Steam Generators

2
February
2016
www.chemengonline.com
Materials Selection for

Machining Processes
Advances in Paints
and Coatings
Improvements in
Seals and Gaskets
Managing Small- and
Medium-Sized Projects
Facts at Your
Fingertips:
Weighing Equipment
Focus on Software
and Mobile Apps
Steam
Generators:
Standing up to
Superheater Problems
page 38
Circle 16 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/61492-16
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
FEBRUARY 2016
February 2016
Volume 123 | no. 2
Cover Story
38
Superheater Problems in Steam Generators

Knowing the features of a good boiler will prevent problems
associated with a poor design
In the News
7
Chementator
A very efficient heat exchanger for very hot applications; Alkylate
process featuring a solid-acid catalyst can use multiple feedstocks;
Using air and hydrostatic pressure to store energy underwater; Oilfree compressed air at a fraction of the cost; and more
12
Business News
ICA Fluor to build $1-billion petroleum-refining facility in Mexico;
Technip awarded contract by Air Products for Baytown hydrogen
plant; Dow announces startup of commercial operations for
PDH unit in Texas; Solvays phosphorous-based water additives
business acquired by Italmatch; and more
16
Newsfront Painting it Green

Driven by consumer demand and regulatory pressure, paint and coating
formulators, along with makers of chemical additives for those markets, have
brought to the forefront products with improved environmental and health
performance
21
Newsfront Sealing Solutions to the Rescue

Improved seals, gaskets and valve packings stand up to tougher process
conditions
38
16
Technical and Practical

35
Facts at your Fingertips Weighing Equipment This onepage reference offers a host of considerations to help streamline the selection
of weighing equipment in the CPI
36
Technology Profile Acrylic Acid Production via

Propylene Oxidation This column describes a process for making
ester-grade acrylic acid from propylene
48
Feature Report The Relationship Between Materials

Selection and Machining Processes An awareness of the
impact of materials selection on the machining processes for small, complex
components can affect overall end-product quality and costs
21
54
48
Engineering Practice Managing Small- and Mediumsized Capital Projects A real-life example is provided to show how
to stay on program and within budget
FEBRUARY 2016
Equipment and Services

25
30
Focus on Software and Mobile Apps

Advance engineering projects with process simulation tools; Platform eases
collaboration, data sharing and compliance; Software bundle supports
multivariate data analysis; Alarm-management program reduces alarms by 80%;
Software provides validation and compliance capabilities; and more
New Products
This device reduces costs for compressed air; Track changes and mitigate risk
in large capital projects; These flowmeters benefit from ceramic bearings; A
new HMI with full remote-monitoring capabilities; This dosing system reduces
exposure to materials; Modular drying systems for extremely dry process air;
and more
54
Departments
5
Editors Page Ensuring a water supply

Concerns over water shortages are focusing attention on water policy and
desalination projects
64
Economic Indicators
25
Advertisers
60
Classified
62
Reader Service
63
Ad Index
30
Chemical Connections
Follow @ChemEngMag on Twitter
Join the Chemical Engineering Magazine
LinkedIn Group
Visit us on www.chemengonline.com for Latest News,
Webinars, Test your Knowledge Quizzes, Bookshelf
and more
Coming in March
Look for: Feature Reports on Alarm Management; and Shell-and-Tube
Heat Exchangers; A Focus on Level Measurement and Control; A Facts
at your Fingertips on Particle-Size Analysis; an Engineering
Practice article on Materials Managment; News Articles on Pumps;
and Composite Materials; and more
Cover: Rob Hudgins; cover photo courtesy of Cleaver-Brooks, Inc.
The cover photo shows a 500,000-lb/h Elevated-Drum D-Style Industrial
Watertube Nebraska Boiler
FEBRUARY 2016
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Editor s Page
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Ensuring a water supply
his past December marked the dedication of the largest seawater desalination plant in the U.S. The Claude Bud Lewis
Carlsbad Desalination Plant, named for the former Carlsbad,
Calif. mayor who was instrumental in choosing the location, is
designed to provide 50 million gallons of water per day to San Diego
County from the Pacific Ocean, to help minimize the areas vulnerability to drought. This $1-billion project includes the desalination plant
that uses reverse osmosis (RO), a 10-mile pipeline and upgrades to
facilities to distribute the water.
As California confronts its fifth year of drought conditions, watershortage concerns are at the forefront of the publics attention. A
recent poll by the Hoover Institution (Stanford, Calif.; www.hoover.
org) asked 1,800 Californians to prioritize policy concerns facing the
state. Dealing with the states water problems was a top finisher. And,
in another question, more than half said they would vote to end a
high-speed rail project and use the unspent money on water-storage
projects instead.
The Carlsbad project may well serve as an example for future desalination projects in the U.S. There is already a proposal to build another facility of the same capacity in Huntington Beach, Calif. (www.
hbfreshwater.com).
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IIT Madras, India
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While the Carlsbad mega-project is the largest seawater desalination

plant in the Western Hemisphere, it is not the largest in the world. The
Sorek Desalination Plant in Israel, which also uses RO technology,
makes that claim, with a capacity of about 165 million gallons of water
per day. The Sorek facility was commissioned in 2013.
Water scarcity is a global issue, and technology plays a key role
in finding ways to ensure water supplies where needed. For example, according to the Carlsbad Desalination Project website (www.
carlsbaddesal.com), dramatic technological improvements have
made desalination much more cost-effective. Specifically, the longer
lifetimes, energy efficiency and lower cost of RO membranes as compared to just 10 years ago were cited as cost saving advances.
The contributions of engineers and scientists are vital to finding
viable ways to help alleviate water shortages. Water conservation,
reuse and wastewater treatment are all important. And only through
continuing work will further advances to help make desalination more
economical be possible
Some of the most recent technologies related to water as reported
in Chemical Engineering include development of an organosilanebased membrane for desalination (January 2016, p. 7); switchable
solvent technology for forward osmosis (November, 2015, p.13); a
new gas-transfer membrane for biological wastewater treatment (November, 2015, p. 7); and several new wastewater-treatment studies
as reported in this issue (pp. 89).
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Inside this issue

Our February issue covers a wide variety of topics,
including our cover story on boilers (pp. 3847), a
news story on advances in paints and coatings (pp.
1620), an article on managing small- and mediumsized projects (pp. 5457), a feature report on materials selection for machining processes (pp. 4853)
and much more. We hope you enjoy it.

Dorothy Lozowski, Editor in Chief
FEBRUARY 2016
Your one-stop resource

from drop in spray lances
to tank washing nozzles
Retractable Spray Lances
For over 60 years, BETE Fog Nozzle has been

recognized as the leader in spray nozzle design
and innovative solutions from custom spray
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Chementator
A very efficient heat exchanger for
very hot applications
t the end of last year, Mino Ceramics Co. (Nagoya City, Japan; www.
mino-ceramic.co.jp) began shipping
its first commercial high-temperature
heat exchangers, which were developed in a
project by Thermal Management Materials
and Technology Research Assn. (TherMAT,
Tokyo, Japan; www.thermat.jp). Developed
with support from the New Energy and Industry Technology Development Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki City, Japan), the
heat exchangers can be operated at temperatures as high as 1,300C, with a heatrecovery efficiency nearly three times higher
than existing technology, making them suitable for utilizing waste energy from industrial
furnace applications.
In addition to incorporating materials that
are both highly heat resistant and durable,
the new heat exchangers (diagram) feature
a hybrid structure of double and multiple cylindrical tubes to enhance surface area and
thus, the heat-recovery performance. At a
temperature of 1,300C, the heat-recovery
performance of the new heat exchangers is
1824%, which is almost three times higher
than the 57% achieved by existing high-
Edited by:
Gerald Ondrey
Heat-dissipating gas OUT

Special
refractory
material
Heatreceiving
gas OUT
Multitube pipe
structure
Doubletube pipe
structure
Heat-receiving
gas IN
Heat-dissipating gas IN
temperature exchangers.
Mino Ceramics is planning to further enhance the performance of the heat exchangers for temperatures up to 1,500C, and develop the market for recovering waste heat
in industrial applications. NEDO also continues to support the development of technology for the effective utilization of waste-heat
sources, such as fine ceramics fabrication.
Alkylate process featuring a solid-acid catalyst

can use multiple feedstocks
recently announced process based

on a novel solid-acid catalyst is effective at producing high-quality alkylate from a variety of feedstocks,
including methanol. Technology developer
Exelus Inc. (Fairfield, N.J.; www.exelusinc.
com) says its technology converts methanol
and mixed-butanes to high-octane alkylate.
The process, known as M2Alk, is designed
to enable petroleum refiners to process
lighter natural-gas-derived feeds. At current
U.S. methanol and butane prices, M2Alk
produces high-octane alkylate well below
current gasoline prices.
Alkylate, a major component of modern
gasoline that burns cleanly and reduces
knocking in engines, is conventionally produced by reacting isobutane contained in
mixed butanes with C3 to C5 olefins using
liquid-acid catalysts, such as HF or H2SO4.
Because of the large volumes of liquid acids
required and the associated safety and environmental risks, considerable R&D has
been aimed at developing solid-acid catalysts for alkylation.
Exelus technology uses a proprietary

solid-acid catalyst, called ExSact-E, that facilitates the reaction of isobutane with a variety of light olefins, including ethylene, which
cannot be alkylated with liquid-acid catalysts. The ExSact-E catalyst is an engineered
zeolite catalyst that has optimized acid sites,
and an innovative pore structure that minimizes deactivation of the catalyst by coking,
according to Mitrajit Mukherjee, president of
Exelus. The catalyst has much better stability
than conventional zeolite catalysts, the company adds, allowing the use of a fixed-bed
reactor. The catalyst also eliminates the formation of acid-soluble oils, which is typical
with liquid-acid catalysts, Mukherjee says.
The catalyst is easily regenerated using hydrogen, and can be used for alkylation with
several feedstocks under a variety of conditions. Mixed butanes are components of
natural gas liquids, while light olefins come
from a variety of sources, including from
fluid-catalytic cracking (FCC) units at petroleum refineries, as well as from methanol,
bioethanol and steam crackers.
BIO-HYDROGEN
Scientists at Indiana University (IU; Bloomington, Ind.;
www.iu.edu) have created
a highly efficient biomaterial
that catalyzes the formation
of hydrogen from water. The
biomaterial could be used
to produce H2 or generate
power from H2 in a fuel cell.
Using methods they developed, the IU scientists, led
by Trevor Douglas, inserted
the enzyme hydrogenase
into a protein shell (capsid)
from bacteriophage-P22, a
virus that infects bacterial
cells. The resulting biomaterial is more efficient than
the unaltered enzyme and
is produced through a simple fermentation process
at room temperature. The
biomaterial is potentially far
less expensive and more
environmentally friendly to
produce than other materials currently used as
fuel-cell catalysts, such as
platinum metal. Upon encapsulation in the capsid,
the enzyme gains significantly greater resistance to
breakdown from chemicals
in the environment, and it
retains the ability to catalyze
at room temperature.
No one's ever had a way
to create a large enough
amount of this hydrogenase,
despite its incredible potential for biofuel production.
But now we've got a method
to stabilize and produce high
quantities of the material
and enormous increases in
efficiency, says Douglas.
H2 FROM FORMIC ACID

In Japan, there are three major
hydrogen-carrier
systems
being developed for future
hydrogen-fuel filling-station
applications that are based
on either methylcyclohexane,
ammonia or liquefied H2. For
example, methycyclohexane
stores H2 when converted
(Continues on p. 8)
Note: For more information, circle the 56-digit number on p. 62, or use the website designation.
FEBRUARY 2016
to methylcyclohexane, and
then releases H2 when
needed. Now, a promising
alternative H2 carrier, based
on formic acid, is being developed by the group of Hajime
Kawanami at the Research
Institute for Chemical Process Technology, National
Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
(Sendai City, Japan; https://
unit.aist.go.jp/cpt/034_
cpt-mfc_en.html). The researchers have developed a
catalyst, based on an iridium
complex, that selectively
decomposes formic acid at
a temperature of less than
100C, to produce H2 at very
high pressure (greater than
120 MPa). This temperature
is significantly lower than the
200C needed to generate
H2 from cyclohexane-based
H2 carriers, and the formation
of pressurized H2 is advantageous in refueling vehicles.
The catalyst has a high turnover frequency (1,800 h1) at
40 MPa, and generates H2
and CO2 at a very fast rate (1.2
MPa/s per gram of metal). The
H2 can easily be recovered
by a simple gas-liquid separation at 10C to give 85%
H2. Further cooling to 50C
removes the remaining CO2,
and the product H2 has less
than 6 parts per million (ppm)
by volume CO.
WATER PURIFICATION
University of Cornell researchers, led by Will Dichtel, associate professor
of chemistry and chemical
biology, have invented a
porous form of cyclodextrin
that adsorbs pollutants from
wastewater at rates vastly
superior to traditional activated carbon 200 times
greater in some cases. This
fast adsorption rate means
the material has the potential for very low energy, flowthrough water purification
applications, says Dichtel.
The cyclodextrin-containing
polymer has a cup shape,
which gives it a large surface
area. It features easier, lessexpensive regeneration, so
it can be reused many times
with no loss in performance,
says Cornell.
8
Using air and hydrostatic pressure to

store energy underwater
onsisting of a landAir out

Air In
based mechanical
facility and underExpander
Motor
Comp
Gen
water pipelines and
accumulators, the underwater compressed-air energyCold
Hot tank
storage (UCAES) system
tank
from Hydrostor Inc. (Toronto, Ont., Canada; www.
HXer
hydrostor.ca) takes electricity (potentially excess solar
Accumulator
or wind energy) and uses it
Thermal enhancement option
(concentrated solar, photovoltaics,
to run a compressor, which
natural gas, diesel, and others)
pressurizes atmospheric air,
while also enabling the capture of the heat and sizing the compressor and turboof compression. Once the pressure of the expander, explains Hydrostor CEO Curtis
air is equal to the hydrostatic pressure of VanWalleghem. The systems use standard
the nearby body of water where the accu- 12-in. pipelines, and multiple lines can be
mulators are located, the air is sent through installed in parallel based on pressure-drop
the pipeline to the accumulators, where it requirements. The amount of storage capacis stored until the UCAES system needs ity required determines the required number
to produce energy. At this time, a valve is of accumulators, which are available in either
opened, allowing the weight of the water to a flexible, balloon-like version or a rigid cepush the air back through the pipeline to a ment version. The mechanical nature of this
network of heat exchangers, an expander energy-storage technique leads to a much
and eventually a generator. Since the direc- longer lifetime and lower costs than batterytion of airflow is controlled by simply open- based technologies, says VanWalleghem
ing a valve, this allows for black start
After four months of construction, the
the system can be started without using company commissioned its first installation
additional power from the grid.
of a UCAES system in Toronto in NovemThe systems are designed for a specific ber 2015. In the coming months, Hydrostor
applications needs. A balance between expects to announce a partnership with a
water depth and the installations distance global engineering, procurement and confrom land is key in selecting the best sites struction (EPC) company.
Removing harmful metals from wastewater

with crab shells
opper and cadmium exist naturally

in the environment, but human activity can increase their concentrations to a point where they become
a health hazard. Conventional wastewater
treatment to remove those metals includes
chemical precipitation, coagulation, flocculation, ion exchange, membrane filtration,
activated carbon, and the use of carbon
nanotubes. However, naturally occurring biosorbents can clean up contaminated water
at the same efficiency, and with little impact
on the environment and on human health.
Crab shells from Scylla serrata (mud crab)
proved to be a good biosorbent for removing copper and cadmium from industrial
wastewater by researchers from the Universiti Putra Malaysia (Serdang, Malaysia; www.
upm.edu.my). The researchers chose crab
shells due to their abundance and ready
availability as waste products. The crushed

crab shells were able to remove up to 94.7%
of copper (5 mg/L initial concentration), and
85.1% of cadmium (1 mg/L initial concentration). The conditions (pH = 6, T = 25C)
closely matched the wastewater effluent
characteristics from industrial mining and
metal refining.
Crab shells consist of calcium carbonate
and protein (29.19%), ash (40.60%), lipids
(1.35%), and chitin (26.65%) on a dry weight
basis. The researchers say the calcium carbonate and chitin in the crab shells are found
to be the most effective in removing heavy
metals, especially copper and lead. This is
because calcium carbonate forms strong
copper-carbonate and lead-carbonate bonds
when reacting with copper and lead, while
chitin acts as an adsorbent for precipitation in
the presence of those metals, they say.
FEBRUARY 2016
A greener route for making red pigments
arly this year, Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany;

www.lanxess.com) will start production of bright
red iron-oxide pigments at its Ningbo, China
production site. The production facility will utilize for the first time the Ningbo Process, a highly
sustainable production process that the company has
developed in a test reactor at its Krefeld-rdingen, Germany site. Compared to the traditional Penniman production process, which is already widely used in China
for making yellowish-red pigments, the new Lanxess
technology ensures substantial improvements in terms
of sustainability. The new plant for iron-oxide red pigments in Ningbo is being designed for an initial synthesis
capacity of 25,000 m.t./yr.
The Penniman process is one of four routes that are
used for making pigments of various shades of red. The
Penniman red process produces particularly yellowish-red
pigments. However, the process generates oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and wastewater that contains dissolved ammonium nitrate. While developing a cleaner and more
sustainable process, Lanxess also discovered that the
conventional route also produced significant quantities of
nitrous oxide a greenhouse gas (GHG) with a globalwarming potential that is 300 times higher than that of
CO2, as well as being an ozone-depleting compound.
In the conventional process, hematite seeds are first
produced by the reaction of scrap iron with HNO3 at a
temperature of over 90C. The hematite seeds, together
with the scrap iron and ferrous nitrate, are then developed
into pigments at temperatures of 7095C under aeration.
After the pigments are formed, they are filtered, washed,
dried and (if required) milled to the desired size.
The Ningbo Process ensures NOx emissions are reduced by over 90%, while also reducing energy consumption by 80%. Significantly less Fe(NO3)2 is required,
which minimizes the amount of dissolved nitrates in the
wastewater. Residual NOx is removed in a nitric-acidrecovery plant, with the recovered acid reused in the
process. The N2O, which cannot be removed by scrubbing, is catalytically converted into N2, O2 and H2O. Heat
from this exothermic reaction is recovered and used in
the process. Finally, a multistage wastewater-treatment
process, including sedimentation, biological denitrification, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis, produces water
that can be reused as process water.
and the existence of rich adsorption sites. However, those

adsorbents tend to aggregate in solution during the adsorption process, resulting in a decrease of adsorption efficiency. Also, they require centrifugation to separate the
heavy metals from water, which limits their large-scale industrial application. Coral-like adsorbents might overcome
this problem due to their hierarchical micro/nanostructure.
The microsized units are composed of curled nano-sized
units that can resist aggregation, maintain high exposed
surface area, and they can be easily separated, leading to
high adsorption efficiency. Therefore, coral-like aluminumbased materials should be high efficiency adsorbents.
The researchers fabricated the nanoporous -Al2O3 by
annealing coral-like -AlOOH based on an ethylene-glycol driven self-curled assembly process. In this process
the ethylene-glycol works as a capping agent for the
self-curled process of the layered structure of -AlOOH
nanoplates, and also as a driving force for their assembly
through a charge shielding effect.
The -Al2O3 unit (approx. 1.5 m) obtained by the
group is composed of curled porous (2.5-nm-dia.
pores) -Al2O3 nanoplates. The material obtained has
a Hg(II) removal capacity 2.5 times higher than that of
commercial Al2O3 nanoparticles and 2.7 times the removal capacity of hollow structured -Al2O3 prepared
without ethylene glycol.
Coral enhances the removal of

mercury from wastewater
convenient route for the fabrication of a bio-mimetic, coral-like nanoporous -Al2O3 with a higher
capacity to adsorb Hg(II) in aqueous solution than
those of commercial Al2O3, has been reported by
a research group from Anhui Jianzhu University (Hefei City,
China; www.ahjzu.edu.cn), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Hefei, China; www.cas.ac.cn), and Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.monash.edu).
Generally, nanosized -AlOOH (boehmite) or -Al2O3
adsorbents have been used to remove heavy metals,
such as mercury from water due to their high surface area
FEBRUARY 2016
Oil-free compressed air at a fraction of the cost
he recently commercialized high-speed turbo (HST)

compressors from BOGE
Kompressoren Otto Boge
GmbH & Co. KG (BOGE; Bielefield,
Germany; www.boge.de) produce
100% oil-free (Class 0) compressed
air at the highest degree of efficiency
and with minimal maintenance effort,
according to Matthias Eichler, head
of Branding and Marketing Services.
The HST compressors incorporate
a number of design features that
result in a radical reduction in the
number of components compared
to conventional compressors. As
a result, BOGE was able to reduce
the total costs, compared to oil-free
screw compressors, by up to 30%,
says Eichler.
The new compressors (diagram)
are driven by a permanent magnet
motor, which is characterized by a
very high energy density. Airfoil bearings are used for the first time
in the drive shaft, which enables
operation at extremely high

speeds (up to 120,000
rpm). Titanium impellers,
located at the end of the
motor shaft, rotate at high
speeds and set the intake
air in motion. Thanks to the
geometrical design of the
Impeller
impeller in conjunction with
the diffuser and the spiral Intake funnel
housing, the kinetic energy
is effectively converted to
pressure energy. A sophisticated cooling concept
ensures effective cooling
of the air after each compression
stage, and integrated frequency inverters allow the volume flowrate to
be infinitely adjusted to the demand
for compressed air.
Other features of the HST compressor include the following: Only
one movable part per drive motor
is installed, as well as significantly
fewer bearings and seals. There is
no fan motor, gear unit, lubrication
Radial air Axial air

