march 2019 Issue 933

The Chemical Engineer

NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE PROCESS INDUSTRIES, BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS

FOCUS ON HYDROGEN
A clear opportunity to change the energy landscape

MINING STUDENT SPORTS DAY TECHNOLOGY HEAT EXCHANGE

TAILINGS DISASTER FRANK MORTON PORE FORM IN DEMAND
In the wake of tragedy, how Birmingham clinches A new technique for Heat is on to reduce
can safety be improved? fifth title in a row mem rane emulsification energy consumption

PAGE 8 PAGE 26 PAGE 34 PAGE 40

cover933 AD DG.indd 1 21/02/2019 17:02

 Knowledge is power

IChemE membership provides you with opportunities to develop

and share knowledge through:
■ free access to the Knovel e-library containing over 300 chemical
engineering titles, databases and problem-solving tools;
■ invitations to technical events and interactive webinars organised
by our 20 special interest groups;
■ latest news and in-depth technical articles in The Chemical
Engineer magazine, access to technical journals and much more.

Maintain your access to IChemE’s database of knowledge

by renewing your membership. Pay your 2019
subscription today: www.icheme.org/renewals
TCE 933

tce.933.IFC.subsrenewal V3.indd 1 21/02/2019 11:40

 The Chemical Engineer
Contents, Issue 933
march 2019

26 28

News
Bachrach Photography

38
3 Editor’s comment 38 chemeng careers
Adam Duckett introduces the Clean Yasmin Ali speaks to renowned MIT
Energy SIG’s series on hydrogen engineer Bob Langer

4 News: in numbers 4o heat exchange

Gerard O’Connor offers insights on
6 News: in brief improving heat transfer
8 News: in depth
Brazilian mining tragedy; Scant
43 innovation
progress on skills; GPS pioneers win Robert Peeling says industry needs
QEPrize; UK REACH warnings facilitated decision making

17 News: round-up 48 biosector

48 21 News: R&D
Daniel Firth shares the key
findings and recommendations from
26 Snapshot: Frank morton IChemE’s BioFutures programme

52 food & Drink

Features Ian Madden on the need for lean
manufacturing in the food industry
28 hydrogen
Tommy Isaac opens a new series on
the opportunities and challenges of Regulars
the hydrogen economy
56 obituary: geoffrey hewitt
32 education
Amanda Jasi visits the University of 58 icheme news
Greenwich to discover how a new lab
is supporting student learning
60 events and courses

34 membrane technology 62 Careers

Amanda Doyle visits Micropore 63 products
Technologies to learn about mem-
brane emulsification 64 Residue

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 1

contents DG XXCHANGE BOB PIC.indd 1 21/02/2019 17:00

 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE No. CR-2018-009151
BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES
INSOLVENCY AND COMPANIES LIST (ChD)
IN THE MATTER OF
ROYAL & SUN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC
- and -
IN THE MATTER OF
THE MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED
- and -
IN THE MATTER OF
MERCANTILE INDEMNITY COMPANY LIMITED
- and -
IN THE MATTER OF
THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS ACT 2000
Notice is hereby given that on 17 January 2019 an Application was made under section 107 of
the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the “Act”) in the High Court of Justice of England
and Wales by the above-named Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc (“RSAI”) and The Marine
Insurance Company Limited (“MIC”) (together the “Transferors”) and Mercantile Indemnity

Advances in Process
Company Limited (the “Transferee”) for Orders:
(1) Under section 111 of the Act sanctioning a scheme (the “Scheme”) for:
(a) the transfer to the Transferee of certain direct and reinsurance business of the Transferors,

Automation and
namely certain UK-based commercial general insurance business; and
(b) the making of ancillary provisions under section 112 of the Act for implementing the
Scheme.

Control 2019
The following documents are available and may be obtained by any person free of charge by
downloading them from the website (www.rsagroup.com/RSATransfers) or by making a request
by email to RSATransfers@equiniti.com, or in writing at RSA Insurance Group, 20 Fenchurch
Street, London EC3M 3AU (Attention: Jonathan Colson) or by calling the Scheme helpline on
+44 121 415 0966 at any time until the making of an order sanctioning the Scheme:

18–20 November 2019,

- a copy of the Scheme document;
- a copy of the report on the terms of the Scheme prepared by an independent expert in
accordance with Section 109 of the Act;
- a communications pack, which includes a statement setting out the terms of the Scheme
and a summary of the independent expert’s report. Manchester, UK
Anyone who has any questions regarding the proposed Scheme or would like further information
should contact us using the above details.

Call for papers now open –

The specific nature of the transferred business differs between RSAI and MIC, but in both cases
constitutes part of their respective commercial general insurance businesses.
It is intended that the Scheme will transfer from RSAI to the Transferee certain commercial general
insurance policies that include liability cover and that were either: (i) written by or on behalf of showcase your latest research,
RSAI prior to 2006, or (ii) written by or on behalf of another insurer prior to 2006 and transferred
to RSAI prior to 7 February 2017. Policies that relate exclusively to marine or motor liabilities, innovations and projects.
or were underwritten by a branch or agency incorporated or domiciled outside the UK are
excluded from the Scheme, as are certain other specifically excluded policies.
It is intended that the Scheme will transfer from MIC to the Transferee the following categories
of commercial general insurance policies that were either written: (i) by or on behalf of MIC, or
(ii) written by or on behalf of another insurer and transferred to MIC prior to 7 February 2017:
Spend three days with leading figures from the
(A) all marine energy policies written prior to 2004; field of process automation and control as you
(B) all other marine policies written prior to 1997; and review best practice and emerging technologies,
(C) all aviation policies written prior to 2009.
The Scheme will also transfer various business contracts from each of RSAI and MIC to the learn from others’ experience
Transferee, including all or part of certain outwards reinsurance contracts. The business of the
Transferors, comprising policies and business contracts, and associated assets and liabilities, that and network with experts and peers.
is to be transferred to the Transferee by the Scheme forms the “Transferred Business”.
The Scheme will transfer the Transferors’ rights and obligations under the commercial general
insurance policies forming part of the Transferred Business (referred to as the “Transferred
This innovative conference will look at themes as
Policies”) without alteration to Mercantile. The holders of the Transferred Policies (and any diverse as:
persons entitled to beneficial rights under such Transferred Policies) will, with effect from
00.01 BST on 1 July 2019 (or at such other later time and/or such other date as the Transferors
and Transferee may agree) (the “Effective Date”), become entitled, to the exclusion of any rights ■ cyber security and new architectures
which they may have had against the Transferors under a Transferred Policy, to the same rights
against the Transferee. Similarly, the holders of the Transferred Policies shall be liable to account ■ education, training and research
to the Transferee for any further or additional premiums or other sums attributable or referable
thereto, as and when they become due and payable. Responsibility for handling all claims under ■ sustainability
the Transferred Policies, which are currently being handled by, or on behalf of, the Transferors
will transfer to the Transferee. The Transferee shall be entitled to any and all defences, claims, ■ operator 4.0 in emerging technologies
counterclaims and rights of set-off under the Transferred Policies, which would have been
available to the Transferors prior to the Effective Date. ■ business integration and the complete digital
Subject to certain exclusions, at and with effect from the Effective Date, all assets and liabilities
that are comprised in, arising from or in connection with the Transferred Business shall transfer twin
to the Transferee. Various business contracts will also transfer so that they will become

Visit www.icheme.org/advances2019
agreements between the Transferee and the relevant third party. The Scheme will be valid and
binding on counterparties to such contracts notwithstanding any restriction on transfer or
assignment contained in any such contract.
The Application is due to be heard at the High Court of Justice of England and Wales (High
Court), 7 Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1NL on 13 June 2019. Any person who
for more information
considers that he or she may be adversely affected by the Scheme has the right to make
representations and/or to appear at the Court hearing. It is requested that any person intending
to make representations (either in writing or by telephone) and/or appear at the hearing (either
MB0124_19 TCE 933

in person or using legal representation), please contact RSA on +44 121 415 0966 or in writing
at the email address below as soon as possible and before 13 June 2019 to set out the nature of
their representations. This will enable the Transferors and the Transferee to provide notification
of any changes to the hearing and, where possible, to address any concerns raised in advance
of the hearing. If the requested notice is not given, attendance at the Court hearing, either in
person or using legal representation, will still be permitted.
Jonathan Colson
RSA Insurance Group
20 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 3AU
RSATransfers@equiniti.com

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 2

MB0124_19 APAC HP AD tce V.indd 1 21/02/2019 12:07

tce.933.2.indd 2 21/02/2019 12:23

 The Chemical Engineer
Editor’s comment

Informing Debate
adam duckett

T
HIS issue our cover feature from Tommy Isaac starts
a debate about the opportunities that hydrogen offers
to reduce the carbon intensity of heat, power and
transport (p28).
This is an exciting development, as it marks the first fruit
of a project developed in partnership with the IChemE Clean
Energy Special Interest Group. The seed of the idea for this series
was planted in late 2017 following a joint seminar on hydrogen
organised by IChemE and IMechE.
What started out as a conversation about two articles on the
promise of hydrogen has branched into a series that currently
stands at around 20 features from experts who will provide
insights covering hydrogen production, transport, use, storage,
development challenges and pieces profiling national imple-
mentation plans and projects.
A number of these articles will be published in print across
the course of the year, and a large selection will be published
exclusively online. Readers will be able to access all entries in
the series in a dedicated Hydrogen Hub at https://bit.ly/2Sg4f9N.
We’ll alert readers as new instalments are published online
so please watch out for updates from our social media chan- And on a topic that is especially poignant given the tragic
nels, our weekly email newsletter, and our Online Only column mining disaster that killed so many in Brazil in January (p8),
(p7) that appears in the News in Brief section of each issue of the Phil Eames is writing regularly about safety. You can keep up to
printed magazine. date with his series at https://bit.ly/2GW1F72.
I’m grateful to the CESIG for leading on this series and On the Brazilian mining disaster, we’ll be following this
volunteering their time to inform and prompt evidence-based story as it develops. This issue we speak to experts to ask what
conversations. can be done to improve safety given the repeated failures of
The series comes as part of a wider push by The Chemical tailings dams. It’s a fast-moving story – so again, please do
Engineer to give regular space for topic experts to share their visit us online to keep up with developments.
insights with the community. We cannot publish all of this con-
tent in print because there simply isn’t the space, so please do
come visit the website to read regular exclusive content.
Topic experts that we are working with include Jamie
Cleaver, who is writing a series about professional skills for
engineers (https://bit.ly/2SPOhYZ). Yasmin Ali has been inter-
viewing fellow chemical engineers to understand their journeys
through the diverse career paths open to chemical engineers.
This issue we print her interview with renowned MIT Professor Statements and opinions expressed in The Chemical Engineer
Bob Langer (p38), and you can read all the instalments in her are the responsibility of the editor. Unless described as such,
Careers in Chemical Engineering series at https://bit.ly/2DZmjA4. they do not represent the views or policies of the Institution of
Please do check in regularly for updates. Chemical Engineers.

