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CEW Contents CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WORLD RNI REGISTRATION NO. 11403/66 Chairman Publisher & Printer Chief Executive Officer
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CEW Industry News Gh a rd a U nv ei l s E ngi neeri ng R esins Mumbai, India: Gharda Plastics, a high- performance engineering polymers division of Gharda Chemicals Ltd, introduced its specialty lubricious solution for industrial and business appliances, integrating several reinforcements in G-PAEK and GAZOLE grades. This combined development with other industrial partners is intended for applications that need very high wear resistance. The G-PAEK product family is based on poly ether ketone (PEK) and GAZOLE - represents freshly-commercialised thermoplastic alloys of PEK and poly benzimidazole (PBI). Gharda Chemicals Ltd has planned to open a commercial-scale plant in Panoli for creating specialised engineering polyetherketone, polyetheretherketone and polybenzimidazole, using the new way of production. Prakash Trivedi, Head of Polymer Strategic Business Unit, Gharda, stated that the company will decide the final capacity and investments details in the following year and the work for new facility which is expected to commence by April, 2015. The company officials mentioned that the process of producing PEK utilises only single monomer and is completely based in chlorine rather than in fluorine. Dr Trivedi described that Gharda is the first in India of its kind with two featured wear grades. G-PAEK 1230FCT and GAZOLE 6430FCT which has easy flow characteristic for injecting moulds of intricate multi- cavity parts along with high heat deflation. Additionally, the G-PAEK and GAZOLE FCT grades showcases excellent mechanical properties, creep properties and dimensional stability.
President Emphasises on R&D in Chem Industry New Delhi, India: The 66 th Annual Indian Chemical Engineering Congress at the Institute of Chemical Technology was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee. H e s p o ke o n t h e n e e d o f i n c r e a s i n g expenditure and development in the chemical industry sector which is deeply connected with the rest of country’s economy. According to Pranab Mukherjee, currently the R&D Pranab Mukherjee, President, expenditure was even less than 0.5 per Government of India cent of the industry’s revenue and thus a significant scale –up in the expenditure to the global benchmark of 4 per cent is essential. He also explained that the agriculture sector and chemical industries are directly related to each other wherein the use of fertilisers and pesticides demonstrates the capacity to enhance farm production and hence results in huge impact on both the sectors. The Green Revolution that brought considerable raise in food production but the disproportionate utilisation of chemical fertilisers eventually resulted in declining the productivity. It is extremely impor tant that India now expands their horizon and increase production levels significantly in order to meet the needs of growing population. Along with the research and development, there is great need of awareness among farmers and farmer’s association to improvise the farm productivity. he further added.
Indian Chemical Industry -12 th Largest Producer; 12.5 Growth,
Contributing - 20 % National Revenue
MCL Coal Supply Hits Power Generation Bhubaneswar, India: NTPC, major power plants, Talcher Super Thermal Power Station and Talcher Thermal Power Station have testified about the limited coal supply and production restriction due to the issues of fuel supply and thus are expecting the recovery after the validity of prohibitory orders spanked in the coal producing areas. According to the TTPS officials, they haven’t received a single tonne of coal since November and therefore are currently operating plants with their own coal stock that may last up to December. With the end of prohibitory order, they are pretentious that supplies will resume soon. The plant needs roughly 10,000 tonne coal every day to run its 460 Mw power plant. Coal supplies dried up from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) mines as operation were stopped at 8 of its 10 mines after Talcher police smacked prohibitory orders Section 144 in the town after a ferocious incident. Mining operation and despatching through rail and conveyor belt came to a standstill following the orders. NTPC Ltd’s two operating units — Talcher Thermal Power Station and Talcher Super Thermal Power Station — are ranked among the 25 best power stations in the country. 10 • December 2013
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Demand for Biodegradable Masterbatches in India Mumbai, India: According to The All India Plastics Manufacturers’ Association, also the organiser of Plasivision India 2013, there is rising demand from several sectors of industries such as agriculture, automobile, engineering, packaging, infrastructure and healthcare, Indian plastics industry is expected to witness a significant growth in investment in new technologies. With the growing concern for environment, the market for biodegradable plastics is expected to increase in future, thus leading to rise in demand for biodegradable masterbatches – a key stabiliser that is added to plastics to help it decompose in environment. On the side lines of the events, Raju Desai, Chairman, Plastivision 2013, said, “At present, biodegradable masterbatches are imported in India. But, with rise in demand, one can expect these master-batches to be manufactured in India.” With big corporates like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Reliance Industries, etc. under the taking proactive steps to recycle plastics waste, plastics recycling segment is anticipated to witness huge investments in near future. “We would like to contribute our share to the society and propagate that plastic is not bad, but it is waste management that needs to be paid attention to. Hence, we have also undertaken several initiatives nationally for recycling of plastics,” he further added. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Industry News Plastic Industry to Witness Great Investment
20 % Growth in Domestic Polymer Products
Mumbai, India: According to Plastindia Foundation’s new study report, the plastics industry is anticipated to make investment of USD 10 billion for further increase in capacities during the next 5 years. Fuelled by increasing level of plastics usage in automobiles, consumer packaging and impact of increased infrastructure spending, the plastics industry is set to double up per capita consumption in next five years.
Mumbai, India: According to CRISIL Research, the domestic polymer products industry is expected to continue to perform well due to increase in penetration of polymer products in India and healthy demand from end-user industries. The domestic polymer products industry has grown at 18 per cent and 20 per cent CAGR over the past three and five years respectively. Due to lower cost of polymer products and superior properties (such as corrosion resistance, lower weight, higher life and better aesthetics) which have led to the replacement of metals, wood and paper by polymers, rise in awareness about the benefits of polymers and increase in their availability in India have supported substitution and demand from end-user industries such as FMCG, pharma, beverages, industrial chemicals, housing and consumer durables has been robust.The key reasons for preference for polymers is lower cost and superior properties (better strength, higher life of products, lower weight and better aesthetics) compared to other materials. These coupled with rise in awareness about the superior qualities and increased availability of polymers in India has led to an increase in penetration of polymer products in the domestic market.
The study concluded that the growth visions of this industry are bright as the per capita consumption of polymers industry in the country during 2012-13 was low at 9.7 kg as compared to 109 kg in USA, 45 kg in China and as high as 32 kg in a country like Brazil. Plastics industry would be a direct beneficiary of increasing per capita income, rising consumeriasation and impact of modern ways of living particularly in urban India. J R Shah, Chairman, National Executive Council, Plastindia 2015, said, “India is a growing market for plastics and consumes about 11 million tonnes annually against a global consumption of 275 million tonne per year and worldwide, the plastics and polymer consumption is growing at an average rate of 10 per cent and is expected to touch 16.5 million tonnes by 2016.”
Adil Zainulbhai Joins RIL NSI Conducts Seminar on Distillery Waste Management Lucknow, India: A one-day seminar on ‘Innovative approach for productivity enhancement and green link value addition of distillery waste’ was held at National Sugar Institute (NSI) and was inaugurated by B K Yadav, Managing Director, UP Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation Limited. A large number of exper ts, technology providers and machinery manufacturers from various states including UP, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, MP, Bihar, Haryana and Punjab took par t in it. According to Yadav utilisation of molasses for production of ethanol in an effective manner is essential. It is a cause of worry that against the installed capacity of 5400 million litres per annum, the production of alcohol is approximately 3,400 million litres per annum. In the keynote address, Narendra Mohan, Director, National Sugar Instittue, stressed on better utilisation of the by-product of the sugar industr y for valueaddition through innovative technologies and use of sugarcane juice, cellulose and starch-based feed stocks for producing ethanol and fuel ethanol. During the seminar, 13 papers were presented by the experts and technology providers. Santosh Kumar of NSI presented a paper on use of antibacterial components for inhibiting loss of sugar in molasses during storage which eventually yields higher amount of alcohol.
35%
in Ethanol reduces harmful tailpipe emissions. 12 • December 2013
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Mumbai, India: The Board of Directors of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) declared the appointment of Adil Zainulbhai as an Independent Director on the Board with immediate effect. After his joining, the Board will now ex p a n d t o 1 4 m e m b e r s, w h e r e i n 8 members are Independent Directors. Zainulbhai, Chairman, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing McKinsey India Director, Reliance Industries Limited said, “Adil is undoubtedly one of the finest consulting minds in the world and we are delighted to have him join our Board. I look forward to his contributions in strengthening Reliance and preparing the organisation for sustained high growth.” Zainulbhai, till recently the Chairman, McKinsey India, has had a distinguished 34 year career, consulting with a variety of Global and Indian Corporations and their Boards. He has been very closely associated with several government-sponsored projects in areas like energy, urbanisation and inclusive growth, apart from his keen interest and efforts in community and social causes. According to RIL Officials, Zainulbhai has also been appointed as a member of the ‘Audit Committee’ of the board of directors and member and chairman of the ‘nomination, human resources and remuneration committee’ of the board of directors of the company. Besides, Mukesh Ambani appoints four executive directors on board Hital Meswani, Nikhil Meswani, PMS Prasad and PK Kapil. Ramniklal Ambani is non-executive non-independent director in the company’s board. The eight independent directors are Mansingh Bhakta, Yogendra Trivedi, D V Kapur, M P Modi, Ashok Misra, Dipak Jain, R A Mashelkar and Adil Zainulbhai. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Industry News Clariant Chem Intends to Acquire Plastichemix Mumbai, India: The Leader in Specialty chemicals, Clariant Chemicals India Limited, declared their intention to a c q u i r e P l a s t i c h e m i x i n d u s t r i e s, a discoverer in the masterbatches business in India, with production facilities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari in Gu ja ra t. Pla stic h e mi x Ind ustr ies D r D e e p a k Pa r i k h , V i c e - is a leading supplier of Black, White, C h a i r m a n a n d M a n a g i n g Additive, Filler & Colour masterbatches, Director, Clariant Chemicals Flushed Pigments & Mono-Concentrates and Engineering Plastics Compounds. The deal closure is planned for Q1, 2014. Dr Deepak Parikh, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Clariant Chemicals (India) Ltd, said, “Clariant continues to reshape its por tfolio and maintain profitability in its core businesses by exploring organic and inorganic business opportunities. This acquisition reinforces o u r l o n g t e r m gr ow t h s t ra t e g y i n I n d i a a n d w i l l f u r t h e r elevate our market position. Clariant sees a bright future for masterbatches business in India and we are happy to forecast double digit growth in the near future creating value for all our stakeholders.” Samir Seth, Managing Partner, Plastichemix Industries, said, “Since inception, the Sheth family have built a robust business, offering high quality products to customers.” Mayur Sheth, Partner & Technical Director, Plastichemix Industries, said, “Clariant will bring in global expertise that will offer highly innovative and customised product offerings. With this, Clariant looks forward to taking the masterbatch business in India to the next level.”
Current Indian Polymers Consumption: 9 Kg per capita Average Global Consumption :
25 kg per capita Engineers India Wins Petrochem Project in Nigeria New Delhi, India: Engineers India Ltd has won a project management consultancy (PMC) and engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract from Dangote Group for a previously announced refinery and petrochemical project in Nigeria. The contract worth USD 139 million is for implementing a grass root 400,000 bpd (20 million tonnes) oil refinery and 600,000 tonnes polypropylene plant. According to the official statement, the main facilities of the project comprise of crude distillation unit, single train residue fluid catalytic cracking unit, diesel hydro treating unit, CCR unit, alkylation unit, polypropylene unit, utilities and off sites including captive power with other enabling infrastructure facilities. The crude and product handing facilities through single point mooring (SPM) would also be integrated with the refinery. 14 • December 2013
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KBL Celebrates Five Decades of Manufacturing Excellence Pune, India: Kirloskar Brothers Limited (KBL), a leading global fluid management company, celebrated the Golden Jubilee of its Dewas Plant in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. Established in 1962, the plant accurately reflects KBL’s Research and Development (R&D) capabilities and its commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Spread across 72 Acres of land with a capacity of 4,50,000 pumps P.A., the Dewas Facility manufactures various types of pumps such as surface pumps, monobloc pumps , jet pumps , open well pumps , DB pumps and vacuum pumps. The products churned out at the plant have tripled the revenues in several decades. Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman and Managing Director of Kirloskar Brothers said, “Firstly, I would like to thank each and every employee and all the stakeholders who have contributed to the success story of the Dewas plant. The Dewas facility has been a role model for implementing several notable initiatives over the past 50 years; in R&D, CSR and Technology segments. The plant has made significant contributions to some of our key projects like SMS, JIT, MOST, and TPS. And our vision is to expand the production to 6, 00,000 pumps P.A., and double the turnover in next 5 years.” Jayant Sapre, Executive Director, KBL said, “Since my first visit to the plant in 2003 - 2004, I have been pleased by the advancements made at Dewas. Several innovative marketing initiatives have been implemented such as REACH, SMDS setting a benchmark for our other facilities, aiding the plant to go beyond what it set to achieve. The plant also received the Asia Award for best CSR practice at the 3rd Asia’s Best CSR Practices Awards, held in Singapore recently. The award is Asia’s most prestigious and highest recognition for corporate organisations that have created a significant impact on the lives of people in society.”
Idemitsu Buys 70,000 Tonnes Naphtha from India New Delhi, India: Due to high demand for Naptha, Idemitsu Kosan of Japan paid Premium amount to buys 70,000 tonnes of naphtha from Mangalore Refinery Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) and Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC). Supplies of naphtha was lower than demand because of a string of recent and ongoing refiner y maintenance in India and previous refiner y run cuts in Asia due to poor refining margins. In addition, lack of alter native liquefied petroleum gas feedstock resulted in higher demand for naphtha. Idemitsu Kosan purchased a 35,000-tonne cargo from ONGC for January 24-25 loading from Hazira at levels in the low USD 40s a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, marking the highest premium ONGC has fetched a naphtha cargo sold out of Hazira in about nine months. ONGC also exports naphtha from Mumbai. The Japanese petrochemical major also locked in 35,000 tonnes from MRPL, a subsidiary of ONGC, for January 26-28 loading from New Mangalore at premiums around the low USD 40s a tonne level, a new eight-month high premium for MRPL. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Industry News Inter-Ministry Panel to Scan OMCs’ Ethanol Purchase
Grasim Industries Resumes Operations in Gujarat
New Delhi, India: The Indian Gover nment has appointed a monitoring committee including officials from finance, agriculture and food ministries to safeguard smooth transaction of ethanol from sugar mills to oil companies. Under the ‘ethanol blending programme’ (EBP), oil marketing companies (OMCs) were mandated to sell 5 per cent of ethanol-blended petrol from June 2013. The first ethanol purchase tender, nevertheless, is facing footraces because the supplier sugar industry and buyer state oil companies are hurling charges at each other for reneging from purchase agreements.
Mumbai, India: Grasim Industries Ltd has resumed operations of the chemical plant at Vilayat in Gujarat, which was suspended due to unexpected floods at Vilayat during the last week of September 2013.
OMCs have blamed sugar mills for not supplying ethanol in adequate quantity even after they agreed to pay mills about 30 per cent more than the ` 34 per litre they had offered three years ago. Sugar industry, which denies the allegation, has instead put the onus of their cash-strapped status on the oil industry. The sugar industry claimed that cash flow of around ` 1,000 crore is stuck because the oil companies are not lifting the ethanol orders that they had placed. Abinash Verma, Director-General, Indian Sugar Mills Association, said, “If the oil companies would have finalised the order on time, we would have got 75 per cent of the payment finalised in the first tender. The purchase delay has led to sugar millers diverting the surplus and carry forward stock of molasses to export market. The export price of molasses is between ` 4,500 and ` 5,000 per tonne. While the government recently announced that it would look into raising the cap on blended ethanol in petrol from 5 per cent to 10 per cent oil industry and thus is sceptical of achieving the earlier target.
Global Ethylene Market to Soar by 2017 London, UK: According to the Research and Consulting firm, GlobalData, The global ethylene market is forecast to increase slightly in the coming years, climbing from USD 131.88 billion in 2012 to USD 177.83 billion by 2017, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.2 per cent. As per the company’s latest report, the Asia-Pacific region will drive the ethylene industry, with its own market expected to increase from USD 50.59 billion in 2012 to USD 71.63 billion by 2017, at a CAGR of 7.2per cent. North America will rank just behind, growing from USD 37.78 billion in 2012 to USD 46.61 billion by 2017, at a CAGR of 4.3per cent. Additionally, AsiaPacific will continue to be the largest region in terms of capacity addition, growing from 49.67 million tons per year (MMTY) in 2012 to 67.40 MMTY by 2017, at a CAGR of 6.3per cent. Furthermore, due to heavy investment from petrochemical companies, the US capacity addition is forecast to witness a significant boost, jumping from 27.17 MMTY in 2012 to 36.49 MMTY by 2017, at a CAGR of 6.1per cent. Ashok Pant, GlobalData’s Senior Analyst, said, “Less expensive ethane derived from US wet shale gas makes ethylene production highly attractive drives large scale capacity additions.
Demand for Asian Naphtha rose to USD
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Grasim Industries had declared that it has suspended operations of its chemical plant due to floods affecting the plant/ power supply. Grasim Industries had commisioned with chlor- alkali plant.The company has also began operations of the downstream epoxy plant at Vilayat. According to the company officials, the full capacity at both the Plants will be achieved in a phased manner and very soon.
Lakshmi Kantam Wins Industrial Research Award
Dr M Lakshmi Kantam, Director, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology
Hyderabad, India: Lakshmi Kantam, Director of Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), have won the Vasvik research award for 2011 in the category of women scientist.She has been selected for the award for her extensive efforts in basic research which resulted in the development of novel homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts and their applications towards the development of innovative green processes for fine and bulk chemicals.
The award was presented by Niraj Bajaj, CMD, Bajaj Group of Industries in Mumbai during a function. The award carries a cash reward of `1 lakh and a citation. The Vasvik Research awards are given with the aim of promoting industrial research, science and technology (S & T) in India to scientists and researchers who have excelled in their particular field viz. chemical sciences and technology, biological sciences and technology, environmental sciences and technology etc.
Top India’s Chemical Firm Sets up Base in UAE Dubai, UAE: A leading research based speciality chemicals company in India, Dorf Ketal have opened their new office and chemical warehousing facility in Fujairah, UAE. The facility was inaugurated by Sharief Habib Al Awadhi, Director General (CEO) Fujairah Free Zone Authority. Dorf Ketal is one of the largest manufacturers of formulation based specialty chemicals used in the refining, petrochemicals and allied industries. It is the second such establishment to be set up by Dorf Ketal in the region after Bahrain. According to Sudhir Menon, Chairman, Dorf Ketal Chemicals, the aim of the facility is to improve the coordination and promotion of its business activities in the Gulf region, deliver better support for the performance of current programmes and respond efficiently to the growing needs of its customers. Opening a new office and warehouse in the UAE enables Dorf Ketal to support its large regional customer base, which comprises companies like the Adnoc Group of Companies, VTTI Fujairah, Bapco, KNPC, Oripic, Saudi Aramco and Sabic group of Companies, by providing them with faster access to their chemical needs in a shorter time frame. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Industry News Europe Unit to Stay with ThyssenKrupp Berlin, Germany: ThyssenKrupp Group cleared the air and confirmed that their Steel Europe business will be definitely staying with them. Brushing off the speculations, the spokesperson clarified that they also wanted to keep the steel business after the rumour that the sale of the company may help its current restructuring. H e i n r i c h H i e s i n g e r, C E O, ThyssenKrupp
Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO, ThyssenKrupp, had help an internal leadership meeting wherein he mentioned that it is absolutely misconception to believe that the sale of European business will be able to support the company. But according to the report, he highlighted hat disinvestment would not yield a reasonable price in the current economic environment. Last August, Heinrich Hiesinger also denied the theories on a possible sale of Steel Europe as “nonsense”, but such talk has resurfaced due to the conglomerate’s weakening finances. ThyssenKrupp has suffered three straight years of losses and have racked up debts, thus currently are trying to move away from a bulk steel market which has been hit by weak demand and overcapacity, to more profitable products such as elevators and factory components.
Brenntag Fortifies its Operational Business Copenhagen, Denmark: The global market leader in chemical distribution, Brenntag signed an agreement in Copenhagen in order to acquire a part of the operation business of Kemira Water. The organisation has taken over the distribution of caustic soda, sulphuric and hydrochloride acids, solvents and Frank Wegener, President, packed coagulants which were formerly Kemira directly distributed by Kemira. Brenntag will operate the business from its existing facilities in Vejle, Kalundborg, Hosten and along with a new location in Copenhagen Harbour. Torsten Walz, Managing Director, Brenntag, said,“Through this acquisition we strengthen and expand our industrial chemicals product portfolio. Our customers will benefit from the extended product portfolio, further investment in our infrastructure and new, long-term strategic supplier relationships.” On the other end, Frank Wegener, President, Kemira (Municipal & Industrial Segment), said, “The divestment of our distribution business in Denmark is well in line with Kemira’s sharpened strategy presented earlier this year. The divested business is not a focus area of Municipal & Industrial segment and the transaction will have a positive impact to the segments Earnings Before Intrests and Taxes(EBIT) margin. With Brenntag as our partner, Denmark will remain an important market for our water treatment solutions”. The acquired business generated in 2012 total sales of approximately Euro 15 million and the parties have agreed not to disclose further financial information. 18 • December 2013
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TCE to Restructure its Northwich Business Northwich, Cheshire: Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Chemicals, has decided to restructure its soda ash and sodium bicarbonate business in Northwich, Cheshire. Due to high energy costs, the restructuring process will witness the closure of the Winnington soda ash and calcium chloride plants. Production is expected to cease during the fourth quarter of the financial year 2013-14. The closures, though regretted, are necessary in order to secure the future of TCE’s remaining soda ash and sodium bicarbonate manufacturing business together with around 250 jobs directly and many more associated jobs in the local Cheshire and wider regional economy. The high-quality soda ash produced by TCE is used in the manufacture of glass, detergents and chemicals and in several other industry applications. The company also manufactures high quality sodium bicarbonate for use in haemodialysis treatment and in the pharmaceutical and baking industries. In addition it produces Alkakarb for the animal feed industry and Briskarb which is used for the treatment of acidic flue gases.
Asia-Pacific Holds Good Market Share in Cellulose Ethers Washington DC, US: According to the research, the global market for cellulose ethers observed a substantial growth rate in the last five years and is anticipated to develop in future due to the increasing commercial applications of cellulose ethers. Cellulose ethers are high weight molecular substances produced by alkalisation of cellulose. The demand for cellulose has increased due to a variety of significant properties like organic and water solubility, pH stability, surface activity, water retention, binding, emulsification and thermal gelation. Europe is the largest manufacturer of cellulose ethers with large numbers of domestic as well as international manufacturers. AsiaPacific signifies the largest market by consumption and holds more than 36 per cent of the global market share. Europe is the second largest regional market by consumption. Growth in Asia-Pacific will lead the growth in the global market. Growing industrialisation in emerging countries like India and China represents a good opportunity for cellulose ethers manufacturers. Also, manufacturers can command a good opportunity in the global market by improving the functionality and property of their products. Some of the crucial players in this industry include, Dow Chemical Company, Se Tylose Gmbh & Co. Kg, Ashland Aqualon Functional Ingredient, Akzo Nobel Functional Chemicals & Cellulosic Specialties Div., Dow Construction Chemicals, Samsung Fine Chemicals, Shin Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd, China Jinhanjiang Cellulose Co. Ltd, Ronas Chemicals,etc,.
Green and Bio Polyol market to reach
USD 3,077
million by 2018 Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Industry News KNPC Awards Contract to AMEC
Amyris-Total JV to Generate Renewable Fuels
London, UK: UK-based engineering and project management company AMEC has received a contract from Kuwait National Petroleum (KNPC) to offer project engineering and management services for the Mina Al Ahmadi, Mina Abdullah and Shuaiba oil refineries.
Paris, France: Total, France based and US-based Amyris have moulded a new joint venture (JV) to yield and commercialise renewable fuels using Amyris’s technology platform. Total Amyris BioSolutions is a 5050 JV and now holds exclusive rights and a license under Amyris’s intellectual property to manufacture and market renewable diesel and jet fuel from Amyris’s renewable energy. Philippe Boisseau, President, Philippe Boisseau, President, Total Marketing Total Marketing & Ser vices and New Energies Corporation & Services and New Energies, said, “The Total Amyris Biosolutions JV is a first step towards the commercialisation of the group’s renewable diesel and jet fuels. We are in the phase of scaling-up the industrial process and expect to start commercialisation within the next few years. As far as commercialisation is concerned, the new joint-venture will benefit from the know-how and customer access of TOTAL, which operates in more than 130 countries and is aiming to become a key supplier in renewable fuels.”
The contract, which follows AMEC’s successful delivery of the previous contract held since 2007, is worth up to KWD 72 million and has an optional one-year extension. As part of the five-year call-off contract, AMEC will deliver feasibility studies, front end engineering design (FEED) and project management consultancy (PMC) services, as well as training to Kuwaiti engineers. The company will also provide studies and FEED to KNPC’s local marketing and projects department on a calloff basis for its in-country petroleum storage and transportation plants. Kuwait Alan Armstrong, Operations Director, AMEC, said, “KNPC has again selected AMEC to deliver the important work. This is a testament to our relationship since 2007 and our ability to apply our global design, engineering and project management expertise to deliver complex projects anywhere in the world. These refineries and KNPC’s local marketing assets are strategically significant in Kuwait’s energy security and in providing revenues from their hydrocarbons exports.”
Shell Postpones Plans to Build GTL Plant Louisiana, US: Royal Dutch Shell has postponed their plans to construct a USD 20 billion Gulf Coast Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plant in Louisiana, US, due to the likely progress cost of the project, uncertainties on long-term oil and gas prices and differentials. The sources from Energy Company mentioned that GTL is not a feasible option for Shell in North America Pe t e r Vo s e r , C E O, R oya l at this time, regardless of the sufficient Dutch Shell supplies of natural gas in the area, and will suspend any further work on the project. Utilising natural gas feedstock, the proposed GTL plant was anticipated to produce 140,000 barrels per day of liquid fuels and other products made from oil. It also has built up substantial new possibilities for integrated gas investment, particularly in Australia and North America, in recent years. Peter Voser, CEO, Royal Dutch Shell, said, “We are making tough choices here, focusing our efforts and capital on the most attractive opportunities in our world-wide portfolio, to add value for shareholders.” In 1993, Shell started the first commercial GTL facility, using a process developed in Germany, while the company completed the USD 19bn Pearl GTL plant in Qatar in 2011. Sasol also plans to construct a USD 14bn GTL facility in Louisiana.
Current underground storage stands at
3,248
BCT estimates 13% below last year and more than 7% below the average of the past five years 20 • December 2013
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John Melo, President & CEO, Amyris, said,” The formation of the joint venture paves the way for the company to initiate its fuels commercialisation efforts globally, building on its experience with renewable diesel in Brazil and the growing demand for loweremission jet fuels worldwide. TOTAL has been a strategic partner for Amyris for the last three years and a model of how global companies can leverage our inspired science to deliver sustainable solutions for a growing world.”
Clariant Expands US Ethoxylation Capacity Muttenz, Switzerland: Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant is planning a second expansion at its ethoxylation site at Clear Lake in Pasadena, Texas, US, to meet increasing demand from the industrial and consumer care markets in the Americas. The investment is projected to provide the essential further capacity to endure profitable growth of the Business Unit H a r i o l f Ko t t m a n n , C E O, Industrial & Consumer Care (ICS) in North Clariant America and Latin America, according to the company. The expansion, which includes new reactors and additional storage facilities, will increase the overall ethoxylation capacity to more than 125,000 metric tonnes from existing 95,000mt. Har iolf Kottmann, CEO, Clar iant, said, “The investment is another important step in the implementation of our business strategy focussing on profitable growth. With the expansion, we can increase our market share in markets with good growth potential.” Bringing the total investment in the last five years to CHF 65 million, the new plant is expected to go online in mid2015. On the other front, Michael Willome, Business Unit Head, ICS, said, “Ethoxylated products including polyetylene glycols are a cornerstone of our growth strategy, especially for the fast growing markets in the Americas with their greater demand for personal and home care products.” Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Industry News Dow Chemical Considers Disinvestment
Andrew Liveris, Chairman and CEO, Dow Chemical
Michigan, US: Dow Chemical is scheduling to sell its commodity chemicals businesses, which represent about USD 5 billion of the company’s total annual revenue. The assets comprise about 40 manufacturing plants at 11 sites and about 2,000 employees along with Dow’s US Gulf Coast chlor-alkali and chlor-vinyl facilities in Plaquemine, Louisiana, and Freeport, Texas, along with other plants in Texas, Germany, China, Italy, South Korea and Brazil.
Andrew Liveris, Chairman and CEO, Dow Chemical, said,” The businesses served the company well, but are focused on markets it has exited - Dow is therefore right-sizing its upstream integration to match the downstream focus that started a decade ago. Separating these business units will allow us to further optimise the way they can be operated; and we believe different owners will be able to extract maximum value from these highly competitive assets and their related markets,” Liveris further added. The company said it will also shut down about 800,000t of chlorine and caustic equivalent capacity in Freeport, Texas and will replace with new facilities that will come online with the start-up of the Dow Mitsui joint venture in early 2014.The company has retained financial advisers to explore all separation alternatives for the businesses, including joint ventures, spinoffs and divestitures. Dow Chemical anticipates executing transactions within the next 12 to 24 months.
Foster Wheeler Supports Chilean Refinery Canton of Zug, Switzerland: Switzerland’s Foster Wheeler through the subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group acknowledges a contract for engineering, procurement and related services for a grassroots molybdenum refinery in Chile. According to the contract awarded by Molyb, Foster Wheeler will commence briefed engineering and offer procurement assistance and field engineering services for the new refinery. The new plant will process and refine 16,000 tonnes per annum of molybdenum feedstock, obtained from several Codelco copper concentrator plants, anticipated to yield by-products such as molybdenum, copper, rhenium and sulphuric acid. Dave Lawson, President (Metals and Minerals) & Global Leader, Foster Wheeler, Dave Lawson said, “The latest award is a significant step in the extension of the group’s Minerals and Metals track record and in the development of its already excellent relationship with Codelco. This award reflects CODELCO’s continued confidence in the quality of our technical expertise in minerals processing and our project execution,” Lawson further added.
CB&I Gains Ethylene Facility Contract The Hague, Netherlands: CB&I has received contract of approximately USD 1 billion from Ingleside Ethylene for engineering, procurement and c o n s t r u c t i o n o f a n e t h a n e c r a c k e r, associated utilities along with off sites in the US.
Solvay to Buy ERCA Industrial Assets Brussels, Belgium: Solvay has approved to obtain the specialty chemical assets of ERCA Quimica in Brazil. This move will help the Group to double its surfactants manufacturing capacity in Brazil and to assist customers in the agrochemicals, home & personal care, coatings, mining and oil & gas markets. The investment will give Solvay’s NovaCare business unit greater Emmanuel Butstraen access to one of the world’s largest personal ,President, Solvay Novecare care and agrochemicals markets which are developing at a double-digit pace. In addition, it reinforces its commercial network, closeness to customers and innovation pipeline. The transaction includes ERCA’s local specialty chemical assets and its portfolio of agrochemicals and home & personal care products. Located at Itatiba city in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, these new industrial assets will give Solvay the scalability to expand further to meet growing demand. Emmanuel Butstraen, President, Solvay Novecare, said, “The acquisition of these specialty chemical assets represents an important step for Novecare to grow in Brazil’s dynamic market, expand our technology and product portfolio, increase production capacity and provide global innovations to meet the immediate demand of our customers. With a competitive industrial footprint, we are able to help our customers capture business opportunities and develop new products and solutions to meet their growth ambitions.” 22 • December 2013
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Occidental Chemical’s (OxyChem) complex is constructed in Ingleside, Texas, wherein t h e c r a cke r w i l l m a n u fa c t u r e a r o u n d 1.2 billion pounds per year of ethylene and obtain its expected feedstock, ethane, from domestic shale gas. Ingleside Ethylene is a 50-50 joint venture (JV) between OxyChem - a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum - and Mexichem.
Philip Asher man, President and CEO, CB&I
Philip Asherman, President and CEO, CB&I, said, “The award of this important ethylene project in the US reflects the quality of work the company has provided to OxyChem and MexiChem to date. It shows the clients’ confidence in our ability to provide a complete range of services from proven licensed process technology, fabrication and FEED services to engineered products, all the way through to EPC,” Asherman added further. With construction to commence in mid2014, the ethane cracker is planned to begin commercial operations in the first-quarter of 2017. Formerly CB&I said it had provided the technology license and basic engineering for the ethylene technology, five short residence time (SRT) cracking heaters and front end engineering and design services.
US chemical industry regains to grow
25 % by 2018
0.1 % , expected Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Industry News Archroma Appoints Stephan Sielaff as New CEO Reinach, Switzerland: Archroma, a global leader in colour and specialty chemicals, and the former textile, paper and emulsions businesses of Clariant, declared that Stephan Sielaff has been named as new Chief Operating O f f i c e r. S t e p h a n S i e l a f f w i l l ove r s e e the business’ global production, S t e p h a n S i e l a f f , C E O , m a nu fa c t u r i n g a n d i n t e gra t e d s u p p l y Archroma chain activities, ensur ing the highest level of performance and proficiency to meet the company’s commitment to world-class standards and high service levels. Alexander Wessels, CEO, Archroma, said, “With Stephan Sielaff, we have found the experienced operations and supply chain leader we need to help develop Archroma’s supply chain, technology platform and customer service to an unparalleled level in industry. Stephan Sielaff commented that Archroma has a tradition of materials excellence and expertise, and a vibrant future. “I feel privileged to join a company that places a high value on innovation, performance and in particular, reliability, as foundational elements in the way it serves its customers. I’m passionate about the value added for our internal and external customer through a world-class supply-chain, for me it’s the holy grail of operations when it comes to satisfying even the highest customer requirements in service, quality and innovation at competitive cost,” he further added.
Sumitomo Chemical Acquires Stake in MGK Tokyo, Japan: Sumitomo Chemical declared that McLaughlin Gor mley King Company (MGK) has become a consolidated subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical, which acquired a majority stake in MGK. Sumitomo Chemical purchase of additional MGK shares raises its ownership stake in MGK to 76.36 per cent, up from 32.88 per cent following an agreement with t h e G u l l i ck s o n fa m ily, t h e fo u n d e rs a n d p revious major ity shareholders of MGK. Ryo Sato, Executive Officer,Sumitomo Chemicals, said, “This move strengthens Sumitomo Chemical presence in Nor th American environmental health markets, and will enable faster product innovations for MGK. North America is one of the most important markets for household and public health insect control products and is of vital importance to Sumitomo Chemical global Environmental Health business sector.MGK is a long-standing, well-respected provider of professional pest control products and technologies making it an ideal partner to channel branded Sumitomo Chemical products in this segment. We believe this collaboration will strengthen both companies, will allow Sumitomo Chemical to more easily introduce new and necessary technologies into North American pest control and will ultimately improve the offerings and service we provide for the MGK customers. MGK business will continue to be based in Minneapolis, under the leadership of current President, Steven M. Gullickson.” 24 • December 2013
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Steve Edwards Leads Black & Veatch
Steve Edwards, Chair man, President and CEO, Black & Veatch
M u m b a i , I n d i a : S t eve E d wa r d s wa s declared as new Chair man, President and CEO of Black & Veatch succeeding Len Rodman. The for mal transition occurs as Rodman retires from Black & Veatch after 42 years with the company and 15 years as CEO. During his tenure, the company fur ther positioned itself as a world leader in Critical Human Infrastructure solutions.
Len Rodman, Former Chairman, President, & CEO, Black & Veatch, said, “During the transition process, Steve led the company’s strategic planning initiative and the 2014 budgeting process. In addition, he met with clients, business par tners and company professionals all over the wor ld in preparation for his new role.” Commenting on the company’s focus on emerging markets such as India, Steve Edwards said, “India is vital to our global expansion plans and we have demonstrated that commitment by appointing an Indian Managing Director to lead the local business. We plan to expand business opportunities across sectors - energy, water, oil & gas and telecom. The Indian team has been actively working on several global projects.”
USD 980 billion by 2016, an increase of 27.7%
Global specialty chemicals market to grow since 2011.
Nova Chemicals to Invest in Sarnia Region Ottawa,Canada: Nova Chemicals has revealed their plans for multiple projects in Sarnia region in Ontario, which are expected to cost more than USD 300 million. The projects are part of the second phase of the company’s Nova 2020 growth strategy in Ontario wherein Phase two, which is anticipated to take place between 2014 and 2018, will comprise numerous Randy Woelfel, CEO, Nova expansions and upgrades to its facilities Chemicals in Sarnia. Projects include expansion of the Corunna cracker ethylene manufacturing capacity by about 20 per cent work on the Moore low-density polyethylene line and a retrofit of the Moore high-density line. Randy Woelfel, CEO, Nova Chemicals said, “The company will continue to investigate options for a second Advanced SCLAIRTECH technology (AST) facility, which may be located either in Ontario, the US Gulf Coast or elsewhere in the world, under the final phase of the growth strategy. We are excited to move forward with the next phase of growth for our Easter n Canadian Olefins and PE assets, building on the imminent completion of our Corunna feedstock conversion project. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Industry News Synthos Appoints Harwick Partner for Rubber Products Kralupy, Czech Republic: European synthetic rubber manufacturer Synthos has appointed Ohio-based Harwick Standard Distribution as its distributor of Synthos styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and butadiene rubber (BR) products in the US and Canada. Sim Elman, Sales Director, Synthos, said,” The Harwick distribution model is a perfect fit for their requirements. The selection of a key partner for our SBR products in North America was a very important decision for Synthos and we did a lot of investigation of various distributors before choosing Harwick Standard Distribution.” Synthos is claimed to be the largest SBR producer in Europe. It has facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic, which bring the overall production capacity of emulsion-based styrene-butadiene rubber (E-SBR) to 280,000 metric tonnes per year. The company also operates a nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) and high styrene rubber (HSR) manufacturing plant in Poland, and a facility in the Czech Republic which turns out 80,000 metric tonnes of neodymiumcatalysed butadiene rubber (NdBR). Synthos is constructing its first solution styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) plant in Krakow, Poland, which would offer an additional 90,000 million tonnes per annum capacity when fully commissioned in 2015.
Leading Potash Producers Join Hands Moscow, Russia: Onexim Group has agreed to buy a 21.75 per cent stake in Uralkali owned by the Suleyman Kerimov Foundation. Both the parties anticipate the transaction to close shortly. Dmitry Razumov, CEO, ONEXIM Group, said, “The purchase of the stake in Uralkali D m i t r y R a z u m o v, C E O , is a long-term investment in a company ONEXIM Group that is unique from the standpoint of its position in its industry and its role in the world economy. We are certain that the potash industry has strong fundamentals and that Uralkali, as the world’s leading producer and the key player in the industry, has considerable potential for growth in value. ONEXIM Group, in turn, has extensive experience in managing major industrial assets and creating shareholder value in public companies.” Pavel Grachev, Chairman of the Nafta Moskva Board, said, “Over the time of our investment in Uralkali, we have achieved the strategic goal of putting together Russia’s two largest potash producers, which led to the creation of the global leader in the potash industry. We are now moving towards different goals and challenges. And we are positive that with the arrival of the new investor, Uralkali will enjoy new opportunities for its continued strategic development.”
USD 33 million
Shale gas shakes Briton’s chemical business 26 • December 2013
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Foster Wheeler Bags Contract for Hydrog en Reformers
Umber to Della Sala, Chief O p e r a t i n g O f f i c e r, Fo s t e r Wheeler AG
Zug, Switzerland: Foster Wheeler AG declared that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract for two Terrace Wall hydrogen reformers by GS Engineering & Construction Corporation, which is acting on behalf of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) consortium for the USD 9 billion Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) complex to be constructed in the Nghi Son Economic Zone, Thanh Hoa Province, Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Foster Wheeler will design and supply the reformers, which will be designed to be capable of producing a combined total of 145,000 tonnes of hydrogen per annum. The hydrogen reformers will be the key components within the Nghi Son Refinery hydrogen manufacturing unit. Foster Wheeler was awarded the license package for the hydrogen production unit directly by NSRP in 2010. Delivery of the reformers is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2015. Umberto Della Sala, Chief Operating Officer, Foster Wheeler AG, said, “This major award by the NSRP EPC consortium demonstrates confidence in Foster Wheeler’s technology in hydrogen reforming and our ability to design to exacting specifications. Our Terrace Wall reformer, as well as being extremely efficient and reliable, is very well suited to the modular execution strategy adopted for this hydrogen unit. Large sections of the reformers will be designed to be delivered fully assembled, maximising offsite activity and delivering schedule benefits. Our Fired Heater groups in Reading, United Kingdom and Milan, Italy will combine their expert resources to execute this important project.”
Lanxess Expands Lightweight Plastic Plant Brilon, Germany: Through its subsidiar y Bond- Laminates, Lanxess is expanding the production capacity at the Brilon lightweight plastics production plant site in Nor th Rhine Westphalia, Germany. The plant generates lightweight plastics under the brand name Tepex which is utilised in the automotive, spor ting goods, aerospace and electronics industr ies. The company officials have mentioned that the expansion is scheduled to be completed by 2014. The project will upsurge the facility’s production capacity by 75 per cent. It will also expand the production complex in Br ilon by an additional 1,300m² and add a new production hall, supplementar y storage areas and office space to the existing plant. Lanxess began production of Tepex in September 2012 by acquiring Bond-Laminates to primarily cater to the automotive industry. The production site in Brilon employs 80 people. The current project forms par t of Lanxess’s larger plan to expand its global production network for high-tech plastics from 2012 to 2014, for which it has invested Euro 125 million. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Technology News ABB Robotics Introduces Vision-Guided Technology Canton of Zurich, Switzerland: ABB Robotics have introduced Integrated Vision, a smart camera system designed to make visionguided robotics applications faster and easier to deploy. Using 2-D vision guidance, ABB Integrated Vision helps manufacturers track products more accurately, improve supply chain management, improve quality, troubleshoot challenging lines and processes and significantly expand their use of robotic automation. Taken together for the advantages of vision-guided robotics can considerably improve a company’s bottom line, saving time, money, and other valuable resources. abb1202ABB Integrated Vision, powered by Cognex, features sophisticated imaging technologies such as the PatMax algorithm for advanced part location. According to ABB Officials, RobotStudio, ABB’s PC-based programming tool, provides the platform for creating vision tasks quickly. Operators can select features, set parameters and operate under real-world conditions from a library of common vision applications. The smart camera offers a wide range of built-in communication protocols that interface directly with the robot, helping complete programming and set-up in approximately 25 percent of the traditional time.