Permanent
magnet motor support support
Spiral casing
system or oil pump. As a result, the

footprint of the HST compressors is
half that of alternative oil-free screw
compressors, and the weight is also
reduced by two thirds, says Eichler.
Three models will be available with
a standard pressure of 7.5 bars.
Boge began serial production of the
HST 55 (7.97 m3/min) in November
2015, and will follow later this year
with the HST 110 (17.97 m3/min)
and the HST 220 (36.57 m3/min).
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Polymer-reaction monitoring
here are many critical parameters that are important to monitor and measure in industrial
polymer reactions, including molecular weight,
viscosity and residual monomer concentration.
Typically, polymer reactions are characterized offline and
intermittently in a quality-control laboratory, or via inferential models and data simulation from spectroscopic
probes. Now, a new technology that allows for direct,
online, continuous monitoring of polymerization reactions has been commercialized by Advanced Polymer
Monitoring Technologies, Inc. (APMT; New Orleans, La.;
www.apmtinc.com). APMTs product, called Automatic
Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerization Reactions (ACOMP), comes after 18 years of research at
Tulane University (New Orleans, La.; www.tulane.edu),
much of it funded by large chemical companies, says
APMT CEO, Alex Reed. Interest in the technology has
been diverse across many industry sectors, including
both producers of specialty and commodity polymers,
as well as natural products producers, explains Reed,
emphasizing that the ability to make these types of
measurements on fundamental polymer properties online and in near realtime allows manufacturers to more
efficiently control the process.
The ACOMP technology employs a continuous sampling and conditioning system that extracts a small
stream of polymer from the process. The sample is diluted and sent to multiple analytical-grade detectors
for continuous, cross-correlated, non-chromatographic
measurements, which yield a complete picture of the
most important reaction characteristics at each point
in time. Data analysis and reporting functions are built
into ACOMPs software platform. The product has been
vetted on batch, semi-batch and continuous reactors in
both aqueous and organic solvents for a wide variety of
synthetic and biological polymers, says Reed.
APMT collaborated with various partner companies in
industrial instrumentation and automation to commercialize ACOMP. The company is currently working to integrate
ACOMP data into predictive-control models to provide automatic feedback-control software. The company is also
investigating the use of ACOMP for chromatography-free
online determination of molecular-weight distributions. To
accompany the industrial ACOMP model, APMT is developing a version specific to research-and-development
(R&D) applications. The company also has a second product involving high-throughput light scattering, currently in
growing use for monitoring the stability of biologic drug
formulations in the pharmaceutical industry, including potential process analytical applications in that industry.
materials, such as solid solutions of ceria and zirconia,

which deliver good performance at high temperatures,
but their oxygen storage capacity (OSC) deteriorates at
temperatures below 300C. To overcome this drawback,
researchers from the group of Naoki Asao at Tohoku University (Sendai City, Japan; www.wpi-aimr.tohoku.ac.jp/
asao_labo) have developed a process to fabricate fine
nano-rods of CeO2 that have a high OSC at temperatures below 200C.
To make the nano-rods, a Ce-Al precursor is first corroded by a selective leaching process, which uses an alkaline solution under mild conditions to selectively leach
away the Al and oxidize the Ce, followed by rapid quenching. The resulting CeO2 nano-rods have diameters of 5 to
7 nm and specific-surface areas of more than 200 m2/g.
They exhibit an OSC of 156 mol O2/g at 200C (81 mol
O2/g at 100C), which is five times greater than existing
nano-cube systems at 200C.
The researchers are working to enhance the heat resistance of the developed materials by optimizing the
composition, for example by adding functional elements
such as zirconium. In addition to enhancing emissioncontrol systems of automobiles, Asao says the nanorods could also find applications in catalysis, fuel cells,
ultraviolet blockers, solar cells and sensors.
These CeO2 nano-rods store a

lot of O2 at low temperatures
Imagine the Possibilities
utomobile catalytic converters contain ceriumbased co-catalysts to enhance the overall effectiveness of the converter by absorbing and
releasing oxygen to convert CO into CO2. Existing emission control systems typically use CeO2-based
FEBRUARY 2016
11
Business News
LINEUP
AIR LIQUIDE
AIR PRODUCTS
ALBEMARLE
BP
CB&I
CELANESE
CNOOC
DOW
DUPONT
DYADIC
Plant Watch
ICA Fluor to build $1-billion
petroleum-refining facility in Mexico
January 11, 2016 ICA Fluor, Fluor Corp.s
(Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) joint venture
(JV) with Empresas ICA, S.A.B. de C.V.
(www.ica.com.mx/ir), was authorized by
Pemex to proceed with the engineering,
procurement and construction (EPC) of the
Madero Clean Diesel project at the Madero
Refinery in Tamaulipas, Mexico. The project,
scheduled for completion in 2018, includes
two 25,000-bbl/d diesel hydrodesulfurization
trains and associated facilities, as well as new
hydrogen, sulfur-recovery and sour-watertreatment plants.
FLUOR
HUBER
INDORAMA
LANXESS
PEMEX
PPG
SAINT-GOBAIN
SHELL CHEMICAL
SHOWA DENKO
SIBUR
SINOPEC
SOLVAY
TECHNIP
Look for more

latest news on
chemengonline.com
12
Technip awarded contract by Air Products

for Baytown hydrogen plant
January 8, 2016 Technip (Paris, France;
www.technip.com) was awarded a contract
by Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.
airproducts.com) to provide technology,
engineering and procurement services for a
grassroots hydrogen plant in Baytown, Tex.
The plant will produce 3.5 million m3/d of
hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The project
is scheduled to come online in 2018.
Air Liquide enters Colombian industrialgas market with construction of new plant
January 6, 2016 Air Liquide (Paris, France;
www.airliquide.com) will build and operate
a new facility consisting of a carbon dioxide
production unit and a cogeneration unit. In
addition, the site will supply nitrogen, electricity,
refrigerated water, compressed air and steam.
With an investment of around 40 million,
the Tocancip-based facility is expected to
start up in late 2016.
Showa Denko expands production
of high-purity ammonia in Taiwan
December 28, 2015 Showa Denko K.K.
(SDK; Tokyo, Japan; www.sdk.co.jp) has
expanded its capacity to supply high-purity
ammonia, which is widely used in production
processes for electronic materials, by stepping
up the production capacity of a plant owned
by its manufacturing subsidiary in Taiwan from
2,500 to 3,500 m.t./yr.
Dow announces startup of commercial

operations for PDH unit in Texas
December 21, 2015 The Dow Chemical Co.
(Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) announced
that its new propane dehydrogenation (PDH)
unit located at the companys Oyster Creek
site in Freeport, Tex., has begun commercial
PPG to increase precipitated silica
production capacity at Lake Charles plant operations. Capacity for the new propylene
January 7, 2016 PPG Industries, Inc. production facility is 750,000 m.t./yr, making
(Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com) is increasing it the largest on-demand propylene facility of
precipitated silica production capacity at its its kind, according to Dow.
Lake Charles, La., manufacturing plant by more
than 10,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr). PPG Shell-CNOOC JV to expand ethylene and
plans to achieve the capacity increase through derivative units at Nanhai complex
debottlenecking projects that are expected to December 16, 2015 Shell Chemical LP
(Houston; www.shell.com/chemical) announced
come online in the second half of 2016.
that Shell Nanhai B.V. and China National
Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) have signed an
Lanxess starts up expanded plasticsagreement to expand their existing 50-50 JV
compounding line in North Carolina
January 7, 2016 Lanxess AG (Cologne, in Huizhou, China. The expansion includes
Germany; www.lanxess.com) has started up a the construction of an ethylene cracker and
second production line for high-performance ethylene derivatives units, including a styrene
plastics compounding at its facility in Gastonia, monomer and propylene oxide plant. The
N.C. The new line represents an investment new cracker will increase Nanhais ethylene
of about $15 million and doubles the sites production capacity by over 1 million m.t./yr,
production capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 about double its current capacity.
m.t./yr. In the plant, the basic polymers
polyamide and polybutylene terephthalate Mergers & Acquisitions
are mixed and refined with special additives Solvays phosphorus-based water
additives business acquired by Italmatch
and glass fiber.
January 12, 2016 Solvay SA (Brussels,
Belgium; www.solvay.com) has entered into
CB&I awarded contract for
an agreement under which its business unit
polypropylene unit in Heibei, China
January 6, 2016 CB&I (The Woodlands, consisting of desalination and water additives
Tex.; www.cbi.com) was awarded a contract based on phosphonates and phosphonic
by Hebei Haiwei Group for a polypropylene unit acid will be acquired by Italmatch Chemicals
to be built in Jingxian, Hebei Province, China. Group. In particular, the agreement covers
The unit will use CB&Is Novolen technology to the acquisition of all products, trademarks,
produce 200,000 m.t./yr of polypropylene. patents and client portfolio from Solvay.
FEBRUARY 2016
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BP to sell petrochemicals plant

in Alabama to Indorama
January 6, 2016 BP plc (London;
www.bp.com) has agreed to sell its
petrochemical complex in Decatur,
Ala., to Indorama Ventures Public Co.
(Bangkok, Thailand; www.indorama.
net). The parties anticipate that the
deal will close in early 2016. The facility
can produce purified terephthalic
acid (PTA), para-xylene and
naphthalene dicarboxylate.
Albemarle finalizes sale of its

metal sulfides business
January 5, 2016 Albemarle Corp.
(Baton Rouge, La.; www.albemarle.
com) has completed the sale of its
Tribotecc metal sulfides business
to Treibacher Industrie AG. The
transaction includes sites in Vienna
and Arnoldstein, Austria, and Triboteccs
proprietary sulfide synthesis process.
Financial terms of the transaction were
not disclosed.
Dyadic closes sale of Industrial

Technology business to DuPont
January 4, 2016 Dyadic International,
Inc. (Jupiter, Fla.; www.dyadic.
com) closed the sale of its Industrial
Technology business to DuPont
(Wilmington, Del.; www.dupont.com)
for $75 million in cash. The acquired
business will be integrated into DuPonts
Industrial Biosciences division.
Saint-Gobain acquires specialtytubing company in Brazil
January 4, 2016 Saint-Gobain
(Courbevoie, France ; www.saint-gobain.
com) has acquired SG Plasticos, a
producer of specialty extruded tubing
located in So Paulo, Brazil. SG
Plasticos provides differentiated and
customized solutions related to fluid
transfers in many markets.
Celanese forms JV for cellulosebased specialty products
December 22, 2015 Celanese Corp.
(Irving, Tex.; www.celanese.com)
has entered into a memorandum of
understanding with China-based Push
Group Co. to form a new JV focused
on the production of cellulose-acetatebased specialty products, including
plastics and films. The execution of
the agreement is expected to occur
before the end of March 2016.
Huber to purchase two business
units from Albemarle
December 17, 2015 Albemarle
Corp. has signed an agreement to
sell its Mineral Flame Retardants and
Specialty Chemicals businesses to
Huber Engineered Materials (Atlanta,
Ga.; www.hubermaterials.com). The
transaction includes Albemarles
Martinswerk GmbH subsidiary
located in Bergheim, Germany and
Albemarles 50% stake in Magnifin
Magnesiaprodukte GmbH, a JV with
RHI AG at Breitenau, Austria.
14
Sinopec acquires minority

stake in Sibur
December 17, 2015 Sibur (Moscow;
www.sibur.com) and China Petroleum
& Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) announced
the successful completion of Sinopecs
10% minority investment in Sibur as a
strategic investor. The investment will
lead to the sharing of joint expertise and
resources, and Sinopec will have the
right to nominate a representative to
Siburs Board of Directors.

Mary Page Bailey
FEBRUARY 2016
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Newsfront
Painting it Green
Driven by consumer demand and regulatory pressure, paint and coating formulators, along with
makers of chemical additives for those markets, have brought to the forefront products with
improved environmental and health performance
IN BRIEF
LOW-VOC PAINT
PERFORMANCE
ZERO-VOC PAINTS
NEW ADDITIVES
DIMENSIONS OF
SUSTAINABILITY
ADDING FUNCTIONALITY
16
odern paints and coatings are

complex mixtures of film-forming substances, fillers, pigments
and a host of additives (see box,
p. 17). Many of the compounds traditionally
used in paint and coating formulations present significant environmental and human
health risks. Spurred by tightening regulations and growing demand for healthy and
sustainable products on the part of endusers, the paints and coatings industry has
delivered a wide range of materials with
significantly improved environmental and
health properties. And thanks to a continued focus on innovation, many of the newer
environmentally friendly paints and coatings
have begun to achieve parity with conventional products in performance.
The drivers behind the development of
sustainable paints are really a combination
of both regulatory pressure and consumer
demand, says Chris Connelly, director of
brand management at Benjamin Moore
(Montvale, N.J.; www.benjaminmoore.com).
The development started as a way to comply with environmental regulations, but now,
consumers, contractors, and facility managers are more aware of the social and environmental impacts of products, and are
demanding paints with lower environmental
and health impact.
In general, the advancements in paint and
coating technology related to environmental impact have come as a result of several
factors, including the development of better
formulation technology and the availability
of new additive options. The current state
of the art is a result of an accumulation of
many small innovations that have added up
to large advancements in the environmental performance of paints, says Chris Cook,
director of the Planet Possible program at
AkzoNobel (Amsterdam, the Netherlands;

www.akzonobel.com).
The technology of environmentally
friendly paints has expanded significantly
over the last 10 years and this technology
expansion was enabled by innovation,
says Murray Hemsley, global market leader
for Architectural & Protective Coatings at
Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport, Tenn.;
www.eastmanchemical.com). The primary
focus across both architectural and industrial coating applications has been on technology that enables maximum performance
while still meeting stringent volatile organic
compound (VOC) and emission requirements, he remarks.
In addition to paint formulators developing
better methods for combining paint components, the companies supplying them are
also now looking for ways to deliver more
environmentally sustainable chemicals to
use in their formulations. AkzoNobels Cook
says his company, along with others, are
now pushing harder on suppliers to engage
in more sustainable practices.
Low-VOC paint performance

Historically, one of the major environmental
challenges associated with paints and coatings has been due to high levels of VOCs
and other species that can have negative
effects on indoor air quality, contribute to
smog formation and adversely affect longterm human health (see box, p. 18).
Modern paint makers have moved away
from the old model of making paints with
solvents like ketones, toluene and other
organic solvents, explains William Golton,
a former industry consultant and former
analytical chemist at DuPont. Now, all the
VOCs in most paints come from the additives, and in many cases, the high-VOC adWWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
FEBRUARY 2016
ditives are now being substituted by

higher-boiling compounds that have
the same effect on the paint properties, he says.
AkzoNobels Chris Cook continues, The development of more
sustainable paints is an extension of
the long-running trend to greener
products, and the movement away
from solvent-based products is expanding from wall paints to the trim
and wood-care products market,
including stains, varnishes, lacquers
and polyurethanes. Paints have
largely made that switch, already,
but other product sectors are doing
the same.
Lowering VOC levels in paints has
been a central area of innovation
for the paint industry, says Golton.
For low-VOC automotive finishes,
it remains more difficult to achieve
comparable performance to solventbased products at the same cost
than it is for paint at this point, he
says. The challenge there is that it
is a bigger technological leap to go
PAINT COMPONENTS
aint can be considered a liquid mixture that, when applied to a substrate, converts to
a solid film. Paints are varied and can be very complex. Most paints are composed of
the following four major categories for paint ingredients: binders (the film-forming component); the solvent (to allow the application of the liquid to a surface); pigments (to impart
opacity and color); and additives (to modify application and finish properties).
Binders. Paint binders bind the pigment molecules to form a film and bind the film to the substrate. Binders are usually synthetic or natural resins, such as alkyds, acrylics, vinyl-acrylics,
vinyl acetate/ethylene, polyurethanes, polyesters epoxies and others. Binders are sometimes
categorized by the mechanisms for drying or curing. The binder material often surrounds
particles of pigment materials. The drying process involves the evaporation of the solvent, as
well as typically an oxidative cross-linking process for the polymers in the binder.
Solvents. The solvents carry the nonvolatile parts of the paint and control the viscosity of
the paint during the application process. For waterborne paints, water is the solvent, while
solvent-borne paints can have a variety of organic compounds, including aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic compounds, ketones, alcohols, esters, ethers and others.
Pigments. Pigments are generally granular solids that are incorporated to give the paint color.
Titanium dioxide, pthalo blue and red iron oxide are often used to give paint opacity and color.
Engineered molecules and dyes are often used in paints as well
Additives. Usually added in small amounts, paint additives can have a significant impact on
paint properties. Common categories for additives include rheology modifiers, surfactants,
driers, foam-control agents, anti-settling agents, wetting agents, biocides and others.
from a solvent-borne product to a

waterborne product than it is to substitute additives in a product that is
already waterborne.
In the architectural-coatings in-
dustry, low-VOC is no longer a specialty product offering; it is a musthave option for all brands in the
space, says Mary Ellen Shivetts,
senior product stewardship man-
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VOC HEALTH EFFECTS, LIMITS AND MEASUREMENT
lthough definitions for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can vary depending on the
context, the key aspects for paints and coatings involve organic compounds with low
boiling points that can undergo chemical reactions in the atmosphere as a result of
interaction with ultraviolet radiation. Aliphatic hydrocarbons, acetone, ethyl acetate, glycol
ethers and others are VOCs that have been used as ingredients in paint and coating formulations. Health effects of VOCs generally depend on the concentration in the air, and on how
long and how often a person breathes the air. Acute effects can be eye, nose and throat irritation, nausea, headaches and exacerbation of asthma symptoms. Chronic exposure to high
levels of VOCs can increase the risk of certain types of cancer, liver and kidney damage and
the risk of damage to the central nervous system. For more information on health and VOCs,
visit the Indoor Air Quality Scientific Findings Resource Bank (iaqscience.lbl.gov).
In the U.S., VOCs in paints are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA;
Washington, D.C.; www.epa.gov). Federal VOC limits are now set at 250 grams per liter (g/L)
for flat paints and 380 g/L for others. The establishment and evolution of VOC limits for paint
has seen a large degree of input from industry. The whole history of VOCs in paint is a good
example of how industry can work with government to produce win-win situations, Golton
says. There are now much better-performing paints with much lower VOC content. So the
public got less pollution and the paint manufacturers got better paint.
Some states and regions have lowered the VOC levels for paints that can be legally sold
in their areas beyond those required by U.S. federal regulations. For example, Californias
standards are more stringent: 150 g/L for nonflat finishes and 100 g/L for flat. In areas where
smog can be a public health problem, the limits go further. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD; Diamond Bar, Calif.; www.aqmd.gov), the air-pollution control
agency for the areas surrounding Los Angeles, has set an even more ambitious limit 50 g/L
of VOC for all finishes. So-called super-compliant products meet a standard of less than 10
g/L, explains Sam Atwood of the SCAQMD. He says that over the past 20 years, more than
50 ton/d of VOC emissions have been reduced from architectural coatings through four major
rule amendments and a fee/reporting rule adopted in 2008, which has provided incentive to
manufacturers to further lower VOC emissions.
Legislation to limit and lower VOC emissions are becoming more common elsewhere also.
The European Union has reduced VOC limits in regulations put forth in 2007 and again in
2010. Also, its REACH legislation on chemical toxicity affects VOC use. China is moving to
limit VOCs because of air-quality issues resulting in part from rapid development.
Measurement. Measurement of VOCs has historically been an imprecise process. EPAs
Method 24 is said to be unreliable for paints with very low levels of VOCs. At lower VOC levels,
the test has had a difficult time achieving accurate measurements. In its new GS-11 standard
(see box, p. 20), GreenSeal says it has incorporated a more direct method into the standard
that produces a more accurate reading as the amount gets smaller. The test is estimated to
be 10 times more effective and improves further as the VOC gets closer to zero
The old Test Method 24 was set up a long time ago, when a lot of the companies didn't
have big laboratories, says former consultant Golton. That meant it had to be easy to do,
but the rudimentary test was never intended to measure VOC levels below 100 g/L. A newer
test method, ASTM D 6886 is based on gas chromatography, and has gained wide acceptance in the U.S. A similar method is the standard in Europe.
The SCAQMD is aware of those drawbacks and uses Method 313-91, which is supposed to
be more accurate for no- and low-VOC paints. Although companies acknowledge the unreliability of Method 24, it remains the only method that can be used for certification. The EPA
has not yet revised Method 24 to give manufacturers another option.
ager for PPG Architectural Coatings

(Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppgac.com)
in the U.S. and Canada.
The shift to new materials has required much effort to negotiate the
tradeoffs that arise among the various attributes of paints and coatings. In the past, the perception
was that a better environmental
profile necessarily meant a sacrifice of performance, but the industry has improved significantly in
both environmental and paint performance, a tradeoff between the
18
two may not be necessary, says