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 3

catalyst933 DG.indd 3 21/02/2019 15:36

 News
IN NUMBERS
IChemE social mobility report
An IChemE report has revealed that chemical engineering professions provide
opportunities for upward social mobility.
The report, Social Mobility: a Survey of the UK Chemical Engineering
Profession, surveyed 1,226 non-student, UK-based IChemE members.
74% of respondents identified as having come from a working or lower middle
class background and nearly half of respondents received some kind of means-
tested benefits during childhood or study. Only 8% responded that they came
from upper middle class backgrounds. 42% of respondents felt that their social
class had changed as a result of their chemical engineering career.
Three quarters of those came from a working class background.
The report also found that 10.6% of working class respondents attended a
top-ranking university (Cambridge, Imperial College London, Oxford, University
College London), compared with 16.5% of lower middle class and
24.1% of upper middle class respondents.
Social background of respondents during childhood
45%
40%
More materials 35%

need to be recycled 30%

25%

Around 93bn t/y of materials 20%

15%
– including minerals, metals, fossil
10%
fuels, and biomass – are used 5%
globally, and a report by Circle 0%
WORKING CLASS LOWER UPPER UPPER CLASS PREFER NOT
Economy has found that only a MIDDLE CLASS MIDDLE CLASS TO SAY

tenth of this is currently recycled.

Perception of whether social class has changed as a result of career,
The amount of materials used has analysis by social class during childhood
tripled since 1970 and could 90%
double again by 2050 if the 80%
YES NO NOT SURE

current rate of use continues. 70%

The report said that more efficient 60%

use of resources could help in 50%

meeting the Paris Agreement as 40%

currently 62% of heat-trapping 30%

emissions, excluding land use 20%
and forestry, are released during
10%
the extraction, processing, and
0%
manufacturing of goods. WORKING CLASS LOWER MIDDLE CLASS UPPER MIDDLE CLASS

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 4

numbers933 DG.indd 4 21/02/2019 16:03

 news in numbers
Germany plans to
phase out coal by 2038
The German coal exit commission has recommended
that the country should end its reliance on coal by
2038. Currently, coal provides 40% of Germany’s
energy needs and the coal plants account for 7% of
EU CO2 emissions. Germany has the largest fleet of
coal-fired power stations in Europe and the
fourth-largest in the world.
Germany plans to reduce its current coal capacity of
42.6 GW to 30 GW by 2022, and then to
17 GW by 2030. The commission also said that a
review in 2032 could bring the deadline forward to 2035.
However, energy firm RWE protested that the 2038
deadline was too soon and that the 2032 review should
be used to extend the deadline. The commission plans
to compensate energy firms for shutting coal plants
with a planned budget of €40bn (US$45bn),
however the industry had hoped for €60bn.
An analysis by Carbon Brief has found that the coal
commission’s plan initially matches the “business as
usual” scenario until 2030, where the use of coal would
gradually decline as plants reach the end of their lifetime.
The analysis also showed that phasing out coal by 2038
is not consistent with the Paris Agreement plans to keep
well below 2oC of warming and would result
in 1.3bn t of CO2 emissions in excess of
the below 2oC pathway.
Decline in turnover for
UK Oil Field Services
EY has released its eighth annual review of the
UK Oil Field Services (OFS) industry, covering 2017. It
found that 2017 was a challenging year, with turnover
decreasing by 9%. It is the third consecutive annual
decline in turnover, from £34.8bn in 2015
to £26.9bn in 2017. Global OFS companies have
seen an increase in 2017 with growth predicted
in 2018 to 2020.
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 5
numbers933 DG.indd 5
Impact of no-deal Brexit on UK research
A report published by the House of Lords European Union
Committee, Brexit: The Erasmus and Horizon programmes,
has expressed concern over the ongoing lack of clarity
over future EU funding in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
Under Erasmus+, €1bn is allocated to the UK between
2014 and 2020 and €677m has been distributed to
date. The UK is the second largest recipient of
Horizon 2020 funding and has received €5.7bn
(15.2%) of Horizon 2020 funding so far.
The Government has agreed to underwrite some funding
until 2020 in the event of a no-deal, but would still need
to negotiate terms with the EU for third country
participation. Also, 44% of the Horizon 2020 funding is
not covered with the underwrite guarantee as it is not open
to third country participation.
A separate report published by the House of Commons,
What if there’s no Brexit deal?, noted that EU staff make
up 16% of the academic workforce and that if they
were required to meet current Tier-2 style visa conditions,
over 6,000 EU staff at Russel Group universities would
not be eligible to work in the UK, including over 2,100
people with higher degrees.
Total’s exploration campaign
Total has launched its biggest exploration campaign
for years with plans to drill 23 wells in 2019. The wells
represent a trebling of the exploration levels of 2017 and
2016. Total’s exploration budget will remain in line with
2018’s budget of US$1.2bn. It has added over
189,000 km2 of exploration blocks since 2015, around
70,000 km2 higher than its nearest competitor.
One of the 23 wells is in the Brulpadda field off South
Africa, which has already proven successful. The field
covers an area of 19,000 km2 between
500m and 1bn bbl of oil.
21/02/2019 16:03
 NEWS IN BRIEF

lush life: Olivia Sweeney out nuclear and coal and is considering
sells chemical engineering state subsidies and regulations ahead of
investment in LNG infrastructure.
US Deputy Energy Secretary Dan
Brouillette told the Financial Times that
while he is “very excited” about the
opportunity for US LNG, the US remains
concerned by Germany’s increasing reli-
ance on Russia for its gas and is still
“not going to drop [its] objections” to
the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline being
built between Russia and Germany. The
pipeline bypasses Ukraine, and the US
administration has warned that all com-
panies working on the project, which
includes Shell, are at risk of US sanctions.

CNOOC and Total

Sweeney faces up engineering make record UK gas
discovery
campaign
CNOOC and Total have found the largest
CHEMICAL engineer Olivia Sweeney has been chosen as one of four role models gas field in UK waters for more than a
in the latest campaign to promote the profession from the Royal Academy of decade.
Engineering. The Glengorm prospect in the North
Now in its third season, the This Is Engineering campaign seeks to give young Sea contains recoverable reserves close
people from all backgrounds a chance to explore how they can follow what they are to 250m bbl of oil equivalent. This sur-
passionate about into a varied and fulfilling engineering career. passes the 170m bbl Glendronach field
Sweeney, who has always been interested in sustainability, talks about how she that Total discovered last year, which
brings this to modern cosmetics through her work sourcing and creating chemicals was the largest found in UK waters since
for Lush. the Culzean field in 2008.
To learn more about Sweeney and watch her video, visit: https://bit.ly/2SFPyBV Total says the latest find is close to
existing infrastructure and could be con-
nected to the Elgin-Franklin platform
and the Culzean project.
ExxonMobil commits 9,000 jobs during construction, with 200
permanent roles for operations.
to US LNG export Fujifilm and unis join
EXXONMOBIL and Qatar Petroleum will
invest more than US$10bn in the Golden Germany looks to forces on bioprocess-
Pass LNG export project in Texas, US.
LNG as US warns of ing innovation
The project demonstrates the dra-
matic shift in the US energy situation sanctions FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies has
brought about by the US shale gas revo- partnered with the UK’s universities
lution, as the partners have taken a final GERMANY expects to build at least of Edinburgh, Manchester and York to
investment decision to reengineer an two LNG import terminals, as it comes address challenges in bioprocessing.
existing regasification import terminal under pressure from the US to reduce its The initiative will link Fujifilm’s
to liquefy gas for export. reliance on Russian gas. research goals with fundamental
The work will begin this quarter and Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said academic research and together the
the facility is expected to start produc- that three sites are being considered for partners will apply for public funding.
tion in 2024, with capacity of around the terminals: Brunsbuettel, Stade and Fujifilm, which has experience
16m t/y of LNG. The project will create Wilhelmshaven. The country is phasing in developing and manufacturing

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 6

NIB933 AD DG.indd 6 21/02/2019 15:40


recombinant biopharmaceuticals, has
three overarching research and devel-
opment priorities. These include using
automation, robotics and predictive
technologies to reduce the amount of
wet, bench science required to meet
project objectives; developing next-gen-
eration manufacturing and testing
technologies using smaller, more flexi-
ble, and more automated facilities.
Jen Vanderhoven, Vice President of
Global Business Change, said: “We are
creating an innovation engine that drives
new processes, efficiencies, products and
services.”
Drax declares world-
first carbon capture
THE UK’s DRAX power station has begun
capturing carbon, and has described the
development as the first time CO2 has
been captured from the combustion of a
100% biomass feedstock.
The demonstration plant located at
the Drax facility near Selby in North
Yorkshire is capturing 1 t/d of CO2. It is
using an amine-free solvent-based pro-
cess called C-Capture, developed at the
University of Leeds. Once captured, the
CO2 is vented to atmosphere, and the
company hopes to begin storage in the
next phase of the project.
Drax
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 7
NIB933 AD DG.indd 7
NEWS IN BRIEF
Caspar Schoolderman, Director of Engi-
neering at C-Capture, said: “Working at
this scale is really where the engineering
gets interesting. The challenge now is to
get all the information we need to design
and build a capture plant 10,000 times
bigger.”
Nouryon reduces
emissions by increasing
its bio-steam supply
Nouryon plans to increase its use of bio-
steam at its salt production site at Hengelo
in the Netherlands. Nouryon uses steam
to remove the water from brine to pro-
duce high-purity salt, which is used as a
raw material in numerous industries.
Previously, the steam was generated
from natural gas, but since 2011 waste
processing company Twence has been
supplying Nouryon with steam from its
waste-to-energy plant. Due to the bio-
content of this waste, half of the steam
was deemed to be sustainable. Twence
recently started up a new biomass facil-
ity which produces fully-sustainable
steam from waste wood. With the addi-
tional supply of bio-steam, Nouryon will
be able to save up to 80m m3/y of natural
gas and it will reduce CO2 emissions by up
to 50,000 t/y.
catch and release: next stage
could focus on storing Co2
Online only
Smarter models
Richard Baur, President of CO-LaN,
shares the benefits of the CAPE-
OPEN standard that allows
engineers to integrate their models
in a smarter, easier way. He calls on
the process engineering community
to participate in a survey to assess
the extent of understanding on the
standard and help steer activities
and projects.
https://bit.ly/2T3cfzx
Limits of LOPA
Safety consultant Roger Casey is
concerned at the level of mistakes
being made using layers of protec-
tion analysis (LOPA). He highlights
some of the mistakes being made
and challenges some of the practices
that are occurring with LOPA calcu-
lations. Read more here and his full
paper in the Loss Prevention Bulletin.
https://bit.ly/2GVEh9t
The Basis of Safety
In his latest instalment providing
insights on safety, chemical engi-
neer Phil Eames shares a personal
story about a life-changing incident,
and discusses the basis of safety.
https://bit.ly/2BNdOri
Body Language
An engineer once said to me: “I
thought body language was just for
actors.” On the contrary, body lan-
guage is for all, and generating some
fluency in reading and speaking body
language gives us a great advan-
tage when communicating. Read
Jamie Cleaver’s latest instalment
on professional engineering skills.
https://bit.ly/2V92Gwj
21/02/2019 15:40

