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Volume 3, Issue 4
Fluid handling systems and pharmaceutics
Feature
Fluid handling products such as valves, filtration instrumentation, mixers, recording equipment, pumps and seals among others are used for fluid process handling in pharmaceutical industries. During the course of industrial-scale synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs, fluid handling systems are used to control the flow of chemicals, granules, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), and drugs. In the...
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Here to stay
Feature
Positive displacement (PD) flowmeters are not in the news today as much as Coriolis and ultrasonic meters, yet they have been around for much longer than either of these more modern types. Their history goes back to 1815, when Samuel Clegg invented the first PD gas flowmeter. This was a water sealed rotating drum meter. Clegg’s son-inlaw, John Malam, together with Samuel Crosley, invented...
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Keeping the whisky flowing
Feature
Situated on the banks of the River Isla in Speyside, UK, the Chivas Brothers’ Glen Keith distillery re-opened in June 2013, having been silent since 1999. Chivas Brothers is the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard. The company produces and exports some of the world’s best known and highest quality malt and blended whiskies, with an 85% market share of Scotch whisky...
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Flow measurement in biodiesel blending
Feature
Biodiesel is an important energy source. Its use is promoted through national and international legislation as part of an overall global strategy to reduce carbon emissions. Produced from sustainable renewable sources, such as soyabean, palm, or waste vegetable oil, biodiesel can be used in diesel engines on vehicles and non-road mobile machinery. However, to maximise efficiency and effectiveness...
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One steam, two steam
Feature
While many process engineers are familiar with traditional steam flow metering technologies such as orifice plates, venturi, vortex, rotameters, ultrasonic, and others, cone meters are emerging as another proven alternative solution with unique benefits. A food processing plant’s engineering team recently steamed ahead with a plantto- plant custody transfer project after discovering the...
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A hard slug
Feature
the Clyde Platform, situated in UKCS block 30/17b, located approximately 175 miles from Aberdeen, since its acquisition of the asset from BP Exploration in January 1997. It is a fixed platform on which there are facilities for drilling, production, accommodation, and the associated utilities. The topside’s operational weight of 20,000 tonnes is supported on a conventional eight-leg steel...
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Under pressure
Feature
For companies using liquefied gas tankers to transport their products, it makes sound economic sense that, when the transporter vehicles return to their depot, any product that remains in the tank is extracted for storage and possible future use. Alternatively, if the tanker is to be used for another product, it needs to be thoroughly cleaned in a way that is safe both to operatives and the...
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Pumping out the future
Feature
heroes of most everyday processes. On average, the regular person will experience a process that has been powered by a centrifugal pump eight times a day sometimes without even knowing. It is the same story for the new and developing vanadium redox battery technology being developed by companies across the globe. These companies are looking to create a world able to produce renewable energy via...
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The little pump that could
Feature
In the oil and gas industry, one comes across diaphragm pumps within a wide performance range, from exploration and processing up to transportation to the consumer. A great variety of applications is included in the term ‘chemical injection’. In all production steps, the operators have to add a variety of different additives in order to prevent undesirable conditions in processes,...
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Closed-loop systems: enhancing productivity
Feature
Traditional pump control systems rely upon a series of manual processes that require the attention of an operator or multiple operators along a plant line. In contrast, a closed-loop controller allows customers to remotely take control of batching and monitoring fluid transfer with an ease of use that reduces errors and lowers costs. A closed-loop controller does not require the same level of...
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Making leaks dye
Feature
Drips are common – faucets drip, air conditioners drip, wet hair and clothes drip. But when it comes to industrial equipment, drips are no laughing matter. Leaky industrial equipment represents not only lost revenue and downtime, but creates the potential for even the most ‘green-minded’ of businesses to contaminate the environment. When leaks grow large enough to be detected...
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Advanced ceramic materials in severe service valve applications
Feature
Perhaps surprisingly, there is no generally agreed or official definition as to what severe service is. Essentially, it may be taken to mean operating conditions where replacement of a valve is either expensive or limits the capacity of the process it is controlling. Across all sectors where severe service conditions may be found, from oil, gas, and petrochemicals to mining, mineral processing,...
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