HRS Emphasises Energy Efficiency In Fertiliser Industry Pune, India: HRS Process Systems Ltd. (HRS), part of HRS Group, UK participated in The Fertilizer Association of India (FAI) Annual Seminar 2013, from 11th to 13th December 2013, at Hotel ‘The Ashok’, New Delhi, with the theme “Fertilizer Sector at Crossroads”. HRS exhibited Ecoflux Corrugated Tube Heat Exchanger, Ecoflux Smooth Tube Heat Exchanger and HRS Funke Plate Heat Exchanger with an emphasis on the role of energy efficiency in the fertilizer industry. According to the International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology, by 2020 fertiliser demands in the country is projected to increase to about 4106 million tonnes. To meet the increasing fertilizer requirement of the country, a stable policy, availability of raw materials, capital resources, price incentives and advanced innovative technology will play a critical role. V Gokuldas, Managing Director, HRS Process Systems Ltd, said, “The demand-supply gap of fertilizers in India has increased in recent times, leading to increased dependency on imports. To meet the increasing fertilizer requirement of the country, advanced innovative technology is imperative. Added to this is the ever-growing challenge of optimising energy efficiency in the manufacturing process. HRS’ energy efficient technology coupled with our strong knowledge and understanding of Indian conditions over ten years, equips us to provide heat transfer products and solutions to meet these challenges comprehensively.” HRS Process Systems Ltd, part of UK based HRS Group, leading heat transfer specialist that operates at the forefront of thermal processing technology. HRS also offers Innovative technologies to international standards for a diverse range of product applications across a spectrum of industries. 28 • December 2013
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Greenhouse emission records tons in 2013
39.6 billion
Honeywell to Reform Nordics’ Refinery Bengaluru, India: Honeywell declared that it has been selected by Preem AB to modernise one of Europe’s largest refineries, Preemraf Lysekil with Honeywell’s Enhanced High Performance Process Manager (EHPM) industrial process controllers. The project should considerably extend the life of the existing control system at the refinery, located in southern Sweden. Preem AB, the country’s largest oil producer, will utilise the improved high performance process manager to as much as triple the capacity of the refinery’s existing controllers. Preem AB has an annual refining capacity of more than 18 million metric tons, accounting for 75 percent of refining capacity in Sweden and about one-third of the entire Nordic region. Preem AB is the largest supplier of ultra-low-sulphur diesel fuel in Sweden, with a sulphur content of less than 5 ppm (parts per million), significantly lower than the Euro 4 requirement of 50 ppm. John Rudolph, Vice President, Honeywell Process Solutions’ Lifecycle Solutions and Services business, said, “Honeywell’s Enhanced High Performance Process Manager enables Preem to modernise their refinery and increase through-put while maximising legacy investments and intellectual property”. The upgrade will be completed during planned maintenance at the refinery and will not require any additional downtime. It is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.
Invista Develops New Nylon 12 Monomer Tech Kansas, US: Invista has various patents pending on a new nylon 12 monomer technology, which the global polymer company will soon yield at pilot scale. The new technology would position Invista as a substantial supplier of nylon 12 polymer, providing solutions to meet the growing industry needs. Almost immediately after Invista seeks market input and feedback, they will begin product qualifications as early as 2015. After that, the company plans to begin scale up of the new process and prepare for full scale manufacturing.Ed Sullivan, Global Business Director, C12 intermediates, said, “If the pilot is successful, Invista would become the first new, fully integrated nylon 12 producer in more than 30 years. In addition, based upon results to date, we believe Invista’s nylon 12 technology is simpler and more efficient than existing technologies. Our nylon 12 chemical intermediates were critical to assisting the market during the industry’s shortage in 2012. Since then, in an effort to provide this market with more supply options, we have been researching novel approaches to the production of nylon 12 monomer and other long chain molecules,” Sullivan further added. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Technology News India imports is from Oman
5.75 MT Urea; of which 36%
Siemens Launches Cyber Security Platform Munich, Ger many: Siemens launched a new cyber secur ity service for industrial customers, rolling it out first in the US. The Siemens’ Managed Security Service (MSS) has been developed to continuously protect production environments from cyber-attack. It has been designed for the assessment of security posture, implementation of recommended security measures and transitions into ongoing defence against rapidly evolving cyber security threats in Industrial Control System (ICS) environments, the service will be launched in Europe and Asia once it has been introduced to the US market. The system is configured so that Siemens can partner with consumers to help them build sustainable industrial security programmes, by leveraging expertise in automation and industrial cyber security. Jagannath Rao, President, Industry Customer Services, Siemens, said, “Global cyber threats are rapidly evolving and it also takes continuous and comprehensive action to protect production environments.”In a production environment, availability is a key security goal that ensures uninterrupted production, maximised uptime requires comprehensive protection of the people, processes and equipment. The impacts of a successful attack can be serious, and include health, safety and ICS environmental impacts along with manipulation of data, IP theft, sabotage of production and plant down time.
KNPC Selects Honeywell Tech for Refinery New Jersey, USA: Kuwait National Petroleum (KNPC) has selected Honeywell’s Integrated Control and Safety System (ICSS) for its new 615,000 barrel-a-day Al Zour refinery. This facility will be built in southern Kuwait which will be the four th refinery in Kuwait and considered to be the largest in the entire Middle East. The new refinery complex is projected to help KNPC meet domestic demand and export ultra-low sulphur products such as fuel oil, diesel and kerosene, as well as petrochemical feedstock. The US engineering company will also provide the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the system as part of the contract. Honeywell will supply Experion PKS as the main control system for the refinery complex, as well as integrate all process automation systems throughout the site as the main automation contractor for the new Al Zour refinery. Khaled Al-Awadhi, Project Manager, Al Zour Refiner y, said, “ The company is excited to star t work on the new refiner y, which will fur ther position Kuwait as an industry leader not only in the Middle East, but globally. Honeywell’s technology and experience in process controls will enable the Al Zour refinery to effectively meet the energy demands of Kuwait and reduce overall emissions.” 32 • December 2013
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BASF, PI to Develop Acid Gas Treatment Processes Berlin, Germany: German chemical company BASF and Abu Dhabi’s Petroleum Institute (PI) have entered a research collaboration to develop new processes in acid gas treatment. The processes are expected to remove aggressive sulphur compounds from acid gases. PI and BASF will explore the use of membranes and adsorbents to develop methods with low energy consumption. Dr. Jens Rudolph, OASE Gas Team Official, BASF, said, “We look forward to this collaboration because the Petroleum Institute is contr ibuting its excellent exper tise in the research, development and production of membranes and adsorbents to the research cooperation.”According to BASF, the cooperation was introduced under the guidance of Dr. Cornelis Peters, professor at the Chemical Engineering Department in the PI. The PI Research Center (PIRC), a major research facility, is scheduled to open on the PI campus in 2014. The Gas Sub-Committee of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) funds the research projects on gas treatment at the PI. Insoluble in water, adsorbents’ large surface areas enable them to bond with other molecules through physical forces, while the membranes are being used today to remove hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide from acid gases.
Lijin to Deploy Advanced Coal Gasification Technology Shandong, China: Chinese petrochemicals supplier Lihuayi Group has selected GE’s advanced coal gasification technology for the Lijin Petrochemical Refinery Phase II expansion project.GE’s gasification technology will permit the refinery at the Lijin Petrochemical Plant, near Dongying on the Yellow River in Shandong, to yield more hydrogen to develop the quality of its petrochemical products. According to the agreement, GE will offer Lihuayi with two 45 bar, 450-cubic feet gasifiers, which will supply about 1.78 million standard cubic metres per day of syngas for refinery hydrogen production. Li Yusheng, General Manager, Lihuayi Group, said, “Boosting hydrogen manufacturing to develop the quality of the company’s petroleum products supports its goal to upsurge efficiency and lessen the environmental impact of its production activities. GE’s gasification technology contributed a great deal towards the success of our phase one OXO project, and I believe this reliable technology will play a vital role in enhancing our leading position in refinery hydrogen production,” Yusheng further added.The Lijin Petrochemical Plant has installed GE’s proprietary coal gasification technology for phase one, facilitating the plant to manufacture syngas, which is used to yield Oxo aldehyde. Yang Dan, General Manager, GE Power & Water (China), said, “GE’s gasification technology is suited to support the expansion project and will help gasoline and diesel products meet the National V Standard and energy saving and emission-reduction demands.” Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Technology News Midwest Selects KBR Ammonia Tech for New Fertiliser Plant Houston, US: KBR have announced that its leading ammonia process technology has been selected by Midwest Fertilizer Corp. for its new fertilizer manufacturing plant in Mt. Vernon, Indiana. The 2,200 metric ton per day ammonia capacity plant will utilize KBR’s proprietary Purifier technology that is said to deliver the lowest proven energy consumption in the industry, reduces capital costs and improves overall plant operations. The undisclosed contract value for KBR will be booked into backlog during the fourth quarter of 2013. KBR will provide the technology license, basic engineering and design package, and supply of proprietary equipment for the world-scale grassroots facility. John Derbyshire, President, KBR Technology, said, “This is an extremely important project for our client and the people of Indiana, noting that these facilities have typically increased local economic activity, brought agricultural benefits and added jobs. As a leader in ammonia process technology and construction for more than 60 years, KBR is well positioned to help our clients deliver projects that serve local communities for decades to come.”
Genomatica, Braskem to Develop Green Butadiene San Diego, US: Braskem and Genomatica, US Biotechnology Company have joined hands to develop technology for producing butadiene from renewable feedstock. The partnership reaffirms the Brazilian biopolymer producer’s commitment to investing in producing chemicals from renewable feedstock.
Improved Bio-Processed Precursors by LanzaTech, Evonik Berlin, Germany: German Evonik and LanzaTech, Ger many based specialty chemical manufacturer have joined hands to develop a bio- processed route to precursors for specialty plastics from waste-derived synthesis gas. According to the three year research cooperation agreement, Evonik will have to assimilate its existing biotechnology platforms with LanzaTech’s synthetic biology Dr Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, and gas fermentation expertise. The process LanzaTech will utilise microorganisms placed in fermenters to turn synthesis gas into chemical products. P r o f. S t e fa n B u c h h o l z , H e a d o f C r e av i s s a i d , “ I n d u s t r i a l biotechnology is one of the core competences of Evonik. It enables new approaches to specialty chemicals and processes. The use of renewables and specific waste streams is one of the main focuses of our research and development work, and LanzaTech offers an additional interesting approach.” According to the Evonik officials, Creavis being their strategic innovation arm, is highly committed to the development of alternative bio-based pathways for producing such specialty chemicals which not only lessens the dependence on fossil fuels but also reduces greenhouse gas emission connected with the manufacturing unit. Dr Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech, said, “Synthetic biology is changing the face of the chemicals industry by enabling production of ‘green’ chemicals. We have developed the knowledge and capability to use waste resources to produce these chemicals and our partnership with Evonik plays an important part in bringing these technologies to the world.” LanzaTech uses patented microorganisms to capture waste gas streams, including synthesis gas for low carbon fuels and chemical intermediates production.
coolant
According to the Braskem’s officials, its objective with green butadiene is to primarily serve the synthetic rubber market, whose demand is currently met by naphtha-based butadiene.Genomatica and Braskem have collaboratively conducted the research programme which aims to find alternatives, based on renewable feedstock and develop technologies that are competitive in terms of production cost.
Stamicarbon,Uralchem to Work on Urea Synthesis
Alexandre Elias Renewable Chemicals Director, Braskem, said the company has a strategy for investing in the research and development of renewable chemical technologies as alternatives to complement its product por tfolio based on petrochemicals. “In 2010, we became the world leader in biopolymers when we announced the production of plastic made from sugarcane, and we are now fur ther reinforcing this vision,” Elias added. The agreement provides Braskem with certain exclusivity rights to the technology’s use in the America. Christophe Schilling, CEO, said the agreement will help the company strengthen its position as a developer and licensor of bio-based process technologies to chemical manufacturers. “Our partnership brings the industry closer to commercialising a more sustainable and cost-predictable butadiene,” Schilling added.
Moscow, Russia: Uralchem, Russia’s nitrogen fertiliser producer and Stamicarbon, a developer and licensor of urea processes, have signed a joint technology development agreement for synthesis of urea. The agreement proposes to develop a new technology based on both Stamicarbon’s intellectual property and Uralchem’s research cooperation with the Moscow State University (MSU) Department of Chemistry.Since 2008 Uralchem has been working with the MSU Department of Chemistry on the concept of 100 per cent CO2 conversion. The new technology, which is expected to be available for commercial use globally, will enable production of higher quality urea with less capital expenditure.Uralchem, using the new technology, will build a Stamicarbon-designed pilot facility at its Perm Mineral Fertilizers site, Russia, as part of the joint project.
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CEW News Features
Green Chemistry to Grow 48.5% Annually With India contributing 20 per cent of global effluents, industries within the country have rigorously started speeding on the road towards green chemistry to strengthen sustainability. Zarir Langrana, COO, Tata Chemicals Limited, says that expected increase in spending on green chemistry is surely a positive sign.
Zarir Langrana, COO Tata Chemicals Limited
W
ith the environmental alarms ringing strongly, the concept of green chemistry - a special programme designed by the Environmental Protection Department - is an ideal initiative. The programme has been adopted by numerous industries as a new approach towards chemistry. It is an effective alternative to the pollute-andclean approach which has been prevalent in country till recently. Green chemistry is the utilisation of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or production of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture or application of a product. Majorly this new technology comprises of natural processes and alternative
methods, and/ or plainly focuses on the use of alternative feedstocks that are more innocuous and renewable. The use of alternative reaction conditions or increased selectivity of reduced waste emissions and designing of eco - compatible chemicals are also some of the segments that are packed with green chemistry. It is considered as a tool for chemical engineers and research scientists for designing materials that would enable the industries to curb the release of toxic chemicals in the environment and move towards sustainable development. India accounts for 3 per cent of the global chemical market and the report suggests that it could be responsible for almost 20 per cent of global effluents. Unfettered and unsustainable industrialisation and urbanisation are the major causes of increasing pollution levels in water, land and air. Industries dealing with chemicals and pharmaceuticals are one of the biggest producers of industrial effluents and thus frequently come under the scanner of environmental department. However, on the positive side, over the years, some of the companies have updated their technologies used for the treatment of effluents and are becoming
more responsible as well as are imbibing sustainable practices in their operations. Companies such as Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL), which has adopted green chemistry as its prime strategy emphasises that green chemistry is probably still in a stage of industrial infancy in India but is growing at a rapid pace. One of the prime examples of green chemistry’s growing impact in the Indian market can be showcased with the way industries are adopting avant-garde technology to discharge waste water. Rising costs for water, wastewater disposal and rising commodity prices have made many corporations rethinking their water and waste water treatment strategies. Instead of only considering environmental regulations in their decision making, companies are now looking at other factors in their waste water treatment models like economic value of the commodities discharged in wastewater, permit costs and purchase costs for process water
Stating on the Industry reports wherein, Green chemistry has grown to USD 2.8 billion in 2011 and expected to grow at 48.5 per cent annually, Zarir Langrana, COO, TCL, mentions that although green chemistry has resulted in a drastic environmental, economic and social change, there are still social barriers that
Waste generation across Industries4 Source: TSMG’s Report on Reengineering Chemistry for Better Tomorrow
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December 2013 • 37
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CEW News Features
Global Green Chemicals Market by Regions: 2011-202010 Source: TSMG’s Report on Reengineering Chemistry for Better Tomorrow
impede the progress of green chemistry. This includes the lack of awareness on the application and benefits of green chemistry. However, there has been an increase in public awareness of benefits and applications of green chemistry in developing countries like India. Once such issues are managed tactfully, it won’t be difficult in achieving the predicted growth. “Green chemistry in India is here to stay,” states Langrana. The favourable government initiatives and a strong ‘green’ approach are propelling the Indian chemical industry to greater heights. Use of the ground-breaking technologies in the Indian chemical industry has allowed the purification of substantial amounts of products at reasonable prices, thereby reducing energy consumption by at least 25 per cent and producing 20 per cent less waste than current technologies, he added further. As per the National Manufacturing Policy, the government aims to increase the share of manufacturing in GDP to at 38 • December 2013
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least 25 per cent by 2025 from current 16 per cent. Indian chemical industries will have to strategically plan and perform to achieve the goal. Companies such as BASF, Dow chemicals, Lanxess India, Dow Corning India and TCL have already joined the race and adopted various measures such as mandatory implication of rules and regulation, high research and development, prioritising safety measures, reducing carbon footprint in supply chain reducing energy consumption, conserving natural resources like water and minimising effluents and wastes that are discharged and introducing specialty chemical additives. One of the examples wherein TCL as a part of its green chemistry drive, is focusing on developing and introducing new green products that will help mitigate the impact of climate change. As part of the development programme at the Tata Chemicals Innovation Centre, new offerings are developed such as products for flue gas treatment and carbon absorption and Nanotechnology based glass-coatings for insulation .They have
also registered several clean development mechanism (CDM) projects with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); these projects relate to energy reduction and methane reduction. According to Langrana, with increasing demand for green products, shifting to green chemistry is not an option but a necessity for the companies. It must be understood that green chemistry practices are essential for the long term survival and business sustenance of chemical companies. Since the chemical industries touches all facets of human lives and is an important source of the world’s energy and raw materials requirement, it is imperative that this industry implements green practices and moves away from the perception of being dirty, dangerous and demanding. - Namrata Tanna
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CEW Features Guest Column
Quality Control & Asset Integrity Management by Advanced NDT In this article, S Venkataraman, Director, Sievert India Private Limited, describes how Non-destructive Testing (NDT) is assisting in Quality Control and Quality Assurance, and inherently how NDT is supporting the Integrity Management. Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. It is a series of analytical measurements used to assess the quality of the analytical data collected during the production of part.
I
nspection and testing forms an important part of design and development of individual components or assemblies. Quality Control and Quality Assurance always impinged with ‘standards’ and ‘codes’. NDT itself is carried out following its own codes and standards, ultimately supporting in the Cost Reduction, Rise in Productivity, Quality and Reliability of the Equipment. Integrity Management (IM) is a life cycle application relevant to all phases of an asset’s life. It should be embodied in the conceptual design stage, and only end with decommissioning and abandonment. Integrity is a holistic requirement defined by a philosophy that sets strategies, procedures and management systems that
Figure1: Fields Affecting the Asset Integrity
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will ensure the safe, cost effective and reliable operation of an asset. Quality Control is reactive process, where quality is inspected or checked after the product is manufactured with inspection tools like Non-destructive Testing, Destructive Testing, Raw Material Inspection, Microstructural Analysis etc. Quality control maintains proper standards for goods. Quality Control is often done by doing periodic inspections and start from survey services to integrity services after the production. On the other hand, Quality Assurance is a proactive process and superlative
to Quality Control. It guides the Quality Control with respective to standard and safety at each and every step of product manufacturing. Quality Assurance is a fundamental element of commercial success in manufacturing and process industries. It is an overall management plan to build the quality in the product from design stage to final manufacturing of the product, and believes in quality in each and every step of product inspection. Advanced NDT is used as a tool for Quality Control and Quality Assurance by detecting, locating and sizing of surface and internal discontinuities (in welds, castings, forging, composite materials, raw materials, concrete and many more). Various Advanced NDT methods are applied for preventive maintenance (aircraft, bridge), for the inspection of raw materials, half-finished and finished products, for in-service-inspection and for plant life assessment studies. Asset Integrity Management (AIM) AIM outlines the ability of an asset to perform its required function effectively and efficiently whilst protecting health, safety and the environment. AIM system should address the quality at every stage of the asset life cycle, from the design of new facilities to maintenance management to decommissioning. AIM incorporates with Higher Authorities, Management, Design, Maintenance, and Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features to operate for a specific life time taking account the temperature, corrosion and material. To assess and monitor the quality of the product during its manufacturing and service life without interfering with service performance of the product the NDT techniques provide the best choice. On line and on-site NDT techniques are used for plant life assessment. Major inputs for assessing the plant life assessment of the components include: 1. Material Properties (mechanical & thermal) 2. Flaw Characteristics (type, location, size & shape) 3. Stresses (residual, service)
Figure 2: Inputs of Asset Integrity Management
Inspection Process, Customers, Public, Operations and Management Concepts. It magnifies the reliability, maintainability, understanding of asset condition and improving safety in the industry. It optimises the maintenance and inspection costs, and regulates the industry with its best performance. Best practice facilities have comprehensive, fully integrated systems and a culture directed at gaining greater lifetime effectiveness, value, safety, availability, profitability and return from production and manufacturing assets. Advanced NDT and AIM Process plants & manufacturing plants run on various engineering components like reactors, heat exchangers, pipelines and many more. These components’ estimated life is designed by considering the physical & chemical properties of material, maximum working temperature and working pressure on the component. These components are designed to last longer, but in actual condition they fall short of their designed
life due to different working environment of varying temperature and varying stresses. This makes an AIM team to make a “RUN, REPAIR & REPLACE” decision of the component to avoid unplanned outages. AIM gathers the inspection data from Plant Life Assessment (PLA), Predictive Maintenance and Risk based Analysis in accordance with company’s ethics and policies under the guidance of higher authorities to take “RUN,REPAIR & REPLACE” decisions. Today many countries in the world follow the trend of PLA for AIM for improving the safety standards and reliability of the industrial manufacturing process. PLA is nothing but a process to calculate the remaining life of the plant. Advanced NDT for plant life assessment deals with application of Advanced NDT techniques to detect discontinuities in an industrial manufacturing process that can affect the mechanical strength of a product and may cause its premature failure. PLA or inherently, AIM is applied to any kind of processing lines, structures, vessels or pipes which are designed
AIM gathers the inspection data from Plant Life Assessment, Predictive Maintenance and Risk based Analysis in accordance with company’s ethics and policies under the guidance of higher authorities to take “RUN,REPAIR & REPLACE” decisions. 42 • December 2013
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Flaw characteristics can be obtained with Advanced NDT techniques like Phased Array, Automated UT, Thermography, Eddy current techniques etc. Stresses induced in the components are inspected with the help of Acoustic Emission and Vibration Analysis while Microstructural analysis and Ultrasonic Testing along with software assistance provides the material properties of the components. These NDT i n s p e c t i o n data can be used for assessing the remaining life of the component and the measures required to take for extending the life of the components Risk Based Inspection (RBI) is a technology process which is used to correctly identify and assess the HSE and Business risk of each equipment or piping in a plant for optimising the inspection interval based on site acceptable risk levels. It is used to priorities inspection based on Advanced and Conventional Non-destructive Testing tools to outline the type and frequency of inspection for the asset. Tools which are widely used for RBI are Acoustic Emission, Corrosion Mapping, Phased Array UT and Vibration Analysis. Items with high probability and high consequences are given a higher priority for inspection than items with lower probability. Predictive Maintenance (PdM) helps determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to predict when maintenance should be performed helping cost savings over time Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features
SAFETY
PREDECTIVE MAINTENANCE
REMAINING RLA (REMAINING LIFE ASSESSMENT) & RBI (RISK BASED INSPECTION)
ASSURANCE QUALITY ASSURANCE
Fig 2: Hierarchy of Integrity Management related to NDT.
Advantages of Advanced NDT in QC, QA and AIM 1.
Reduced work
2.
Good working performance in Criticality.
3.
Reduced amount of human intervention in inspection which leads to reduced amount of man made errors
4.
Quick inspection
5.
Increased Probability of detection (PoD)
6.
Permanent Recording
7.
Cost effective technique
based preventive maintenance. PdM helps in increasing the plant availability, increased plant safety & fewer accidents by sifting from unplanned stops to fewer or shorter planned stops. To evaluate the system condition PdM utilises the Advanced NDT technologies such as Airborne Ultrasonics, Thermography, Vibration analysis Acoustical Emission, ACFM, and Corrosion Mapping. Role of NDT Engineer Proper application of NDT methods would help to produce valid results applicable for plant integrity. For this reason, NDT Engineers are part of the team responsible for this activity, right from the planning stage to the analysis of data. The roles of NDT Engineer in this activity include: • To advice the plant life assessment team on the selection of an appropriate NDT method or combination of NDT methods applicable for a specific plant component that is/are capable 44 • December 2013
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•
•
• •
of providing optimum information required for assessing the status of the components To ensure that NDT is always performed by personnel having the right qualification and certification. In cases, where the NDT activity involved the use of sophisticated, nonconventional equipment, the NDT specialist shall be able to organize mockup tests to ensure that the NDT personnel are capable of detecting pre-fabricated defects by using such equipment To provide a continuous supervision and to ensure that all NDT activities are performed in accordance with approved written procedures To and advice the plant life assessment team on the reliability of NDT test results To work together with the PLA team during the analysis of the test results. In cases where defects are detected but still within an acceptable limit, NDT specialists may work together with other PLA members for the planning of inspection program applicable for that particular component
Conclusion To cope up with growing industry needs of safety, reliability, quality and profit it becomes compulsory for the industries to follow the policies of Asset Integrity Management (AIM), Quality Assurance (QA) & Quality Control (QC). Advanced NDT tools like Phased Array UT, LRUT, MFL Tank floor, AUT, Corrosion mapping, Eddy Current Inspection etc help the industries to satisfy the needs of AIM, QA & QC with reduced amount of human intervention in inspection leading to reduced amount of man made errors and increased probability. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features Guest Column
Cyber Security in Industrial Automation and Control Systems: Why and How Care for It! Chemical industries have been the forerunners in using Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS) technologies. Driven by better productivity, efficient and flexible installation and operation of plant, IACS have evolved from isolated and point-to-point interfaces to highly interconnected systems using wireless, remote access, cloud based systems and smart devices. Cyber Security has thus become an important aspect and cannot be ignored. Akilur Rahman, Global Head of Engineering Improvement and Cyber Security, ABB Process Automation, writes.
I
ndustrial automation and control systems (IACS) today are highly specialised IT systems leveraging commercial off the shelf IT components and standardised, IP based communication protocols. These are distributed and highly interconnected using USB mobile devices and storage media. IACS are thus exposed to many of the same threats as “normal” IT systems. At the same time security and cybercrime scenario has changed from simple PC virus in 1980’s to 2010’s targeted attacks on Control Systems, state sponsored espionage and cyber warfare targeting nations critical infrastructures. The motivations have become financial, political and ideological.
include not only financial losses and loss of public confidence, but also violation of regulatory requirements, damage to equipment and environment, and endangerment of public and employee safety.
Security for IACS is similar to general information system security, yet different. Automation and control systems put higher requirements on integrity, availability, performance, and immediate access.
Mitigating the Cyber Security Risks The first step towards addressing cyber security in IACS is to have organisational awareness of the subject. Many organisations think this to be an IT topic hence expect the enterprise IT department to take care of it, whereas, IT department normally may not have
The potential impact of an attack on automation and control systems may
Figure 1: Evolutions in IACS towards highly specialised IT systems
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The highly sophisticated attacks by the Stuxnet malware and other control system incidents have raised general awareness of control system vulnerability. The threats to IACS are not only from hacking, but also malicious software installed via USB port, unauthorised use of system, employee mistake and use of unauthenticated software.
complete information and knowledge about process control and aspects impacting security of the system. Thus collaborative awareness and work between IT and process control departments are very important to set up a cyber security structure in the organisation with the following measures: Security Policy: A key element in implementing and maintaining the security of a system is the establishment of an adequate security policy. This should be based on an analysis and assessment of the functional needs and security objectives of the organisation, current and planned network structures and information and control flows, risks in terms of probability of different types of attack and potential consequences, and available technical security solutions. Besides plans for how to avoid risks, a security policy should also include plans for regular audits of the security, for training of personnel and partners, and for incident response, including how to recover from potential disasters. The distribution of responsibilities between different parts of the organisation should be defined. A tightly managed security administration, with enforcement of strong passwords and good user practices as well as regular implementation of all vendor recommended updates for operating systems, application software, and security related software, is also recommended. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features Security mechanisms should not only include defensive and preventive means, but also means for detection and reaction. By continuously monitoring a system for intrusion attempts, users can be alerted to potential threats and take suitable actions, such as isolating an inner network zone from outer networks.
Information Systems Primary Subject for Protection Information
Physical Process
Primary Risk Impact
Information Disclosure, Financial
S a f e t y , H e a l t h , Environment, Financial
Security Focus
Central Server Security
Control Device Stability
Availability
95-96%
99.9-99.999%
Determinism
Minutes to Days
Milliseconds to Hours
Operating Environment
Interactive, Transactional Interactive, Real-time
Problem Response
Reboot
The security policy should be based on the principles of least privilege and compartmentalisation, i.e. every application, user, or subsystem should be restricted to the minimum number of rights for the minimum number of resources that is necessary to fulfill its purpose. Access to functions or areas that is not explicitly required should be disabled. This reduces the possibilities that an attacker can exploit and limits the damage in case an intrusion attempt is successful.
the highest level of trust. This is the approach described in the IEC 62443 series of standards. Firewalls, gateways, and proxies are used to control network traffic between zones of different security levels, and to filter out any undesirable or dangerous material. (See figure 2 above)
Security Zones: In IACS, IT resources vary in the extent to which they can be trusted, not to be compromised. Common security architecture is therefore based on a layered approach that uses zones of trust to provide increasing levels of security according to increasing security needs. Each zone is inside the next, leading from the least trusted to the most trusted. Connections between the zones are only possible through secure interconnections. All resources in the same zone must have the same minimum level of trust. The inner layers, where communication interaction needs to flow freely between nodes, must have
Measures for Higher Cyber Security: To establish a certain level of trust in a zone requires that all resources in the zone have a certain minimum level of security as determined by the organisation’s security policies. For a high security zone the trust level must be very high. Measures to achieve this include (but are not necessarily limited to) the following: • Keep the trusted network zone relatively small and independent from other network zones. It should form its own domain, and be administered from the inside. • Physically protect all equipment, i.e. ensure that physical access to
Fault Tolerance, On-line Repair
Table 1: Information Systems versus Process Control
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computers, network equipment and cables, controllers, I/O systems, power supplies, etc., is limited to authorised persons. Harden the system by removing or disabling all unnecessary network connections, services, file shares, etc., and by ensuring that all remaining functions have appropriate security settings. When connecting a trusted network zone to outer networks, make sure that all connections are through properly configured secure interconnections only, such as a firewall or a system of firewalls, which is configured for “deny by default”, i.e. blocks everything except traffic that is explicitly needed to fulfill operational requirements. Allow only authorised users to log on to the system, and enforce strong passwords that are changed regularly. Continuously maintain the definitions of authorised users, user groups, and access rights, to properly reflect the current authorities and responsibilities of all individuals at all times. Users should not have more privileges than they need to do their job. Do not use the system for e-mail, instant messaging, or Internet browsing. Use separate computers and networks for these functions if they are needed. Do not allow installation of any unauthorised software in the system. Use a virus scanner configured according to the automation system vendor’s recommendations on all system nodes. Restrict temporary connection of portable computers, USB memory sticks and other removable data carriers. Computers that can be physically Chemical Engineering World
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Trace moisture measurement device
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Maintenance-free The fibreoptic measurement principle dispenses with regular calibration Pressure-proof up to 200 bar Measurements are possible in areas with very high levels of pressure Measurement in gases Reliable measurement results Drift-free and with long-time stable Long-life sensor and robust sensor head ATEX-certified Approved for hazardous areas Web interface Configuration by web interface Compact dimensions for easy integration
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CEW Features
Figure 3: . A typical network configuration with demilitarised zone
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accessed by regular users should have ports for removable data carriers disabled. If portable computers need to be connected, e.g. for service or maintenance purposes, they should be carefully scanned for viruses immediately before connection. All CDs, DVDs, USB memory sticks and other removable data carriers, and files with software or software updates, should also be checked for viruses before being introduced to the trusted zone. Continuously monitor the system for intrusion attempts. Keep the system updated with all relevant and vendor recommended security updates, including updates to operating system, automation system software, applications, and security related software. Define and maintain plans for incident response, including how to recover from potential disasters. Regularly review the organisation as well as technical systems and installations with respect to compliance with security policies, procedures, and practices.
Stakeholders Running a plant securely is ultimately responsibility of owners and operators of the plant. However, there are several entities that play important role in enabling and supporting the cause. Product providers make available security features, capabilities and support in the products used in IACS including security updates and advisories. System integrators ensure secure engineering, installation and commissioning in line with plant policies. Owner-operators of plant can take help of service providers for secure operation of the plants in terms of updating patches and antivirus software, auditing, hardening, backup-restore, etc. State cyber security agencies set up policies and regulations for owner-operators to follow so that nation’s critical infrastructures 50 • December 2013
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Figure 4: . Stakeholders of Cyber Security in IACS
are in secure state. There are Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) established by governments to help the industries and stakeholders during vulnerable conditions and security incidents. Standards organisations like ISO, IEEE, ISA, IEC, etc. have been working on creating technical, process and organisational standards. For IACS probably most comprehensive and most influential initiative is the IEC 62443 series of standards, which is based on the work of the ISA 99 committee. There are industries groups like International Instrument Users’ Association (WIB), Norwegian Petroleum Industry (OLF), etc. creating guidelines and sharing security best practices for the industries. Security research individuals and groups carry out analysis of security threats and identify vulnerabilities in products and systems helping the stakeholders to mitigate the risks before they turn into incidents. Summary With increased use of IT and interconnections of process control networks in a collaborative manufacturing and enterprise environment, Industrial Automation and Control Systems are undergoing a paradigm shift needing to address cyber security more than ever. While cyber security threats are increasing and new threats are emerging, there are also technologies and solutions available and evolving to mitigate the threats and risks. At the same time, hundred percent security is not possible to achieve. All these make cyber security a journey, not a final destination. And, this journey for a more and more secure plant calls for a collaborative approach involving all the stakeholders in the industry. Chemical Engineering World
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engineering for a better world
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CEW Features Guest Column
Preventing Corrosion through Coatings Corrosion is the deterioration of a material, usually a metal because of a reaction with its environment. Both the type of metal and the environmental conditions determine the form and rate of deterioration. It is a natural phenomenon as almost all materials are expected to deteriorate with time when exposed to elements. For galvanic corrosion to occur, four essential elements must be present i.e. anode, electrolyte, cathode and metallic pathway. Removing any of them can significantly slow down the corrosion process. B Ramakrishnan, Managing Director - Protective Coatings, Akzo Nobel India, writes.
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he global cost of corrosion is estimated to be roughly USD 2.2 trillion annually which is over 3 per cent of the world’s GDP. India also loses a staggering figure of over USD 45 billion (2 lakh crore rupees) per year due to corrosion, which is costing our economy dearly. The latest survey by World Corrosion Organization (WCO) shows that the worldwide direct cost of corrosion is between 3.1 to 3.5 per cent of a nation’s annual GDP. These figures reflect only the direct cost of corrosion – essentially materials, equipment and services involved with repair, maintenance, and replacement. The indirect cost of corrosion includes the environmental damage, waste of resources, loss of production, or personal injuries. When a project is constructed with the materials not able to survive the environment for the length of the design life, natural resources are needlessly consumed to continually repair and maintain the structure. Wasting natural resources is a direct contradiction to the growing focus and desire for sustainable development to benefit future generations. In addition to the waste of natural resources, infrastructures that cannot sustain their environment, lead to hazardous situations. Accidents caused by corroded structures e.g. one failed pipeline or a bridge collapse leads to huge indirect costs which may be as high as five to ten times the direct cost. 52 • December 2013
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Corrosion experts have concluded that a net of 20 to 25 per cent of annual cost of corrosion can be saved by applying currently available corrosion control technologies, such as Environmental Modifications, Metal Selection and Surface Conditions, Cathodic Protection, Corrosion Inhibitors, Plating and Coatings. Corrosion Prevention through Coatings In almost all situations, corrosion can be managed, slowed or even stopped with the use of proper techniques. Corrosion prevention can take a number of forms depending on the circumstances of the metal being corroded. Coating products are developed to provide corrosion protection to the steel substrates. Long term corrosion protection can be achieved as coatings can remove one of the four conditions i.e. anode, cathode, electrolyte and metallic pathways, by the following mechanisms: • Barrier Protection • Inhibition Protection • Sacrificial Protection Barrier Mechanism As the name suggests, the coating creates a barrier to prevent moisture and oxygen from reaching the steel. Coatings that provide barrier protection extend the life of steel structures by significantly slowing down the
India loses a staggering figure of over
USD
45 billion per year due to corrosion ability of the electrolyte and oxygen from reaching the steel surface. In this instance, the steel is effectively isolated from its environment. Barrier pigments such as MIO are added to further slowdown moisture ingress and enhance barrier protection which provides long term corrosion protection and extended life. Coating products designed for seawater immersion or chemical resistance such as tank linings rely heavily on barrier protection. Inhibition Protection Coatings which protect by inhibition contain special inhibitive pigments that obstruct with the normal corrosion process. Inhibitive pigments form a very thin protective oxide layer over the steel surface which has low permeability. This in turn prevents the corrosion process by slowing down moisture contact with the steel. Coating products designed
In almost all situations, corrosion can be managed, slowed or even stopped with the use of proper techniques. Corrosion prevention can take a number of forms depending on the circumstances of the metal being corroded. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features and is intended to be used by engineers and corrosion experts who assist in adopting best practice in corrosion mitigation. It has been able to bring all the stakeholders including the asset owners, contractors and the paint manufacturers into one common platform. The usage of coatings for corrosion protection in line with international standards e.g. ISO12944 has been found to deliver great benefits in terms of corrosion protection, asset performance and predictive maintenance cycle.
Up to USD 12 billion per year can be saved by applying simple methods of corrosion control such as coatings.
for general atmospheric corrosion protection rely on a combination of inhibitive pigments and a level of barrier protection to provide long term corrosion protection. Sacrificial Protection Coatings which protect by sacrificial protection (also known as Galvanic or Cathodic protection) do so by making themselves more prone to corroding than the steel substrate. The most widely used metal for this purpose is Zinc, as it is more active than steel. The term ‘Sacrificial primer’ comes from the Zinc sacrificing itself to protect the steel. Challenges It should be noted, that corrosion protection through coatings is a proactive measure rather than a reactive measure. While planning for an infrastructure development, it is very critical to take measures for corrosion in the designing stage itself. The planning should be done keeping in mind the longer life time value of the asset, which also includes timely maintenance of the asset. Owners need to be aware of the cost of corrosion throughout the project cycle, and ensure highest preventive measures of corrosion control. Now-a-days, most of the projects are being constructed on contractual basis, where the responsibility of the companies undertaking the project gets 54 • December 2013
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over once it is handed over to the owner. Most of the times, these contracts are awarded based on the lowest bid. As coating costs contribute to 3-5 per cent of the total project, in most cases, the bidders do not give much emphasis on including appropriate specification for corrosion control. This may help them in meeting the budget constraints but the owners, who are responsible for the running of asset, suffer due to the cost of corrosion in the later stages. This adds up to the overall cost of the asset, as reactive measures for corrosion control are very costly and sometimes requires replacing the affected part. Maintenance itself takes longer period, which affects the overall efficiency of the asset with increased downtime. Due to non-adherence of appropriate standards during the design stage, mostly owing to budget constraints; the owners eventually spend more money on the asset, not to mention loss of overall productivity. High performance protective coatings, offer sustainable solution to corrosion prevention and when properly prepared and applied, extend the service life of structures by considerable period. This also justifies the initial investment on the corrosion control method. An international standard for appropriate specification, ISO 12944 was developed
With constant innovation and advancements in technology, coatings not just prevent corrosion but provide functional benefits as well. These advancements assure protection, sustainability, durability and aesthetics to the asset, and when coupled with comprehensive maintenance schedule, help ensure functioning of assets for longer design life. One such benefit is Passive Fire Protection which prevents steel from reaching a critical temperature in fire situation, at which it loses its structural strength for a given period of time. This provides enough opportunity to escape. Environmental friendly technology has helped in developing products with low to zero VOC contents thereby offering greener solutions towards corrosion protection. Technology has also helped in higher gloss retention and faster drying which reduces the downtime. Conclusion To conclude, corrosion is a perennial problem and poses a great threat to the economy and resources, locally as well as world-wide. If corrosion is not identified and attended to properly, it can lead to big questions on asset integrity thereby causing huge losses. In India while all of us are concerned about the country’s growth rate slowing down, we can save up to USD 12 billion per year by applying simple methods of corrosion control such as coatings. We need to make government agencies, industry, and public aware about the high cost of corrosion and how it can be reduced. So it is imperative that due attention to is given to this problem and undertaking application of coating solutions that can provide sustainability and enhanced performance to an asset. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features Technical Article
Efficient & Easy Elastomer Processing Conventional polymerisation in the production of elastomers has been the norm for decades. The time and cost involved in removing and treating solvents in the final stages of production, for example, were acceptable, but as pressure builds on manufacturers to reduce operating costs, there is greater urgency to develop processes that can help streamline cost and production. One such effort has yielded extremely promising results. Engineers and polymer chemists at LIST AG have developed an energy-efficient Direct Devolatilisation technology to significantly reduce costs associated with energy, cooling and water consumption, as well as the processing time and plant footprint required for processing elastomers. Polymer chemistry opens new opportunities for new elastomer properties, and this technology makes it possibility to separate new elastomer grades from solvent without any degradation. The authors provide insights into various technical aspects of this technology and discuss why this is relevant today, and for the future of elastomer processing.
