feed solids into

a conveying line are installed such
that the rotary valve and the line injector below it are perpendicular to
the conveying line (Figure 8). A line
injector is used to connect the rotary
valve to the conveying line. Its design
is important because excessive turbulence in this region has an adverse effect on the performance of the conveying system.
In pressure-type conveying systems,
any intermediate spool pieces between
the rotary valve and the line injector,
or between the line injector and the
conveying line, should not be used because the resulting air turbulence can
adversely affect the flow of solids into
the conveying line.
The direction of rotation of the rotary valve should be clockwise when
facing the valve, such that the conveying air enters the conveying line from
the valves left side.
Rotary valves in dense-phase pneu-
matic conveying. Presently, rotary

valves used in dense-phase pneumatic
conveying are designed to withstand
differential pressures up to 6 bars and
maximum solids feed rates of about
5,000 ft3/h. High circumferential
clearance leakage that occurs due to
these high pressures is minimized by
increasing the number of rotor blades.
Some good designs have as many as
24 blades.
Rotor-end leakage is prevented by
using a specially designed, gas-tight
seal between the rotor and valve body.
A well-designed venting system to
properly vent out the clearance leakage air and the rotor carry-over air is
a necessity for these high-pressuredrop rotary valves.
Rotary valves with special features. Rotary valves are made with
special design features for applications such as food grade installations,
those requiring quick and easy access
for cleaning, those handling corrosive,
abrasive or sticky materials, those

handling very high or very low solids
or ambient temperatures, but the basic
design principles described above still
apply to these designs.
n
Edited by Suzanne Shelley
Reference
1. Agarwal, Amrit, Improving Rotary Valve
Performance, Chem. Eng., March 2005, pp.
2933.
Author
Amrit Agarwal is a consulting engineer with Pneumatic Conveying Consulting
(7 Carriage Rd., Charleston,
WV 25314; Email: polypcc@
aol.com). He retired from The
Dow Chemical Co. in 2002
where he worked as a resident
pneumatic conveying and solids-handling specialist. Agarwal has more than 40 years of
design, construction, operating and troubleshooting experience in pneumatic
conveying and bulk-solids-handling processes. He
holds an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin,
and an MBA from Marshall University (Huntington, West Va.). He has written a large number of
articles and given classes on pneumatic conveying and bulk solids handling.
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Now Available in the Chemical Engineering Store:
Process Water and Wastewater Treatment

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This guidebook contains how-to engineering articles formerly published in Chemical Engineering. The
articles in Volume 2 provide practical engineering recommendations for process operators faced with the
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discharge or reuse.
There is a focus on the importance of closed-loop or zero-discharge plant design, as well as the selection,
operation and maintenance of membrane-based treatment systems; treating water for use in recirculatedwater cooling systems; managing water treatment to ensure trouble-free steam service; designing stripping
columns for water treatment; and more.
Table of Contents
Process Water Treatment Challenges and Solutions

Water Reuse and Conservation in the CPI
Strategies to Minimize Wastewater Discharge
Strategies for Water Reuse
Wastewater: A Reliable Water Resource
Membranes for Process Water Reuse
Strategies for Controlling Membrane Fouling
Fact at Your Fingertips: Membranes
Facts at Your Fingertips: Membrane Configurations
Facts at Your Fingertips: Controlling Membrane Fouling

Biodegradation and Testing of Scale Inhibitors
Keeping Cooling Water Clean
Caring for Cooling Water Systems
Purifying Coke-Cooling Wastewater
Non-Chemical Water Treatment
CPI Water and Steam Chemistry
Designing Steam Stripping Columns for Wastewater
Order your copy today by visiting store.che.com

