Female Chemical Engineer - No offence please...
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
When I was working as a process engineer few years back, I came across an interesting and funny experience. A newly graduate chemical engineer just joined the company and I was instructed by my manager to bring her around the plants and facilities. She was so excited and I walked her through the plants, showed her the heat exchanger, vessels, distillation columns and almost everything. I also brought her to the control room and explained to her the process. Being young and energetic as well as equipped with the process PID diagram, she asked me thousands of questions.
After that, I showed her the cooling tower and she was also very excited to see a series of huge cooling towers. I asked her, "Do you want to climb the cooling tower?"
She answered, "Yes, I want to".
Then I asked her to climb first and I followed closely behind. She was so fired up to see the big fans and also the hot water flowing down the cooling tower...
But, after that...this happen...
She cried...and cried...she cannot go down the cooling tower... She can't afford to see the ground. She don't want to go down from the cooling tower. She's shivering. She's crying. She's holding my hand, not wanting me to leave her.
OMG...what should I do?
Anybody want to guess what happen next?
Labels: Chemical Engineer, Chemical Engineering, Chemical Plant, Cooling Tower, Heat Exchanger, Learning Curve
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 5:33 PM,
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Some Problems We Find in A Processing & Production Plant
Saturday, April 05, 2008
As a process engineer or production executive, we shall always hope and wish that the plant will be smooth. A processing or production plant will always have a problem whether we like it or not. What will the problem be? Are they thought in the university? Can you get them in the text books? I bet you would not get those valuable informations anywhere there?
So, how can you get them? You'll actually get them when you work and experience those problems yourself. Another way of getting those precious information is by asking and learning it from experience executives and engineers.
I've been working for almost three years in my current work place and I observed all these problems. I think it might be useful if I share all those plant problems with you guys. There are a lot of problems and I shall post it in this blog from time to time. The problems varies and comes from various angles and areas such as (without any particular arrangement):
1. Utilities problems :
power, natural gas, steam, water, chemicals, LFO, diesel, processing aid, air etc. Processing cost can increase the overall production cost.
2. Maintenance & Equipment problems :
Pump, piping, instrumentation, pressure transmitter, level transmitter, temperature indicator, NPSH, cavitation, control valve, steam trap, leakage, insulation.
3. Human resource problems :
Disciplinary, Late coming, absent, failure to obey instruction, negligence, psychology.
4. Report & Documentation problems :
Daily report, monthly report, quarterly report, yearly report, ISO & GMP related documents.
5. Communication problems :
Miscommunication, instruction, network, PC, server, bad relationship with up line, down line and colleagues.
6. Quality problems :
Laboratory, lab checking, quality control, testing error, solution/chemical contamination.
7. Supplier problems :
Raw material - product - goods out of spec, cheating.
8. Supporting equipment problems :
Deterioration of cooling tower performance, heat exchanger performance.
9. Planning problems :
Administration interruption, supply demand, market, margin.
10. Control system problems :
Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Human machine interface (HMI) and PC, IT, network, softwares.
11. Stock, raw material, storage tank problems :
Network, false information, over flow, insufficient storage tank, contamination.
12. Stress, Pressure & Health Problems :
Meeting deadline, lack of time, inadequate knowledge, 24 hours alert and standby, meetings, reports, various crisis, inability to manage pressure from top management.
OK. That would be some very general and surface introduction on what problems we can expect from running a plant. I'll try to update and add more on those details from time to time. I welcome anybody who want to share problems that they faced in their plant. We can discuss it here and share it with the rest of the readers.
Labels: Chemical Plant, Control System, Cooling Tower, Energy, Environmental, Heat Exchanger, Learning Curve, Process Parameters, Study, Training
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:23 PM,
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9 Great Chemical Engineering Related Ebooks
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Find EBooks (a site providing a number of free Ebooks), listed a few chemical engineering and chemistry related ebooks which can be very useful reference for students and practicing engineers. All of the ebooks are in PDF format and they are free to download. Most of them are in normal book format while some of them are from bulletin or technical paper. I selected 9 fantastic ebooks which I believe is of great value. Check it out:
1. Centrifugal Compressor
Centrifugal Compressors and Steam Turbines.
2. Media Wiley
Basic Thermodynamics.
3. UIC.edu
A Revision of the Distillation Theory (Part I).
4. CHE.WISC.edu
The Material Balance for Chemical Reactors.
5. Geo Heat
Direct-Use Temperature Requirements: A Few Rules of Thumb.
6. HAZOPS ebook
A hazard analysis and operability study (HAZOPS) is one of the essential topics in Chemical Engineering field. It holds a critical role in both design and operation of a plant or unit process. This HAZOPS ebook has nine chapters, such as introduction, overview, essential elements, methods and examples, reporting and analysis, etc.