S
olution and emulsion polymerisation are the conventional routes for elastomer synthesis. In the last step of polymer production, the polymer must be separated from the solvent or emulsifying agent. This typically involves several process steps, including coagulation, stripping, various mechanical separation stages and drying. Each individual step is energy-intensive and results in large quantities of solvent in the waste stream that need to be incinerated. This requires specialised equipment that requires sizable facility space and a significant investment in CAPEX.
separate the elastomers from the solvent, using steam stripping, and then to separate the elastomer from the water phase using mechanical and thermal processes. LIST’s Direct Devolatilisation, illustrated in figure 2 (on next page), is a completely enclosed, continuous process that directly separates and simultaneously recovers solvent from the elastomer. As a result,
it completely eliminates the intermediate steps, such as water coagulation, steam stripping, mechanical dewatering and drying. Compared to conventional processing, Direct Devolatilisation produces the same high quality elastomer with all the desired specs – while enabling elastomer producers to reduce energy and water consumption, plant footprint and the temperature/treating time ratio.
“Direct Devolatilisation process of elastomers contained in polymer solutions” developed by LIST AG is an alternative and promising solution to reducing polymerisation steps. Figure 1 presents comparisons between the patented Direct Devolatilisation process and conventional techniques. Conventional vs. Direct Devolatilisation Conventional elastomeric polymerisation processes use aliphatic or aromatic hydrocarbons which must be removed once polymerisation is complete. A water-based coagulant is used to 56 • December 2013
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Figure 1: Block diagrams of existing technologies and the simplification introduced with the new process solutions for the separation of elastomers from solvents and emulsifying agents
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CEW Features important in order to obtain the desired elastomer product quality and minimise the risk of overheating or self-ignition. Direct Devolatilisation technology processes the highly viscous elastomer without overheating or degradation, while enabling processors to achieve the expected Mooney viscosity and final volatile content.
LIST
LIST
Figure 2: Direct Devolatilisation process
The Direct Devolatilisation process involves four steps: 1. Pre-concentration removes large amounts of solvent from the polymerisate using thermal energy to increase the efficiency of the overall process 2. Main evaporation removes the solvent and transfers the highly viscous pre-concentrated elastomer solution. Evaporative cooling keeps the product at the necessary temperature level 3. Final devolatilisation transfers the highly concentrated elastomer to the final expected elastomer quality 4. Confectioning forms the expected product shape to provide a saleable product
effectively removes the solvent at temperatures below 100 degree celsius without elastomer degradation. Conventional technology has reached its limits when processing new elastomer grades because of higher adhesiveness. LIST’s Direct Devolatilising process is able to overcome this disadvantage. It allows the development of new high performance grades which are impossible, or very difficult to process, with conventional technology. Controlled Finishing The ability to carry out final devolatilisation under carefully controlled conditions is
During Direct Devolatilisation, a small amount of water is added to the devolatiliser. As the water bubbles, the organic volatiles get trapped in the bubbles. By destroying the bubbles the organic volatiles are captured and removed. The process can be compared to closed and concentrated stripping in which a small amount of water is used and only 1 per cent of the total solvent is contaminated. The water/organic volatiles mixture is condensate in a closed system and can be completely recycled. LIST’s Direct Devolatilisation is a completely enclosed process for more than 8000 hours of continuous operation. Self-cleaning metallic surfaces consistently produce high quality product with low volatile content. Simple is Efficient Process efficiency is judged by a variety of parameters, including thermal energy and water requirements,
Direct Devolatilisation can separate 99 per cent of the solvent and non-converted monomer without contamination with additional products. Depending on the solvent, the thermal processes can operate at vacuum or slightly overpressure. The final elastomer has the same properties as conventional treated products. The Mooney variation is less than +/- 1 compared to the polymerisate, the residual organic volatile content is less than 100 parts per million (ppm), and the ash content does not increase during the process. Most elastomers are temperature sensitive, hence temperature control is critical to prevent overheating or self-ignition. Direct Devolatilisation 60 • December 2013
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Figure 3: Specialised LIST pilot scale polymer-finisher
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Figure 4 : LIST Direct Devolatilisation technology
equipment and environmental footprints, quantity of effluent, and CAPEX and OPEX costs. When measured against these variables, LIST’s Direct Devolatilisation ranks extremely well. Direct Devolatilisation requires far less energy than conventional processing. The only energy requirements are for evaporation and condensation of the solvent. By eliminating the separate processes for coagulation, stripping, mechanical water separation and drying it also eliminates the need for the mechanical or thermal energy needed for these multiple steps.
Scaling up the Process from Bench to Commercialisation LIST AG and Fraunhofer Institute in Schkopau, Germany, worked together to develop the Direct Devolatilisation process. Research teams followed a step-by-step approach that included initial investigations in the laboratory and then small pilot scale units.
By achieving 99 per cent solvent separation without any additional agents, Direct Devolatilisation prevents the generation of effluent water and eliminates the need for off-gas treatment. The net result is a highly streamlined process that delivers significant energy savings, minimises environmental impact and reduces operating costs for a higher return on investment. Figure 5 provides a case study comparing the benefits of LIST’s patented Direct Devolatilisation process to a conventional process in a plant in Western Europe. 62 • December 2013
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Figure 5: Comparison of the energy consumption between elastomer treatment technologies
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CEW Features Benefits of LIST Process Efficient processing of sensitive elastomers with highly adhesive nature Able to process new high performance grades; New catalyst developments are possible Closed process with no significant air or water contamination Low energy and cooling water consumption Technology can be applied for large scale continuous elastomer processes Self cleaning provide long operation without cleaning interruption. Table 1: Benefits of LIST Direct Devolatilisation Technology over Conventional Process
The team installed a fully automated mini plant at LIST AG headquarters in Arisdorf, Switzerland. This enabled interested and potential users to test the LIST Direct Devolatilisation process with their own elastomer solution. Customers were able to run their samples and analyse them for consistency and quality on site. The LIST Direct Devolatilisation process was then scaled up for implementation on a semi-industrial scale at the “Pilot Plant Center for Polymer Synthesis and Processing” (Figure 3) at the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, an independent research and development institute in Schkopau, Germany. The Pilot Plant Centre is equipped with LIST’s specialised Polymer-processing technology, and is capable of performing the newest polymerisation, polycondensation and reactive compounding processes.
The Pilot Plant Center installation allows LIST engineers to validate the process development from the R&D lab, verify performance on a continuous large-scale pilot process, and closesly evaluate the process during extended periods of operation and with with hunderts of tonnes of elastomer solution. It also provides the team with production samples for application testing, validation of time-extensive processing and product stability, comparison of different processing technologies. The installed LIST processing technology is designed for continuous and batch operation, and the testing capacities range from 3 to 50 kg/h final product.
Authors’ Details Andreas Diener Product Manager and Expert LIST AG, Switzerland E mail: andreas.diener@list.ch Raghunatha Kulkarni Managing Director - LIST AG India Mumbai, India Email : raghunatha.kulkarni@list.ch Figure 6: Pilot facility offered by LIST for Proof of Concept (POC)
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CEW Features Technical Article
Improving Mixing Design with Advance Simulation Mixing can be defined as the reduction in homogeneity of concentration, temperature, or phase. In industry, the application of mixing is wide ranging: from blending in tanks, to gas dispersion in liquids; suspension of solids in liquids; and liquid-liquid dispersions. This article explains how advance simulation help improve the mixing design and scale-up the process.
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ixing occurs over a large range of length scales, as macro level phenomena of stirring and shearing drive micro level processes such as mass transfer or temperature or shear dependent property change. In turn, these micro level phenomena drive molecular diffusion and reaction. Understanding mixing in its entirety is challenging, due to these wide ranging scales. Each new stirred reactor system needs a scale-up rule that is derived from lab scale and pilot scale experiments after looking at a range of possible operating and design conditions. Process engineers rely heavily on measurements, experience and rule of thumb to carry out design
and scale-up of mixing tanks or stirred tank reactors. However, although “tried and tested� each of these approaches has significant drawbacks in terms of either the cost or the accuracy of the results that they provide. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is increasingly providing a more cost effective and accurate alternative to these established techniques. Simulation for Design and Scale-up Traditionally, use of CFD in simulation of mixing in stirred vessel has been characterised by several hurdles. These hurdles and the recent advancements addressing them are described below. Due to these difficulties, the number of simulations cases that are carried
out for a given stirred vessel has historically been limited, so that the full benefit of carrying out parametric variations of design and operating conditions cannot be leveraged in the design process and cannot consequently complement the experimental work in a valuable manner. The CFD simulation process involves four basic steps viz.: geometry creation, mesh generation, setting boundary and initial conditions and finally post-processing. Of all these steps, the first two have historically been the most expensive that requires manual intervention from an engineer. However, in recent years the process has been streamlined in commercial CFD tools that
Figure 1: Fully integrated simulation process means all operations of geometry, mesh generation, solution and post processing can be accomplished in natively built single environment.
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Figure 2: For the same base mesh size, number of boundary layers and other parameters, a trimmed mesh gives 254 thousand cells, polyhedral mesh gives 353 thousand cells and a tetrahedral mesh gives 1.7 million cells. Each solution has similar level of accuracy.
have been specifically created to handle computational geometries - much more complex than mixers (i.e. the underhood of an automobile, or the undercowl of a gas turbine). This development means the effect of a geometric parameter can be studied much more quickly and will be limited only by the computing resource available. As the industry invests more in ever-cheapening computing resources, even this limitation can be overcome easily. Automating the Mesh Generation Process The quality and reliability of the results from the simulation depend on the quality of the underlying computational mesh for a given geometry and flow characteristic.
skewed cells. They can be combined with prismatic cells near walls to capture boundary effects. Sliding Meshes All the mentioned approaches are good for “steady state” type approached that are suitable when the impeller-baffle interaction is not important or weak. More often than not, the interaction is not weak or there are other unsteady effects that are important. In such instances, the sliding mesh or Rigid Body Motion (RBM) approach or a moving/deforming mesh approach can be used. Creating an excellent mesh that gives stable and
accurate results requires manual work that slows the turnaround time and causes loss in value of simulation. Automatic meshing of geometries can be quick, but is fraught with the risk of creating unreasonable and/or bad quality meshes. Considering the conflicting approaches of automatic meshing and the slow process of completely manual meshing, an unique and more fundamental approach is needed. Overset Meshing a Key Enabler The overset or chimera mesh methodology has existed for a number of years but has become available commercially only recently. It marks a paradigm shift in simulations involving motion of a body relative to another body. All unsteady state stirred vessels simulations require the motion of an inner zone consisting of the impellers. In this method, a background mesh is created for the stationary/non-moving domain and one or more overlapping
In the past engineers attempted to create meshes using structured hexahedral computational cells; however, this approach usually failed to capture the full geometrical detail of the impellers, and they were forced to use simplified methods such as momentum sources to account for the motion of the impeller. Tetrahedral meshes, however, suffer from a few disadvantages such as large number of cells for a given volume and risk of highly skewed cells in small angles around the impeller blades. A modern development is so called “polyhedral” meshes that are made from computational cells with an arbitrary number of faces, typically 14-16 faces per cell, as opposed to 4 faces in a tetrahedral mesh. Like tetrahedral meshes, polyhedral meshes can accommodate complex shapes. However, the numbers of cells required are much lower resulting in faster mesh creation and, since each cell communicates with so many neighbours, solution times are significantly reduced. Due to the polyhedral nature of the cells, they rarely run into bad quality cells or 68 • December 2013
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Figure 3: Geometries, contour plots of scalars and comparison of moments in a sample 3 blade impeller study using in-built optimization plugin. This design exploration study with 15 variations was set up and carried out within 48 hrs. on a 10 processor cluster.
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CEW Features grids are created for the moving zone. It has the advantage over other meshing methods is that the two zones can be meshed independently giving more flexibility in refining the grid. Moreover, during the motion, an initial good quality mesh still remains the way it is, especially in the sharp angle regions of the impeller because no remeshing is necessary at each time step. This also reduces the computational expense. There is no loss of information as all the grids are implicitly coupled. Simulation of other complex mixing equipment such as twin-screw extruders, helical mixers can vastly benefit from the overset mesh technique. These equipment typically have more than one moving element with elements having overlapping or entangled motion. Rigorous Parametric Studies & Model Based Optimisation Optimisation of a mixing tank design generally is carried out using experiments and observations of quality of mixing. However, numbers of experiments that can be carried out are always limited or cannot cover the entire design space. Therefore, a selected design may not represent the most optimum configuration, mathematically speaking.
complete CFD analysis can ease the learning curve for process engineers who would like to deploy CFD in their engineering process. Summary and Outlook: Some of the recent advances in simulation technology can address these hurdles, thereby increasing the frequency and accuracy of the simulations to contribute with a higher value to the scale-up process. Engineers and managers also should consider that a large computation today is several orders of magnitude less expensive than it was a decade ago whereas the cost of experimentation has increased. The skill to set up of a stirred vessel simulation, post-simulation analysis and integrating it into routine engineering design and scale-up process is the need of the future for a process design engineer. Automation of the setup process, including the ability to seamlessely import CAD geometries, automated but reliable and reasonably mesh generation are some of the capabilities being added to commercial codes that can help a process design engineer acquire these skills rapidly.
Design space exploration use parameterised geometry and automatic meshing methods to explore the entire design space where impeller blade dimensions, number, pitch angles, number of sets etc can be varied to explore how they affect one or more key metrics of mixing such as power density distribution, mixing time or residence time distribution. The resulting Pareto front can help a process engineer choose from various design alternatives. Alternately, optimisation algorithms that plug into the design space exploration study can be employed to select a best design for a given set of single or multiple cost functions e.g as minimising the mixing time while keeping a narrow residence time distribution. The Human Factor of Success with Simulations The most important aspect of a CFD simulation of a stirred vessel is interpretation of the results in a manner that is amenable for practical use. Practical experience gives expertise to discern between a feasible/successful design and infeasible or unsuccessful design. The key to utility of CFD simulation is how a velocity, turbulence or other variable resolved by the NavierStokes equation can be translated in to a set of practical evaluation and decision making metrics. Such work demands that engineering performing simulations and carrying out experimental/scale-up work very closely in developing such workflows. Basic understanding of simulation process, easy to use simulation tools, good training, commitment and patience can reveal larger gains in improving this most common problem type in the chemical industry. A wizard or a simplified setup front end that can perform basic engineering design and follow it up with a 70 • December 2013
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Author’s Details Ravindra Aglave (Ph.D.) Director, Chemical Process IndustryCD-adapco Email: ravindra.aglave@cd-adapco.com
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Factory, Regd. & Head Office : TRANTER INDIA PVT. LTD. Gat No. 127 & 128, Dingrajwadi, Tal. Shirur, Off Pune-Nagar Road, Dist. Pune 412 208. India. Tel. : +91 (0) 2137 392 300 Fax : +91 (0) 2137 392 354 E mail : sales@tranter.com
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Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features Technical Article
Safety & Health in the Chemical Industry If we compare the size of chemical industry, global chemical industry is about USD 3 trillion. India is a relatively small player as Indian industry is worth only around USD 60 billion. The petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and the specialty chemical segment of the Indian chemical Industry have a considerable presence in the global chemical industr y, and a major presence in agrochemicals. This article discusses some of the major health & safety problems associated with this industry and significance of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for proper safeguard.
T
he major challenge that the chemical industry faces today is the perception that it affects the environment. The industry is viewed with a high degree of apprehension on the pollution and sustainability fronts. Products from chemical industry have dramatically altered the quality of life world over and have contributed significantly to our day-to-day requirements. However, the perception is changing slowly and this image will also change for the better in the near future. In India, environmental rules and regulations are very stringent as compared to other developing countries and some of the developed countries. Furthermore, even though many rules like identification, notification and development of landfill sites, were prescribed in the year 1989 under The Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, the state governments are still unable to identify, notify and develop the required sites even today. However, an amendment enacted in the year 2000, placed the responsibility
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on industry associations, as well as the government. One of the major problems related to the industrial growth and pollution prevention is the activism of several NGOs. Public opinion and various public interest litigation against pollution have led to greater awareness amongst the industrialists, authorities and communities. Many of the measures to be adopted for solving environmental problems should be based on the experience already gained by the developed countries. Presently, there is little institutional impetus provided for the adoption of “cleaner technologies” and “waste minimisation” techniques. Process technologies, however, have their own economic returns that mitigate the need for extensive regulatory interference.
In addition, industries that are leaders in the environmental front do not currently receive any specific advantages. No special consideration is given even for processing their application for consents or authorisations. Consequently, there is no real driving force for the industries to adopt cleaner technologies and implementation of Environmental Management System standards ISO-14000. The National State of the Environment (SoE) Report of India 2001 and the National Environment Policy (NEP) 2006 have focused on some particular areas. The NEP 2006 focuses on policy issues such as conservation of critical environmental resources, intra-generational equity - securing livelihood for the poor, integration of environmental concerns in economic and social development, efficiency
One of the major problems related to the industrial growth and pollution prevention is the activism of several NGOs. Public opinion and various public interest litigation against pollution have led to greater awareness amongst the industrialists, authorities and communities. Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 18:40:05
Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features in environmental resource use, environmental governance and enhancement of resources for environmental conservation.
a risk of fire or explosion if flammable liquids are not stored and handled in an appropriate manner.
The SoE 2001, in turn, has got the focus on the current state of the environment. The report identified the five priority key issues for India i.e. land degradation, biodiversity, air pollution control with special reference to vehicular pollution in cities, management of fresh water resources and hazardous waste management.
What are the Risks? There any many chemicals used in the industry. Many of these chemicals are classed as dangerous goods as well as them being hazardous substances. Dangerous goods are substances or articles that have the capacity to pose an immediate risk to life, property or the environment via their flammable, explosive or reactive nature.
Apart from the official focus areas, there are signals which are speaking for the change in the attitudes towards the environment. As stated before, the environmental awareness is still very low. Awareness creating campaigns, however, have become rather popular and their visibility has increased over the past years. Legislation alone does not guarantee sustainable development. The situation is extremely tricky in the country like India, where implementation is very difficult. Rules, however, can work as a driver towards conservation; for instance those that are inbuilt in the permission system, force industries to take environmental issues into consideration. What is the Problem? Chemicals used, stored and handled in the chemical industry are often treated in a way that exposes employees, others and the environment to risks. For example: • Cleaning agents or organic solvents such as white spirit alcohols, etc can be readily inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through the skin. Excessive exposure to such agents can cause headaches, nausea, lack in concentration, intoxication, tiredness and damage to the central nervous system. Solvents can also de-fat the skin and cause dermatitis. • A large number of cleaning agents, blanket wash, fountain solution, alcohols, etching solutions etc are highly flammable. Therefore, there is
Hazardous substances can cause harm to a person’s health if these get into the body. The most common routes of exposure are through inhalation or skin absorption, which can lead to immediate or long-term health effects. What Can You Do to Manage the Risks in Your Workplace? • Know exactly what chemicals are used in your workplace by creating a register (include material safety data sheets (MSDS) and risk assessment results in the register) • Only use dangerous goods approved containers for decanted chemicals and label containers with the correct name and risk and safety phrases • Put good housekeeping and regular inspection practices in place, such as putting chemicals away when not in use, immediately clean up spills etc • Keep lids on solvents to reduce wastage and evaporative emissions • Place solvent soaked rags in an isolated covered bin • Train employees using inks and solvents in the proper methods of use, handling and storage (including information such as correct PPE selection from MSDS) • Provide and maintain suitable PPE (e.g. respirators, gloves, goggles, apron etc) • Keep minimal quantities of chemicals on your site • Provide spill containment (e.g. bunding, spill pallets)
Hazardous substances can cause harm to a person’s health if it gets into the body. The most common routes of exposure are through inhalation or skin absorption which can lead to immediate or long-term health effects. 74 • December 2013
Safety & Health in the Chemical industry.indd 74
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Ensure you have a spill kit and procedures in place to manage spills Train your employees in what to do when there is a spill and how to dispose of waste safely Where possible, substitute dangerous and/or hazardous substances with less hazardous alternatives Be aware that some so-called ‘natural solvents’ can be as toxic as normal solvents, and they can have the added problem of auto ignition when placed on a rag due to oxidative reaction Substitute solvent based inks with vegetable oil based inks Substitute organic solvents with vegetable cleaning agents (vegetable cleaning agents are virtually free of volatile organic solvents) Consider printing alcohol free. Alternatives to isopropyl alcohol are available, and can be used effectively in some printing processes Use aqueous or water based varnishes Keep work areas well ventilated. Use local exhaust ventilation with appropriate capture hoods on equipment that releases solvent vapours into the work environment Reduce contact with chemicals by using automatic processing (e.g. auto ink dispensers) Replace deletion fluid with deletion pens Providing extractors to remove ozone from UV presses (UV curing lamps convert oxygen in the air to ozone) Use water-cooled or cold-cure UV lamps to prevent ozone build up Store flammable liquids (dangerous goods of class 3) away from ignition sources and combustible materials (e.g. power points, paper and cardboard, timber tables and shelving) Keep in and around flammable liquids storage cabinets free from other classes of dangerous goods Do not store rags or rubbish in the storage cabinet. Do not store items on top of the storage cabinet. Ensure the storage cabinet has a bund to contain spills Provide adequate fire fighting equipment throughout the workplace Have an emergency plan in place and practice what to do in an emergency.
It stands as a duty for the employers concerning the provision and use of PPE at Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 18:40:05
Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features Hazards
PPE Solutions
Eyes
Chemical or metal splash, radiation, projectiles, Safety glasses or goggles, face shields, visors. debris, gas and vapour.
Head
Impact from falling or flying objects or debris, risk Safety helmets and bump caps. of head bumping, hair entanglement.
Lungs/breathing
Dust, gas, oxygen, vapour, deficient atmospheres.
Body
Chemical or metal splash, temperature extremes, Boiler suits, conventional or disposable overalls, high visibility contaminated dust, adverse weather, spray from clothing, specialist protective clothing, chain mail aprons. pressure leaks or spray guns, impact or penetration, excessive wear or entanglement of own clothing.
Respirator or disposable filtering face piece, half or full face respirators, breathing apparatus, air fed helmets.
Hands and Arms Chemicals, abrasion, temperature extremes, Gloves, mitts, gauntlets, wrist cuffs, armlets. electric shock, cuts and punctures, impact, skin infection, disease or contamination. Feet and Legs
Abrasion, wet or cold weather, electrostatic Gaiters, safety boots and shoes with protective toe caps and build-up, slipping, cuts and punctures, metal and penetration resistant soles, leggings, spats. chemical splash, falling objects.
Table 1: Hazards and PPE solutions
work and to ensure that these are adequately supplied and used correctly at work wherever there are risks to safety and health that cannot be controlled in any other ways. PPE should always be considered a last resort. When other precautions fail to reduce the risk of injury, PPE comes into picture. An employer’s duty is to combat the risk at source if possible, and the first priority being engineering solutions such as provision of guards on machinery which would help in improving health and safety.
maintained and properly stored while not in use. It should be kept clean and in good repair. Manufacturer’s maintenance schedule should be followed regularly. Simple maintenance can be done by the trained wearer but incase of complicated repairs, it should always be carried out by a specialist. Finally, Personal Protection using PPE at work place is an indispensable issue that helps both the employer and the employee to stay and work in a healthy and safe environment.
On 1 st January 1993, the main legislation that governs PPE called Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 came into force. PPE as defined in the Regulations states “all equipment (including clothing affording protection against the weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work which protects him against one or more risks to his health and safety”. Therefore, PPE includes Gloves, Eye protection, High visibility clothing, Safety Helmet, Safety footwear, Safety harnesses and Respirators. All the equipment are of equal importance for the protection of the employee at their job site. The nature of job decides the allocation of a PPE. Its use starts with the assessment of all different hazards in the workplace. Further assessment should be done to ascertain which types of PPE are suitable to protect against the hazards linked to each job. To add to this, an employer must also see whether the supplied PPE is compatible with each other. For example, a particular type of respirator may make it difficult to get eye protection or ear protection to fit properly. More the pieces of PPE needed by an individual the more the potential problems. Usage of PPE protects different parts of the body from various hazards. (See the table 1 above) Thus, an adequately equipped work place confirms the safety and health of the employee. Together with the installation of the PPE, its maintenance also plays a vital part. The PPE should be well 76 • December 2013
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Author’s Details Vinay Pathak Lab Head 3M R&D Centre
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 18:40:05
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Chemical Engineering World
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04-01-2014 11:18:02
CEW Market Insights
Sabic Inaugurates the Innovation Centre in Bengaluru
P
rince Saud Bin Abdullah Bin Thenayan Al-Saud, Chairman Sabic, Mohammad H Al- Mady, Vice Chairman & CEO, Sabic and the core leadership team of Sabic inaugurated centre of excellence for innovation and research in Bengaluru in the presence of Srikant Jena, Honourable Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilisers, Hans Raj Bharadwaj, Honourable Governor of Karnataka, K Rehman, Honourable Minister of Minorities and over 1000 industry professionals attended the inauguration ceremony.
Sabic, the 5 th largest global chemicals company, envisages becoming world leader in chemicals by 2025, said His Excellency Prince Abdullah in his inaugural address welcoming the industry during the inaugural ceremony. “We are strongly focusing on emerging markets and India is one of the key markets for our global growth strategy,” he added. With a fleet of over 2000 technologists, 10000 patents to credit, 17 centres worldwide and strong presence across USA, Europe, Middle East & North East Asia, India is currently on the radar of the petrochemical major. Talking to the press, AL Mady stated, “India is one of the fastest growing nations, where the demand is driven by the young and growing population. We have invested 100 million USD to set up the technology centre with the aim to stay close to customers to understand their needs and provide customised solutions.” Currently the innovation centre has a work force of 300 scientists and engineers to carry out research in organic chemistry, process engineering and engineering plastics. Saudi Arabia and India have a long history of trade relations and the current bilateral trade stands at around 35000 million USD, Jena noted. “Sabic’s move towards to set up innovation centre indicates the increasing impact of India in global research and development, and further strengthens 78 • December 2013
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(L-R) Srikant Jena, Honourable Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilisers; K Rehman, Minister for Minorities; J Ramanujalu, Region Head- South Asia & Australia, Sabic; Hans Raj Bharadwaj, Governor of Karnataka, Prince Saud Bin Abdullah Bin Thenayan Al-Saud, Chairman Sabic, Mohammed H Al Mady, Vice Chairman & CEO, Sabic
the faith the Saudi industries have in the Indian market,” he added. Jena also invited Sabic to participate in the proposed Petroleum Chemicals & Petrochemicals Regions (PCPIR) in Odisha, Tamilnadu and Gujarat and conceptualise plastics parks at mutually convenient locations. He urged the petrochemicals major to engage with Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET) for further research in the field of plastics and polymers. The STC Bengaluru – Innovating for Tomorrow’s Needs Alongside another technology centre slated to open in China in early December, the Bengaluru facility builds on Sabic’s two existing dedicated application centres in the region – one in Moka, Japan, and the other in Sungnam, South Korea. With these centres, Sabic has 17 Technology and Innovation facilities globally including its centres in Saudi Arabia, the USA, the Netherlands and Spain. Ernesto Occhiello, Sabic’s Executive Vice President, Technology and Innovation, said: “We are gathering some of the best and brightest talent from India to shape the future of our R&D efforts. Both centres together host a critical mass of professionals and are an indication of Sabic’s commitment to be the preferred technology partner for Asian
customers as well as the employer of choice for the best talent from the region.” Janardhanan Ramanujalu, Vice President, Sabic South Asia & ANZ said: “The launch of the Sabic Technology Center in Bengaluru is a clear reflection of Sabic’s commitment to India, and is a very important milestone for us. The centre will therefore play a pivotal role in delivering innovative products and solutions, while harnessing local talent coupled with the infusion of hi-tech local expertise and knowledge into the country, including scientists and engineers who are returning from overseas.” Commitment to Sus t a in a b ilit y a n d the Environment The STC in Bengaluru is also designed with a strong environmental and sustainable ethos and a zero-discharge facility. The energy and water consumption of the facility will be minimised. the comapny is also firmly committed to – and is already supporting – several community and CSR initiatives around the STC. Key projects undertaken include the Hosahalli Lake restoration project, reconstruction of Hosahalli Government School, a Community Resource Center in Hosahalli Village and bus shelters around the vicinity. Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 18:42:34
Marketing Initiative
Outokumpu: Safeguarding Success with Sustainable Solutions
Yatinder Suri Country Head Outokumpu India Pvt Ltd Outokumpu, the undisputed leader in manufacturing of high performance stainless steels has been running the most efficient mill for austenitic standard grades for over a century now. The strategic acquisition of Inoxum has strengthened Outokumpu’s position in ferritic, martensitics, and high-quality surface finishes for different applications such as architectural or white goods, shares Yatinder Suri, Country Head, Outokumpu India Pvt Ltd, in an exclusive interview with CEW.
Outokumpu India Pvt Ltd 609-612, Hemkunt Tower Nehru Place, New Delhi-110019, India Tel: +91 11 4651 8440 / 41 Fax: +91 11 4651 8439 Email: yatinder.suri@outokumpu.com Website: www.outokumpu.com 80 • December 2013
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What is the total stainless steel demand in India and how is Outokumpu positioned in the market against the competition especially from the domestic players? There are over 400 grades of stainless steel which can be used for the diverse range of applications depending on the operational environment. In India the dominant demand comes from the utensils and kitchenware application segment which is as high as 65%. This is the low end application being catered to by over three dozen induction melting route manufacturing units as well as the four integrated manufacturing plants. Outokumpu is not catering to these segments. The industrial and infrastructure applications constitute 35% of the overall demand (around 700,000 tonnes per annum). Since the range of production capability of domestic integrated plants is rather limited at this point of time, imports are vital to meet demand for high end advanced materials for the accelerated infrastructure growth. Outokumpu presence in India is primarily relevant for the high end grades and higher dimensions. Being the oldest and largest stainless steel player in the world, we have positioned ourselves as the wise stainless men who are educating the domestic end users on new grades and applications and also giving new opportunities to the domestic mills to learn from us and upgrade their capabilities. Post-acquisition of Inoxum, what kinds of opportunities are available for Outokumpu globally & in India? Outokumpu and Inoxum are highly complementing – Outokumpu having been a
leader in high performance stainless steels and running the most efficient mill for austenitic standard grades is now complemented by Inoxum’s strong position in ferritic, martensitics, and high-quality surface finishes for different applications such as architectural or white goods. We now have the full range of high performance stainless steel and alloys. The new Outokumpu is the global leader in advanced materials. We are helping the world to reduce the pace of consumption of our planet and thus make the world last forever May we have your comments on the risks and challenges associated with working in India at present due to brief hiatus on implementation of projects and how are you mitigating the risks? India is definitely not a preferred destination for investments due to a variety of policy gaps and multiplicity and uncertainty of clearance procedures. There are project cost escalations due to delays in project implementation leading to many conflicts and defaults in contractual obligations across the supply chain. We have been supporting many budgetary enquiries for various important projects but the take-off is so slow. We feel that the risks are minimum for Outokumpu since we follow the partnership approach by being honest and transparent in our dealings from a budgetary enquiry level to final order and supplies. By offering reliable services even during the tough times of a customer, we aim to earn the trust for the long term. It is tough but mutual trust pays ultimately.
We have positioned ourselves as the wise stainless men who are educating the domestic end users on new grades and applications and also giving new opportunities to the domestic mills to learn from us and upgrade their capabilities. Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 19:09:59
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Marketing Initiative Domestic stainless steel production has been on an upward swing during the last quarter and some of the steel have already planned indigenous capacity expansions. Further with an antidumping duty that is imposed on steel imports, how do you plan positioning yourself strongly in the Indian market? There is overcapacity in the domestic sector in the low end and vanilla grades of stainless steel. Since stainless steel is the fastest growing metal in consumption (about 10% annual growth in India) It is hoped that the over capacity will get filled up in the next four years. This means the fixed cost element for the new plants is high due to low capacity utilization. There is a tendency to drop prices to chase a demand which is much smaller than the supply and this downward spiral hurts everyone in the long run. Since landed steel is dollar denominated, what impact has the depreciation of rupee made on the imports? How do you intend to further curb this challenge as the analysts have predicted further slide in the rupee value? The devaluation impact currently is definitely beneficial to domestic players providing them with an opportunity to improve their domestic selling prices and also a greater opportunity in export markets. Unfortunately, despite the devaluation of rupee by over 40% in past one year, the domestic players continue to indulge in downward spiral and make losses. The domestic players surely need to follow a pricing strategy to improve their bottom lines. Seeking higher import duties and anti-dumping duties despite the 40% advantage is not a strategy since it hurts the downstream segments badly. How do you plan to steer the growth of the company in India and scaling up the operations? There are huge investments in pipeline for infrastructure which includes Energy, Oil & Gas , chemical process, storage tanks for oil and chemicals, Railways coaches, wagons and bridges , ports, water effluent treatment, desalination, storage and distribution of potable water, food processing and grain storage to name a few of critical areas. Our extremely long coastal line adds yet another dimension to big challenges due to its corrosive environment. Tackling corrosion means using higher end stainless steel grades and that is an opportunity for Outokumpu. It is the right time for Outokumpu to work together with local partners and make India stainless in line with our vision – A world that lasts forever.
82 • December 2013
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Next Issue Focus PROCESS PLANT AND MACHINERY: CURRENT SCENARIO Though process plant and machinery industry in India has come a long way in designing and manufacturing a very wide range of equipment and systems for chemicals, petrochemicals, refining, and allied sector, its spending on research and development is still something where, as some experts believe, India has not been able to do any remarkable job. European countries like Italy and Germany have focused a lot on research, while heavy engineering equipment manufacturing sector has witnessed a shift to eastern countries, particularly Taiwan, Japan, China, and Korea. Few technological collaboration, low level of quality consciousness, increasing imports, etc are some of the issues that India will have to address to ensure the all-round development of the industry. FOCUS OF JANUARY ISSUE The issue will highlight above-mentioned issues through Guest Columns and News Features, and focus on machinery and equipment that are used in unit operations such as Separation, Purification, Mixing, Reaction, Power Generation and Mass Transfer applications, and aim at highlighting latest trends, challenges and scope in Fluid flow processes, Heat transfer processes, Mass transfer processes, Thermodynamic processes and Mechanical processes involved therein through Technical Articles. If you wish to contribute relevant technical articles/case studies or advertise in January 2013 issue, contact us at Mittra_Ranjan@Jasubhai.com (Editorial), industrialmags@jasubhai.com (Sales). You can also reach us at +91 22 4037 3636.
Chemical Engineering World
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Marketing Initiative
Why Pipeline Applications Require Properly Selected Mechanical Seals & Support Systems?
T Author’s Details: Ramesh B. Krishnappan Managing Director AESSEAL INDIA E-mail: indiainfo@aesseal.in
Ramesh B. Krishnappan is an experienced engineer and very knowledgeable about mechanical seals and the application of mechanical seals. Ramesh is a member of the Global Product Development team primarily focusing on highly engineered seal designs. Ramesh’s experience includes solving mechanical seal problems in the Middle East, India and running a seal business in the USA for several years.
ransporting crude oil or refined products in pipelines across country / continent from production centres to market is a key part of the modern world’s energy distribution infrastructure. These transportation networks include several compressor stations in gas lines or pump stations for crude and multiproduct pipelines. The mechanical seals in most pipeline pumps are cooled and lubricated by pumpage. As for gases and liquids, any chemically stable substance can be sent through a pipeline. Therefore sewage, slurry, water, or even beer pipelines exist; but arguably the most valuable are those transporting crude petroleum and refined petroleum product including fuels: oil, natural gas (gas grid), and biofuels.
Many gases that are routinely transported by pipeline are highly compressible, some turning into liquids as applied pressure is increased. The compressibility of such materials is obviously critical to pipeline design and throughput capacity. On the other hand, crude oils and most petroleum distillate products that are transported by pipeline are only slightly compressible.
Fluid Characteristics: Pipeline capacity is affected by temperature both directly and indirectly. In general, as liquids are compressed for example, as they pass through a pump - they will experience slight temperature increases.
Thus, application of pressure has little effect on the material’s density or the volume it occupies at a given temperature; consequently, compressibility is of only minor importance in liquid product pipeline design.
As the temperature of a liquid is lowered, its viscosity increases, creating more frictional drag along the inner pipe walls, requiring greater amounts of energy to be expended for a given throughput volume. Very viscous materials such as crude oils exhibit the greatest sensitivity to the operating temperatures of their pipelines.
Application & Equipment Conditions: Pipeline seals are subject to varying pipeline system pressures and start / stop operations. Typically, the seal chamber pressure on most between-bearing, double suction, single stage and multistage pipeline pumps will be equal to the suction pressure of the pump.
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84 • December 2013
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However, in the case of crude oils, the impacts are not only from increases to viscosity, but also due to the solidification of some chemical fractions present in the oils. For example, crude oils with high amounts of paraffin will begin to solidify as their temperature is lowered, and they will become impossible to efficiently transport via a pipeline at some point.
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Chemical Engineering World
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Marketing Initiative
CEW Features projects need to put retaining good quality a clear career path to projects based on their by project hiring.
in substantial efforts in recruiting and manpower. Companies have to provide the engineers who are deployed on the interest and thus move away from project
Labour Workforce Management: Innovative methods must be implemented at site to attract and retain construction labour force at site. Better working conditions, timely compensation payment by the petty contractors and skill development opportunities are some such ways that can avoid movement of construction labour out of the site. Companies have to factor in crop and festive movement of workforce into the project plan and take proactive steps so that a minimum level of workforce is always maintained at site to support the required pace of construction work. Pipeline accidents are widely reported. Stringent Environmental Regulations ask for Double Seals and Plan 53B’s with Automatic refill units!
Conclusion While this pressure can be companies as low as should the discharge pressure Chemical & Petrochemical view their capital of expenditure a booster pump, pipedto inderive seriescompetitive will have projectsmainline as an pumps opportunity seal chamber by pressures equal to the discharge of the advantage commissioning facility inpressure time and at preceding pump. Because of the processes high seal chamber pressures, competitive cost. Developing for elaborate risk management, planning andmust monitoring and project can cartridge Mechanical seals be positively lockedexecution to the pump helptocompanies succeed in not doing so. By such chamber projects Shaft ensure that they are forced outstarting of the seal without the required project management process due to the developing hydraulic forces. infrastructure, companies carry the risk of blocking precious financial resources unproductively and being late toConditions: market with Typical Application Conditions: Typical Equipment new capacity. • 60 bar plus Pressure • Bigger Shafts /high velocity
• • • • •
Reverse pressure capability Dry running possibility High Viscous (Crude) Volatile fluids (Ethane & Propane) Complex Supply Systems
• • • • •
Sand Particles, Abrasive Pipe Rouge Start/Stop operations Remote Locations Poor Equipment Conditions Small Seal Chamber
Research has proven that the best way to prevent mechanical seal failure is in using effective Seal Support Systems. This means that no matter how well designed your mechanical seals are, without a reliable Seal Support System there is still the possibility of your mechanical seal failing. Because sealing applications on product pipeline pumps are critical to pipeline operation, the use of dual (tandem, double or dry running secondary) seals should be considered. Dual seals can maintain low leakage rates while providing improved safety. • A tandem seal is two seals operating in series with the secondary seal usually of the same configuration as the primary seal. An unpressurised seal reservoir, Plan 52, is required to support the AuthorÊs Details operation of the secondary seal. •
Shripad Ranade Senior Principal A double seal is usually two sealsTATA sealing in opposite directions. Strategic Management Group shripad.ranade@tsmg.com This seal is usually supported with Email: a pressurised seal reservoir,
Plan 53A or 53B or 54.
•
Mittal Shah Engagement Manager D r y r u n n i n g s e c o n d a r y s eTATA a l s Strategic o p e r aManagement t e i n t aGroup ndem arrangement without the seal reservoir required for liquid Email: mittal.shah@tsmg.com
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Chemical ChemicalEngineering EngineeringWorld World
22-11-2013 19:35:00 03-01-2014 17:03:49
Chemical ChemicalEngineering EngineeringWorld World
Final AdAd template amol.indd Final template amol.indd5987
November2013 2013• 87 • 59 December
23-11-201311:33:22 15:37:21 04-01-2014
CEW
Marketing Initiative
A Tsunami of Nano-science at Dharmsinh Desai University ‘Nadiad, Gujarat: ICON-NANO 2013’, an international conference on Surface Science and Nanotechnology organized by the Shah-Schulman Center for Surface Science & Nanotechnology of Dharmsinh Desai University on 10th - 12th December, 2013 in the university campus, witnessed a huge participation from eminent scientists and researchers. The Shah-Schulman Center for Surface Science and Nanotechnology along with the Faculty of Pharmacy at DDU organised an international conference on “Surface Science and Nanotechnology in Biomedical, Pharmaceutical & Engineering systems.” The world’s most eminent scientists and leading researchers graced the event with their presence. The event commenced at 9:30 am on Tuesday, December 10, 2013 in the morning in the presence of Vice Chancellor of DDU Dr H M Desai, Founding Director of Shah-Schulman Center Dr D O Shah, Chief Guest Björn Lindman from Sweden, Guests of Honour Dr Raksh Vir Jasra (Reliance Research Centre), Dr Ashutosh Sharma (IIT Kanpur) and Dean of Faculty of Pharmacy Dr B N Suhagia, Registrar of DDU Prof Rajanikant Jain, GUJCOST scientific advisor Dr Narottam Sahoo and iNDEXtB advisor Mr K D Vyas along with various other eminent scientists, professors and students.