devastated: An aerial view shows the scale
of the collapsed dam in Brumadinho, Brazil
risk & safety
A matter of cost
Brazil dam collapse highlights failings in mining industry
ACCORDING to experts, cost is holding
the mining industry back from achiev-
ing safer tailings management, as it is
unwilling to spend on more safely storing
its waste. Meanwhile, tailings storage
facilities (TSFs) continue to collapse, and
the rate of failure is increasing.
Tailings are the waste product of
ore processing. Rock is crushed and put
through a chemical process to recover
the valuable component, leaving behind
a slurry of fine uneconomic rock and
chemical effluent that is stored in tailings
dams.
On 25 January Dam 1 of the Córrego
do Feijão iron ore mine collapsed in
Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The
collapse released a torrent of muddy
slurry which buried the surrounding
area, including the site’s administrative
building and canteen, reaching as far
as the nearby community. Hundreds of
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 8
NIDmining DG HAVE ANOTHER ONE.indd 8
NEWS in depth
people were affected. As we go to press,
169 are confirmed dead, all of them iden-
tified. 141 people are missing.
Reuters reports (https://reut.rs/2E7C6xS)
that according to an internal Vale
document, the company knew that
Dam 1 was at risk of collapse. Accord-
ing to the news agency, the report, dated
3 October 2018, states that the chance of
collapse for the dam was 1 in 5,000. This is
twice the “maximum level of risk” toler-
ated by internal guidelines. The dam was
reportedly placed within an “attention
zone”, and it was stated that “all preven-
tion and mitigation controls” should be
applied.
According to Reuters, in an emailed
statement Vale said: “There is no known
report, audit or study with any mention of
an imminent risk of collapse at Dam 1 in the
Córrego do Feijão mine in Brumadinho.”
“To the contrary, the dam had all its
Andre Penner/AP/Shutterstock
certificates of safety and stability attested
to by local and foreign specialists.”
This incident is the latest in a series of
serious TSF failures. According to World
Mine Tailings Failures (WTMF) there
was a significant increase in the failure
rate between 1998–2007, and 2008-2012.
WMTF predicts that the upward trend will
continue. The WMTF database is a record
of all the failures and significant adverse
events associated with the deposition and
storage of mineral tailings. It contains
information for events from 1915 onwards.
Two other recent, notable failures are
the 2015 collapse of the Fundão tailings
dam also in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and the
2014 Mount Polley tailings dam in British
Columbia, Canada.
The Fundão tailings dam collapse
resulted in the deaths of 19 people, the
destruction of a nearby town, and the
contamination of several kilometres of
21/02/2019 14:46

downstream river. The dam was owned
by Samarco, a joint venture of BHP
Billiton and Vale. An ensuing inves-
tigation discovered that the dam failed
because of design laws. Flaws in the design
of the dam allowed the tailings to become
saturated and begin to liquefy. During
liquefaction materials such as sand lose
their strength and stiffness and behave
more like a liquid. In Fundão the process
was accelerated by small earthquakes
which initiated a mudslide.
The Mount Polley dam collapse did
not result in fatalities, but neverthe-
less attracted a lot of attention because it
happened in British Columbia. The mining
regulations, as well as the design and
operational practices of the province had
been considered exemplary.
Following Mount Polley, British
Columbia commissioned a report from
an expert review panel to investigate.
The panel found that the dam collapsed
because it was built on a weak founda-
tion, though the collapse might have been
prevented had the dam not been built
steeper than originally designed.
The collapse of Dam 1 is not yet under-
stood but investigations are underway.
However, it is evident that the disasters
of Fundão and Mount Polley could have
been avoided at key points throughout the
tailings management process.
The Chemical Engineer spoke to four
experts – David Chambers, Dirk Van Zyl,
Steven Vick, and Michelle Ash – who
shared their thoughts on how safety could
be improved.
Best applicable practices
“There are improvements in practices –
best practices – that can be implemented
for existing tailings dams,” said Vick. “In
my opinion…these things can and should
make incremental improvements in the
safety of these structures.”
Vick is geotechnical engineer who has
been specialising in the area for around 50
years, and he was on the panel that inves-
tigated the collapse of Mount Polley.
To elaborate on the notion of best
applicable practices (BAP) Vick refered to
the Mount Polley report, which discusses
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 9
NIDmining DG HAVE ANOTHER ONE.indd 9
NEWS in depth
several practices that could be adopted.
These include improved corporate
governance, which Dirk Van Zyl advocates
as a way to improve tailings dam safety.
Van Zyl is a Professor of Mine Waste
Management at the University of British
Columbia, and he was also on the Mount
Polley expert panel. “To me it really comes
down to a governance commitment,” he
said. “It’s a commitment that companies
must have to move towards zero failures.”
Industry continues to
show that its decisions are
more dependent upon cost,
than safety
The report uses the example of the
Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initia-
tive, which was launched by the Mining
Association of Canada (MAC) in 2004. TSM
embraces several guides on the manage-
ment of tailings facilities. The report
recommends mining operations proposing
TSF in British Columbia should be required
to be members of MAC - to ensure adher-
ence to the TSM – or an equivalent
programme. Embracing such initiatives
would ensure awareness of responsibil-
ities at the highest corporate levels, the
report says.
Another BAP recommended in the
Mount Polley report is the establishment
of independent tailings review boards
(ITRBs). These boards can provide third-
party advice on the design, construction,
operation and closure of TSFs.
However, “there was an indepen-
dent tailings review board at Fundão,
but [the incident] still happened,” said
David Chambers, a geophysicist and Pres-
ident of the Center for Science in Public
Participation (CSPP). CSPP is a non-profit
corporation that provides technical assis-
tance on mining and water quality to public
interest groups and tribal governments.
“They think that these little steps that
they’re taking like implementing ITRBs…
that’s going to solve all the problems. Well
it won’t,” said Chambers.
These boards can only have an effect
if they have the power to really say
what they think and companies take
the recommendation regardless of cost,
said Chambers. The Mount Polley report
states that ITRBs only work if they have
“unqualified support and commitment at
the highest corporate levels”.
Other BAP recommendations include
enhanced regulatory capacity and
improvements in professional practice,
and if implemented correctly these could
enhance the safety of tailings dams.
Best available technologies
Though Vick advocates for the implemen-
tation of best practices he recognises that
alone these will not be enough to improve
the safety of tailings dams. “We’re still
dealing with a technology here that’s 100
years old, and these improvements and
practices can only take you so far,” he
said, adding “we really need to look at
changing the technology”.
Whilst BAPs focus on the performance
of the tailings dam, best available tech-
nology (BAT) concerns the tailings deposit
itself. The goal of BAT is to assure the
physical stability of the deposit.
“The overarching goal of BAT is to
reduce the number of tailings dams
subject to failure,” says the Mount Polley
report. One way of achieving this, is using
alternative means of tailings storage.
“Putting it underground, if you have
sufficient space, is a good solution,” Van
Zyl said. Mined-out pits are an option
for surface operations and backfilling for
underground mines.
But Van Zyl also explained that these
methods are not necessarily applicable
at all sites and should be considered on a
site-specific basis, as there are potential
environmental impacts such as ground-
water effects. In addition, operations may
not allow for it, such as the blockcaving
used for large copper mines which does
not allow for backfilling.
Another, safer storage option is filtered
tailings. Filtered tailings, also known as
“dry stack” tailings are tailings that are
dewatered to a high degree to produce a
solid material which can be transported
by conveyor or truck. At the TSF they are
spread and compacted to form an unsat-
urated tailings deposit. The result is an
21/02/2019 14:46

immobile material that isn’t susceptible
to high mobility flow slides, like those
witnessed in British Columbia and Brazil.
Though filtered tailings are currently
employed by industry to allow backfilling
or enable water recovery, “we very seldom
see dry tailings employed as a safety
consideration,” explained Chambers. But
widespread use is held back by cost, he
added. The technology is expensive, and
there are also issues of scale so though it
may be viable for small operations mining
2000 t/d, for example, it would be more
difficult to employ in large operations
mining 80,000 t/d, for example.
Chambers mentioned the alternative of
dry closure by less expensive means, such
as by draining tailings. This could still
make a “significant difference,” he said.
In addition to the above there are also
novel technologies out there which could
help to reduce risk.
For example, EcoTails technology,
which was developed by gold production
company Goldcorp and FLSmidth, a global
dam building methods: upstream,
downstream and centreline. In the
upstream method, the sand tailings used
to create the face of the dam (brown)
overhang the finer slimes tailings
(white) that they are designed to
hold back
UPSTREAM
DOWNSTREAM
http://doi.org/cz3s
CENTRELINE
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 10
NIDmining DG HAVE ANOTHER ONE.indd 10
NEWS in depth
mining and cement company.
The EcoTails process combines filtered
tailings with waste rock to create a
geotechnically stable and stackable
product called Geowaste. The method
eliminates the need to keep conventional
slurry tailings contained and submerged
in water. EcoTails reduces the overall risk
posed by tailings by eliminating the use of
wet tailings dams.
Though “typically it’s metallurgi-
cal engineers that are involved in mine
processing,” said Chambers, chemical
and process engineers can contribute
to efforts to improve tailings technolo-
gies. For example, Chambers suggested
that chemical and process engineers
could contribute by improving dewater-
ing processes. As with other measures and
technologies that could improve safety,
dewatering technologies are hindered by
cost. Faster, more scalable techniques with
reduced costs could make dry tailings less
prohibitive. Chemical and process engi-
neers “can help us design the properties
of the tailings,” Vick said.
Changing the culture
Industry continues to show that its deci-
sions are more dependent upon cost
than safety. For example, it continues to
employ the upstream method for building
tailings dams. “The only reason you build
an upstream tailings dam is because it’s
cheaper than building a downstream
tailings dam,” said Chambers.
In the upstream method the face of the
dam is not built in a single phase as with a
hydroelectric dam, instead the face is built
up in stages as the tailings are added and
their depth increases. The face of the dam
is built from the coarser portion of the
tailings themselves and is built over the
finer slurries it is designed to hold back.
Centreline and downstream dams also
use tailings material but are considered
safer. Downstream dams are considered
the safest.
The Vale dam which recently
breached was an upstream dam, as
was the Samarco dam which collapsed
in 2015. In Chile, upstream dams
are banned because of the country’s
high seismicity.
On 18 February Brazil announced that
it is banning upstream dams, Bloomberg
reported (https://bloom.bg/2twOkKv). The
decision was published in Brazil’s Diário
Oficial da União, the official journal of
the federal government. The resolution
of the country’s National Mining Agency
(ANM) states that dam owners are to
decommission or remove upstream dams
by August 2021. By 15 August of this year
owners should have completed a tech-
nical plan for the dams, which should at
minimum include plans for reinforcing
existing structures or building new reten-
tion structures, Bloomberg says.
Vale itself has already begun decom-
missioning its ten inactive upstream
dams. The company decided to decom-
mission its 19 upstream dams in 2016,
following the collapse of Fundão. Since
then only nine had been decommissioned.
The remaining dams are now part of an
accelerated decommissioning project.
However, upstream facilities shouldn’t
necessarily be completely discounted. In
dryer climates where tailings are likely
to be dried out, upstream dams are less
problematic. Countries such as Australia
and South Africa tend to use this method
widely. In addition, they can be engineered
safely. It is simply that they are “unfor-
giving” said Vick, adding “everything has
to be done right, and it has to be done in
the right conditions.”
Chambers advocates for the industry
moving towards a mindset that considers
safety first. “Safety needs to be the primary
consideration in the design, construction,
and operation of these dams. Right now,
cost is the main driver,” he said. “I’m not
saying that cost shouldn’t be considered,
I’m saying that cost needs to be subordi-
nate to safety.”
However, Michelle Ash disagrees that
cost is the main factor holding industry
back. Ash is the Chair of Global Mining
Guidelines Group (GMGgroup), a network
of companies aiming to drive change in
the mining industry. “I think that is a
very simple answer to quite a complex
problem,” she said. “One could boil it all
down to that, but I don’t think that’s fair.”
“There are limitations on some of the
21/02/2019 14:46

