Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis

Description of the Method A FMEA is used to examine each potential failure mode of a process to determine the effects of the failure on the system. A failure mode is the symptom, condition, or fashion in which hardware fails. It may be identified as a loss of function, a premature function (function without demand), an out-of-tolerance condition, or a physical characteristic, such as a leak, observed during inspection. The effect of a failure mode is determined by the system's response to the failure. Analysis Procedure A FMEA has three steps: (1) defining the process, (2) performing the analysis, and (3) documenting the results. Defining...
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Energy Recovery with Compact Heat Exchangers

Compact heat exchangers are used for heat recovery applications where high efficiency is vital, space or weight constraints apply, or exotic materials are required. Marcos Matsufugi Alfa Laval The refinery business is under constant pressure to increase efficiency. A highly competitive market combined with rising energy and feedstock costs require refineries to ramp up production while cutting operating costs. Switching from shell-and-tube to welded plate heat exchangers (also known as compact heat  exchangers) is a proven and straight forward way of solving the problem. The use of compact heat exchangers offers benefits in...
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Preheat Train Network Modifications

In this case history, a crude distillation unit (CDU) preheat train network in a Saudi Aramco refinery was simulated and analyzed for anticipated modifications to the network. This analysis helped eliminate inefficiencies in the network, and, based on the insights from the analysis, various options were generated and the existing network was reconfigured. The reconfiguration allowed the temperature of the crude preheat network, which processes Arab Light crude oil, to be increased to the maximum of 277°C from a previous temperature of 261°C. Existing configuration. Desalted crude from the tank is heated by the crude column top pumparound,...
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