7. Material Engineering Ebook-1;
Material Engineering Ebook-2
These ebook explain about structure of materials, property of metals, thermal shocks, brittle fracture and plant materials. The ebooks are suitable for engineering students and professionals.
8. Fungicide information ebook
Fungicide is a type of pesticide. It is intended to kill fungus. Fungicide is commonly used in industry, agriculture and home. Getting right information about fungicide will help us to reduce its adverse effects on health and environment.
These are two household chemicals that are always available in every home. They help moms to keep households clean and hygiene. But do you know that cleaners and polishers contain potential hazards to the whole family? Do you really understand about the chemicals of cleaners and polishers? If not, I think you’d better to check out this free ebook.
If you have more ebooks or other valuable references, please share it with us. If it's good, I'll post it here so that more people can read and use it. Thanks in advance... :)Labels: Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Cooling Tower, Learning Curve, Research, Review, Study
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:11 PM,
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How To Build Cooling System For Your PC
Monday, August 20, 2007
This is a very interesting video teaches us how to make a cooling system for our PC. We need small and cute heat exchanger, tubing, cooling water, cooling elements, cooling fan, thermal paste, flow meter, pump, cable, elbow, cable holders, header tank, and hard drive cooler. All of these items are related and can be associated with our chemical and process engineering field. Check it out and try it at your PC.
Labels: Chemical Plant, Cooling Tower, Equipments, Heat Exchanger, Learning Curve, Process Parameters
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:00 PM,
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Photo of the Day - Cooling Tower
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The photo of the day is a Cooling Tower in Wilton International petrochemicals complex. Wilton International is one of few sites in Western Europe with special development status, designed for heavy industrial use such as chemicals and process plants. Many of the world's leading chemical and manufacturing companies are well established at Wilton, including blue-chip multinational such as BP-Amoco, DuPont, HISI (jointly owned by Huntsmant and ICI), DuPont Sa, ICI, Targor (jointly owned by BASF and Hoechst), and Union Carbide. This is actually a natural draft wet cooling hyperboloid towers (it doesn't use fan). The photo is taken from FreeFoto.com.
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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:41 PM,
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Cooling Tower Target Nozzle
Friday, June 15, 2007
As promised, I'll share some informations about target nozzle which is among vital parts of a cooling tower. A target nozzle looks like the photo beside. That is a "Counterflow Nozzle Orifice" (sizes available from 1/2" - 1 1/2). A target nozzles function is to sprinkle the warm cooling water to increase its surface area (for heat transfer with air) before it goes down from the deck to the water basin. It is usually an injection molded polypropylene unit consisting of two parts—the main body with integral target diffuser and a snap-on insert or orifice cap. A cooling tower deck may have up to 200 or more target nozzles.
All this while I only know this type of target nozzle. After researching in the internet, I found there are various other types of target nozzles.
The first type (left) is a Counterflow Nozzle - 2" NPT Thread, (Orifice sizes 1/2" - 2"); the second (mid) is the a counter-flow down-spray nozzle; Square-Pattern, Full Coverage Type, 1-1/2" Standard Pipe Thread Connection; and the third (right) is a counter-flow up-spray Nozzle, fits 1-13/16" Diameter Hole in PVC pipe. There are more types of target nozzles at CoolingTowerNozzles.com.
spxcooling.com
ceshepherd.com
coolingtowerresource.com
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Labels: Chemical Engineering, Cooling Tower, Learning Curve
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:40 PM,
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Cooling Tower FRP Water Distributor
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
What you can see in the photo is a cooling tower deck. This is where warm cooling water from processing plant arrives. The warm cooling water will then be evenly distributed on the light blue colour FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic) deck by a water distributor. The warm cooling water will then falls underneath the deck through the target nozzle holes. You can see there are plenty of small black round shape holes on the deck. The target nozzles are important to sprinkle the water before it goes further down to increase its surface area (I'll show and explain about target nozzle in future post). The warm cooling water will then be sprayed over a fill in the cooling tower to increase the contact area, and air is blown through the fill. Majority of heat removed from the warm cooling water is due to evaporation. The remaining cooled water drops into a collection basin and is recirculated to the plant (for chiller or heat exchanger). Typically, the temperature drop is 10oC.
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Labels: Chemical Plant, Cooling Tower, Process Parameters
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:17 PM,
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Guess What This Is?
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
b
c
d
e
f
b: Blade holder removed from the motor using hydraulic clamp
c: Blade holder
d: These are the blades
e: Looks like a fan
f: It's a cooling tower fan...