alternatives,” as well as new technologies
and the ability to advance them. She added
that industry is already taking some steps
in order to achieve safer tailings dams, but
further innovation and change will require
a lot of “time and focus”.
Vick discussed the need for industry
to change the way it thinks about tailings
and mining operations as a whole. It
should integrate the way it views the
three “subsystems” of mining. The first
subsystem is the mine itself, where the
ore is extracted. The second subsystem is
the mill, where ore is separated from the
rock. The last subsystem, the tailings, are
simply considered the waste.
“The practice has been to optimise
those subsystems, each one working on
its own, and independently.” But “that
doesn’t necessarily give you the optimal
system overall, and that is the problem
that needs to be attacked.”
“I really think that the way that compa-
nies have managed their tailings really
harps back to the historic view,” said Van
Zyl. The view is that “it’s waste and there-
fore we need to spend as little money as we
can on that.”
By considering the system as a whole,
it might be easier to make better deci-
sions with regards to the entire operation.
For example, a change in thinking in this
direction could enable easier planning for
disposal of tailings in mined-out pits.
Matters of tailings dams safety are not
one-size-fits-all. Similar to the example of
the use of underground storage methods,
aspects of management must be consid-
ered on a site-specific basis in order to
make the right decisions. And to do this,
“we need to make safety paramount,” said
Chambers.
External influencers
After the collapse of the Fundão tailings
dam in Mariana, Vale implemented
various changes with the aim of avoiding
a similar incident, including: detailed
emergency action plans; external audits;
implementation of modern warning
systems, with sirens for emergencies;
and population registrations. Further-
more, when Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 11
NIDmining DG HAVE ANOTHER ONE.indd 11
NEWS in depth
protest: public anger
towards Vale gathers pace
took over in 2017 he suggested Vale
change its motto to “Mariana, never
again”. Regardless, none of the actions
taken prevented the collapse of Dam 1,
which was built in 1976 by Ferteco
Mineração and acquired by Vale in 2001.
Considering the lack of movement
made towards safety by the industry
itself, David Chambers stressed the role
of government. “I think we need changes
in the laws and the regulation,” he said.
“I think in order to implement safety
first, that has to come from government.”
But governments cannot bear the
burden of ensuring the safety of tailings
dams alone, though they can certainly
play a role and encourage the industry
to move towards safety, agreed all of the
experts.
“There are moves in that direc-
tion,” said Vick. The Mount Polley report
recommended that independent review
boards be created, and British Columbia
has implemented that. He explained that
the province also now has a structure
in which individual consulting boards
at individual mines report to an “uber”
board, which reports to the government.
“The idea there is to have people who are
highly qualified technically, who provide
a conduit of recommendations and so
forth that the government can imple-
ment.” British Columbia also instituted
other recommendations given by the
review panel. Currently, the province is
Rodrigo S Coelho / Shutterstock.com
a global leader in mine tailings storage
regulation.
In addition to government, Chambers
suggested that there may be a role for
non-governmental organisations, such
as the UN Environmental Programme
(UNEP), which could create a database of
tailings dams and failures. An organisa-
tion could make a “legitimate appeal” to
countries and encourage them to release
data that would promote transparency
about TSFs. Even communities might
have a role to play, suggested Van Zyl.
Industry needs to act, but there are
roles for others outside the industry
which could encourage this action. “I
think it’s a combination of everything,”
he added.
Moving towards zero failures
It is evident that there are actions that
the mining industry can take to improve
safety, but it either isn’t taking them, or
isn’t implementing them correctly. This
needs to change, and the industry has
to move towards a zero-failure rate, the
Mount Polley report says.
Industry has to acknowledge what
must be done and move away from the
idea of tolerable risk and failure. As
the report says: “First Nations will not
accept this, the public will not permit
it, government will not allow it, and the
mining industry will not survive it.” AJ
21/02/2019 14:46

education
Perkins report finds scant
progress on engineering skills
Engineering ‘let down by the education system’
FIVE years on from the publication of
his engineering skills review for the
UK Government, former Chief Scien-
tific Adviser John Perkins has warned
that there has been scant progress in
addressing the skills gap.
The warning comes as part of a
review published by the Royal Academy
of Engineering which found that signif-
icant progress has been made on just
three of his original 21 recommenda-
tions. Of the remaining, 14 are ranked
“amber” (some progress made); and
four are marked “red” (limited progress
made).
The report reviews each stage of the
UK’s ‘leaky’ education system pipeline
and how it is contributing to an annual
shortfall of some 59,000 engineers.
And with no clear post-Brexit immi-
gration policy, the report offers a stark
warning that some 560,000 jobs in the
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 12
NIDperkins DG.indd 12
NEWS in depth
engineering sector currently occupied
by EU nationals may need filling at
short notice.
Leaking skills pipe
“Engineering is enormously valuable
to the UK economy but suffers from a
chronic shortage of skills, let down by
the education system that removes the
option of an engineering career for too
many young people at each stage of their
education. There has been little progress
in addressing the UK’s engineering skills
gap since I first reviewed the education
system five years ago,” said Perkins
(pictured), a former President of IChemE.
In schools, the report found that
teacher recruitment has arguably
worsened since 2013 with shortages of
specialist teachers for maths, physics,
computing and design and technology.
And while engineering remains
largely invisible in schools, well-in-
tentioned schools outreach activities
provided by the professional engineer-
ing community present a “complex and
confusing” landscape which the report
says should be coordinated through
the Royal Academy of Engineering and
EngineeringUK. A consistent way of
evaluating this outreach would further
strengthen the activity.
“Engineering is enormously
valuable to the UK economy
but suffers from a chronic
shortage of skills, let down by
the education system”
There is also concern that the current
system, which requires students to
narrow down the subjects they study
20/02/2019 12:37

from age 16, is essentially forcing a
choice between sciences or the human-
ities, and this is in effect preventing
many from pursuing engineering and
creative technical opportunities. The
report recommends the Department
of Education looks to create a broader
curriculum that requires pupils to study
sciences and the humanities up to the
age of 18.
Technical progress
There have been significant
changes in technical and vocational
education since Perkins’ original
report. This includes the development
and impending introduction of Tech-
nician Levels (T-Levels), and support
for apprenticeships. Concerns remain
though that the T-Level curriculum will
be too narrow so will not equip students
for a broad range of engineering careers.
Furthermore, it warns that the proposed
45-day work placement will be unwork-
able for many engineering employers.
On apprenticeships, a key worry is
the lack of diversity among those joining
schemes. While overall numbers are up,
perkins: system forces a post-16 choice
between sciences or the humanities
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 13
NIDperkins DG.indd 13
NEWS in depth
the report describes female and ethnic
minority representation as “abysmally
low” at 6% and 8% respectively.
pupils should study sciences
and humanities up to 18
Concerns about diversity carry over
into higher education, a section of the
report that IChemE directly contributed
to. The proportion of females opting to
study engineering at university remains
“stubbornly low” at 15%, though BAME
students are well represented at around
26%. However, students from lower
socioeconomic backgrounds are not
particularly well represented in engi-
neering, at 10% compared with 12% on
average across higher education.
The numbers opting to study engi-
neering at university could be hit by
the results of a review into higher
education funding. Engineering is a
high-cost subject and an increase in
fees would “seriously damage efforts”
to increase the number of young people
studying it and this would have “serious
repercussions for the [Government’s]
industrial strategy”. The Government
must be prepared to increase top-up
grant funding to ensure that engineer-
ing departments remain sustainable,
the report concludes.
Perkins says: “We need to broaden
the curriculum for post-16 educa-
tion, value technical education on a
par with academic progression, unlock
more potential from the Apprenticeship
Levy, and guarantee affordable, fair and
inclusive access to engineering degrees.
These changes have the potential to pay
dividends in the years to come for young
people, the economy, and society.”
PEIs and parliament
The likes of IChemE have a key role to play
in helping ensure the UK’s engineering
workforce is able to adapt to digital-
isation. Engineers and technicians will
need upskilling and reskilling, and the
report calls on Engineering Council and
the PEIs to develop a coherent approach
to the professional development of
engineers and technicians both inside
and outside of membership, and to
engage with industry and coordinate the
activity on behalf of the profession.
It also calls on the Government to
nominate a minister and member of
parliament to work together to form an
advisory group and champion the engi-
neering skills challenge.
Reacting to the report, Dame Judith
Hackitt, Chair of the manufacturers’
organisation EEF, said she is disap-
pointed by the progress made.
“there is a need to radically
reform technical education
– creating an Apprenticeship
Levy system that is fit for the
future and meets employers’
needs”
“The report shows that we have barely
moved the dial on plugging the engi-
neering skills gap in the last five years,”
said Dame Judith, who is also a former
President of IChemE.
“In particular, there is a need to
radically reform technical education –
creating an Apprenticeship Levy system
that is fit for the future and genuinely
meets employers’ needs. We also to
ensure T-Levels do not face the same
fate as the Levy but are employer-led
and driven and, sufficiently funded in
disciplines such as manufacturing and
engineering.
“Finally, we need to shout from
the rooftops that vocational educa-
tion in the digital age is as credible and
valuable as academic routes and can
supply our economy with the much-
needed talent from Generation Z for the
future. Far from offering two separate
routes, academic and technical educa-
tion should be seen as intertwined,
serving the demands of industry, which
is looking for a mix of vocational and
academic learning to provide the inno-
vators, creators and makers of the
future. This should be accompanied by
more joined-up collaborative action
building on the good practice we’ve seen
during the Year of Engineering.” AD
20/02/2019 12:37

