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13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy - A Must Read Chemical Engineering Fiction Novel

It is one of my dream to write a chemical engineering related fiction novel. My wife knows that fact. It will be cool to integrate the experience which I had in the industry and my chemical engineering knowledge in a book which can be read by everybody (but special for chemical engineers and those who are in related industry). What if the novel is adopted to become one of those Hollywood movies. Would that be great? However, I don't think I can make it in the near future. It's quite tough especially with my hectic schedule and my main target to complete my Ph.D. Well, enough about that.

However, the actual interesting point that I would like to share is a new Chemical Engineering related fiction novel that has been introduced to me by a friend in the United States. Honestly, I have never come across a chemical engineering related fiction novel. When I was told about it, I became curious and want to read this novel. Luckily, with the help of my friend, Diane, I managed to grab hold of this novel and finally it reached me 3 days ago.

The title of this brilliant novel is 13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy. The book is written by an author whom is also an experienced Chemical Engineer, Laura Starks. I was so excited and very eager to read the book upon receiving it. Back from work, I grabbed the book and read it at the playground in front of my house and continued reading for another 3 days until I finished.

My first impression of the book

The book is quite thick. It contains 347 pages. I wondered when can I finish reading this novel after holding it on my hand since I must also do my study, read and write technical papers, work on my thermodynamics etc. However, after reading the first 10 pages, I could not stop!!! The fatal incident that suddenly occurred in the newly bought over refinery made me dying to know what had actually happened. Was the deadly hydrogen sulfide gas accidentally released or was it an evil sabotage? I must say that the storyline is very interesting and intriguing. I'm very much amazed and impressed with the details that the author has shown in her writing. It's everything about the real situation in a typical refinery. From a decision either to stop a running plant (which will be tricky and dangerous) to continuing running the plant despite of the tragedy. Those who normally run a refinery pretty much know that the biggest challenge in running a refinery is during the start-up and stopping it. A mistake will possibly end up to an unwanted tragedy.

The safety, health and environmental elements were clearly displayed along the storyline, which can provide perfectly good visualization on the real life situation to chemical engineering students and readers who have never entered a plant in this lucrative industry.

The author also took the initiative to explain some of the technical unit operations that might not be understood by the readers such as the one below which is taken on the beginning of Chapter 2:-

Reactors: vessels in which raw feeds are transformed into chemically and structurally different products.

Catalytic cracking: key process for converting heavy oils into more valuable gasoline and lighter products. Average reactor temperatures are 900-1000 Fahrenheit.

And the following are other description taken from the beginning of Chapter 13:

Hydrocarbon: any of a large variety of molecules containing primarily carbon and hydrogen and ranging from methane, a gas, to asphalt, a solid.

Sour crude: crude oil containing half a percent or more of sulfur by weight. Sweet crude contains less than half a percent of sulfur. Sulfur in sour crude is removed to meet gasoline and diesel specifications. Its removal produces poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas which is converted to sulfuric acid and elemental sulfur and sold to industrial buyers.

Looking through the acknowledgment page, I know that this book was carefully written, edited repeatedly and the author was very careful about all bits of detail.



Again, I must say that this is a superbly very well written book and could even be a reference of example OR a small case study for some chemical engineering subjects like Process Safety, Unit Operation, Mass Transfer etc. although it is a fictional story. I will definitely read Laura Starks writing again if she comes up with a new book. That's for sure.


Editorial Reviews

Reviews

"13 Days has an excellent plot....L.A. Starks has contributed a fine murder mystery to the genre." -- Alan Paul Curtis, Who-dunnit.com

"A knock-down conspiracy exposing the darkest secrets of the oil industry. Starks has made an impressive debut...." -- Michael Lucker, Screenwriter (Vampire In Brooklyn, Mulan II)

"A reverse femjep." -- Jack Quick - October 2006 BookBitch.com



Reviews from the Back Cover

A rogue force controlling the planet’s oil supply would hold a knife to its throat. The planet’s refineries, where oil becomes gasoline, may be an easier grab.

Lynn Dayton, 37, self-made refining executive, manages six vast complexes that transform oil into gasoline. Robert Guillard, 33, a suave Parisian intellectual believes, as did the cult around Pythagoras, that his genius confers moral authority. He directs the sabotage of US refineries, one by one. But his financing from an Asian refining cartel terminates in thirteen days unless he produces massive shutdowns.

Robert schemes to coerce Lynn into collaborating as he pursues his outwardly humanitarian goal of building refineries in Third World countries. If she refuses, he will hold hostage her sister, Ceil Dayton, 30, whom he has lured to Paris. Ceil, in turn, hides a brutal secret.

An industrial accident at Lynn’s troubled Houston refinery arouses her suspicions. Government officials conclude routine negligence caused the accident, but her own investigation leads Lynn to suspect sabotage.