AkzoNobels Cook.
Eastmans
Murray
Hemsley
agrees: Companies understand that
consumers are not usually willing to
trade off quality for sustainability, and
through hard work and formulation
expertise, paint formulators are very
close to matching the performance
of conventional paints [with their
low-VOC products].
AkzoNobels Cook says performance improvements for low-VOC
paints have been made across the
board, but especially at the higher

price points." One issue that remains
for low-VOC is glossiness a highgloss finish with no brush marks is
still hard to achieve with water-based
products, Cook notes.
Zero-VOC paints
While the proliferation of low-VOC
(designated by VOC levels lower than
250 g/L) coatings products continues, there is a considerable push to
achieve much lower levels than that
in many market segments. Paint sellers such as Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams and several others have
pushed the VOC levels lower, to a
point where they can be marketed
as zero-VOC paints. Truly zeroVOC paints do not exist, says former
industry consultant Golton, but the
levels in these paints are less than 5
g/L of VOCs in order to be classified
as zero-VOC.
Benjamin Moores zero-VOC product lines Natura and Ultra Spec are
among the growing offerings. In
the past you could expect lower
levels of durability, or perhaps different application characteristics [for
zero-VOC], says Glenn Cooper, vice
president of product development for
Benjamin Moore, "but we have really
conquered those issues now.
Health risks also have decreased.
The zero-VOC Natura brand, for example, has been certified asthmaand allergy-friendly by the Asthma
and Allergy Foundation of America,
Cooper notes.
PPG offers the PPG Pittsburgh
Paints Wonder-Pure brand, a zeroVOC interior latex paint and related
primer with low odor, which allows
painters and maintenance professionals to paint in occupied spaces
with little disruption, PPG says.
New additives
Although typically accounting for
only 0.55.0 wt.% of a paint, additives play a critical role in the
paints properties, including those
having to do with environmental
and health impact. Research and
development investment over the
past several years on new additives for paints and coatings is now
bearing fruit. Chemical companies
FEBRUARY 2016
are offering new options for paint

formulators to reduce environmental impact.
For example, Eastmans MAK
(methyl n-amyl ketone) and MIAK
(methyl isoamyl ketone) solvents
help offer routes to reduce VOC
emissions in coatings applications.
MAK and MIAK are high-boiling
specialty ketones with good solvent activity and slow evaporation
rates. They allow paints to achieve
higher solids and lower emissions
while maintaining excellent flow
and leveling properties and optimal
spray viscosities, Eastman says.
Eastmans Hemsley says there
have been innovations in ultra-low
VOC and zero-emission coalescents, molecules that help emulsion-based paints form a film as the
water evaporates. Also, specialty
cross-linking monomers have been
introduced to polymer manufacturers, which enable the polymers
contained in paint to perform at a
higher level while delivering lowVOC-emission formulations.
Eastmans Texanol and Optifilm
products allow water-borne polymers to be used in architectural
paints rather than requiring an organic solvent-based system. Optifilm enhancer 400 allows the filmforming mechanism to take place
without emissions, Hemsley says.
Texanol ester alcohol helps the discrete water-borne polymer particles
to coalesce and form a strong durable film, he adds.
For industrial coating applications,
Eastman cellulose-ester products,
such as the family of Eastman Solus
performance additives, allow for rheology control and metallic flake orientation within higher-solids, loweremission coatings.
Dow Coating Materials (Philadelphia, Pa.; www.dowcoatingmaterials.com) has also introduced several
paint-additive products that can help
reduce environmental impact and
lower VOC content. For the industrial
coatings market, Dow has developed
technology for improving the performance of waterborne alkyd coatings.
Alkyds are polyesters modified by
adding fatty acid molecules, and they
have been used for industrial coatCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
ings because of their excellent finish

properties. But low-VOC regulations
have reduced their use in many regions, Dow says, and waterborne
alkyd emulsions haven't matched the
performance of solvent-borne alkyd
systems. Dow has developed technology to disperse traditional highviscosity, short-oil alkyds with minimal
surfactant and no polymer modification. These attributes allow for the
formulation of pigmented waterborne

alkyd coatings with comparable dry
times, adhesion and hardness to
those of conventional solvent-borne
alkyd coatings.
In the architectural coatings market, Dow has also developed binder
materials that can be formulated at
lower VOC levels, but that maintain
the hardness properties of a higherVOC paint. Typical approaches to
Perfection is
Better Dispersion and Control
Perfecting Particle Size

The Sturtevant Micronizer jet mill reduces the
particle size of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides,
insecticides and dry chemicals to narrow particle
size distributions of 0.25 microns or larger without
heat buildup.
Better control properties - dispersion & reactivity
Particle-on-particle impact, no heat generation
Simple design, easy to clean
Abrasion resistant for long life
348 Circuit Street Hanover, MA 02339
Phone: 800.992.0209 Fax: 781.829.6515 sales@sturtevantinc.com
www.sturtevantinc.com
FEBRUARY 2016
19
THIRD-PARTY CERTIFICATION
eflecting the growing consumer demand for products with positive sustainability characteristics, third-party certification organizations focused on sustainability have become a major factor driving the development and use of low-VOC paints and coatings.
An example is the not-for-profit organization GreenSeal (Washington, D.C.; www.greenseal.
org), which released in December 2015 an updated and expanded standard for architectural
coatings. Knowns as GS-11, the revised standard is designed to encourage paint formulators to use chemicals with less risk to human health and the environment. In order to meet
the standard, and thus be able to earn GreenSeals emblem on product labels, the products
must restrict carcinogens, toxins affecting reproduction, hazardous air pollutants, heavy metals, formaldehyde, certain phthalates and other chemicals, GreenSeal says. The standard
also ensures that certified paints, coatings, stains and finishes still deliver the same functional
performance that consumers expect from conventional architectural coatings, GreenSeal
adds. Green Seals certification process involves criteria based on scientific research, an indepth review of product data, manufacturing procedures and claims on product labels, and
an on-site audit of facilities. Periodic monitoring is required to maintain certification.
Another example of third-party certification comes from the U.S. Green Building Council
(USGBC; Washington, D.C.; www.usgbc.org), the organization responsible for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification in new buildings. The LEED rating
system offers a credit toward LEED certification for buildings that use low- or zero-VOC paints
in construction or renovation projects. The credit covers VOC emissions into indoor air and
the VOC content of materials, as well as the testing methods by which indoor VOC emissions
are determined.
The USGBCs Brendan Owens says the organization is trying to guide project teams to
make better decisions related to sustainability. In terms of paints, we are looking at primarily
two areas: the environmental impact of the manufacturing process, and the environmental
and human health impact of the paint when applied. The main criteria for paint are emissions,
material sourcing, sourcing disclosures, disclosure of chemicals and optimization of material
ingredients to minimize the use of environmentally problematic chemistries where possible,
Owens explains.
He notes that 80% of the over 70,000 projects that have applied for LEED certification earn
the paint credit. LEED is a huge driver for the built environment now, and the offerings for
low-VOC and environmentally friendly paint products are better than ever before.
develop lower-VOC paint formulations can result in films with a tacky

feel. Dow investigated post-film-formation polymer crosslinking chemistries and worked on optimizing particle morphology for latex particles.
The companys optimized binders,
including its RHOPLEX 800h Binder,
showed a significant improvement in
hardness profile.
In Oct. 2015, Dow introduced ROVACE 10 Emulsion, a low-VOC emulsion with high (55%) solids content.
The product was designed for easy
processability and requires little or no
coalescing solvents, allowing lower
VOC content, the company says.
In Europe, Perstorp AB (Stockholm, Sweden; www.perstorp.com)
has expanded production of its polycaprolactone polyols products, which
can be used as a building block to
make waterborne polyurethanes
with low VOC profile, David James,
VP of innovation surface technology,
Perstorp, explains. Polycaprolactone
polyols are a type of polyester made
with a ring-opening polymerization
20
process, rather than a condensation

polymerization reaction. Perstorps
polycaprolactone products, known
as Capa, have low viscosity, so they
can act as solvents in paint, lowering
the need for VOC-containing components, James says.
Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany;
www.lanxess.com) has taken aim at
improving the environmental impact
of processes to make inorganic paint
pigments. Specifically, the company
will start production of red pigments
using a new, more sustainable process. For more, see p. 9 (this issue).
Dimensions of sustainability
Although a key issue, VOC content
in paint is not the only concern for
environmental impact. In addition to
VOC levels, durability, recyclability,
functionality and other factors can
have an impact on paint greenness and sustainability profile. AkzoNobels Cook remarks that making
paints more environmentally friendly
can involve lowering paints carbon
footprint by using lower-carbon forCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
mulations and improving the logistics

for upstream raw materials.
In addition, advances in durability can make a difference longer
lifetimes for paint mean that even a
product with a higher environmental
impact initially could be better overall
if the paint lasts longer than the other
products and does not have to be
applied as often.
As the low- and zero-VOC paint
space progresses, we find that consumers will be looking at additional
ways to be environmentally friendly,
such as using recycled paints or
paints made from bio-renewable
resources, or participating in postconsumer paint recycling programs,
says PPGs Shivetts
Adding functionality
Another focus for developing better
environmental performance in paints
and coatings is part of a wider trend
to add specific functionality to paints
and coatings.
For example, AkzoNobel has developed exterior paint technology that
helps buildings stay cooler in warm
weather, and thus lower the energy
costs associated with cooling them.
AkzoNobels KeepCool and SunReflect brands are designed for use
in tropical climates, and have been
used in Asia since 2014. By carefully
selecting pigment molecules that do
not absorb infrared (IR) radiation, the
exterior paint can reflect more IR and
prevent it from heating up the building walls. External testing has shown
that the new AkzoNobel paints can
reflect up to 90% more IR radiation
than comparable exterior paints.
This could translate into energy savings of 10% on a 15-story building,
or higher in a small bungalow, AkzoNobel says. Another example of
an environmentally relevant additive
is the companys Dulux Guardian
coating products, which can absorb
air pollutant species by incorporating
charcoal additives into the paint.
Many of PPGs zero-VOC products,
including its PPG Paint Pure Performance brand, incorporate a moldand mildew-resistant compound that
makes the dry paint film resistant to a
n
range of mold species.
Scott Jenkins
FEBRUARY 2016
Newsfront
Sealing Solutions
to the Rescue
Improved seals, gaskets and valve packings stand up to
tougher process conditions
A.W. Chesterton
hemical processors expect

more from their
seals, gaskets
and valve packings than
ever before, as sealing components must
meet tighter and stricter
regulations
regarding
emissions, stand up to
tougher process conditions and perform for
greater lengths of time
in the extreme sealing environments of the
chemical process industries (CPI). Failure of
sealing elements is not
tolerated because the
impact can be costly
and catastrophic.
nents that are leaking

meaning their seals,
packings and gaskets
and find better alternatives if they are not
meeting the current or
expected regulatory requirements.
In addition to a drastic reduction in permissible emission limits
over the last few years,
chemical
processors
are also faced with the
prospect of dealing with
process changes aimed
at boosting their production in an effort to
FIGURE 1. Certified Low-E valve packings, like Chesremain competitive in
terton 1622 valve packing, can help reduce fugitive
emissions from valves. This high-performance, graph- a global economy. For
ite valve-stem packing blocks valve fugitive emismany, this means insions to below consent-decree requirements
creasing process temSealing challenges
peratures, which creAccording to industry experts, there are ates extremely harsh process environments.
several significant challenges facing chemi- Everyone wants to increase their efficiency,
cal processors and their sealing applica- which is often accomplished by increastions. The first major concern is an ever-de- ing their process temperatures, explains
creasing allowable limit on emissions. While Andreas Schmiedel, technical manager of
methane is a hot-button issue for the petro- life science and process industries for Euleum refining industry at the moment, there rope with Trelleborg Sealing Solutions (Fort
is a general emphasis on the reduction of Wayne, Ind.; www.tss.trelleborg.com). Not
hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds only are the higher process temperatures a
(VOCs) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emis- challenge for sealing components, but when
sions throughout the CPI.
you increase the temperature, the media
Right now there is a major focus on the that is running through the process often beproposed reduction of methane emissions comes more aggressive, as well, which can
in the oil-and-gas sector, but there is a gen- also be very challenging and damaging to
eral emphasis from the [U.S.] Environmen- the seals and gaskets used in process.
tal Protection Agency (EPA; Washington,
Along with the stressors of lower emissions
D.C.; www.epa.gov) on VOC emissions, and more difficult process conditions, there
as well, notes Henri Azibert, technical di- is also a need for longer intervals between
rector with the Fluid Sealing Association seal maintenance, as workforces continue to
(FSA; Wayne, Pa.; www.fluidsealing.com). shrink, uptime demands increase and costs
Because VOCs are found throughout the must continually be reduced, meaning that
CPI, processors need to look at the compo- the lifetime of seals, gaskets and valve pack-
FEBRUARY 2016
IN BRIEF
SEALING CHALLENGES
ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGIES
REDUCING EMISSIONS
DESIGNING FOR HARSH
PROCESSES
21
Evonik Industries
FIGURE 2. Evoniks Vestakeep 5000, a ductile polyetheretherketone (PEEK), is available as a granule for
injection molding and extrusion to fulfill the design challenges for seals and gaskets. A recent development on that initial material, Vestakeep 5000 HCM, can also be adapted to improve the sliding and wear
resistance needed in some applications
ings must be extended. This makes

for a tricky situation because we are
expected to provide materials that
do a better job in a more difficult environment, but last longer than ever
before, notes Schmiedel.
Advanced technologies
While seals, such as bolted joint
seals and valve-stem seals in a process plant, may not appear to be that
significant and, as a result, may be
neglected, any maintenance or plant
manager can tell you that when a seal

leaks, it can bring the whole plant
down, result in drastic fines or create dangerous working conditions,
says Raman Hanjra, global product
line manager, stationary equipment
sealing, with A.W. Chesterton Co.
(Groveland, Mass.; www.chesterton.
com). This is where sealing solution manufacturers, working with end
users, can devise sealing solutions
that do their job and do it well so that
end users can continue to focus on
their core business without worrying
about seal failure.
Matt Tones, applications engineer
with Garlock Sealing Technologies
(Palmyra, N.Y.; www.garlock.com),
agrees: We recognize that there are
a lot of sealing challenges in todays
process environment, so we have to
develop products that meet the regulatory, process and reliability requirements. Essentially, its our goal to build
a better mousetrap. We are familiar
with and know how to effectively recommend the right materials and designs for these applications, so the next
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FEBRUARY 2016
Garlock Sealing Technologies
Trelleborg Sealing Technologies
FIGURE 3. A PTFE-based sealing product, Turcon

Variseal Ultra-Clean from Trelleborg, was developed to stand up to the harsh environments
created by CIP, SIP and other high-temperature,
aggressive sanitary environments
step is to take those materials and designs, innovate and improve the existing properties, which are already very
good, and make them even better.
And, for each challenge, there is
often an innovative solution available.
Reducing emissions
Its no secret that EPA continues to
tighten regulations regarding allowable limits on emissions of all types
of pollutants. As part of the regulatory requirement, processors must
have programs in place to measure
and monitor emission levels at potential points of emission, such as
valves and flanges, and if they find
a component leak above a certain
level, they are required to fix it. This
can be a costly method that requires
a lot of labor, but its very effective,
notes FSAs Azibert.
One of the ways to reduce the
emission level at any given point,
and, in turn, reduce the amount of
effort to remain in compliance, is to
employ specialized low-emission
(Low-E) sealing solutions in problem
areas, says Ron Frisard, field product manager, stationary equipment,
with A.W. Chesterton.
He says that using certified Low-E
valve packings, like Chesterton 1622
valve packing (Figure 1), can help reduce fugitive emissions from valves.
This high-performance, graphite
valve-stem packing blocks valve fugitive emissions to below consent
decree requirements. A non-hardening, flexible packing, constructed
from Inconel-reinforced mesh with
internal exfoliated graphite, it will
not shrink or absorb moisture. The
single-spool solution reduces invenCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
FIGURE 4. Garlocks THERMa-PUR is a proprietary new

gasketing material designed for use in high-temperature
sealing applications. It provides sealing at temperatures
up to 1,832F, where gaskets of other materials, such as
graphite, cannot survive
tories and installation errors caused

by using multiple types of rings in
various orientations. It is suitable for
use in a variety of applications to seal
light and heavy hydrocarbons, VOCs
and most non-oxidizing chemicals
in the hydrocarbon processing and
chemical industries.
Designing for harsh processes

One of the biggest concerns about
sealing components in the chemical
industry is their ability to stand up to
corrosion and to resist chemicals,
notes Azibert. There are different
materials for these applications and
manufacturers continue to develop
fillers and new formulations on the
existing products to keep up with the
demands of the process industry.
Uwe Kannengiesser, global technical coordinator and key account
manager for Vestakeep, with Evonik
Industries AG (Essen, Germany;
www.evonik.com), agrees. There is
an increasing demand for a material that can operate in a high-heat
environment, but also provide excellent resistance against corrosive and
chemical media. In addition, the material has to offer higher service lifetime for a significantly longer interval
between maintenance, he says.
For example, he says that for back
valve rings and compressor plates
there is a need for ductile material with higher fatigue resistance.
FEBRUARY 2016
This is because brittle material has

been found to fail in shorter operation times as it has a poor resistance
against dynamic stresses, he says.
Another criteria gaining importance
is the wear resistance of the material.
A low sliding coefficient translates
into low energy consumption.
To meet this myriad of requirements, Evonik has developed Vestakeep 5000 (Figure 2), which is a
ductile polyetheretherketone (PEEK)
available as a granule for injection
molding and extrusion to fulfill the
design challenges for seals and gaskets. A recent development on that
initial material, Vestakeep 5000 HCM,
can also be adapted to improve the
sliding and wear resistance needed
in some applications.
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is
another material commonly used
to meet the demands of the CPI,
including chemical resistance, and
sealing product manufacturers are
constantly developing new formulations, blends and configurations to
stand up to challenging conditions,
such as higher temperatures, hazardous chemicals and other harsh
conditions. For example, Garlocks
Gylon Stress Saver Style 3504 combines the Gylon Style 3504 PTFE
gasketing with aluminosilicate microspheres, which provides a tighter
seal over conventional PTFE. The
Stress Saver family of products is
23
designed with molded, raised ribs to

help create a tighter seal by concentrating the compressive load. Combining the two technologies provides
many benefits over conventional rubber or elastomeric gaskets, including
chemical resistance, superior physical properties, such as greater temperature and pressure capabilities,
and limited creep and cold flow to
reduce leakage.
Another PTFE-based product, Turcon Variseal Ultra-Clean from Trelleborg (Figure 3), was developed to
stand up to the harsh environments
created by clean in place (CIP), sterilize in place (SIP) and other high-temperature, aggressive sanitary environments, says Schmiedel. In the design
of this product, the spring required
to activate the seal is fully enclosed
within a Turcon PTFE-based case. In
food, beverage and pharmaceutical
applications, this ensures there is no
dead space for bacteria to be caught.
The seals combine wear resistance
and compatibility to virtually all chemicals, even in extreme operating tem-
peratures, which provides long life in

CIP and SIP regimes.
Trelleborg has also been working with new materials for mechanical seals. Isolast J9876 was developed using a new perfluorelastomer
(FFKM). The new compound removes the need for multiple grades
supporting different applications and
it holds the necessary approvals for
use in food contact and pharmaceutical applications, such as FDA, 3ASanitary and USP Chapter 88 Class
VI. It provides long-term physical
property retention due to its compatibility with virtually all media, its suitability to high-temperature applications and its potential for application
in steam and water, says Schmiedel.
Similarly, Garlocks THERMa-PUR
(Figure 4) is a proprietary new gasketing material designed for use in hightemperature sealing applications, as
it provides sealing at temperatures
up to 1,832F, according to Tones,
where gaskets of other materials,
such as graphite, cannot survive.
This product excels in applications
where processors are discovering

improved process yield via increased
temperatures, Tones says.
The products we are developing
today not only provide protection
from leaks and stand up to harsh
chemical processes, but in doing
so, they also provide the reliability
our processing customers demand,
Tones notes.
Reliability of seals in harsh conditions is important for so many reasons, continues A.W. Chestertons
Hanjra. Reliability can help mitigate
the risk of an emissions leak and/or a
plant shutdown, which, in turn, helps
decrease the overall cost of ownership of the equipment. The expense
of upgrading your sealing solutions is
quite small when you consider that it
reduces the risk of emissions leaks
or issues that can create a safety or
production issue, which can be very
costly. Better sealing technologies
are always a worthwhile investment
because they can lead to higher uptime and production rates.
n
Joy LePree
Meet the Future

of Chinas
Process Industry.
Now.
9 12 May 2016
10th International Exhibition and Conference
on Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Beijing, Peoples Republic of China
tion
lee edi hed
i
b
u
j
10
stablis
sfully e
th
www.achemasia.de
www.achema.cn
succes
989
since 1
Focus
Software and Mobile Apps

Advance engineering projects
with process simulation tools
ChemCad is an intuitive suite of
chemical-process-simulation software that gives engineers a variety of
capabilities to improve productivity.
Version 6.5.7 includes such features
as the Thermo Acceleration operating
mode, which can help speed calculations for complex simulations. The
software also allows for simultaneous heat-transfer and mass-transfer
models in distillation columns, and
lets users run Excel Data Maps for
each time step in dynamics mode.
Chemstations, Inc., Houston
www.chemstations.com
Platform eases collaboration,

data sharing and compliance
The ability to improve the aggregation, integration, synthesis and analysis of data from disparate resarch
and operating areas within an organizations lets process engineers and
managers uncover knowledge that
is often hidden in massive volumes
of structured and unstructured data.
BIOVIA Pipeline Pilot (photo) is a
graphical-authoring application that
increases operational efficiency and
reduces costs for both scientists and
process engineers across a wide
spectrum of industries. With Pipeline
Pilot, users can complete projects
significantly faster, by leveraging existing research, process and intellectual property, and automating routine
data gathering and analysis. Realtime reporting dashboards bring
into view experimental results and
process production metrics related
to a wide range of data-processing
functions, such as data retrieval,
manipulation, computational analysis, filtering, and display functionalities. Dassault Systmes Biovia
(formerly Accelrys), San Diego, Calif.
www.accelrys.com
Program speeds the execution

of brownfield projects
Aveva Everything3D 2.1 (Aveva
E3D; photo) builds on the softwares
proven ability to deliver time and cost
savings for brownfield and revamp
projects, helping to increase productivity for engineering, procurement

and construction (EPCs) and owneroperators. Enhanced capabilities,
such as PointCloud demolition and
the ability to dislay laser data directly
on drawings, enable designers to interact with 3-D models in ways that
have not previously been possible,
says the company. The softwares
enhanced user interface helps to
reduce the learning curve and move
projects more quickly into production.
Aveva E3D includes the introduction
of HyperBubble technology, which is
said to allow the user to work in a
fully immersed, as-built environment.
For many projects, the software's
capabilities can reduce the need to
remodel existing plants prior to revamps, and limit the need to generate numerous drawings (which cuts
labor requirements). Aveva Solutions Ltd., Cambridge, U.K.
www.aveva.com
Dassault Systmes Biovia
Aveva Solutions
Software bundle supports

multivariate data analysis
Two software providers have collaborated to release a software bundle
called The Unscrambler X DesignExpert Upgrade, which provides
support for multivariate data analysis
and design of experiments. It enables
advanced multivariate methods, provides a variety of data-visualization
tools, and helps users to cut through
large data sets that are common in
so many chemical process industries
(CPI) applications. The software also
helps users to screen for vital factors,
identify ideal process settings for top
performance, and discover optimal
product formulations. Camo Software, Oslo, Norway, and Stat-Ease,
Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.
www.camo.com
Honeywell
Alarm-management program
reduces alarms by 80%
The DynAMo Alarm and Operations
Management software (photo) helps
CPI operators to better manage operations and alarms, improve operator effectiveness, plant safety, availability and compliance. The solution
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit number on p. 62, or use the website designation.
FEBRUARY 2016
25
HBM
provides a single, unified platform

and user experience for all operations. It is a scalable offering that allows customers to start with simple
Alarm Management or Operator
Logbook functionality, and add other
functions over time, as needed, to
enable a fully integrated Operations
Integrity solution. In addition to reducing alarms by up to 80% and
reducing root-cause analysis time
by 60% over competing methods,
the software suite can also increase
throughput by up to 8% and cut energy consumtpion by up to 5%, with
a typical return on investment of less
than three months, says the company. DynAMo can work with any
vendors control system in addition
to Honeywells Experion distributed
control system (DCS) platform.
Honeywell, Houston
www.honeywell.com
Software upgrade benefits

electric inverters and drives
Version 6.60 of the high-speed Perception software (photo) provides
unwanted access, and intentional

or unintentional changes. HBM,
Marlborough, Mass.
www.hbm.com
Software provides validation

and compliance capabilities
new capabilities that make it easier

to perform high-speed data acquisition on electric inverters and drive
systems. It can quickly process large
amounts of data for instance, 100
GB within 10 s when performing
live torque and rotational-speed measurements and calculations, says the
company. The softwares new eDrive
application allows users to visualize
torque and rotational speed as live
curves. Version 6.60 allows users to
create individual workbenches that
can be defined with distinct restrictions, test functions and capabilities.
Password-protection
capabilities
safeguard key settings, protocols and
formulas used in calculations from
Horiba Scientific
The ProtectionPlus module (photo)

provides add-on capabilities to
the companys LabSpec 6 Raman
Spectrocopy Suite, allowing researchers to handle advanced analytical-laboratory functionalities in a
multi-user environment. Protection-
REMBE | All rights reserved
T +49 2961 7405-0 | info@rembe.de
Your Specialist for

