Chemical Engineering April 2013 - 47

* Inappropriate or deficient sealing
surfaces
* Incorrect media and efficiency
* Lack of or incorrect maintenance
* Instrumentation deficiencies (or
lack of necessary instrumentation)
* Change in feed conditions
Concluding remarks
Many years of field experience teach
that a key step in process control is
proper control of contamination. Most
plants that do not take this step struggle
with high operational costs and
low reliability, in addition to many
detrimental technical, economic and
environmental aspects.
There is no significant disadvantage
to implementing enhanced separation
and filtration besides a marginal increase
in capital cost. One might tend
to believe that cost will be prohibitive,
but experience shows that this is not
the case, and operational costs can
actually be lower. On the other hand,
there are real and serious issues involved
with neglecting separation and
filtration systems, using systems with
deficient designs, or simply not giving
the proper attention to contamination
control. Invariably, any capital savings
from low-cost separation and filtration
will ultimately lead to exponentially
higher processing costs, low reliability
and frequent unit upsets.
It is also important to understand
that each plant and process has its
own equilibrium point where the cost
of contamination control is acceptable
and the residual contamination level
is tolerable. Users, engineering firms
and suppliers have the responsibility
to be involved in finding such balance,
with the objective of supplying the
right separation and filtration solution
for each individual plant.
A holistic understanding of the
case, and why a given separation
system is required, is critical in designing,
troubleshooting, optimizing,
operating and maintaining systems.
This will provide positive process
and economic benefits, allowing each
plant to take full advantage of the
installed process capabilities and to
maximize throughput.
■
Edited by Charles Butcher
Author
David Engel is the senior
consultant and co-founder of
Sulphur Experts, Filtration
Division (www.sulphurexperts
.com) and managing director of
Nexo Solutions LLC (21 Waterway,
Suite 300, The Woodlands,
Tex. 77380; Phone: 832-2966624;
Email: david.engel@nexosolutions.com,
Website: www.
nexosolutions.com). He has
more than 20 years of industrial
experience in many areas ranging from sensors,
corrosion-resistant materials to separation
technologies. He is the inventor in more than 15
U.S. patents, and has developed new businesses
and technologies, and executed projects, for Eastman
Kodak, Eli Lilly, Pentair, General Electric
and Sulphur Experts. He holds a B.S. in industrial
chemistry and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, and is
Six-Sigma certified. He is a member of the American
Chemical Society (ACS), and the Gas Processors
Association (GPA). He currently is the president
of the American Filtration and Separations
Society (AFSS), Southwest Region.
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Chemical Engineering April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering April 2013