awards
GPS pioneers win prestigious
QEPrize
Parkinson, Spilker Jr, Fruehauf and Schwartz bag engineering ‘Nobel’
FOUR engineers responsible for creating
the first satellite-based global position-
ing system (GPS) have won this year’s
Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering
(QEPrize).
The £1m (US$1.3m) prize has been
awarded to Bradford Parkinson, James
Spilker Jr, Hugo Fruehauf and Richard
Schwartz. The Royal Academy of Engi-
neering established the biennial prize in
2013 to celebrate those whose work has
been of global benefit to humanity. Today,
an estimated 4bn people use GPS, with
applications ranging from navigation and
disaster relief through to climate moni-
toring and banking.
The GPS system relies on a series of
orbiting satellites, ground stations and
receiving devices. Each satellite broad-
casts a radio signal containing its location
and the time from an extremely accurate
onboard atomic clock. The receivers on the
ground, which thanks to their low US$2
cost are readily used in today’s consumer
devices, speak to at least four satellites to
determine their position. They measure
the time delay in each signal to calculate
the distance to each satellite, then use
that information to pinpoint the receiver’s
location, which in the case of your smart-
phone makes it possible for you to use
Google Maps to determine within 2 m
your position on Earth so you can very
accurately navigate on foot or by car.
Parkinson, known as the “father of
GPS”, directed the programme for the
US Air Force in the 1970s that led to the
system’s development. Spilker Jr was the
main designer of the GPS civil signal and
with his team at Stanford Telecommuni-
cations built the receiver that processed
the first GPS satellite signals. Fruehauf,
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 14
NIDQEP DG.indd 14
NEWS in depth
QEPrize winners (L-R): Schwartz, Parkinson, Spilker Jr, and Fruehauf
working for Rockwell, developed
highly accurate atomic clock achieved
using miniature rubidium vapour atomic
oscillator technology. Schwartz, also of
Rockwell, designed a satellite hardened to
resist intense radiation in space. Twenty
four satellites were launched between
1978 and 1994, and thanks to Schwartz
efforts they lasted more than three times
their expected three-year lifetime.
Speaking in London at the ceremony
today, Parkinson said it was a “deep
honour” to have been given the award.
“It’s a recognition not just of the four
of us – it’s a recognition of scores of
engineers who made it possible. It’s like
so many things in our civilisation: it is
the building of technology, pieces that
are gathered together in a new and
exciting way.”
Asked whether he knew GPS would
change the world, Parkinson said: “Back
in 1978, I made a few drawings that
depicted GPS applications that I could
personally foresee. They included an
automobile navigation system, semi-
automatic air traffic control, and wide-
area vehicle monitoring, and seem to be
rather accurate 41 years later. That said,
a none of us could fathom the sheer breadth
of GPS applications – the many ways that
it would become a ‘system for humanity’.”
Freuhauf said he has been “blown
away” by the response from industry.
“The world’s tech industry reduced a
40 lb (18 kg), US$100k backpack-sized GPS
receiver into a fingernail-sized chip that
now costs US$2.”
Schwartz said he imagines that in the
not-too-distant future, GPS will enable
him to step into a driverless car, tell it
where he wants to go, and then sit back
and enjoy the ride.
“The second prediction relates to
farming, as we are already starting to
see rapid innovation in agriculture. If
farmers can precisely tend to their fields
around the clock – at low cost – then food
supply around the world will significantly
increase, providing the next step towards
ending world hunger.”
The prize has been likened to the
missing Nobel Prize for the engineering
discipline. Previous winners include MIT
chemical engineer Bob Langer (see p38)
for his work developing controlled release
of drugs which has transformed the lives
of billions of people. AD
20/02/2019 16:40

policy
No-deal Brexit REACH plans
labelled ‘vague and insufficient’
Warnings that proposals are unworkable, with industry concerns on costs
THE UK Government has published draft
legislation for chemical registration in the
event of a no-deal Brexit, but the proposed
plans have come under criticism from the
chemicals industry and from the House
of Lords.
The main piece of EU legislation currently
governing chemical registration is REACH
(Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation
and Restriction of Chemicals), which is
implemented by the European Chemi-
cals Agency (EHCA). The UK Government
has proposed to implement UK REACH in
the event of a no-deal Brexit. It released
guidance last year on how chemical regu-
lation would be handled, but the House
of Lords EU Energy and Environment
Sub-Committee expressed concern in a
report and called on the Government to
clarify how UK REACH would work and put
forward a more credible plan for collecting
data on chemicals.
Inadequate government
response
On 4 January, the Government responded
to the House of Lords report but still failed
to clarify or address all of the concerns
raised. Lord Teverson, Chair of the Sub-
Committee replied by once again calling
for further clarification and criticised
the Government’s “vague and insuffi-
cient” statements on how the Health and
Safety Executive and the Environmental
Agency would regulate chemicals.
Draft regulation
On 9 January, the UK Government published
a draft statutory instrument (SI), which
would act as legislation for UK REACH if
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 15
NIDbrexit DG.indd 15
NEWS in depth
the UK leaves the EU without a deal. It says
that while qualifying registrations held by
UK companies will be automatically trans-
ferred to the new system, the registrants
will still be required to resubmit data. The
SI also said that any UK company currently
buying chemicals from an EU27 country
under EU REACH will become an importer
after 29 March and must register those
chemicals with UK REACH.
A Regulatory Policy Committee report
found the Government’s proposal fit for
purpose, but highlighted the need for more
accurate information on data transfer and
costs.
A report by the House of Lords Secondary
Legislation Scrutiny Committee released
on 7 February raised concerns over
the draft regulations, saying that the consortia of European companies – not by
proposal has insufficient information. ECHA or by UK business. This fact renders
On 8 February, the ECHA announced that the Government’s current proposals
it would open a Brexit “window” from unworkable.”
12–29 March to allow UK companies to Richard Carter, Managing Director of
transfer their registrations to an EU27 BASF UK and Ireland, told Ready for Brexit:
representative. “The thought of having to re-register with
a UK REACH equivalent if there is no deal
and if there is no recognition equivalence
Industry concerns is a huge concern for BASF. We have one
A survey of 38 UK companies by the thousand substances where we are the
Chemical Business Association (CBA) has holders of the registrations. Everybody
found that 75% of them don’t own the can do the maths, we don’t know the cost
data that would be required for them to for re-registering, but times that by one
register chemicals under UK REACH. The thousand and it could be very significant.”
companies currently hold a combined A joint statement by Marco Mensink,
351 registrations under EU REACH and Director General of the European trade
would also have to register an additional group Cefic, and Steve Elliott, the Chief
1,266 registrations as an importer. Peter Executive of the CIA, said: “What our
Newport, Chief Executive of the CBA said: industry and the whole economy needs is
“It is not a simple proposition, as the an agreed Brexit deal. We hope the nego-
Government assumes, for UK companies tiators put the finishing touches to an
to access this testing data. It is a commer- agreement that commands support from
cial decision for its owners – generally within the UK and across Europe” APD
21/02/2019 13:49
 MSc Engineering Management
MSc Management
MBA

Fast-track masters with exclusive

exemptions for chartered IChemE members
With MDC you can complete a fast-track masters in as little as 12 months
Proven success
Since 1991 more than 1200 senior professionals have graduated with MDC.
Minimum disruption to working week
Exclusive exemptions for IChemE members mean you only
need to attend 2 residential weekends (near London) and complete a
dissertation.
Corporate payback
The dissertation, on an individual’s chosen topic, can equate to a large
(and otherwise expensive) piece of consultancy work for an individual’s
employer or company.
Apply
now for
www.managementmasters.co.uk/engineering April
e: frances@mdc-ltd.co.uk t: 01429 839254 2019

Is your packaging leaking?

Avoid costly production downtime by using leak detection products
from Dynascan, as part of your quality control. User-friendly and low
maintenance, Dynascan instruments are essential pieces of leak detection
equipment for packaging facilities providing instant test results to improve your
packaging processes.

Dynascan offers a wide range of seal integrity and leak detection solutions
to suit most food, pharmaceutical, medical and industrial applications.
Testing methods include; burst testing, bubble emissions, pressure decay,
reactive force, altitude simulation and blue dye. All test systems are designed and
manufactured to the highest quality with an individual tailor-made service
available, providing complete technical and engineering solutions.