PRESSURE RELIEF SYSTEMS
and
EXPLOSION SAFETY
Consulting. Engineering. Products. Service.
Gallbergweg 21 | 59929 Brilon, Germany

F +49 2961 50714 | www.rembe.de
Chemical Engineerings
premium product showcase
for the latest products and
technologies in the chemical
processing industries.
to subscribe to the e-letter, please visit:
www.chemengonline.com/eletter-signup
Inc.
3809 Beam Road Suite K Charlotte, NC 28217, USA
T +1 704 716 7022 | F +1 704 716 7025
info@rembe.us | www.rembe.us
26033
26
FEBRUARY 2016
Plus is a fully integrated module that

seamlessly adds a layer of security
and data integrity, allowing system security administrators to put
in place and enforce a wide range
of security user and file policies.
Specifically, ProtectionPlus allows
operators of the companys Raman
instruments to work in compliance
with Part 11 of the FDAs CFR Title
21, with regard to electronic records and electronic signatures,
according to the manufacturer. Additional functionality provided by
this optional module includes user
account management and access
control, a full audit trail to track all
data-related operations, an external event log of software functions,
and electronic signatures. Horiba Scientific, Edison, N.J.
www.horiba.com
Improve cybersecurity and

operator effectiveness
Operating independently from automation vendor platforms allows
this company to provide seamless,
integrated platform-independent cybersecurity, alarm management and

high-performance human-machine
interfaces. The ICS Cybersecurity
solution strengthens security for critical industrial-control systems. Companies can monitor for unauthorized
changes (malicious attacks or inadvertent engineering changes) and
drive risk-appropriate remediating
actions. The Cybersecurity solution
helps operators to automate the processes used for inventory management, security-patch management,
change management, and backup
and recovery. The PAS Operations
Management solution improves situation awareness by helping operators to identify, evaluate and manage
alarms and abnormal conditions effectively. The software aggregates,
organizes and provides in-context
visualization of information from disparate sources within the enterprise,
providing invaluable insight into critical operational and safety information. PAS, Houston
www.pas.com
Simplify the design process

without multiple tools
Rockwell Automation
This company has added three new

applications to its Rockwell Software
Studio 5000 development environment. This platform helps engineers
speed the development of automation systems as they design a connected enterprise. These applications, along with the Studio 5000
Logix Designer application, help to
improve automation design productivity. The ability to integrate multiple
types of functionality into one platform simplifies the design process
and reduces the need for multiple
tools, says the company. The Studio 5000 Architect application is
FEBRUARY 2016
27
the central point, where users can

view the overall automation system,
configure devices such as controllers and human-machine interfaces
(to improve programming efficiency
and runtime performance), and manage communication with these devices. Its security features include
a variety of user-authentication and
access-control options, and a new
privilege-escalation capability. Such
features improve productivity and
system uptime by granting users the
right level of access at the right time,
says the company. Localized batch
control allows controller-based batch
sequencing and eventing to simplify
system architecture for single-unit
control and process skids. Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee, Wisc.
www.rockwell.com
Improve CFD with advanced

mesh-generation software
Pointwise Version 17.3 R4 is the latest release of the companys highfidelity meshing software (photo),
which features new native interfaces
Pointwise
eling. It interfaces seamlessly with

a variety of CFD solvers from commercial vendors, as well as neutral formats, says the company.
Pointwise, Fort Worth, Tex.
www.pointwise.com
Get more from your

paperless workflows
Bluebeam Revu combines powerful

PDF editing, markup and collaboration technology. With reliable file
creation, the program gives users
expanded capabilities related to
project communications. Three editions of Bluebeam Revu are available: Standard, CAD and eXtreme.
For instance, users can mark up
PDFs with the programs customizable markup tools, adding, among
other things text, notes, clouds, CAD
symbols, stamps and highlights.
to numerous computational fluid dy- Such custom markups can be saved
namics (CFD) codes and packages. in the Tool Chest function, allowing
The Pointwise package generates easy reuse. Users can also embed
structured, unstructured and hybrid photos and videos into markups for
meshes a key preprocessing step added clarity, track annotations in
in the successful use
of CFD
mod- the integrated
Markups
list, which
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Chemical Engineering
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february 2016
Pag
can be filtered, organized, customized and exported to Excel. Bluebeam Software, Pasadena, Calif.
www.bluebeam.com
that tenants of the cloud belong to

the same industrial ecosystem, adds
the company. GE, Fairfield, Conn.
www.ge.com
Exploit an industrial-strength
cloud to bring results
Wireless system and software

supports condition monitoring
This company has entered the

cloud-services market with Predix
Cloud, which is designed specifically for industrial data and analytics.
This platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
will capture and analyze the volume,
velocity and variety of machine data
within a highly secure, industrialstrength cloud environment. Cloud
computing is expected to enable
new levels of industrial innovation.
For instance, a highly protected
cloud built exclusively to capture
and analyze machine data will help
to reduce the incidence of countless
unforeseen problems and missed
opportunities, says the company.
Unlike public cloud services, which
are open to any individual or organization, Predix Cloud is based on a
gated community model to ensure
Manual methods of tracking equipment health to predict faiures is an

error-prone and time-consuming approach and can yield incomplete data
and understanding of the existing
asset conditions. Fluke Connect Assets is a cloud-based, wireless system
of software and more than 30 wireless
testing tools. The system gives maintenance managers a comprehensive
view of all critical equipment, tracking baseline, historical and current
test-tool measurement data, current
status and past inspection data, enabling users to set up and sustain a
preventive maintenance or conditionbased maintenance system with minimal investment. The use of wireless
test tools eliminates manual recording
of measurements, improving the accuracy and validity of the data. The
INSPECT
100%
OF YOUR
HEATER
COILS
systems features allow maintenance

managers to analyze multiple types of
predictive data (for example, electrical, vibration and infrared images) to
provide a comprehensive assessment
of the situation. This allows personnel
to see correlations and trends and
identify emerging issues. Fluke,
Everett, Wash.
www.flukeconnect.com
Software helps users turn data

into professional graphs
Origin and OriginPro 2016 are the latest versions of this companys dataanalysis and graphing software. The
software provides a variety of expanded capabilities, including Smart
Plotting with Cloneable Templates
to quickly create multi-layer graphs
with complex mapping of data plots
to worksheet columns. It provides
tab-based dialogs for common analysis tools, and supports professional
report generation, as well. OriginLab, Northhampton, Mass.
www.originlab/2016.com
Suzanne Shelley
Quest Integritys Furnace Tube

Inspection System (FTIS) is
the proven technology providing
100% inspection coverage of your
serpentine coils.
Pitting(interioror
exterior of pipe)
The FTIS inspection results are

processed with our LifeQuest
Corrosion(interior
or exterior of pipe)
Heater engineering software,

providing a comprehensive
Erosionandlow
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fitness-for-service and remaining

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Dentingand
ovality
the API-579 Standard. Quest
Bulgingand
swelling
Integrity delivers a complete

solution that helps transfer your
Cokeandscale
build-up
integrity and maintenance risk

into reliability.
QuestIntegrity.com
CHALLENGE CONVENTION
FEBRUARY 2016
29
New Products
Parker Hannifin
This device reduces costs

for compressed air
Track changes and mitigate

risk in large capital projects
This companys Air Saver Unit

(photo), previously released in Europe
and Asia, is now available in North
America. The Air Saver Unit is suitable for use in both new and existing factory-floor air-nozzle and air-gun
applications that allow uncontrolled
blow-offs. The device generates a
rapid pulse of air rather than a continuous flow, which, according to the
manufacturer, reduces compressedair costs by as much as 4050% over
typical constant-flow applications.
Unlike a continuous stream of air, the
pulsed-air blow strikes the work repeatedly, improving the efficiency of
the air blow for drying and removing
debris. The Air Saver can be easily
installed into existing pneumatic systems with no additional programming
required for the process logic controller (PLC). Parker Hannifin Corp.,
Cleveland, Ohio
www.parker.com
Project Data Link is a project engineering environment that helps reduce complexity and accommodate
changes in capital projects. Project
Data Link translates project information, including tag databases and
instrument indices, from multiple
sources into project deliverables. It
mitigates project risk by normalizing specifications into a single data
source with traceability and an integrated change-management system.
Project Data Link gives suppliers, engineering firms and other stakeholders access to project information, including specifications related to field
devices and the distributed control
system (DCS). In addition, data provided in various formats are normalized so that all information is available
in a single, consolidated standard
view. When a change is initiated, Project Data Link automatically reconciles it against what is in the system,
identifies what needs to be changed,
automatically sends updates to the
DCS and provides an audit of what
has changed. Emerson Process
Management, Austin, Tex.
www.emersonprocess.com
These flowmeters benefit

from ceramic bearings
Badger Meter
IDEC
30
The Blancett B1500 Series turbine

flowmeter (photo) is designed to perform in harsh environments, providing flow measurements for standard
clean, filtered liquid-flow applications
in precision industrial processes, such
as batching, blending and filling. According to the manufacturer, B1500
Series flowmeters feature exceptional
mechanical linearity, which increases
the usable flow range and helps mitigate output variance caused by viscosity fluctuations due to changes in
fluid temperature. Using a helical rotor
design with high-performance ceramic
ball bearings, B1500 meters are able
to achieve high speed-of-response
and minimal pressure drop. Ceramic
bearings are also lighter, more tolerant
to extreme temperatures and produce
less friction than stainless-steel ball
bearings, which are commonly found
in other turbine meters. B1500 Series
meters are available in nominal line
sizes from to 2 in., with an accuracy
rating of 0.25% of reading. Ideal flow
ranges vary between 0.25 and 250
gal/min, depending on line size.
Badger Meter, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis.
www.badgermeter.com
A new HMI with full

remote-monitoring capabilities
The Enhanced HG2G-5T Series 5.7in. human-machine interface (HMI;
photo) is available in a color version
and a monochrome version, both with
high resolution and increased brightness, allowing the screens to be easily
read, even in direct sunlight. The Enhanced HG2G-5T HMI can communicate with a variety of different controllers, and supports up to three different
communication protocols simultaneously. With operating temperatures
ranging from 20 to 60C, the HMI is
rated for installation outdoors or indoors in washdown areas. A built-in
Web server allows full remote monitoring and control via any Web browser
running on a PC, smartphone or tablet. Remote users can monitor current
values or processes, control operation,
change program values and perform
troubleshooting and maintenance.
IDEC Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif.
www.us.idec.com
FEBRUARY 2016
Vortec
Fractional distillation systems for

continuous and batch processes
Pope Scientific
This companys stainless-steel fractional distillation systems (photo) are

available for batch or continuous
processes, and are designed for
critical applications, including highpurity processing, fragrances, foods,
specialty chemicals, pharmaceutical
intermediates, bio-based materials,
solvents and so on. Column diameters from 1 to 24 in., and flowrates
ranging from less than 1 to greater
than 1,000 kg/h cover laboratory,

pilot and commercial-production
scales. Various types of designs,
packings, column internals, control
systems and alternate materials,
such as Hastelloy and glass, are available. Individual key components or
partial systems are also available for
users that choose to build their own
systems. Pope Scientific, Inc.,
Saukville, Wis.
www.popeinc.com
a powerful, high-velocity sheet of
laminar air over wide areas. This deNeutralize static in
sign produces increased thrust and
film and sheet production
velocity, reduced noise and uniforThis companys Ionizing Air Knives mity, making Ionizing Air Knives suit(photo) neutralize static that can at- able for moving webs, films, sheets,
tract dust and contaminants, and strips and other assemblies and obstop static discharges that can dam- jects. Airflow can be adjusted per
age electronic equipment and shock specific application requirements.
personnel. With this technology, Ionizing Air Knives are available in 6-,
a static neutralizing bar generates 12-, 18- and 24-in. lengths. A sinpositively and negatively charged gle -in. NPT compressed-air inlet
ions, which are carried to the target will feed up to a 12-in. length, and
by a uniform sheet of amplified air. two inlets will accommodate longer
The air amplifiers use a small amount models. Vortec, Cincinnati, Ohio
of filtered, compressed air to deliver www.vortec.com
Drier Steam Means Higher Profits

Steam drum design is critical to maintain steam dryness
and water quality for optimum performance of your boiler.
If water is allowed to carryover, then damage can occur
and energy is lost. Carryover is your boilers enemy.
Dyna-Therms high performance steam drums
have been protecting downstream equipment
including superheater tubes and turbines for
decades.
We offer proven designs for the following:
High pressure
Intermediate pressure
Low pressure
Retrofitting of existing drum internals
Let us design the steam drum that best fits your system.
Performance is what we guarantee!
No steam production rates are too high and no carryover

problems are too difficult for us to solvesteam qualities
of 99.995% with .001 PPM/TDS are possible!
High efficiency steam

drums and separators!
281-987-0726
www.dyna-therm.com
SEPARATION AND STEAM DRUM SOLUTIONS SINCE 1961
FEBRUARY 2016
31
This dosing system reduces

exposure to materials
Shackelford Services
Supercritical Fluid Technologies
The Sure Dose portable dosing system

(photo) allows for safer dosing of materials from smaller feed tanks to larger
batch or mix tanks. Since the system
requires no lifting or suspension of the
drum, operator exposure to the materials being transferred is reduced. Utilizing differential-pressure technology,
the closed system allows dosing of
most liquids, such as biocides, acids
and caustics. Since the Sure Dose
unit does not utilize delicate load cells,
it does not require the supply drum to
be elevated, and it can be placed on
the floor while dispensing the material.
Operators can dispense liquids using
various units of measure, such as level,
volume or mass, via the user-friendly
interface. To ensure compatibility, the
dosing system is available with different materials of construction. Available
options include an automated control system, along with LED indicator
lights for unit status, sensor extension
cables and data-logging capabilities.
Shackelford Services LLC, Olive
Branch, Miss.
www.shackservices.com/home
Android devices for use

in hazardous locations
Pepperl+Fuchs North America
32
flowrates from 500 to 7,500 m3/h. The

Dry-Tec product line contains a basic
sorption module that is used for adsorption and desorption within the system,
as well as the precooler module CoolTec V and the aftercooler module CoolTec N. The precooler and aftercooler
modules can optionally be equipped
with various filtration elements. In addition to achieving low relative humidity,
a nearly particle-free process airflow at
the entry and exit of the module system
can be provided. Due to their compact
design and the modular assembly of
the overall system, the units can be
easily transported and introduced into
existing production facilities. All modular Dry-Tec systems are available with
stainless-steel housing. ULT AG,
Lbau, Germany
www.ult.de
Determine solubility in a variety

of materials with this tool
The Phase Monitor II (photo) determines the solubility of various compounds and mixtures in supercritical
and high-pressure fluids. It provides
direct, visual observation of materials
under conditions precisely controlled
by the researcher. Experiments may
be performed in liquids, supercritical
CO2 or other liquefied gases. The effect of co-solvents on the solubility of
compounds of interest may be investigated as well. The Phase Monitor II
allows the user direct observation of
the dissolution, precipitation and crystallization of compounds over a wide
range of pressures and temperatures.
Advanced studies may be done to determine melting-point depressions and
the degree of polymer swelling in CO2
or traditional solvents. Experiments
can be performed at pressures up to
10,000 psi and from ambient temperature to 150C. Supercritical Fluid
Technologies, Inc., Newark, Del.
www.supercriticalfluids.com
In addition to the Agile X Windowsbased 10.1-in. tablet PC system,

this company now offers two smaller
Android devices that are certified for
hazardous areas. The Lumen X4 is
a 4.3-in. industrial mobile computer,
and the Lumen X7 is a 7-in. industrial tablet for use in harsh environments. The devices survive being
dropped or immersed in water, and
are resistant to extreme temperatures. The devices also have nearfield communication (NFC), Bluetooth
3.0 and two powerful cameras.
The Lumen X4 can be optionally
equipped with a scanner for recording barcodes. Bartec GmbH, Bad
Mergentheim, Germany
Precisely position movable
tools with this encoder
www.bartec.de
The CVM42H CANopen multi-turn
Modular drying systems for
absolute encoder (photo) features
extremely dry process air
stainless-steel housing, flange and
This companys Dry-Tec product line shaft, and utilizes magnetic sampling
contains modular systems for use with to deliver 24-bit resolution position
extremely dry process air, enabling pro- values. These compact rotary encodcesses to achieve dewpoint tempera- ers excel in harsh environments with
tures as low as 65C, at volumetric high mechanical stresses, and can
FEBRUARY 2016
withstand constant shocks and vibrations, high bearing loads, dirt and
temperature fluctuations. They are
typically found in mobile equipment,
steel production, wind turbine and
packaging applications. CVM42H
absolute encoders are available with
various environmental ratings and
are rated for use in operating temperatures from 40 to 85C. They
are vibration resistant to 30 g, and
shock resistant to 300 g, and their
resolution of up to 1 deg offers very
precise positioning of movable tools.
Pepperl+Fuchs North America,
Twinsburg, Ohio
www.pepperl-fuchs.us
tion (BIC) and feedrate capabilities

up to 1,680 ft3/h. For sanitary environments, open-frame models
of the DEA Weighbelt with washdown capabilities are also available. Schenck Process LLC,
Whitewater, Wis.
www.accuratefeeders.com
Weigh and meter dry, fragile

materials with these feeders
Compact AS-i modules save

space in the control cabinet
Siemens
Schenck Process
DEA Weighbelt stainless-steel feed- This company has developed exers (photo) provide weight-con- tremely compact I/O (input/output)
trolled feeding, weight indication modules for AS-Interface (actuatorand totalization for fragile materials. sensor interface; AS-i) with widths of
DEA Weighbelt feeders are offered just 17.5 and 22.5 mm. The new AS-i
in 12- and 24-in. belt widths with SlimLine compact modules (photo)
easy belt detensioning and removal, are just half the width of the predePOA_ChemEngineering_MAR2015.qxp_Layout
1 2/10/15
9:50 PM
Page
1 save space
belt-weight influence compensa- cessor
devices,
and
they
Y
S
INC.
Call
in the control cabinet and in distributed control boxes. They possess

new, practice-oriented functions,
such as device connectors and switchable sensor supply, which surpass
the previous functional scope. The
17.5-mm variants are said to be the
slimmest AS-i modules currently on
the market. The new series of AS-i
SlimLine compact modules in degree
of protection IP20 encompasses
digital I/O modules as well as ASIsafe
modules with safe inputs. It replaces
the previous S22.5 and S45 Slim-
WE TOLL
the
Custom Catalyst
Experts
Milling and Grinding
TOLL MANUFACTURE
Screening and Classifying
SINCE 1982
Vacuum Drying
Custom Catalyst
ISO 9001:2008
Rota-Cone & V-Dryers
Calcining and Incineration
Screening
Milling / Grinding
Solids Mixing
Vacuum Impregnating
Calcining / Drying
Rota-Cone & V-Blenders
Ribbon & Paddle Mixers
Metal Reclaim
Solids or Liquid
Fluidizing Dual Shaft Mixers
Mixing/Blending/
Pelletizing
Sigma Mixers & Extruders
Packaging
Drying
Blending and Mixing
Metal Recovery
Size Reduction
Ball & Ceramic Lined Mills
YS Inc.
Jars & Jar Rolling
Mills
4531 County Road 458
Collinsville, AL 35961
888-356-3343
855-789-9827
| sales@pauloabbe.com
www.ys-inc.com
ysinc@ys-inc.com
YS Inc.
4531 County Road 458
Collinsville, AL 35961
888-356-3343
www.ys-inc.com
ysinc@ys-inc.com
www.pauloabbe.com
Y
S
INC.
ISO 9001:2008
Certified
february 2016
33
Hoyer GmbH Internationale Fachspedition
Line modules. The new AS-i SlimLine

compact modules supplement the
product range of AS-i field modules
and they are suitable for initial installation, servicing, or whenever a change
or expansion is made in a plant.
Siemens AG, Munich, Germany
www.siemens.com
Two new small containers added

to this companys product range
Wika Alexander Wiegand
Boge Kompressoren Otto Boge
This logistics specialist has expanded

its fleet of intermediate bulk containers
(IBCs) by adding two new container
types. The product range now also
includes a steam-heatable IBC and a
cube-shaped IBC (photo) that is particularly space-saving in storage and
during transport. The steam-heatable
1,000-L container provides the ability
to use steam, water or oil as the heating medium, thus ensuring heating
that is quick but gentle on the material.
It is also suitable for use in explosionhazard areas and is designed for temperatures up to 150C and pressures
up to 6 bars. The cube-shaped Meter
Cube has a volumetric capacity of
1,000 L and represents a practical alternative to a plastic IBC; the container
is extremely space-saving due to its
special dimensions, and it is made of
high-quality stainless steel. As a result
of its flat construction, it can also be
stacked two-high for transportation,
increasing the quantity of units that
are possible per transport. Hoyer
GmbH Internationale Fachspedition,
Hamburg, Germany
www.hoyer-group.com
In-house nitrogen production

for maximum independence
Pepperl+Fuchs
34
The centerpiece of this companys

line of closely tailored nitrogen-generating solutions is the N2 generator
selected from the N 7 P to N 56 P
range (photo). Closely tailored to the
N2 demand, it delivers purity grades
of up to 5.0 (99.999%). The generators can simply be connected to the
existing compressed-air network. To
produce N2, the generators need a
supply of Class 141 purified compressed air according to ISO 8573-1
(including activated-carbon adsorber).
Thanks to its modular design, it is easy
to expand or retrofit the generator on
site. Up to two expansion banks can
be connected to each master bank.
Each bank, in turn, takes up to eight

discrete easy-to-fit modules. The up
to 24 modules that result provide flexible nitrogen generation of between
1.3 and 265.8 Nm3/h. By combining
even more of the complete systems,
output can be increased to meet even
higher demand. Boge Kompressoren Otto Boge GmbH & Co. KG,
Bielefeld, Germany
www.boge.de
Miniature thermometers now also

with CSA seal of approval for Ex i
The intrinsically safe versions of the
new miniature resistance thermometers TR21, TR31 (OEM) and TR34
(photo) now also have the CSA
(Canadian Standards Association) test
mark for ignition protection type Ex i.
The seal of the CSA Group facilitates
the use of thermometers in North
America. In addition, all three instrument types have ATEX and IECEx approval. The new miniature thermometers are designed for use in industrial
applications. Their design is extremely
durable, and an autoclavable version
is available for sanitary applications. All
models are designed for a temperature range of 50 to 250C. Wika
Alexander Wiegand SE & Co. KG,
Klingenberg, Germany
www.wika.com
A new purge-and-pressurization
solution for process automation
In demanding hazardous-location process environments, having realtime
control of process applications is crucial. Set for release early this year, the
Bebco 6500 Purge and Pressurization Series (photo) has been designed
specifically for global Zone1/21 applications, and offers a control unit with
HART and Bluetooth connection and
communication. In addition, the 6500
vent provides continuous readouts
of both pressure and flow for added
monitoring functionality. A free mobile
application is also available for smartphones or tablets that allows end users
to easily link to the 6500 control unit.
The control units are engineered in
316L stainless steel, and are available
with either internal or external mounting options. Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH,
Mannheim, Germany
www.pepperl-fuchs.com
Mary Page Bailey and Gerald Ondrey
FEBRUARY 2016
Facts At Your Fingertips