Did you guess correctly??
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Want to switch link with this blog? Email me or drop a comment. Your blog/site should be related to Chemical Engineering.
Labels: Chemical Engineering, Cooling Tower
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:00 PM,
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Wooden Cooling Tower Drift Eliminators Get Dirty
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
The following photos illustrates the cooling tower infills and drift eliminators. That's why after some period of time we need to clean the infills. In worse cases, we need to replace the infills. In this example, the infills are made from cengal wood.
Wet cooling tower infills
Dirty and crooked drift eliminators. These drift eliminators were then replaced with a new set. The infills arrangements are important to create droplets of hot water dropping from the top. The water droplets (which is hot) will then progressively be cooled down by the air which is sucked pass through the infills from outside by the cooling tower fan.
To understand more about the cooling tower process, click here.
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Labels: Chemical Engineering, Cooling Tower
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:58 PM,
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Plant 5S
Monday, February 12, 2007
I have my own plans and targets for my plant. I want to make the plant a better place to work. I want to improve the system and way of work. I want to beautify the 9 storey physical refining plant. I want all the pumps, heat exchangers, insulation, vessels, cable tray, etc to look nice and well maintained. I want the paint on walls to be fresh and free from dirt. I want the plant to be totally clean and shining. I want the forklift to be in excellent tip top condition with new paint. I want to see the cooling towers, bleaching earth store and spent earth area to be in superb condition. I'm working on all of that with the help of all the plant supervisors and operators. These are what we call 5S. See below for the definition and description of 5S (A Japanese Concept of Total Productive Maintenance). I hope to achieve them within the second quarter this year.
5S is a reference to five Japanese words that describe standardized cleanup:
- Seiri (整理): tidiness, organization. Refers to the practice of sorting through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with productive work.
- Seiton (整頓): orderliness. Focuses on the need for an orderly workplace. Tools, equipment, and materials must be systematically arranged for the easiest and most efficient access. There must be a place for everything, and everything must be in its place.
- Seiso (清掃): cleanliness. Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. Cleaning in Japanese companies is a daily activity. At the end of each shift, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place.
- Seiketsu (清潔): standards. Allows for control and consistency. Basic housekeeping standards apply everywhere in the facility. Everyone knows exactly what his or her responsibilities are. House keeping duties are part of regular work routines.
- Shitsuke (躾): sustaining discipline. Refers to maintaining standards and keeping the facility in safe and efficient order day after day, year after year.
Labels: Chemical Engineering, Cooling Tower, Jobs, Pump
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:43 PM,
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Be Cautious at Dirty Cooling Tower
Saturday, February 03, 2007
If you're a in the oils and fats industry and are working in a refinery, there'll be a dirty cooling tower. The condition of this dirty cooling tower is not very pleasant. The water is already mixed with fatty acid and some trace of oil. You need to be extra cautious when dealing with this type of cooling tower. One thing that you must avoid the most is welding. DO NOT WELD anything nearby the dirty cooling tower. This is very dangerous and hazardous. The fatty acid and oil that is contained inside the cooling tower water is very flamable and can caught fire easily. So, warn your people/technician/fitter > Never deal with any type of fire/spark nearby the dirty cooling tower.
Labels: Accident, Cooling Tower, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:05 PM,
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Hydrocarbon Leak Detection in Cooling Water Systems
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Hydrocarbon leaks in refineries and chemical plants can quickly cause fouling and outbreaks of microbial growth. This, in turn, results in rapid loss of heat transfer and system efficiency. Detecting, locating, and stopping these leaks as soon as possible is critical.
A hydrocarbon leak detection procedure is used to pinpoint process equipment that is leaking a gas, gasoline, or oil into a cooling water system. In the past, this testing has been a laboratory procedure and could require considerable time to obtain results. Newer test procedures can be performed in the field and provide immediate on-site results.
Samples of water from the inlet and outlet of a suspected leaking unit are collected. When an increase in hydrocarbon level is found in the outlet sample, the leaking unit has been identified.
Hydrocarbon leak detection analysis is used to pinpoint a process leak in its early stages. The longer a leak continues, the greater the possibility of equipment damage or plant shutdown.
There are two distinct issues with regard to process leaks into cooling water systems:
1. Leak Detection - determining that there is a process leak early, before gross contamination occurs
2. Leak Identification - identifying the specific heat exchanger that is leaking, preferably with a rapid, on-site or on-line test method
Labels: Cooling Tower, Leak, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 4:39 PM,
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Cooling Tower Heart
The heart of the cooling tower is the "Film Fill Media" or "Infill". It will experience thermal shock, atmospheric dust, slime and algae growth. These are the phenomenon that we can expect when taking care of a cooling tower. The infill will become brittle and be disintegrated (wear and tear) along its shelf life. The potential contaminated particles will cause the cooling system efficiency dropped due to the cooling tower clogged. When this happen, a long repair / down time of the cooling system can lead to very high losses on operation cost as well as production cost.