Whatever your packaging testing requirements, Dynascan has the essential

leak detection equipment.

www.dynascan.co.uk
info@dynascan.co.uk | +44 (0)1480 462142

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 16

tce.933.16.indd 2 21/02/2019 11:42

 BP NEWS round-up

questionable intelligence: policy

‘sandy’ aims to speed up projects
Engineering policy
centre seeks to speak
with single voice
THE Royal Academy of Engineering
has held the inaugural reception for its
newly-established National Engineering
Policy Centre. The centre, with sup-
port from 38 organisations including
IChemE, seeks to provide a unified voice
on shared challenges to policymakers.
The centre aims to enhance the influ-
ence of the engineering profession in
government and increase the impact of
evidence-based policy.
The reception held in late January
industry brought together leaders of the UK’s
professional engineering institutions
to discuss how existing relationships
BP invests in AI to accelerate between policymakers and engineers
can be improved.
upstream projects Dame Ann Dowling, President of the
Royal Academy of Engineering, said:
BP has invested US$5m in artificial intelligence technology in a bid to speed “The UK government has a range of
up projects. complex societal challenges to address
The investment in Belmont Technologies enables BP to tap into a cloud-based where engineering plays a vital role,
machine-learning platform dubbed “Sandy”. BP will feed in data to the platform such as the need to improve indus-
regarding geology, geophysics, reservoir and historic project information, which Sandy trial productivity, and to recognise
will then link together to identify new connections and workflows. and respond to the potential risks and
BP’s engineers can then ask questions of the platform, such as “what is the average rewards from disruptive new technol-
porosity in the Miocene reservoirs?” or “what factors control production in the ogies…The National Engineering Policy
Chirag field?”. Sandy will interpret the data and solve certain simulations up to 10,000 Centre has an important role to play in
times faster. ensuring that engineering expertise is
BP says the development should accelerate project lifecycles from exploration fully brought to bear on these national
through to reservoir modelling, and is targeting a 90% time reduction in data collection, challenges.”
interpretation and simulation. Claudia Flavell-While, Director of
“Sandy will interpret our data, including mapping out many more scenarios than Policy and Publications at IChemE, said:
are currently constructed, helping us make faster, better-informed upstream deci- “Professional engineering institutions
sions,” said David Eyton, BP’s Group Head of Technology. speak much louder when they speak
Belmont’s CEO, Jean-Marie Laigle, said: “Our technology enables real-time with one voice. Engineers have some
thinking for subsurface engineers, helping transform the way teams work, analyse incredibly valuable expertise and input
data, understand situations, and generate novel ideas.” to the technical and societal challenges
BP has previously invested US$20m in cognitive computing company Beyond Limits, the UK Government has to address,
applying technology used in deep space exploration for offshore exploration in a bid and frequently share a similar point of
to speed up operational insights and process automation across its operations. BP view on how these should be dealt with.
said there is scope for integration of the platforms with Belmont’s so-called scalable The National Engineering Policy Centre
knowledge graphs being interrogated by Beyond Limit’s technology for new insights. provides a vital platform where UK engi-
The news follows a tie-up in January between ExxonMobil and IBM, as the oil major neering bodies can come together and
seeks to help develop quantum computing to provide breakthroughs in modelling formulate joint responses to common
and technology development. issues. We look forward to contributing
to its work.”.

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 17

Newsroundup933 DG.indd 17 21/02/2019 13:47

 NEWS round-up
business
ADNOC sells refining stake to European partners
THE Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has sold off
a 35% stake in its refining business to Italy’s Eni and Aus-
tria’s OMV as it seeks to increase efficiencies and diversify
downstream.
Eni and OMV are buying a 20% and 15% stake respec-
tively in ADNOC Refining, in a deal that values the business
at US$19.3bn. ADNOC has two refineries – the Ruwais and
Abu Dhabi refineries – which have a total refining capacity of
922,000 bbl/d. The partners have also agreed to form a joint
venture to export 70% of their refined products.
The partnerships will help ADNOC reduce its dependence
on crude oil by expanding its refining and petrochemicals
operations at Ruwais, as it seeks to become an international
downstream leader.
“Working closely with our partners, we will also deliver
industry
Saudi eyes South Africa and
Pakistan investment
SAUDI Arabia is planning to invest in refining and petrochemi-
cals facilities in South Africa and Pakistan.
Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia is planning to invest
US$10bn in South Africa after ministers from both countries
signed a declaration of intent to cooperate in oil and gas on 18
January. State energy company Saudi Aramco and South Africa’s
Central Energy Fund will conduct joint studies for a refinery and
petrochemicals complex, Bloomberg reports.
The planned refinery, for which a location is yet to be deter-
mined, would use Saudi oil and follows calls from South Africa’s
Energy Minister Jeff Radebe for an increase in domestic refining
to cut reliance on fuel imports.
Separately, there are reports that Saudi Arabia will also invest
US$10bn in Pakistan’s deep-sea port in Gwadar, though there
is conflicting information over whether this will include both a
refinery and a petrochemicals complex.
Reuters reports that Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih
said: “Saudi Arabia wants to make Pakistan’s economic develop-
ment stable through establishing an oil refinery and partnership
with Pakistan in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.”
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a massive
bilateral project aiming to improve infrastructure in Pakistan
to enable better trade with China, and to further integrate the
countries of the region. Asked to clarify the value of the projects
in South Africa and Pakistan, state energy firm Saudi Aramco
declined to provide any further information.
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 18
Newsroundup933 DG.indd 18
ADNOC
boost: Partnership will help
efficiency at ADNOC’s Ruwais site
further efficiencies across our operations and improve asset
and business performance,” said ADNOC CEO Sultan Ahmed
Al Jaber.
The deal increases Eni’s global refining capacity by 35%.
Research & Development
£20m boost for UK steel and biotech
BIOMANUFACTURING and the steel sector have each been awarded
£10m (US$12.9m) in funding to help commercialise early-stage
UK research.
The UK’s Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC) has granted the funding to form two new Manufactur-
ing Research Hubs that bring together academic researchers and
industry partners.
The Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub is led by the Uni-
versity of Manchester with partners including Imperial College,
UCL, Nottingham University and the Centre for Process Innovation.
It will help accelerate the development of scalable biomanufac-
turing processes for pharmaceuticals, chemicals and engineering
materials.
The SUSTAIN Manufacturing Hub for the steels sector is led
by Swansea University, with partners from five major UK steel
producers – Tata, Liberty, British Steel, Celsa, and Sheffield Forge-
masters – along with the Universities of Warwick and Sheffield.
The aim is to radically improve the sustainability of steel
manufacture, with targets to produce zero waste from iron and
steelmaking and become carbon neutral by 2040. This will involve
tapping new energy sources, capturing emissions, and reprocess-
ing waste streams.
The partners expect the venture will help create more jobs and
increase productivity by 15%.
Gareth Stace, UK Steel Director General, said: “The future suc-
cess of our sector rests on our ability to remain at the forefront of
product and process innovation”.
21/02/2019 13:47
 NEWS round-up
industry
UK-Japan venture seeks
to build small nuclear
reactor in Northeast
England
THE UK’s Penultimate Power has agreed to form a joint
venture with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to
build a novel small modular reactor in the UK to provide
power and process heat for heavy industry.
The partners want to build a 10 MWe high-temperature
gas-cooled nuclear reactor in the North East of England,
replicating a design that has been running in Japan since
1998. Ian Fells, Technical Director at Penultimate Power,
said the venture is seeking approvals from authorities and
he expects the £500m (US$651m) plant will be constructed
within the coming 48 months.
“We talk about distributed electricity generation with
wind, solar and biomass generation,” says Fells. “Now
we’re talking about distributed nuclear generation.”
Plans include scaling up the technology to 100 MWe,
and building a factory, preferably in Teesside, to construct
the modular plants for use across the UK. Though Fells
said a timeline for this has not yet been agreed.
Fells says the technology could be used to fill the energy
gap left as the UK shuts down dirty coal-fired power plants
and as larger, traditional nuclear power plants reach the
end of their working lives.
The JAEA’s design is helium-cooled and produces heat
at up to 950°C, far higher than usual reactors. This heat is
suitable for use by heavy industry, including for chemicals
manufacture, desalination and direct hydrogen production
through electrolysis. This in turn could be used to produce
fertilisers and as a reducing agent in steel manufacture,
replacing coke.
On funding, the project has international investors,
and would need support from the UK Government, he
says, adding that the intention is that technology will be
exported for use in Europe and the Middle East.
The UK nuclear industry has suffered setbacks recently,
with backers withdrawing from plans to build new large-
scale plants in Wylfa and Moorside.
Others planning to build SMRs in the UK include
NuScale, which aims to deploy its first 60 MWe unit in the
mid-2020s, while Rolls-Royce has submitted design plans
to the government for a 220 MWe unit.
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 19
Newsroundup933 DG.indd 19
industry
Permian growth prompts Exxon to
build third unit at Beaumont refinery
EXXONMOBIL has started building a third crude unit at its Beaumont
refinery in Texas, US, in a move that will expand processing capacity by
more than 65%. Production at the new 250,000 bbl/d unit is expected
to begin by 2022 and will increase light crude refining at the facility
on the back of climbing oil output from the Permian Basin. Analyt-
ics firm IHS Markit projected last year that production in the Permian
Basin will more than double by 2023, rising 3m bbl/d to 5.4m bbl/d. It
expects this will contribute 60% of total growth in global production,
driven by nearly 41,000 new wells and US$308bn in upstream spend-
ing between 2018–2023.
Bryan Milton, President of ExxonMobil Fuels and Lubricants, said:
“With access to terminals, railways, pipelines and waterways nearby,
the Beaumont refinery is strategically positioned to benefit from
Permian production growth.”
The investment comes as part of wider growth plans at ExxonMobil
dubbed “growing the Gulf”. This includes a 65% expansion in polyeth-
ylene capacity at Beaumont and a new 1.5m t/y ethane cracker at its
Baytown refining and chemicals complex in Texas.
industry
Texas Permian set for world’s
greenest refinery
MERIDIAN Energy has announced plans to build what it claims will
be the world’s cleanest refinery, in Texas, US.
The company has secured land atop the oil-rich Permian Basin,
and is now seeking permission from authorities for a 60,000 bbl/d
refinery to produce a full slate of refined products including gasoline
and ultra-low sulfur diesel. The US$1bn refinery will take advantage
of the rapid growth of oil production in the region brought about
by fracking. The new refinery will borrow the design of a refin-
ery Meridian is building in the shale-rich Bakken region in North
Dakota. They will use a high level of process and emissions control
technology that means the emissions rates are so low that, for the
first time in history, the Bakken refinery has been permitted as a
minor (rather than major) source under air quality rules.
The technologies being used include the latest generation of
ultra-low NOx burners in utility boilers and heater furnaces and
selective catalytic reduction for post-flue gas treatment to further
reduce NOx emissions. In an emailed statement to The Chemical
Engineer, the company said it has designed major aspects of the
refinery systems to use vapour recovery to “essentially eliminate
major fugitive emissions from the plant”.
It is also going beyond regulatory requirements by using
optical gas imaging (OGI) cameras using infrared filters to continu-
ously scan the plant for fugitive gas leaks.
21/02/2019 13:47
DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
AZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZAR

Hazards29
ARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
ZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD
HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZA
ZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD
DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
ZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD
DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
ARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
ZARDSInHAZARDS
association with the Mary
HAZARDS HAZARDS Kay O’Connor
HAZARDSProcess HAZARDS Safety Center HAZARD
HAZARDS
HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZA
22– 24HAZARDS
DS HAZARDS May 2019, HAZARDS Birmingham, HAZARDS HAZARDS UK HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
ARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
HAZARDS
HazardsHAZARDS
29 is IChemE’s annual HAZARDS HAZARDS
process safety conference, the leading HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZA
event of its kind in Europe.
ZARDSIt will
HAZARDS HAZARDS
share good practice, latest developments HAZARDS HAZARDS
and lessons learned in process safety,HAZARDS HAZARDS
promoting safer working practices and HAZARD
DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
helping to make good practice common practice.

