13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy - A Must Read Chemical Engineering Fiction Novel
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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.
Editorial Reviews
Reviews
"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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Labels: Chemical Plant, Equipments, Experience, Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:24 PM,
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Power Failure in Our Industry!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
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/
Labels: Chemical Engineer, Chemical Engineering, Chemical Plant, Control System, Energy, Equipments, green, Learning Curve, Plant Shutdown, Problem, Process Parameters, Processing.
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 7:54 PM,
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Do I missed my previous job?
Sunday, June 13, 2010
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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Labels: Chemical Engineer, Chemical Engineering, Environmental, Oil and Fats, Oil and Gas, pH.D, Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:06 PM,
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Things That I Learned From A Simple Bolt and Nut
Saturday, May 17, 2008
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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Labels: Chemical Plant, Corrosion, Equipments, Experience, Learning Curve, Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:39 AM,
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One Vital Plant Shutdown Lessons
Saturday, May 03, 2008
We just completed our 7 days plant shutdown and it left me with a mixed feeling. In my earlier entry, "Interrupted Planning", I highlighted about how the plant shutdown suddenly took place and it had interrupted not only my plans but also others.
I bet a lot of you may have enjoyed your Labour Day break last Thursday. Before this, I really look forward for it. Luckily I haven't plan anything special or big during that public holiday. Whenever the plant shutdown was instructed to be conducted, I already knew that I'm going to be in trouble. I had already approved annual leaves for 3 of my downline staffs (2 supervisors and 1 shift leaders). They have taken leave for 4 straight days from Thursday (the Labour day) till Sunday. It's difficult for me to asked them to cancel their annual leaves because they have planned the leaves 3 or 4 weeks ago, applied the leaves and I have approved it.
The problem does not happen just in my area... The maintenance department, who plays some significant role in our shutdown also have some manpower shortage with similar reason.
So, we have to arrange our limited manpower accordingly to do all the routine and special jobs for the annual shutdown. To make things worst, another 2 of my manpowers (1 my senior supervisor and 1 operator) were sick and unfit to work. The senior supervisor had a kidney stone while my plant operator had a high blood pressure up to 170. As a result, the amount of manpower I had was slashed down again.
It was a really serious challenge for me. I'm having a shutdown but I don't have my key people to assist me. As a result, I have to make myself an engineer cum supervisor. I walked around the plant, checked and assisted all work. I managed our contract worker manpower as well. I cannot imagine what's going to happen to all those work if I wasn't there to coordinate and monitor the jobs. I personally did some of the shutdown work such as filling up the high pressure boiler with deionized water, working on those flanges to dismantle or tightened the nut and bolts etc. I became a physical hands on person...
It was a very expansive lesson for me. Next time, I cannot simply approve annual leaves for my downline staffs. They can take leave, but when ever there are very important job like a shutdown, they need to sacrifice their leaves. I'll share some of the valuable experiences during my shutdown later.
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Labels: Equipments, Plant Shutdown
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 4:17 PM,
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Me and My White Safety Helmet
Thursday, December 27, 2007
When i was a student, I wonder how would it feel to become a chemical engineer? How does it feel to wear the safety helmet, that will made us look like a real cool macho engineer.
In the lab at the university, we just put on the white lab coat and not the safety helmet. After my first degree, I continued with my masters degree and still, I have not yet put on the safety helmet. I wonder when will I own and wear the safety helmet.
After completing my masters degree, I joined a local oil and gas servicing company and directly traveled to the site on my first day at work. I was supplied not only with the safety helmet that I wanted to put on all this while, but also jacket, safety boot, coverall, cotton glove, leather glove, goggle and 3M half face mask. On top of that, I have to manage a group of people who were about 5-10 years older than me to blend some specialty chemicals. Under the hot shiny sun, I have to wear the safety helmet. That time, I wished I don't have to wear the safety helmet with the goggle attach on top of it (The goggle need to be applied while blending or pouring the chemicals). I don't feel like the safety helmet is protecting me from anything. After all, there's nothing going to fall onto my head at the side. It was really heavy and I felt like my center of gravity is at my head!!!
