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Equipments
Atmospheric Distillation Unit - Crude oil is sent to the atmospheric distillation
unit after desalting and heating. The purpose of atmospheric distillation is primary
separation of various cuts of hydrocarbons namely, fuel gases, LPG, naptha,
kerosene, diesel and fuel oil.
Air Cooler An air cooler is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating
fluid within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes. A
common example of an air cooler is a cars radiator. Air coolers are used in
industrial applications when reliable source of water is not available. Even if
water is available, in some cases, air cooled exchangers are favored for
economic & operational reasons.

Boilers Boilers are basically vessels used for heating the water and converting
it to steam, as the name suggests. Boilers vessels generally use an internal heat
source for boiling the water. Generally the steam is used as a utility in process
plants and needs to be available at certain temperature and pressure conditions.
A boiler is designed based on the desired temperature pressure conditions of the
product steam.
Bottoms Reboiler - The liquid outlet from bottom of a distillation column is close
to its initial boiling point, due to near equilibrium conditions on each of the
distillation column trays. This reboiler, which is essentially a heat exchanger,
heats up the liquid. A reboiler may use steam, fire, another hot liquid etc.
Centrifugal Pumps Everything about centrifugal pumps including structure of
the pumps, theory & equations for centrifugal pump design, guidelines for
operation & maintenance of centrifugal pumps, overloading of pumps, cavitation
of pumps, internal recirculation in centrifugal pumps etc.
Compressors - Compressors are broadly classified into two basic categories:
Rotodynamic compressors and Positive Displacement compressors. Centrifugal
compressors are discussed as rotodynamic compressors. Rotary and
reciprocating compressors are discussed as positive displacement compressors.
Cooling Towers Cooling of the water is achieved through direct contact of
water with air. The air vaporizes a part of this water and cooling effect is provided
primarily by an exchange of latent heat of vaporization resulting from evaporation
of water. During this phenomenon, which is widely known as evaporative cooling,
heat is transferred from water to air. This heat is then rejected to the atmosphere,
either through the use of fans or natural convection
Crude Oil Storage Tanks - Crude oil untreated and unrefined are stored in tanks
for shipment to other locations or processing into finished products. There are
four basic types of tanks used to store petroleum products: (1) Floating Roof
Tank used for crude oil, gasoline, and naphtha. (2) Fixed Roof Tank used for
diesel, kerosene, catalytic cracker feedstock, and residual fuel oil (3) Bullet Tank
used for normal butane, propane, and propylene (4) Spherical Tank used for
isobutane and normal butane.
Demineralizers or Ion Exchangers Dissolved impurities and foreign particles
entrained in power plant fluid systems generate corrosion problems and
decrease efficiency as a result of fouling of relevant heat exchanger surfaces.
Demineralization of water is one of the most commonly used processes to
remove dissolved impurities.
Desiccant Dehumidifiers Dehumidified air is widely used for industrial
applications for various anti-corrosion protection as well as preservation
measures. A desiccant dehumidifier consists of a corrugated wheel impregnated
with desiccant like silica gel, so that air can pass along the corrugations. As the
air passes through the wheel, moisture is attracted from the air onto the
desiccant. Another hot air stream for reactivating the desiccant heats up the
dessicant to remove absorbed moisture.

Diesel Engines A stroke in the engine refers to the distance travelled by the
piston from the top of the cylinder to the bottom. For a diesel engine, the highest
point of travel by the piston is called top dead center (TDC), whereas the lowest
point of travel is called bottom dead center (BDC). There are 1800 of travel
between TDC and BDC, or one stroke.
Electrostatic Precipitators Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are industrial
emissions control units that are typically installed at coal power plants. Their
purpose is to collect and remove dust particles from the exhaust flue gas of a
power plant at a typical efficiency level of 99.9% or more. Electrostatic
precipitators work by placing a positive charge on a group of plates installed at
the exhaust gas stream.
Hydraulic Systems In hydraulic systems, oil from a tank is stored in an oil
tank from where it is pumped to move pistons. A filter is typically installed at the
suction of the pump in order to filter out any impurities. The pump, usually a gear
type or positive displacement pump, is usually driven by an electric motor (less
often by an air motor).
Industrial Silencers -Industrial silencers are used to control the noise
associated with a wide range of industrial processes. Products include vent
silencers, blow-down silencers, engine silencers, blower intake silencers, gas
turbine silencers, vacuum pump silencers, centrifugal compressor silencers,
discharge silencers, chimney silencers and more.