ZARDSHazards
HAZARDS HAZARDS
29 will cover every major aspect ofHAZARDS HAZARDS
process safety and bring together hundreds HAZARDS HAZARDS
of practitioners from around the HAZARD
DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
globe. It is the perfect place to learn from others’ experiences, keep up-to-date with good process safety practice, and
network with the international process safety community.
ARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
ZARDSWhat’s
HAZARDS goingHAZARDSon? HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD
HAZARDS AroundHAZARDS HAZARDS
100 oral presentations
■ and posters HAZARDSWorkshop
■ HAZARDS sessions HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZA
DS HAZARDS
from industry
and regulators
HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
practitioners, researchers ■ HAZARDS
Trade exhibition HAZARDS
of process safety related products HAZARDS HA
ARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
Invited plenary speakers from industry HAZARDS HAZARDS
and services
HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
HAZARDS PanelHAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZA
■
■ Welcome drinks reception and social event
discussion
■

AZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZAR

Programme HAZARDS
ARDS HAZARDS themes HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
RDS HAZARDS
Human FactorsHAZARDS
■ ■ HAZARDS
Dispersion Modelling HAZARDS
■ Process SafetyHAZARDS
Management ■ HAZARDS HAZARDS H
Pipelines & Transport

ZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD

Hazard Assessment
■ ■ Safety Culture ■ Systems & Audit ■ Lessons Learned

DS HAZARDS HAZARDSCyber
Design Engineering
■ ■
HAZARDS
Security
HAZARDS
■
HAZARDS HAZARDS
Integration of Process Safety Data
■
HAZARDS HA
Hazard Management

AZARDSCase HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDSSafety HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZAR

Environment ■ ■ Incident Investigation ■ Risk Assessment ■ Process Safety Futures
Studies Education & Training Cases Offshore Safety
ARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
■ ■ ■ ■

ZARDSPlenary
HAZARDS speakers HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD
HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZA
ZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD
DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
ZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD
DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
ARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
ZARDS HAZARDS Mike Bell HAZARDSDame HAZARDS
Judith HAZARDS
Mark Neate HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD
Tracy Whipple
Hackitt DBE
HAZARDS HAZARDS Resorts, US
HAZARDS
Walt Disney Parks &
HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZA
Chair, EEF, UK
Sellafield Ltd, UK BP, US

DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HA

HAZARDS
Find HAZARDS
out more and HAZARDS
register atHAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZA
www.icheme.org/hazards29
ARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS
RDS HAZARDS
Conference partner HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS H IChe
m

ZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARD

E
Safet

DS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS ISC

HAZARDS HAZARDS HA
re
TCE 933

AZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZARDS HAZAR

Ce

tce.933.20.indd 2 21/02/2019 11:41

 NEWS Research & Development
A B
DISPERSION GEL
GO MASS FRACTION
research & development
GO dough: transforming graphene oxide
RESEARCHERS have developed a method to turn graphene
oxide into a mouldable dough, making it safer to transport and
easier to work with.
The dough can be easily shaped and reshaped into free-
standing structures. It can also be diluted to create gels or disper-
sions, or dried to create dense solids which are electrically conductive
and chemically stable, this completing the graphene oxide (GO)-
water “continuum”. Previous work on making free-standing forms
of graphene oxide was limited to making thin films or foams. A
major challenge was that water added to the graphene oxide was
absorbed locally, resulting in non-uniform hydration. Now research-
ers at Northwestern University, US, have created a mouldable form
of GO by using aerosolised water mists to uniformly hydrate the GO.
“The dough state of graphene oxide has very high GO loading (eg
50 wt%), which means that you can only add a very small amount of
water to solid GO,” said Jiaxing Huang, Professor of Materials Science
and Engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineer-
ing, who led the study. “The challenge is to uniformly hydrate a solid
GO material (typically in the form of a film, foam or powders) with
such little amount of water.”
The research team added a high concentration of GO to water
instead of using binding additives which would have needed further
processing to remove them. “Adding binders such as plastics could
turn anything into a dough state,” said Huang. “But these additives
often significantly alter the material’s properties.”
The new form of the material also solves a storage and trans-
port problem for GO. “Currently graphene oxide is stored as dry
solids or powders, which are prone to combustion, or they have to
be turned into dilute dispersions, which multiply the material’s mass
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 21
R&D933 DG.indd 21
Che-Ning Yeh et al., Nature Communications
C The “continuum”: GO-water, from dispersion to solid
DOUGH SOLID
by hundreds or thousands,” said Huang. He described how his most
recent GO delivery of 5 kg was dispersed in 500 L of liquid. “It had
to be delivered in a truck. The same amount of graphene oxide in
dough form would weigh about 10 kg, and I could carry it myself.”
Graphene oxide is often used to make graphene, which is a
single atom sheet of carbon that is both lightweight and strong and
has numerous potential applications. Producing graphene at scale
has many challenges, and using GO to produce graphene is still lim-
ited to batch processes. “I don’t think [GO dough] will significantly
change the ‘GO to graphene’ chemistry (which still needs quite some
work),” said Huang. “[However] since it is a lot easier to process GO
than graphene, we think the GO dough is a nice precursor to make
solid graphene structures. This is like shaping a bread dough before
baking it since the baked bread can no longer be easily shaped.”
Omar Matar, Professor of Fluid Mechanics at the Department
of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, who was
not involved with the work, commented: “It is good to see work
around the manufacturing of graphene oxide-based products, and
even better to see how this could be extended to graphene-based
products. This is a potentially efficient way to store and handle
graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide.”
The method of hydrating graphene oxide with aerosolised water
mists is scalable, and Huang said that while he doesn’t make GO at
commercial scale in the lab, he would love to work with manufac-
turers to customise their products into dough state. “My dream is
to turn graphene-based sheets into a widely accessible, readily usa-
ble engineering material, just like plastic, glass and steel. I hope
GO dough can help inspire new uses of graphene-based materials.”
Nature Communications http://doi.org/c2jb
21/02/2019 18:06
 NEWS Research & Development
yellow: is it me you’re looking for?
research & development
Process boost for making
plastics from sulfur
SCIENTISTS led by the University of Liverpool, UK have dis-
covered a novel catalytic process for the production of plastics
from sulfur. This approach could provide a way of producing
more environmentally friendly plastics, potentially with new
applications.
Sulfur is abundant as a mineral deposit and more than
70m t/y is produced as waste from the likes of refining
crude oil. Sulfur has been identified as an alternative to
carbon for the manufacture of polymers and stable poly-
mers can be made by the process of inverse vulcanisation,
which uses organic crosslinkers to stabilise the polymers.
However, this process requires high temperatures and long
reaction times and produces harmful byproducts.
The researchers have shown using zinc-diethyldith-
iocarbamate (Zn-DTC)2 as a catalyst enables sulfur
polymerisation at reduced temperatures and reaction times,
and produces seven-times less H2S gas.
Furthermore, catalysis enabled the researchers to cre-
ate previously unreported sulfur polymers (thiopolymers),
including thiopolymers made with crosslinkers that are
unreactive without catalysis. Thus, the range of possible
sulfur-rich polymers is expanded.
“Making polymers (plastics) out of sulfur is a potential
game changer,” said Tom Hassel, Royal Society Univer-
sity Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at
Liverpool.
He added: “The properties of sulfur are very different to
carbon, and this has already opened up a world of possible
applications for sulfur polymers including thermal imag-
ing lenses, batteries, water purification and human health.”
Nature Communications: http://doi.org/c2tm
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 22
R&D933 DG.indd 22
research & development
Producing ammonia with plasma
CHEMICAL engineers have produced ammonia from nitrogen and water
using plasma, in a hybrid-electrolytic process that they say could be a
step towards greener, more distributed production.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University, US, say that there
is a growing need for a greener, scalable form of ammonia production
to replace industry’s energy-hungry, emissions-heavy Haber-Bosch
process.
The team says that while alternative photochemical and electro-
chemical processes are being explored, they suffer from poor selectivity
related to catalysts. They seek to overcome this using plasma in a
process that requires no catalyst, no hydrocarbon feedstocks and
works at ambient temperature and pressure.
While it demonstrates comparatively high production rates
and efficiencies, it suffers from high power requirements. It uses
2,270 kWh to produce 1 kg of ammonia compared to just 9–13 kWh for
Haber-Bosch processes.
Future studies should be aimed at lowering the energy consump-
tion by enhancing electron generation in plasmas or exploring other
electrode materials.
“Considering the overall cost of ammonia that is associated with
production, capital, shipping and storage costs, our technology could
be economically attractive by enabling smaller-scale distributed
networks,” the authors write.
Science Advances: http://doi.org/c2tp
research & development
Novel powder could cut CO2 emissions
RESEARCHERS at the University of Waterloo, Canada, have created
an ultramicroporous carbon powder that could be used to capture
CO2 from industry.
Researchers produced a carbon powder with a CO2 capture capac-
ity of more than 4 mol/kg under ambient conditions. This is about
twice the capture capacity of conventional materials, such as zeolite
and activated carbon.
Zhongwei Chen, Chemical Engineering Professor at Waterloo,
said: “It can be easily applied in the exhaust system by means of
impregnating carbon powder onto filter media without additional
equipment or extra power.”
Once the powder has been saturated with CO2, it could be regen-
erated or buried underground. The researchers are now working to
optimise their carbon powder to further reduce technology costs.
“Numerous companies are launching the research and applica-
tion of advanced porous materials for capturing CO2, as a substitute
of conventional amines absorption technology,” said Chen. “A
representative example is ClimeWorks, a Swiss company which
extensively employs porous carbon granulates as the filter materials
for capturing CO2.” Carbon: http://doi.org/czh2
21/02/2019 18:06
 NEWS Research & Development

process

Producing synthetic gas in a single step

SUNFIRE has successfully demonstrated a single-step

Sunfire GmbH
process for producing syngas from water, carbon dioxide,
and renewable energy.
In conventional processes for syngas production, electrol-
ysis is used to produce hydrogen from water, and the reverse
water-gas-shift reaction is used to convert CO2 into carbon
monoxide. Sunfire’s technology, Sunfire-Synlink, can perform
these actions in a single step using co-electrolysis, where the H
and CO are both produced from electrolysis.
The technology uses solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOECs)
which can operate at a high temperature to directly convert
steam instead of using liquid water. The heat for the process
can be produced by waste heat or steam from industrial pro-
cesses and the energy can come from renewables.
In November last year, Sunfire conducted a 500 h test run
of the technology at a site in Germany, where the 10 kW plant
produced up to 4 Nm3/h of syngas. The next phase of the pro-
ject will involve moving the unit from Dresden to Karlsruhe
where it will use CO2 captured from the air by Climeworks to
produce syngas, and this will be processed into a synthetic fuel one step: Sunfire’s co-electrolysis technology
called e-Crude using a micro Fischer-Tropsch process devel-
oped by INERATEC. This integrated demonstration is set to 10m L/y of e-Crude using 20 MW of input power. The plant will
begin production of e-Crude in August. be located in the Heroya industrial park in Norway and be oper-
Sunfire has also started to scale up the co-electrolysis pro- ated by clean technology company Nordic Blue Crude. The plant
cess to industrial scale. The first commercial plant, originally would avoid emissions of around 21,000 t/y of CO2 by using
planned for operation in 2020, will be capable of producing waste industrial heat and renewable energy.