20611
EnvironmentalColumn
Fractionation
Manager
Selling new technologies

uring my youth, as a mass- and
heat-transfer R&D manager,
there were 12 occasions when
new technologies were sold for
the very first time. One or two of those
technologies might have been considered breakthroughs. The others were
very significant twists on well-established technologies. Of the 12 firstof-a-kinds, 11 were sold to companies
outside of the U.S. More on that later.
One new technology was a highperformance distillation tray that
was first offered to an Austrian company, OMV, for use in their Schwechat
refinery. The name Resetarits is of
Austrian origin, and I was the coinventor of the tray, along with Mike
Lockett, and so, it made perfect business sense for me to go to Vienna, to
try to talk OMV engineers into becoming the first.
I flew into Vienna airport, landing
at about 5 p.m. I carried my luggage
across the street to an airport hotel.
The lobby was extremely crowded,
but I was lucky because there was
nobody at the check-in counter. My
German-language capabilities were
weak. I simply handed the hotel desk
attendant my credit card and open
passport. She gasped disappointedly
and asked, Your name is Michael Resetarits? I answered, Well, yes, miss.
She said, In Austria now there is a
famous piano player who tells political jokes in between songs. All of these
people in the lobby are from the first
shift of the hotel staff. They have been
waiting one hour to get the autograph
of Michael Resetarits. After stuttering for several seconds I said, I do tell
jokes; I do not play piano; I have never
been more disappointed to be me. She
checked me in and I headed toward
my room. As I awaited the arrival of
the elevator, the desk attendant informed the lobby gang that there are
two people with that same name and
that the wrong one just checked in.
The lobby gang did not appear to be
disappointed angry is a better
word. I hid in my hotel room all night
watching CNN on the television.
So anyway, of 12 first-of-a-kind
technologies, 11 were not sold to U.S.
companies. They were sold, instead

to European, Canadian, Korean and
Chinese companies. Why? I am afraid
that I have no answers. Are U.S. companies more risk averse? Maybe. Are
non-U.S. engineers more portable, or
in other words, do they make decisions and judgments for a couple of
years and then they move off to other
job assignments? Maybe. Are nonU.S. plant managers more accepting
of capacity and efficiency shortfalls.
Maybe. Are non-U.S. engineers better
at assessing and accepting shortfall
conditions? Maybe.
I have four pieces of advice for a
salesperson or an R&D engineer who
is attempting to sell a new technology. First, explain as concisely and
clearly as possible your laboratory
and pilot plant results. Second, explain the technologys benefits.
Mike Resetarits is the technical director

at Fractionation Research, Inc. (FRI; Stillwater, Okla.; www.fri.org), a distillation
research consortium. Each month, Mike
shares his first-hand experience with CE
readers
Third, evaluate and explain what

will and will not happen if a shortfall occurs. Fourth, change your last
name to that of the most popular
jokester piano player of the country
where you will be selling your technology and learn to play piano.
Mike Resetarits
Content Licensing for

Every Marketing Strategy
Marketing solutions fit for:
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find out more about how we can customize your acknowledgements and
recognitions to enhance your marketing strategies.
For more information, call Wrights Media at 877.652.5295
or visit our website at www.wrightsmedia.com
53
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57
People
JULY WHOS WHO
Hughey
Joy
Hovione (Loures, Portugal), a developer of active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug-product intermediates,
appoints Justin Hughey, to lead the
particle-design sciences team at its
New Jersey site.
Bayer MaterialScience LLC (Pittsburgh, Pa.) names Christine Bryant
as head of commercial operations for
its coatings, adhesives and specialties
business unit for the NAFTA region.
Douglas Joy becomes general manager of Heraeus Sensor Technology
Iaigliola
USA (North Brunswick, N.J.), a division of Heraeus, a precious metals

and technology company headquartered in Hanau, Germany.
Akro-Mils (Akron, Ohio), a provider
of plastic and metal storage, organization and transport products, names
Mike Iafigliola new product development manager.
M. Metin Gerceker becomes managing
director of Zimmermann & Jansen
(Z&J) Technologies GmbH
(Dren, Germany), a maker of flow-
Rochas
Yuille
control solutions for delayed coker,

iron and steel blast furnaces and turbine units.
Polyolefins maker Borealis AG (Vienna, Austria), names Gilles Rochas
vice president, energy and infrastructure, for the application segment.
Greenes Energy Group (Houston),
a provider of testing and specialty
services, promotes Mark Yuille to
CFO of its testing and services business unit.
Suzanne Shelley
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July
2008
Incorp
oratin
g
So
Into lids
Liquid
s
www.
che.c
om
Focus
on Ga
s De
tection
Engine
ering
Mater
ials
Liquid
Dispen
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eter
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Heat
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Written for engineers, by engineers