Phase Separation Equipments Basic descriptions of structure and functioning
of phase separation equipments and special internals of these equipments such
as knock out drums, degassers, steam drums etc. are presented. Typical P&ID
arrangements for such phase separation systems make the picture clearer.
Calculators for sizing these phase separators are listed to supplement the theory.
Steam Desuperheater Normally in chemical or oil & gas process plants,
available steam is at superheated conditions. Sometimes the high temperature of
the superheated steam is not desirable and it may be required to desuperheat
the available steam to its dew point or saturation temperature. Deuperheater is
used to take out the excess heat from steam to bring down the steam
temperature to saturation level.
Distillation Column - Distillation is a commonly known method for separation of
two liquid components with different boiling points. The ease of separation
through distillation usually depends on the difference between boiling points. For
a significant difference between boiling points of two liquids, they can be
separated by batch distillation where one liquid remains almost completely in
liquid form at the boiling point of the other liquid.
Heat Exchanger Types - The heat exchanger design and structure varies a lot
depending on the application where they are used and the heat exchange media
involved. Following types of heat exchangers are discussed Plate and frame
exchangers, Spiral type exchangers, Plate-fin heat exchangers, Air coolers,
Double-pipe (hairpin) heat exchangers, Shell and tube exchangers etc.
Heat Transfer Equipments Heat exchanger design and structure of these
equipments varies a lot depending on the application where they are used and
the heat transfer media involved. Role of following factors in heat exchangers is
discussed temperature difference between hot and cold media, nature of fluids,
type of flow, surface area for exchange of heat, turbulence etc.
Liquid Ring Vacuum Pumps Typically pumps increase the pressure of
pumped fluid. Unlike conventional pumps, Liquid Ring Vacuum Pumps are used
to pull air out of low pressure vessels so that the vessel pressure drops below
atmospheric pressure value and vacuum conditions are created.
Overhead Condenser Separator vessels, storage tanks, heat exchangers,
columns and certain piping segments etc. are designed to handle certain
operating pressure. However combination of a variety of causes may lead to over
pressure in these equipments which may exceed the maximum allowable
working pressure (MAWP) value. Various overpressur causes and scenarios are
discussed.

Overhead Condenser - An overhead condenser, which is essentially a heat
exchanger, cools down vapors from overhead of a distillation column using a
coolant stream usually cooling water. Being close to the initial dew point, the
heavy component vapors are readily condensed while most of the light
component still remains in vapor phase.
Pig receivers / Pig Launchers Pig launchers are essentially vessels used for
launching of a pipe pig or a pig tool into the pipeline for cleaning or inspection
purpose. After being launched into the pipeline, the pig tool is pushed through the
pipeline by a driving fluid. The pipeline is cleaned along the way by brushing
action from the pig. On the other end the pig tool is received by a pig receiver.
Pipe Pigs - Pipe pigs are capsule like objects used for cleaning of pipeline by
pushing them through the pipeline using fluid pressure. The pipe is cleaned by
brushing action from the pig tool. This cleaning process is called pigging. Pigging
is also done for inspection of pipelines and not only for cleaning pipelines.
Pumps - Pumps can be broadly classified into two basic categories: Centrifugal
pumps and Positive Displacement pumps. Centrifugal pumps have rotating
equipment parts imparting momentum to the fluid particles which is later
converted to pressure. For centrifugal pumps the discharge flowrate and
differential head developed in the pumps are strongly dependant on each other.
Whereas for positive displacement pumps, the discharge flowrate is nearly
independent of the downstream pressure.
Steam Jet Air Ejectors A high pressure motive fluid, typically steam, enters
the steam ejector and passes through the nozzle. Through this nozzle, its
velocity increases and consequently low pressure exists at that point on nozzle.
This low pressure draws the suction fluid, typically air, into the mixing chamber
where it mixes with the motive fluid.
Steam Traps The basic role of steam traps is to remove steam condensate, air
or other incondensable gases from a steam system, while at the same time not
allowing live steam to escape. Following different types of steam traps are
discussed Thermostatic steam trap, Mechanical steam traps, Thermodynamic
steam traps etc.

Storage tanks - Types of storage tanks are discussed along with their
characteristics and when each type can be used. Following types are discussed
Spheroids, Spheres, Horizontal Cylinders, Fixed roof tanks, Floating roof
tanks, Bolted type tanks.