Group Photo of all Planery speakers and Invited Guests, along with Faculties of SSCSSN and Faculty of Pharmacy
The Government of Gujarat has considered this event as a part of the Vibrant Gujarat 2015 summit and the event is partially supported by Gujarat Council on Science and Technology, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat. About 15 companies also contributed to the funds needed for the conference. The conference had 18 distinguished and renowned scholars from various countries such as USA, China, Sweden, Portugal, UK, Taiwan and Korea. The events comprised of presentations by various scientists on topics such as Nanofabrication, Foundation of Nano-medicine, Interaction of Surfactants and Cellulose, Dimensions of Nano in Drug Delivery, Gold Nano Particles, and Nanoscale effects in Catalysis as well as advancements in Nanotechnology
were discussed. Various scientists from universities all over the world such as IROST Iran, IISER Pune, IIT Delhi, IISc Banglore, University of Florida USA, NTUST Taiwan and Columbia University USA presented their research work. The session followed by healthy and brain tingling discussions. The entire conference was carried into two divisions i.e. Pharmaceutical Systems and Engineering Systems. A poster presentation was also organised which displayed the ongoing research works by various students doing their MS or Ph D degrees. The event ended on a high note with a closing ceremony. Dr D O Shah, Director of Shah-Schulman Center, said “The event was extremely successful and will have long term bearing on shaping up of Nanoscience and technology in India, and particularly in the state of Gujarat”. The organisers showed thankfulness to all the government agencies and industrial sponsors, along with participants and researchers all over the world for making this event a grand success. It was a phenomenal achievement for the University for having the leading scientists of world under one roof.
Dr. Dinesh O. Shah Founding Director of SSCSSN and convenor of ICON-NANO giving a Special Host Lecture to the Conference.
88 • December 2013
Sabic.indd 88
The event helped students to take an inspiration from their role models and work hard to serve the society and achieve excellence in Nanoscience and Surface Science. Chemical Engineering World
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December 2013 • 89
04-01-2014 11:35:45
Marketing Initiative
Watson-Marlow Pumps Aid the Recovery of Rare Industrial Mineral
I
n early 2013, Watson-Marlow Pumps Group supplied no less than 21 positive displacement pumps to British Fluorspar Ltd, the UK’s sole fluorspar producer. The pumps, which include 12 of the latest Qdos no-valve metering pumps, have all been set to work on vital flotation duties at the company’s Peak District facility. The mine reopened in May 2012 following closure 18 months beforehand. With the help of Watson-Marlow pump technology, the site is now responsible for producing 60,000 tonnes of fluorite every year. Acid grade fluorspar (fluorite) is a relatively rare industrial mineral. The UK’s main reserves are now found solely within the Southern Pennine orefield in the Peak District National Park. Extraction can be by open cast methods, often to considerable depths, or by underground mining. Following acquisition and investment by the Italian Fluorsid SpA group last year, British Fluorspar Ltd is now prospering with 45 people working across two shifts. The company today comprises an underground operation at Milldam Mine, open pit extraction at Tearsall Quarry, and processing operations at Cavendish Mill.
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the change,” says Large. “However, with the new investment we were able to take a look at the market and soon realised that Watson-Marlow were the people to approach.”
• 21 Watson-Marlow pumps bring flotation process into 21 st century • Chemical reagents metered include methyl isobutyl carbinol, sodium isopropyl x a n t h a t e , a n d so d iu m c a rb o n a t e . I n ve st m e n t assisted the revival of UK’s only fluorite producer
Contact Details:
Watson Marlow India Pvt Ltd S .No 77/1, Opp Malan Farm Z.P.Road, Tathawade, Pune: 411 033. Tel No: +91 20 6735 6200 . Email: info@wmpg.in . Website:www.wmpg.co.uk 90 • December 2013
Watson Marlow.indd 90
Time for Change When the site was re-opened last year, British Fluorspar was keen to source new pumps that represented 21 st century technology: efficient, reliable, precise, low maintenance, clean and user-friendly. The company called on the services of an external consultancy and the advice was simple: consider peristaltic. “We knew about the peristaltic concept but in all honesty never had the financial backing to make
Following consultation, Watson-Marlow was able to recommend: 12 Qdos 30 universal pumps offering flow rates from 0.1 to 500ml/min at 7 bar; eight 520UN/REL process pumps providing flow rates up to 3550ml/min ; and a single 620UN/RE with flow rate from 0.004 to 18 litre/min. Regarding the latter, a probe is used to control the dosing in line with pH fluctuations. All of this is far cry from the equipment used prior to the site’s reopening – where the system relied on a bucket and wheel feeder/proportioner which was both erratic and inaccurate.” The emphasis on the Qdos 30 range reflects a design which is aimed specifically at chemical metering. These high performance pumps accurately dose chemicals without the need for any valves or ancillary equipment, keeping costs to an absolute minimum – in fact, the total cost of ownership is less than that of a typical solenoid or stepper-driven diaphragm pump. Floating the Idea Today, all 21 Watson-Marlow pumps have been deployed successfully in the flotation process at British Fluorspar. Reagents are pumped up from mixing tanks into the head tank, from where they follow plastic pipes down into flotation. Among the chemical reagents handled by the pumps include methyl isobutyl carbinol, sodium isopropyl xanthate, sodium carbonate, sodium sulphide, caustic soda pearl and sodium silicate. In total, British Fluorspar produces 60,000 tonnes of fluorite ore every year, which is extracted from 300,000 of crude product. As a by-product, limestone is discharged from the mineral and sold. “We first used the pumps in March 2013 and have been really pleased with their performance,” concludes Large. “At last we have equipment befitting a business such as ours. I must also add that the back-up and response from Watson-Marlow has been excellent throughout the entire process.” Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 19:21:16
Chemical Engineering World
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December 2013 • 91
04-01-2014 16:08:04
CEW Products Chemical-resistant Diaphragm Vacuum Pump Chemical-resistant diaphragm pumps are the best suited oil free vacuum option for laboratory and pilot scaled application. Typical applications include evacuating chemically aggressive gases and vapours from such equipment as rotary evaporators, vacuum drying cabinets and centrifugal concentrators. Diaphragm pumps are oil-free for most reduced service demands compared with oil-sealed pumps. They eliminate the wastewater of water-jet aspirators and the contaminated waste-oil disposal of rotary vane pumps. The diaphragms are available in various materials like EPDM, Neoprene, Viton and Teflon-coated Neoprene Rubber. These vacuum pumps are available in the range of 15 to 33 LPM generate maximum vacuum of 30 torrne. Chemical resistant vacuum pumps are supplied with 3-phase flame-proof motors also. For details contact: Sri Vishnu Pumps Mfg Co. 19A, Plot No:19, Kashimira Indl Estate Behind Kashimira Police Stn, Post Mira Dist. Thane, Maharashtra 401104 Telefax: 91-022-28458372, 28457073 E-mail: vishnupump@rediffmail.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 1
3 Phase Heavy Duty Industrial Vacuum Cleaners BLOWTECH offers highly sophisticated range of industrial vacuum cleaners to suit all industrial applications. All the models are available in powder coated mild steel, partial SS and complete SS construction. Vacuum cleaners are built on sturdy trolleys and supplied with various accessories and filter options including HEPA to suit different industrial applications in textile, food, pharma, wood-working, engineering and electronic industries. They are equipped with highly efficient primary cyclone separators with secondary separators as cartridge filters/bag filters. These are also available for wet and dry applications. These are also modified for complete wet handling systems for extraction of machine coolants and swarf separation. For details contact: BLOWTECH Row House No: 2, Om Balaji Heights Nr Ramdev Park, Mira Road (E) Dist: Thane, Maharashtra 401 107 Telefax: 91-022-28458372, 28457073 E-mail: response@vacuumcleanerindia.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 2
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Side Channel Vacuum Pumps & Compressors (Turbine Blowers) These are designed to suck or to compress air/gases/nonexplosive air mixtures and are absolutely oil free with air flow capacities ranging from 42 to 1,100 m 3 /hr with maximum vacuum up to 500 mbar and maximum pressure up to 550 mbar. These are lightweight and have 100% oil free non-pulsating continuous air flow. These pumps/blowers require practically zero maintenance and have silencers on both suction as well as discharge por ts. These are useful in applications like pneumatic conveying systems, industrial vacuum cleaners, electroplating industries like hot dip galvanizing, oxy-generation in aquariums/fisheries, air feeds to industrial ovens and burners, printing and paper handling, air pollution monitoring equipment, dental suction equipment, etc. For details contact: Shree Siddhi Vinayak Industries Plot No: 19, Kashimira Indl Estate Post-Mira Dist: Thane-401 104 Telefax: 91-022-28458372, 28457073 E-mail: response@minivacpumps.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 3
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 20:23:39
Products CEW Rotary Vane Oil Lubricated Vacuum Pumps Minivac SVL Series of low vacuum pumps are sliding vane type direct/ belt driven vacuum pumps mounted on common base frames. These are compact in size, vibration-free and hence can be mounted inside the machines.These attain maximum vacuum levels up to 29” of Hg and capacities range from 50 to 2,000 LPM. Specially treated vanes give advantage of silent operation and reduce wear and tear on stator. The unique design of lubrication system positively feeds minimum required oil to all rotating and frictional parts. These are useful in applications like capsule filling or printing machines and other pharma machineries, packaging/labeling machines, vacuum chucking, etc. For details contact: Shree Siddhi Vinayak Industries Plot No: 19, Kashimira Indl Estate Off Western Express Highway, Post Mira, Dist: Thane Maharashtra 401 104 Telefax: 91-022-28458372, 28457073 E-mail: response@minivacpumps.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 4
Diaphragm Vacuum Pumps & Compressors Diaphragm vacuum pumps and compressors are a quiet source for vacuum and pressure. These pumps are portable, quiet and oil free and are offered with single/ three-phase motors. The diaphragms are available in various options like EPDM, Neoprene, Viton and Teflon-coated Neoprene Rubber. Its aluminium construction makes it lightweight and compact. These vacuum pumps are available in the range of 10 to 75 LPM with a maximum vacuum of 27” Hg and pressure of 60 PSIG. The choice of series and parallel connection in double-stage models gives selective advantage of flow and vacuum/pressure. Chemical-resistant models are supplied with flame-proof motors. These are useful for various applications like pollution control equipment, laboratories, flame photometer, plastic welding machines, agitation of chemicals, aeration, oil spray painting, etc. For details contact: Sri Vishnu Pumps Mfg Co 19A, Plot No: 19, Kashimira Indl Estate Post Mira, Dist. Thane Maharashtra 401104. Telefax: 91-022-28458372, 28457073 E-mail: vishnupump@rediffmail.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 5
Chemical Engineering World
cew November must 4 new file.indd 93
December 2013 • 93
03-01-2014 20:23:39
CEW Products Positive Displacement Chemical Transfer Metering/Dosing Pump JEW offers positive displacement accurate chemical transfer metering/dosing pump used for different applications. Chemicals can be transferred from ground level to upper level with exact quantity. The pump head pressure will not change the discharge capacity of the pump. Volumetric pump will dose the liquid in required capacity with higher pressure into the reaction vessel. Chemicals can be transferred in various capacities at different times as per the batch requirements. JEW can offer a pump where one can transfer two different liquids with single pump and single motor with individual stoke adjustment to control the flow rate. For details contact: Jagdish Engg Works 7/2 Rocky Indl Estate, IBP Road, Goregaon (E), Mumbai 400 063 Tel: 022-26853584, 26853480 Fax: 91-022-28735555, 28749847 E-mail :jew@jewpump.com / jewpumps@yahoo.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 6
Full Body Opening Centrifuges
Contact Resistance Tester (CRM)
A full body centrifuge is one in which the entire monitor casing opens out when required. This is achieved without the cumbersome process of unfastening a number of manual bolts that are typically used to fasten the monitor casing. The opening mechanism consists of a hydraulic arrangement which when activated pulls out the monitor casing. When the monitor casing is closed it is clamped to the lower body flange by means of quick clamps which ensure a vapour tight sealing.
The UDEY contact resistance tester Model MRL‐11 is a new generation, fully automatic, 4 terminal line loop contact resistance tester.
These machines are used where the cleaning process needs to be validated. This would also be useful in sites where there are frequent product changeovers. The entire monitor casing can be opened by means of a hydraulic arrangement, thereby exposing the basket and the drain platform which can be thoroughly cleaned and product changeovers can be easily affected. In this model Joflo also can provide an additional lid on the top which can be either operated manually or hydraulically during regular batch operations. For details contact: Joflo Industries Pvt Ltd 201 & 202 Mastermind I, Royal Palms Estate, Aarey Colony Goregaon (E), Mumbai 400 065 Tel: 022-28794682, 28794683 | Fax: 91-022-28794684 E-mail: sales@jofloindustries.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 7
94 • December 2013
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The entire test is done automatically and quickly. It replaces the old mV drop testing and convert to resistance reading. The MRL‐11 takes over, powers up the test current, takes the reading and displays the results on the LCD screen. The test results can be saved and printed. The test current is 100 A DC. The measurements are simply accurate with accuracy of 0.5 Class and resolution of 0.1 microhms. The MRL 11 is lightweight (9 kg) including the highly flexible testing leads of 8 metre length, user-friendly 3 keys with a built in plain paper printer, day, date calendar, RS 232 port and memory storage capacity of 100 test results. For details contact: Udeyraj Electricals Pvt Ltd 212‐A Hind Saurashtra Indl Estate 85‐86 M V Road, Andheri Kurla Road Andheri (E) Mumbai 400 059 Tel: 022/66916181, 28508017 E-mail: info@udeyraj.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 8
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 20:23:40
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December 2013 • 95
04-01-2014 11:41:02
CEW Products Steam-in-Place Connectors Static Light Scattering Technology Fluid Bed Dryers As part of a single use system, these disposable connectors enhance the sterility of your bioprocessing line. The innovative product design allows for a one-step process for sterilization and media transfer the need for a laminar flow hood. Terminations on these connectors are set to industry standards for bioreactors and are available in popular sizes of flexible tubing. All wetted surfaces meet requirements for USP Class VI, MEM elution, hemolysis in vitro and physicochemical tests. All units are made of animal-free medical grade polysulfone. Choose from two designs, the original Steam-Thru Connection and Steam-Thru II. The original Steam-Thru connectors feature a three-port design that allows steam to pass directly through the power ports to steam on to stainless equipment. Once the SIP cycle completed, remove the tear-away sleeve to actuate the valve and create a sterile flow path. Once actuated, the connection cannot be reversed because valve actuation punctures the internal membrane to allow flow of media. When the process is complete, the connector may be safely disposed. The Steam-Thru II connectors offer the additional benefit of both steam on and steam off functionality. The valve can return to the steam position to allow a second steam cycle after media transfer. For details contact: Cole-Parmer India Pvt Ltd 403-404 B-Wing, Delphi Hiranandani Business Park, Powai Mumbai 400 076 Tel: 022-67162222 Fax: 91-022-67162211 E-mail: info@coleparmer.in or Circle Readers’ Service Card 9
96 • December 2013
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Aero Therm offers fluid bed dryers with batch capacity of 15 to 500 kg. The digital temperature indicator controller will give accurate temperature control. Control action can be On-Off or PID. Construction of dryer can be made of MS/aluminium/SS-316/SS-304 as per the requirement. Flame-proof and spark-proof versions is also available. Heating can be electrical/thermic fluid or steam radiator/ oil fired hot air generator. For details contact: Aero Therm Systems Pvt Ltd Plot No: 1517, Phase III, GIDC Vatva, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 382 445 Tel: 079-25890156, 25834987 Fax: 91-079-25834987 E-mail: contact@aerothermsystems.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 10
Centrifugal Air Blower/Fan Vacunair Engg Co Pvt Ltd offers highly efficient centrifugal air blower/fan with new concept in fan engineering. Selection is from 9 types ranging from 14 to 40 and each type have sizes for specific requirement and different specific speed for best efficiency. It is possible to design the fan or synchronise the speed for direct drive arrangement with best efficiency. It can handle air/ hot flow gases/corrosive gases/dust/fiber/powder material, etc. Blower/fan are available for impeller mounted on motor shaft/direct coupled/ veebelt drive. Impeller has backward/back inclined/forward curve type design with construction welded/riveted selected base on required application. Impellers are balanced as per ISO 1940-1973 (E) Class G 6.3. Blower/fan can be designed in single stage/multi-stage/DWDI type depending upon required specification. Blower/fans are available in capacity ranging from 100 to 300,000 m 3 /hr and pressure up to 2,500 mm WG. For details contact: Vacunair Engg Co Pvt Ltd Nr Gujarat Bottling, Rakhial Ahmedabad Gujarat 360 023 Tel: 079-22910771 Fax: 91-079-22910770 E-mail: info@vacunair.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 11
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 20:23:43
Chemical Engineering World
Final Ad template amol.indd 97
December 2013 • 97
04-01-2014 11:43:54
CEW Products Extruders STEER offers new line of extruders that would offer the best power utilization making it truly a mixing vessel that can operate at full power at different speeds. STEER displays a versatile 40 mm Mega Special Plus extruder with new technology to utilize full motor power of 160 kW at screw speeds of 625, 750, 1,000 and 1,200 rpm. The Mega Special Plus shares the general purpose Do/Di of 1.55 with earlier MEGA models, with the added features of a continual shaft for improved safety and reliability apart from the availability of STEER proprietary line of conveying and mixing elements. In addition STEER offers OMICRON 12. This machine will process RESOMER (PLGA Polymer), an EVONIK brand product. OMICRON 12 PHARMA co-rotating twin-screw laboratory extruder is specially designed for pharma industry. The ability of this hot melt extrusion system is to generate outstanding dispersive and distributive mixing. It can produce material at an extremely low output rate, which helps in lowering the cost of development of new products. STEER’s Alpha and OMEGA line of extruders features a process section with a Do/Di of 1.49 and 1.71 respectively. Both extruders have the tightest and most optimized screw to screw gaps in the industry. The result is a lower shear signature during processing and enhanced product quality due to narrowed residence time distribution. For details contact: STEER Engg Pvt Ltd 290, 4th Main, 4th Phase, Peenya Indl Area Bengaluru, Karnataka 560 058 Tel: 080-23723309 Fax: 91-080-23723307 E-mail: info@steerworld.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 12
98 • December 2013
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Industrial Valve for Processing Abrasive and Corrosive Substances Flowrox offers a new pinch valve product designed to enhance current pipeline equipment and processes using the latest technology in fluid control. The new PVG valve was developed for use in the oil and gas, mining, minerals and metallurgy. and wastewater industries—particularly where abrasive or corrosive slurries, powders or coarse substances are processed. Flowrox’s new PVG valve is designed as a full port fluid control device that allows a more efficient process, requiring less pumping energy. The reduction of head pressure is another benefit offered by the PVG valve, which helps reduce pump costs and eliminates unnecessary turbulence in pipelines handling abrasive slurries. At the core of Flowrox’s PVG valve is its innovative elastic sleeve, which is the only par t in contact with the medium as a way to reduce any potential corrosion or deterioration due to wear-and-tear, even when processing the most corrosive chemicals. For details contact: Flowrox Inc 808 Barkwood Court Suite N, 21090 Linthicum, MD, U.S.A. Tel: +1 410 636 2250, Fax: |1 410 636 9062 E-mail: todd.lodin@flowrox.com / molly.bragg@flowrox.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 13
Hydro MPC Booster Systems The brain of the booster system is the newly developed highly advanced MPC control unit. Specially designed for the Grundfos booster systems, the MPC is easy to operate from installation to everyday surveillance. The main task of the MPC unit is to control the number of pumps in operation, as well as the speed of the individual pumps, in order to adjust the performance of the system to variations in demand. The MPC controller is capable of controlling up to six pumps connected in parallel. The Hydro MPC control unit features an installation wizard, which guides the use through a series of dialogue boxes on the large graphic display. Via the Ethernet connection, the Grundfos Hydro MPC booster system can be operated from a remote computer where the operator will be able to view the control panel on the computer screen. Remote monitoring and data acquisition is also possible. Status on individual pump levels and system level, as well as operating conditions, settings, control mode, warnings and alarms can be read out from a remote computer. For details contact: Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd 118 Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Thoraipakkam Chennai 600 097 E-mail: salesindia@grundfos.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 14
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 20:23:44
Homogenisers for Every Application From compact and handheld for batch operations to in-line formats for continuous dispersing • Selection includes blenders, grinders, mills, pulverisers, modular homogenisers, digital high-speed homogenisers, and ultrasonic processors • Rotor-stator design provides a very high shear to achieve particle size reduction • Modular design offers greater flexibility to deliver desired results 3747
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CEW Products Double Flanged Dual Plate Check Valves Advance Valves have been supplying customized face-to-face double-flanged d u a l p l a t e c h e ck va l ve s i n t h e p a s t in order to cover the dimensional differences of the older swing check valves being used by industr y. Their full range of valves were provided as a standard p r o d u c t i n d o u bl e f l a n g e d e n d c o n n e c i t o n s. Fr o m 2 ” onwards, these cater to the special requirements of the oil and gas sector clients. Given the compact design of these valves as covered in API 594, certain sizes cannot be provided in this configuration. However, with this added range, the complete product range can be supplied and installed as double flanged to meet stringent thermal expansion concerns over time of high end oil and gas users. For details contact: Advance Valves Pvt Ltd 142-A & B, NSEZ, Phase 2 Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201 405 Tel: 0120-4796900, Fax: 91-0120-4796948 E-mail: communications@advancevlaves.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 15
Double Stag e Oil Se a le d Ro t a r y Va n e Vacuum Pump WOOVAC – WSVP 9000 Series double stage oil sealed rotary vane vacuum pumps are manufactured in collaboration with Woosung Vacuum Co Ltd of South Korea. The pumps are compact in design and offer consistent guaranteed high vacuum with very low input power and offer faster pump down time. The advanced pump design incorporating twin cylinders and components made of high quality specially graded raw materials ensure high thermal stability and superior performance. The pumps are manufactured to operate in the most stringent environment and do not require any external or forced cooling due to their low temperature use. WOOVAC pumps offer a higher degree of vacuum as compared to other pumps currently being manufactured in India. For details contact: Indo Vacuum Technologies Pvt Ltd 20 Anupam Indl Estate No: 3 LBS Marg, Off Malviya Road Mulund (W) Mumbai 400 080 Tel: 022-25613336, 32923010 Fax: 91-022-25613335 or Circle Readers’ Service Card 16
Clarifiers Environ clarifiers are for chemical effluents, various types of industrial processing and even metallurgical processing, where the efficient separation of solids from liquids is the need. Efficient separation of suspended solids of sedimentation is an important and essential aspect in effluent treatment, since it not only reduces considerably suspended solids loading, but also helps in reducing the COD/BOD loading, thereby contributing in reducing the sizing of subsequent process, viz, that of biological treatment, etc. Thus, clarification/sedimentation, the process to remove suspended solids, is economical and has become an essential part of effluent treatment plants and raw water treatment plants. The process is purely of gravity-separation. This is achieved by the reduction in velocity of the fluid and nearly 189o change in the direction of the flow. The separate solids would flow downward and settle on tapered floor. The slow moving scraper mechanism having scraper arms with Neoprene rubber/PP/HDPE/brass squeegees, scraps the floor and brings the settled sludge (suspended solids) to the central sludge well. The velocity or the movement of scraper arms, squeegees is designed in such a way that the sedimentation process is not distributed at all. For details contact: Environ Engg Co 864/B/3 GIDC Indl Estate, Nr GCEL, Makarpura Vadodara, Gujarat 390 010 Tel: 0265-2643870, 6536670 Fax: 91-0265-2633458 or Circle Readers’ Service Card 17
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CEW Products Integrated Cleaning Solutions (CIP & SIP) Clean-in-place is a method of cleaning the interior surfaces of pipes, vessels, process equipment, filters and associated fittings, without disassembly. The benefit to industries that use CIP is that the cleaning is faster, less labour intensive and more repeatable and poses less of a chemical exposure risk to people. CIP star ted as a manual practice involving a balance tank, centr ifugal pump and connection t o t h e s y s t e m b e i n g c l e a n e d . C I P h a s ev o l v e d t o i n c l u d e f u l l y a u t o m a t e d s y s t e m s w i t h p r o g r a m m a b l e l o g i c controllers, multiple balance tanks, sensors, valves, heat exchangers, data acquisition and specially designed spray nozzle systems. The steam-in-place system responsible for repeatedly steaming areas of product contact including vessels, flow paths and sample parts. This may be done to reduce the bio burden on the system or to kill harmful materials at the end of a batch. A typical SIP system will ensure that all areas being steamed have been exposed to live steam for an adequate time to ensure the desired kill effect. Nilsan Nishotech Systems SIP system ensures and controls steam temperature, pressure and/or flow to ensure adequate steaming. For details contact: Nilsan Nishotech Systems Pvt Ltd W-199 E, MIDC, Khairne, Thane Belapur Road Navi Mumbai 400 705 Tel: 022-41515151 | Fax: 91-022-41515150 E-mail: info@nilsan-nishotech.com or Circle Readers’ Service Card 18
Pumps for Transfer of Paste/Syrup/Ointment & Process Liquid JEW offer SS-316 pumps from 2 to 1,000 LPH and pressure up to 10 kg for transfer of paste/syrup/ointment and process liquid with approved food grade packing. Special non-return valve assembly for better performance are volumetric displacement metering pumps in which flow rate can be adjusted from 0 to 100 per cent and controlled from as low as 2 per cent with maximum variation of ±4 per cent. For details contact: Jagdish Engg Works 7/2 Rocky Indl Estate, IBP Road Goregaon (E) Mumbai 400 063 Tel: 022-26853584, 26853480 Fax: 91-022-28735555, 28749847 E-mail :jew@jewpump.com jewpumps@yahoo.com
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A filter media is fixed to the cylindrical surface of a perforated basket. The feed slurry is directed to the basket wall using a feed pipe. Feeding is carried out while the basket is rotating at an appropriate speed. After the required cake is built, feeding is stopped. The centrifuge is run for some time to partially de-water the solids. Feeding can be repeated if there is adequate space for further build up of cake. After feeding, washing is carried out by pumping wash liquid through the wash pipe. The basket is run at the spinning speed to complete the de-watering process. The speed of the basket is reduced to the scraping speed. A scraper knife cuts the solids, discharging them through the chute. Some material remains on the filter media after scraping and is called residual heel. This heel can be removed by using the heel removal system. The centrifuge can be cleaned using a CIP system.Bottom discharge centrifuge is advised for a non-sticky crystalline product which can be easily cut by the scraper blade. For details contact: D Parikh Engg Works 115 Marol Co-op Indl Estate, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400 059 Tel: 022-40498787 | Fax: 91-022-28505979 E-mail: sales@dparikh.com
or Circle Readers’ Service Card 19
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or Circle Readers’ Service Card 20
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Petroleum Istanbul Dates: 10-13 April 2014 Venue: Tuyap Fair Convention & Congress Center, Istanbul, Turkey Details: Trade fair for petroleum upstream and downstream Equipment, technology and services Organiser: Hannover Messe International Istanbul Limited Contact: +90 212 334 69 48; +90 216 466 74 96 Email: info@petroleumistanbul.com.tr Website: www.petroleumistanbul.com.tr TECHNICA’14
Global Petroleum Show
Dates: 17-19 January 2014 Venue: NIT Jamshedpur Details: The annual national symposium fest of Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, NIT Jamshedpur Organiser: NIT Jamshedpur Contact: 91 947 171 7150; +91 89875 72982 Email: shubham@technica.net.in Website: www.technica.net.in
Dates: 10-12 June 2014 Venue: Big Four Building, Calgary, Canada Details: Global Petroleum Show presents a world throbbing with power - the world of oil & gas Organiser: DMG World Media Contact: +1 403 209 3555 (Toll-free: 888 799-2545) Email: paulaarnold@dmgevents.com Website: www.globalpetroleumshow.com
PU TECH
Chemspec Europe
Dates: 12-14 March 2014 Venue: India Expo Centre and Mart, Greater Noida Details: An exhibition highlighting developments in the polyurethane industry Organiser: The Indian Polyurethane Association Contact: +91 44 2499 5923; +91 44 2496 4131 Email: admin@pu-india.org Website: www.putechindia.com
Dates: 18-19 June 2014 Venue: HUNGEXPO Budapest Fair Center, Budapest, Hungary Details: Exhibition of fine and speciality chemicals Organiser: Quartz Business Media Limited Contact: +44 1737 855 076; +44 1737 855 000 Email: johnlane@quartzltd.com Website: www.chemspecevents.com
India Chem
Saudi Plastics and Petrochem
Dates: 9-11 October 2014 Venue: Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC), Mumbai D e t a i l s : A n ex h i b i t i o n o n c h e m i c a l , p e t r o c h e m i c a l a n d pharmaceutical sector Organiser: Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry Contact: +91 11 2373 8760; +91 11 2376 5081 Email: manoj.mehta@ficci.com Website: www.indiachem.in
Dates: 17-20 February 2014 Venue: RICEC, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Details: Saudi Plastics and Petrochem is dedicated to the plastics and petrochemical industry Organiser: Riyadh Exhibitions Co Limited Contact: +966 1 4541448 Email: kamil.jawhari@recexpo.com Website: www.saudipp.com Dye+Chem Sri Lanka International Expo Dates: 6 - 8 March 2014 Venue: Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre, Colombo Details: The 18 th Dye+Chem Sri Lanka 2014 International Expo Organiser: Conference & Exhibition Management Services Contact: +91 11 2410 4724/2410 5201; +1 212 634 4833 Email: cems@cemsonline.com Website: www.dyechemonline.org
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Manufacturers of: Ball ,Gate,Globe , Check Valves , Mascon Diaphragm valves ,Diaphragm operated pumps, Dairy Sanitary valves & Fittings ,FDA approved Hoses, DelTech Butterfly valves.
“Parshva Nagari” Bldg No 1, Shop No 4 & 5 ,Infront Of Chandrarang Park, SudarshanNagar ,Pimple Gurav, Pune 411027, Mobile : 9881236139 , Office:020 20270493, Email : pramod@parth-valves.com/ sales@parth-valves.com/purchase@parth-valves.com/info@parth-valve.com Web.:www.parth-valves.com
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CEW Project Update
New Contracts/Expansions/Revamps The following list is a brief insight into the latest new projects by various companies in India. Ć CHEMICALS Lion Tapes Private Limited, a sister concern of Stretch Bands, Gujarat, is planning a 100 TPM synthetic organic chemicals manufacturing project in GIDC, Chitra Estate, district Bhavnagar, Gujarat. As of October 2013, the project is waiting for environmental clearance. Work on the project is expected to commence in 2014. According to the MoEF sources, the project includes products like 40-TPM of Fast Red B Base, 20-TPM of Fast Bordeaux GP Base, 10-TPM of Fast MNPT (Red G) Base, 5-TPM of Fast Red 3GL Base, 10-TPM of Fast Scarlet RC Base, 5-TPM of Fast Yellow GC Base, 5-TPM of Fast Orange GC Base and 5-TPM of Fast Red RC Base. The commercial waste generated from administration building would be disposed through sale to scrap vendors. The generated industrial wastewater will be treated in ETP and treated effluent will be discharged through common pipeline.
Olpad, district Surat, Gujarat. As of May 2013, the project is waiting for environmental clearance. Work on the project will commence in 2014 and is planned for completion in 2016.
N u m a l i g a r h R e f i n e r y L i m i t e d is implementing a wax manufacturing project at a cost of Rs 5,770 million in Numaligarh Refinery, district Golaghat, Assam. The project envisages production of high value low volume paraffin and micro-crystalline wax utilizing inherent properties of North East crude. Engineers India and Axens of France have been selected as the process licensors for solvent de-oiling and wax hydro-finishing units.
Ć MINING Sri Venkatesh Granites is planning a colour granite mining project in Kamanpur, district Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh. As of December 2012, environmental clearance has been received. The project will come up on 4.56-hectare of leased area. Global Enviro Labs are the environmental consultant.
Ascent Pharma is planning a synthetic organic chemical manufacturing project in village Veraval, district Rajkot, Gujarat. As of September 2013, the capacity of the proposed unit is yet to be finalized. The project is waiting for environmental clearance. Work on the project is expected to commence in Q1 2014. Vasudha Pharma Chem Limited is planning a 1-(2-Phenylethyl) piperidin-4-one chemical manufacturing project in Parawada, district Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. As of September 2013, the project is waiting for Government approval. 1-(2-Phenylethyl) piperidin-4-one is used as an intermediate in the manufacture of chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs. This is a new product line in the existing plant. The company also plans to produce Amitriptyline HCl in the same unit in future. Resil Chemicals Private Limited is planning specialty chemicals manufacturing project used for garments in Malur, district Kolar, Karnataka. As of July 2013, land has been partially acquired. The project is in conceptual stage. Other details are yet to be finalized. Macro Polymers Private Limited is planning a 15,000 TPM synthetic resin manufacturing project at a cost of ` 250 million in Chacharwadi, district Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Land acquisition is in progress. The project is waiting for clearances and planned for completion on 1st April, 2014. Hindusthan Chemicals Company, formerly known as Cyanides & Chemicals Company, is planning an expansion of its sodium cyanide manufacturing project from 5,400 TPA to 12, 000 TPA in 106 • December 2013
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Ardex Endura (India) Private Limited, belonging to the Ardex Group. is planning a tile-fixing adhesive, flooring, water proofing and allied products manufacturing project at a cost of ` 100 million in Aerotropolis, Asansol, district Bardhaman, West Bengal. As of March 2013, the project is in planning stage and planned for completion in Q4 of 2014. The estimated land area is 3 acres. Ricela Health Foods is planning a nutraceutical plant - oryzanol concentrate, in district Sangrur, Punjab. As of January 2013, the project is in planning stage. Work on the project is expected to commence in 2014.
Western Coalfields is planning the Penganga opencast coal mining project (3-MTPA and peak capacity is 4.5-MTPA) on 781-hectare land in village Wirur, district Chandrapur, Maharashtra. As of November 2012, the project has been submitted in the 59 th EAC (Thermal & Coal Mining Projects) meeting held on 6th November, 2012. Central Coal Fields is planning the 0.3 MTPA Ray Bachra underground coal mining project in district Ramgarh, Jharkhand on 1215.45-hectare land. As of September 2012, the project has been submitted in the 57 th EAC (Thermal & Coal Mining Projects) meeting held on 17 th September, 2012. Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam is planning the opencast Parsa East & Kanta Basan coal mining (10-MTPA) and coal washery (10-MPTA) in Udaipur, district Surguja, Chhattisgarh. As of August 2012, the project has been submitted in the 55 th meeting of the EAC (Thermal & Coal Mining Projects) held on 28th August 2012. Odisha Power Generation Corporation is planning the Manoharpur coal mining project in district Sundergarh, Odisha. As of July 2012, the company is waiting for environmental clearance. Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation is planning ÂSondihaÊ open cast and underground coal mining project in district Surguja Chhattisgarh. As of July 2012, the company is waiting for MoEF clearance. Central Coalfields Limited plans expansion of its Churi Benti UGP coal mining capacity from 0.16-MTPA to 0.81-MTPA in Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Project Update
district Chatra, Jharkhand. As of June 2012, MoEF clearance has been received and the project is planned for completion in 2 years from zero date. Zain Coke & Energy India is planning 150,000 TPA metallurgical coke manufacturing project at a cost of ` 450 to ` 500 million in Chickanthapura, district Bellary, Karnataka. As of May 2012, The project is waiting for revenue and statutory clearance and is planned for completion in 10 months from zero date. Jaiprakash Associates is planning limestone mining project in village Kothar, district Satna, Madhya Pradesh. As of March 2012, the project is waiting for environmental clearance and the project completion date is yet to be finalized. Ć NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY Savera Beverages is planning a 5 MW coal and bagasse-based captive power project in village Hiranwali, district Fazilka, Punjab. The project is waiting for environmental clearance and is planned for completion in 6 months from zero date. 28 acres of land has been acquired. The project will come up along with a 100 KLD grain-based distillery to produce extra neutral alcohol. Favorich Sugars, belonging to the Favorich Group, is planning a 15-MW bagasse-based co-generation power project in Krishnarajpet, district Mandya, Karnataka. As of January 2013, the company is waiting for land approval from Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board. The project is waiting for financial closure and is planned for completion in 18 months from zero date. The State Government had allotted 250 acres of land for the sugar project, distillery and mega food park. Vishwanath Sugar & Steel Industries is planning to expand its bagasse-based co-generation power project from 39-MW to 64- MW in Bellad Bagewadi, district Belgaum, Karnataka. As of October 2012, environmental clearance has been received and the project is planned for completion in 18 months from zero date. The project is coming up in the existing plant premises. The project is waiting for State Pollution Control Board clearance. Ć NON-CONVENTIONAL POWER IPL Sugars & Allied Industries, a group company of Indian Potash, is planning a 20-MW bagasse and rice husk-based IPP on 250-acre land in village Motipur, district Muzaffarpur, Bihar. As of March 2012, the existing plant will be demolished and the new plant will be constructed. The project is planned for completion in 1-year from zero date. Tathagata Bio Energy Private Limited plans to set up 12 MW biomass power plant in Gaya, Bihar. As of May 2011, work on the project is under planning stage. 108 • December 2013
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Ć THERMAL POWER Cauvery Power Generation Chennai, an SPV promoted by the promoters of Kaveri Gas Power, is planning an expansion of its coal-based power project in villages Sirupuzhalpettai and Billakuppam, district Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu. The capacity will be augmented from 63-MW to 213-MW. The coal for the plant is imported from Indonesia and supplied by Coastal Energy. The project is in a conceptual stage. Jayaswal Neco Industries Limited is planning a 50-MW waste heat recovery-based independent power project in villages Dagori, Ameri Akberi and Udgaon, district Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. As of February 2013, public hearing for the project is over. MoU is yet to be signed with the State Government. The project is waiting for environmental clearance and is planned for completion in 20 months from zero date. Amrut Sugar & Distillery is planning a 18-MW bagasse-based co-generation power project at a cost of ` 2,000 million inclusive of the sugar project in district Jalgaon, Maharashtra. As of October 2012, 120 acres of land has been acquired. Work on the project commenced in January 2013 and is planned for completion in October 2014. M a h a r a s h t r a S t a t e Po w e r G e n e r a t i o n C o m p a n y i s planning a 2 x 660 MW coal-based thermal power project near Manora, at Tiroda, district Gondia, Maharashtra. As of September 2012, preliminary activity for land acquisition is in progress. S K S Po w e r G e n e r a t i o n ( M a d h ya P r a d e s h ) , g r o u p company of SKS Ispat And Power, is planning a 2 x 660 MW super critical coal-based thermal power project in villages Rahiwada and Amarwada, distr ict Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh. As of August 2012, the project is waiting for environmental clearance and is planned for completion in 1 year from zero date. Rajuri Steels is implementing a 30-MW coal-based captive power project in Mul MIDC, district Chandrapur, Maharashtra. As of June 2012, civil work was in progress. The project is scheduled for completion in Q1 of 2014. Ć POWER GENERATION Ardent Steel, belonging to the Hira Group, is planning a 100MW waste heat recovery-based captive power project in village Phuljhar, district Keonjhar, Odisha. As of November 2013, The existing plant area is 47.50 acres and the company is in the process of acquiring additional 400 acres of land for this project. The power project will come along with a 3-MTPA iron ore washery, a 1.20-MTPA DRI plant, a 1.20-MTPA SMS/arc furnace, a 1.20-MTPA rolling mill and an expansion of its iron ore pelletization plant from 0.6-MTPA to 2.10-MTPA. Chemical Engineering World
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OFFICE : F-5, 'Atharva Estate', 238/2 E, Tarabai Park, Kolhapur – 416 003 (Maharashtra) India. Phone : HO (0231) 2653123, 2651964 Fax : 0231 – 2655389, E-mail : sales@chemlinindia.com WORKS : 235/6, Pune – Bangalore Road, KAGAL – 416 216, Dist. Kolhapur (Maharashtra) Phone : 02325 – 244108, 245108, Email :- works@chemlinindia.com, Website : www.chemlinindia.com • MUMBAI : mumbai@chemlinindia.com • N.DELHI : delhi@chemlinindia.com • ERNAKULAM : ernakulam@chemlinindia.com • BARODA : vadodara@chemlinindia.com CPV/DISCFLO-CHEMLIN/PUMPS/18
HORIBA ( Process & Environmental Segment) Contributing to the global environment protection, Since 1945.
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CEW Book Shelf Environmental Water: Advances in Treatment, Remediation and Recycling Authors Price Pages Publisher
: V K Gupta, Imran Ali : ` 9,898.00 : 232 (Hardcover) : Elsevier Science Ltd
About the Book: The world is facing a drinking water crisis. Besides continuous population growth, uneven distribution of water resources and periodic droughts have forced scientists to search for new and effective water treatment, remediation and recycling technologies. Therefore, there is a great need for the development of suitable, inexpensive and rapid wastewater treatment and reuse or conservation methods. This title discusses different types of wastewater treatment, remediation and recycling techniques, like adsorption, membrane filtration and reverse osmosis. It also provides guidance for the selection of the appropriate technologies or their combinations for specific applications so that one can select the exact and accurate technology without any problem. The book comprises detailed discussion on the application of various water treatment technologies.
Chemical Process Equipment: Design and Drawing - Volume I Author : Maidargi Suresh C Price : ` 140.00 Pages : 138 (Paperback) Publisher : New Arrivals About the Book : The book uses the symbolic representations of the equipment as used in the industry and provides the detailed drawings of some commonly used equipment. It includes numerous orthographic and assembled views of equipment, and provides several photographs to relate these drawings to equipment used in industries. Finally, the book includes several assignments to reinforce the concepts discussed in the text.