Weighing Equipment Selection
Department Editor: Scott Jenkins
he number of options available

for scales and weighing equipment can make it difficult to determine which instruments will offer
the best value and which will meet the
application requirements (Table 1).
Focusing on the following ten areas
can help reduce the time needed to
research available models and help
ensure a good value.
1. Primary use. Identifying the instruments primary use is the first step in
selection. Will the instrument be used
for weighing solids or liquids? Will the
device be used at laboratory scale,
or larger? Is it needed to weigh large
quantities of uniformly sized objects,
such as capsules, tablets or small
parts? Will the instrument be used for
weighing moving items on a production line? Do you need to control conditions inside a weighing vessel, such
as heating, cooling or mixing?
2. Capacity. What is the largest possible load that a scale would be required
to handle? Do you need overload protection? What will the overall footprint
of the scale be and how will the items
being weighed fit within the weighing
area? Would a below-balance setup,
where weight is measured via tension
instead of compression, work for your
application? An unofficial guideline
recommends use of a balance for
samples from microgram levels to approximately 10 kg, and load cells for
those samples from 10 kg to several
metric tons. Try to have the weighed
quantities lie mostly in the middle of
the range of the units specific capacity to minimize stress or damage to
sensitive internal electronics, and also

to ensure greater accuracy.
3. Accuracy. In the context of weighing, accuracy can be thought of as a
combination of several different factors, including the quantifiable specifications of resolution (the smallest
mass change that can be read on a
scale), reproducibility (ability to weigh
consistently over time and with different operators), linearity (the variance in
accuracy over the weight values within
the scales capacity) and uncertainty
of measurement (difference between
measured weight and true weight due
to environmental variances).
4. Materials of construction. Basic
materials include aluminum alloy, carbon steel, aluminum-coated steel and
galvanized steel. For these, cleanliness
and corrosion-resistance are not critical. When higher levels of cleanability
and chemical and environmental protection are required, AISI-304 and 316
stainless steels are possibilities.
5. Environment. Environmental conditions can affect weighing. Large
temperature fluctuations, vibration,
humidity, magnetic fields, air currents,
corrosive chemicals and electrical
interference can all influence weight
measurements, especially at higher
resolutions. Consider whether a particular environment would require
specialized padding, protective covers, or more frequent calibrations.
6. Industry regulations. Many industry-specific regulations exist and may
be relevant for some sectors and not
others. Table 2 contains a list of websites for several of the organizations
that set standards and regulations.
TABLE 1. INSTRUMENT CATEGORIES

Simple
scale
Counting
scale
Checkweigher
Batch
weighing
systems
An appropriate vessel is placed on a weighing pan, the scale is tared accordingly, and a solid
or liquid sample is placed into the vessel
A small known quantity of pieces is placed on the weighing pan. The scale calculates the average weight of these pieces and stores it in memory. Subsequent unknown quantities of the
object are instantly calculated using this average weight no matter how many are placed on
the pan. Results can be stored or printed for use in record-keeping and other documentation
A checkweigher is the best scale for weighing moving items on a production line, where
speed or the need for 100% inspection prohibits manual weighing. The device weighs each
item on the production line according to preset detection limits, ejecting non-compliant items
and even sorting items based on programmed user criteria. As each unit is inspected, overfilled and underfilled packages are identified and can be quickly rejected
Scales designed for batch weighing incorporate a load cell, connections, valves, relay hardware and process-control software into one integrated system. This system is connected
to and controls one or more feed systems that deliver different ingredients into a common
receiving vessel at user-defined quantities to blend or create a reaction
FEBRUARY 2016
TABLE 2. REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS

WEBSITES
FM Global
ATEX
HACCP
IEC
ISO
NEMA
NTEP
UL/CUL
ETL
CSA
www.fmglobal.com
ec.europa.eu/enterprise/atex
www.fda.gov/food/GuidanceRegulation/HACCP/default.htm
www.iec.ch
www.iso.org
www.nema.org
www.ncwm.net/ntep
www.ul.com
www.intertek-etlsemko.com
www.csa-international.org
7. Features. Additional features can

customize the scale for enhanced flexibility, ease of use, functionality, protection and others. Consider whether
your scale would need explosion protection, internal calibration software,
interfacing ability with a computer
network, wireless connectivity, scale
readouts that are separated from the
weighing platform, multi-language
displays, backlit display for dimly lit
areas, or other needs.
8. Price. Choosing a scale should
never be based solely on price, but
the most expensive scale is not necessarily the best choice.
9. Installation. When installing, it is recommended to place scales in a permanent location and connect to peripheral
equipment, including a remote display.
The resolution and readability should be
set, and an initial calibration should be
performed. For multiple load cells on a
large vessel, a corner load test should
be performed to ensure even weight
distribution. Scales should generally not
be moved from their point of use after
installation, if possible.
10. Calibration and service. Regularly scheduled calibration of weighing
equipment is necessary, because with
use, normal stress can cause the accuracy of a scale to drift slightly. A series of certified test weights are placed
on the weighing platform and the results recorded. When displayed results
do not correspond to the test weight,
manual or automatic adjustments can
n
be made to correct the drift.
Editor's note: This column is adapted from the following
article: Titmas, R. and Carey, S., Weighing Your Options:
The 10 Most Important Scale Considerations. Chem. Eng.,
December 2007, pp. 6165.
35
Technology Profile
Acrylic Acid Production via Propylene Oxidation
By Intratec Solutions
crylic acid is a moderately

strong carboxylic acid primarily used as an intermediate in the production of acrylate esters. These acrylate esters are
then mainly used to manufacture adhesives, plastics additives, coatings,
paints and textiles.
The process
Figure 1 depicts a propylene oxidation
process similar to technology for the
production of ester-grade acrylic acid
(EAA) that was developed by Lurgi
GmbH (Frankfurt, Germany; part of Air
Liquide; Paris; www.airliquide.com)
and Nippon Kayaku (Tokyo; www.nipponkayaku.co.jp). This process is described in the next paragraphs.
Reaction and quench. Chemicalgrade (CG) propylene is mixed with
steam and air and fed to a two-step
oxidation reaction system. In the first
step, the propylene is oxidized to acrolein and, in the second step, the acrolein is oxidized to acrylic acid. Both
steps are carried out in tubular, fixedbed reactors. The heat generated by
the exothermic reactions is used to
generate steam. The effluent from the
reaction system is sent to a quench
tower, where the acrylic acid formed is
absorbed in water. Part of the residual
gas obtained by the top of the quench
tower is incinerated, with the balance
being recycled to the first-step reactor.
The aqueous solution is sent to downstream units for product recovery.
Product recovery. The aqueous solution from the quench step is fed to an
extractor, where the acrylic acid is sep-
Propylene
Catalytic
oxidation
Glycerol
Dehydration/
oxidation
Ethylene oxide
Acrylic acid
Raw sugar
Reppe
synthesis
Acetylene
Raw material Pathway Main product
arated by liquid-liquid extraction with a

solvent. The top portion of the extractor, containing the acrylic acid, is sent
to a solvent-recovery column to recover
a two-phase overheads stream. This
two-phase stream is separated and the
organic phase, containing the solvent,
is recycled to the extractor. The aqueous phase is mixed with the raffinate
from the extraction step and sent to a
raffinate stripper to minimize the solvent
losses. The bottom stream from the
solvent-recovery column is then fed to
the crude acrylic-acid column, where
a concentrated acrylic acid stream is
obtained as the bottom product. The
column overhead stream, mainly comprised of acetic acid and light impurities,
is sent to a recovery column. The bottom stream from the recovery column
is sent to the crude acrylic acid column
and the overhead stream is recycled to
the solvent recovery column.
Purification. In the purification area,
the concentrated acrylic acid stream
from the crude acrylic acid column
is fed to the product column. In this
column, ester-grade acrylic acid is obtained as the overhead product. The
column bottoms are sent to a dedimerizer to convert the dimer impurity,
formed in the process, back to acrylic
acid. Finally, the product from the dedimerizer is sent to the bottoms stripper column, where the heavy ends are
separated and sent to waste.
Economic performance
The total fixed capital estimated to
construct such a plant producing
150,000 metric tons per year of EAA in
the second quarter of 2015 in the U.S.
is about $350 million. The total fixed
capital estimated includes the insideand outside-battery limit units (production units, storage installations, utilities
facilities and auxiliary buildings).
Acrylic acid pathways

Processes based on propylene oxidation are traditionally most employed in
the production of acrylic acid. Figure
2 illustrates other alternative pathways
for the production of acrylic acid, starting from different feedstocks.
Edited by Scott Jenkins

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
are prepared on the basis of publicly available and nonconfidential information. The content represents the opinions
of Intratec only. More information about the methodology for
preparing analysis can be found, along with terms of use, at
www.intratec.us/che.
ST
CG propylene
Estergrade
acrylic
acid
CW
CW
CW
CW
Fermentative
route
FIGURE 2. Several pathways exist for acrylic acid production
Air
Glucose
syrup
Carbonylation
Off-gas to
incineration
Steam
Fermentative
route
ST
ST
4
ST
10
ST
ST
CW
6
ST
Off-gas
ST
Wastewater
Heavy
ends
to waste
11
CW
12
CW
13
ST
14
1. First oxidation reactor

2. Second oxidation reactor
3. Quench tower
4. Liquid-liquid extractor
5. Solvent recovery column
6. Raffinate stripper
7. Crude acrylic acid column
8. Recovery column
9. Product column
10. Dedimerizer
11. Bottoms stripper
12. Incinerator
13. Cooling tower
14. Steam boiler
CW Cooling water
ST Steam
FIGURE 1. The diagram shows a process similar to the Lurgi/Nippon Kayaku technology for ester-grade acrylic acid production
36
FEBRUARY 2016
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Superheater Problems
in Steam Generators
Knowing the features of a good boiler will
prevent problems associated with a poor design
Cleaver Brooks
Viswanathan
Ganapathy
Boiler Consultant
IN BRIEF
OVERVIEW OF THE
PROBLEM
REASONS FOR TUBE
FAILURE
THREE DECADES OF
IMPROVEMENTS
TYPES OF
SUPERHEATERS
CUSTOM-DESIGNED
BOILERS
CONVECTIVE VERSUS
RADIANT
FAILURE ANALYSIS
38
il- and gas-fired package steam

generators (or boilers; Figure
1) are used in chemical plants,
power plants, petroleum refineries and in cogeneration plants to generate
steam for process and power-generation
applications. Steam parameters are typically
in the following ranges: steam flowrate, 40
to 200 ton/h; pressure, 30 to 100 barg; and
temperatures, 350 to 500C. A widespread
problem in several plants is the failure of superheater tubes due to overheating and the
reasons can often be traced to either poor
design or poor operation, or a combination
of the two.
Overview of the problem

In the authors opinion, based on his international boiler consulting experience over
the last decade, poor design accounts for
a significant number of problems. It should
be kept in mind that the average life of a
boiler, whose cost runs into millions of dollars, is more than thirty years, and a welldesigned superheater also should last that
long. If the plant personnel have to spend
sleepless nights every few months fixing a
poorly designed boiler that has frequent superheater tube failures, then it is an expensive nightmare they have purchased and
not a steam generator.
Some plants are also, unfortunately,
forced to operate their boilers at 40 to 60%
capacity instead of at 100% as originally
envisaged by them, because superheaters
fail if operated at higher loads. This results
in under-utilization of the boiler and significant financial losses, because the additional steam has to be generated from
some other boiler or purchased from an
expensive source.
Education of plant engineers is one
way to ensure they become knowledgeable customers and dont purchase boilers without asking the boiler supplier the
right questions. Hence, the author has also
been conducting courses on boilers with
FIGURE 1. A package oil- and gas-fired, D-type boiler in

shipment
emphasis on process and thermal design

aspects and good features a boiler should
have. These topics are somewhat grey to
plant engineers, who are more familiar with
mundane aspects of a boiler, such as maintenance, operation, repair, welding issues,
refractory pouring, shipping and erection.
Engineers tend to concentrate only on such
issues before purchasing a boiler. However,
only an engineer well versed in thermal design aspects can quiz the boiler supplier
about the design details and performance
to ensure the right design has been offered
for purchase rather than a compromised
design that can pose problems later. This is
more easily said than done.
The author also advises plants to get a review of the steam generator design they plan
to purchase from a good boiler consultant
before they place the order so that potential problem areas are identified before the
equipment is purchased.
One may wonder if boiler suppliers around
the world are not offering well-designed
steam generators. A few boiler suppliers still
offer designs that are dated designed 30
to 50 years ago and are unwilling to improve or modify their design due to the significant engineering expenses and time involved
in updating their older designs and preparing
new drawings and standards. Also engineers
well-versed in thermal and process design
FEBRUARY 2016
topics may not be available in every boiler

suppliers company. Unfortunately, many
boiler sales engineers still pull out drawings
of a boiler sold 2540 years ago (for similar
parameters) from their archives and offer the
dated design to unwitting plant engineers,
who buy them without raising queries on
thermal design and performance aspects,
and live with superheater failures or under
performance for the rest of their lives. I have
seen this during the last twelve years of my
international consulting experience.
This article briefly outlines the features of
a good oil- and gas-fired steam generator,
mainly of the D-type design, which is very
common in the industry. The features of a
good superheater design and thermal performance aspects that should be looked into
are also discussed. The comments hold true
for the other boiler designs, too, namely the
A and O-type boilers.
Reasons for tube failures

There are several reasons for boiler superheater tube failures, including the following:
1. Use of radiant or semi-radiant superheater
design exposed to high heat flux from a
furnace with low steam-side velocity or
low steam-side pressure drop; cross-flow
or counter-flow design; oversizing, when
steam temperature is around 400500C
2. Carry-over of solids from the drum due
to poorly designed drum internals or poor
feed-water or boiler-water quality can result in deposition of solids inside superheater tubes and consequent overheating. Sometimes the drum size is smaller
than it should be to prevent carryover of
moisture. Load fluctuations leading to
large fluctuations in steam pressure and
drum level also cause carry-over of solids
from drum
3. Burners not tuned properly can lead to
flame impingement on the superheater. If
several burners are used, certain combinations of burners may result in non-uniform
gas flow or temperature distribution at the
superheater inlet, leading to overheating of
some tubes
4. Mechanical issues, such as thermal
stresses, creep, stress corrosion, erosion
(due to particulate matter in fluegas) and
compromised tube metallurgy
As mentioned earlier, a large percentage
of plant engineers, including the management, take it for granted when they buy
a boiler that the boiler design itself is fine
and the superheater tube failures are only
due to operational problems. The followCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
ing sections highlight the thermal design

aspects with which plant engineers should
be familiar to avoid selecting a boiler with
dated design features or with poorly designed superheaters.
Three decades of improvements

Plant engineers should be familiar with some
of the developments that have taken place
during the last 30 to 40 years that have
added value to steam generators in terms
of thermal performance, operating costs and
superheater life. If the boiler they are likely to
buy does not have any of the features listed
below, they can question the boiler supplier
or opt for better boiler designs available in
the market place.
Completely water-cooled furnace. The oiland gas-fired steam generators designed 30
to 50 years ago did not have to deal with the
problem of emissions regulations, particularly those due to oxides of nitrogen (NOx)
and carbon monoxide. The only concern
was efficiency, and oil- and gas-fired boilers
were operating at 5 to 10% excess air.
Also, not much time was spent by many
package-boiler companies in understanding issues such as DNB (departure from
nucleate boiling), furnace effectiveness,
furnace heat flux and circulation aspects.
To protect the regions prone to high heat
flux in the furnace and possible departure
from nucleate boiling, they simply poured
refractory over the areas such as the furnace floor, boiler front wall and in some
regions on the partition wall. Some older
designs still have a refractory-lined front
wall, which makes it difficult to ensure a
leak-proof furnace. Fluegas can leak to the
atmosphere between the membrane side
walls and refractory joints and if it contains
vapors of sulfuric acid, this can condense
on the casing to form sulfuric acid resulting
in casing corrosion.
Not having a completely water-cooled furnace also results in underutilization of the
furnace heating surface by 10 to 20% and
an increase in furnace exit-gas temperature
(FEGT). The higher the FEGT, the higher the
direct radiation to the heating surface located at the furnace exit, namely the radiant
superheater. Pouring refractory on furnace
water-cooled surfaces is like buying a longsleeved shirt in a department store and then
going to a tailor and paying him additional
money to make it a short-sleeve shirt. You
are not only adding to the cost of the boiler,
but also wasting a lot of labor and time on
annual maintenance of refractory. Refrac-
FEBRUARY 2016
39
Front
FIGURE 2. Completely watercooled furnaces, such as the

one shown here, help lower
NOx emission and increase
furnace effectiveness
FIGURE 3. This chart shows

the effect of heat input
divided by effective surface
area versus FEGT [sometimes
known as furnace outlet temperature (FOT)]
Back
tory-lined boilers have to be started up more

slowly than a water-cooled furnace due to
potential formation of cracks in the refractory
if started up quickly.
The completely water-cooled furnace
(Figure 2) has several advantages over refractory-lined boilers, such as lower NOx
emission rates, better utilization of furnace
surface and lower FEGT. This results in lower
tube-wall temperatures in the heat transfer
surfaces located downstream of the furnace,
such as the superheater, which, as a result,
enjoys longer life. The FEGT is lower due to
the higher furnace effective area for a given
volume of furnace; hence the ratio of net
heat input to furnace divided by the effective
furnace area is smaller (Figure 3) [1].
The refractory-lined front wall reradiates
energy back to the flame, increasing its local
temperatures and thus increasing the NOx
levels. A furnace with water-cooled front wall,
side walls and floor, as shown in Figure 2 (left),
offers a benign enclosure to the flame and
lowers the NOx emissions, besides lowering
the heat flux and area heat-release rate.
1400
1350
1300
FOT, oC
1250
Gas
1200
Oil
1150
1100
1050
1000
150
40
200
250
300
250
400
450
Neat heat release rate, kW/m2
500
550
600
In order to meet NOx and CO emissions

standards of today, steam generators widely
use fluegas recirculation (FGR) ranging from
10 to 25% depending on the combustion
temperature of the fuel and NOx emission
limits; excess air ranges from 12 to 18% to
limit the CO emissions in natural-gas- and
oil-fired boilers. In a completely water-cooled
furnace that offers a cooler enclosure all
around the flame, the NOx emissions are
lower compared to a refractory-lined boiler.
Refractory used in the front wall and areas
close to the floor and side walls reradiates
energy back to the flame, increasing NOx
formation. Hence lower FGR is required to
limit the NOx in a fully water-cooled furnace
compared to the refractory-lined boiler.
Higher excess air and FGR simply increase the fluegas mass flow through the
boiler for the same steam parameters, thus
increasing the fan power consumption. Remember that the size of a boiler depends on
the fluegas quantity handled by the boiler
heating surfaces and not the steam parameters. Custom-designed boiler manufacturers consider this fact and redesign their
heating surfaces (by changing tube spacing, increasing the size of economizer) and
ensure high efficiency and low fluegas pressure drop through the unit. Unfortunately, a
few boiler suppliers still offer standard, offthe-shelf designs selected based on steam
parameters alone, which will have lower efficiency or higher fan power consumption if
FGR has to be used.
Convective superheater design versus
radiant superheater. Superheaters of boilers designed decades ago were located at
the furnace exit, irrespective of steam temperature required; the superheater was in
the radiant zone and hence exposed to high
FEBRUARY 2016
heat flux and direct radiation from the

furnace flame, resulting often in tube
failures (Figure 4A). These superheaters
were called radiant superheaters. There
is another option where the superheater
is located in the convection bank itself,
but without a screen. This is called a
semi-radiant superheater (Figure 4B).
Present-day designs from a few boiler
suppliers who specialize in customdesigned units, have convective superheaters with a large screen section,
shielding it from direct furnace radiation
(Figure 4C).
A radiant superheater is not good
choice for package boilers and is better avoided because the superheater
is located in a harsh environment. A
radiant superheater receives radiant
energy from the furnace flame, while a
convective superheater is shielded from
furnace radiation because it is located
in a much cooler region behind several
rows of screen (evaporator) tubes.
A number of factors impact the design
and thermal performance of semi-radiant
or radiant superheaters and boiler plant
engineers must be aware of them. Only
then can they appreciate the fact that
they are buying a design with great potential for tube overheating and failures.
1. It is difficult to estimate the FEGT accurately. A good boiler designer knows
this. Variations in fuel analysis, excess
air, furnace geometry, burner location
and flame shape to mention a few, affect the FEGT, which in turn directly
affects the superheater duty and tube
wall temperature. The correlations for
furnace performance are not clearly
established (like the convective heattransfer-coefficient correlations for fluid flow inside or outside tubes, which
you can see in any textbook on heat
transfer). FEGT is mainly established
based on field data of similar boiler
designs and operating data. Variations
of 50120C are likely in its estimation,
which can affect the energy transfer
to the superheater and its tube wall
temperature. The external radiation
energy transferred to the superheater
tubes will also be proportional to the
FEGT to the power of four. One can
appreciate the problem if, while estimating the FEGT, the designer comes
up with a value like 1,000C while in
operation it is close to 1,100C. The
direct radiation will be higher by 35%
3
Furnace
1
3
1
Furnace
Gas out
FIGURE 4A. Depending on its location, a superheater can be either convective (left) or radiant (right).
The numbers identify the superheater (1), burner (2) and screen, evaporator (3)
Burner
Furnace
Gas in
Evaporator
2 stage SH
Evaporator
Gas out
To economizer
Desuperheater
FIGURE 4B. A semi-radiant superheater without a screen section is shown here
Furnace
Burner
Evaporator
2 stage SH
Screen
Gas out
To economizer
Desuperheater
FIGURE 4C. Shown here is a convective superheater with vertical headers and horizontal tubes located beyond the screen section
[(1,373)4 versus (1,273)4]. The logarithmic mean temperature difference

