Adam Duckett interviews Tom Pugh and Andrew Walker about Evove’s push to improve separations EVOVE wants to disrupt membrane technology. Using modelling and 3D printing, it has ambitions to change how membranes are designed, made, and who makes them while improving filtration performance, cutting energy use, and championing water conservation. These ambitions received a significant…
Safe Flow Meter Installation and Flow Monitoring in Hazardous Environments
Neil Hannay offers some practical advice FLOW meters are used in a wide variety of industries, processes and applications and are installed in a broad range of environments, including hazardous atmospheres. Because of this spectrum of variables, flowmeter manufacturers supply detailed technical datasheets and installation instructions for each specific flow measuring device. These documents should…
Opening Up Instrumentation
John de Mello explains how scientific instrumentation is becoming more open, more affordable and easier to make UNTIL recently, if you needed a scientific instrument, you had two options: you could buy a ready-made system or you could design and build one yourself. The first option was expensive, but the second was tricky and time-consuming.…
Rules of Thumb: Heat Exchanger Selection
Stephen Hall discusses the golden rules for design Critical elements: Heat exchangers at an oil refinery HEAT exchangers are critical elements in every process plant. Project engineers are responsible for determining the performance requirements and specifications. Specialty manufacturers then design and fabricate the exchangers in accordance with the specifications. I enthusiastically recommend to specifying engineers…
Do The Bump (Test)
Bump testing of portable gas detectors is necessary because they can save lives. TESTING the functionality of portable gas detectors is an essential safety procedure for anyone working in an environment which could contain hazardous gases. This can be achieved by performing a bump test – a simple method of ensuring portable detectors are working…
Rules of Thumb: Pressure Drop Due to Friction
Stephen Hall offers practical tips on calculating pressure loss due to friction THE Darcy-Weisbach equation is widely used to calculate pressure loss due to friction for liquids in pipelines. It is also sufficiently accurate for gases for most applications if the pressure drop is less than about 10% of the inlet pressure; the expansion of…
Flowmeters: Making the Right Choice
Flowmeters are essential measurement devices across industry and considering all the parameters at the outset is crucial in selecting the right one for the job, says Trevor Forster FLOWMETER sales in all sectors increase year on year as more control is required throughout the industrial landscape. In response, innovation in flow meter technology continues to…
Built Environment: A Plant-Based Alternative
John Barratt discusses how an established tracking system used in TV and movies is being adapted for the process industries IN THE chemical industry there is often much debate as to whether a process should be batch or continuous. Most processes at low production volumes start off as batch, largely because this is the way…
It shouldn’t happen to a pressure transmitter
ABB ABB’s Jon Davison offers his top tips to help you get the best performance from your pressure transmitters USED in everything from wastewater treatment through pulp and paper production to flows of gas in chemical plants, pressure transmitters are frequently exposed to conditions that can prematurely destroy or compromise the instrument if not specified…
Rules of Thumb: Flammable Liquids: Open or Closed?
Stephen Hall discusses the golden rules for design IT is somewhat surprising how frequently this question is raised and how confusion reigns when answering it: Is a process open to the environment, and why does it matter? I am discussing the use of the “open or closed” concept for flammable liquids in this article. Fire…