Threats to Lynn’s life intensify. Desperate for the safety of her co- workers, whom she considers in greater danger, she works cease- lessly to find the real cause of the "accident" and the saboteur. Although her company security force notifies the FBI of her suspicions, the bureau considers her facts inadequate to justify adding resources. Within a few days, explosions and fires at nearby refineries claim victims. The resulting fuel shortage affects the lives of everyone in North America.

Then Lynn is kidnapped. She fights for her life on a catwalk above a storage tank of hot, sulfurous oil and escapes.

Deciphering the full extent of Robert’s scheme, she flies to Paris. But will she be in time to derail Robert’s plans and save her sister?


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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:24 PM, ,

My Ph.D Progress so far... Oct 2011 Updates

I'm now in my 5th semester and I must admit that I'm very worried with my own performance as a Ph.D student. I have basically 8 months more to complete my studies (I was given 3 years for a my full time Ph.D). Otherwise I will have to extend my study to another semester.

I am now midway in my experiments. I am also preparing several technical papers to be published in index journals. It's really not easy. The mood and motivation are always against me. Let's see today's example...

I tried to work on my technical paper draft in my office room. After several minutes I felt sleepy (I did not sleep late at night). Then, I experienced some headache. Both of this elements (sleepy + headache) makes a perfect combination to demotivate me from pursuing my work. I tried to fight the negativity. I relaxed for 2-3 minutes. Then, I thought myself...maybe I should do other work that still can contribute towards my study. I then decided to learn a new optimization method from youtube since I am going to include them in my study. So, I decided to stop working on the technical paper draft for a while and studied this new optimization method. It works... I felt energized to learn a new stuff. This is indeed a good technique which I personally discovered (maybe this is not new to you guys). I have the option of perhaps give up, rest, sleep, relax, chit-chat with my friends, drink some coffee, watch some movie in my laptop but instead I decided to work on something else which still contributes towards accomplishing and perfecting my thesis. I'm really glad to do that.

At the same time, to keep up my spirit and assure continuous momentum, I changed my desktop wall paper. It has a message that I should complete my study in the allocated time. This constantly reminds me that I have an unsettle business to complete (the Ph.D off course!!!). This is the final major hurdle that I need to conquer after the other 2 big projects which is to be a professional engineer and chartered engineer, all within a space of 3 years. Fuhhh.... it's really tough but I'm glad I managed to complete the other two.

Enough rambling for now. I'm going to continue with my work. Need to work on something... If you have any motivational quote for me, I really welcome and appreciate them very much. Thanks in advance.

p/s- The photo above shows the Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) equipment with its PC. The PC is very old. It still uses the 3.5" floppy disc. Although it is old, it is still very useful and important for me because it provide one part of my catalyst analysis. The TGA is still in good shape as it is regularly maintained.


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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:08 PM, ,

Power Failure in Our Industry!

Once upon a time in the Chemical Reaction Engineering Research Laboratory


On a sweet Thursday afternoon (today) when I just started my experiment, a sudden power failure occurred without warning. I was actually in the toilet when the power cut off took place. My wife called and asked, "Do you have electricity there in the lab?". I answered, "We have power here in the lab and I just started my experiment". Then 2 lab assistants walk out from the polymer lab (which is next to the reaction engineering lab) and informed me that the power failure just happened. I was surprised.

Immediately I ran into the lab and discovered that the lab black out. Oh my God!!! This is not good. It's not really about my experiment. It's the Gas Chromatography (GC) which I'm more worried about. The GC is such an important equipment for me and the rest of the students as we use it to identify and quantify our products from the reactor. The GC is very sensitive and frequent power cut-off can jeopardize the equipment and interrupt our research activities. Repairing the GC cost huge amount of money and with limited research budget, we need to do everything to avoid the GC from malfunctioning.

After about 15 to 20 minutes the electrical power resumed. Thank God. I switched it on. I then checked the GC and its PC hoping that nothing will go wrong. When the power failure occurred just now, the oven temperature (of the GC) was 250oC. The standard operating procedure to switch off the GC is when the oven temperature is below 40oC. Sudden GC shut down is not recommended at all. It is strictly a big NO. Luckily the GC works well and nothing seems to be wrong. I restarted my experiment and completed it 3 hours later.

Power Failure in the Plant

The incident reminded me on the power failure that once in a while also occurred in the physical refinery plant I worked in several years ago. Such unavoidable power cut-off from the Electricity Company will firstly trigger chaos within the control room and the entire plant. The supervisor, shift leader and plant operators have to act fast to close all main valves manually from various sections. The flow, temperature and pressure from numerous unit operation equipment such as Niagara filter (filter leaves), deodoriser, packed column, heat exchanger need to be controlled until power resumed. The huge 3000 tonnes per day plant can only be minimally controlled via the PLC which was temporarily powered with UPS (uninterupted power supply) - which provided a few minutes power back up.