Despite of that, I felt sort of proud to display my safety helmet on the rear dashboard of my car and let everybody see it. At home my son will take my helmet and act as an engineer, just like his father. I don't know whether he wants to be an engineer too. It's totally up to him.
Few years after servicing the oil and gas industry, I get a new job as a process engineer in a refinery plant (in the oils and fats industry), I still put on the safety helmet. Now, it is different. I don' have to put any accessories on the safety helmet. It is lighter. I have to wear the safety helmet which is white in colour as soon as I enter the factory. White safety helmet differentiate executives from supervisors, technicians, operators, and others which put on a yellow safety helmet. In different places, safety helmet colour coding is applied. Some may have blue colour representing a safety committee or safety officer etc.
Wearing safety helmet in the plant is very important. The plant is really big and there are a lots of equipments. I lost track of the number of occasions where I knock my head on something. Sometimes, my head hit a metal bar, a globe valve, a lowered roof and others which I could not recall. Luckily I have my safety helmet to protect my head and brain! I could not imagine the state of injury I'm going to face if not protected by the safety helmet.
Previously, I wrongly used the safety helmet. How did I misused it? I sat on it!!! That is totally a wrong usage of the safety helmet. As a result, my safety helmet have a lot of ugly scratches. The white safety helmet on the picture above belongs to me. If you have super focus eyes, you can zoom in and notice some scratches and uneven surface on the helmet edge. Don't be like me. Appreciate your safety helmet. Don't sit on your safety helmet. Respect it. It will protect you, your head and brain!
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Labels: Accident, Chemical Engineer, Jobs, Learning Curve, Oil and Fats, Oil and Gas, Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:49 PM,
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Production Plant Problem # 2 - Inconsistent Pump Flow
Sunday, December 02, 2007
From my previous post, I stated about having three problems in the plant while starting and stopping it. I'm going to share our experience on problem # 2 first. I'll post problem # 1 in a few days time. There's no particular reason for me to post about problem # 2 first instead of problem # 1. I just think problem # 2 is more interesting and I learned a lot from it.
Problem # 2 – Inconsistent pump flow
The pumps below a buffer tank could not deliver the required flow rate that they are supposed to. The flow rate was extremely slow and the discharge pressure was not consistent at all. The pressure went crazy up and down from 0.5 to 5 bars. We tried to adjust and play around with the pump in order to get the desired flow rate.
Slow flow rate means lower throughput, hence lower production. In actual, if we keep on running with the low flow rate, production will be 50% less. We could not afford that to prolong. We have heavy shipment ahead and we need to immediately rectify the pump problem.
There were all together 3 pumps in a row of similar motor kW and pumping capability. Initially we thought all three pumps were having some problem (or the same problem). We asked the maintenance fitters to check, service and replace the mechanical seals. We checked the pump pressure and found it was OK because the discharge line pressure can go up to 4 – 6 bar. There’s no way the pump is having a problem.
Then we thought it was Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH) problem. We increase the level of oil inside the buffer tank so that the NPSH will increase. That didn’t work either. The flow rate was still low and the discharge pressures were inconsistent.
By this time, we suspected the pumps were experiencing serious air-lock. Air-lock is a situation where the pump could not pump efficiently and effectively due to some disturbance from air turbulence inside the pump suction line. The pump discharge line pressure inconsistency might be due to the air-lock problem. The question now is where the air is coming from? We decided to thoroughly check the pump suction line to search for any hole/leak (which air may easily enter because the tank is operating under vacuum). We removed the insulations covering the suction line, checking and inspected it, but still we could not see or detect any leak (because the tank and pipe was under vacuum, which means oil would not pour/come out from the leak due to vacuum holding it). Time was running fast but we have not yet settled the problem. We began feeling the pressure coming from our superior/management.
After almost one day running low, we made a more drastic and radical move. We hold the plant and braked vacuum – stopped production. We waited for a while. At first, we noticed nothing. The pump suction pipeline looked fine. After 15 minutes, we were caught by surprised on what we saw! Droplets of oil came out from the tank insulation. At first, it was little, but then there were more and more oil pouring out. This confirmed that there is a leak somewhere underneath the tank insulation. We cautiously removed a small portion of insulation covering the tank where the oil came out (because the oil and the surface was extremely hot (260oC)).