Membrane Filtration: A Problem Solving Approach with MATLAB® : Greg Foley Author Price : ` 7,365.00 Pages : 341 (Hardcover) Publisher : Cambridge University Press About the Book : Focusing on the application of membranes in an engineering context, this hands-on computational guide makes previously challenging problems routine. It formulates problems as systems of equations solved with MATLAB, encouraging active learning through worked examples and end-of-chapter problems. The detailed treatments of dead-end filtration include novel approaches to constant rate filtration and filtration with a centrifugal pump. The discussion of cross flow microfiltration includes the use of kinetic and force balance models. Comprehensive coverage of ultrafiltration and diafiltration processes employs both limiting flux and osmotic pressure models. The effect of fluid viscosity on the mass transfer coefficient is explored in detail, the effects of incomplete rejection on the design and analysis of ultrafiltration and diafiltration are analysed and quantitative treatments of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration process analysis and design are explored. 110 • December 2013
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Fluid Power Dynamics (Plant Engineering Maintenance Series) Author : R Keith Mobley Price : ` 5,116.80 Pages : 300 (Hardcover) Publisher : Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd About the Book : Fluid Power Dynamics is a 12-chapter book in two sections covering the basics of fluid power through hydraulic system components and troubleshooting. The second section pneumatics from basics to troubleshooting.
covers through
This is the latest book in a new series published by ButterworthHeinemann in association with Plant Engineering magazine. Plant Engineering fills a unique information need for the men and women who operate and maintain industrial plants: It bridges the information gap between engineering education and practical application. As technology advances at increasingly faster rates, this information service is becoming more and more important. Since its first issue in 1947, Plant Engineering has stood as the leading problemsolving information source for America’s industrial plant engineers, and this book series will effectively contribute to that resource and reputation. Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 20:29:55
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2013 Expanding the Product Basket / 114 – Prasad K Panicker, Executive Director, Kochi Refinery, BPCL
All’s Well That Ends Well / 118 – P N Prasad, Managing Director, Brahmaputra Cracker & Polymers Ltd
“A Wave of Innovation will Drive Growth in the Future”/ 120 – Nadir Godrej, Managing Director, Godrej Industries Ltd
“Green Concepts don’t Need Different Evaluation” / 122 P R Rathi, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Sudarshan Chemical Industries
Strengthening the Bottomline / 124 – R G Rajan, CMD, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd
India: Hydrogen Economy / 126 – K Venkataramanan, Managing Director & CEW, L&T
Evaluating India’s Energy Fueling Options / 129 – P Bhandarkar, Director – Business Development, Simon India Ltd
Utilisation of Coal in India: Opportunities for Petrochemicals / 134 – Bipin V Vora, Michael Cleveland, Mark Turowicz, Joseph Gregor, UOP LLC
PCPIRs: A Distant Dream for India? / 136 – Vijay Sarathy, Pratik Kadakia, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
Carbon Sequestration: A Fresh Perspective / 139 – Pradnya P Gune, Senior Technology Manager – Marketing,Aker Powergas Pvt Ltd
Gas Sensor Technology to Control Plant Emission / 141 – John Warburton, City Technology
Remote Colloboration for Operational Excellence / 143 – A n d r ew S t u a r t , C h r i s Mo r s e , H P S
Benefits of Ultrasonic Flowmeters / 146 Cole-Parmer
Low Temperature Distillation / 148 – Espen Mansfeldt, Watersolutions AG
Lightning and Surge Protection Measures / 153 Vikas Almadi, Dehn India
Coalescing Technology: An Overview / 156 Ni t i n Na ges h w a r , Yo K u C o n s u l t a nt s
Recovering Materials from Fertiliser Production Waste Water / 159 Dr Stefan Neumann, Lanxess
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SAMARTH ENGINEERS
Manufacturers & Fabricators of: Industrial Pressure Vessels Process Vessel & Heat Exchanger Our Products: Chemical Process Equipments Process Vessels Chemical Process Equipment Parts Fabrication Unit I : J-415, M. I. D. C., Bhosari, Pune - 411026. Maharashtra, India. Tel. No. : +91 20 66300305, 66146033 Mobile: +91 98600 98706 / 97663 26240 Email: sanjayraut21@hotmail.com Website: www.samarthengineers.com
FLUIDYME PROCESS FLOW TECHNOLOGIES Design & manufacture of
* Various Types of direct & gear driven Agitators, Agitators with mechanical seal & Gland packing. ● Modular design enables various mounting arrangements. (i.e. from open tank to closed tank.) ● High efficiency impellers designed for specific process applications. ● Efficient Chemical duty Totally Enclosed (TEFC or Explosion Proof Motors and Air Motor. ● Variable output speed by Variable Frequency Drive. ● Power range from 0.06 HP to 100 HP & onwards. * Agitators with reaction vessels, Pressure vessels. Dosing systems & Pilot plants. * High speed dispersers, Emulsifiers with hydraulically or pneumatically operated lifting lowering arrangement. * Drum Hoop mixer for mixing homogenizing viscous liquids. * Static Mixers with standard & custom design. * Drum press-out for liquid filling applications. E-2/4, Popular Prestige, Near Highway Bridge, Warje, Pune – 411 058, Maharashtra, INDIA. Telefax: (020) 25294091, 25293397, Mobile : 94220 09479, 98222 79409 E-mail: fluidyme@vsnl.net Website: www.fluidymetechnologies.com
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CEW Interview
Expanding the Product Basket
The ambitious integrated refinery expansion project at Kochi Refinery will increase total refining capacity of BPCL by 20 per cent from current capacity of 30.5 MMTPA and pump additional 5.3 MMTPA of petroleum products in the Indian market. Prasad K Panicker, Executive Director, Kochi Refinery BPCL, speaks exclusively to CEW and provides insights into the modernisation of existing units, upgrading of residue streams to produce value added products to the company’s basket and the proposed petrochemical complex.
What kind of production is BPCL targeting through proposed integrated refinery expansion project (IREP) at Kochi refinery? The demand of petroleum products is growing at a healthy rate which is encouraging refiners to increase their refining capacities. The IREP of BPCL, which is being implemented at Kochi, is an effort to meet the country’s growing
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energy needs and making auto fuels more environmentally friendly. Present refining capacity of BPCL is 30.5 MMTPA. Post implementation of IREP, the refining capacity would be 36.5 MMTPA which is about an increase of 20 per cent in refining capacity. An additional 5.3 MMTPA of petroleum products will be available in the market after the expansion.
The estimated cost of the IREP is `14, 225 crore. The project is targeted to be completed by December 2015. The project envisages increasing the current Kochi refining capacity by 6 MMTPA from the present 9.5 MMTPA to 15.5 MMTPA and producing propylene as the feedstock for BPCL’s proposed petrochemical complex. We are modernising the
Chemical Engineering World
04-01-2014 14:43:37
VENUS TRADING COMPANY Pipe Fittings & Valves LLOYDS CERTIFIED ISO 9001:2008 COMPANY WAFER TYPE, BUTTERFLY & CHECK VALVES
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December 2013 • 113
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CEW Interview refinery to produce auto fuels complying with Euro 窶的V & Euro V specifications and upgrading the residue stream from the refinery to value added products to minimise heavy stream generation from the refinery. The capacity expansion by 6 MMTPA will be facilitated with installation of a new state-of-the-art energy efficient Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) which will replace the existing 4.5 MMTPA CDU-1, is now quiet old and energy inefficient. This will result in substantial energy savings and reducing energy footprint. We have also envisaged associated process units like Delayed Coker Unit (DCU), Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit (FCCU), VGO Hydro-treater (VGO HDT), Diesel Hydrotreater (DHDT) Sulfur Recovery Unit (SRU) and Hydrogen Generation Unit (HGU), etc along with matching Utilities and Off-site facilities as part of the IREP expansion at Kochi refinery. Tell us about the proposed plan of `6000 crore to venture into the downstream petrochemical business with the propylene supplies from the proposed expansion? As a value addition, we have envisaged propylene-based petrochemical unit through joint venture, and are currently in talks with some major petrochemical companies to partner for technology and marketing expertise. Propylene, a petrochemical building block produced directly from the refining facility, will be used as the petrochemical feedstock to produce niche petrochemical products like Acrylic acid, Acrylates, Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP), Oxo-alcohol etc. The petrochemical unit will be implanted in tandem with the refinery expansion project. What kind of opportunities will the expansion of Kochi refinery offer for the further downstream industry in Kerala and other Southern part of the country? Once the project is implemented the products available for the market include Propylene, Naphtha, Motor Spirit (MS), Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), Superior Kerosene Oil (SKO), High Speed Diesel (HSD), Air Turbine Fuel (ATF), Furnace Oil/Low Sulphur Heavy Stock (FO/LSHS) 116 窶｢ December 2013
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fuel oil, Bitumen, Sulphur, and Petcoke. Further, Kochi refinery will commence production of 1.3 MMTPA petcoke - a new product that will be offered as well. Petcoke can be used as fuel for the cement plants located in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and other than that there is also a possibility of setting up petcoke based power plant. The cost of power generation is comparable with coal and cheaper as compared with the power generated from other thermal sources such as naphtha. As instructed by the Government of Kerala, the teams of Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and BPCL have carried out a joint study to prepare a Preliminary Feasibility Report for the proposal of setting up a Petcoke-based 500 MW capacity power plant in Kochi. Additional sulfur production will benefit Kerala based industries like the Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) and Travancore Titanium Products Ltd. Production of petrochemical derivatives of propylene and products like Acrylic acid, Acrylates, N-butanol etc will open multitude of entrepreneurial opportunities for investors to set up downstream units to produce petrochemical products. Which are the key markets earmarked for production and how do you plan to move the increase in production from the refinery to the users (India & overseas) There is a healthy demand of petroleum products in the country; however, we are targeting the Southern part of the country, mainly Kerala, Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh. We will supply the products partly to other major demand centers either in the Western and the Eastern regions as well. Additional products produced post IREP would be moved through rail, road and pipelines to the demand centres, and naphtha would be exported through tankers. Presently, there is a pipeline connectivity from Kochi to Coimbatore and Karur which we intend to extending up to Bangalore. Have you received clearances for the proposed Kochi Coimbatore LPG pipeline for transferring additional LPG and also extension to Devangonthi? There is a proposal to lay a LPG pipeline from Kochi to Coimbatore to transport additional LPG post implementation
Product
Present
Post IREP
Propylene
50
500
LPG
480
1088
MS
1115
1894
SKO
360
240
HSD
4384
7882
ATF
400
600
Naphtha
392
617
FO/ LSHS
1400
0
Bitumen
250
250
Sulphur
33
277
Petcoke
0
1338
(TMT)
(TMT)
Table 1: Available products post implementation of IREP at Kochi Refinery , BPCL
of planned IREP. The proposal is submitted to the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for approval. We will get into action once we receive the necessary clearance from PNGRB. As far as extension of Kochi Coimbatore POL pipeline is concerned, the line will be extended to Devangonthi which is near to Bangalore. The proposed pipeline also needs clearance from PNGRB and the bidding process is going on. The bid will be opened by January 2014. How are you handling the subsidies imposed by the Government on the oil marketing companies? Subsidies are provided to compensate the under recoveries when retail products are sold to the customers. Refinery gets Refinery Transfer Price (RTP) which is calculated based on the international product prices. How has the depreciation of rupee against dollar by almost 44 per cent in the last two years impacted Gross Refining Margins (GRM) of Kochi refinery? It is a fact that the raw material has increased, but the GRM of our refinery has seen a marginal impact which is primarily due to corresponding increase in product prices globally. However the retail selling prices of some of the major petroleum products are capped and thus affected the market margins and the profitability of the company on the whole. (The interview was carried in September 2013 issue of CEW)
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December 2013 • 117
06-01-2014 14:09:26
CEW Interview
All’s Well That Ends Well
Talking exclusively to CEW, P N Prasad, Managing Director, Brahmaputra Cracker & Polymers Ltd (BCPL), informs that the project has already achieved 93 per cent of physical progress. He shares insights into the project and how commissioning of the cracker will transform the socio-economic conditions of the North Eastern region of country making it a much sought-after destination for the plastic processing industry. Please apprise us of the current status of the gas cracker project? As on 15 th of July the gas cracker project has already achieved overall physical progress of around 93 per cent against the cumulative target schedule of 99.8 per cent. Approximately 99.2 per cent of manufacturing and delivery has been completed. We have achieved 100 per cent completion of site development jobs and infrastructure development and major parts of civil and structural works for complex are nearing the completion stage. Mechanical works are going on in full swing and we have already erected 857 out of total 1091 number of equipment for the cracker project. As approved by CCEA, the project will attain mechanical completion by July 2013
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and the commissioning by December this year. We have already started pre-commissioning and commissioning activities for gas dehydration unit at Duliajan plant, 48 KMs (18”) DuliajanLepetkata gas pipeline, utilities and offsites, 56 MW Captive Power Plant and Gas Sweetening/C2+ recovery unit at Lepetkata. Has BCPL evaluated the cost escalation factors and its impact on overall project economics? How are you raising the extra funds required for project completion? Detailed Feasibility Report (DFR) of BCPL was prepared in 2005 based on the costs prevailing in the same year and in-house data available with Engineers India Ltd (EIL); however, based on the project, the requirements were made
in the year 2008. Time escalation, technology and design changes, and increase in power requirement, statutory variation in Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and taxes are the major factors that have contributed to escalation of project cost. There is no cost overrun on the revised project cost and BCPL has evaluated the cost escalation factor in consultation with EIL. And after considering the escalation, extra work and forex fluctuation etc. till scheduled project commissioning, the project is expected to be within approved revised cost of the project. The funds required for the project on the basis of revised cost have been arranged through equity,
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 20:52:13
Interview CEW capital subsidy and debt as per approved means of finance. The debt component of the project cost has been arranged in a mix of term loan from banks by open competitive bidding and Oil Industries Development Board (OIDB) and one of the promoters. May we have your comments on the factors that have affected timely completion of the project, especially the shortage of manpower? The cracker involves modern engineering and latest state-of-the-art technologies that require highly skilled manpower for construction. Moreover, being a socio- economically under developed part of the country, there is always a shortage of required quality as well as quantity of manpower which is one of the prime reasons for the delay. But the backlog in the construction progress is not only because of lower output by contractors and contract labour engaged for the project but also due to various other reasons. Adverse weather conditions, frequent bandhs, strikes and festival holidays added to slowdown in pace of project execution. As on 30th June 2013, the project has lost 288 days due to these reasons. How has the delay in project impacted the subsidies and the tax exemption offered for Government project? Both the economic parameters, the Investment Return Ratio (IRR) and Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) can be maintained mainly in view of subsidies and tax exemptions offered by the Government and there are no changes because of the delay in project execution. Being a public sector company, we are committed to follow all the tendering and procurement guidelines as mandated by the Indian Government. However, the performance of various contractors appointed by BCPL was not up to the mark. How did BCPL manage the Over Dimensioned Consignments (ODC)? Beforehand action in terms of extensive route survey, selection of route and adequate logistics planning helped overcoming the hurdles and all ODC assignments for the project have safely landed at the project site. Only surface transport for ODCs was undertaken for the project. Chemical Engineering World
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Which products will be manufactured at the facility once the production is on-stream? Once commissioned, how will the project change the market dynamics? Are there plans to export a part of production? BCPL will produce 2,26,000 TPA of Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE); and 60,000 TPA of Polypropylene (PP). Availability of polymer will induce growth of new downstream plastic processing industries in the region and generate employment avenues, trade and commerce in the region, thus increasing economic activities in the region. The polymer can be further used by the downstream plastics processing units to manufacture various products such as films, raffia bags, household items, plastic furniture, blow moulded containers etc. GAIL owns the rights for selling the products and is expected to sell the polymer in the North Eastern region itself. However, GAIL intends to supply 10 per cent of production to neighbouring countries subject to the demand. What value will the project add to the North-East region in terms of employment potential and economic development? The main spirit behind setting up of this gas cracker project in Assam is to improve socio-economic conditions of North East Region. Presently, consumption of plastic in Assam is 1-2 Kg per capita which is far less than the national average of 7 Kg per capita. As plastic market is supply driven, it is expected that consumption of plastic products will increase many folds with commissioning of this project. The project will supply feedstock to the downstream plastic processing industries, and availability of raw material will encourage setting up of many downstream industries thus resulting in creation of ample job opportunities in plastic industries in the region. Assam Government has also taken initiative to set up plastic park at Gelapukhuri, Tinsukia with a view to provide all necessary assistance to set up industrial ventures. Currently, BCPL has 273 employees on BCPL’s pay roll and on the average, around 500 labourers are deployed daily by various contractors at the project site at Lepetkata. 90 per cent of these daily wagers are from the local region. BCPL will offer direct employment to around 630 and many more through outsourced jobs in various
areas such as housekeeping of township, bachelor’s hostel, guest houses, canteen, transportation, loading and unloading, maintenance of civil and electrical works etc. It may be difficult to give any exact numbers for the employment potential. Apart from employment generation, the commissioning of project envisages enhancing commercial activities in the adjoining areas thus contributing towards the economic development of local populace and accelerating the growth of the region. What are your future plans if BCPL intends setting up further downstream processing units? As of now we do not have any plans to expand downstream into plastic processing. However, it has been estimated that up to 500 plastic processing units can come up in the North Eastern region once the cracker goes on stream. And the project is expected to give rise to direct/indirect employment generation as a result of investment in downstream plastic processing industries and allied activities. May we have your comments on the role of BCPL in the planned plastic parks? Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) is setting up the plastic park and requested BCPL for equity contribution of ` 25 crore for the planned project in Tinsukia district of state. However, the decision is pending as the BCPL board is mulling over this and will take the call only after a detailed analysis. What are the various CSR activities undertaken by BCPL? Currently, BCPL is at the stage of project implementation and not making any profits. Notwithstanding this, we have continued our CSR initiatives aimed at developing the nearby areas. BCPL formulated its CSR policy in the year 2010 and has been implementing various schemes from the same year in Dibrugarh district in the fields of infrastructure, community development, education and literacy enhancement; healthcare, medical and sanitation etc. The CSR projects undertaken so far include building classrooms at Moran Blind School and rooms at urban dispensary, construction of roads, installation of transformers and augmentation of power supply and Sulabh toilet complex. (The interview was carried in July 2013 issue of CEW)
December 2013 • 119
03-01-2014 20:52:14
CEW Interview
“A Wave of Innovation will Drive Growth in the Future”
The specialty chemicals industry, which is not so dependent on oil & gas for feedstock, can be a major driver for the growth of Indian chemical industry. In an exclusive interaction with Chemical Engineering World, Nadir Godrej, Managing Director, Godrej Industries Ltd, talks about the dire need to address the issues ailing the Indian chemical industry; the competition that USA is going to pose in the next few years to the global chemical industry with the availability of cheap gas in that country and more… May we have your comments on the global trends that are driving the growth of the chemical industry? Energy prices - I would say are the most critical driver for the growth of the chemical industry and as fossil fuels are also the main feedstock it impacts the chemical industry doubly. We see a very peculiar price trend in the oil to natural gas ratio which was almost 5:1 before the recent fall in oil prices. Natural gas is an important feedstock for the chemical & petrochemical industry and is cheaper in the US as compared to the rest of the world. Crude oil prices, on the other hand, have been almost the same all over the world although the premium of Brent over WTI crude oil prices has fluctuated quite a lot recently. But the
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very cheap gas in the country makes the US industry very competitive. Moving eastwards, Middle East has cheaper gas availability. However, they probably have higher capital costs and operating costs than the US. The availability of cheaper feedstock in US is the biggest advantage for the local chemical industry, and if the rest of world wishes to compete with them, they need to focus on low cost feedstock availability. What are the top priorities of the CEOs from the global chemical industry to drive the growth? Being cost competitive is the biggest concern for the CEO’s of the chemical manufacturers. My view is that for major
chemical companies the priority would be investing in the USA to take advantage of the cheap feedstock whereas for smaller chemical companies, it is about getting cheaper energy and feedstock to stay cost competent. Some of the companies may also look at investing into specialties where the energy and feedstock cost difference is not so important. The natural gas prices in India are very high as compared to the USA which is a very big concern for the Indian chemical manufacturers. We, being in the oleochemicals business use natural gas only as an energy sources and to cope with the current situation of high prices, have started considering biomass as an energy
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 20:47:31
Interview CEW source. We have started trading electricity which has helped us mitigate the cost to a reasonable extent. Proximity to the market makes Gujarat a very strategic location for us and enables us in being cost competitive. Please tell us about the key future growth and focus areas of research of Godrej Industries. Innovation has always been at the forefront in the growth strategy of our organisation and we always had a strong R&D division to ensure development of a wide range of high quality products. Today, we are more focused on specialty chemicals and are further enhancing our strengths in the basic oleochemicals. The demand for Erucic acid has seen a significant rise in the past five – six years and we have expanded our production taking advantage of the fact that India is now the lowest cost source of High Erucic Rapeseed Oil. We are now looking to produce high quality Oleic Acid. We plan to gradually increase the percentage of specialty chemicals in our mix as these have higher margins and are not so sensitive to raw materials costs. I believe the speciality chemical industry is well suited for our country and could drive the growth of the Indian chemical industry. Thanks to the availability of good scientists and engineers for both production and R&D. Apart from innovation in our oleochemicals business, we do lot of innovation in Godrej Agrovet. We developed generic versions of patented herbicides which were going off patent and this has given a major boost to our agrochemicals business. Besides, we are also strong in growth promoters and we have successfully synthesised homobrassinolide in association with the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL). Further, we are also trying to develop new kinds of seeds that will push the Indian oleochemicals business to greater heights. However, there are some challenges. We have successfully got farmers to grow Oil Palm in India. But in Indonesia and Malaysia land is inexpensive, whereas in India the farmers always have an option to grow something else on the land. What is the growth Godrej Industries is targeting at for future? We expect to grow at 20 to 25 per cent per year – slightly slower than the rest of the group. We see this growth coming in terms of new Chemical Engineering World
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investments in technological collaborations and new products developments. Innovation has not been a forte in India though India has a history of producing world class scientists. How can we bring the culture of innovation in the Indian chemical industry? India boasts of talented scientists and chemical engineers and it can play a vital role in research and development for chemical or specialty chemical companies. All CEOs must focus on innovation as that is the wave that will drive the growth in future. This is good time to invest in R&D since our government has given attractive incentives for R&D and is announcing investment credit for the next two years. Moreover, there are centres of excellence all over India and partnering with these institutes is a great idea to pursue research with the available resources and infrastructure that already exists within these entities rather than only innovating in-house.
What are the other growth areas where Indian industry can make significant impact? Palm oil refining is another area where India has an advantage since India is low cost destination. Now that, Palm Stearine and PAFD are available in India at more economical price, we needs to help the refining industry by having higher import duty on Olein than on palm oil to ensure that fractionation happens in India. Stearine, which is the by-product of fractionation, is very useful for the soap and oleochemicals industry. Malaysia and Indonesia have tried protecting their industries by imposing a high export duty on palm oil and India has already countered that by putting higher duty on Olein than on crude palm oil. Currently the import duty on crude palm oil is 2.5 per cent and on Olein it is 7.5 per cent - but this 5 per cent differential is too little and should be increased to 10 per cent.
We plan to gradually increase the percentage of specialty chemicals in our mix as these have higher margins and are not so sensitive to raw materials costs. ‘Responsible Care’ is the latest buzz around the world. May we have your comments on the need to promote green chemistry within the country? There is a strong notion that natural is good and anything synthetic is harmful which in my view is not at all true as venom and botulism are natural but can be extremely dangerous for human beings. Chemistry is the core of every scientific development and stands centrally between physics and biology thus giving chemists a very good understanding of both these aspects. One must understand that it is innovation in chemical technology, that has enabled us to live much longer and bio and nano technologies which have provided us with advanced materials thus making our lives much better. In order to ensure safety for all the stakeholders of the environment, responsible care is of paramount importance and industry must adhere to safe and sustainable practices, which would eventually enable the chemical industry to deal with the prevalent negative image.
What are the challenges that Indian chemical industry needs to address? We have not performed well in the development of shale gas. But as a follower we can catch up fast and later leap frog in the field of shale gas. The Government of India is also very keen to develop this field and with an effective policy that allows private players to actively engage in this sector, we can surely attain remarkable success in the next five years. The technology is available and America has already done well in shale gas exploration. We can look forward for technological collaboration to develop the shale gas resources in the country. The other area, where we should focus on is the development of chemical clusters in the country where companies can have access to feedstock and enjoy some tax benefits as well. Your message to the industry. Explore more oil and gas reserves. Focus on energy cost. Invest in R&D. If we do all of these we will surely have a bright future. (The interview was carried in April 2013 issue of CEW)
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03-01-2014 20:47:31
CEW Interview
“Green Concepts don’t Need Different Evaluation”
P R Rathi, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Sudarshan Chemical Industries Limited, has played a pivotal role in the growth of the organisation, and emerged as a pigments company. In an exclusive interview with CEW, Rathi revealed that the company is driven by R&D, which has been the backbone of the company in the last several decades with most of the products have been indigenously developed and then scaled up. Excerpts from the interview: Please apprise us of company’s performance over the recent years. What is the current market share of the company both in Indian and international market? In the past few years the company has undertaken major expansion in the area of Pigments. The company manufactures vide range of Pigments including organic, inorganic, phthalocyanine and effects. The company has created a niche for itself as it has invested substantially in R&D. The company has been exporting for the last several years. A few years back, we have started wholly owned subsidiary in Europe and North America to establish direct contact with the global customers, so as to provide better services to them.
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What has been the approach of the Sudershan Chemicals towards EHS compliance, which has been recognised globally and in India? Sudarshan takes pride in being an ethical company that ensures compliance to all laws and fiscal accountability standards. Fiscal accountability is demonstrated through external audits and internal audits. The company has set up a robust process for compliance to legal and regulatory requirement. The safety and security of employees is of utmost importance and has been an on-going exercise since inception. To prevent any unwanted incidences training is provided at regular intervals to workers and staff. Excellence towards
EHS is demonstrated though some of our critical success factors. Foremost being use of raw materials, where we are committed to mitigate the potentially significant EHS risks associated with the manufacture and use of number of raw materials. We understand the business risks associated with use of non-renewable feedstock for our manufacturing processes. Secondly, managing the supply chain, where we recognise the need to ensure our suppliers and customers improve the way in which they manage sustainability. We strongly believe in achieving excellence in manufacturing and uphold the highest standards of Environment, Health, Safety and Security across all our operations. We are reducing EHS impacts of our operations including
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 20:58:52
Interview CEW reducing waste, GHG emissions, and energy and water intensity. Meeting the customers’ expectations is another critical focus area, and to ensure the same, we communicate specific product compliance and product safety information to our customers. We are also building a portfolio of new products with enhanced sustainability performance profiles. We closely work with our peers from the industry on the issues of disposal and recycling to develop policies and practices related to the responsible disposal of plastics. One of the current investments that I would say is developing “closed loop” thinking to ensure that the products can be used as inputs for other processes. As a “Responsible Company”, we believe in sustainable development and organise community outreach programmes and share a common platform with the local community to have dialogue which aims at enhancing EHS awareness and invite their participation. We try to follow guiding principles of responsible care across our manufacturing facilities and corporate functions, driven by strong commitment from executive management. We believe that EHS as a value not just a priority. Our slogan “Safety First, Production is Must” has kept us motivated to excel in EHS. Though number of Indian companies has already associated with ‘Responsible Care’ initiative, in your opinion are we (Indian Chemical Industry) really making enough efforts? How different Indian chemical industry’s approach is from that of the developed countries? Green concepts should not have a different evaluation or mindset. Indian chemical industry has a major role to play by bringing together entire chemical industries to share their experiences on a single platform. In today’s world technology can play an important role. Conservation of our natural resources can be achieved to a greater extent with advanced science and technology. We have the best brains working in science and technology world over. Investments in R&D by Indian Industries can surely make a huge difference towards greener ideas for this world. Organisations in India have been quite sensible to “Responsible Care” initiatives and integrating them in their business processes. It has become progressively Chemical Engineering World
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projected in the Indian corporate setting because organisations have recognised that besides growing their businesses, it is also important to shape responsible and supportable relationships with the community at large. Companies now have specific departments and teams that develop specific policies, strategies and goals for their RC programmes and set separate budgets to support them. Most of the time, these programmes are based on welldefined social beliefs or are carefully aligned with the companies’ business domain. Can ‘RC’ really thrive in India? How should India approach the concept of responsible care? What is the role of government in flourishing this concept? Indian Industries have been there and seen and experienced progressive change over a period. There has been a realisation that companies which have taken RC in their main domain of business have benefitted by improved safety, health and environmental systems. It is an assurance to continually and consistently improve the EHS performance keeping stakeholders informed about value of their company. The RC logo helps Indian chemical industry to improve its image and become globally for being open and transparent. Aspiration to be globally recognised as a real Multinational player is quite high amongst Indian Companies in this competitive world and achieving RC recognition can be a big booster for enhancing business. Government has to play the role of facilitator in allowing and enabling Industries to invest in technology by guiding them and encouraging the members to follow an approach which accelerates the growth of the country. Interpretation of all regulation should be made easy so that even small or medium organisations are benefited. In fact, the regulators should become a model for unhindered growth. ‘Water Treatment’ is unavoidable for ensuring sustainability all around. What steps have you taken towards mitigating the water footprint? A sustainable organisation can only be created if it co-exists with the environment and community it operates in. Sudarshan’s constant endeavor is to work in a manner that does not negatively impact the environment. All our plants have their own independent effluent treatment facilities that maintain stringent controls and parameters for all waste leaving the facilities.
The leaders at various levels spearheaded by the senior leadership team carry out yearly reviews of the impact of operations on the environment through the aspectimpact assessment. Based on this appropriate actions and controls are defined, implemented and reviewed. In general there is lot of scope for industries to improve in recycle and reuse of water. Technology has made it possible for sustenence and improved treatment of water. While it is easy to adopt or rather absorb these as part of investement by larger companies, the small and medium size companies find it difficult to build this in their processes because of high cost. This is an area which has to be looked into quite differntly for holistic development of the society. How do you evaluate the current energy situation in the country? India is one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world, as well as an expansive populace of above 1.1 billion people. There is a very high demand for energy, which is currently satisfied mainly by coal, foreign oil and petroleum, which apart from being a non-renewable, and therefore non-permanent solution to the energy crisis, it is also detrimental to the environment. The price of crude oil has risen sharply over the last few years, and there are no signs of a change in this trend. Thus, it is imperative that India obtains energy security without affecting the booming economy, which would mean that alternative energy sources be found. This would mean that the country must switch from the nonrenewable energy - crude oil and coal - to renewable energy. India is determined to becoming one of the world’s leading clean energy producers. The Government of India has already made several provisions, and established many agencies that will help it achieve its goal. What are your plans for the future? We are planning to become a global player in the Pigment industry and be amongst the top 5 in the near future. The Indian chemical industry has the capability of competing with the best in the world due to rich resources of technical manpower and local availability of raw materials. (The interview was carried in May 2013 issue of CEW)
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CEW Interview
Strenghtening the Bottomline
Favourable policy and firm availability of the feedstock are pre-requisites in the fertiliser sector. With the new Urea Policy, more investment is expected to be made in fertiliser industry which has been stagnant for more than a decade for want of capacity addition, says R G Rajan, CMD, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd. By 2020, the fertiliser demand in country is expected to touch 41.6 million tonnes. In your views, to what extent will we be able to meet this demand through indigenous production? And what are the challenges that need to be addressed to reach self-sufficiency? Currently in the country, overall urea requirement is around 30 million tonnes of which 23 million tonnes are manufactured indigenously and balance requirement of 7 million tonnes is met through the imports. With the recent announcement of the new Urea investment policy several green field and brown field projects are taking off throughout the country and with their success we can hope to become self-sufficient to fulfil our fertiliser requirement. Some of the key areas of concern that are affecting the performance of the
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company include uncertainty in the gas supply, stringent terms in gas supply and transportation contracts and their operability, rising cost of gas etc. What is the status of the in Thal II project? Has the plant been completely revamped? Please apprise us about the progress on Thal III project. RCF has successfully completed the Thal—II project i.e. revamp of Ammonia plants in three phases at a cost of ` 489 crore which has increased its Urea capacity from 17 lakh MT to 20 lakh MT per annum. The revamped plants have been commissioned and have already achieved the day to day high capacity and low energy consumption targets. Company will be able to reap benefits under the IPP (Import Parity Price) based pricing mechanism for the extra
production beyond the cut-off capacity in the current fiscal. RCF has now embarked on a major expansion Thal III project to set up additional streams of Ammonia and Urea which will add 12.7 lakh MT per annum of Urea capacity at a cost of Rs 4112.5 crore. The Company, through global bidding process has already selected the contractor who will set up the plant on Lump Sum Turnkey Basis (LSTK). The proposal falls under the New Investment Policy-2012 which has recently been notified by the Govt. The project has been cleared by pre-PIB (Public Investment Board) recently and Company is seeking PIB approval. Upon clearance by PIB the proposal needs to be cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for construction to begin. Company is in the process of lining up other construction and
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Interview CEW project management consultancy contracts and expects to start process design and construction work on the project in May 2013. Please update us on Talcher project in Odisha. •• RCF is actively pursuing the revival of the Talcher project. For this, following action is underway. •• Enquiry has been issued on the BOO (Build, Own and Operate) basis for Coal gasification part. •• Enquiries for Urea-Ammonia complex on LSTK basis will be issued shortly. •• Enquiries for Nitric Acid and AN Melt on LSTK basis will also be issued soon. PDIL has been engaged for preparation of DFR and EIA. Financial closure will be after DFR. RCF had signed MoUs with Indonesia for coal based facility and gas based facility in Ghana. What is the progress on RCF’s international projects? As of now, there is not much progress in the Indonesia project. RCF is actively pursuing to set up gas based Ammonia – Urea plants to produce about 1.27 million TPA at Ghana under the MOU signed between Govt of India and Ghanaian Govt. Pre-feasibility report for the project has been prepared by M/s PDIL. Project site has been identified and pre-project activities such as Topographical survey and Geotechnical study have commenced. Various other project related documents and Agreements are under preparation. Activities for preparation of DFR have also commenced. What is your take on the recent move by the finance minister to marginal reduction in subsidy for the crop nutrients (from ` 65974 crore to ` 65971 crore) in the next fiscal. How will this impact fertiliser industry & RCF? The provision for subsidy during 2013-14 is planned to be ` 65974 crore. This in my view is short as quite a large amount of subsidy pertaining to 2012-13 will be carried forward into the next year and paid against the budget provision of 2013-14. We feel that, during 2013-14, the P&K imports would be substantially lower owing to heavy stocks. This along with the proposed reduction in NBS rates for 2013-14 would bring down subsidy burden Chemical Engineering World
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of the Government. Nevertheless the industry feels that subsidy provision will fall short of the actual requirement. In the current budget, Indian Government has announced clearing the NELP blocks, and revising natural gas pricing policy and also intends to encourage the PPP model for coal mining along with Coal India. In addition government has envisaged setting up LNG facilities. Together, how can these developments actually bolster the growth of the Indian fertiliser sector? There is an urgent need for accelerating agricultural growth in India which is the second most populated country in the world. Our population may cross even that of China by 2030. With growth in population and increase in per capita income, the demand for food grains will continue to increase in coming years. About two third of our population is still dependent on agriculture. To attain food security for the country, getting maximum output from available land is vital. For this, land has to be productive enough which is possible provided soil is given adequate fertilisers. Fertiliser industry is highly energy intensive and requires constant inflow of raw materials like natural gas which is getting dearer day by day. A realistic estimate shows that India would require about 41 MMSCMD of additional gas by end of 12 th Five Year Plan as compared to the existing supply of about 46 MMSCMD. This includes about 22 MMSCMD for additional capacity of 10 million tonnes, 11 MMSCMD for conversion of existing non-gas based plants and another 8 MMSCMD for replacement of existing use of LNG. This requirement needs to be met on priority through domestic gas from the cheapest source. New urea plants based entirely on imported LNG are not likely to be viable. Thus, priority allocation, reasonable pricing and recognition of delivered cost of gas are required. With the improved raw material scenario and more investment in oil and gas sector fertiliser sector is poised for growth in the coming years. Tell us about the plans of RCF in the current year and the 12 th Five Year Plan. Our most recent thrust areas include the revamping of the existing plants to bring down energy consumption, improve
production of fertilisers and achieve reliability in operations and safety. All the plants, in fact have been revamped. Ammonia-I, Ammonia-V, Urea and all the plants have been debottlenecked and today though the plants are low capacity and old vintage, the energy efficiency is still quite good. The energy consumption of Trombay Plant is about 7.09 GCal/MT, which is quite commendable for a 1000 MTPD old plant. Similarly, we have completed the revamping of our Thal plant (by spending about ` 490 crore) which will augment the production of urea from 1.7 million MT to 2.0 million MT per year. This will increase the Company’s turnover by approximately ` 300 crore and also lead to energy savings which will ultimately boost the bottomline. The Thal plant energy consumption was 6.36 GCal/MT last year and today we are getting to around 6 GCal/MT and very shortly it will become around 5.8 GCal/MT. As our production resources are already maximised, the Company is also resorting to trading of imported fertilisers like DAP, MOP, NPK, etc in a big way to increase both topline & bottomline. Besides, RCF has ambitious capex plans and is planning to embark on a handful of new projects within as well as outside the country which if fructify would catapult it into a mega status. Our aim is to have a turnover of ` 15000 crore by the end of the 12 th Five Year Plan. RCF is planning capital investment of around ` 6300 crore over the next five years for setting up new plants and expanding the existing units. The Company is pursuing a number of projects within as well as outside the country viz Thal III expansion project to produce 1.27 million TPA urea, a SSP plant to produce 5 lakh TPA SSP at Thal, a project to produce 1.27 million TPA urea at Talcher in consortium with CIL and FCIL, a JV project to produce about 1 million TPA urea in Ghana etc. RCF is also exploring possibilities of entering into long term off-take agreements for potash with suppliers in Canada. All these initiatives would lead to substantial increase in turnover and strengthen bottom line of the Company. (The interview was carried in March 2013 issue of CEW)
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CEW Features Guest Column
India: Hydrogen Economy Hydrogen Economy is undoubtedly an effective strategy to reduce the increasing amount of carbon in the atmosphere due to the usage of hydrocarbon fuels. The growth of manufacturing sector in developing countries has increased the demand of hydrocarbon fuels manifolds. K Venkataramanan, Managing Director & CEO, Larsen & Toubro, provides an insight into the Hydrogen Economy.
T
he supply of clean fuels to meet the future energy requirements through eco-friendly route is a major global challenge now-a-days. The efforts are in progress to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and promoting widespread use of cleaner fuels such as hydrogen.
This is driving the research and development towards sustainable technologies for hydrogen production, storage, distribution and utilisation. Hydrogen Economy is a proposed system of delivering energy using hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources with the advantages of a reduced dependency on oil and gas and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions e.g. global CO 2 emission for 2011 were of order ~31.6 Gigatonne (Gt)
Figure 1: Transition towards Hydrogen Economy
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with India accounting nearly 8.7 per cent of total emission. At present, we have already surpassed the most environmentally-ambitious interpretation of the Copenhagen Accord, ie, energy-related CO 2 emissions targeted to reach 31.9 Gt in 2020. This means that to limit energy-related emissions to 21.7 Gt in 2035, as targeted in the Copenhagen Accord, dramatic emissions cuts are needed at present and further more vigorous efforts after 2020. This makes the transition to a Hydrogen Economy extremely important in the coming decade. National Hydrogen Energy Road Map (NHERMP) prepared by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has addressed various
aspects of this issue. The key objective of the programme is to identify the routes, which will lead to a gradual induction of hydrogen energy in the country, speeding up the commercialisation and facilitate creation of hydrogen energy infrastructure in the country. Accordingly, it is projected that around one million hydrogen fuelled vehicles would be on Indian roads and 1,000 MW aggregate hydrogen based power generating capacity be set up in the country, by 2020. A schematic representation of transition to hydrogen economy is illustrated in Figure 1. Hydrogen Production Routes The majority of hydrogen produced is utilised in petroleum refineries, fertiliser, chemical and food industries. On a broad scale, majority of the hydrogen is produced from natural gas, with other feed stocks being oil, coal and water (typically 48 per cent from natural gas, 30 per cent from oil, 18 per cent from coal and 4 per cent from water electrolysis). The routes practiced for hydrogen production; •• S t e a m r e f o r m i n g o f f e e d s t o c k such as methane, natural gas or naphtha •• Partial oxidation of heavy petroleum residues • • G a s i f i c a t i o n o f fe e d s t o ck s u c h a s petroleum coke, coal, biomass • • Electrolysis of water • • Thermochemical water splitting • • Photo catalytic water splitting • • Photo biological water splitting Chemical Engineering World
Recently, it is observed that Indian vendors are becoming increasingly 04-01-2014 14:45:14

Photo biological water splitting
A typical hydrogen production cost with respect to gasoline base price is indicated in Figure 2.
Features CEW
250
Rs./kg of Hydrogen
A typical hydrogen production cost with respect to gasoline base price is indicated in Figure 2.
