November 2002

An electric power producer was understandably puzzled when, about a year ago, it received a memorandum from one of the premier manufacturers of rolling element bearings stating, in effe..

Let's assume that you aren't currently based in the UK and that the boss has just mentioned that he needs to transfer someone there to help expand your company's operation. It might be ..

Idled boilers are very susceptible to corrosion. Protecting the integrity of idle equipment is critical to maximizing system reliability and minimizing unplanned repair or replacement c..

Today, more than ever, process manufacturers must achieve operational excellence (OpX) to deal with intensifying global competition, weakening economies, industry consolidation, stricte..

Business process re-engineering provided a substantial improvement to this function

Repair pipe leaks quickly The STOP IT Pipe Repair System from Indumar Products is claimed to work on all metal and plastic pipes. It has been successfully used to repair leaks in chemical pl..

Alliance providing EPA compliance for HPI SAT Corp., Houston, Texas, an integrated field force automation solutions provider..

Moisture-in-oil analysis Portable, high-performance Vapor Pro analyzer is claimed to be suitable for all mineral oils includ..

Refinery upgrade Fluor Corp. is performing engineering, procurement and construction services on a refinery upgrade project ..

Sulfur solidification and handling solutions Sandvik Process Systems engineers total sulfur solidification and handling syst..

News from annual ECC conference. The Engineering and Construction Contracting organization is now a nonprofit affiliate of ..

Members of the Construction Industry Institute have seen the rise and fall of the dot-com explosion and are interested in the lessons that can be learned from this episode in technology..

The gap in U.S. natural gas consumption and production is widening, the supply of "stranded gas" is increasing globally and interest in LNG importation into the U.S. is again hot news. ..

Industry analysts and executives convened last month for a global forum focused on vital issues for the engineering and construction industry. The day-long conference, held at Rice Univ..

Treat e-mail as permanent, as if it were on paper, admonish attorneys specializing in construction contract issues. In a workshop at the recent ECC Conference (San Francisco, California..

FIATECH, founded two years ago with support from industry organizations, is addressing the need for accelerating the commercialization of technologies to make significant bottom-line di..

Just prior to 2002, U.S. natural gas costs averaged $10/million Btus (MMBtu). This resulted in $300/ton methanol prices in the spot market, according to a new outlook from CMAI (www.cma..

According to market researchers at ARC (www.arcweb.com), the PLC market will revive despite the global economic slowdown. Users need automation to improve productivity, reduce costs and..

The Hydraulic Institute (HI), the largest association of pump manufacturers in North America, has endorsed the Premium Efficiency Electric Motor program, known and marketed as "NEMA Pre..

In the U.S., the political war still rages over what constitutes a risk-free, clean-fuel blending component. Presently, MTBE's future remains clouded with many conditions and uncertaint..

Test your knowledge to improve your refinery’s safety and reliability

  Table 3. Total improvement   ..

Inherently safer design The survey concerning inherently safer design (October 2001, p. 36) has been completed. There were 63 responses from 11 different countries, which included indus..

New configuration minimizes capital cost in some applications

Investigate the root cause for conflict between expectations and the modeling system

Follow these selection, installation and maintenance guidelines

Simple algebraic optimization method provides the answer to this and other environmental and plant risk management questions