(LMTD) in the superheater also will
be affected, resulting in some uncertainty in the duty and performance
evaluation of the superheater. A higher LMTD than estimated will not only
increase the duty of the superheater
but will also increase the heat flux and
the tube wall temperature.
2. A semi-radiant superheater receives
direct radiation from the furnace and
depending on the tube spacing-todiameter ratio, the fraction of energy
absorbed in each row will vary (Figure
5). If the superheater tubes are closely
spaced, then more direct radiation
FEBRUARY 2016
41
1.0
0.9
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
0.8
0.7
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
Kn
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
ST
0.2
O O
O O
O O
Gas flow
0.1
No. of rows de
ep n
0
1
FIGURE 5. This chart shows

the distribution of external radiation from furnace to heating surfaces at the furnace
exit (Kn is fraction of direct
radiation absorbed by each
row and ST is the transverse
spacing of tubes)
42
10
12
14
16
18
ST/d
Distribution of external radiation to tubes
20
22
24
26
will be absorbed by the superheater in the

first two to three rows facing the furnace,
thus increasing the tube wall temperature
in these rows. Typically four to five rows of
tubes absorb the complete external radiation, as seen from the chart in Figure 5. This
adds to the heat flux inside the superheater
tubes. Typically the tube wall temperature
can go up by 20 to 40C due to external radiation; at tube wall operating temperatures
close to 600650C, even a 10C increase
can result in tube failure. At partial loads,
the increase in tube wall temperature will
be higher, as shown in some worked out
examples in Ref. 1.
3. With uncertainty in the estimation of FEGT,
the direct radiation from furnace to the superheater is also difficult to predict. While
evaluating the tube wall temperature in the
superheater, one has to add the heat flux
arising out of direct radiation, convection
and non-luminous radiation. The contribution of direct radiation is a function of the
location of the tube facing the opening and
the tube spacing as shown in Figure 5. It
can be seen that when the tube spacing
to the convection bank is large, a large
amount of energy is sent to the next row
and so on. The radiant superheater also
absorbs more enthalpy at partial loads
compared to full load. At low loads, the
flow distribution on both gas and steam
side will be poor. Hence tube overheating
is likely at all loads [1].
4. The turning section where the superheater
is located adds to non-uniformity in gas
flow, velocity and temperature profiles
across the superheater, making it difficult
to predict its performance. A portion of
the superheater can have cross flow and a

portion can have parallel flow and the fraction of each can vary with load. Thus its
performance prediction becomes a guessing game. One is taking chances with such
a location for the superheater.
5. If the flame shape is not properly set, the
flame can lick the first few rows of superheater facing the furnace. Since the
heat-transfer coefficient is much lower
inside a superheater tube (about 6 to 10
times lower than that of the evaporator or
furnace tubes), the increase in tube wall
temperature can be high, leading to tube
failures.
6. On the other hand, the convective superheater is located in a safe region far away
from the furnace outlet. The number of
screen rows (the function of screen tubes
is the same as that of the evaporator) can
be as high as 10 to even 40 rows depending on steam temperature desired. There
are three advantages of using a screen
section. One, the gas temperature drops
significantly before entering the superheater say by 250500F (depending on
the number of screen rows) and the heat
flux inside the tubes is significantly lower
compared to the radiant design. The second is that the fluegas mixes well beyond
the turn and becomes uniform before
entering the superheater due to the gas
pressure drop in the screen section, and
hence the prediction of superheater performance is far more reliable, unlike the
situation for a radiant superheater. Thirdly,
the direct radiation contribution from the
furnace is also avoided as the screen or
evaporator tubes pick up the direct radiation and since the screen or evaporator
tubes have a high-boiling heat-transfer
coefficient inside the tubes (exceeding
2,500 Btu/ft2hF compared to 200350
Btu/ft2hF for the superheater), the evaporator tube wall temperature increase is
not a concern at all.
7. A major advantage for the convective superheater is its lower tube-wall temperature, which results in a longer life compared to the radiant superheater. This is
due to the lower gas-entering temperature
and absence of direct radiation. A simplistic tube life calculation below illustrates this
point.
8. In heavy-oil-fired boilers, the slag formed
due to the melting of ash in fuel oil can
deposit on a radiant superheater, which
is operating at high temperature and can
cause high-temperature corrosion failures,
FEBRUARY 2016
FIGURE 6A. Shown here is a superheater with a vertical tube

of inverted loop design
FIGURE 6B. Two different views of a superheater with a horizontal tube design
mainly due to vanadium, sodium salts

and their compounds. The convective superheater can be located where fluegas
temperatures are far below the slagging
temperature.
9. Variations in excess air, flame shape or
FGR will have a lesser effect on steam
temperature in a convective superheater
due to the additional cooling and mixing
in the screen section ahead of the superheater.
10. The boiler can be started up faster
because the gas temperature entering
the superheater will be much lower in a
convective design compared to the radiant design. If the guideline is, say, 600C
maximum at the superheater, then it takes
less time to reach this temperature with
a convective superheater. A boiler with
a radiant superheater has to be started
up more slowly to ensure that 550600C
is not reached at the superheater before
steam starts flowing through the superheater.
Hence the radiant or semi-radiant superheater design should be avoided if possible
for a longer life of superheater and troublefree operation as it poses more risks compared to a convective superheater.
This is not to say that all boilers with
radiant superheaters will have problems
in operation. Good radiant superheaters
are designed with better materials, steam
flow arrangement (referring to whether
it is the primary or intermediate stage of
superheating, and flow direction, whether
parallel or counter flow) and high tube-side
mass velocities and steam-side pressure
drops to ensure trouble-free operation, but
it is an unnecessary risk for steam temperatures up to 500C. High-pressure, hightemperature utility boilers, which operate
at 165 kg/cm2g and 540550C with reheat require radiant designs as superheaters, and have to be located in high gastemperature regions for compactness. But
package boilers operating at much lower
steam pressures need not have radiant or
semi-radiant superheaters. The author has
designed several hundred units with fully
convective type superheaters which are in
operation around the world without problems since 1990. The only advantage of
radiant design is that some surface area is
reduced and hence labor costs are lower
for superheater fabrication, but materials
are costlier, and shorter life and frequent
failures and repair costs more than compensate for this small advantage.
Types of superheaters
Basically two types of superheater designs
are available for package boilers and are
widely used. One is the inverted loop superheater (Figure 6A), and the other is the horizontal tube superheater (Figure 6B).
Inverted loop. In the inverted loop design,
the inlet and exit steam headers are horizontal and located inside or outside the
gas path; baffle plates are used at appropriate places in the header to obtain the
necessary number of streams (or tubes
carrying the total steam flow) in order to
optimize the steam-side pressure drop.
If 100,000 lb/h is the steam flowrate and
there are six tubes on each header (12
across the boiler bank width) and, say, 20
rows deep (along gas flow direction) and
FEBRUARY 2016
43
40
Stress, 1,000 psi
35
30
25
20
15
T22
10
T11
0
32
33
34
FIGURE 7. This plot of stress

versus LMP for T11,T22 materials is useful for predicting
the life of a superheater (T is
the temperature in F, t the life
in h, and LMP is the Larson
Miller Parameter [1])
35
36
37
38
LMP parameter (T + 460) (20 + log t)/1,000
39
40
24 streams are required to meet the velocity and pressure drop considerations,
then there will be a baffle after the 4 th row
in the inlet header (6 4 = 24 streams),
after the 8 th row in the outlet header, after
the 12 th row in the inlet header and so on.
Selection of streams for the superheater
is a very important task and many superheater failures have been attributed to a
TABLE 1. TUBE GEOMETRY OF BOILER WITH RADIANT SUPERHEATER

Section
Screen
Superheater
Evaporator
Economizer
Tube OD, in.
2.0
2.0
2.0
Thickness, in.
0.120
0.200
0.120
0.120
Tubes/row
12
12
12
16
Rows deep
16
72
12
Length, ft
8.5
15
Transverse pitch, in.
4.8
Longitudinal pitch
Streams
Material
24
Sa 178a
Flow direction
T22
8
Sa 178a
Counter
Counter
Fins/in. height thickness

Surface area, ft2
Sa 178a
5 0.75
0.05
113
855
4,072
16,417
TABLE 2. TUBE GEOMETRY OF BOILER WITH CONVECTIVE SUPERHEATER

Section
Screen
Superheater
Evaporator
Economizer
2
Tube OD, in
2.0
2.0
2.0
Thickness, in
0.120
0.15
0.120
0.12
Tubes/row
12
12
12
16
Rows deep
13
24
53
12
Length, ft
8.5
15
Transverse pitch, in
4.8
Longitudinal pitch
Streams
Material
24
Sa 178a
Flow direction
T22
8
Sa 178a
Counter
Counter
Fins/in height thickness

Surface area, ft2
44
Sa 178a
5 0.75
0.05
735
1,065
2,997
16,417
wrong selection of this parameter [2].

Horizontal tube. In the horizontal-tube superheater design, vertical headers are used;
the number of tubes in each row (or a multiple of it) can be the number of streams.
Central inlet and exit nozzles are preferred
for steam inlet or exit.
A superheater configuration can be parallel-flow or counter-flow or cross-flow and
with single or multi-stages with intermediate
desuperheating for steam temperature control. Performance calculations will reveal the
best option for the superheater and are done
on a case-by-case basis, as illustrated in examples in the references.
Custom designed boilers

The concept of custom-designed boilers
started evolving around the 1980s when
emissions of NOx and CO were regulated
and new boilers were required to adhere to
limits on these pollutants. Fluegas recirculation was one method used to limit NOx
and excess air and low-NOx burners with
staged combustion were introduced. Even
today, several boiler suppliers offer what
are called standard, off-the-shelf package boilers with low cost. However, a few
boiler suppliers also offer what are called
custom-designed boilers, which consider
the impact of fluegas flow on boiler performance and optimize the design for lower
operating cost and better efficiency. This
is done by manipulating the boiler bank
spacing, length of evaporator tubes, superheater location, number of screen
tubes, economizer fin optimization and so
on. Custom-designed units can lower fan
power consumption and also ensure long
superheater life. When the degree of steam
superheat is, say, only 5 to 10C, the superheater may be located between the
evaporator and economizer. A great flexibility thus exists in custom-designed boilers.
The author is even aware of a case where
a customer wanted only 20C of superheat
and the boiler supplier had no idea how to
handle such a low degree of superheat and
suggested to the plant to purchase a separately fired superheater. This clearly shows
that not many boiler suppliers can customdesign boilers for a difficult and challenging
boiler application.
Several examples of custom-designed
boiler applications that have created value
for end users may be seen in the references
cited. A standard off-the-shelf boiler is like a
ready-made garment, it may fit you well or
not, whereas a custom-designed boiler is
FEBRUARY 2016
like a tailor-made dress that fits perfectly.

Designs of standard boilers were developed several decades ago when there were
no emission regulations. As mentioned earlier The FGR and excess air rates will vary
with type of fuel, combustion temperature,
NOx and CO emission limits, and hence,
two boilers with identical steam parameters
may differ in size depending on the total fluegas quantity flowing through the unit. Standard boiler suppliers have fewer options to
choose from and one has to carefully review
the efficiency, fan power consumption and
overall performance.
Convective versus radiant superheaters

In order to understand how boilers with radiant versus convective superheaters differ in
performance, an example is now presented.
Design and operating parameters. A
boiler is designed to deliver 137,000 lb/h of
steam at 720 psig and 800F, with a feedwater temperature of 230F. Fuel is natural
gas (90% methane, 5% ethane and 5% nitrogen). Tables 1 and 2 show the tube geometry that is used for both designs. The
radiant superheater is located at the turning section as shown in Figure 4B, while
the convective superheater is located several rows downstream of the screen section (Figure 4C). The superheated steam
temperature is uncontrolled as variations
up to 20F are accepted by the plant.
Furnace dimensions are the same for both
options, namely 30-ft long, 8.5-ft high and
7-ft wide, and is a completely water-cooled
furnace. The same economizer is used in
both options. The only difference is in the
tube thickness of the superheater and the
number of rows of screen and evaporator.
Excess air used is 15% and no fluegas recirculation is used in the basic design. The
same boiler is likely to operate with 20%
fluegas recirculation (FGR) later. The performance for both designs was calculated
and the results are presented in Table 3
(Design and off-design calculation methods for superheaters and tube-wall temperature are detailed in Ref. 2).
Discussions on the two designs. The following points may be noted from Table 3.
1. Though the steam temperature is nearly
the same at 100% load for both the radiant and convective designs, the tube wall
temperature for the radiant design is about
1,085F versus 1,020F for the convective
design. This is due to the higher gas temperature (nearly 400F) entering the radiant
superheater and with some contribution
TABLE 3. PERFORMANCE OF BOILER WITH AND WITHOUT FGR

Item
Radiant
superheater
Convective
superheater
Radiant superheater
Convective
superheater
Excess air,%
15
15
15
15
Fluegas Recirculation rate,%
20
20
Steam temp. at 100% load,10F
807
812
777
800
SH tube wall temperature, 10F
1,085
1,020
1,030
990
Gas temp to superheater, 10F
2,379
1,980
2,138
1,828
Gas temp to evaporator, 10F
1,897
1478
1,762
1,420
Gas temp to economizer, ,10F
795
823
809
834
Gas temp leaving eco, ,10F
300
300
320
324
Efficiency, % HHV
84.27
84.27
83.6
83.5
Steam temperature@ 50% load
815
767
814
785
from direct radiation from the furnace. By

using a slightly higher tube thickness, the
same superheater material can be used for
both the radiant and convective design.
2. The life of the superheater is significantly
reduced due to an increase in tube wall
temperature. Let us estimate the life assuming the boiler operates at 100% load
all the time. Figure 7, showing the stress
versus Larson Miller Parameter (LMP), is
used to estimate the life [1].
First estimate the operating stress, which
is given by the relation: Stress = pressure
radius/thickness.
For the radiant superheater: Stress = 720
1/0.2 = 3,600 psi. From Figure 6, the LMP
corresponding to this value is 39. The absolute
tube-wall temperature is found by T = 1,085 +
460 = 1,545R. 39,000/1,545 = 25.24 = (20 +
log t) or t = 174,000 h or about 22 yr.
For the convective superheater: Stress =
720 1/0.15 = 4,800 psi. LMP = 38.3. T
= 1,020 + 460=1,480R. 38,300/1,480 =
25.87 = (20 + log t) or t=743,000 h or more
than 92 yr.
Though this is a simplistic method of estimation of potential lifespan, it shows that the
life of the convective design is much longer
than that of the radiant design, due to the
lower operating temperatures.
3. The surface area of the convective superheater is much larger and hence costlier,
but considering the low operating tubewall temperature, it is considered a better design. The author has seen several
superheaters with radiant design fail in a
short period due to overheating. Frequent
repairs and shutdowns are expensive and
impacts the cost of business. As mentioned earlier, there are non-uniformities
in gas temperatures and fluegas flows
entering the superheater, particularly if it
FEBRUARY 2016
45
p
Friction loss
p
Total loss
Total loss
h
0
Gravity loss
Friction loss
p
0
Mass loss
m1
Upward flow
FIGURE 8. Flow versus pressure drop in upward- and

downward-flowing tubes
m1
m2
Mass loss
Gravity loss
Ambiguous region
p
Downward flow
is located at the turning section. Hence,

prediction of its performance and tube wall
temperature is less accurate compared to
that of the convective design. When buying new boilers, plant engineers should
give preference to designs with convective
superheaters and be aware of the likely
problems with a radiant design. At partial loads, the steam flow inside the tubes
also will have a non-uniformity due to low
steam pressure drop and this can also add
to the increase in tube wall temperature in
certain tubes.
4. Effect of adding FGR: As far as the steam
temperature is concerned, the variation
in steam temperature is much larger between 100 and 50% loads with a radiant
superheater compared to the convective
design, where the screen section dampens the large variations in fluegas flow
and temperature.
Failure analysis
The author was asked to investigate frequent tube-failure problems in an invertedloop superheater with cross-flow design as
shown in Figure 6A. This boiler could neither be operated near 90100% load nor
at lower than 40% load, as tube failures
would occur. This is a poor superheater
design to start with and the author would
FIGURE 9. The problem of tube have advised the plant against purchasing
failures discussed in the text
was solved with baffles and a this boiler and to go for a design with a convective superheater. There were a few major
parallel flow design
+
Superheated steam out
Gas flow
Upper
header
Lower
header
Gas flow
+
Mud drum
46
Saturated steam in
present design
Saturated steam in Saturated steam out

Suggested modification
concerns with this design:

Superheater location is at the turn around
section at the furnace exit with uncertain
gas flow pattern and non-uniformity in fluegas flow and gas temperatures
It is a single-pass cross-flow design with
low steam-mass velocity inside the tubes
and hence low steam-side pressure drop
The superheater is facing the furnace and
hence has direct radiation from the furnace
in addition to convective and non-luminous
heat fluxes
Low steam-side pressure drop impacts
the downward flow of steam in long tubes,
as explained below
One of the problems with tall invertedloop superheaters is the effect of steamside pressure drop at low loads as shown
in Figure 8 when steam flow is in the vertical
downward direction.
When steam flows upward, both the
gravity loss and friction loss are additive
and hence their sum is always positive and
the total pressure loss versus flow curve is
monotonic [2].
In the downward flow section, at low
loads, the enthalpy pick up will be higher
in a radiant superheater compared to a
convective one (due to the contribution of
furnace radiation) and the density of steam
decreases and hence lower gravity loss.
As steam flow increases, the specific volume reaches a steady value and the steam
density also will be higher while friction loss
increases as the square of flow. The total
loss curve will have two operating points as
shown at low loads while at higher loads
the total loss curve is monotonic and hence
stagnation is not a concern. This trend is
exhibited with a convective superheater
also, but due to lower gas temperatures
at lower loads, the tubes are much safer.
Hence superheaters of inverted-loop design should be designed with a reasonably
high steam-side pressure drop, which ensures gravity loss is not low enough at low
loads to cause flow stagnation or ambiguity in flow. A safe pressure drop is arrived
at in the design stage at 100% load based
on steam pressure, height of superheater
tubes and steam pressure. One has to also
perform partial-load calculations and ensure
flow stagnation will not be an issue. Unfortunately, many boiler designers do not understand this, and design superheaters with
a low steam-side pressure drop resulting in
tube failures at low loads.
Solution. Nothing much could be done
about the location of the superheater. It was
determined through calculations that the
FEBRUARY 2016
superheater was designed with a

low steam pressure drop resulting in
overheating of the tubes over a wide
load range due to a low tube-side
heat-transfer coefficient and direct
radiation from the furnace. At lower
loads, the problem became worse,
as there was stagnation in some
tubes due to the gravity head loss
being higher than the steam pressure drop, as explained earlier. The
boiler could be operated only in a
narrow range of load and even then
tube failures were rampant.
The author reviewed the design and
introduced a baffle in the inlet header,
thereby making the superheater a
two-pass design with parallel flow
configuration (Figure 9). This modification brought in several advantages.
1. The steam-side pressure drop increased eight times, which was
still acceptable to the plant. The
cooling effect of steam was much
better and there were no concerns
about stagnation at low loads.
2. The parallel flow configuration took
away the higher steam tempera-
ture region into the cooler gastemperature region, thus limiting

the tube wall temperatures.
However, it should be noted that
to begin with, the design could
have been avoided. The best option would have been to purchase a
convective superheater with a large
screen section with several advantages as cited earlier.
Concluding remarks
Plants invest several million dollars
in steam generators and should review if a particular design is good in
the long run. Even if the superheater
runs well, the higher tube wall temperature limits the life as shown
earlier. A convective superheater
design should be preferred. Though
the steam generator may be slightly
more expensive, it pays off in the
long run due to lower maintenance
and repair costs. Plants should also
hire a consultant to review the boiler
design from a thermal and process
viewpoint instead of simply taking the boiler suppliers words for
granted. Plant engineers should

look at designs of custom-designed
boilers and learn about their features
and advantages and not simply buy
a boiler because the same design
has been offered by the boiler comn
pany for five decades.
Edited by Gerald Ondrey
References
1. Ganapathy, V., Industrial Boilers and HRSGs, CRC
Press, Florida, 2003.
2. Ganapathy, V., Steam Generators and Waste Heat
Boilers for Process and Plant Engineers, CRC Press,
Florida, 2015.
Author
Viswanathan Ganapathy is a
boiler consultant from Chennai,
India
(v_ganapathy@yahoo.
com), who specializes in thermal
design and performance aspects. He has over 40 years of
experience in the thermal design
and performance aspects of
steam generators and wasteheat boilers. He has authored
over 250 articles on boiler-related subjects that have
been published in a number of U.S., Indian and U.K.
magazines. He has also authored several books and
conducts courses on boilers. He graduated from the
Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras with a degree in
mechanical engineering.
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47
Feature Report
The Relationship Between