Secondly, the power cut off will result in substantial lost and I have to assess and make report about it. Even a milisecond power failure will result in vacuum drop in the plant in result to oil rejection (due to quality off-spec). That also will cost massive lost to the company.

What can we do?

As for my case, in the lab... nothing much can be done. I rest my faith to the God. It's good to install UPS for the GC. If UPS is the answer, then we must have 4 UPS unit in the lab as there are all together 3 GC's and 1 GCMS. However, having UPS alone will not entirely protect this expansive machines. For me, the power company (electricity supplier) must be responsible in providing smooth and reliable power for us (the customers). They should pay all the damage and losses that hit us. Maybe this does not sound like an engineer's solution...

Other option?

A more interesting option is to create and manage our own power system...but can we do it with our resources? I'm referring to solar, wind and frequency (Tesla) energy. I would love to develop one of this power sources AFTER I complete my study. I'll try and do it at my home first... :)


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Image #1 credited to: http://www.wkow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14691294&clienttype=printable
Image #2 credited to:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42761336/ns/us_news-life/t/refinery-warnings-way-life-texas-city/

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 7:54 PM, ,

I want FREE sustainable ENERGY... Can you give me?

No matter where we are or we work, either in an office, refinery plant or any building, we need it. What is it that is so important to us and our work? The second most important utility after water is for me the electricity.

I still remember the chaos in my plant when suddenly my plant which was operating smoothly suddenly black out. Yeah…the power supply from the power station and also the power grid was disrupted. The supervisor, shift leader and operators rushed to switch of the pumps and close valves in our 8 storey refinery. It’s not easy to handle a sudden power failure such as that for a huge plant. Imagine the lost resulted from the power failure. It’s tremendously huge. Then the funny thing is after 5 minutes, the power resumed. It’s not a joke!!! Although the power failure took 5 minutes, but it took more than 8 hours to stabilize the plant and get the product within specification.

So, who is responsible for such lost? Who will bear the cost?

If I’m running a business, company or factory, I’ll have to swallow the lost which is not even my fault. But that is the reality. What can we do?

If we install a generator or uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system, it can’t cope with the huge power demand of the plant. There is need to outsource for an energy that can back up the present power supply.

For a smaller scale, let say a house, a short power failure would not be such a hassle. The worse you can experience is a total darkness if it happen at night and the hot atmosphere you will face because you cannot switch on your fan or aircond. Or you will be attack by mosquito because you cannot switch on the mosquito repellent.

For several years I have thought of learning about alternative energy to replace the costly electricity and also the fuel to run my cars. Recently I have purchased several information product about solar installation – DIY at home. I have also thought of using the waste cooking oil from my kitchen to prepare biodiesel. However, I’ve not done both yet. I am compressed with tones of work around me from all angle… haha….

The funny thing is, 3 or 4 days after I purchase the ebook on making my own solar at home, I stumbled upon the idea of retrieving free energy from the air. The energy is actually obtained from the invisible wavelength that is abundantly available around us.

I make a swift research to investigate the potential of this free energy. I found out that the free energy systems can provide electricity from energy sources around us. Once we install the free energy devices, interestingly, we won’t have to pay monthly electricity bills ever again! This has triggered me to explore this energy a little bit further.

Free energy products work on different principles, developed by free energy specialists all over the world. Out of a wide variety of techniques, some free energy methods have been found to be more effective and dependable. One of these techniques involve the generation of electricity from TV and radio waves around us. Another involves the production of electricity from electrostatic charges in the atmosphere. Yet another method focuses on the conversion of radiant energy ever present in the atmosphere to electrical energy.

Whatever the technique used, free energy systems are reliable and easy to set up. The installation process is so simple that you can easily do it yourself, without the help of any professional electrician. To set up a free energy system for your home, you would need a few auxiliary devices such as a charge controller, a battery, and an inverter. You could also use a system meter between the battery and the inverter, to determine how much electric charge is left in the battery.

The free energy device is connected to a charge controller for regulation of electric charge from the device. The charge controller is then connected to a battery for storage of energy produced by the free energy system. Batteries tend to work better in warm temperatures, so it might be a good idea to encase the battery in a battery box. The battery box also helps you keep things clean and organised.

The battery, with or without the battery box, is then connected to an inverter. Once done, the output of the inverter can be connected to the mains of your house. That is all the set up required for a free energy device. Once done, you can say good bye, and happily too, to your electricity bills!

If you are interested to learn more about this free energy and the person who develop it 100 years ago, you can download a 25 page FREE ENERGY report. You need to fill up your name and email address and the report will be delivered to you straight away. This report will provide an overview of the energy or preliminary information on understanding the concept.

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 7:50 PM, ,

Do I missed my previous job?

It has been been 1 year 11 months and 12 days since I resigned from my position as a process engineer. If you ask me do I miss my previous job, I'll say definitely yes. If given the opportunity to be an engineer again, will I become one? I'm still keeping in touch with my colleagues, supervisors, plant operators and technician from my previous work place. It's good to stay in touch with them and to know how the company is progressing.