200
From these, only the first three routes are 150 most economical and are commercially proven technologies whereas the other 100 environmental benign processes using renewable energy are at nascent or developmental stage. However, there 50 have been developments in recent years. A few indigenous achievements 0 in this area include, (1) Hydrogen Natural Gas Petroleum Coal Biomass Petroleum Electrolysis production by non-thermal plasma (SMR) Coke Gasification Gasification Residue of water reformation technique (CIMFR-Dhanbad, Gasification Gasification IICTHyderabad), (2) Prototype Production Alternatives demonstration of wind hydrogen based stand-alone electrical generator (ERDA- Figure 2: Typical Cost of Hydrogen Production 2: Typical Vadodara), (3) LiquidFigure fuels from biomassCost of Hydrogen production gasification (IISc- Bengaluru), (4) to high pressure requirement. Further, manner is a key success factor for Semiconductor nano-composites for hydrogen can also be stored as liquid hydrogen economy. The most common From these, only the first three routes are most economical and are commercially proven technologies wh photo-catalytic water splitting into hydrogen at cryogenic conditions however, method is road or rail transportation other environmental benign processes using renewable energy in arepressurised at nascenttanks or developmental s this technology is energy intensive. In of hydrogen or hydrogen and oxygenthe (IICT-Hyderabad). India, liquid hydrogen plant has been cylinders (pressures ranging from However, there have been developments in recent years. A few indigenous achievements in this area includ In order to fill up the immediate demand installed near Thiruvananthapuram by 150 to 400 bars). Generally, compact Hydrogen production by non-thermal plasma reformation technique (CIMFR-Dhanbad, IICT- Hyderabad and supply gap in line with NHERMP, ISRO for space programme. There is an forms of hydrogen storage are more Prototypehydrogen demonstration wind hydrogen based stand-alone electrical generator (3) L to transport than(ERDA-Vadodara), diffused urgent of need for linking the technology gap economical centralised large-scale forms. Transporting liquid hydrogen is of utilising liquid hydrogen for vehicular generation units utilising or biomass natural gasification (IISc- Bengaluru), (4) Semiconductor nano-composites for photo-catalytic fuelscoal from far more efficient than a high-pressure gas are required. These units will be in transport and power generation purpose. splitting into hydrogen and oxygen (IICT-Hyderabad). gas, particularly where large quantities operation until hydrogen can be obtained are required. Pipeline transport of Alternatively, hydrogen can also be stored economically from the above renewable hydrogen through existing natural gas and transported in the form of chemical sources. Further, In the order technology to fill up the immediate demand and supply gap in line with NHERMP, centralised large-scale hyd pipelines could be an efficient mode for developments also should focus on hydrides. For transport applications, generation units utilising coal or natural gas are required. These units will be in operation until hydrogen c disposal of huge quantities of carbon hydrides with 6 to 9 wt per cent storage transporting energy over long distance. economically fromand thecycle above sources. Further,suitability the technology also s However, of these developments pipeline capacity, life ofrenewable greater than 1500 dioxide, a by-product obtained for these centralised materials needs to be assessed followed required. hydrogen generation units. Parallel of are focus on disposal huge quantities of carbon dioxide, a by-product for these centralised hydrogen gener by periodic inspections of such pipelines quantification and utilisation of by-product units. Parallel quantification and utilisation of by-productforhydrogen from nearby chemical industry or o embrittlement. hydrogen from nearby chemical industry or Further, indigenous R&D should be hydrogen generators could be an attractive for power generation and transport applications. for noveloption hydrogen onsite hydrogen generators could be an strengthened attractive option for power generation and storage materials and methodologies Hydrogen Safety, Codes and Standards such as carbon nanotubes, sodium Indian industries are using hydrogen over transport applications. Hydrogen Storage alanates, zeolites, glass microspheres, several decades and over this period underground caverns, salt domes and safety codes and regulations for handling Hydrogen Storage Typically hydrogen depleted gas is stored in fields. steel The ASME-certified composite pressurised vessels. Se hydrogen or have been developed. This oil and gas storage of of vessels Typically hydrogen gas is stored in steel typically includes, (1) BIS specification for international organisations are working onunderground development of high pressure hydrogen (350-700 bar) st large quantities of hydrogen ASME-certified vessels or composite compressed gaseous hydrogen storage can also function as a grid energy pressurised vessels. systems. Several international Increasing the gas pressure improves the energy density by volume shrinkage however the v organisations are working on development storage which is essential for running (IS – 1090), (2) inception and thickness (or weight) increases owing to high pressure requirement. can also be stor administration Further, static hydrogen and mobile of high pressure hydrogen (350-700 bar) hydrogen economy. pressure vessel (unfired) rules, 1981 storage systems. Increasing the gas and the gas cylinder rules, 1981 pressure improves the energy density Hydrogen Transportation and Delivery by volume shrinkage however the vessel Hydrogen transport and its distribution to by department of explosives, (3) formulation and implementation of a thickness (or weight) increases owing the end users in economical and efficient series of self-regulatory measures From a long term perspective, hydrogen offers great potential as an such as OISD guidelines for enhancing the safety in oil and gas industry alternate energy technology, but still needs affordable production in India. However, for hydrogen routes from renewable sources and continued investment in applications in power generation, mobile and transport sector, a major hydrogen infrastructure. Chemical Engineering World
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CEW Features
Figure 3: Hydrogen Energy Programme
revision in existing codes and standards is needed. Educational and training programmes are needed to create awareness about safety aspects of hydrogen energy in different applications. Fuel Cells Fuel cells are a promising option for hydrogen applications both for transportation and power generation. Fuel cells require relatively pure hydrogen free from contaminants such as sulphur and carbon compounds etc Indigenous research should target development of various components for electrodes, catalysts (replacing expensive noble metals), membranes and separators, replacement expensive noble metals, used as catalysts, reliability improvements for fuel cells. Safety regulations, codes and standards should also be a part of fuel cell development programmes. Role of Indian EPC Industry for Success of Hydrogen Economy A model indicating the hydrogen energy management programme for India is shown in Figure 3. It clearly mentions the role of Indian industry in integrating the R&D projects. This may be applicable for EPC industry too.
world class manufacturing facilities for critical equipment in hydrogen services. The Indian EPC industry is looking towards Hydrogen Economy in much broader perspective such as: • • Active involvement in framing policies and legislation for hydrogen economy including validation of safety regulations, codes and standards. • • Tie-up with national and international R&D firms for hydrogen research. • • Involvement as stakeholder for completing large scale hydrogen projects through public-private partnership. From a long term perspective, hydrogen offers great potential as an alternate energy technology, but still needs affordable production routes from renewable sources and continued investment in hydrogen infrastructure. Through a collaborative and an integrated approach it would be possible to bring about the phased induction of viable hydrogen economy in the country. (The guest column was carried in January 2013 issue of CEW)
Indian EPC industries have successfully installed several large scale hydrogen generation units for public and private sector refineries. For this purpose, EPC companies, like Larsen & Toubro, have formed alliances with leading technology for licensing hydrogen production processes. EPC industries have demonstrated robust linkage amongst licenser, vendors and public sector companies for cost competitive and on time installation of hydrogen units on turnkey basis. Not only this, Larsen & Toubro has also built 128 • December 2013
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Features CEW Guest Column
Evaluating India’s Energy Fueling Options In this article, Prabhakar Bhandarkar, Director – Business Development, Simon India Ltd, evaluates the energy option for the country and discusses the ever-increasing requirement for the energy. He further highlights the significance of energy management and emphasises on the need to reuse and recycle the waste to ensure sustainable development.
I
ndia’s energy fueling options need FOSSIL FUELS on location of plant from pit head and right realistic assessment in terms of Coal & Lignite blend/mix of coal with adequate heat value. availability, logistics, cost of production, India has estimated coal reserves of Coal imports from Indonesia, South Africa, evacuation strategies, integrated approach, 253 billion tons and lignite around 28 Australia etc provide low ash/high CV coal pooling into the energy basket, balanced tax billion tons. Majority of coal deposits but does create sulfur problem in flue structure/incentives, political inertisation are in Jharkhand (29%), Orissa (24%), gases. Many power plants thus do select in approvals/regulatory framework, socio Chhattisgarh (17%), West Bengal (11%), a suitable blending option for imported and Slug: Guest Columns economic modeling to ensure optimal Madhya Pradesh (8%), Andhra Pradesh local coal to be used as fuel feed stock. inclusivity and avoid PPP concept (7%), M.S. (4%), and rest distributed in But importation gets adversely affected Title: Evaluating India’s Energy turning Fueling Options into political private partnership so that we Uttar Pradesh/Meghalaya/Assam/Bihar by country specific regulatory/taxation Intro: can soon achieve adequate energy security etc. Lignite reserves are mainly in Tamil changes thereby impacting economics of while guarding the economic growth. The Nadu, Gujarat & Rajasthan. 60 per cent of power generation. In this fueling article, options Prabhakarto Bhandarkar, Mr.are Prabhakar Bhandarkar, Director – Business Development, Simon India Ltd, basic be evaluated coal is said to be mineable and within 300 evaluates the energy option for the country and discuss the ever-increasing requirement for the energy. He further highlights fossil fuels, nuclear power, hydro generation to 600 depth. Nationalisation the significance of energy management and emphasise on metre the need to reuse and recycle the waste to ensure sustainablein seventies creating and renewable feedstocks. Presently the monopoly of CIL had closed the coal development. power generation mix in India is 57 per Indian coal is mainly non coking anthracite industry to private sector for sometime and Body: cent Coal, 19 per cent Hydro, 10 per cent and bituminous in nature with ash content inspite of growth in demand the availability Gas and Diesel, 3 per cent Nuclear and of over 35 per cent. Typically a 8000 MW continued to be a major bottleneck for India’s energy fueling options need realistic assessment in terms of availability, logistics, cost of production, evacuation 1 per cent Renewable feed stocks. power plant using Indian coal needs 1.5 runninginertisation the plants. strategies, integrated approach, pooling into the energy basket, balanced tax structure / incentives, political in Government of India million to kl ensure per year of inclusivity oil as secondary approvals / regulatory framework, socio economic modeling optimal and avoid PPP threw conceptopen turningmany into coal blocks (+90 or Global fossil depositssoare at achieve fuel, adequate 200 million tons per year coal and political privatefuel partnership thatestimated we can soon energy security whileofguarding the economic so) to growth. privateThesector during the last basic fueling options to be evaluated fossilOil fuels, nuclear power, generation renewable 870 trillion tons with Coal 60 perarecent, generates 65 hydro million tons perand year of ash.feedstocks. decadePresently but thetheproduction continued to power mix13 in India is 57%and Coal, 19% Hydro,With 10% Gas & Diesel, 3%cost Nuclear 1% Renewable feed stocks. 16 pergeneration cent, Gas per cent Bitumin increasing of and transportation stagnate. Policies, regulatory controls, 11 per cent. optimal modeling is required for deciding local mafia politics and lack of central Global fossil fuel deposits are estimated at 870 trillion tons with Coal 60%, Oil 16%, Gas 13% and Bitumin 11%. push forced large number of announced projects to cancel/go slow due to mainly the uncertainty of returns on investments. Some cases the coal block license holder’s Shale Oils Gas Hydrates interest was more in resale of his quota at 2800 bn. barrels 3 bn.TCF a premium value. Perhaps auction route for allocation of coal mines to genuine Technology & Cost Difficulty of private players could be better long term Levels exploration * Heavy Oil 107 bn barrels * CBM 960 TCF option for the government. Many countries * Extra Heavy oil 457 bn * Gas Sands / Shales 1500 allowing Indian companies the mining barrels TCF rights have imposed pricing restrictions on export thereby adversely affecting the Conventional Conventional Small volumes economics of energy production in India based on coal imports. Coal India is Oil Gas trying to increase indigenous production and plans to reach 450 million tons in 2012-13 so also put up coal washeries Figure 1: Global fossil fuel deposits are estimated at 870 trillion tons with Coal 60%, Oil 16%, Gas 13% and Bitumin 11%. I) FOSSIL FUELS
Chemical Engineering World
Coal & Lignite
India has estimated coal reserves of 253 bill.tons and lignite around 28 bill. tons. Majority of coal deposits are in Jharkhand (29%), Orissa (24%), Chhattisgarh (17%), West Bengal (11%), Madhya Pradesh (8%), Andhra Pradesh (7%), M.S. (4%), and rest
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CEW Features near pit head to reduce the ash content but faces water problems so also the fact that due to specific coal qualities the reduction achievable in ash content after washing is also marginal where as dry beneficiation of coal is still far away from reality. Rationalisation of coal pricing (blending and pooling) and mining policies taking into consideration the logistics, heat values, use of efficient technologies (gasification, CTL, IGCC), ash disposal, tax structure, imbalances due to cross subsidisation etc is urgently required as coal will continue to be main fuel for many more decades to address the energy needs of our country. Coal Bed Methane Methane gas naturally trapped is coal/ lignite bed seams is Coal Bed Methane (CBM/CSG). Survey of CBM done indicates reserves as follows:Place
BCM of CBM
MP (Sohogpur)
84.82
MP (Satpura)
18.44
Rajasthan (Barmer)
9.00
WB (Raniganj)
42.48
Jharkhand (Bokaro/ Karanpura)
106.76
This is offered by government for exploration and production comprising of seven blocks. The ONGC- Indian Oil Corporation combine has secured two blocks in Jharkhand – Bokaro and North Karampura – where it is investing almost Rs. 100 crores in exploration of CBM over the next five years. The ONGC – Coal India consortium has secured exploration rights in Raniganj (West Bengal) and Jharia (Jharkhand). Matix group is setting up a fertiliser (ammonia/urea) based on CBM in West Bengal. However, the main question remains on cost of CBM as delivered to plant and its sustainability for years of production. Investments made in downstream facilities assuming long term availability of CBM may have to also look for ‘fall back’ feed stock options in order to ensure long term returns on the investments. However CBM/ CSG quantum will not have significant contribution in the energy basket. Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) Five lignite (Rajasthan/Gujarat) and two coal blocks (Godavari/Singarauli) have 130 • December 2013
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been identified by the government which could be offered for UCG projects. However, various techno-commercial and ecological aspects needs to be satisfactorily addressed in terms of site specific operative parameters for UCG plants to be really effective. UCG also is unlikely to add much value into the energy pool. Oil & Gas World took almost 125 years to consume the first trillion barrels of oil but next trillion now is getting consumed in couple of decades. Global crude processing capacity will soon be over 15 million tons per day. The increase in demand for lighter products is forcing the refiners to adopt severe secondary process technologies to handle heavier crudes and may have to reach 85% conversion levels by the year 2025 which was at 70 per cent in 1990 and expected to be around 79 per cent by the year 2015 or so. Middle East (OPEC)/Gulf countries continue to dominate the oil production and in turn control the market through their cartel operations. Crude oil availability is also governed by political tensions in the Gulf region where political mobilisation is occurring in various countries like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria etc thereby starting the process of historical changes and may lead to imbalanced supply status for longer periods. Many national oil companies in places like Iran, Mexico, Indonesia etc are not adequately reinvesting and upgrading their production fields as cash flow from their crude exports in diverted to social expenditure, subsidies and in turn affecting the sustainability of their real production assets. This certainly will add to the volatility in the future markets. North America having discovered economical exploration of tight oil and shale gas is likely to contribute substantial volume in the international oil and gas trade and may even forge ahead of Middle East/ Gulf within next decade or so impacting the international fuel dynamics. India being a major developing country needs increasing supply of petroleum products. India is likely to become a refinery hub from logistic point of view as many overseas refineries having small capacities are facing closures for various reasons. In the next five years refinering capacity
in India with major ongoing expansions will cross over 300 million tons per annum and will contribute to the international petrochemical product trade. Bottom of the barrel concept and increasing integration is also likely to result into contribution to the energy mix as Petcoke gasification syngas leading to multigen products like hydrogen, power, steam etc will release other presently consumed feedstocks into the market pool of fuel products from such refineries. Inspite of substantive exploration efforts by government and private players the crude oil production indigenously has been stagnating for decades. Indian basins are not perceived to be prospective so also the existing oil fields have matured and the production from the wells are steadily declining. Clearing the NELP block allocation for exploration and its impact on indigenous availability of crude oil remains still a long term question mark. India thus continues to rely on oil imports of over 75 per cent of its requirements which is steadily increasing. Indian majors like ONGC, Reliance, Essar etc have also targeted overseas oil fields in Russia/Africa/Middle East etc by suitable investments to help bridging the crude oil availability gap for operating refineries in India. The share of natural gas in the total energy mix is expected to reach 20 per cent by the year 2025. The demand is likely to rise by 6 to 7 per cent per year. The gas consumption is mainly by the fertiliser and power sectors almost in equal proportion. Inspite of the increase in indigenous production through gas fields in KG Basin as well as Cambay off-shore. The gap between demand and supply is continuously increasing, Gas being considered as clean fuel is also expected to be increasingly used by the automotive (CNG) sector and domestic (city gas) demands. ONGC, GAIL, Reliance and Petronet are presently the major players in the network of gas supply field. The availability gap for natural gas will be increasingly met by importing LNG. Imports are expected to increase three times within the next five years to a capacity of over 45 mill ton per year needing setting up of number of LNG terminals for storage and regassing facilities so also putting in place corresponding evacuation network. Exploring possibilities of imports through piped gas which being a ‘cross Chemical Engineering World
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Features CEW border’ pipeline involvement has inherent problems of security in the Indian context and still remains a dream project. A number of LNG projects have been announced but only a few like Petronet LNG, Dabhol, Dahej etc have commenced operations. LNG imports being the bilateral arrangements between India and the producing countries like Qatar, Oman, Iran etc is highly related to international payment security mechanism. The pricing strategy in terms of pooling in the gas basket remains key to balanced approach ensuring availability of gas to fertiliser and power sectors in India. The cross subsidy and tax structure needs to be rationalised without excessive politicisation so as to avoid wasteful usage of the commodities which will continue to ‘exert economic burden’ on the country in the future. Government certainly is trying to rationalise the policies in terms of bidding/approval conditions, changing to revenue sharing from profit sharing model, looking at Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), tax holidays etc. This is expected to improve the bankability of projects in oil and gas sector and add increasing value to the energy basket. Gas Hydrates Combination of gas and water beneath the sea-bed trapped under high pressure and low temperature along the coast could be exploited. It is reported that around 20,000 trillions m 3 of gas could exist in the global and around 1900 trillion m 3 in Indian marine and permafrost gas hydrate accumulation which ranges upto 2 km in depth. Only Russia has been using this fuel from Siberia in some measure. Gas hydrates could be at a depth of 850 – 2,000 m. National gas hydrate programme, which began a few years ago involving DGH (Directorate General of Hydrocarbon), alongwith GAIL, ONGC and CSIR, is meant for exploration of GH. Krishna, Godavari, Goa, Andaman Islands etc has the exploratory potential for this work. However, converting gas hydrates into fuel gas economically is yet to be ascertained. Well engineering, reservoir engineering etc, need to be addressed before any commercial activity really begins. May be Russia, Japan, Canada or America will come into the picture for support at some stage. Chemical Engineering World
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It is reported that around 20,000 trillions m 3 of gas could exist in the global and around 1900 trillion m 3 in Indian marine and permafrost gas hydrate accumulation which ranges upto 2 km in depth. NUCLEAR ENERGY Atomic Energy Commission was set up in 1957 at Trombay which subsequently became Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) for nuclear power was planned in 1964 and a prototype unit with Canadian support was put up in Rajasthan I. It started operation in 1972. Subsequent PHWR units installed were mainly repetition of the prototype and India now has over 400 reactor years of operational experience, about 19 operating units with 4200 MW total capacity covering Tarapur (4), Kaiga (3), Kalpakkam (2), Narora (2), Kakrapar (2), Rajasthan (6). Six new units with total 4000 MW capacity are under construction controlled by NPCIL. Even though the Five Year Plan 2012 – 17 targets 100 GWe total new power generation capacity only 3.4 per cent is expected to be from nuclear power route. Large numbers of nuclear power projects are planned and are under commercial discussions with international players who normally supply the proprietary reactor as well as tie up the atomic fuel source. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa as well as other states are listed to get new nuclear power stations in the next two decades. Advanced Heavy Water Reactors (AHWR), PHWR and LWR technologies as well as their modified versions are likely to be adopted for new nuclear power generation units. The international players supporting this nuclear power programme are from France, Russia, Canada, UK, USA, South Korea etc. India expects addition of 20,000 MW nuclear power capacity by the year 2025 and around 60,000 MW by the year 2035. Contribution target of about 25 per cent of total generation to be nuclear based is being talked about and to be achieved by the year 2050 or so. India’s nuclear self sufficiency programme commenced few decades ago included Uranium exploration and mining, fuel
fabrication, heavy water production, reactor design and engineering as well as reprocessing and waste management. However, lack of indigenous uranium source and global reluctance to supply by the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) had impacted India’s ambitious growth plans to develop nuclear energy. NPT issue internationally affected many bilateral agreements with the NSG members for sourcing the uranium supply. However, during the last few years, based on India’s excellent track record on non proliferation inspite of being a nuclear power, helped easing the world opinion and many of the countries involved in the NSG have started re-negotiating bilateral trade agreements for India sourcing the nuclear fuels, incorporating at times their own safe guards and reprocessing restrictions. India is endowed with abundance of Thorium deposits and during the last five decades or so we have been hearing about development of Thorium based nuclear reactors. Though internationally few countries have claimed development of Thorium based nuclear reactors, India is still in the planning stage for developing indigenous designs. BARC have recently announced that basic design and engineering of Thorium fueled reactor is ready and 300 MW capacity unit is under government’s consideration for installation at a suitable site within the next few years. It is expected to be operational by end of this decade. Hopefully, India’s dream of thorium based nuclear power reactors will be realised in the near future and the international ‘uranium lobby’ do not create the political hurdles and resistance to our exploitable alternative. Inspite of substantial focus and push by the government in developing nuclear power it is still badly affected by socio environmental issues specially related to radioactive waste management, regulatory and safety aspects (in the light of number of mishaps reported in Russia, Japan etc), non-availability of adequate trained man power to run and maintain the nuclear power plants as well as regional tensions around India so also the political considerations. December 2013 • 131
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CEW Features The debate about large capacity v/s small capacity staggered units is also round the corner gaining momentum and may lead to develop the optimum operating model for nuclear energy generation in India. HYDRO POWER Presently it contributes around 11 per cent of the installed generation capacity in India. The potential for + 25 MW Power Plant has been adequately assessed by reliable exploratory agencies which indicate that only 23.74 per cent of the hydro capacity is developed which is equivalent to 34, 505 MW where as under construction is around 8.5 per cent only. This leaves substantial untapped hydro potential of 67.76 per cent which is yet to be developed for various local as well as techno-economic reasons. Major hydro power potential is in the North and North Eastern regions. RENEWABLES Solar Energy Survey indicates USA and India are most attractive countries in this sector. Many international players are focusing on Indian solar market and bringing in latest state of the art technologies as well as financial assistance in this sector. National Solar Mission targets 20,000 MW power generation within the next ten years or so. Number of international manufacturers of solar panels have established their presence in India. Number of technologies for concentrated solar power plants are available such as; Tower Technology - where heliostats are used to capture the solar radiation and heat in turn is transferred to molten salt in the primary circuit. The heat from molten salt is used for steam generation to drive the steam turbines in the secondary powergen circuit. Parabolic Trough Design – where 150 to 200 meters long troughs capture the solar heat and transfers it to oil carrying tube in the centre. The collector tube with special coating and enclosed in vacuum tight evacuated glass tube are in the market increasing the solar heat absorption from panels. The super heated oil (+400ºC) is pumped to the conventional power block for steam generation and running of the steam turbine. 132 • December 2013
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There are also hybrid solar technologies available. However, the requirement of huge collector area (100 MW unit needs atleast 900 acres of land) and heavy investments per MW makes the power generated through solar panels extremely expensive. The solar power plants also suffer from its nonavailability for generation during nights and needs an alternate fuel source/heat sink to enable continuous operations. Polycrystalline silicon material used in solar panels for photovoltic cells is also costly. The price of polycrystalline silicon is increasing at 20 to 30 per cent rate due to its requirements/usage by the electronic industries and so also its limited global production. Indian government has tried to make it mandatory for new power plants to ensure 5 per cent of its generation dedicated to solar source but its impact on the marketable tariff of overall power has been a major set back in its implementation. Existing coal fired thermal plants could install solar collectors on top of the substantial area covered under coal storage/handling, water storage etc and solar heat thus gathered can be integrated in the existing ‘thermal circuit’ reducing corresponding coal consumption. Typically 4000 MW coal fired thermal power plant needs over 500 acres of land dedicated to coal yard/ water reservoir/chemicals storage etc which basically involves ground level operations. This area could be also used by suitably engineered solar collector system functioning at a proper higher level to collect solar heat, as nine acres of land provides one MW equivalent thermal solar heat. Thus 50 MW equivalent thermal energy from solar thermal collectors can be integrated into the circuit accordingly for 4000 MW existing power plant. However, government has been working out suitable incentives and cross subsidies to enable investors in solar power projects to get assured returns on their investments. Substantial research work is going on in Japan and European countries to develop special composites which can substantially absorb solar heat with optimal receiver design and enable economic generation of solar power. A major techno-economic break through in few years would bring the solar power into countries energy equation effectively. It is expected that solar power could attain parity in terms of tariff due to localised
incentives, technology upgrades, mass production, increasing scale of operation so also ever rising prices of fossil fuels in the market in due course. Wind Power Wind mill farms have been known for ages and are obviously subject to availability of suitable tunneling slot, where the wind power is sustainable to run the wind mills. Number of manufacturers of wind mills having developed competitive designs are operating in India and nearly 1200 MW wind power capacity is presently installed in India. Tamil Nadu generates over 800 MW where as Gujarat and Maharashtra are producing the balance of wind power. Internationally Germany is leading in this field having around 6,000 MW wind power generation capacity at present. The high investments in this field also suffer from operational availability governed by the wind pattern and its changes which inevitably occur during various seasons of the year. Biofuels Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas have been promoting use of ethanol blended petrol and diesel for quite sometime. The focus obviously is on developing indigenous renewable fuel source which can also boost the rural economy. The petroleum companies did set up successfully number of retail outlets in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh etc to market the ethanol blended petrol. An MOU was also entered into with Brazil for transfer of technology for blending of ethanol with auto fuels. In India ethanol is mainly produced by the sugar industries as a by product through molasses fermentation and distilleries. The alcohol produced of various grades has number of industrial applications as well as for manufacture of potable alcohol. The governmental control on movement of molasses as well as alcohol distilleries has been a political commodity like most of the agro output in the country. The limited processing of pure dry ethanol to be used for gasohol production has been therefore affecting its availability for blending with petrol. Thus inspite of government’s intention to set up large number of retail outlets (over 12000!) and increase the proportion of blend up to 10 per cent of ethanol in phases it has not yet been even partly successful. Chemical Engineering World
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Features CEW Technologies for producing ethanol from cellulosic biomass through fermentation and chemical hydrolysis have been internationally developed right from lab through to commercial scale production in Western countries. However, logistics of biomass collection and huge quantities required for minimum economic scale alcohol production plant are still making this alternate route for alcohol production a far sited cry in India. Globally, over 150 bill. tons per year of biomass grows and even 10 per cent of the same if used for fuel production will reduce substantial oil consumption in the world. The gasohol alternative thus is likely to remain a political subject in India for years to come and may not add substantial value towards energy security inspite of its potential to do so in the country. Allowing agro produce for alcohol production borders on the food security concerns. Biodiesel production from cheap nonedible vegetable oils and waste used oils and fats by trans-esterification can ideally be blended with regular diesel as fuel for automobiles. The process technology for transesterification of vegetable oils is known for decades and in Western countries waste vegetable oils have been converted into biodiesel. However, economy of collection of waste vegetable oils and continued availability for manufacturing the biodiesel has always been a subject of major concern, apart from effective utilisation of the by product glycerin generated in the manufacturing process. The value addition being marginal during conversion, the price at which vegetable oil needs to be available to biodiesel units has to be lower than the price of diesel marketed in the countries. In India even the non-edible vegetable oils are priced at much higher range and hence biodiesel industry has not picked up as yet. Government plans to develop Jatropha, a tree borne oil seeds, for providing oil to biodiesel industry by planting such trees in waste and degraded lands are yet to fructify. Many joint task forces involving railways/ petroleum oil companies have been formed to utilize the surplus land for planting such Jatropha trees perhaps still remain on paper and a ‘political vapour ware’. Agribiotech research efforts could be ideal to increase the oil yield from non-edible oil crops as well as B.T. modified jatropha seeds to enable plantation and growth in waste lands with minimal water demands which in turn could provide feed stock for biodiesel production. Chemical Engineering World
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Government/ Laws (Regulators, Fiscal Incentives, Campaign/ Awareness Drive)
Industry (Process Energy/Engineer ing Expertise, State-of-the-Art Energy Efficient Plants)
Energy Management
Utility Energy Generation (Choice of Fuel, Efficient Systems, Minimum Transmission & Distribution Losses
A National Policy – Action Plan
Priority
(Short Term & Long Term) Impact of International Energy Dynamics
End Users (Good Practices, Change of Mind Set, Recognition & Motivation Schemes
Figure 2: Energy Fueling Options
In view of ethanol as well as vegetable oil remaining mainly the agricultural commodities will always be a subject of local/state/central politics involving subsidies for farmers (incentives to politicians), may be tough to become a prospective business opportunity towards energy needs in our country. Substantive research work is going on internationally covering biomethane, biobutanol, enzymatic hydrolysis, microbial fuel cells, biomass pretreatment, genetic manipulation and their utility for biofuel industry, efficient bioreactor design, bio processing of residues and waste of energy etc. A break through in terms of commercial viability of technology will be a key driver for site specific biofuel commercial production. Algal biofuel, pyrolytic bio oil and syngas as well as ligno cellulosic production are at an advanced stage of development and could add value to the renewable energy basket. Focused efforts on GM energy crops for increasing yields would give boost to biofuel sector. Consumer Control Apart from exploration of alternate fuels for energy security for the country it is a ‘fact’ to be realised that optimal and efficient energy consumption will be the key towards longterm energy security. The three ‘R’s that is Reduce/ Recycle/Recover must remain in focus for public and governmental policies. Logistics and regional variation in energy production cost should guide the growth policies and
politics. Even 1 per cent saving in energy consumption is worth over 8 million tons of coal energy equivalent. Each kw saved is 2.5 kw generated. Improving linkage efficiency for energy conservation must be a national priority. Energy management systems must focus on steady and sustainable reduction in business energy consumption as well as improving the overall efficiencies of the entire value chain right from generation through to optimum utilisation. Subsidising automobile purchasing using infact the tax payers contribution by extending excessive easy car loan banking transactions is only helping the automobile industry but burdening the increase in petrol consumption and adds to enormous pollution as well as traffic congestions. Infact over 300 vehicles are presently added everyday in Mumbai leading to alarming level of infrastructure/pollution problems not only in Mumbai but also in other metro cites. The major challenge in the 21st century is to manage sustainable growth without imbalanced increase in energy demands and costs. Also ensuring that energy assets created are also optimally and efficiently serviced as sustainability is governed by integrated approach covering all critical parameters. The strong correlation between ‘Economic Power’ and ‘Energy Costs’ could otherwise lead the world to witness more selective wars over energy needs. (The guest column was carried in April 2013 issue of CEW)
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CEW Features Guest Column
Utilisation of Coal in India: Opportunities for Petrochemicals Coal is an important source that can play a vital role in boosting any countries economy. India is one of the countries that have plentiful of coal reserves. Utilising the source in the best possible manner can be proved to be highly significant of country’s petrochemical sector. Bipin V Vora, Consultant, UOP Fellow (Retired), UOP LLC; Mark Turowicz, MD, UOP Asia Ltd; Mike Cleveland, Director, Petrochemicals, UOP LLC; and Joseph Gregor, Business Director, UOP LLC, A Honeywell Company, share their perspective.
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Bipin V Vora Consultant UOP Fellow (Retired) A Honeywell Company
Michael Cleveland, P.E. Global Business Director Petrochemicals Process Technology and Equipment, UOP LLC, A Honeywell Company
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t is becoming increasingly evident that countries with large reserves of coal will need to explore utilisation of coal not simply for power generation but also as a feed stock for valuable petrochemicals. Four countries – the USA, Russia, China and India 1 account for nearly 70 per cent of the world’s total known coal reserves. Of these, the USA and Russia also have vast oil and gas reserves. Thus although the USA and Russia use significant amounts of coal for power generation, they have limited incentive for pursuing Coal to Liquids (CTL) and Coal to Chemicals (CTC) options. CTL or CTC plants require significant capital investments as well as a high level of environmental scrutiny. China is the world’s 4 th largest oil producer, nevertheless imports more than half of its current needs and will likely continue to have significant short fall in the future. India has very limited gas and oil reserves: of India’s fossil fuel reserves, 93 per cent is coal, with crude oil and natural gas representing only 3 and 4 per cent, respectively 2. For these two countries which represent the two largest population centres, the utilisation of coal is justifiably gaining greater attention. Figure 1 compares the cost of these three fossil fuels and it clearly makes a case for broader utilisation of coal2. Currently coal is primarily used for power generation. To utilise coal as a petrochemical feed stock, the first step is gasification of coal to synthesis gas. Technologies for converting synthesis gas to petrochemicals, as shown in Figure 2, are well developed and have been in use for a long time. Of these, methanol has great potential, since it can be directly utilised as in fuel, or relatively
easily converted to dimethylether (DME), which can be a substitute for LPG. Also it can be converted to light olefins, ethylene and propylene3, 4. Historically the availability of crude oil at low prices discouraged utilisation of coal gasification for CTC. Naphtha and ethane are the primary feed stocks for the production of ethylene and propylene. As shown in figure 3 naphtha prices closely track the crude oil price. However, methanol prices (Figure 4) are decoupled from the price of crude oil4. On an USD/MT basis, the price of methanol relative to crude oil has declined from a multiple of 1.5 down to 0.5. Thus, today at a crude oil price 700-800 USD/MT, gasification and hence CTC has become an attractive option. In this respect China has made great strides. World production of methanol will increase from 60 million metric tons per year (MMMTA) in 2012 to 110 MMMTA in 2017. Over 70 per cent of this expansion is slated for Methanol to Olefins (MTO) production, and all of that capacity is in China. China also has built significant capacity for coal to dimethylether (DME) which is utilised as a substitute for LPG. It is expected that by 2020, China will be producing nearly 15 MMMTA of ethylene plus propylene via coal gasification, methanol, and conversion of methanol to olefins. The conversion of methanol to olefins and other hydrocarbon products has been widely studied. Initial work in the 1970s and early 1980s focused on conversion of methanol to gasoline range products and employed ZSM-5 type zeolites. Selectivity of methanol to ethylene and propylene over ZSM-5 was generally low, with selectivities favoring Chemical Engineering World
Recently, it is observed that Indian vendors are becoming increasingly 04-01-2014 15:01:58
Features CEW Thus, the overall utilities requirement for the MTO based olefins plant is significantly lower than that for the naphtha cracker. Of course, the naphtha based olefins plant will have greater byproduct credit from hydrogen, butadiene, butenes and pygas byproducts, however, these are not large enough to overcome the sum of high feedstock cost, low operating cost and capital cost advantage of the MTObased olefins plant. Thus in most scenarios, the MTO-based light olefins plant will have better economics than that for the naphtha cracker.
Figure 5: Comparison of SAPO - 34 and ZSMS Framework
heavier more highly branched hydrocarbons and aromatics. This catalyst technology was utilised in the commercial development of the Mobil MTG Process. During the 1980s a group of scientists at Union Carbide (the group later became part of UOP LLC) discovered new class of materials, Silico Aluminum Phosphates (SAPO) molecular sieves. Of these, the discovery of SAPO-34 provided a technology breakthrough. SAPO34’s unique pore size geometry and acidity of the material created a more selective route for methanol conversion to ethylene and propylene with reduced heavy byproducts5. As illustrated in the Figure 5 SAPO-34 has a smaller pore size (about 4 Å) compared to that of ZSM-5 (about 5.5 Å). The smaller pore size for SAPO-34 restricts the diffusion of heavy and branched hydrocarbons and therefore favors high selectivity to the desired light olefins. The optimised acidity of SAPO-34 reduces the amount of hydride transfer reactions relative to ZSM-5, thereby lowering the yield of paraffinic byproducts. A further advantage of SAPO-34 is that the majority of the C4-C6 fraction produced is olefinic, which can be converted to primarily propylene with the Olefins Cracking Process (OCP). The Advanced MTO technology is integration of MTO technology with the OCP process. A major milestone for MTO commercialisation was the start-up in 2009 of the semi-commercial scale, fully integrated MTO demonstration unit in Belgium using SAPO-34 by Total Petrochemicals (Figure 6) utilising technology jointly developed by Honeywell’s UOP, Ineos and Total Petrochemicals. UOP has licensed three MTO Chemical Engineering World
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projects in China, and the first commercial unit employing UOP technology is expected to be in operation in the summer of 2013. Another advantage of MTO technology is that, in a typical MTO plant, the quantity of ethylene and propylene produced is nearly equal. That is, an MTO based ethylene plant produces twice as much propylene compared to the naphtha based ethylene plant. Propylene is highly valuable and its growth rate is higher than that of ethylene. For petrochemicals production, ethylene and propylene are the No 1 and No 2 largest volume raw materials, with combined world production over 200 MMMTA6. In India, demand for these olefins is growing at more than 10 per cent per annum. The cost of methanol feed is ranges from 300 to 400 USD/MT while that of naphtha is at 800 USD/MT. In round figures, one needs 2.0 tons of naphtha per ton of light olefins (ethylene plus propylene), and for MTO one needs 2.6 ton of methanol per ton of light olefins. Thus, at a methanol price of 400 USD/MT the MTO based light olefins plant will have a feedstock cost advantage of 560 USD/MT of light olefins production. This advantage increases to 820 USD/MT of light olefins at a methanol price of 300 USD/MT. The capital investment for an MTO-based 1 MM MTA light olefins plant is estimated at USD 1 billion. The capital investment for a similar capacity light olefins plant based on naphtha is estimated over USD 2 billion. This includes the investments required for the recovery of major by products. Methanol to olefins is an exothermic reaction, and this heat of reaction is utilised to generate a significant quantity of high pressure steam.
Ethylene plants that are based on advantageously priced ethane, such as in the Middle East and in more recently in the USA due to significant growth in the production of Natural Gas Liquids (NGL), will always enjoy an economic advantage. This is followed by ethylene production from MTO, while the naphtha-based ethylene plants will have highest cost of ethylene production. For the sustainable development and continued growth of the olefins and polyolefins industry in India, it is becoming imperative that Coal To Chemicals projects be developed. Another option to consider is to partner with one or more countries having large gas reserves. This would mean building one or more mega methanol plants at those locations and shipping methanol to India’s East and West coasts the where large infrastructure for the petrochemical industry exists. References 1. George A. Olah et al. “Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy” p.28-29, (2006) WileyVCH Verlag GMBH & Co. Publishers. 2. Rajeev Gautam, “India’s Growing Energy demand-Addressing the Technology Challenge” Petrotech-2012, New Delhi, India, October 14-17, 2012. 3. Bipin Vora, Andrea Bozzano and James Andersen Coal to petrochemicals, ERTC Petrochemical Conference-Vienna, Austria 2006 4. J. H. Gregor, “Maximize Profitability and Olefin Production with UOP’s Advanced MTO Technology” HIS World Methanol Conference, Madrid, Spain; November 27-29, 2012 5. S.W. Kaiser, US Patent 4 499 327, 1985 6. Bipin Vora, Gavin Towler, Margaret Stine, “Technology and Raw Materials for PetrochemicalsOpportunity and Threats, Petrotech-2012, New Delhi, India, October 14-17, 2012 (The guest column was carried in January2013 issue of CEW)
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CEW Features Guest Column
PCPIRs: A Distant Dream for India? To ensure PCPIRs achieve their objectives, we need to clearly identify the critical success factors from global best practices and apply them to India, write Vijay Sarathy and Pratik Kadakia. In this article, they further elucidate how India should move forward keeping the challenges at bay.
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ndia currently accounts for about 2-3 per cent of the global chemical industry. In light of the country’s booming population (one in seven global citizens is an Indian); this sector clearly needs to play a larger role. To encourage investment in India’s chemical industry, PCPIRs (Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Regions) were conceived a few years ago. Although some progress has been made and the concept has evolved since then, it remains to be seen whether PCPIRs will achieve their objectives. To make sure they do so, we need to clearly identify the critical success factors from global best practices and apply them to India.
Vijay Sarathy Partner Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, North America
Pratik Kadakia Principal Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, India
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One of the objectives of PCPIRs in their original design was to establish chemical industry parks. In Western Europe, these parks were formed as a response to increasing urbanisation, industrialisation and shortage of resources. They served many purposes: - Economic steering: attracting new businesses, providing integrated infrastructure in one location, creating new job opportunities for qualified employees and providing eligibility for government benefits - Clustering: concentrating dedicated infrastructure in a specific area (and thereby reducing the cost of that infrastructure for each business), focusing the businesses on a dedicated value chain and strengthening business initiatives through improved cooperation between companies
- Environmental protection: moving industry away from urban areas, thus reducing the environmental and social impact - Resource management: providing localised environmental controls that are specific to the needs of an industrial area and saving resources through efficient use of by-products and residuals Participating in such industrial parks offers many advantages for a chemical company. The necessary infrastructure is readily available (utilities, regulatory clearances and permits, etc.), the company is integrated along the value chain and can leverage synergies with other companies and businesses can share facilities and access to well-trained people. All of these benefits allow companies to focus on their core business and therefore operate successfully. Yet the road to reaping these benefits is not without stumbling blocks. The National Chemical Policy, initiated by the Planning Commission in 2010 and driven by the Ministry of Chemicals with active industry participation, identified the challenges facing PCPIRs today. These need to be addressed if PCPIRs are to achieve their intended objectives: - Feedstock access: Industry expected the lead/anchor tenants of PCPIRs to make feedstock available, and infrastructure and ancillary industries would then develop around them. However, the way it has evolved, the lead/anchor tenants achieve economic viability with investment plans that
One of the objectives of PCPIRs in their original design was to establish chemical industry parks. In Western Europe, these parks were formed as a response to increasing urbanisation, industrialisation and shortage of resources. Chemical Engineering World
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Features CEW As for the refinery and chemicals complex at Jamnagar, the expansion plans announced by Reliance Industries are already in an advanced stage of implementation. These plans include an off-gas cracker that will benefit from the company’s record refining capacity. Besides this and the cracker at Dahej, no other cracker or downstream investments are likely to be realised over the next decade. By that time, the market for petrochemicals and specialty chemicals is likely to more than double, mostly met through foreign investment in manufacturing abroad.