After successfully removing the insulation, we saw oil pouring out from the welding joint between the tank and the pipeline. We looked at each other, wandering how we are going to resolve the already identified problem. We cannot simply weld the leaking point because there traces of vacuum was still inside the tank and system. If the maintenance fitter welds the leak point, we fear spark may enter the tank (and system) and trigger fire inside the tank, pipeline and other vessels. At the same time, it is impossible to weld the leak point because oil was coming out from the tank. Should we drain the balance oil in the buffer tank? If yes, that would cost a lot of time, estimated half a day. Just imagine the downtime we already faced and add up another half a day for repair work and starting up the plant again. We have to think of a better and faster way to weld the leaking point.
Finally we came out with a very risky idea but can solve the problem faster. We have to maintain a slight vacuum inside the buffer tank just to hold the oil from pouring out from the leaking hold.
Labels: Chemical Plant, Equipments, Experience, Learning Curve, Plant Shutdown, Problem, Processing.
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:33 PM,
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Production Plant Problem
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Normally, there’ll be less or no problem when a production plant is running smoothly. The supervisors and plant operators will be happy taking care of a normal running plant. The executives and engineers will monitor and optimize the processing parameters and ensure all utilities consumption such as water, electricity, steam, air, chemicals, natural gas, LFO, diesel etc are kept at the lower side. Once in a while there’ll be some problems such as leaking mechanical seal in a centrifugal pump or the level transmitter signal is not showing the right reading. Well, those are just some minor maintenance problem and could be easily entertained by the fitters and technician.
In the next post, I’ll share 3 problems that we faced during our plant stopping and starting up last week, which made a lot of us miserable. You’ll learn these real problems that none of us ever expected it to happen. Check it out later…
Labels: Accident, Chemical Plant, Equipments, Experience, Fire, Learning Curve, Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:32 AM,
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Some Short Updates
Sunday, August 19, 2007
The pass few days were very hectic for me. Last week I gave a talk entitled "Chemical and Process Engineering - Sharing Knowledge and Experience" to the first year Chemical Engineering students at University Technology Malaysia (UTM). It was my first experience delivering such talk to more than 100 students. I guess it went well and I hope the students gain some valuable information from my talk.
Today, I just returned from a day trip to Kuala Lumpur. I'm still exhausted but I push myself to publish a post here. I met the design project group from University Technology MARA (UiTM) that I supervised as allied supervisor. They need some help on certain areas of the design project and I explained and assisted them. I think it's very good that UiTM introduce and include allied supervisor from industry to assist supervising the design project that the students are doing. Their report will be more realistic, accurate and they'll have better comprehension on the project.
At work, I was busy as ever. We stopped one of the plant and did a swift maintenance job to improve the plants process. I'm glad that the planning was good and jobs were well coordinated and executed. Supervisors, maintenance fitters and plant operators have done a brilliant job and the plant managed to be started smoothly after that.
In order to create a better and conducive working environment, the management initiated Super 5S which is part of the Japanese Kaizen system. 5S was already introduced earlier but it slowly faded as nobody was really monitoring it. Now, a steering committee was formed to lead, enforce and apply 5S. I was elected as one of the steering committee and that means additional job and responsibility for me. Part of my task is to be a 5S trainer and make sure everybody is well trained. Hmm....I got to start first my keeping my desk tidy!!....
Besides that, I also received few emails from various readers (of this blog) asking questions related to chemical engineering industry, career, plant process, data, information etc. I have answered some of them and I also have not answered some of it. Don't worry, I'll answer the emails as soon as humanly possible. Thanks for your emails...
Labels: Chemical Plant, Plant Shutdown
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:35 PM,
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Gaskets
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Yesterday, I attended a very interesting and informative training about gaskets. I never imagine that there are a lot to learn and explore about gaskets. After attending the training (delivered by Nipseal), my comprehension on gasket improved and I began appreciating it more. From the training, I know that there are various types and material of gaskets. Prices of gaskets vary a lot and some type of gasket is very tedious and difficult to manufactured/fabricated. Well, what is a gasket? According to Wikipedia, a gasket is a mechanical seal that fills the space between two objects, generally to prevent leakage between the two objects while under compression.