Well, the answer is it depends. I don't want to be that type of engineer for the rest of my life. However, I want to be an engineer once in a while. Let say, maybe 3 months a year. Would that be possible? I'm not sure.

I am now finally in a position that I dream off years ago. I'm pursuing my Ph.D and working on to be a chartered engineer. It's not easy and it's certainly tough. With my present position, I can have better control of what I want to do. I enjoy writing, publishing my work, doing research, supervising students and teaching as well.

But, to be a more hands on engineer, I need to spend more time doing consultancy jobs. That will get me closer to the plant, refinery and industry which I missed very much. I missed the crude palm oil smell while I was working in Pasir Gudang. I missed the gas and condensate smell while I was a chemical engineer leading few projects in Kerteh, Trengganu. I also missed the adrenaline while sitting in the helicopter while traveling to several offshore platforms performing bottle test. To add some more, I missed the fantastic 5 star food that was serve in Petronas offshore rigs. The basic point is I missed those experiences.

I have made it a point, after I complete my doctorate degree, I'm going to allocate sometime doing some consultancy jobs that suit my knowledge, skill and experiences. I have identified an area I'm going to establish myself in. With that in mind, I hope I can get more and more industrial exposure. Besides gaining more experiences, I can also share them with my readers (of this blog).


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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:06 PM, ,

Gas Chromatography Calibration

I'm sorry. I know I'm suppose to share and write a post about having my article printed in the Yellow Pages Energy Guide. But, I think my recent experience during the GC calibration was very worth sharing.

Brief Introduction of our Gas Chromatography

Our research Chemical Reaction Engineering Group (CREG) have 3 Gas Chromatography (GC) Thermal Conductive Detector (TCD). All of them are HP Agilent 6890 model. We have labeled them as GC 1, GC 2 and GC 3. I have personally used 1 of the older GC-TCD (GC 2) when doing my masters degree 9 years ago. GC 2 is the simplest of our GC-TCD. It can only analyze gasses compound and have only 2 columns inside it which are Molecular sieve and Porapak N column.
GC 1 and GC 3 are far advance then GC 2. Both of the GCs are equipped with Flame Ionization Detector (FID) to analyze liquid product, which in our case are hydrocarbons. That means, GC 1 and 3 can analyze both gasses and liquid compound.

GC 2 and GC 3 (Both Agilent 6890 model) are arranged side by side in one of our research rooms.

On top of the above mentioned GC-TCD, there is also a unit of Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) to power up our analysis capability. This GC-MS is very useful to identify and analyze liquid compound. GC-MS actually combines the features of gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify different substances within a test sample. In our research group we use it to analyze our pyrolysis, biomass, biodiesel liquid fuel and others. I'm not that familiar with GC-MS, but I plan to learn more about it in future. Now, for my ph.D, I'm more focused on using the GC-TCD.

The molecular sieve packed column and Porapak N column in GC 1

Oh yes, we also have one dedicated Perkin Elmer Gas Chromatograph Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID). This GC-FID is very old, I think it has been around for more than 13 years. It has been used previously to analyze our gas to liquid products. Presently, a master student is using it to analyze her biodiesel from waste vegetable oil research.

Of all the GC brands, we have model from HP and Perkin Elmer but not Shimadzu.


Gas Chromatography Thermal Conductive Detector (GC-TCD) Calibration

All our 3 GC-TCD are in great demand now. The research group population has suddenly increased and all of us need to use this imperative analytical equipment. Unfortunately, the GC-TCDs are not in really good condition. Hence, we've called Agilent engineer to come and help us check on the GCs and calibrate it for us.

I wasn't around on the first part of GC-TCD calibration because I was in Kota Kinabalu with my wife and family for the International Conference on Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering in conjunction with the 23rd Symposium of Malaysian Chemical Engineers (SOMCHE 2009). However, my research colleagues were around for the GC-TCD calibration sessions. Unfortunately, the GC-TCDs could not yet be calibrated due to some problem. It was found that the molecular sieve packed column for GC 1 is not working anymore. So, CREG have to order a new mol sieve column.

Agilent engineer is replacing the mol sieve packed column in GC 1

Luckily we managed to order new mol sieve columns and the second GC-TCD calibration session were carried out last week. This time I was around and we work closely with the Agilent engineer. GC 1 has 5 columns inside it and it took some time to work on the valve switching between the valves. The valve switching is an important feature when there are many columns in a GC. This is because a column can only be suitable for certain chemical compound separation, while the others are suitable for other compounds. We calibrated GC 1 with Agilent natural gas standard and successfully managed to get all peaks in the chromatogram at the end of the day.

The engineer is thinking how to solve the mess in GC 3

The next day, the engineer continue worked with GC 2 and GC 3. However, he only managed to touch GC 3 after lunch. GC 3 has more chronic problem, it has one of its capillary column torn. He discovered this problem together with a ph.D student doing Plasma Reaction Research. However, the engineer has successfully connect the capillary column again.