With a proper Preventive Maintenance Program for the cooling tower which includes replacement of infill, the cooling efficiency will be dramatically improved, saving a huge amount of electricity energy consumption, longest and most dependaple useful system for cooling system. There are so many things to be learned while handling a cooling tower. You'll learn all about the story of cooling tower maintenance that are not written in any text book here....I'll share with you all my experiences, the bitter and pain of maintaing my cooling tower....
Labels: Cooling Tower
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 4:33 PM,
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Cooling Tower Improvement
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Luckily today the cooling tower water condition is improved. I can see the water quality geting better and clearer. Thanks to some aggressive blowdown and extra backwash via the sand filter. The early detection of which heat exchanger contaminated the cooling system helped a lot in hindering the leaking soya bean oil. That heat exchanger has already been straight away quarantined and dismantled. Just now, the plates were immersed in hot caustic to clean and remove scale sticking on it. Tomorrow, gasket will be clipped onto the plates and the heat exchanger will be re-install. Hopefully, the heat exchanger will be ok and would not leak internally or externally. I also hope by Saturday, the cooling tower water quality will be alright.
Labels: Cooling Tower, Heat Exchanger, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:39 PM,
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Cooling Tower Water Quality Disaster
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Today, the cooling tower water quality does not changed much. It is still about the same colour as yesterday. Scum and foam began accumulating on the surface of the water. It is not a nice scenery. It looks terrible. Some foam and water sample was taken yesterday and sent to the lab for analysis. The lab tested the IV (iodine value) of the oil extracted from the foam and water. The IV was 100+. That gave a very clear indication of what oil is leaking into the cooling water system and from which heat exchanger and plant too. It was soya bean oil who have that very high IV. Palm oil and coconut oil which was running in my plant have IV of about 52 and 9, respectively. Another plant was running soya bean for about 3 days already and the plate heat exchanger in that plant is suspected to have internal leak. Tomorrow, some fitters from maintenance department will dismantle and replace the gasket for that problematic heat exchanger. Let's see what's going to happen tomorrow.
Labels: Cooling Tower, Heat Exchanger, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:21 PM,
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Cooling Tower Problem Again!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Just now, I was informed by my supervisor that the clean cooling tower water has turned to a milky coffee colour! Oh No....this could not be happening again....I went to the cooling tower and check out the water. It is true. The water colour has changed from a clean colourless water to a milky coffee colour. This is going to be a very bad nightmare for me. The last time this cooling tower had a problem (oil leak into it), it took about 6 months for it to recover and we had to carry out a major service on it. I hope this time, it is not some unwanted oil leaking from the heat exchangers from 4 different plants. Well, at least no slime is observed yet. Or, perhaps, the slime has not yet grown. I need to inspect it again tomorrow morning. As for today, the best thing we can do was removing some scum floating on top of the cooling water surface, did some blowdown and some sand filter backwash. Hopefully it can dilute anything that contaminate my cooling tower water.
Labels: Cooling Tower
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:12 PM,
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BASIC COOLING TOWER NOTES
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Purpose of a cooling Tower
Cooling tower employ a natural evaporative cooling process to reject heat from industries processes and air - conditioning system, allowing the cooling water to be used over and over again in the cooling system.
Usage of Today's Cooling System
In today's highly competitive business climate, economy of operation is to gain long term success. To maximise required output with the minimum operation cost, machinery, engines, measurement or equipment, sensitive electronics devices and a cooling environment for employee and customers, a reliable cooling system to maintain all the above to a recommended working temperature is vital.
The efficiency of the cooling tower plays a very important role in cooling system. To achieve maximum efficiency, the cooling tower must be in a tip top condition to support the heat exchanger in order to obtain desired temperature. All these will lead to obtaining a maximum productivity at the minimum operation cost in a long run.
I'll continue more about the basics of cooling tower later....
Labels: Cooling Tower
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 1:02 AM,
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The Author
I’m Zaki. I used to be a project, process and chemical engineer. Few years ago I successfully became a Chartered Engineer (IChemE) and Professional Engineer (BEM). I'm now employed as a chemical engineering educator/researcher/consultant. Hope you like reading my blog. I welcome any feedback from you. My email: zaki.yz[alias]gmail.com. TQ!