Other definitions/descriptions of gasket:
"A flexible material used to seal components together; either air-tight or water-tight" (PartSelect.com).
"Any of a wide variety of seals or packings used between matched machine parts or around pipe joints to prevent the escape of a gas or fluid" (Staffgasket.com).
Gaskets are commonly produced by cutting from sheet materials, such as gasket paper, rubber, silicone, metal, felt, fiberglass, or a plastic polymer.
Gaskets save money by allowing less precise mating surfaces on machine parts which can use a
gasket to fill irregularities. Gaskets are commonly produced by cutting from sheet materials, such as gasket paper, rubber, silicone, metal, cork, felt, fiberglass, or a plastic polymer (such as polychlorotrifluoroethylene). Gaskets for specific applications may contain asbestos. It is usually desirable that the gasket be made from a material that is to some degree compressible such that it tightly fills the space it is designed for, including any slight irregularities.
Gasket is very important in a process plant. It maintains the energy, temperature and pressure in a process system. Selecting a suitable gasket is a must because it does cost money. It is also directly related to the process temperature, pressure, type of medium (fluid or gas) and the chemical properties of the medium.
Another new knowledge that I learned is about spiral wound gasket that can withstand pressure up to 70-80 bar. It is a very interesting and carefully manufactured gasket made of stainless steel. However, I shall elaborate more about this in another post because it is deserve its own post!
OK, let me just explain about the simple/normal gasket. With reference to the left illustration, the gasket is sandwiched between flanges. The property of the gasket and correct compression/tightness allows the process system to maintains it pressure and would not allow oil or gas to leak.
The above illustration shows how a gasket is positioned and locked between those 4 bolts.
Another illustration shows how a gasket is positioned and locked between those 8 bolts.
We install/fix the correct type of gasket before connecting the pipeline with flanges.
The above photo is a very interesting one. It shows the condition of gasket after being used for some time. It is difficult to remove the gasket by bare hands because the gasket sticks very well. We need to use suitable tools to peel and remove the gasket from the flanges. Usually, flanges like this is opened during shutdown to clean/clear pipelines or vessels. After inspection, a new fresh gasket will be used. Never use a gasket twice.
Gasket is not only used between flanges. It is widely used everywhere in a process plant and in our kitchen (the refrigerator). In a plant, gasket can be found in the heat exchanger, valves, vessel man holes etc. The gasket needs to be properly maintained to ensure no upsets in the plant.
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Labels: Chemical Plant, Leak, Learning Curve, Plant Shutdown, Process Parameters
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:22 PM,
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Spiral Heat Exchanger
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
In my plant, there are two small spiral heat exchangers which function as a shutdown cooler. I'm not sure what is the capacity and specifications of it. I have no experience using or operating them. But, I'm interested to learn about them.
Spiral heat exchanger differs a lot from plate heat exchanger (PHE). There are also pros and cons using spiral heat exchanger compared to PHE. From my limited experience, a spiral heat exchanger require less maintenance. There is no plates and no internal gaskets. To clean the internal part, a "cleaning in place" (CIP) is carried out using caustic solution up 60-75oC. The spiral heat exchanger is totally stainless steal solid and it is very heavy. One problem that can make a spiral heat exchanger useless (or very expansive to repair) is when the internal wall crack or leak. When this happen, the fluids entering the spiral heat exchanger will mixed and hence affect the production quality (reject!!!).
Spiral Heat Exchangers exhibit ideal heat transfer and fluid handling characteristics for a wide range of applications.
- Takes up only one sixth of the space
- Means lower costs for buildings, pumps valves and piping
- Uses 75% less pumping energy
- Provides higher K- value and a close temperature approach
- Ensures continual self-cleaning effect for maximum operating efficiency
For further references on this type of heat exchanger, check out Alfa laval and Heseco.
Example of a big spiral heat exchanger. The mass of it is about 5 tonnes.