HP capillary column is torn.


Conclusion of GC-TCD Calibration Session

To conclude the GC-TCD calibration session:

GC 1 - Successfully calibrated with Agilent natural gas standard.
GC 2 - Successfully calibrated with Agilent refinery gas standard.
GC 3 - Need to be further calibrated. Probably need 2 days to complete the job. I have contacted Agilent to come and rectify GC 3. We are still waiting the answer from them. I'll follow up with them again tomorrow.

I look forward to conduct my research as soon as possible... :) wish me luck.

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 5:07 PM, ,

Losing and Recovering Crucial Data

In any production plant there must be control system to control the process of a production unit such as Citect, Siemens, SCADA, Distributed Control System (DCS). Via those control system, we can observe, control, record data and analyze trends in the plant. This is imperative to optimize the process, cut cost wherever necessary and for other important reasons. But what happen if the control system suddenly breakdowns. Have you experience it before? How do you ensure proper data recovery? I have experienced losing data from my SCADA for the tank auto gauging system. As a result we were not able to track down 50 types of oil movements to create the monthly stock reconciliation and that was a nightmare to me. Those are really precious valuable data which we need justify oil lost in the plants.

One way to overcome any problematic data lost situation which can’t be sort out by ourselves is by getting help from the expert, such as Data Recovery Group. Data Recovery Group, a US based company that specialized in complete data recovery services. They are more than capable to recover data from Desktop Drives, Laptop Drives, External Drives, Servers, RAID Systems, Network Attached Storage Devices (NAS), Storage Area Network Devices (SAN), Camera Media and Flash Drives. On top of the services mentioned mac data recovery and server data recovery also falls under their scope of expert job.

To be more specific, Data Recovery Group routinely recovers data from failed hard drives caused by events such as mechanical failure, file system damage, bumped or dropped drives, viruses, user sabotage, user errors (such as accidentally deleted files/formatting), static electricity, power surges and outages, and even natural disasters (such as lightning strikes, fires, and floods).

However, despite their spectacular track record servicing major corporation such as Apple Computer, BHP Minerals, Pacific Gas & Electric and others, this company is only based in USA. It’s good if they can expand their services to Europe, Asia and other regions. With such reputation, Data Recovery Group can assist big companies in other regions to regain their data when problem arises and hence help to avoid substantial lost of profits.

The most important thing is that I know when we encounter any data recovery problem, there will be solution to it. Instead of just accepting the faith of totally losing the data (and lost in money), we can actually hire the expert in the field to help us solve the problem.

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:19 PM, ,

Problem: Flash Fire Problem

2 weeks ago, Professor Silveston from Waterloo University Canada came to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for an assignment. While he was around, he gave a workshop on problem solving. It was really a very interesting workshop and we learnt how to think critically on how to solve problems (it can be any problem including chemical engineering operation problems).

I would like to share one problem that he gave us and I want to see some ideas. Please feel free to gave your opinion on the answer for the problem.

Flash Fire Problem

Heavy naphtas are converted into high octane gasoline in platformer. By products of the reaction include LPG and hydrogen rich gas containing 6-80% by volume hydrogen. The products from the platformer reactor (at 700 psig and 500 oC) are heat-exchanged with the naptha feed to the reactor. This preheats the feed. The platforming catalyst is rapidly fouled and must be generated by blowing with steam or waste gas. Thus the process is cyclic. A battery of reactors maintains a steady flow.

In three weeks since the startup, there have been four flash fires along the flanges of the heat exchanger. The plant manager claims that because of the differential expansion within the heat exchanger, because of the diameter of the exchanger and the stream hydrogen is rich these flash fires are bound to occur. The maintainance mean have broken 6 bolts trying to get the flange tighter, but they just cannot get it tight enough. The excahanger costs $200,000 and the whole plant costs #39 million. The technical manager says that the plant must be safe in 3 days.

What will you do?
What are the actions?
Can you think and share with us your action plan...

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 2:20 PM, ,

Melamine - What is Melamine?


Melamine? Dead Infants? China? What's wrong?

The news about dead infants + melamine + milk + China has heavily reported, discussed and reasearched. I was slightly aware of the incident occuring in China, but recently, when my government took some action on investigating our own dairy products on shelves, I need to pay extra attention on what Melamine is all about. What is the fuss about Melamine? When my wife asked me what is Melamine, I can't provide her the answer. Thus, I know, I need to technically know this chemical and what's the hazardous implication towards us... I need to be aware and
 protect my family.

Anyone can easily get details on melamine from Google - Wikipedia, but let me just share the info... 

What is Melamine?