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ting
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With editorial offices in Europe, Asia, and North America, CHEMICAL

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58
Economic Indicators
BUSINESS NEWS
PLANT WATCH
Uhde Inventa-Fischer to build
commercial-scale Nofia plant
June 12, 2013 Uhde Inventa-Fischer AG
(Berlin, Germany and Domat/Ems, Switzerland; www.uhde-inventa-fischer.com) has
won a contract to build the worlds first commercial-scale plant for production of Nofia,
a flame retardant polymer, for the Belgian
subsidiary of FRX Polymers, Inc. (Chelmsford,
Mass.; www.frxpolymers.com).The plant will
be located in Antwerp, Belgium. Uhde Inventa-Fischers scope of services will include
basic and detailed engineering, supply of
equipment, and construction of the plant.
The civil engineering will be carried out by
ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.eu).
Siemens to supply wet-air-oxidation
system to Qatar
June 10, 2013 Siemens Energy (Erlangen,
Germany; www.siemens.com/energy) will
supply a wet-air-oxidation (WAO) treatment
system as part of an ethylene plant expansion for Qatar Petrochemical Co. (QAPCO).
The WAO system will be part of QAPCOs
facility in Mesaieed Industrial City, Qatar.The
facility is expected to go operational in December 2013. QAPCO is expanding its ethylene-cracking unit from 720,000 ton/yr to
900,000 ton/yr.The Siemens scope includes
a Zimpro WAO system, as well as a complete
power- management system.
Linde announces plans for ASU and
gasification train in Texas
May 31, 2013 Linde North America (Murray Hill, N.J.; www.lindeus.com) will invest
more than $200 million to build a large air
separation unit (ASU), a new gasification
train, and supporting equipment and facilities in La Porte,Tex.The plants are scheduled
to come on-stream in the first quarter of
2015.The ASU will be the largest operated by
Linde in the U.S.The O2 and N2 produced by
the ASU will supply the gasification assets at
the La Porte site.
Toyos Brazil affiliate awarded contract for
hydrogen production facilities
May 29, 2013 Toyo-Setal Empreendimentos Ltda. (TSE), a Brazilian joint venture (JV)
capitalized by Toyo Engineering Corp. (Chiba, Japan; www.toyo-eng.co.jp), has been
awarded a contract from Petrleo Brasileiro
S.A. (Petrobras) for the construction of
hydrogen production facilities (250,000
Nm3/h) to be installed in the Complexo Petroqumico do Rio de Janeiro (Comperj) now