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Labels: Equipments, Heat Exchanger, Leak, Learning Curve, Plant Shutdown
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:51 PM,
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Partially Blocked Pipeline
Sunday, March 04, 2007
This is one of the reason a plant shutdown is important. This pipeline is partially blocked with spent earth mixed with gum. During plant shutdown and maintenance, we can clear and clean the line.
Labels: Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 8:43 PM,
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Steam Test
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Steam test is almost similar to air test. Instead of injecting air, we injected steam into the vessels and pipelines. The reason we conduct steam test is to check for any leakages in the vessels and pipelines. However, unlike air test, steam test is easier to detect leak because steam will visibly shoot out from the leaking point when the pressure is already high (about 1.5 to 2 bars).
It is not necessary to maintain the steam pressure higher than 2 bars as it is already more than sufficient. Applying more steam will only be wasting time, energy and money. In addition to that, it will take longer time to release the steam after completing the process.
For our case, we did steam test at the beginning and at the end of the shutdown. Both were necessary (depending on the condition of the plant). We identified the leaking points and welded them from the earlier test. The final steam test was carried out to double check before plant start-up. Both steam tests have their own downside. The first one will delay cooling of vessels, because steam is hot. Therefore, upon opening the manhole, we have to allow at least 1/2 a day before entering the vessels. Another downside which applied for both earlier and later steam tests were the amount of water produced as condensate from the steam. During plant cleaning, existence of water is not really a problem. However, during plant start-up, water has to be fully drained before pumping oil into plant. Having a mixture of water and oil will create various problem including oil quality.
Labels: Leak, Plant Shutdown
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 9:01 PM,
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Air Test Before Plant Start-Up
Monday, February 26, 2007
The excruciating plant shutdown was finally over on Saturday. We started-up the plant on Saturday 2200 hrs. Hopefully everything will run silky smooth. We conducted both air and steam tests twice in two different sections in the plant. From the first air test (at the bleaching section), we hold the air pressure inside the vessels and pipelines at 1.5 bar (it took about 1 hour ++ to build the pressure up to 1.5 bar). The pressure dropped to 1.0 bar in 1.5 hours. This indicates that there were some leakages in the system and we need to search for it. Supervisors and plant operators hunted for the leaking points, equipped with alkaline solution to detect leaking air by spraying them on the vessels and pipelines. It's like finding a needle in a haystack, the leak could be anywhere on the pipe surface. After numerous sprays and long search for it, we acquired quite a number of tiny bubbles. Leak can simply be detected when bubble appeared from the leaking points. They were marked and maintenance fitters attended and welded them after we released the air.
Releasing air process does not take a short time. That's why we need to coordinate the shutdown properly and effectively. After detecting the leaking points, air was released from the vessels and pipelines. This took about 2 hours. After air pressure is lesser, maintenance fitters welded the leaking points. Upon completion and satisfied with the workmanship of the maintenance team, we repeated the air test, hold it at 1.2 bar. We targeted the previous leaking points, sprayed them and they were all ok except for one point beneath a retention vessel. We released the steam again, called the fitters and asked them to re-weld the point. Confident that the welding work is good, I instructed my supervisor to release the air. There goes another hour, waiting for the air to escape. At that point, bleaching section is ready for plant start-up.
I'll share about the steam test tomorrow.
Labels: Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 7:57 PM,
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Shutdown Day 5
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Time is running swiftly. We stopped the plant on Monday, and now Friday is over. In day #5, we had the JKKP (Department of Safety & Health - DOSH) inspector inspecting all our pressure vessels and high pressure boiler. Everything was smooth and working perfectly fine. Immediately after the JKKP inspector left, we boxed-up the vessels and high pressure boiler. We fixed back the Niagara filter leaf. We did some cleaning as well. Tomorrow, we are going to complete balance maintenance job. Later, we will carry on with steam and air test. Finally, we shall start up the plant. Hopefully we'll have a perfect start up.