The following description about Melamine is adopted from Wikipedia:

"Melamine is an organic base and a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 66% nitrogenby mass and, if mixed with resins, has fire retardant properties due to its release of nitrogen gas when burned or charred, and has several other industrial uses. Melamine is also a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide. It is formed in the body of mammals who have ingested cyromazine.[2] It has been reported that cyromazine can also be converted to melamine in plants.[3][4]

Melamine combines with cyanuric acid to form melamine cyanurate, which has been implicated in the Chinese protein export." 


Further description on Melamine... (from Wikipedia/melamine)

"Melamine is a man-made substance commonly employed in a variety of industrial products and processes, including the manufacture of synthetic countertops, dry erase boards, fabrics, glues, housewares, flame retardants and dyes. Nitrogen rich, it is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase their apparent protein content. Introduced to milk, it can help conceal its fraudulent dilution with water.[7] Common nitrogen-based protein level tests used in China, such as the Kjeldahl and Dumas methods, fail to distinguish between melamine and naturally occurring milk proteins, allowing the protein levels to be falsified."

The table shows the physical properties of Melamine:


What's the impact of Melamine? What's the negative effect of Melamine (taken from Wikipedia)?

Melamine is known to cause renal and urinary problems in humans and animals when combined in the body with cyanuric acid,[7][8] sometimes present in drinking water and in animal feed[9], so its use in food production is banned in China elsewhere.[10]

Melamine adulteration of food products has made other headlines in recent years, including pet food recalls in Europe and the U.S. in 2007. It has also been employed as an additive to cattle feed to boost its nitrogen content, appearing in soy meal, corn gluten meal and cottonseed meal.

What is the acceptable level of melamine in food?

According to Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety, the legal limit is 2.5 part per million (ppm). The information is taken from The Star news - HK says Cadbury Melamine Levels Acceptable.


List of Milk Products being investigated... 

Following is a list of milk product being investigated under Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD Phillippines), [only applicable in Philiphines] (please refer to jpsimbulan.com). This is to give us an idea on what type of dairy products may have more dosage of melamine. These milk brands/products do not necessarily mean they are melamine contaminated. 

1. Anchor Lite Milk
2. Anchor Wam Frootmilk Drink Mango Magic
3. Anchor Wam Frootmilk Orange Chill
4. Anchor Wam Frootmilk Strawberry Spin
5. Anlene Milk
6. Anmum Materna 180g
7. Anmum Materna Chocolate
8. Dutch Lady Pure Milk
9. Farmland Skim Milk
10. Greenfood Yili Pure Milk
11. Jinwei Drink
12. Jollycow Pure Fresh Milk
13. Jollycow Slender Low Fat Milk
14. KLIM Instant Full Cream Milk Powder 1.8kg
15. M&M Chocolate Brown 40gm
16. Meiji Hokkaido Azuki (red bean ice cream)
17. Meiji Ujikintoki (red bean and green tea frozen confection)
18. Mengniu Original Drink Milk
19. Mengniu Pure Milk
20. Milk Chocolate Bars/China
21. Milk Chocolate Candies?China
22. Milkboy repacked
23. Monmilk Breakfast Milk Walnut Milk Beverage
24. Monmilk High Calcium Low Fat Milk
25. Monmilk High Calcium Milk
26. Monmilk Milk Deluxe Pure Milk
27. Monmilk Pure Milk
28. Monmilk Suan Suan Ru Sour Milk Beverage (Mango flavor)
29. Natural Choice Milk Ice Bar
30. Nespray
31. Nestle Carnation Calcium Plus Non Fat Milk Powder (1.6kg)
32. Nestle Chocolate Flavor Ice Cream Cone
33. Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk
34. Nestle Vanilla Flavor Ice Cream Cone
35. Nutri Express Milk
36. Nutri-Express 15 Nutritional Elements (blue, red and orange label and cap)
37. Nutri-Express Milk
38. Nutri-Express Milk Green Apple
39. Prime Roast Cereals 28gm
40. Pura Fresh Milk
41. Snickers Brown 59gm
42. Strawberry Sorbet
43. Trappist Dairy Low Fat Yogurt drink
44. Vita Fresh Milk
45. Wahaha Orange
46. Wahaha Yellow
47. Want Want Milk Drink
48. Yili High Calcium 250ml
49. Yili High Calcium Milk 1L
50. Yili High Calcium Low Fat Milk Beverage
51. Yili Low Fat Milk 1L
52. Yili Milk
53. Yili Puremilk 250ml
54. Yili Puremilk 1L
55. Yinlu Milk Peanut



Can I refer to any authority to ask further about Melamine...?

Well, of course. For the case of Malaysia (I dwell here), you can call Food Safety and Quality Division,  Ministry of Health Malaysia at

+60-3-88 83 36 55
+60-3-88 83 35 03,
+60-3-88 83 36 52
+60-3-88 83 35 00

For further information or latest update on milk products tainted with melamine issue, please access Food Safety and Quality Division website under Ministry of Health Malaysia. Alternatively, please visit WHO website to better understand about melamine contamination.