Materials Selection and
Machining Processes
An awareness of the impact of materials selection on the machining processes for
small, complex components can affect overall end-product quality and costs
Kenneth Rinier
Vallorbs Jewel Co.
FIGURE 1. There are many implications

for materials selection of threaded
parts, especially when the machining
process is considered
IN BRIEF
MATERIAL SELECTION
FACTORS
THREADED PARTS AND
VALVES
MACHINING
SPECIFICATION
MACHINING SOLUTIONS
he importance of material selection

for small, complex components found
in equipment critical to the chemical
process industries (CPI) cannot be
understated. For small metal parts, such
as valves and threaded fasteners, the steps
product engineers take for selecting a material are fairly linear. The engineer determines
the functionality and the operating environment of the components and chooses the
material. Environmental factors taken into
consideration include corrosion resistance,
exposure to harsh chemicals and extreme
temperatures. After evaluating the material
based on these conditions, design engineers
often make the final material decision for the
specific part. However, the desired material
may have certain properties that can present
challenges in operation and machining, and
48
the designer may not be aware of the potential issues that can arise.
There is an important relationship between
material selection and precision, ease of machining and final finish that is often overlooked.
These factors can have significant effects
on the quality and cost of the component in
question. The use of an ineffective machining
method for small components can cause issues in certain materials, especially if they are
exotic or hard-to-machine metals. These issues include fouled operating environments,
premature component failure and oxidation
effects, and are sometimes the result of inadequate machining and material selection. This
article provides guidance to help design engineers consider the relationship between material selection, existing machining processes
and the quality and cost of the end product.
FEBRUARY 2016
Material selection factors

Functionality in the operating environment is generally a high priority for material selection of components, especially when it comes to
the long- and short-term safety and
reliability of the equipment. The following sections introduce some important factors that must be considered in material selection for small,
complex components.
Corrosion resistance. Corrosion is
a major concern that dictates material selection in many operating environments. For example, chloride
ions cause stress corrosion cracking
(SCC) in stainless steels, so a material like titanium is selected because
of its chloride-resistant properties.
These factors are critical because
corrosion in equipment can result in
a number of negative effects, including fires, explosions and both brittle
and mechanical failures, as well as
the release of hazardous gases, liquids or vapors.
Oxidation is commonly observed
in materials like the stainless-steel
alloys. These metals naturally form
oxide layers for corrosion protection,
which can cause uneven surfaces.
This occurrence requires passivation treatment to reduce the negative effects of these oxide layers and
to keep the surfaces smooth and
free of imperfections that can cause
equipment failure.
Exposure to chemicals. Materials can have adverse reactions to
chemicals in various environments.
Environmental chemical factors can
include high acidity and the presence
of oxygen or aqueous solutions, or
even harsh cleaning or sanitizing
agents. Although the production
environment may be non-corrosive,
the presence of these chemicals can
cause materials to react, so a designer should consider the risks when
selecting materials.
Temperature resistance. The engineer should be aware that the mechanical limits of materials can be
negatively affected by high temperatures, potentially causing thermal
failure or deformation. Materials are
also selected based on temperature resistance because the effect
of extreme temperatures on materiCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
als can cause increased corrosion

rates. High-temperature materials include iron-, nickel- and cobalt-based
metal alloys.
Cost. A major factor in the materialsselection decision typically involves
the initial cost of the material, the
ease of machining and repair and the
availability of the material. Cost influences the balance between materials
and machining in the case of material grades. For example, if an engineer chooses Inconel as the material
for the product, the grade affects the
machining cost. Since Inconel 600 is
much easier to machine than Inconel
718, the time and cost of machining
can change considerably depending
on which grade is chosen. Figure 1
shows some threaded parts that are
constructed of Inconel 718. However,
note that cost is usually secondary to
the other considerations that involve
consistent and reliable operation of
the part in its application.
Restrictive applications. In most
CPI applications, the selection of the
appropriate material can usually prevent the negative effects associated
with the operating environment, but
some applications are more restrictive. Due to strict operating-environment protocols, designing parts for
certain applications, such as nuclear
processing, can be limiting when it
comes to choosing a material. Areas
at risk for fire or explosions, such
as oil-and-gas processing facilities,
are also restrictive when considering equipment material. Certification systems, such as the International Electrotechnical Commissions
(IEC; Geneva, Switzerland; www.
iec.ch) globally recognized System
for Certification to Standards Relating to Equipment for Use in Explosive Atmospheres (IECEx System;
www.iecex.com), may require the
provision of specific material properties to improve equipment and
personnel safety.
The most common class of materials chosen for chemical processing
equipment is metal, because metal
materials are typically stronger, more
resistant to fatigue and cracking,
and are typically easier to machine
than other material classes, such as
glasses, polymers and ceramics.
FEBRUARY 2016
FIGURE 2. Threaded parts must be able to withstand a number of harsh conditions in CPI applications, including exposure to corrosive materials,
high temperatures and pressures and other environmental restrictions
For small threaded parts (such as

threaded valve connectors) that play
a significant role in the performance
and longevity of chemical processing
equipment, metals are most often
selected for these properties. However, in some precision equipment,
such as gears, ceramics and other
hard materials are corrosion-resistant and can achieve equal or better
surface finishes than some metals.
Other non-metallic materials, such
as high-performance polymers, are
used in place of metals to reduce the
weight of equipment.
Threaded parts and valves

Threaded parts (Figure 2) and valves
are used in processing equipment in
countless CPI applications, but can
often be overlooked. An understanding of these complex parts gives engineers insight into the materials-selection and machining processes.
Fasteners and threads. Fasteners and threaded parts can be the
smallest parts in chemical processing equipment, but are often critical
to the assembly of larger equipment.
These components must be strong,
durable and corrosion-resistant to
ensure that equipment performs
safely and reliably. As mentioned, exotic metals, including stainless-steel
alloys, titanium and Inconel, which
have greater resistance to harsh
chemicals and can endure very high
temperatures, are examples of desirable materials for fasteners used in
heat exchangers, exhaust systems,
tanks, vessels and other processing equipment. Mechanical properties, such as high strength-to-weight
ratios, will also lead a designer to
choose an exotic metal.
Valves. Valves are highly involved
in chemical processing equipment,
such as the piping systems that
49
FIGURE 3. Stainless steel provides many beneficial properties for valve internals, but this material can
pose challenges for machining processes
control the flow of liquids, gases and

vapors. Valve systems can be very
complex, with multiple parts and components, and each one must perform
as expected by resisting corrosion and
fatigue. In harsh chemical-processing
applications, valve systems are often
custom designed to maintain pressure levels and prevent dangerous,
and sometimes lethal, fugitive emissions. The control of fugitive emissions, no matter how small, is a major
concern for plant engineers because
they can be harmful to personnel,
equipment and the environment.
Many of the basic external and internal components of a valve system
depend on strong and tight threaded
joints and connections for safe, reliable and efficient performance under
demanding operating environments.
An example of a threaded component in a valve is the valve body. Valve
bodies make up the structural foundation and contain the internal components of most pressure valves.
They are connected to piping via
threaded or welded joints. The body
is commonly attached to the valve
bonnet with threaded connections.
The bonnet houses the valve stem.
Valve stems are typically attached to
a disk (or ball, depending on the valve
type) via threads. As the threaded
stem spins into or out of the valve
bonnet, the disk moves, controlling
the chemical flow. The seal between
the stem and disk must be tight, and
uniform thread finishes are important
to prevent leaks.
50
To ensure peak performance of these

complex components, exotic metals
are chosen. However, the selection of
these exotic metals can present additional design challenges related to machining that design engineers are often
unaware of that can negatively impact
product quality and inadvertently drive
up costs. Figure 3 depicts internal
components from a high-pressure
gas valve that are constructed of 316
stainless steel.
Machining specification
For threaded parts, it is common
for design engineers to leave the
machining method unspecified on
a request for quote (RFQ) or design
specification. The method is then
left up to the machine shop to decide, which can result in missed opportunities for the designer to avoid
premature failure, improve product
quality and reduce costs, especially
if the selected materials are difficult
to machine. Knowing the available
machining options can help a designer to make the most appropriate
design choices.
Machining method options. The
two most common methods for
the machining of external and internal threads are cutting and rolling.
Thread cutting is a process in which
a sharpened cutting tool is used to
physically remove material from a
blank, metal round bar or hole to
form threads. This results in the production of rough, uneven threads
with microscopic chips that can flake
off and foul the operating environment or cause excessive friction.

Thread rolling is a work-hardening
process in which flat or cylindrical
dies apply great amounts of pressure to the blank material, forcing
the material outward into the shape
of threads. Because the material is
displaced instead of removed, rolled
threads are typically hardened and
have smooth finishes. Figure 4 illustrates the physical differences
between parts that undergo thread
cutting and thread rolling.
In CPI applications that require
thread accuracy, rolling has significant advantages over thread cutting. Rolled threads have smooth finishes, very tight tolerances, superior
strength, resistance to fatigue and
consistent thread geometry all desirable properties of equipment used
for chemical processing. Thread accuracy and consistency is critical for
any harsh environment. When assembling a product, ensuring consistent flow and preventing leakage
results in a more reliable and efficient
final product. This will not only improve the safety of personnel, but it
will also reduce the loss of expensive
chemicals. Consistent surface finishes also prevent harsh chemicals
from attaching to imperfections, pits
or tool marks on the metal surface.
At this point, a design engineer
may ask: how does thread rolling
relate to material selection? As mentioned, metals are the most commonly chosen material class for the
design of chemical processing equipment. Despite being more corrosionresistant, stronger and resistant to
fracture, metals can also possess
qualities that make them difficult to
machine. Because the CPI count on
many types of metals for safety and
reliability, choosing the most suitable
machining method for specific materials is important for the design of
threaded parts and valves.
Machining solutions
As previously discussed, exotic and
hard-to-machine metals, such as
stainless steels, titanium and nickelbased alloys like Inconel, are often
chosen due to their physical properties capabilities in the required application. However, these materials
FEBRUARY 2016
also have various undesirable properties that can create challenges.

These potential issues can usually
be overcome by selecting the correct
machining method.
Ease of machining. Ductility, or a
materials ability to deform without
fracture, is a major property that determines its machinability. Steels and
nonferrous metals that are less ductile
will typically break and produce chips
and impurities as material is removed.
As a result, thread cutting is a very ineffective method of machining for these
materials. Although these metals do
not deform easily and require much
greater amounts of pressure to form
threads, they typically roll very efficiently and yield the consistent thread
geometry and smooth surfaces that
are desirable for equipment components used in the CPI. The ductility of
a specific material can be acquired
from an ASTM International test.
Smooth surfaces. When a material
is cut, the microscopic particles that
are left behind can cause thread galling. Galling is a form of wear caused
by the sliding and friction between
two metal surfaces. Unlike some
forms of wear that occur over time,
the negative effects of galling will be
observed as soon as the metal parts
are assembled and in sliding contact.
When a metal surface galls, microscopic particles break off and foul
the operating environment. Galling
is most common in ductile metals
like aluminum compounds, because
particles are more prone to transfer
during motion.
Although these ductile metals are
more likely to gall, the high pressures
of the dies during the thread-rolling
process makes the metal surfaces
harder and denser. This means that
the presence of microscopic particles
that typically form during the machining of ductile metals is significantly
reduced. Choosing thread rolling is
a strategy that a designer can take
prior to production that can result in
smooth surfaces on various types of
metal fasteners and threads.
Protecting against oxidation. As
discussed, oxide layers form in many
types of metals, such as stainless
steel, titanium or aluminum, for increased corrosion protection. However, this can cause significant issues
Rolled threads
Cut threads
FIGURE 4. Thread cutting and thread rolling are the two most commonly used methods for the machining
of threaded parts
for threads and mated parts.

If the surfaces of the threads have
impurities or imperfections, they will
cause increased friction as parts
tighten. This causes the oxide films
on the surface to be scraped away,
leaving behind damage to the underlying layers of metal. These damaged
and exposed layers are prime starting points for galling. Typically, surface finishes are used as a preventive
measure, but in many chemical-processing applications, such as food
or pharmaceutical processing, the
selected finish must meet the regula-
tions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA; Washington, D.C;

www.usda.gov) or the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA; Silver
Spring, Md.; www.fda.gov) to avoid
contamination. In these cases, thread
rolling can be a means of eliminating the impurities that can adhere to
these surfaces and cause oxide layers to come apart.
Complete material isolation. In CPI
applications, the isolation of material
is often critical, so valves are used to
constrain the flow of gases, liquids or
vapors to a specific location. These
FIGURE 5. An understanding of the thread-rolling technique helps engineers to save costs when specifying materials for valve internals
FEBRUARY 2016
51
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24742
isolation valves require highly reliable shutoff and sealing capabilities

in order to prevent dangerous leaks
in harsh operating environments.
Application-specific materials may
prevent corrosion, but rolled threads
can help to ensure stronger seals
and connections.
Rolled threads are work-hardened
without the removal of material, so
the natural material grains are left
unbroken and continuous. As a result, these threads have much higher
yield strengths and tighter tolerances
than that of cut threads. The uniform
thread geometry of rolled threads allows parts to fit together better, with
fewer chances for sliding or loosening. Depending on the ductility of the
material, tolerances of rolled threads
can be as tight as 0.015 mm.
These tight tolerances are ideal for
threaded valve joints and connections
that require reliable material isolation
and shut-off.
Production costs. As with material
selection, the selection of the machining method can impact costs. The
thread-rolling process is much more
efficient than cutting, and in some
cases can result in 90% decreases in
production times. Unlike the cutting
tools that must be sharpened and
reset periodically during machining,
the dies used for rolling can continue
production for long periods of time.
Die lifetime is an important factor in
considering machining costs. Figure
5 shows an example of some internal components from a high-pressure
fog valve that are constructed of 316
stainless steel. For such components,
the designer has the option to specify
full thread crest, if required. However,
if an application does not require full
thread crest, the costs will be lowered
because the die life is increased when
the crest is not full. This has no impact
on the effective portion of the thread.
Full thread crest was not specified for
the components in Figure 5.
The accuracy of rolled threads
is another factor that makes them
cost-effective, because the need to
frequently inspect threads for consistency during production runs is
eliminated. This saves on costs of
labor. By rolling threads, the design
engineer will observe the exact same
thread geometry for the first part as
the last.
An understanding of the intended

functionality and operating environment is significant in deciding on a
material for a small threaded part or
valve component in the CPI, but this is
only part of the process. Going a step
further in the design of these components by specifying the machining
method is another way of ensuring
that the part will operate at peak performance when manufactured from
the desired material.

Edited by Mary Page Bailey
Author
Kenneth Rinier is the general
manager of Vallorbs Jewel Co.
(2599 Old Philadelphia Pike,
Bird-In-Hand, PA 17505; Website:
www.vallorbs.com; Phone: 1-717392-3978), a precision parts machining company that specializes
in small, complex components.
Rinier is a trade-school graduate
in precision machining, having
studied advanced blueprint reading, geometric dimensioning and tolerances and lean manufacturing. He has
over 36 years of on-the-job experience at Vallorbs as a
Swiss screw machine operator, tool designer and fabricator, quality-control supervisor and site manager.
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FEBRUARY 2016
53
Engineering Practice
Managing Small and Medium-sized
Capital Projects
A real-life example is provided to show how to stay on program and within budget
Construction Business Associates, LLC
Peter Hessler
Construction Business
Associates, LLC
ver the past few years,

much has been written
in the trade press about
how to manage large, $1billion-plus plant-construction and
expansion projects in the chemical
process industries (CPI). However,
when it comes to managing projects
with a smaller scope say, projects in the $25250 million range
a variety of nuanced management issues arise. Such projects
include small new plants, additions
to existing plants, and expansions
of currently operating facilities. This
article suggests practical and immediate ways to deal with some of the
unique management challenges that
often arise.
Large mega-projects are usually
managed by one of the larger, worldrenowned contractor firms, which
have a full suite of project-management tools, capabilities and expertise
at their disposal. Such contractors
have built larger-than-life projects,
using tried-and-true project-management protocols that have been
successfully used on hundreds of
projects over many decades around
the world. Although problems do
occur, they are more often related to
misunderstandings than surprises,
and the contractor usually has the
deep expertise needed to address
any of these problems as they arise.
However, smaller, more frequently
incurred projects, such as plant expansions or conversions, are often
managed by smaller, less-experienced contractors, who do not always have expertise or experience
with the sophisticated project-management processes that are used by
the mega-contractors. As a result,
such projects often run way over
54
FIGURE 1. Can the owner of this chemical plant expansion be assured that this relatively small project
will be completed on time and within budget? Yes, and with relative ease, if the team follows the recommendations proposed here
budget, defy timeline constraints,

present numerous surprises, and
even lead to lawsuits.
One reason is that the CPI plant
personnel who are frequently tasked
with the responsibility of overseeing such projects are not, by training, project managers. Rather, their
expertise lies in running the plant on
a day-to-day basis ensuring that
raw materials are available, that existing equipment is ready for production, and that trained personnel are
available to make the product. Their
expertise does not lie in the realm
of managing engineering manhours
for plant design, or in procuring and
expediting the delivery and deployment of large tanks, reactor vessels,
pumps, motors and more. And the
experience and expertise required
to determine if the construction portion of the project is progressing as
promised and as needed to meet
budget, schedule, quality and safety
norms is typically beyond the skill set
of most plant personnel they are
simply not experts at managing a

team of contractors.
Nonetheless, many CPI organizations still try to manage the contractors who are building their small or
medium-sized new plant or expansion projects by using only their existing plant personnel. Sometimes they
derive comfort from assurances from
their contractors, who say nothing
will go wrong.
Often this is due to a reluctance
to spend extra money on third-party
overseers. Sometimes it is due to a
perception that since project building and construction management
are not based on finely tuned formulas and recipes, these activities can
simply be overseen by existing plant
personnel, adding just a few hours
per week of extra duties to an already full-time schedule.
Unfortunately, as is often the case,
the result of such an approach is a
scenario characterized by budget
overruns, schedule delays, and at
times, lawsuits.
FEBRUARY 2016
A real-life example
Discussed below is a real-life example of what can happen when
the meager are challenged by the
eager. At one CPI facility (Figure 1),
a plant expansion was undertaken,
involving the construction of a new
facility to replace an existing one,
with the goal of more than doubling
the number of products from 80 to
170. The project was planned to be
performed with no downtime so
the existing facility continued to produce the initial 80 products throughout this initiative.
Now envision this new facility
designed for 14 newly added production vessels and reactors, each
requiring its own pumps, motors
and valves, and tapping into shared
service systems. Imagine more than
two dozen extra-large holding tanks,
indoors and outdoors, each with its
own set of pipes, pumps, motors
and valves, all feeding into the 14
production vessels and reactors.
Add to this the need to build a
structure to house all of this just
one aspect of the project that required
more than 2,500 cubic yards of concrete (enough to build a ten-mile long
sidewalk), and more than 600 tons of
structural building and support steel.
The five miles of stainless steel piping connecting all of these tanks, vessels, and reactors required 15,000
individual butt welds. Also required
were power cables more than 13
miles of them and nearly 30 miles
of instrumentation cables to connect more than 1,500 instruments.
Although this project involved only
one main contractor, there were 50
subcontractors involved, and each
required coordination and support, in
a planned period of 14 months.
How does the plant manager,
or his or her designee, know when
trouble might be just around the corner? Usually, the main contractor
promises that nothing major will go
wrong, but in the event that there are
signs of impending problems, the
contractor promises that the management tools and protocols being
used will highlight them in plenty of
time to allow corrective action to
be taken. This was the case in the
above-described project.
When reality sets in

At some point, reality does set in,
as it did in the case discussed here.
One day the plant manager decided

his staff was too short-handed to really know where the project stood.
There were more than 100 craftsmen on the job, large vessels,
tanks and reactors were arriving
on a regular basis, pipe prefabrication had begun at an off-site facility,
and safety issues were cropping up.
The plant staff just could not stay on
top of it all. So a third-party overseer
was engaged.
That engagement resulted in a
series of project reviews and subsequent discussions. The first item
that was discussed was the current
project status that is, what was
the contractors perception in terms
of the percent of the work complete
at that time? At that point, the contractor was reporting that the project
was 46% complete.
The first question from the thirdparty consultant was: So that
means theres only 54% more to go,
and then youre done? The answer
was not a resounding yes. The next
question sought to learn how the
46% assessment was derived. As it
turned out, that estimate had nothing to do with the work effort actually
being expended the primary measurement needed to predict when a
capital project will be done, and at
what cost.
Therefore the discussions turned
to how to better recalibrate progress
measurement. The contractor was
encouraged to look at the remaining work and decide how it should
be scheduled going forward by
individual disciplines (such as civil
works, steel erection and piping), or
by entire systems (such as reactor
vessel systems 1, 2, 3 and so on)?
Because if the project really was
46% complete, the work measurement and focus should have been
on reactor vessel systems instead of
disciplines for quite some time. Everyone agreed on this.
To improve the progress-measurement process, the contractor restructured the schedule to reflect the
work that remained in order to complete the original 14 production vessels and reactors and their support
equipment. This now allowed the
plant manager and staff to visualize
where progress was actually occurring, and where it was not.
At the time the contractor professed 46% progress, almost none
FEBRUARY 2016
of the 14 vessels or reactors had yet

been placed in the building. Almost
no connecting piping had been received onsite. And a check of the
warehouse receiving area showed
almost no valves, instruments and
other sundry items on hand and
ready for installation. It was clear that
the 46% complete number was not
a realistic reflection of the situation at
that time. So then the open question
was, what should it have been?
Measuring progress
Since the project would ultimately
have more than 5 miles of piping,
the contractor suggested the projects progress could be measured in
terms of feet of piping installed. This
logic was agreed upon, because
everything in the plant (outside of
electrical work) was ultimately dependent on the piping in one way or
another. For example, the steel was
needed not only to frame the building in which the piping would reside,
but also to support the piping as it
was being hung. The piping then
would connect all of the 14 production systems, their vessels, tanks,
reactors, pumps and motors. Even
installation of most of the valves and
instruments (not yet onsite) would
ultimately be dependent upon the
piping. Ditto for the insulation. Therefore tying the project progress to the
amount of piping installation completed made sense.
However, that was not the end of
the story. The contractors suggestion that using the number of feet
of piping installed as a proxy for
the projects progress had an obvious flaw. Since progress measurement, which is tied to schedule and
cost, is really about work effort, the
manhours required to put piping in
place had to be considered. For example, how much effort does it take
to raise into place a two-foot section
of pipe versus a four-foot section?
Essentially the same, except that the
four-foot piece could claim twice the
progress of the two-foot piece.
So a slightly different measurement
was required, and that measurement
was the number of pipe connections, in this case welds. Regardless
of the length of the pipe, only the
number of completed welds truly reflects the real progress of the piping
work; hence this measure serves as
an even better proxy for the progress
55
Welding progress
2,000
10,000
1,400
1,200
8,000
1,000
800
6,000
600
4,000
400
Cumulative welds required
12,000
1,600
Monthly welds required
BUILD TRANSPARENCY
14,000
1,800
2,000
200
0
1
5
6
7
8
Months
n Achieved n Required Total achieved Total required
FIGURE 2. Shown here is a snapshot of the remaining 12,000 welds required to complete the project, and
the actual pace of completion
of the overall capital project.