under construction in Itabora, Rio de Janeiro.The scope of work is for detailed design,
procurement of equipment and materials,
installation and commissioning support.The
project is scheduled for completion in mid2016.Toyo is now constructing utility facilities
(water treatment and electricity generation) for the complex.
Linde to build large ammonia
plant in Russia
May 28, 2013 The Linde Group (Munich,
Germany; www.linde.com) has formed a JV
with JSC KuibyshevAzot to build and operate a large ammonia plant at the Togliatti
site in Russias Samara region. Estimated
investment for the deal is 275 million, giving
both companies an equal stake in the new
JV, called Linde Nitrogen Togliatti.The Engineering Division of The Linde Group will construct the new on-site plant, which will have
a production capacity of 1,340 metric tons
(m.t.) per day of ammonia. Construction is
scheduled for completion in 2016.
Outotec to design and deliver
concentrator to Russian Copper
May 22, 2013 Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland;
www.outotec.com) will design and deliver
a new copper concentrator for Russian
Cooper Co.s Tominsky project in Russias
Chelyabinsk region.The concentrator will
treat 17 million m.t./yr of ore and produce
63,000 m.t./yr copper in concentrate.The
total value of the deal exceeds 50 million.
Scheduled for 2014, Outotecs delivery for
the project includes basic and detailed
engineering of the concentrating process,
proprietary and key equipment, as well as
installation and commissioning supervision
services, with production of concentrate
beginning by late 2015.
Lanxess opens first production facility for
high-performance bladders in Brazil
May 13, 2013 Rhein Chemie, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Lanxess AG (Leverkusen, Germany: www.lanxess.com), has
opened a new facility in Porto Feliz, Brazil for
high-performance bladders, which are used
in the production of tires. It has an annual
capacity of about 170,000 bladders. In 2014,
a new facility to manufacture pre-dispersed
polymer-bound rubber additives will be
added. Altogether, Lanxess is investing 10
million and creating around 60 new jobs.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Air Liquide to acquire electronic
materials manufacturer Voltaix, Inc.
June 12, 2013 Air Liquide (Paris, France;
www.airliquide.com) has signed an agreement to acquire Voltaix Inc., a U.S. based
electronics materials company.The acquisition is expected to close later this summer,
pending applicable regulatory approvals.
Voltaix has 185 employees.
BASF New Business acquires
Deutsche Nanoschicht
June 6, 2013 BASF New Business GmbH
(www.basf-new-business.com) has
acquired all shares of the technology
company Deutsche Nanoschicht GmbH
(www.d-nano.com). Deutsche Nanoschicht
produces thin films for manufacture of hightemperature superconductors. BASF New
Business GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary
of BASF SE.
Foster Wheeler acquires Mexican
engineering company
June 4, 2013 Foster Wheeler AG (Zug,
Switzerland; www.fwc.com) has acquired
NorthAm Engineering S.A. DE CV, a privately
held engineering and project management
company, offering services in upstream,
offshore, downstream and power projects.
Headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico, the
company has approximately 400 employees.
Air Products acquires EPCO Carbon
Dioxide Products, Inc.
June 3, 2013 Air Products (Lehigh Valley,
Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has acquired
EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products, Inc., a
privately held producer and marketer of
liquid carbon dioxide The acquisition also
includes Louisiana Leasing, Ltd. of Ill., an affiliated company that owns liquid CO2 distribution assets that are solely leased to EPCO.
The purchase price has not been disclosed.
Ineos Barex AG to acquire Mitsuis
polyacrylonitriles business
May 28, 2013 Ineos Barex AG (Rolle,
Switzerland; www.ineosbarex.com) has
signed a binding agreement to acquire the
polyacrylonitriles (PAN) business from Mitsui
Chemicals Inc.The value of the transaction
was not disclosed.The deal is expected to
reach completion by August 2013, at which
time Ineos will assume responsibility for sales
and marketing functions.
Mary Page Bailey
FOR ADDITIONAL NEWS AS IT DEVELOPS, PLEASE VISIT WWW.CHE.COM

July 2013; VOL. 120; NO. 7
Chemical Engineering copyright @ 2013 (ISSN 0009-2460) is published monthly, with an additional issue in October, by Access Intelligence, LLC, 4 Choke Cherry Road, 2nd
Floor, Rockville, MD, 20850. Chemical Engineering Executive, Editorial, Advertising and Publication Offices: 88 Pine Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10005; Phone: 212-621-4674, Fax:
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FOR MORE ECONOMIC INDICATORS, SEE NEXT PAGE
59
Economic Indicators
2011
2012
2013
DOWNLOAD THE CEPCI TWO WEEKS SOONER AT WWW.CHE.COM/PCI

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT COST INDEX (CEPCI)
(195759 = 100)
CE Index
Apr. 13
Prelim.
569.5
Mar. 13
Final
568.3
Apr. 12
Final
595.9
689.5
626.2
656.5
875.6
413.3
924.5
512.6
746.8
319.8
536.5
328.1
688.2
624.2
651.1
879.8
414.3
920.4
514.4
741.1
319.2
534.4
326.4
730.2
686.9
680.7
935.7
430.8
921.8
514.9
774.2
320.7
527.1
328.4
Equipment
Heat exchangers & tanks
Process machinery
Pipe, valves & fittings
Process instruments
Pumps & compressors
Electrical equipment
Structural supports & misc
Construction labor
Buildings
Engineering & supervision
CURRENT BUSINESS INDICATORS
650
Annual
Index:
600
2005 = 468.2
2006 = 499.6
550
2007 = 525.4
2008 = 575.4
500
2009 = 521.9
2010 = 550.8
2011 = 585.7
450
2012 = 584.6
400
LATEST
PREVIOUS
YEAR AGO
CPI output index (2007 = 100)