To obtain the updated list of milk/dairy products that are not affected by melamine contamination by Food Safety and Quality Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia, click here.

I'm sorry but I'm not able to provide information of the approve milk/dairy product for all countries.

Latest melamine related videos:



New tests on baby milk powder in China show no signs of melamine. The scandal that broke almost a month ago, is responsible for the deaths of four infants and sickening more than 54 thousand others. (Oct. 6). Source: AssociatedPress (AP).




Chinese candy sold in Chinatowns across the U.S. has tested positive for melamine, linking it to the tainted milk scandal blamed for at least 4 deaths and thousands of sick children. (Oct. 3). Source: AssociatedPress (AP).



BEIJING -- A Chinese dairy that sold milk powder linked to kidney stones in infants knew it contained a banned chemical weeks before ordering a recall, the health minister said Saturday. 

One child has died and an official said the number of children sickened had risen to 432. 

Investigators have detained 19 people and are questioning 78 to find out how melamine was added to milk supplied to Sanlu Group Co., China's biggest milk powder producer, officials said at a news conference. They said some tainted powder was exported to Taiwan but none was sent to other foreign markets. 

In Taiwan, authorities seized thousands of bags of Chinese milk powder. The incident reflects China's enduring problems with product safety despite a shake-up of its regulatory system after a spate of warnings and recalls about tainted toothpaste, faulty tires and other goods. 

The biggest group of victims is in China itself, where shoddy or counterfeit products are common. Infants, hospital patients and others have been killed or injured by tainted or fake milk, medicines, liquor and other products.

In 2004, more than 200 infants suffered malnutrition and at least 12 died after being fed phony formula with no nutrients. Some 40 companies were found to be making phony formula.

News and videos adopted from Youtube.com.

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:08 PM, ,

Water Shortage? Hot Water Circulating Systems Save Lots Of Water!

If you live in an area affected by severe water shortages you should look into obtaining a hot water circulating system. Hot water circulating systems can save tremendous amounts of water, and at the same time provide the user with fast hot water. Fast hot water is a convenience that once experienced, is difficult to do without. Not only that, but when you do have to run water down the drain for long periods of time to obtain your hot water, you feel exceedingly guilty about doing so...or at least I do.

There is a variety of hot water circulating systems on the market, so we shall examine several systems to get a feel for what the differences are. There are pros and cons to every system, and by knowing what they are you can make an intelligent decision as to whether or not you would benefit from such a system, and which kind of system to purchase.

We can begin with the traditional hot water circulating system. The traditional system, the hot water pipe connects from the outlet of the water heater to the first fixture, and then loops from fixture to fixture, and finally it connects back to the inlet of the water heater. There is circulating pump in the hot water line that keeps hot water circulating in the piping. The pump can be placed on a time to reduce the heat loss from the system and the pumping energy during periods of little or no use.

The traditional system is very wasteful of energy, since it keeps all the hot water piping full of hot water, which continuously looses heat to the environment. The water heater must work a lot harder than with a non circulating system, and could end up needing replacement much sooner than normal. The system is so wasteful of energy that it can't be used in California for new residential construction. Grundfos and Taco are manufactures of traditional pumps.

A better approach is to use what is being called a "hot water demand system". It's similar to a traditional system, but it uses the cold water line as the return line. A small pump is placed under the sink furthest from the water heater. When the pump is turned on, it pumps water out of the hot water line and into the cold water line. In effect, it's pumping the water in a big loop out of the water heater and back into the heater. No water goes in or out of the water main and no water gets run down the drain.

When hot water reaches the pump it shuts off. Now you have instant hot water without running water down the drain. According to Grundfos, a large international manufacturer of circulating pumps, a typical family can save up to 16,000 gallons of water per year with a circulating system. Demand systems do not use any more energy than a non circulating system, since they don't really circulate the water; they just pump it to the sink where it was going to go anyway. The pumps run for such a brief time that the energy usage is very small...typically less than $2.00 per year. With a demand system you save time, water, energy, and money. Metlund and Chilipepper Sales are two manufactures of demand systems.

Another type of system is kind of halfway between a traditional system and a demand system. This system uses a pump that connects between the hot and cold water lines like the demand systems, but run continuously or on a timer like the traditional system. The pumps turn on at one temperature and off at a second higher temperature, keeping the water in the piping at warm temperature range. Since the run pump often, the cold water line ends up with a lot of luke-warm water, and when you turn on the hot faucet you get warm water not hot. Like the traditional system it uses a lot of energy since it keeps the piping warmer than normal for long periods of time. Laing's AutoCirc and RedyTemp are two such systems.

True hot water demand systems are by far the most energy efficient and save the same amount of water as the traditional types of systems. Traditional systems are not usually installed in existing homes due to the extensive plumbing usually required along with the expense of operation due to the heat loss. Demand systems range in price from under $200.00 to over $500.00. In many cases the systems are eligible for rebates from the local water company. In some cases the rebate can cover the entire cost of the system.