Therefore, a system of weld counts
was developed. This approach, universally used in the construction of
large power plants, was easily applied to this project. Since almost all
of the welds were of the same size
and wall thickness, a straightforward
count of welds sufficed, as opposed
to the concept of determining equivalent welds.
The system was simple. Using
the design documents, most of the
15,000 welds were assigned to each
of the 14 systems and the remainder
were attributed to a category called
common. In this manner, as welds
were completed, one could now not
only determine the projects overall
percent complete, but also determine the approximate state of readiness of each of the 14 systems.
For example, lets say that each
system had approximately 1,000
welds associated with it. That then
left 1,000 welds to be assigned
to the common category. So the
agreement was that only once 7,500
welds were complete could the project work be called 50% complete,
and this was not yet the case.
When the consultant was engaged,
a detailed weld count revealed that
only 3,000 of the 15,000 welds had
been completed leaving 12,000
welds still to be completed. Figure
2 shows the plan for those remaining 12,000 welds over the next nine
months, and the actual progress to
the mid-point of the job.
As shown in Figure 2, 50% of the
total 15,000 welds were completed
in the fifth month of welding. Per the
earlier agreement, that then equated
to a project completion of 50%.
56
However, once a construction

project, such as this chemical plant
expansion, reaches that 50% completion stage, the focus needs to
shift to include commissioning and
startup. In this case, it was comforting to finally know that after 5
months of welding, approximately
half of the work effort was complete
but this did not assure that all 14
systems would be ready for commissioning and startup, as needed, for
the upcoming production cycle. So,
attention was shifted to determine
which of the 14 systems needed to
be ready when. The systems were
prioritized, and this effort helped to
determine exactly which welds had
to be made next.
One could now take the position
that, having established a rational
approach for measuring progress
and establishing priorities, the work
was well in hand and minimal attention needed to be paid to the remaining efforts of the contractor. Unfortunately, such a position is never
prudent, and letting go of the management details could still end up
with the project in a state of disaster.
For this real-life project, this was fortunately recognized by all parties.
Costs
The question to be asked at this
stage of the project was whether or
not the contractor could meet the
resource requirements to get from
the current 50% to 100% within
the allotted budget, in accordance
with the restructured schedule. To
answer this question, an additional
view of the project was required
beyond just measuring the percent completed. The added insight
The key to building transparency in a

complex expansion or revamp project is
to know:
When to switch from measuring by discipline to measuring by system
How to determine progress as it relates
to work effort
How to measure progress as it relates
to productivity
How to measure progress as it relates
to budget
How to determine overall project completion
required that the percent complete

needed to be measured and plotted against time, so that the project
could progress going forward. Figure
3 provides an example of this.
As shown in Figure 3, plotting manhours (on the left vertical axis), and
percent complete (on the right vertical axis) against time on the horizontal axis, both against a planned percent-complete curve (shown with a
black dashed line), tells an interesting
story. It shows that after 7 months,
the 14-month project is essentially at
the 50% point, just as was planned.
However, it also shows that the costs
are exceeding the budget, and actually have been since the work was initiated. If this were allowed to continue
without a change in course, it would
have resulted in a 20% overrun (or
greater) of the budget.
In most scenarios, this is not acceptable. So the project team
needed to review the plans that were
in place for completing the second
half of this project.The goal was to
see if there might be alternate approaches that would still maintain
the schedule while also maintaining
or reducing the costs and resources
required. Usually, at this stage of the
project, there are still some opportunities to change the trajectory of the
budget projections and timelines. In
this particular project, with half of the
welding still to be completed, changing from manual to orbital welding
provided an ideal opportunity to reduce future costs (by reducing the
number of hours required to complete this work).
The outcome
Ultimately, this project was completed on time and within budget.
However, it is doubtful that outcome
would have been the result without
FEBRUARY 2016
Progress graph
Actual
100%
80
80%
60
60%
40
Month 14
Month 11
Month 10
Month 9
Month 8
Month 7
Month 6
Month 5
Month 4
Month 3
Month 2
Month 1
20
Month 13
Budget manhours
Actual manhours
Planned % complete
Actual % complete
Month 12
Manhours x 1,000
100
calculated as follows:
120%
Projected
Mechanical work = 65% of the project

x
50% complete
=
33% of the total project
completed
Percent complete
120
40%
20%
0%
FIGURE 3. This progress graph projects that if no changes are made, the project will still be completed on
time, but almost 20% over budget
the intervention of someone attuned

to the intricacies of project management, someone who understood the
complexities of linking the worlds of
engineering and equipment procurement with the world of construction
(classically called EPC management). The intervention started with
a shift to manage the project not by
physical disciplines, such as civil,
steel and mechanical erection (the
traditional approach), but by production systems (discussed earlier). This
allowed everyones focus to be realigned to concentrate on, and prepare for, the systems readiness.
The next step was to develop a
system of progress measurement
that reflected actual work effort expended versus the effort that was
still required. In other words, if a project is 46% complete, does that truly
translate into only 54% more work
effort manhours required to complete
the project? The challenge here is to
pick a measurement that is readily
understood, yet representative of
both the actual work performed and
the remaining work still to be performed. In this case, settling on the
measurement of the number of piping welds completed was key.
The third step was to marry the
progress measurement and percent-complete with the work effort
expended. In reality, the goal was
to determine the work effort still required to get to completion (that is,
how many manhours have been
used versus how many more are reCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
quired to complete the work). Comparing these two metrics (percent

complete and manhours still to be
expended) against a timeline provides insight into whether the project
will be completed on time and within
budget. In this case, the answer was
no, unless other, less costly or moreefficient ways were found to complete the remainder of the work. This
challenge was addressed by switching to orbital welding.
The rest of the story

The prior discussion concentrated
on the mechanical work required to
complete this project. Similar approaches were taken with the electrical work and the instrumentation wiring. These disciplines, within each of
the 14 systems, were also measured
and compared to percent complete
against time.
For the electrical work, wiring
terminations were used in a similar manner as weld counts (as a
reasonable proxy for work completed). The mechanical work then
was prorated with the electrical
and instrumentation (E&I) work
to derive a total percent of the project
completed. For this project, the mechanical work was assigned a value
of 65% (based on total manhour requirements). The E&I work was collectively assigned a 35% value. So
when half of the mechanical work
was complete (50%), and the 20%
of the E&I work was complete, the
overall project was 40% complete,
FEBRUARY 2016
E&I work = 35% of the project

x
20% complete
=
7% of the total project completed
Adding these two numbers (33%
plus 7%) demonstrates that 40% of
the total work had been completed.
This measurement process continued until the project reached completion (100%).
The takeaway
In summary, when faced with an
EPC plant build-out or expansion
project that does not involve a large,
dedicated industrial plant construction contractor, thought should be
given to what could go wrong. Does
the plant staff have the project management experience to ensure total
transparency between the contractor and the plant? Even if it does, will
the plant management staff have the
time required to ensure this? Is there
someone available who can provide
the proverbial sniff test that all aspects are on track? In other words,
is someone available on staff to drill
down into the details of the project
to ensure this transparency?
If the answer to all of these questions is a definite yes, then no more
is required. However, if it is not an unqualified yes, then the project would
benefit from a third-party partner to
n
provide support and oversight.
Edited by Suzanne Shelley
Author
Peter Hessler is the president of
Construction Business Associates,
LLC (2310 Seven Lakes South,
West End, NC 27376; 910-4003113;
Email:
pghessler@
constrbiz.com), a provider of business-management services to the
power and process construction
industries. He has almost 40 years
of experience in the power and
industrial plant construction and maintenance industry,
worldwide, having worked as an owner, contractor, and
now as a consultant. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and is the
author of two books on the subject of power-plant construction management. He also has published numerous articles on various aspects of managing large industrial projects.
57
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Contact Jim Salter 281-282-9200
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Advertisers Index
Advertiser............. Page number
Phone number
Reader Service #

Phone number
Reader Service #

Phone number
Reader Service #
Abbe, Paul O. .........................33
Pick Heaters ..........................59
Schenck Process ...................59
1-855-789-9827
1-800-558-0184
* Plast-O-Matic Valves, Inc. ....4I

Sierra Instruments, Inc. ............3
1-832-296-6624
Quest Integrity Group, LLC ....29
1-800-866-0200
Badger Meter, Inc. ................ 4D
RedGuard .......SECOND COVER
1-855-REDGUARD
American Filtration &

Separations Society ...............47
BETE Fog Nozzle .....................6
Rembe GmbH ........................26
Check-All Valve Mfg. Co. .......28
49 2961 50714
1-515-224-2301
Chemstations ......................... 10
1-800-CHEMCAD
DECHEMA AusstellungsGmbH/AchemAsia .................24
Ross, Charles &

Son Company ................9, 11, 13
Sturtevant Inc. ........................ 19

1-800-992-0209
TEAM Industrial Services........ 15

1-800-662-8326
Technical Database
Services .................................27
1-800-243-ROSS
adlinks.chemengonline.com/61492-18, 19, 20
TLV Corporation .....................37
Saint-Gobain Ceramics ...........17
1-704-597-9070
1-716-278-6263
YS Inc. ....................................33
1-888-356-3343
Dyna-Therm ........................... 31
1-281-987-0726
Flexicon
Corporation ..... FOURTH COVER
1-888-FLEXICON
Inline Industries ...................... 14

1-800-568-8998
Classiied Index February 2016

Advertiser
Phone number
Page number
Reader Service #
Amandus Kahl GmbH

& Co. KG ................................60
Applied e-Simulators
Software................................. 61
1-800-469-4887
Load Controls ........................22

1-888-600-3247
Advertiser's Product
Showcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Computer Software . . . . . . . 61
Equipment, New & Used . . . 61
Advertiser
Phone number
Page number
Reader Service #
Indeck Power Equipment Co....61

1-800-446-3325
Vesconite Bearings ................ 61

27 11 616 11 11
Miller-Stephenson Chemical
Company, Inc. ........................28
KnightHawk Engineering ........ 61
1-800-992-2424
1-281-282-9200
Wabash Power
Equipment Co. ....................... 61
NACE International .................53
Micromold Products............... 61
1-800-704-2002
1-914-338-8840
Xchanger, Inc. ........................ 61
* International Edition
See bottom of opposite page for
advertising sales representatives'
contact information
Ross, Charles &

Son Company ........................ 61
1-952-933-2559
1-800-243-ROSS
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February 2016; VOL. 123; NO. 2
Chemical Engineering copyright @ 2016 (ISSN 0009-2460) is published monthly by Access Intelligence, LLC, 9211 Corporate Blvd., 4th Floor, Rockville, MD, 20850-3245. Chemical Engineering Executive, Editorial, Advertising and Publication Offices:
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FEBRUARY 2016
63
Economic Indicators
2013
2014
2015
Download the CEPCI two weeks sooner at www.chemengonline.com/pci
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT COST INDEX (CEPCI)

625
(1957-59 = 100)
CE Index ______________________________________________
Equipment ____________________________________________
Heat exchangers & tanks _________________________________
Process machinery _____________________________________
Pipe, valves & fittings ____________________________________
Process instruments ____________________________________
Pumps & compressors ___________________________________
Electrical equipment ____________________________________
Structural supports & misc ________________________________
Construction labor _______________________________________
Buildings _____________________________________________
Engineering & supervision _________________________________
Nov. '15
Prelim.
Oct. '15
Final
Nov.'14
Final
543.0
648.9
566.6
652.3
803.4
386.6
956.5
508.4
713.4
324.3
539.3
318.2
547.2
654.9
575.4
655.0
808.6
390.1
956.4
508.2
723.6
325.8
540.4
317.7
578.4
702.5
649.3
662.9
875.4
411.7
942.9
516.2
769.9
322.4
546.9
320.1
Annual Index:
2007 = 525.4
600
2008 = 575.4
2009 = 521.9
575
2010 = 550.8
2011 = 585.7
550
2012 = 584.6
2013 = 567.3
525
2014 = 576.1
500
Starting with the April 2007 Final numbers, several of the data series for labor and compressors have been converted to
accommodate series IDs that were discontinued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
CURRENT BUSINESS INDICATORS
LATEST
PREVIOUS
CPI output index (2012 = 100) ____________________________________________________

CPI value of output, $ billions _____________________________________________________
CPI operating rate, % __________________________________________________________
Producer prices, industrial chemicals (1982 = 100) ____________________________________
Dec. '15
Nov. '15
Dec. '15
Dec. '15
=
=
=
=
105.4
1,803.7
75.8
233.4
Nov. '15
Oct. '15
Nov. '15
Nov. '15
=
=
=
=
106.0
1,813.3
76.3
234.6
Industrial Production in Manufacturing (2012=100)* ____________________________________

Hourly earnings index, chemical & allied products (1992 = 100) ____________________________
Productivity index, chemicals & allied products (1992 = 100) ______________________________
Dec. '15
Dec. '15
Dec. '15
=
=
=
106.0
159.4
107.5
Nov. '15
Nov. '15
Nov. '15
=
=
=
106.1
160.4
107.0
CPI OUTPUT VALUE ($ BILLIONS)
CPI OUTPUT INDEX (2000 = 100)

110
YEAR AGO
Oct. '15
Sept. '15
Oct. '15
Oct. '15
=
=
=
=
105.9
1,818.9
76.4
237.3
Dec. '14
Nov. '14
Dec. '14
Dec. '14
=
=
=
=
105.3
2,069.4
76.6
263.4
Oct. '15
Oct. '15
Oct. '15
=
=
=
106.2
159.3
105.8
Dec. '14
Dec. '14
Dec. '14
=
=
=
105.2
157.3
106.1
CPI OPERATING RATE (%)
2300
80
2200
78
2100
76
2000
74
1900
72
105
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
1800
J F M A M J
J A S O N D
J F M A M J
J A S O N D
J F M A M J
J A S O N D
*Due to discontinuance, the Index of Industrial Activity has been replaced by the Industrial Production in Manufacturing index from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
For the current months CPI output index values, the base year was changed from 2000 to 2012
Current business indicators provided by Global Insight, Inc., Lexington, Mass.
EXCLUSIVE AD SPACE AVAILABLE!

Feature your marketing message
The Economic Indicators department includes current industry

trends and the Plant Cost Index. As one of the most valued sections
in the magazine, your ad is guaranteed to reach decision makers
each month. Contact your sales representative to secure this spot.
JASON BULLOCK
jbullock@chemengonline.com
TERRY DAVIS
tdavis@chemengonline.com
DAN GENTILE
PETRA TRAUTES
dgentile@chemengonline.com ptrautes@accessintel.com
64
chemengonline.com/mediakit
CURRENT TRENDS
he preliminary value for the November 2015 CE Plant Cost Index

(CEPCI; top; the most recent available)
declined again from the previous month,
driven by a relatively large decrease in
the Equipment subindex and small decreases in the Buildings and Construction Labor subindices. The Engineering
and Supervision subindex saw a small
increase in November. The preliminary
CEPCI value for November 2015 is 6.1%
lower than the corresponding value from
a year ago at the same time. Meanwhile,
the latest Current Business Indicators
(CBI; middle) numbers showed a decline in the CPI output index, as well as
in the CPI value of output index and in
producer prices for industrial chemicals.
The productivity index was up slightly.
FEBRUARY 2016
The Chemical Engineering store offers a variety of industry topics

you will come to rely on including textbooks, PDF guidebooks,
wall charts, maps, newsletters, CDs and much more.
Advanced Engineering Mathematics, 5th Edition
Applied Mathematics And Modeling For Chemical Engineers, 2nd
Edition
Avoiding Leakage Seals and Sealing Systems for Machinery and
Piping
Chementator Guidebook Series
Chemical Engineering Buyers Guide
Chemical Engineering Distillation Guidebook
Chemical Engineering Facts at Your Fingertips Guidebook Series
Chemical Engineering Features Report Guidebook Series
Chemical Engineerings Process Water and Wastewater Treatment
and Reuse Guidebook- Volume 1
Chemical Reaction Engineering, 3rd Edition
Compact Heat Exchangers
Compressors: Selection and Cost Engineering- Volume One
Compressors: Applications and Maintenance- Volume Two
Concurrent / Simultaneous Engineering Methods, Tools and Case
Studies Within a Lean Six-Sigma Quality Framework
Control and Automation: Volume 1- Process Control
Control and Automation: Volume 2- Process Automation
Control and Automation: Volume 3- Sensors
CPI Plant Safety: Volume 1- Managing Pressure Risk and Minimizing
Leakage
CPI Plant Safety: Volume 2- Managing Explosion and Fire Risks
CPI Plant Safety: Volume 3- Managing Safety Systems to Reduce Risk
Crystallization and Related Operations
Environmental Management: Air-Pollution Control
Environmental Management: Wastewater and Groundwater
Treatment
Fluid Handling
Gas Engineers Handbook- CD ROM
Gas-Solid and Liquid-Solid Separation
Guidelines for Engineering Design for Process Safety, 2nd Edition
Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety
Hazardous Chemicals Safety & Compliance Handbook for the
Metalworking Industries
Heat Exchanger and Condenser Tubes: Tube Types Materials
Attributes Machining
Heat Exchanger Fouling- Fundamental Approaches and Technical
Solutions
Heat Exchanger Fouling- Mitigation and Cleaning Technologies
Heat Recovery Steam Generators
Instrumentation Guidebook- Volume 1
Instrumentation Guidebook- Volume 2
Liquid-Liquid and Gas-Liquid Separation
Machine Designers Reference
Machine Shop Trade Secrets, 2nd Edition
Machinerys Handbook 29th Edition - Large Print

Managing Bulk Solids
Managing Steam: Volume 1 Best Practices for Producing and
Using Steam
Managing Steam: Volume 2 Focus on Inlet Water Treatment and
Energy Efficiency
Metering Pumps Handbook
Minimizing Corrosion and Fouling: Volume 1 Strategies and
Materials
Minimizing Corrosion and Fouling: Volume 2 Equipment-Specific
Best Practice
Mixers and Mixing
Mixing, Blending and Agglomeration: Volume 1 Combining
Liquids
Mixing, Blending and Agglomeration: Volume 2 Combining Bulk
Solids
Organic Chemistry Wall Chart
Pipe Flow: A Practical and Comprehensive Guide
Pipefitters Handbook, Third Edition
Piping Design and Operations Guidebook- Volume 1
Piping Design and Operations Guidebook- Volume 2
Plant and Personnel Safety
Plant Operation and Maintenance , Volume 1- Chemical Process
Equipment
Plant Operation and Maintenance, Volume 2- Procedures and Best
Practices
Positive Displacement Pumps: Wall Chart
Pristine Processing
Process Water and Wastewater Treatment and Reuse GuidebookVolume 2
Project Management and Cost Engineering: Strategic Planning and
Implementation- Volume 1
Project Management and Cost Engineering: Equipment-Specific
Tips and Strategies - Volume 2
Pumping Fundamentals Volume 1: Design and Selection
Pumping Fundamentals Volume 2: Operations and Maintenance
Reactors and Reaction Engineering: Volume 1 - Equipment and
Instrumentation
Renewable Chemicals and Fuels: Expansion and Commercialization
Roundup Guidebook
Solids Processing Guidebook- Volume 1
Technology Profiles Compilation Guidebooks
Thermal Management
Valves Wall Chart
Wallchart: Factors For Unit Conversion
Water Quality Engineering: Physical / Chemical Treatment Processes
You & Your Job - Practical Resources for Chemical Engineers
Guidebook
Find additional information on these titles by visiting store.chemengonline.com

25981
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FLEXICON Manual
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CONDITION
BLOCK-BUSTER Bulk Bag Conditioners
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CONVEY
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dump bulk material from drums
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Inside this issue

and much more. We hope you enjoy it.

Your one-stop resource

For over 60 years, BETE Fog Nozzle has been

Allow you to remove a

YOUR STRATEGIC PARTNER FOR ENGINEERED SPRAYING SOLUTIONS

Heat-dissipating gas OUT

Alkylate process featuring a solid-acid catalyst

recently announced process based

Exelus technology uses a proprietary

H2 FROM FORMIC ACID

Using air and hydrostatic pressure to

onsisting of a landAir out

Removing harmful metals from wastewater

opper and cadmium exist naturally

availability as waste products. The crushed