Figure 1: Benefits of Clusters, Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
include downstream products such as polymers, elastomers, derivative products, etc. Therefore, with feedstock ethylene, propylene, etc. not being made available, other downstream investment in PCPIRs was not forthcoming - Infrastructure: Dedicated pipelines, rail and port access, roads, power and utilities along with clear land are essential. Some of the proposed PCPIRs have not taken off as envisaged since these elements have not been adequately provided - Regulatory clearance: Delays and procedural issues for environment clearances plus pollution-related clearance even for compliant companies have affected the plans and operations of many businesses, thus affecting investment and expansion The devaluation of the rupee may make a case for local manufacturing, as it further escalates the cost of import-intensive components and technology for the project. Sustained high interest rates, long project rampup periods and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other countries are making it more difficult to argue in favor of investing in India. All in all, given the time it takes to execute a project of the size of a world-scale cracker plus the downstream/ancillary units in specialty chemicals, achieving the desired investment in the coming decade is unrealistic. Chemical Engineering World
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So, Where do We Stand Today and What are the Options for Moving Forward? Of the five PCPIRs initially announced, the one at Dahej has become operational largely due to state-owned OPal going ahead with their investment. Dahej is located in the state of Gujarat, which already hosts more than half the Indian chemical industry. Three of the other PCPIRs are located on India’s eastern coast: Haldia, Paradip and Vishakhapatnam. Of these, Haldia was scrapped, and Paradip has not yet announced a naphtha-based cracker, given the shale gas cracker investment being made elsewhere in the world and the lack of available gas in India. Vishakhapatnam is still investigating the feasibility of setting up a world-scale cracker.
Reliance Industries is rapidly becoming a success story for the development of the Indian chemical industry. Their announced investment will most likely go ahead, at the moment it would simply be a question of when. The company has unparalleled refining capacity on a global scale and the resulting access to feedstock. It has been operating successfully at this location for over two decades, gaining much experience and generating goodwill in the process. Reliance also boasts competitive access to the undersupplied markets in west and north India, technological expertise in running and optimising its existing cracker, plus a pool of talented people who can execute the project in record time and on budget. We need more such business cases for the Indian chemical industry to truly flourish. Are PCPIRs a distant dream for India, given the potential and strong
Figure 2: India’s estimated shale gas reserves, Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
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CEW Features
Figure 3: Case Study – BASF, Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
intent of the chemical industry to grow profitably? I suggest we rephrase the question: how can PCPIRs continue to remain relevant in the current context? There are a couple of lessons to be learned from global best practices, which can be adopted to boost India’s competitiveness in the chemical industry. Lesson one is shale gas. Shale gas has revolutionised the chemical industry in the US and made it competitive once again, offering cheap feedstock and energy, supported by developed infrastructure. India would do well to explore and exploit its own shale gas reserves, which are estimated to be quite significant. While shale gas can serve as much needed feedstock and source of cheap energy for the chemical industry, certain critical factors are needed to successfully exploit its potential. These include availability of land and water to extract the gas from the shale deposits, pipelines to transport it safely and effectively to the most competitive sites for processing, as well as the power and infrastructure to manufacture and transport this even farther. India is still a long way from this point, and needs to develop a plan that reflects the experience of challenges faced in executing the PCPIR policy.
such opportunities exist in India. A single site can expand to become a multi-company complex through joint ventures and alliances if the businesses are offered the right incentives to invest and promote investment. We can learn from BASF’s in Spain, which started out the 112-hectare site has people, and generating an tonnes today.
example at their Tarragona site as a single site in 1969. Today, 8 companies employing 1,000 annual output of 750,000 metric
Shale gas and existing clusters would serve as a two-pronged approach to push investment. The approach would also establish a chemical ecosystem with the goal of moving toward an eco-industrial park that is sensitive to the environment and promotes additional investment. This goal is consistent with that of PCPIRs. PCPIRs will remain relevant in India’s quest to boost the competitiveness of its chemical industry. However, the scope of the programmes may need to be redefined in response to the trends that have impacted the industry globally. (The guest column was carried in September 2013 issue of CEW)
Besides extending to shale gas, the PCPIR programmes should also look at existing chemical investment/clusters. It can shape them into eco-industrial parks by providing incentives for developing the relevant ecosystem around these plants. Many 138 • December 2013
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Chemical Engineering World
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Features CEW Guest Column
Carbon Sequestration: A Fresh Perspective Carbon dioxide capture, transport and storage are the three major components of Carbon dioxide Capture and Sequestration (CCS). Technologies in all the aforesaid components play a vital role. Pradnya P Gune, Senior Technology Manager - Marketing, Aker Powergas Pvt Ltd, writes.
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he deployment and management of energy lies at the core of a nation’s continued growth and development. For this growth to be sustainable it is important that the challenges it poses are addressed effectively. Burning of fossil fuel to cater to a nation’s energy needs leads to large point emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2). Carbon dioxide being a greenhouse gas is a significant contributor to climate change. Figure 1, next page, shows forecasted CO 2 concentration if we continue with our business practices as usual. Large efforts are required to maintain CO 2 concentrations in stable range of 450 to 500 PPM. Thus mitigating the emission of large point anthropogenic (caused by humans) carbon dioxide is one of the major tools to combat the global climate change challenge. In Indian context, coal has been the main stay of electricity generation. It will continue to remain so in the near foreseeable future, though there is every effort being made to deploy renewable sources of energy. The technological options for reducing Carbon dioxide emissions as recognised by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) include: 1. Reducing energy demand by increasing the efficiency of source and/ or user device. 2. Decarbonising energy supplies (either by switching to less carbon intensive fuels e.g. moving from coal to natural gas, and/or by increasing renewable energy sources and/ or nuclear energy). 3. Sequestering Carbon dioxide. Chemical Engineering World
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4. Carbon dioxide utilization e.g. dr y i c e, f i r e ex t i n g u i s h e r s, c h e m i c a l s, polycarbonates etc. The magnitude of CO 2 emission reduction required to stabilise the atmospheric Carbon dioxide concentration calls for the use of a combination of various technologies. Thus, Carbon dioxide Capture and Sequestration (CCS) assumes greater significance as it is a scalable technology and can be used for CO 2 capture from large point sources of emission like power plants, cement plants, refineries and iron and steel plants. In India, CCS family of technologies are extremely important due to our reliance on abundant domestic coal sources. The major components of CCS include Carbon dioxide capture, Carbon dioxide transport, Carbon dioxide storage. Carbon Dioxide Capture: Carbon dioxide capture technologies are usually distinguished based on following: Pre-combustion Capture: In this case, all types of fossil fuels can be gasified with less than stoichiometric amount of oxygen and some steam at higher pressures to generate mixture of CO + H 2 usually called Synthesis Gas. This is subject to ‘water gas shift reaction’ in presence of steam to shift CO to CO 2 &
H 2 . Carbon dioxide from this CO 2 laden gas is captured to leave Hydrogen rich fuel gas. IGCC is an example of precombustion carbon capture. Oxy Fuel Combustion: The fuel is burnt in a mixture of oxygen and recycled flue gases. This generates flue gases that are mainly CO 2 and H 2 O with no nitrogen present in the flue gases. The condensable water vapour can be easily removed from flue gases leaving behind mainly CO 2 that can be sequestered. Post-combustion Capture: Carbon dioxide is captured from flue gases post combustion before the gases are vented to atmosphere. All the above three methods are highly cost intensive and have penalties on thermal efficiencies. The relative economics of each method depends on fuel source, maturity of technology and needs to be studied in detail on a case to case basis. There are some technological challenges faced in implementing these technologies, e.g. high energy requirement for amine regeneration, corrosion and amine degradation issues in case of post combustion, cost effective gasifier designs and gas turbine designs for pre combustion, competitive oxygen plant designs are some such examples.
Although currently CCS has been recognised by IPCC as one of the important options for climate change mitigation and is considered to be technically feasible on an industrial scale, there are several challenges faced in Indian scena. December 2013 • 139
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CEW Features of carbon dioxide by reaction of aluminosilicate minerals has currently not matured well enough for large scale implementation. For many large point sources in India, the geological storage sites do not appear to be located close by thus adding large cost of CO 2 compression and transportation from source to sink.
Figure 1: Forecasts of CO2e* concentrations in business-as-usual scenario; Average forecast of CO2e concentration**, parts per million * CO2 equivalent emissions: greenhouse gas concentrations are converted to CO2 equivalent for comparability ** Excluding ranges for alternatives and uncertainties Source: Stern Review, IPCC, CCSI
There is also a need to demonstrate the processes at large enough scale and less energy intensive. Carbon Dioxide Transport The Carbon dioxide captured is dried, compressed to near supercritical pressure and transported to a safe storage site. It can be transported by using road, rail or pipelines depending on the quantities involved. CO 2 transport in pipelines is implemented elsewhere outside India and is relatively proven. Currently, such infrastructure is not available in India. Carbon Dioxide Storage Potential options for Carbon dioxide storage include Depleted oil & gas fields, Deep coal seams that are not mine able, Basalt formation, shales etc, Saline aquifers, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), Enhanced Coal Bed Methane (ECBM). Saline aquifers represent the largest sink for CO 2 though it is hard to estimate their storage potential without the detailed geological data. Data shows that storage resource in India is unevenly distributed. Highly suitable storage resources are mainly offshore or in coastal region. Oil & gas fields in India are relatively smaller in CO 2 storage capacity in India. Only a few fields like Bombay High have relatively large storage capacity. However these reservoirs will not be available for CO 2 storage till they are depleted. There are opportunities for EOR using CO 2 and it is a fairly mature technology. We are beginning to see some development in EOR in the case of depleting Indian fields. Unmineable coal mines have limited storage opportunity (between 600 m to 1000 m below surface) and are mainly located in Eastern part of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Uttar Pradesh & Chhattisgarh.
There are many critical factors to take into account in geological storages like deeper understanding of geological characterisation, ground water contamination, leaks to atmosphere and risks to human health.. Smart monitoring techniques need to be employed to get early warning of leakages or loss of containment. There is a lack of knowledge about long term effect of CO 2 storage thus bringing to fore liability issues. The provenness and regulatory framework for storage currently does not exist. Public acceptance of long term geological storage of CO 2 is equally crucial. Aker Solutions has a long term commitment to the capture of Carbon dioxide from various industrial sources. It has developed and applied carbon capture technology solutions since the beginning of the 1990’s. In its quest to commercialize carbon capture technology, Aker Clean Carbon (ACC), which is an Aker Solutions company, was established by a group of in-house expert engineers. ACC continues to remain focused on continual developments in the carbon capture technology through its R & D program and is committed on reducing emissions from greenhouse gases in the future. Conclusion Although currently CCS has been recognised by IPCC as one of the important options for climate change mitigation and is considered to be technically feasible on an industrial scale, there are several challenges faced in Indian scenario. Though there is a growing awareness of CCS and the fact that CCS has been included in the UNFCCC’s CDM, India is yet to recognize CCS as part of National Action Plan for Climate Change. High costs of capture, high penalties on thermal efficiencies in implementing CCS, health and safety issues, high costs of compression and transport, lack of transportation and storage infrastructure, lack of policy framework for storage are some of the hurdles in CCS implementation on commercial scale in India in near future. At the same time there is lot of interest from the industry regarding developments in CCS technologies and new emerging solutions are being closely watched, as industry recognises the need for sustainable growth. (The guest column was carried in January 2013 issue of CEW)
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Features CEW Technical Article
Gas Sensor Technology to Control Plant Emissions Control and monitoring of the gaseous emissions produced by chemical facilities is a critical part of plant management. Gas sensing, which provides important input for plant controls, is a key technology in ensuring safe operation and reducing potentially harmful emissions.
Stack emission from chemical plants is obviously the largest source of the gases produced during the process.
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he chemical industry is a major player in the global economy, with 2011 sales reported as being worth some 2800 billion with a growth rate approaching 12 per cent as the developed and developing economies recovered from recession. Manufacturing the materials that are indispensible to today’s world, the chemical industry is, quite literally, one of the foundations of modern society. Producing the raw materials that are used throughout industrial sectors, it is one of the powerhouses underpinning improvements in the living standards for millions, if not billions of people. Unfortunately, by their very nature, many chemicals are toxic, poisonous, flammable or explosive. As well as the intrinsically unattractive properties of the target material, the manufacturing process can also produce a wide variety of by-products, some of which have equally unpleasant attributes. Even if the chemicals are not directly harmful, some can be environmentally damaging, potentially contributing to climate change.
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So, how to square the circle? On the one hand, the chemical industry’s products are essential; on the other, some can be unpleasant and dangerous. The answer, well established in the developed world and becoming increasing prevalent in the emerging economies, is legislation and monitoring. Typically, strict limits and quotas are set for the emission levels of different substances, and record keeping and monitoring by the appropriate regulatory authority is put in place to ensure that the limits are observed. The gas sensing industry plays the key role in enabling the industry to meet its obligations, with many different technologies used to monitor the emissions from the different parts of a typical chemical plant. Gaseous Emissions Analysis Stack emission from chemical plants is obviously the largest source of the gases produced during the process. Recognising that some gaseous emissions cannot be avoided, the quota system to
manage emissions has been developed. To comply with the requirements of the emissions control quota system, Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS), provide real-time monitoring and recording of a range of gases emitted from stacks. Typically, CEMS systems will monitor for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxygen, hydrogen sulphide, total hydrocarbons and opacity. Additional gases are added to the core list depending on the specific process. In addition to the main processing equipment, a chemical facility will normally contain a number of small power plants, used for a variety of purposes from space heating for on-site buildings through to pre-heating various chemicals before they are injected into the main processing plant. Depending on the availability of the different materials, the fuel source will usually be natural gas, LPG, light and heavy oils, biomass, wood pellets, coal, propane or butane. December 2013 • 141
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CEW Features Flue gas emissions are monitored for two main reasons, environmental and economic. Clearly, for emissions control purposes, these boiler rooms will contribute to the plant’s overall emission levels. There is also an economic driver. With today’s ever-increasing energy costs, keeping the combustion process operating at peak efficiency makes complete sense. Flue gas analysers are portable / transportable instruments that are used to take spot measurements of a range of gases including oxygen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, SOx and NOx in the flue gases, thereby monitoring the efficiency of the burning process and taking a reading for emission control purposes. They will normally be fitted with electrochemical sensors, which are arguably the most versatile sensors available, offering a number of benefits over alternative technologies. The sensors are physically small, enabling the analysers themselves to be correspondingly compact. Internal filtration ensures that the readings for the target gas are immune to cross-contamination from other gases commonly present in the flue gases. The latest generation of oxygen sensors use lead-free catalytic technology derived from toxic gas sensors, improving response times, reducing current consumption and offering a quicker start up from cold. Electrochemical sensors characterised to a large number of different gases are available, enabling monitoring in specialised applications to be implemented quickly and easily. Leak Detection Leaks are an ever-present hazard even in the best run chemical plants. Depending on the severity of the leak and the gas involved, the effects can potentially be very serious both within and without the perimeter of the plant. An explosion or fire will damage plant and put workers at risk, while toxic gases can spread rapidly, also putting the public at risk. Even a minor small leak has an economic impact of the plant’s profitability as material is being wasted and the fault has to be rectified. To monitor for leaks, fixed gas detectors are integrated into the plant at key weak points such as valves, joints and 142 • December 2013
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to allow for remote monitoring, local area monitors are frequently deployed after an incident to provide perimeter monitoring around the location of a leak, thereby giving first responders additional protection. Open Area Protection - Storage Tanks Infrared open-path gas detectors send out a beam of infrared light, detecting gas anywhere along the path of the beam, which is typically a few metres up to a few hundred metres in length.
Flue Gas Analyser
pumps. The sensors used will obviously depend on the nature of the gas to be detected. For flammable gases, pellistors are widely used. This sensor works by burning the target gas; the heat generated producing a change in the resistance of the detecting element of the sensor proportional to the gas concentration. To detect hydrocarbons, NDIR sensors are widely used. Ultrasonic gas leak detectors measure the ultrasonic sound level, typically between 25 kHz to 10 MHz frequencies. Ultrasonic gas detectors are mainly used for outdoor environments where weather conditions can easily dissipate escaping gas before allowing it to reach gas leak detectors that require contact with the gas in order to detect it. These detectors are most useful in facilities with a lot of outdoor pipeline. Personnel Protection Workers wear small gas detectors, typically a device that will detect four or five potential atmospheric hazards including oxygen, combustible and toxic gases. These units are based on electrochemical sensors, which are extremely sensitive and give fast response times when gas is detected. As well as protecting the workers themselves, personal gas detectors also act as mobile leak detectors, a useful back up to fixed leak detectors. Electrochemical sensors are also used in portable area monitors. Often complete with wireless communications
They are increasingly used in the petrochemical industry for example in the detection of leaks from storage tanks, mainly to achieve very rapid gas leak detection for flammable gases at concentrations comparable to the lower flammable limit, typically a few percent by volume. Conclusions As this brief overview shows, the gas sensor industry has developed a number of different technologies, each of which has strengths and weaknesses for use in specific applications. All manufacturers share a common purpose in improving the effectiveness of life and property protection in potentially dangerous environments. Advances in sensor design are generally aimed at producing faster response, greater specificity, better stability, longer life and greater reliability. In capital-intensive industries such as the chemical sector, which produces toxic, corrosive, explosive and flammable gases as a matter of routine, plant protection rightly has a very high priority. Add in the duty of care to the workforce, a reduction in emissions to reduce environmental damage and the need to prevent leaks that could affect the local population, the benefits from using today’s gas detection advanced technology have never been more obvious. (The article was carried in the August 2013 issue of CEW)
Author’s Details John Warburton Strategic Marketing Manager City Technology Email: john.warburton@citytech.com
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Features CEW Technical Article
Remote Collaboration for Operational Excellence Collaborations station in a plant premises is a place that allow an employee to monitor the different operations and communicate with colleagues. This is a place that allows teams to come together and solve a problem; thus improving overall operations excellence. Increased specialisation of expertise and the need for a faster pace of decision-making make remote collaboration a crucial factor for success.
Figure 1: A major barrier to human performance improvement in industrial organisations is functional “silos,” where each part of an operation only works vertically within its own narrow space.
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ith short innovation cycles, changing customer needs and intense competitive pressure, harnessing the power of employees across functions and regions has become extremely important for manufacturers. However, such cross-enterprise knowledge sharing requires a robust, scalable and secure platform for collaboration. Recent developments have taken collaboration to a new level in manufacturing operations. Today, plant personnel have access to new tools providing the ability to display and interact with system or plant-wide data. This enables high-quality collaboration with the field or with experts in other locations, and is particularly useful in facilitating regular plant events like shift changeovers and operations meetings, and also when troubleshooting is needed. With secure collaboration across the enterprise, industrial firms can extract maximum value from the talent in their Chemical Engineering World
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organisation and release the trapped value from their asset base. Background When you think about it, collaboration is at the heart of every business. Most people are a part of a team that needs to work together to achieve the best possible results; the team is a part of many teams that must collaborate to help grow an enterprise. One of the major barriers to human performance improvement in industrial organisations has been the development of functional “silos,” meaning that each part of an operation only works vertically within its own narrow space—not horizontally across functions. These silos limit the amount of interaction needed to drive maximum value from assets (See Figure 1). In complex environments, such as processing plants, turning information into action often requires specialised
knowledge and understanding of what the information actually reveals. A few select individuals may hold this specialised knowledge across the facility. The goal is to make the information available and obtain talented personnel from the various disciplines to work together toward transforming information into actions. Value of Collaboration Industrial companies with a global reach and presence need a way to get everyone on the same page, and to effectively operate as a single entity instead of as a fragmented organisation. They require improved methods of communication to coordinate multinational activities, meet increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, and better manage changing workforces. Today’s typical process plant has multiple repositories of data, and the volume of data is increasing each year and becoming more fragmented. There is a growing need to bring all this information together and December 2013 • 143
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CEW Features display capabilities such as pan and zoom, plus the ability to show multiple windows of related information concurrently. Similarly, the use of video for business and operational purposes is increasingly common. Video streaming and video calling are now common methods of communication. In a business environment, desktop sharing is a routine technique covering voice and visualisation.
Figure 2: Modern collaborative tools enabling personnel to connect and interact virtually have a global economic impact on productivity.
make sense of it, and make faster and better decisions. At the same time, fewer personnel are operating plants. Process, maintenance and other support resources backing up these facilities are often located remotely. Business support resources such as production planning are normally situated at remote sites, too, typically at headquarters. There are four major market developments making enterprise collaboration increasingly vital for manufacturers and other industrial entities. They are: • Globalisation: Every company in the world is affected by globalisation, and the more globalised the business is (or wants to be), the more important collaboration becomes. • Specialisation: In a technology-driven environment, increasing specialisation of knowledge-based work has made collaboration a key initiative. • Innovation: As competition increases, the only way to ensure a business advantage is through innovation. Collaboration promotes real-time organisational awareness of opportunities for innovation; shortens the cycle time for conception and design; and helps drive acceptance, adoption, and expansion of ideas. • Distributed Expertise: In a global economy, employees often have to coordinate efforts with people all over the world. This makes harnessing the power of people across functional/geographic boundaries a critical success factor. 144 • December 2013
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Enterprise productivity can come from a number of areas, ranging from improved decision-making and reduced re-work, to a more robust innovation pipeline and fewer sub-optimal decisions based on imperfect information. Indeed, the promise of timely collaboration is game-changing transformation, if applied in the right way. Latest Technology Trends Innovative solutions enabling people to connect and interact virtually have a global economic impact on productivity. Significant economic returns annually may be unlocked by this technology in knowledge worker productivity, on a scale critical to performance and growth in the 21 st century (See Figure 2). As industrial firms begin to embrace organisational change, more intently on improving communication and collaboration, there are apt to be specific types of technologies that can increase collaborative behavior across enterprise networks, which will help employees to share objectives and activities in achieving business goals. For example, the use of touch screens in mobile phones and tablet computers is well developed and accepted by users. Large-format touch screen monitors offer
Technology suppliers are developing powerful solutions that will greatly expand visibility of enterprise information, with a common view for all those collaborating. Through complete visual integration with process control and information systems, these tools can enable plant, business and support personnel to use interactive displays, embedded video and other telecommunication capabilities to communicate, collaborate and make decisions, regardless of whether they are in the control room, conference room, situation room or in remote locations. The new breed of collaborative tools will provide the means for industrial organisations to visualise data across the enterprise in a way never before possible. These tools have the potential to improve collaboration between multiple experts within the organisation, making it easy to integrate all types of overviews, alarm displays and other users’ computer screens; display business network data and Distributed Control System (DCS) information; and see the same views simultaneously for enhanced decision-making processes. Intended for large, highly distributed operations, as well as multiple sites with central engineering, an integrated “collaboration station” is one way to allow for faster, more efficient evaluation and action on abnormal situations, and support broader communication among employees—no matter where they reside— so they can share the same view of information through intuitive navigation and ease of use (See Figure 3).
The collaboration station approach can be particularly valuable to plant and operations managers who want to track the state of their process for faster response to both routine and emergency situations. Chemical Engineering World
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Features CEW
Figure 3: An integrated “collaboration station” can enable industrial organisations to visualise data across the enterprise.
The collaboration station approach can be particularly valuable to plant and operations managers who want to track the state of their process for faster response to both routine and emergency situations. This includes sites with frequent product grade changes, complex processes and dynamic operations, where addressing problems quickly has significant benefits. It may also be useful in management of emergency situations. A station can be designed to display performance information across distributed assets such as oil & gas fields and pipeline operations, and rapidly establish communication and collaboration between centralised operations, maintenance and specialists without having to bring them to the same location. Putting New Tools to Work Ideally, a collaboration station should employ a large-format monitor with interactive displays and multi-touch gesture control capabilities. This design allows collaboration from the control room, the plant, home, and from experts around the world. The station may be useful during normal operations, as well as for shift handover, troubleshooting, or operations meetings. Specific types of applications that might be opened and displayed on a collaborative screen include: • Enterprise historians • Maintenance • Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) • Permit to work • Production planning • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) • Materials management • Reporting Chemical Engineering World
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For obvious reasons, a collaboration station should be a read-only station that cannot be used for actual plant operations such as performing set point changes. By locating the station on a network outside the control room environment, users have the ability to display additional applications available on the business network to merge control room and business data. One effective approach could be configuring a collaboration station with enterprise software technology such as an instant messaging client. This provides access to capabilities ranging from instant messaging, voice-overIP (VOIP) and video conferencing, to real-time multi-client collaboration enabling teams of people to see and simultaneously work on the same documents and communications session. These capabilities may be implemented as follows: • Collaboration through PowerPoint® documents, where participants can control and see presentations, as well as add text, drawing and graphical annotations • Polling lists, where presenters can organise polls and all participants can vote and see results • Desktop sharing, where participants can see and collaborate on their windows screen • Windows application sharing, where participants can see and collaborate on a specific application Benefits for Industrial Organisations The use of modern collaborative technologies promises to heighten situational awareness
in a wide range of application scenarios, allowing key organisational stakeholders to display relevant information in a shared environment. This approach can reduce the impact on performance from an abnormal situation through faster analysis and response: • Rapidly establish communication and collaboration between centralised operations, maintenance and other specialists supported by relevant information • Common view of the situation for both local and remote collaborators, as opposed to collaborators having their own separate view—or no view at all—with more potential for miscommunication • Faster navigation between different contexts by accessing displays across the screen with persistent content • Exploits all available resources: people, advanced applications and control systems in one collaborative system Conclusion Through implementation of an integrated collaboration station, industrial organisations can employ the latest tools enabling visualisation of multiple streams of process and business information on a large interactive display, around which many people can collaborate for rapid and effective situational awareness and decision making. This approach may be suitable for any organisation that designs, operates and maintains large industrial facilities where co-operation between personnel needs to be catalysed. It can also help address the challenge of skilled labor shortages by leveraging the expertise of remote experts as needed. (The article was carried in October issue of CEW)
Authors’ Details Andrew Stuart Lead Product Marketing Honeywell Process Solutions Email:andrew.stuart@honeywell.com Chris Morse Product Marketing Manager Honeywell Process Solutions Email: chris.morse@honeywell.com
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CEW Features Technical Article
Benefits of Ultrasonic Flowmeters In the last decade, ultrasonic flowmeters have grown in popularity in laboratory and process areas as a cost-effective, noninvasive alternative for measuring the velocity and flow rates of liquids and gases. With highly accurate and flexible ultrasonic flowmeters, users can choose from various electronics packages, and also use the devices in areas that require explosion-proof devices. These value-added benefits provide a striking contrast to turbine or variable-area flowmeters, which are less accurate, offer fewer output capabilities, and are invasive to the process media
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hile ultrasonic flowmeters are now cost effective, their most significant benefit may be their ability to measure flow without interfering with any process liquids or gases. The noninvasive measurement is taken from two or more transducers attached to the piping exterior. The frequency shift of an ultrasonic signal that is sent through the fluid or gas is measured, then a signal is sent via cable to the electronics housed in the flow computer. According to a 2006 Frost and Sullivan report 1, the replacement rate for ultrasonic flowmeters is 12 to 15 years, producing a solid return on investment. This longevity may account for an expanding market for ultrasonic flowmeters when many other flow technologies are shrinking. By 2012, the report projected, the market is expected to grow to an estimated $1 billion in sales. Ultrasonic Measurement: Doppler and Transit-Time Two main technologies distinguish ultrasonic measurement: First, doppler technology that uses particles or aeration in the fluid
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Handheld Ultrasonic Flowmeter, Image Courtesy: Cole-Parmer
as a reflective mechanism to gauge the velocity of the fluid, and second transit-time technology relies on a frequency difference in forward and reverse signals sent through a clean liquid to gauge the velocity of the fluid; this fluid must not contain solids or aeration as they will distort the sonic pulses. Both of these technologies are ideal in creating flow profiles through an existing process when modification of piping or a process line is not possible. Selecting a Ultrasonic Flowmeter Style To determine what style of ultrasonic flowmeter will be most effective for any specific application, consider how it will be used. The three primary styles are handheld, portable, and dedicated. Handheld Ultrasonic Flowmeters are exactly what they seem to be. They generally include a case for transporting the meter between locations within a factory, process area, or facility. While they are priced lower as compared to other ultrasonic flowmeters, their functionality is limited to basic flow rate measurement. Typical accuracies are ±2 per cent full-scale or better.
On average, the handheld models are battery powered or rechargeable. Most will have a four- or five-digit display and will show flow in Gallon Per Minute (GPM) or Liter Per minute (LPM). The unit is easy to use—simply turn on the flowmeter and holds the transducer (which sends and receives radar signals) to the pipe to take a reading. Most Handheld Ultrasonic Flowmeters use Doppler technology. Some are now capable of datalogging and employ RS-232 output for recordkeeping needs (if required for ISO compliance). Handheld flowmeters are most commonly used to measure slurries and dirty fluids in the chemical industry, food processing, and water treatment plants where basic flow measurement is required from Advantages of Using Ultrasonic Flowmeters • • • • • •
Improved accuracies No pressure drop High turn-down ratio No moving parts Minimum maintenance Long-term cost savings Chemical Engineering World
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Features CEW through its integrated keypad allowing control of operating parameters. Many portables can also be programmed via a PC or laptop. Dedicated Ultrasonic Flowmeter The displays on portable Ultrasonic Flowmeters are usually much larger than handheld meters, enabling the user to see more data at a glance. Because the flowmeter cases are NEMA 4X rated or better, these units are suitable for continuous outdoor use. Also, they can be used in wide temperature range applications. Dynasonics, GE Sensing, and Thermo Scientific are the leading manufacturers for portable ultrasonic flowmeters.
Portable Ultrasonic Flowmeter, Image Courtesy: Cole-Parmer
time to time. Facility engineers working in office buildings or small-scale process plants frequently need to monitor HVAC-R systems. Typically, these engineers will use a handheld unit to accomplish this task. Portable Ultrasonic Flowmeter Portable Ultrasonic Flowmeters are more advanced than the handheld models and also more expensive. These larger units use both Doppler and transit-time technologies to measure flow and velocity. Most high-end Portable Doppler and Transit-Time Ultrasonic Flowmeters employ digital signal processing (DSP), digital cross-correlation, and a proprietary time expansion algorithm—producing outstanding accuracy as compared to handheld models. The design of the transducer set enables the flow to be measured in a broad range of pipe sizes and materials. Transducers used with ultrasonic doppler flowmeters do not operate well with concrete, clay, or fiberglass pipes as the transducers don’t have the capability to “see” through such dense materials. Many portable systems are suitable for survey work in remote locations. For example, fisheries need to monitor the input and output of water flow on a daily basis to confirm filtration is at adequate levels. Large petrochemical facilities also measure and monitor flow regularly. These facilities can extend over a wide area, requiring an engineer to employ a portable system if dozens of locations are measured. A waterproof enclosure can protect the transmitter from accidental immersion or splashes. When wired power is not available, most portable meters will operate from eight to 24 hours on an integrated, rechargeable battery. If operating in a wired installation, a 4 to 20 mA or voltage output can be used for continuous monitoring of flow rate. Several portable models are available with a datalogger that can be unplugged for data downloading without disrupting the operation of the meter. Proprietary software is usually included with these flowmeters. A portable unit can be programmed Chemical Engineering World
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Dedicated Ultrasonic Flowmeters are designed to be installed and operated in one location. They are used almost exclusively in plants and process areas. These flowmeters operate well in HVAC-R, potable water, ultrapure water, petroleum products, sludge and slurries, and liquefied gases applications. As with portable units, Dedicated Ultrasonic Flowmeters use both doppler and transit-time technologies. Unlike portable units, though, dedicated units deliver unique benefits and options. Many manufacturers (including GE Sensing and Thermo Scientific) offer intrinsically safe and ATEX-rated units for the petrochemical markets. They also have units that are DC or AC powered and operate with digital communications. Dedicated units have electronics housed in enclosures rated NEMA 4X and contain NEMA 6-rated transducers. They are typically waterproof, preventing damage in case of accidental immersion. Some manufacturers offer 30,000-point datalogging and accuracies to ±0.5 per cent full-scale. Easily installed, the transducers clamp onto pipes that range in size from 1 to 200 inches and offer bidirectional flow measurement. Conclusion In summary, with prices dropping and benefits increasing, it may be an optimal time for users to upgrade from older technologies and invest in an ultrasonic flowmeter. It just makes sense to buy an instrument with high accuracy and flexibility. For those in the market, choose the best model by assessing the following criteria: ultrasonic measurement technology, application usage, and option efficiencies. Use the Ultrasonic Flowmeter Application Guide to help determine typical applications for each type. Added features and options (such as finer precision, advanced datalogging capabilities, etc.) may tip the balance toward one or two models. References: 1. Frost & Sullivan, World Flow Sensors and Transmitters Markets (Palo Alto, California: Report, 2006), Section 5-3, 5-7
Courtesy: Cole-Parmer (The article was carried in the August 2013 issue of CEW)
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CEW Features Technical Article
Low Temperature Distillation Reducing energy consumption and cost are two of the primary goals for the desalination industry. Since being introduced last year, the Watersolutions Low Temperature Distillation (LTD) system has created a great deal of ‘buzz,’ eliciting very positive response from both end-users and members of the global desalination industry.
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he LTD technology has received three prestigious awards in just the past few months – the Global Water Intelligence Water Technology ‘Distinction’ Award, H 2O Water Award for the Best Water Project for the Best Water Project for our plant in El Gouna, Egypt, and, along with the Technical University of Berlin, the Desertec Best Paper Award for “Modeling the Cogeneration of Power and Water with Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Low Temperature Desalination: New Approach of CSP+D Application with Innovative Low Temperature Desalination”. The Watersolutions LTD system is a patented thermal process for desalination based on the principle of low temperature distillation. The vision in developing this technology was to offer a new option for desalination – one that is simple to install, yet robust and highly efficient with low running and maintenance costs. The LTD system achieves these objectives with its elegantly simple yet highly effective design. The LTD process transfers low grade heat directly to the feedwater via a simple plate heat-exchanger. There 148 • December 2013
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are no tube bundles or membranes in the chambers, just billions of water droplets that form a large surface for a very efficient and in-expensive heat transfer. Utilising Low Grade Heat Developed for use in seawater desalination, brine concentration, and treatment of polluted water like produced water from oil and gas exploration, the LTD system condenses water at low temperature and pressure, using low grade heat (45-110 0C) derived from thermal processes. Most thermal processes generate excess heat that, in a warm climate, has no or very limited use. In addition, cooling processes (eg, district cooling), incineration, industrial processes (eg, cement, fertilisers, etc), mining, and geothermal sources provide large amounts of low grade heat. In most societies, there is a strong correlation between electricity usage and water needs.
Thus from electricity production alone, enough low grade heat would be available to desalinate the water required. Current thermal desalination processes (MED and MSF) require steam, albeit at relatively low temperatures, to evaporate water. This reduces the output of a power plant in terms of the overall electricity production. Typically, the overall electricity equivalent consumption would be 5.8–11.7 kWh/m 3 (source: IDA, MIT presentation 2009). Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants do not require steam, but typically use 3.5-4 kWh of electricity per cubic metre (m 3) of water produced. An LTD plant does not require any steam, only low grade heat available either from cooling water or air (exhaust). The source of this heat is irrelevant to the process; all sources mentioned above could be used. The low grade heat needs only
Developed for use in seawater desalination, brine concentration, and treatment of polluted water like produced water from oil and gas exploration, the LTD system condenses water at low temperature and pressure, using low grade heat (45-110°C) derived from thermal processes. Chemical Engineering World
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Features CEW to be available in sufficient quantities (6-30 MW or more) and with an ideal gradient of 10-20 Kelvin between the heat source and re-cooling source. As low as < 3 Kelvin per stage is possible; the pilot plant at El Gouna operated as low as 3 K. Typically, a LTD plant would use between 0.8 – 1.5 kWh (up to 3 with many stages and difficult re-cooling) of electricity per m3 of very clean water (< 10 ppm of dissolved solids) produced. Reducing Costs Costs associated with a desalination plant fall into two main categories – investment (capital) costs (CAPEX) and operating costs (OPEX). The investment costs for an LTD plant are competitive for two reasons. First, the investment cost itself is comparable to RO modules, and significant cost saving occurs when several LTD modules are combined to produce larger volumes. It is also expected that as more plants are installed, there will be significant economies of scale. Second, an LTD plant has a very high conversion ratio, requiring about 1.5 m 3 of seawater to produce 1 m 3 of very clean water. (The corresponding number for RO is 2.5-3 m 3) This means that the peripheral investments (water intake, filtration, pre-treatment etc), which can cost as much as the plant itself, are much reduced, especially if RO brine is used as feed. Apart from depreciation, the main operating cost is the cost of energy – electricity and steam. Since the LTD system utilises low grade heat that is often free, the relatively low electricity usage has a big effect on the overall costs. This, combined with less chemical usage (eg, anti-scalants) and less maintenance, means that the operating costs are half or less compared to other systems. Typically the low electricity consumption of an LTD plant makes up some 75-80 per cent of the overall operating costs (excluding depreciation), the rest being manpower, chemicals and parts. Also included in OPEX of desalination plants are the maintenance and replacement costs of parts such as membranes, which become worn over time. With LTD, which has no membranes and no interior tube bundles, the requirement for maintenance is very low. One should note that the cost is dependent on the final specification of the plant Chemical Engineering World
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MED ••
••
••
••
••
H e a t b r o u g h t i n t o ev a p o r a t i o n chamber via extensive pipe bundles often made from titanium Pre heated feed- water sprayed over pipe bundles Process repeated over several stages all involving pipe bundles Final remaining steam condensed in condenser Pipe bundles used to transfer the small amount of remaining heat to feed-water
and varies according to the amount and temperature of low grade heat, the sources of heat extraction and re-cooling, the quality of the water and the number of stages chosen by the client. And as stated above, it supposes that the low grade heat is free. The expected lifetime of an LTD plant is 25–30 years. This is due to the simplicity of the design, the materials used, and its ability to function at relatively low pressure. A Flexible, Robust Solution The LTD technology can either work as a standalone plant or alongside other technologies. In fact, it is an ideal complement to existing technologies. Generally speaking, the LTD process is particularly suitable where the salt content is high, the price of electricity high, part load flexibility is required, and/or where a minimum of maintenance is required. In addition, it can be used to treat problematic industrial waste water from various sources such as produced water, mining, industrial waste, etc. An LTD system can also accommodate variations in the plant load, running efficiently from 10–110 per cent of plant design capacity. The process is self-adjusting, with the amount of water produced proportional to the amount of low grade heat provided. LTD also works efficiently over a broad range of salinity. Because the process is very tolerant to the salinity of the feedwater, it can also handle brine concentrate from RO. As a result, retrofitting an existing RO plant with an LTD system would be an efficient way to increase the plant’s capacity. The brine from an LTD plant can be concentrated close to the saturation level of salt, thus making drying of salt and minerals easier. In addition, the system
LTD ••
••
••
••
Available low grade heat directly transferred to feed- water via plate heat exchanger Evaporation takes place in directly in evaporation chamber where warm feed water is sprayed into the air and the mass transfer is very high due to increase in surface area Relatively smaller quantities of water circulated very fast & significant volumes of water evaporate quickly Process is self-adjusting and new brine water is added as per the requirement also makes Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) a real opportunity, although the LTD system is not on its own intended as a Zero Liquid Discharge technology; Watersolutions is currently developing an alternative drying technology for this application. Another feature of the LTD system is that it is modular and scalable. The units are available in two sizes – a large module that produces 1000-2000 m 3/d (pending the amount of low grade heat available and number of cascades) and a medium module with capacity of 500-1000 m 3/d. These units can be combined to scale up production as needed. LTD versus MED (Multiple Effect Distillation) In an MED system, the heat (steam) is brought into the evaporation chamber via extensive pipe bundles, often made from titanium to avoid corrosion, and the preheated feed water is sprayed onto these pipe bundles. The process is generally repeated over several stages, all involving the pipe bundles, and the final remaining steam is then condensed in the condenser where, again, pipe bundles are used to transfer the small amount of remaining heat to the feedwater. With the LTD process, the available low grade heat is directly transferred to the feedwater via a simple plate heat exchanger. It is a simpler, more effective and cheaper way to get the heat directly into the feedwater. The evaporation takes place directly in the evaporation chamber, where the warm feedwater is sprayed into the air. Millions of droplets form a very large surface, thus allowing more water to evaporate. In the evaporation chamber, a relatively small quantity of water (2-3 m 3) is circulated very quickly – within 2-3 seconds – so that December 2013 • 151
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CEW Features significant volumes of water evaporate. The process is self-adjusting so that brine is automatically extracted (conductivity sensor) and new feedwater added as required. The amount of water evaporated is almost linearly proportional to the amount of heat provided. Typically, the water in the evaporation cycle has a salinity of 80,000 – 100,000 ppm, but the system has been proven to work up to 200,000 ppm. While seawater generally has a salinity of some 35-40,000 ppm, the LTD system can easily handle much higher levels, and the process will self-adjust to the higher range mentioned above. For the condensation, the LTD process uses the simplest medium available – namely the cold distillate itself. The vapor from the evaporation chamber flows into the condenser where the cold condensate is finely sprayed to give a very large surface for the vapor to condense. This not only is a very inexpensive and efficient medium, but also avoids issues regarding cleaning, scaling, etc. Again, a relatively small quantity of distillate is circulating fast, and the final distillate is extracted automatically. As with other thermal processes, several stages are possible. The process, as with MED, requires a reduced pressure, and non-condensable gases are extracted. The LTD plant consists of standard parts such as heat exchangers, pumps, sensors (high quality from well-known suppliers), the unique evaporation chamber and the specially designed condenser. The control system is provided by Watersolutions AG. All the movable and sensitive elements have many years of usage in similar applications. LTD versus Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) The LTD also offers advantages over SWRO in terms of cost and energy efficiency. Based on our operational experience from the plant in El Gouna, LTD today can produce water at a cost of 0.25-0.25 USD per cubic metre (m 3), approximately half of the experience with SWRO in 2010. The power consumption for LTD was 0.8-1.4 kWh per m 3 as opposed to the power use of SWRO at 2.5-2.8 kWh/m 3 in 2010. Case Study: Proving the Process The first full scale plant was installed in El Gouna, Egypt two years ago, following several research projects with Swiss 152 • December 2013
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SWRO( 1)
WS LTD( 2)
In 2010
By 2015
By 2030
Today
0.5-0.8
0.4-0.7
0.3-0.4
0.25-0.35
Construction costs ($/m 3)
1’200–2’100
1’0001’700
500-1’000
500-700
Power Use
(kWh/m 3)
2.5-2.8
2.1-2.6
1.3-1.7
0.8-1.3
Membrane productivity
(m /day/ membrane)
1.7-3.3
2.4-4.0
6.6-10.6
n.a.