Saving water and energy also reduces the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere as a result of the pumping, treating, and distribution of drinking water. So be green and install a circulating system in your home now.

William Lund has been an inventor for over 35 years, and has been working with circulating systems for many years. He has been issued several patents for hot water systems. For more information about hot water circulating systems visit his website: Faster Hot Water

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:19 PM, ,

Things That I Learned From A Simple Bolt and Nut

During the previous shut down, I got myself to become more hands on. Why? You can read this entry to know why in case you haven't read them.

There are lot to learn from a simple bolt and nut. There are various problems and difficulties that we can possibly encounter from a pair of bolt and nut. Followings are few things that I have learned from that small item (which are inclined to maintenance)...

1. If you over tightened those bolt and nuts, you might have some difficulties to open it later in future. If things get worse, the bolt and nuts can break. If it breaks, it will be difficult to open/dismantle the flange. In certain cases, you need to cut those bolt or nuts using oxy-cutting. However, we can only use oxy-cutting for bolt and but made from mild steel or GI. Stainless steel bolt and nut normally don't have any problem to be loosen because they do not corrode/rust.
Morale: Do not over tighten the bolt and nut. Just tighten it according to your normal human power.

2. Over paint... Sometimes you paint the bolt and nut for certain reason. One popular reason will be to avoid rust. One problem that our team faced during the previous shut down is to unscrew the nut. Oh my God, it was very tough because the paint covering the bolt and nut was so thick. We applied paint remover but still the stubborn paint would not completely removed. As a result, we took about 3 hours just to remove an 8" flange with 8 bolt and nuts. This affected our time and productivity.
Morale: do not over apply the paint.

3. Unsuitable length or size of bolt and nut. There were cases where we lost some bolt and nuts due to some slight work inefficiencies. When we want to replace them, we need to get suitable bolt and nuts. A shorter bolt will be required for a simple flange. However, a longer bolt will be required to sandwich a check valve between flanges.
Morale: Use the correct size and material of bolt and nut.

4. Grease the bolt and nut. After removing the bolt and nut from a flange, it's better to clean them if there are any debris or rust. Then apply grease to avoid rust and to ease screw and unscrew of it.
Morale: Get a cup of grease and ask your operator/fitter/worker to apply the grease.

5. Ensure there are sufficient stock of bolt and nuts. During a shut down or turn around, we normally dismantle flanges and manhole to clean vessel, pipeline, distillation column, deodorizers or others. Sometimes, a small number of those bolt and nuts broke and they need to be replaced. We must have ample stock of the correct bolt and nuts so that we can smoothly connect the flanges or close manholes.
Morale: Ensure your store has sufficient stock of the required bolts and nuts.

6. Tightening the bolt and nut. When tightening the bolts and nuts, we need to criss cross the arrangement. Normally a flange will have 8 holes for the bolts. Commence with 12 o'clock, followed by 6 o'clock. Then tighten 3 o'clock followed 9 o'clock and so on. This will ensure even compression towards the gaskets when we tightened the nuts.
Morale: Do it patiently and correctly. If not, the system may leak and we'll get in trouble (that is if we don't do a steam or air test before starting the plant).

7. Prepare the correct size of spanar. It's a waste of time if we don't use the correct size of spanar to unscrew a nut from a bolt. Ensure you have the correct spanar size. If you are want to unscrew a nut of size 24, use spanar size 24. If you want to use an adjustable spanar, use the one that is closer to the size range. Do not use an adjustable spanar which is too big. If you use an over size adjustable spanar, you will get tired pretty fast or you might trigger an accident.
Morale: Ensure you have the correct size of spanar when dealing with bolt and nut.

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:39 AM, ,

Power Surge From Local Power Supplier

There are simply a lot of problems in a processing or a production plant. I did mentioned a broad or general ideas on the problems before this.

It will be very frustrating if a problem arises from an uncontrollable source. For example, today, there was a power surge which came from the local power supply. It happened so fast and we felt the power interruption in a split second. Immediately, I looked through the CCTV and checkout what was happening from inside my office. The plant operators were running here and there checking the valves, pumps and other equipments. Three units of boilers which are supposed to supply steam to the plants shut off. The boiler man worked very hard to start up the boiler step by step. My colleague, a charge man, swiftly checked the LV (Low Voltage) room to checked on any problem or tripping on our site. Fortunately, everything was in perfect order. It was the 1 second power surge that affected us and definitely resulted in a terrible downtime to our production.

How to avoid such downtime?

For our side, we cannot avoid this. It must be control from the local power supplier, in our case, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). They must ensure their local power station is performing well and delivering sufficient power to surrounding factories and plants. Well, that's one kind of downtime that is very costly and unavoidable. A problem that is beyond our control.

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posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:03 PM, ,

The Author

zyz

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!


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