CPI value of output, $ billions
CPI operating rate, %
May. '13
Apr. '13
May. '13
=
=
=
87.8
2,089.2
74.1
Apr.'13
Mar.'13
Apr.'13
=
=
=
87.6
2,126.0
74.1
Mar.'13
Feb.'13
Mar.'13
=
=
=
88.0
2,228.4
74.5
May'12
Apr.'12
May'12
=
=
=
86.7
2,142.5
74.2
Producer prices, industrial chemicals (1982 = 100)

Industrial Production in Manufacturing (2007=100)
Hourly earnings index, chemical & allied products (1992 = 100)
Productivity index, chemicals & allied products (1992 = 100)
May. '13
May. '13
May. '13
May. '13
=
=
=
=
301.7
95.3
156.2
104.8
Apr.'13
Apr.'13
Apr.'13
Apr.'13
=
=
=
=
308.7
95.2
154.6
104.4
Mar.'13
Mar.'13
Mar.'13
Mar.'13
=
=
=
=
313.5
95.5
154.6
104.7
May'12
May'12
May'12
May'12
=
=
=
=
321.2
93.7
157.1
106.0
CPI OUTPUT INDEX (2007 = 100)
CPI OUTPUT VALUE ($ BILLIONS)
CPI OPERATING RATE (%)
120
2500
85
110
2200
80
100
1900
75
90
1600
70
80
1300
65
70
60
1000
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Current Business Indicators provided by IHS Global Insight, Inc., Lexington, Mass.
Equipment Cost Index Available

Exclusively from Marshall & Swift
Quarterly updates of our industry-leading Equipment Cost Index

are now available at www.equipment-cost-index.com.
60
CURRENT TRENDS
reliminary data for the April
2013 CE Plant Cost Index
(CEPCI; top; the most recent available) indicate that the composite
index increased by 0.2% compared to the final March value,
reversing three consecutive decreases in the months prior. The
higher numbers included increases
in a number of subindices, such as
process machinery, pumps & compressors and heat exchangers &
tanks. The April 2013 preliminary
PCI index value stands at 4.4%
lower than the corresponding final
PCI value from April 2012. Meanwhile, the latest Current Business
Indicators from IHS Global Insight
(middle) moved in both directions,
with CPI output index inching
higher while CPI value of output
decreased slightly.
ChE.com/Chemploy
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July

VOLUME 120, NO. 7

Cover Story Securing Industrial Control Systems

Chementator A salty way to scrub CO2; These scavengers of water

Newsfront CO2 Utilization

Newsfront Cooling-Tower Water: A Hybrid Problem

Technology Profile Solution-based Production of LLDPE

Feature Report Equipment Lifecycle Costs in the CPI

Engineering Practice Getting the Most Out of Data Sheets

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2013

Solids Processing Rotary Valves in Pneumatic Conveying Systems

EQUIPMENT & SERVICES

Focus on Level Measurement

New Products (International edition) An improved vacuum pump

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2013

from Triple/S Dynamics offers many advantages over the competition.

Unlike gyratories, straight-line motion utilizes the entire

Multiple screen decks provide up

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Enhance the strength of your next industrial

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VP, Production, Digital Media

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2013

Easily Apply KALPOXY

KALPOXY is a highly wear

72% hard aggregate

Abresist Kalenborn Corporation

The 2013 Nicholas P. Chopey

About the scholarship

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JULY 2013

Checks should be made out to Scholarship America

2013 Badger Meter, Inc.

Smart Valve Positioner

Distillation Design and Control Using