Membrane Useful Life
(years)
5-7
7-10
10-15
n.a.
Plant recovery ration
(%)
45-50
50-55
55-65
80
Plant uptime
(%)
70-80 (3)
-
-
>95
Cost of water
($/m 3)
3
Source: Membrane Seawater Desalination: Overview and Recent Trends (Nikolay Voutchkov, 2010) (2) Source: Own calculations, based on operational experiences from El Gouna Plant, Egypt (3) Source: GP Bullhound, Sector update, July 2012, page 11 (1)
Universities and two pilot plants. The El Gouna plant is situated in a tourist resort on the Red Sea, where a range of diesel generators provide electricity and heat. The purpose of this LTD plant (capacity 500 m 3/day) was to simulate a large number of variations in the input variables – primarily the amount of low grade heat and various salinities in the process – as well as to demonstrate the robustness of the plant. The feedwater came from existing beachwells with a salinity of about 35,000 ppm. A full range of trials were conducted in order to test the robustness of the process both under normal operating conditions as well as under extreme variations in key input factors (low grade heat and salinity). This verified the key parameters including the following: • The LTD plant could manage very high salinity – up to 200,000 ppm, and was consistently operating at 80–100,000 ppm. • Depending on the amount of low grade heat available, the plant could operate at 10–110 per cent of capacity, thus confirming part-load flexibility. • With a small amount of anti-scalant, the process worked without scaling even for higher salinities, even though the feedwater had very high gypsum content. • The plant with two stages confirmed the low electricity usage. • The plant could be shut off and easily restarted without any extensive process. The Technical University of Berlin, which has a campus in El Gouna, followed the
test programme, has since developed simulation programmes to simulate the various configurations of an LTD plant. Summary Low Temperature Distillation represents an exciting advancement in thermal desalination technology – simple, robust and cost-efficient, and able to be used on its own or as a complement to existing technologies. We believe that our LTD system will provide very clean water in a very cost-effective, energy efficient and environmentally friendly way, and that it is also ideally positioned to capture growth both in the desalination market and in the market for treating industrial wastewater including produced water from oil and gas exploration – a market that continues to grow in importance around the world. (The article was carried in the May 2013 issue of CEW)
Author’s Details Espen Mansfeldt CEO Watersolutions AG Email: espen.mansfeldt@watersolutions.ch
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Features CEW Technical Article
Lightning and Surge Protection Measures This document - Lightning and Surge Protection for Intrinsically Safe Measuring Circuits - is based on a risk assessment that assesses the potential hazards posed by the presence and expansion of potentially explosive atmospheres according to Ex zones. Possible ignition sources resulting from operating requirements are identified and corresponding equipment is selected.
L
ightning is caused by the build-up of electrostatic charge in clouds. One region within the cloud builds up a positive charge and the other a negative charge. As far as polarisation is concerned, most of the time bottom of the cloud ends up being negatively charged and the top charged - positively. If the buildup (separation) of charge is huge, the negative charges may leap to the positive side of another cloud, and it may leap to the ground. In electrical terms, lightning is an electrical wave shape having 10 micro seconds as rise time and 350 micro seconds as half power time. It is termed as 10/350 micro seconds wave. It can have any amplitude upto 200KA (in 99 per cent of the cases). Due to high di/dt, lightning can affect the conductors in a radius of 2 km from the point of strike, giving rise to attenuated surges in these conductors. Apart from creating, very high potential at the ground level while discharging a high amplitude current, lightning can also Chemical Engineering World
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get associated with power lines or control and measuring systems via inductive and capacitive coupling too. Necessity of a Lightning Protection System Lightning follows most preferable, low resistance path to the ground and even if it flows through the best maintained (low) earth resistances, it will cause rise of ground potential due to Ohms Law (V= I x R) This rise in potential gives rise to potential difference across the equipment connected to power supply, control and measurement sensors and the earth which ultimately gives rise to high current to flow though measurement systems, field devices, power supplies, load cells etc causing physical or operational failure of the same. It is therefore necessary to create an equipotential bonding across
the field devices, DCS, panels etc so that there is NO POTENTIAL difference and hence NO current. This is achieved via direct bonding of conductors if these are not live. For Live conductors, equipotential bonding is achieved using Surge Protection Devices (SPDs). Lightning Currents & Overvoltages in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres: When assessing the risk posed by potentially explosive atmospheres, the following lightning-related ignition sources must be observed: • Melting at the point of strike. • Heating of discharge paths. • Uncontrolled flashover in case the separation distance is not maintained. • Induced voltages in cables and lines. • Lightning strikes into metallic lines entering potentially explosive atmospheres.
Lightning follows most preferable, low resistance path to the ground and even if it flows through the best maintained (low) earth resistances, it will cause rise of ground potential due to Ohms Law (V= I x R) December 2013 • 153
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CEW Features equipment According to the IEC 60079-25 standard, intrinsically safe circuits may be “isolated from earth” or “connected to the equipotential bonding system at one point” only. An intrinsically safe circuit is isolated from earth if it withstands a dielectric test according to IEC 60079-11 with at least 500 V to earth. If this is not the case, it is to be assumed that the circuit is connected to earth.
Figure 1:Example: Application of an intrinsically safe measuring circuit
In case of lightning-related risks (risk analysis according to IEC 62305-2), all devices, protective systems and components of all categories must be protected by adequate lightning and surge protection measures. The IEC 60079-14 standard basically intends to reduce the effects of lightning strikes to a safe level. Not only the effects of a direct lightning strike, but also the electromagnetic effects of the lightning current on the electrical installation present a risk in potentially explosive atmospheres. Figure 1 shows a typical installation of an intrinsically safe measuring circuit consisting of a combination of an isolating barrier, an intrinsically safe measuring line and a temperature transmitter (electrically isolated from the sensor). The following lightning hazards may destroy or interfere with the intrinsically safe measuring circuit and present a risk of explosion for the system: 1. Direct lightning strike into the lines of an intrinsically safe measuring circuit. 2. Lightning strike near the lines of an intrinsically safe measuring circuit. 3. Direct lightning strike into the airtermination system of the measuring and control building. 4. Lightning strike near the measuring and control building. 5. Direct lightning strike into the tank. 6. Lightning strike near the tank. To provide protection against all lightning-related probabilities of damage 154 • December 2013
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to electrical equipment (in the control room and in the potentially explosive atmosphere), two SPDs must be integrated in the intrinsically safe circuit, that is one SPD to protect the isolating barrier in the control room and one to protect the transmitter on the tank. The SPD on the tank equally prevents dangerous sparkover from the tank to the sensor line and additionally provides protection against explosion. Selection Criteria for Surge Protective Devices Installed In an Intrinsically Safe Measuring Circuit Certain selection criteria must be fulfilled: (a) Isolation from earth and dielectric strength of the intrinsically safe
SPDs (intrinsically safe equipment) that are approved for the intended purpose and fulfil the requirements of isolation from earth are to be used. These SPDs do not have to be disconnected from the intrinsically safe circuit during the dielectric test. The manufacturer of the intrinsically safe SPDs must prove that they are isolated from earth. (b) Device category and type of protection The entire intrinsically safe circuit has a type of protection ia. In our example, both SPDs must have this type of protection (see EC-type examination certificate). Since a sensor line entering zone 0 is connected to a SPD on the tank (Figure 1), the SPD must be additionally approved for this type of application. According to the EC-type examination certificate, the SPD of type DPI MD EX 24 M 2 must have at least the following approval: II 2 (1) G Ex ia [ia Ga] IIC T4 ...T6 Gb
Symbol
Description
II
Equipment group: For use in any area other than mining
2(1)
Equipment category: Installation in Ex zone 1, the device to be protected may be installed in Ex zone 0
G
For use in explosive gas atmospheres
Ex
Electrical equipment built in compliance with European standard
ia
Type of protection: No ignition even if two faults are present
[ia Ga]
Type of protection and Equipment protection level of associated apparatus: Devices for explosive gas atmospheres with a very high protection level, no ignition in normal operation, during expected malfunctions or during rare malfunctions
IIC
Explosion group: Also for use with extremely flammable gases such as hydrogen and acetylene
T4…T6
T4: ambient temperature range -40°C to +80°C T5: ambient temperature range -40°C to +70°C T6: ambient temperature range -40°C to +55°C
Gb
Equipment protection level: Device for explosive gas atmospheres with a high protection level, no ignition in normal operation or during expected malfunctions
Table 1: Symbols used for intrinsically safe SPDs
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Features CEW requirements according to IEC 60079-14 must be fulfilled and proven in particular if a SPD is installed on the tank (lines from zone 0): • Use of SPDs with a minimum discharge capacity of 10 impulses with 10 kA each without failure or interfering with the protective effect. • Installation of the SPDs in a shielded metallic enclosure and earthing via a copper conductor of at least 4 mm 2 ². • Installation of the lines between the SPD and the equipment in a metal tube earthed on either ends or use of shielded lines with a maximum length of 1 m. In the application example described above (Figure 3) all these requirements are already fulfilled by using a surge arrester for field devices of type DPI MD EX 24 M 2. Figure 2: Permanently monitored (DRC MCM) Blitzductors in an intrinsically safe measuring circuit
• Maximum permissible values for L0 & C0 Before an intrinsically safe measuring circuit is put into operation, its intrinsic safety must be proven. The isolating barrier, transducer, cables and SPDs must fulfil the connection requirements. According to the IECEx Certificate of conformity, the internal capacitances and inductances of the BXT ML4 BD EX 24 (Figure 2) and DPI MD EX 24 M 2 (Figure 3) surge protective devices from DEHN + SÖHNE are negligible and do not have to be considered for the connection requirements.
• Maximum values for voltage Ui & current Ii According to its technical data for use in potentially explosive atmospheres, the intrinsically safe circuit to be protected has a maximum supply voltage Uimax (29.4 V d.c.) and a maximum short- circuit current Ii max (130 mA). The rated voltage Uc of the SPD must be higher than the maximum opencircuit voltage of the power supply system. The nominal current of the SPD must be at least as high as the maximum current Ii max of the isolating barrier to be expected in the event of a fault. The certificate becomes invalid if these boundary conditions are not observed when dimensioning the SPD.
Figure 3: DEHNpipe for protecting transmitters and lines from zone 0
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• Coordination SPD with SPD and SPD with Terminal Equipment If the coordination requirements according to IEC 62305-4 and IEC 61643-21 are not fulfilled, the devices may be damaged even if SPDs are installed, putting the installation into a critical state. The safest solution is to use surge protective devices from a single manufacturer. In this case, not only the coordination requirement for the induced overvoltages (8/20 µs impulse), but also a coordination test for lightning impulses (10/350 µs impulses) are particularly important. The SPD installed on the tank is located in LPZ 0 B and must therefore be capable of carrying partial lightning currents (Figure 1). The following additional
Summary The relevant directives describe the danger to chemical and petrochemical systems posed by a lightning discharge and the resulting electromagnetic interference. If the lightning protection zones concept is implemented already at the planning and design stage of these systems, the risks of sparking caused by a direct lightning strike or discharge of conducted interference energies can be reduced to an acceptable level. The SPDs must both fulfil explosion protection requirements, coordination criteria and the requirements resulting from the operating parameters of the measuring andcontrol circuits. Abbreviations SPD :Surge Protective Device TRBS :Technische Regeln für Betriebssicherheit (GermanTechnical Rules for Operating Safety) PZ :Lightning Protection Zone LPS :Lightning Protection System LEMP :Lightning Electromagnetic Impulse LPMS :Lightning Protection Measures System LPL :Lightning Protection Level (The guest column was carried in January 2013 issue of CEW) Authors’ Details Vikas Almadi CEO DEHN INDIA (P) Ltd Email: -vikas.almadi@dehn.in Manfred Kienlein Senior Market Manager - Process Industry DEHN + SÖHNE GmbH+Co.KG
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CEW Features Technical Article
Coalescing Technology: An Overview Coalescing is one of the separation technique used worldwide by the process industry for liquid-liquid and liquidgas separation. This technique involves coalescing of small particles or droplets into larger ones by means of barrier or electrical energy. It is one of the most cost effective methods used today as compared to salt driers, settlers or thermal / vacuum separators. Nowadays, coalescers are often considered preferable to conventional gravity separators. It requires less capital, low operating cost, minimal maintenance and requires less floor space.
C
oalescence is the process by which two or more small droplets come together to form larger droplets. It works by attracting miniscule droplets of water or other liquid, possibly even as small as a single molecule. The droplets come together by the force of molecular attraction and surface tension. When they reach a sufficient size, they can be removed from the system by suitable means.
When two liquids are immiscible, or nonsoluble in one another, they can form either an emulsion or a colloidal suspension. In either of these mixtures, the dispersed liquid forms droplets in the continuous phase. Traditionally, gravity separators were used to handle emulsions before the use of coalescer became common. In this equipment, differences in densities of the two liquids cause droplets to rise or fall by their buoyancy. The greater the difference in densities, the easier the separation becomes. Rising or falling droplets are slowed by frictional forces from viscous effects of the opposing liquid. This mechanism of separating liquids by gravity is called Stokes Settling. The various steps of coalescing are: • • C ollection of droplets • • S mall droplets coming together to form larger ones • • R ise or fall of the enlarged droplets It is very important to understand the characteristics of the emulsion that has to be treated. The finer the droplets dispersed in an emulsion, the more stable it is, because the buoyancy force diminishes in magnitude as the diameter 156 • December 2013
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decreases. The manner in which the mixture is created effects the droplet size distribution. It is also important to know how much time has elapsed since the mixing/shearing occurred. This is because as time goes on, smaller droplets aggregate or coalesce and larger droplets are more likely to have joined a separate layer so that they are no longer considered to be entrained. An important tool to quantify an emulsion is the Droplet Size Distribution Curve generated by plotting the droplet diameters against the volume. A coalescer is often needed for mature emulsion. Mixtures of immiscible liquids can generally be separated by a process of settling as a result of the density difference between the two phases. However gravitational settling becomes increasingly difficult as the droplet size of the dispersed phase decreases. Coalescers uses mats, beds
or layers of porous or fibrous material whose properties are especially suited for coalescing purpose. The settling process can be enhanced considerably by passing the dispersion through a suitable coalescer pack or providing electrical energy. There are two types of coalescer generally available in the market i.e. Electrostatic and Mechanical Coalescers. Electrostatic Coalescer An electrostatic coalescer uses weak electric charges to attract molecules of water to the surface where they undergo collection. Here a weak electric charge is passed through a collection device which imparts a tiny charge that attracts molecules of water or other matter designated for removal. Here, electrostatic force is used to break oil-water emulsions and subsequently
Submicron droplets flow around target
Droplet strike target and adhere
Several captured droplets coalesce, forming larger drops Trickle down and fall, becoming seperated
Figure 1. Coalescing steps
Chemical Engineering World
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Features CEW increase in water droplet size. This technology is quite common in offshore production facilities to ensure the maximum allowable water content in oil is less than one percent. A coalescer forces small water droplets to merge and form larger and thus faster separation. Therefore, the settling velocity of water droplets in oil not only depends on viscosity and density, but also on the droplet radius. The main feature of electrostatic coalescers is the effect its electrostatic field strength has on the conductive droplets such as water in an insulating medium such as oil. In the presence of an electric field, the water droplets become dipoles whose electric charges can overcome the repulsive surface-surface interactions, resulting in oil film drainage and consecutive coalescence. The coalescing of droplets is mainly dependent on electrostatic induced forces, film rheology, collision frequency depending on laminar or turbulence level and concentration. Mechanical Coalescer Mechanical coalescer uses a series of filters or dividers, known as baffles, to induce small drops to move from a mixture and to collect together. A mechanical coalescer relies on a series of barriers, known as baffles or filters, made of very fine mesh, knitted polymer, corrugated sheet or fiberglass fibers, etc. The vapor or liquid passes through the filter, and is attracted to the filter material or the surface of the baffle. The principle by which this is done is to pass the water-contaminated oil through a thick inorganic fibre bed or filter mat. Water droplets are intercepted by the fibres. The oil on the fibres is thinned by displacement and the effect of viscous drag, until ultimately the oil film ruptures and allows the water droplets to attach themselves completely to the fibre, with the oil film dispersed and passed on through the mat. Other water droplets are now collected by the fibres in a similar manner, and these will join with others, forming streams along the fibres. The droplets continue to grow in size until drag and gravity forces break them away from the fibre, and they drop off from the filter mat. Chemical Engineering World
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Media
Figure 2: Small liquid droplets coalesce to form large drops
Mechanical coalescer is used for liquid-liquid or liquid-gas separation. Separating liquid–liquid dispersions can be difficult and costly, depending on the physical properties of the two liquid phases. In liquid-liquid phase, the coalescing phenomenon is dependent upon coalescing media, specific gravity, viscosity and interfacial tension of the two liquid phases. They help in determining how easily two fluids can be separated. Liquid-liquid coalescers can be used to separate hydrocarbons from water phases such as oil removal from produced water. They are also used for removing quench water in ethylene plants, last traces of contaminants like amine or caustic from intermediate products in oil refineries, last stage dewatering of final products like kerosene or jet fuel, LPG, gasoline and diesel. Typically, a liquid-liquid coalescer can be designed for a process inlet discontinuous phase concentrations up to 10 per cent and reduce them to ppm levels in the outlet for interfacial tensions as low as 0.5 dyne/cm. Coalescers typically will have a service life of 1 to 2 years when protected adequately by prefiltration. Liquid-gas coalescers are widely used in oil and gas Industry to remove water and hydrocarbon liquids to <0.01 parts per million by weight and particulate matter less than 0.3 um in size from natural
gas to ensure natural gas quality and protect downstream equipment such as compressors, gas turbines, amine or glycol absorbers, molecular sieves, metering stations, mercury guard beds, gas fired heaters or furnaces, heat exchangers or gas-gas purification membranes. Liquids from upstream of the compressor, which may include aerosol particles, entrained liquids or large volumes of liquids called “slugs” and which may be water or a combination of hydrocarbon liquids should be removed by a coalescer located upstream of the compressor. The typical service life for liquid-gas coalescer element is 1–2 years. They are generally sized for a clean differential pressure of 2–5 psi, and are replaced with a new element after 15 psi. Points to Be Considered It is very important to understand the mature emulsion formation process, the droplet diameter size distribution, selecting right media for the given fluid based on its physical and chemical properties, coalescer media depth, coalescer media placement, coalescer vessel configuration while selecting the coalescer. Coalescing Media Selecting the right coalescing media for the duty depends on many factors with initial consideration given to the droplet size range in the dispersion and the target separation performance. Some of
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CEW Features Droplet Diameter Coalescing Range Media
Type
40 to 1000 micron
Corrugated Sheet proprietary packing
and
20 to 350 micron
Wire Wool and proprietary packing
10 to 250 micron
Knits of Wire and Polymer
Petrochemical Final Products C austic Treating • • R ecover Liquid Catalysts •• R emoving water from Lubr icating / Hydraulic Oil • • F uel / Diesel Purification • • S olvents removal from effluents • • S olvent extraction •• S eparation of dispersions formed by azeotropic distillation • • Vegetable Oil Liquid-Gas Coalescer: • • C ompressor Protection • • A mine/Glycol Contactor Protection • • W ell Head Hydrate Inhibition • • M olecular Sieve Protection •• Low and Ultra Low NOx Burner Protection •• ••
References ••
1 to 30 micron
Knits of Fiber Glass and other material
•• ••
••
•• ••
Figure 3. Selecting the right coalescing media for the duty depends on many factors
the coalescing media used are: polymer, polyester, nylon, fluoropolymer, fiber glass, polytetrafluoroethylene fibres, polyurethane foam, fired boards of saffil fibers, polyamide fibers, matrix of stainless steel wool, multistage filter with cotton polyester and aspen wood fibers, aluminum or steel fibers coated with vinyl acrylic, polyethylene, or PVC, copolymer of acrylonitrile and methyl acrylate matrix, oleophobic/hydrophobic treated media, etc.
•• •• ••
There are two types of media i.e. hydrophobic and oleophobic. A hydrophobic media is to separate water droplets and oleophobic media to separate oil and hydrocarbon droplets. Apart from this, there is surface treated coalescer elements used to enhance coalescing property, extend life, reduce fouling and lower saturated pressure drop. Benefits • • L ow Capital Cost • • L ow Operational Cost • • M inimal Maintenance
Typical Industrial Applications Liquid-Liquid Coalescer: • • P ipeline Condensate in Gas Production • • P roduced Water
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(The article was carried in July 2013 issue of CEW)
L ow Energy Consumption C ompact and less floor Space
Limitations When coalescers used for separating fluids with a very high viscosity and a high solids loading, the highly viscous fluids will plug the coalescer media, reducing its efficiency. Increasing the operating temperature to reduce viscosity can help in overcoming this limitation. Apart from this, solids at high concentration can be problematic. Due to the fine pore structure of the coalescer medium, the solid particles block the pore thereby reducing the coalescing efficiency. It is recommended to install prefilter at the upstream of the coalescer assembly. Sometimes prefilter element and coalescing element comes in the single housing.
158 • December 2013
i l t e r s a n d F i l t r a t i o n H a n d b o o k , 5 th F Edition, 2008 Handbook of Filter Media, 2nd Edition, 2002 H andbook of Natural Gas Transmission and Processing, 2006 P erry’s Chemical Engineer’ Handbook, International Edition, 1984 Coalescer, Wikipedia ACS Separations & Mass-Transfer Products, Liquid-Liquid Coalescer Design Manual
Author’s Details Nitin Nageshwar CEO -YoKu Consultants & YoKu Filters Email: nitin.nageshwar@yokuconsultants. com
Chemical Engineering World
03-01-2014 21:56:47
Features CEW Technical Article
Recovering Materials from Production Waste Water
Fertiliser
Loss of ammonia and ammonium nitrate along with waste water during fertiliser production means a loss of 1.5 to 4 per cent of total production yield. Curbing these losses can result in significant increase in yields. The article discusses use of ion exchange resins to recover valuable materials from waste streams of fertiliser production.
Figure 3: The waste water treatment plant can be seen in the background. People in front from the right: Ing Sebnem Aybige Sener (Ökotek), Ing Nicolai Arion (Arionex), Dr Stefan Neumann (Lanxess), Ing A Bülent Güles (Gemlik Gübre), Ing Ipek Bahar (Ökotek).
A
s the world population has grown the demand for food has increased dramatically. This gave rise to higher usage of fertiliser products that help to improve soil quality and thereby increase the yield in agricultural production. Since the growth of world population is continuing the demand for fertiliser products will also keep on rising throughout the next decades. Currently the world production rate of nitrogen based fertilisers amounts 100 mio. t/a [1]. In the year 2002 the contribution by larger companies in key countries is China: 23.6 mio. t/a; India 10,6 t/a, USA: 9.4 mio. t/a; Russian Federation: 6.0 mio. t/a; Canada 3.8 mio. t/a, Ukraine: 2.3 mio t/a, Pakistan 2,2 mio. t/a, France: 1,0 mio. t/a; Germany: 1.0 mio. t/a; Egypt, SaudiArabia, Poland, Bangladesh, Netherlands, together: 6.2 mio. t/a. The missing amounts of the world production rate are accounted for by smaller production units. Due to the increased demand for fertilisers the selling prices for nitrogen based
Chemical Engineering World
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products has increased. Table 1 indicates the development for prices of ammonia, Ammonium nitrate and ammoniasulfate from 1990 to 2010 [2]: Ammonium nitrate in Industry & Environment Ammonium nitrate as a source for nitrogen is a well-known and accepted fertiliser. The first step of production is the neutralisation reaction of gaseous ammonia (100 per cent NH 3) and nitric acid (54-60 per cent HNO 3) according to the following equation: NH 3 + HNO 3 NH 4NO 3 From the resulting 76 per cent ammonium nitrate solution a solid product with a Year
Ammonia (NH 3) USD / tonne
purity level of 99.6 per cent is recovered by evaporation of water in multiple step vacuum-evaporisers, followed by prilling. The evaporated water is condensed and discharged with a temperature of 80 0C to 90 0C. Valuable materials are found in this condensed process stream as there are concentrations of 0.3 to 5 g/L ammonia (NH 3) and 3 to 10 g/L Ammonium nitrate (NH 4NO 3). The loss of ammonia and Ammonium nitrate along with this waste water means a loss of 1.5 per cent to 4 per cent of the total production yield. Depending on the plant design and efficiency of the operation, the loss in yield can even be
Cacium-Ammonium nitrate (NH 4NO 3 CAN)
%
USD / tonne
%
Ammoniumsulfate (NH 4) 2SO 4) USD / tonne
%
1990
199
100
180
100
154
100
2010
277
139
243
135
167
108
Table 1: Development of prices of nitrogen based fertilisers and raw materials between 1990 and 2010 [2]
December 2013 • 159
04-01-2014 14:55:12
CEW Features •
•
Figure 1: Principle of removing ammonium nitrate and ammonia from waste water by means of two in line ion exchange filters. By re-combining the regenerant solutions one obtains a concentrated ammonium-nitrate solution that can be passed back into the production. At the same time demineralised water is produced that can be further converted into high quality demineralised water.
higher. The loss of thermal energy along with the condensate is another deficit. Both these effects reduce the profitability of the operation. Depending on the plant size this can amount several million Euro per year that “go down the drain” in a proverbial sense of meaning. The discharge of N-NH 4 and N-NO 3 into the environment is harmful since the fertilisers enhance growth of algae and bacteria in natural water bodies. Input of nutrients into the water above a natural balanced level causes so called “eutrophication” of the water body and can result in fish kill and a loss of biodiversity. There have been several attempts already to clean this type of waste water eg, by means of biological treatment methods. But it was found that this method is very costly since with conventional nitrification/ denitrification huge amounts of organic material have to be dosed to the waste water to feed the microorganisms with a carbon source. In addition to that nitrogen feed concentrations are relatively high. As a result it is very difficult to accomplish emission limits of 1.5 mg/L N-NH 3 to 10 mg/L N-NO 3: This would equal a removal rate of 95 per cent and more, which would mean at least a multi-stage plant and most likely a polishing step. Hence to rely on biological treatment would mean high costs and resource consumption, and neither ammonia nor nitrate would be recovered. 160 • December 2013
Lanxess - case study final.indd 160
A solution for this situation is offered by the so called Fertarex ® water treatment process which has been developed by the Swiss company Arionex Wasseraufbereitung 3. Six plants of this type have been built in Europe and Asia. The first unit was installed in 1975, and over the last 35 years the economics and reliability of the process has been demonstrated 4,5 The most recently built Fertarex ® unit was commissioned at the end of 2010 in Turkey at the Gemlik Gübre Sanayi A.S fertiliser plant, and since then has been running smoothly. This text will later on give a detailed case study of this unit. Benefits of Process: • Almost all the Ammonium nitrate and ammonia is recovered from the waste water, resulting in a much improved production yield. • Reliably staying within discharge limits protects the environment and prevents penalties. • The waste water is transfor med into a demineralised water with rest-conductivities of 0.06-0.1 µS/cm, which can be beneficially reused on site and partially offset the requirement for pure water production.
The produced demineralised water can be used for the onsite production of nitric acid or as boiler feed water Elegant safety philosophy. Zero or significantly less discharge of water into the environment.
Basics of the Process At a first glance a Fertarex ® plant very much looks like a conventional demineralisation plant with cation - and anion exchanger followed by a mixed bed polisher. But there are several details that make it special. In the following the principle of operation is explained. As shown in figure 1 in a very simplified way the strong acidic cation exchanger (R Cat-H) removes ammonia (NH 3) along with ammonium (NH 4+) ions from the waste water. The reaction scheme is as follows: Exchange reaction taking place at the strong acidic cation exchanger (RCat-H): NH 3 + NH 4NO 3 + 2 R Cat-H ↔ 2 R Cat-NH 4 + HNO 3 (I) In the following step a middle basic anion exchanger (R An-OH) removes the nitric acid (HNO 3), which is leaving the cation exchanger: Exchange reaction taking place at the medium base anion exchanger (RAnOH): HNO 3 + R An-OH ↔ RNO 3 + H 2O (II) As can be seen from reaction schemes (I) and (II) entirely all nitrogen compound entering into the system are bound by the ion exchangers and at the same time water is formed. After passing through the two filtration steps the water is fairly desalinated and exhibits a rest conductivity of 1225 µS/cm. Only traces of salt are left (5 to 15 mg/l NH 4 NO 3 ). To remove the remaining traces the water is pumped through a mixed bed absorber, which is filled with a mixture of strong acidic cation - and strongly basic anion
Organic impurities would give rise to the formation of the instable ammoniumnitrite (NH4NO2) that can initiate an explosion of the product. Therefore it is very essential that the ion exchange resins used for the process are clean and do not leak organic material. Chemical Engineering World
04-01-2014 14:55:12
Features CEW exchangers. This mixed bed adsorber will remove rest traces of salt down to a rest conductivity of 0.06-0.1µS/cm. This demineralised water is suitable for high purity applications, such as for boiler feed. Once exhausted, the ion exchange filters need to be regenerated and returned to their active form. They are then ready to be returned to service for the next loading cycle. The relevant exchange reactions are: Exchange reaction at cation exchanger in regeneration: R Cat-NH 4 + HNO 3 ↔ R Cat-H + NH 4NO 3 One core element of the Fertarex ® process thereby is the use of pre-cooled concentrated nitric acid (55 per cent HNO 3 ). The acid strips the ammonium from the cation exchanger and at the same time converts the functional group back into the so called H-form, which is then ready to be loaded in the next cycle. The spent regenerant solution draining from the resin will contain 80 g/L (8 per cent) NH 4 NO 3 , along with a certain excess of HNO 3 in the richest fraction. In parallel the anion exchanger is regenerated, for which a solution of 15 per cent ammonia is used. The regeneration of the exhausted anion exchanger works according to the following equation: Exchange reaction at anion exchanger in regeneration: R An-NO 3 + NH 4OH ↔ R An-OH + NH 4NO 3 Thereby the ammonia solution strips the nitrate from the resin and transforms it into the OH-form (R An -OH), which is then ready to be used in the next cycle. Also the spent regenerant of the anion exchanger contains 80 to 100 g/L (8-10 per cent) ammonium nitrate and in addition a large excess of ammonia (NH 3 ). The basic principle of the process is – in addition to later elaborations – to combine these two spent regenerant solutions into one and to balance the excess of ammonia by further addition of nitric acid. Thereby an 18 to 25 per cent ammonia nitrate solution is Chemical Engineering World
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obtained that can be fed back into the fertiliser production.
••
••
The process principle described above is simplified. In practice the effluents from the ion exchangers produced during their regeneration are separated into fractions and used in a specific way. The purpose of these additional steps is to produce an ammonia nitrate solution with the highest possible concentration and to avoid secondary waste water. A. The first and fourth fraction derived from the regenerant is fed back into the waste water storage tank. It contains only small amounts of ammonia nitrate. B. T h e s e c o n d f ra c t i o n t h a t c o n t a i n s 90-95 per cent of eluted NH 4 NO 3 and around 50 to 60 per cent of excess chemicals (HNO 3 or NH 3) is neutralised, concentrated (eg, by evaporation) and sent back into the fertiliser production. C. The third fraction that contains 40 to 45 per cent of the excess of the regenerant chemicals (HNO 3 or NH 3 ) is used to completely exhaust the anion exchanger or – after saturation with NH 3 – is used to prepare a new batch of regenerant solution for the regeneration of the anion exchanger. Well-thought-out Safety Concept To contact ion exchange resins with concentrated nitric acid can be dangerous because this acid is a strong oxidant and improper handling can result in an exothermic reaction. The other hazard connected to this process is through the potential for impurities to enter into the final product. Organic impurities would give rise to the formation of the instable ammoniumnitrite (NH 4NO 2) that can initiate an explosion of the product. Therefore it is very essential that the ion exchange resins used for the process are clean and do not leak organic material. The well-thought-out safety concept of the process meets these concerns by the implementation of the following elements: • • Avoidance of dead volumes in columns and pipelines • • Cooling of cation exchanger and nitric acid before application •• S h o r t c o n t a c t t i m e o f a c i d a n d ion exchanger • • Relatively small specific volume of nitric acid applied (0.3 BV)
Sophisticated measure and controlconcept with emergency switch off Use of special ion exchange resins with high stability and purity (Slow oxidation of resin and low level release of organics)
As mentioned as the last element of the safety concept the process makes use of special ion exchange resins with high oxidative stability and low leakage level of organics. Stability against oxidative agents is provided by a high degree of crosslinkage of the polymer backbone of the resin. The required purity is provided by the use of high quality chemicals, proper rinse processes and quality control. All Fertarex ® plants that have been started up to now have been filled with Lanxess premium ion exchange resins. The resins applied developed for applications in organic chemicals, industry and in electronic industry.
here were originally highly demanding the catalysis of in food processing semiconductor and
These resins have demonstrated their suitability over the last decades of use in this application. Specifically the strong acidic cation exchanger Lewatit ® K 2629 und the medium base anion exchanger Lewatit ® S 4428 as well as mixed bed resins such as Lewatit ® S 150 and Lewatit ® M 800. Case Study of the Youngest Fertarex ® plant at Gemlik Gübre in Turkey The company Gemlik Gübre Sanayi belongs to the Yildirim Holding Turkey, and has produced fertiliser products for many decades in their facilities at Gemlik. This is close to the city of Bursa, population of 2 million, at the border of the Sea of Marmara in the north west of Turkey. The yearly production rate of calcium Ammonium nitrate (CAN) is at ca. 600.000 t/y. In October of 2010 a fully automated Fertarex ® ion exchange system was installed to treat 40 m³/h process condensate from the AN-production and was successfully taken into operation. This Fertarex ® unit comprises two lines of demineralisation filters each consisting of cation-, anionand mixed bed polishers. December 2013 • 161
04-01-2014 14:55:12
CEW Features
Figure 2: Flow scheme of the Fertarex® plant as built at the fertiliser production facility at Gemlik Gübre in Turkey. The sequence of the filters is RCat-H: cation-exchanger, RAn-OH anionexchanger and MB: mixed bed exchanger
Additionally there is a cooling station, several tanks to store and to mix liquids and chemicals, as well as a vacuum evaporation plant for the production of a 75 per cent Ammonium nitrate solution from the spent regenerants of the ion exchangers. The investment cost amounts to roughly 6 million Euro. The principle flow scheme is shown in figure 2: Basic and detailed-engineering was carried out by the Swiss company Arionex (Process Inventor). The construction work was all done by local engineers and workshops of Gemlik Gübre. The full automated control system was invented and constructed by the German company HP-Consulting. Logistic, technical and commercial support was given by Ökotek Cevre Teknolojisi ve Kimy San Ltd Şti from Istanbul, Turkey. Eight cubic meters anion- and 13 cubic metres cation-exchanger as well as 8 cubic metres of mixed bed resin were delivered from Germany by Lanxess Deutschland GmbH. After a successful commissioningcampaign the plant is now operated by Gemlik Gübre staff without any problems. Due to the automation concept the plant 162 • December 2013
Lanxess - case study final.indd 162
only requires one operator per shift to monitor the operation. The systems treat around 40 m3 per hour of waste water. The average mass related feed rate of Ammonium nitrate and ammonia is around 156 kg/h NH4NO3 (1953 mol-eq/h) and around 28,8 kg/h NH3 (1696 mol-eq/h). The concentrations are around 2 to 4 g/L NH4NO3 and 0,5 to 0,8 g/L NH3. The unit produces around 38 m3/h fully demineralised water with a rest conductivity of < 0,1 µS/cm. The spent regenerants of the ion exchangers are neutralised with nitric acid resulting in 2868 kg/h of a 22 per cent NH4NO3 solution that subsequently is concentrated by evaporation to obtain a 75 per cent solution with a mass flow rate of 841 kg/h. This flow contains 631 kg/h of ammonia nitrate that is passed directly back into the production lines. An overview of the technical data is given in table 2. By recovery of product from the waste water alone, more than 6247 t/a of calcium ammonium-nitrate and around 300960 m3/a of demineralised water is recovered, which all together results in savings of 2 to 2.4 million Euro per year.
Hence the plants invest cost amortise in around 3 to 3.5 years. Taking into account savings in the area of penalties, biological waste water treatment as well as maintenance and operational costs of a separate demineralisation plant, the investment pays off even earlier. Summary, Outlook Six units have now been built: at Doljchim (Romania), CCH-Arad (Romania), INA Petrokemija, Kutina (Croatia), Péti Nitrogen (Hungary) and Azomures S.A. (Romania), and now the youngest and most advanced Fertarex® waste water treatment plant for the recovery of Ammonium nitrate, ammonia and ultrapure demineralised water has been successfully taken into operation at Gemlik Gübre Sanayi in Turkey at the end of 2010. The Fertarex® process works on the well accepted principal of the application of ion exchangers in water demineralisation. The process preferentially makes use of ion exchange resins of the Lewatit® brand offering high quality standards to assure safe operation. Multiple engineering features are integrated into the process to accomplish challenging targets as there are: a) high Chemical Engineering World
04-01-2014 14:55:14
Features CEW Waste water feed stream volumetric flow:
40 m³/h
Concentration of Ammonium nitrate in feed:
2 - 4 g/L
Concentration of ammonia in feed:
0,5 – 0,8 g/L
Average mass flow of Ammonium nitrate in feed:
156 kg/h
Average mass flow of ammonia in feed:
28.8 kg/h
Produced demineralised water:
38 m³/h
Rest conductivity after anion- and cation-exchanger:
12 -50 µS/cm
Rest conductivity after mixed bed in final demineralised water:
0,07-0.1 µS/cm
Mass flow produced 75% NH 4NO 3-solution:
ca. 840 t/h
Rate of yearly produced calcium-Ammonium nitrate by recovery:
up to 6300 t/a
Rate of yearly recovered Ammonium nitrate:
700 bis 1.300 t/a
Number of parallel demineralization lines:
2
Type of ion exchange technology:
counter current
Volume of cation-exchanger per column Lewatit K 2629:
6.5 m³
Volume of anion-exchanger per column Lewatit ® S 4428:
4 m³
Volume of mixed-bed resins per column Lewatit S150 + M800:
4 m³
®
®
Lifetime of above mentioned ion exchangers under process conditions: 5 - 8 years Concentration of HNO 3 in regenerant:
55 %
Concentration of NH 3 in regenerant:
18 %
Duration of regeneration procedure:
90 minutes
Duration of loading cycle:
ca. 2 hours
Table 2: technical data of Fertarex® unit installed at Gemlik Gübre, Turkey
economic efficiency requirements b) safety constraints. Simply from the economic view several arguments can be found for the decision to install a Fertarex ® unit, such as An increased production yield of 1.5 to 4 per cent (sometimes even more); Simultaneous production of high purity demineralised water that can be utilised in the production of nitric acid and other sophisticated processes; Very low energy costs since ion exchange filters operate with low pressure loss. Also, the concentration of the regenerant stream by evaporation is connected with low energy costs since the feed stream of the evaporator already has a high concentration and the evaporator is operated with saturated steam or steam-recompression; and Reliable attainment of emission limits thereby avoiding penalties. In addition to that it has to be clearly pointed out that the regenerant chemicals such as nitric acid and ammonia are produced by the fertiliser producer itself and do not get lost with any waste. Chemical Engineering World
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Since the regenerant chemicals later are fed back into the production process along with the recovered valuable materials, they do not appear in the costbalance as operating costs. Further, the time for amortisation can be less than three years, depending on the local conditions.
Projects can be organised with high flexibility. One option is to use Arionex as the main contractor who, along with subcontractor plans, builds, commissions and eventually even operates the plant. Another option is for the construction and operation of the plant to be undertaken by local companies and the end customers themselves, as was the case for Gemlik Gübre. References [1] Handelsblatt: Die Welt in Zahlen (2005) [2] Charles R. Frink, Paul E Waggoner, Jesse H Ausubelk: “Nitogen fertilizer: Retrospect and prospect” (1999) [3] N. Arion-US Patent No. 4002455/23.07.75 (IPRAN-Bucharest, Romania): “Process for treating and recovering waste water from fertilizer manufacture)” [4] D. Orphanides: “Optimum treatment of vaporous and/or condensates from ammonium nitrate plants” AFA Technical Conference - Alexandria-Egypt (June 2001) [5] N. Arion: “Treatment of Waste Water Effluents from the Azomures Nitrogen Fertilizer Complex in Romania” International Conference Nitrogen, Bucharest, Romania (27 February 2005) (The technical article was carried in May 2013 issue of CEW)
Along with noticeable economic advantages for the producer alone there is the overall benefit of saving valuable raw materials and protecting the environment: Sustainable economic practice is becoming the expected norm for business. In the expectation that environmental limits as a trend are getting stricter fertiliser producers all around the world will be forced to intensify their activities to protect the environment. This technology offers a cost effective and economically advantageous method for doing so. Additionally, producers of porous Ammonium nitrate for explosives in Russia, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Eastern-Europe, Australia and China may benefit from this process technology.
Author’s Details Dr Stefan Neumann Head, Application Laboratory BU ION LANXESS Deutschland GmbH
December 2013 • 163
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