June 1999

Understand data needs of business and production systems for better integration

Although plantwide, centralized oil mist systems have served industry well since the early 1960s, closed-loop oil mist systems have made major inroads only in this decade. Environmentally-acceptable a..

This month, let's visit Latin America and see what is happening there. ARPEL, Regional Association of Oil and Natural Gas Companies (http://www.arpel.org/), is an organization devoted to the energy in..

In the first half of '99, U.S. refiners have been hit with some tough blows. Last month, troubles began brewing when California requested to be excused from using MTBE in the RFG program and proposed ..

Thinking about outsourcing your water system?

As Goya's famous etching reminds us: The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters*. Alas, the sleep of reason seems endemic in Europe, if not globally. Recently, in London, a young woman was shot in myst..

As I sat in my hair-cutter's chair last week, she asked me, "Why are gasoline prices so high?" Since many people in my local area know I'm involved in "making gasoline," it seems like this question is..

Dresser-Rand Co., Olean, New York, and Silvertech Int'l. plc, Houston, Texas, have agreed to jointly pursue rotating equipment and unified process control and safety system business opportunities, for..

Balcke-Dürr Energietechnik GmbH, Germany, has merged with US American Thermal Engineering International Corp. to form BDT Engineering, Inc. Both companies are manufacturers of power plant equipme..

Delta Hudson awarded major project Delta Hudson Engineering Ltd., a unit of McDermott Int'l. Inc., has been selected by Aux Sable Liquid Products LP to supply engineering and procurement services f..

Ethylene demand in Canada is projected to increase from a 1998 level of 3.3 million tons to 5.4 million tons by 2005. That's a 6.4%/yr average growth rate. Most of the growth will come from the polyet..

Gasoline volatility specifications are defined in volatility classes in the European Standard EN 228. CEN member countries have selected up to three volatility classes to satisfy the driveability requ..

Candidates for awards totaling $10 million are being sought by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, DOE is soliciting proposals from inven..

The Gas Research Institute (Chicago, Illinois) has developed a strategic outlook for U.S. energy supply and demand to 2015. Key highlights from the report follow. Primary gas demand is projected to..

India is the third-largest consumer of natural gas in the Asian region, relying until now on domestic production. Gas still accounts for less than 10% of primary energy consumption, and the economy is..

The most recent monthly forecast from analysts Purvin & Gertz Inc. (P&G) assesses refining products demand and forecasts potential growth areas. Highlights from the outlook follow. Petroleum demand..

"Fortunately, the present difficulties being experienced by the aromatics petrochemical industry are not expected to be long lasting," according to D.W. Penner, UOP LLC, Des Plaines, Illinois. "The un..

Last year's worldwide industrial enterprise resource planning (ERP) market was over $12.1 billion. The forecast for ERP's industrial software and services market is a 25%/yr increase, reaching $36.7 b..

Brainstorming The article by Om P. Goyal, "Brainstorm with yourself, and others," (March 1999) contained two errors. The text to Fig. 1 was inadvertently omitted and Mr. Goyal's picture for his b..

The Measurement, Control & Automation Association (MCAA) held its annual executive forum May 17–18 in Malvern, Pennsylvania. MCAA is an organization of instrumentation and control suppliers and i..