Labels: Plant Shutdown
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:27 AM,
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Wet Wet World
Friday, February 23, 2007
It was day 4 of the plant shutdown and it's nearly coming to an end. It was also a wet wet world in the plant. We have to do a lot of washing and cleaning. Tomorrow will be the JKKP inspection day and we have to ensure that the plant and pressure vessels are perfect and clean. Just now, we removed scrap metal, spent earth, damaged insulation and other waste / rubbish. Darkish and dirty floor with oil traces was mopped and cleaned. In general, I'm pleased with the work performed by my down line.
Labels: Plant Shutdown
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 1:03 AM,
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Plant Shut Down - No Water Supply
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Shutdown activity is going on which means a lot usage of water for cleaning purposes. In addition to that we have to conduct "Cleaning in Progress" (CIP) for the shell and tube heat exchanger. CIP is carried out to remove the scale and carbon deposited inside the shell and tube in order to improve the heat transfer. Unfortunately, suddenly the water supply was cut off without any notice. Worse than that, nobody realized the unavailability of the water supply for about 3 hours. Upon realizing it, we have to depend on our reserve water supply which is only about 1500 m3. The reserve water is normally saved for the utility boiler because steam is a necessity to run a plant. If steam is not produced with sufficient pressure, production will be affected and if too less, it will stop all plants.
All activity involving water have to be stopped. We have to save the water for the boiler. The plant shutdown cleaning activity was affected and delayed as well. Luckily, the water supplied was back a few hours later and we continued with our shutdown cleaning activities.
Labels: Plant Shutdown, Problem
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 12:28 AM,
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Plant Shutdown Steam Test
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
I came home from work and it was already midnight. I like it this way because I can escape the heavy traffic jam. It was quite a hectic day at work especially when the shutdown just started. We have to do a lot of activities to stop the plant. I experienced and learned a lot of things and would like to share it with my loyal readers. The only thing is that, I cannot tell all of it in one shot. Due to time limitations, I will share them bit by bit.
Labels: Plant Shutdown
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 1:45 AM,
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Plant Shutdown Again
Monday, February 19, 2007
It's a public holiday in Malaysia now with people celebrating Chinese New Year. Everybody is gathering with their family or having a great vacation in various places. However, again I have another plant shutdown and therefore I could not enjoy my holiday. Of course, we had plant to go to Kuantan to visit my in laws, but that could not happen. Maybe next time.
For this shutdown, my working time will be slightly different. I'm going to work from 2 pm to 11pm. My senior colleague will be in charge in the morning until 5 pm. We have to properly monitor the shutdown work to ensure everything is OK. That's why we split our working time. The whole process will take 1 week to complete and I hope everything will run silky smooth.
My wife wrote something about my duty inside her blog.
Labels: Plant Shutdown
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 10:53 AM,
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Checking the Valves
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Before facing the shutdown in 11 days time, I toured my plant another round, just to check all the valves and other parts that need to be replaced. I went from one pump to another pump. There are a lot of pumps. They don't look good. Ugly black dirty oils covered them. I checked the suction and discharge ball valves. Some of the suction valve are 6" and 8" valve and the discharge valve are 4". Well, the sizes of big valves are easier to detect or decide. There's no big problem for me identifying them now. However, that was not the case when I joint the company earlier. It took me some time to get familiar with all types of valves and their brand.
Then I went from one heat exchanger to another heat exchanger. I checked out the drain valves. It's harder for me to estimate the sizes of those drain valves and deciding the brand. There are commonly small varying from 1/2" to 2". In between those sizes, there are also 1.75" 1", 1.5" and others. Deciding the correct size and brand is vital to order and purchase the repair kits/seats. Ordering the wrong spare parts will just be a total waste of money and time and the chance to replace the valve seats which can only be done during plant shutdown.
The darkish, oil layer covering the valves at the pumps and heat exchangers are something that must be improved. It should not be left dirty and uncomfortable for eyes. It should be cleaned and well maintained. I want the valves to be clean and shining like a new piece of metal. Well, We are working on that as well. I'm developing a 5S system (a Japanese Concept of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)) for maintaining the plant to be a clean healty place and pleasant working environment.
Labels: Heat Exchanger, Plant Shutdown, Problem, Pump, Quality, Valve
posted by Kipas Repair JB @ 11:17 PM,
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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!
