METERING

The quality of oil whether it is organic or inorganic is of interest to local and international buyers whether they are using crude oil, diesel, gasoline or even vegetable oil. One of the the liquids that is considered to be a dreadful contaminant is water. This is because it destroys the quality of the products (vegetable based) and reduces the heating value of a hydrocarbon. In the world of lubrication you will normally find that water and solids will destroy moving parts e.g bearings. 

Judith Love Cohen is an engineer. There is a great opportunity now for women to become engineers. We are seeing far more female engineers in the field than ever before. It is quite amazing that a lot of the videos being produced recently have women starring in the productions of "what is an engineer?"

What a Smart Meter is will probably be something very easy to understand to someone who has been involved in instrumentation and process control. These devices are going into certain people's homes and most people have the idea that a Smart Meter is a new type of electricity meter. The difference between a smart meter and a traditional electricity meter is the communication (wireless seems to be popular with manufacturers) and the ability to monitor a user's energy consumption by day and even by the hour. The justification for using a smart meter has been tied to "peak consumption" i.e. it should cost more to use electricity during those times than other periods and so the user is going to be aware of how much it is going to cost- hence the user will try to manage his energy usage e.g. turn on washing machines outside peak times. 

This application is very useful to get an instant print out of pipe properties  

All you have to do is download it to your Computer (works on all Windows Versions) and you will only have to enter in a few basic pipe details and the rest will be calculated e.g pipe ID, Pipe OD, Pipe Wall thickness, Traverse Metal Area, Section Modulus, Moment of Inertia, Surface Area Inside and Outside and also the weight.

Another useful reference tool is an explanation of different types of flanges and joints.

1. Weld Neck Flange

2. Slip-On Flange

3. Blind Flange

You can also familiarize yourself using the explanation of socket weld, threaded and lap joints here 

What actually is crude oil? Is it really just a dark liquid extracted from beneath the earth's crust? The truth is that crude oil actually contains a mixture of hydrocarbons. Crude oil can contain long and short chain molecules but crude oil needs to go through a separation process and distillation or fractionation is what is needed to separate out the constituent components. The simple explanation in the video titled "crude oil" gives beginners and idea of how the separation occurs through heating and vaporization. 

Some people might be interested in a short list of some of the components that we can obtain through the fractionation process

1. Distillates 

2. Naptha 

3. Light and Heavy Gas Oil

4. Residue

Some people might be less familiar with the residue which can be used to make things like grease, wax and asphalt.

Distillation systems are used to separate liquid mixtures into two or more components. The liquid being fed to the distillation column is called the "FEED" while the separated components are called "cuts" or "fractions" 

Students can benefit from videos that give a clear understanding of the process in a distillation column. If you take some time to go through the steps you will see that initially the "FEED" is stored in a tank and pumps are used to move this fluid to the pre-heater to which the fluid is pressurized and heated to slightly below it's boiling point. Since the pressure in the distillation tower is less than that of the pre-heater it will start to boil upon entering the distillation system.

Lighter components will rise up the tower and the heavier constituents will fall to the bottom of the tower because of gravity. The heavier products will exit but they can also reboiled using a heat exchanger so that less dense components left in the bottom can be sent back to heat the tower and effect a better "rise up" in the column.

The vapours that rise to the upper parts of the distillation column can then be fed to a condenser (so the liquids will drop out from cooling) and then the receiver/accumulator can be used as a storage vessel for this particular constituent liquid.

It is a good idea to familiarize oneself with this media presentation because the explanation above is quite simplified but it is enough to understand the basic distillation process from a layman's point of view. 

You are most likely going to bump into this process in an industrial process plant /refinery where crude oil is being separated out into  gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas. Another word used to describe the distillation tower is "fractionator" and the process called the "fractionation" process. It is important to understand that the actual "fractionation" occurs at different levels in the distillation tower and employs sieve trays using standard sieve sizes to separate the liquids/vapors. The trays themselves are designed to let the lighter ends (vapours) rise up the tower while at the same time allowing the liquid to be collected and flow down the "downcomers"  Here is a reference to someone who really took the time to give some decent explanations of distillation column images but it has been presented in a word document.

Some people might want to remember that the "FEED" actually enters the middle section of the tower where an phenomenon known as "flashing" occurs. Familiarizing ourselves with the terminology is important because there are three sections to remember 1. Flash Zone (in the middle) 2. Rectification Zone (on the top) and 3. Stripping Zone at the bottom.