research & development

Clariant partners with ExxonMobil and Renewable Energy Group
CLARIANT has partnered with ExxonMobil and the biofuel firm
Renewable Energy Group (REG) to develop a seamless cellulosic
biomass-to-diesel process.
Clariant’s sunliquid technology converts agricultural waste and
residues into fermentable C5 and C6 sugars, which are used to
produce ethanol.
Previously, Exxon and REG validated the ability to use REG’s
bioconversion technology to convert sugars created from cellulosic
biomass into biodiesel, in a single-step process. REG’s partner-
ship with Exxon allowed it to develop proprietary technology that
uses industrial microbes to convert complex cellulosic sugars into
low-carbon biodiesel in a one-step fermentation process.
The aim of the new agreement is to allow Exxon and REG to
further optimise the bioconversion process using the cellulosic
sugars created by Clariant’s sunliquid process. The ultimate goal
is to combine the two processes, creating a seamless cellulosic
biomass-to-diesel technology.
Clariant will conduct trials at its pre-commercial plant in
Straubing, Germany. The company will convert different types of
cellulosic feedstock into sugars, and Exxon and REG will convert
the sugars into high-quality, low-carbon diesel.
Vijay Swarup, Vice President of Research and Development at
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering said: “Over the past three
years, our work with REG has led to important advances in genet-
ically improving REG’s proprietary microbes for a beneficial use
in facilitating the conversion of cellulosic sugars into biodiesel.
Applying Clariant’s expertise and knowledge will help us better
understand and advance a key stage in the overall cellulosic con-
version process, and hopefully lead to the development of scalable
biodiesel technology.”

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 23

R&D933 DG.indd 23 21/02/2019 18:06

 NEWS Research & Development
research & development
3D-printed sponge could reduce side effects of
chemotherapy
CHEMICAL engineers at the University of California (UC),
Berkeley, US, have developed a 3D-printed ‘drug sponge’
which could help reduce the side effects of chemotherapy
by absorbing excess drugs.
Most anti-cancer drugs are poisonous, and chemother-
apy can cause major side effects, including suppression of the
immune system. These effects can be minimised by targeting
drugs to the site of the tumour using a catheter but typically
more than half of the drug can still escape the target organ and
hurt the body.
UC Berkeley’s drug sponge was able to absorb an aver-
age of 64% of the chemotherapy drug injected into the blood,
upstream of the device. 3D printing the device means it can be
tailored to precisely fit the patient’s vein, meaning the drug
cannot flow unabsorbed around the outside of the cylinder.
By using a wire to move it through the bloodstream,
surgeons could place the sponge like a stent, says Nitash
Balsara, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at
UC Berkeley. The sponge could then be left for the duration
process
New carbon capture technology granted funding for further development
THE Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and Carbon CCS-US have
received US$2.9m in funding to test the feasibility of a tech-
nology called ROTA-CAP that could make carbon capture more
cost-effective.
ROTA-CAP uses rotating packed bed (RPB) absorbers and
regenerators, unlike conventional carbon technology using
stationary columns. The rotating disc of packing material
generates a high gravity centrifugal force which distributes
the solvent towards the outer edges of the disc. This provides
a higher surface area for mass transfer to occur between the
flue gas and the solvent. The project will use CCSL proprie-
tary solvent which it says can achieve higher CO2 loadings than
conventional solvents.
The skid will also include a conventional column absorber
and regenerator along with a conventional solvent to fully
evaluate the performance of the new method.
The highly concentrated solvent leads to greater process
efficiency and decreases the solvent top-up requirements by
around 77%. The new technology reduces the sizing require-
ments of heat exchangers, pumps, and coolers by up to 50%
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 24
R&D933 DG.indd 24
Hee Jeung Oh (Uni of California, Berkeley) and ACS Central Science
ABSORBER
DRUG-
TUMOR FREE
BLOOD
absorbing: The drug sponge is placed in
a vein and traps chemotherapy drugs
of chemotherapy.
The trials have so far been carried out in pigs. Human trials
are expected to start in “a couple of years”.
ACS Central Science: http://doi.org/czwj
and the RPB equipment has a 90% volume reduction compared
to a conventional static column.
GTI and CCS-US aim to reduce the cost of carbon capture
with their technology to US$30/t of CO2 by 2030, in line with
the DoE’s carbon capture cost targets. The current cost of
carbon capture estimated by the DoE is US$60/t of CO2.
GTI and CCS-US will design, construct, and test the RPB
absorber and regenerator with a simulated flue gas at GTI’s
Des Plaines facility in Illinois. The bench-scale skid will
then be transported to the National Carbon Capture Centre in
Alabama for long-term testing with coal-fired flue gas. This
phase will include a 1,000-hour stability test at a rate of 1 t/d
of CO2 capture and testing is due to be complete in 2021.
Will Shimer, General Manager of CCS-US, said: “This is
an exciting project that promises to further reduce the cost
of carbon capture, and the most important feature is that
it will be scalable. ROTA-CAP technology could provide a
major reduction in both capex and equipment size, enabling
wider-scale commercial deployment of carbon capture
systems globally.”
21/02/2019 18:06
 1ST & 2ND May 2019 Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate, Yorks
REGISTER NOW FOR FREE ENTRY!
2 Packed Days
170+ Leading Exhibitors
Latest Plant & Equipment
The brand new UK Chemical Industry Process Flow & Control Focus
Supply Chain Expo & Open Conference Supply Chain Networking
2-Day FREE Conference
Intelligence & Best Practice
Skills & Careers Programme

FREE
ENTRY &
PARKING!
Supporting Partners include:

Shapa

www.chemicalukexpo.com
1ST & 2ND MAY 2019 REGISTER FREE AT WWW.CHEMICALUKEXPO.COM

Hazards
TCE Advert V2 175 x 112mm AW 17-12-18.indd 1 18/12/2018 11:57

13–14 November 2019

Hilton, Brisbane, Australia
Australasia 2019
Call for papers open
Hazards Australasia is a leading process safety conference. It shares best practice, latest developments and lessons learned in
process safety, promoting a continuous focus on improving process safety performance.
The theme for 2019 is competence and capability. The two-day conference will feature renowned keynote speakers, technical
presentations, workshops and networking amongst process safety professionals.
Call for papers is open. Share your process safety experience and submit an abstract by 8 April.

Want to brand your organisation as an industry leader?

Hazards Australasia 2019 represents an excellent opportunity to raise your profile and present your products and services to
the international process safety community. By supporting Hazards Australasia you can expect to engage with process safety
professionals from leading international companies and key players in the industry.
Delegates will come from Australia, New Zealand, Asia and beyond. For further
information please contact conferences@icheme.org

Mark 13–14 November in your diary for Hazards Australasia 2019

TCE 933

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 25

tce.933.25.indd 2 21/02/2019 16:18

 All photos courtesy of https://www.instagram.com/adum_harris snapshot frank morton sports day

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 26

snapshot933 DG.indd 26 21/02/2019 12:20

 snapshot frank morton sports day

Birmingham takes the fifth

THE University of Birmingham has won the UK’s annual Frank
Morton Sports Day, claiming its fifth title in a row.
Some 1,800 chemical engineering students from more than 20
universities gathered in Sheffield on 18 February for the sports day,
careers fair and night out. This year, Sheffield Hallam and Wolver-
hampton universities took part for the first time, joining a packed day
of competition involving 22 sports.
As the results poured in from venues spread across the city, it
quickly became apparent that Birmingham had once again steamed
to top spot – the fifth consecutive year it has won out over its peers.
Strathclyde, always the bridesmaid and never the bride, had come
second to Birmingham for the last four years in a row. But this year it
slipped to fourth, losing out to Sheffield on home soil in second, and
Newcastle in third.
Bookending the sports day were opening and closing ceremonies
featuring performances from Sheffield’s K-Pop and Bhangra socie-
ties, and after Birmingham had collected its winner’s trophy (pictured
bottom right) and Manchester was announced the winner of the best
T-shirt competition, attentions turned to an evening of entertain-
ment that included cinema, jazz, a bar crawl and karaoke.
“Frank Morton returned to Sheffield for the first time since 2003 as
a smashing success,” said David Miller, President of the Frank Morton
committee and one of 11 Sheffield students who helped organise the
event. “On Behalf of the committee I’d like to give a big thank you to
everyone involved…especially to our amazing student’s union!’

Sport winner runner-up

Rugby Strathclyde Birmingham
Hockey Bath Birmingham
Netball Newcastle 1 Newcastle 2
Laser Quest Strathclyde UCL
Ultimate frisbee Birmingham Sheffield
Bouldering Aston Sheffield
Football Wolverhampton Manchester
Badminton Aston Birmingham
Squash Aberdeen Birmingham
Female rowing Strathclyde Birmingham
Male rowing Sheffield Nottingham
Darts Birmingham Strathclyde
Table tennis Manchester Sheffield
Chess Strathclyde Birmingham
Basketball Strathclyde Birmingham
Escape rooms Nottingham Nottingham
Quasar Sheffield Nottingham
Dodgeball Birmingham Newcastle 2
Fun run Sheffield Birmingham
Rounders Imperial Nottingham
Pool Birmingham 1 Birmingham 2
Tug of war Sheffield Birmingham
OVERALL Birmingham – 490 points Strathclyde – 210 points

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 27

snapshot933 DG.indd 27 21/02/2019 12:20

 feature hydrogen economy
Tommy Isaac introduces a series on the opportunities and challenges
T
HE cheap, abundant and seemingly limitless en-
ergy supply of the 20th Century driven by fossil
fuel consumption led to unprecedented economic
growth and improvements in quality of life. But much like
financial e t the long-term cost will ultimately e high-
er than the short-term gain. Society has reaped the short-
term enefits of fossil fuel consum tion an the en iron-
mental bailiffs are now at the door.
Hydrogen offers a unique cross-system opportunity for
fundamental change in the energy landscape. This series
of articles will provide an overview of the opportunities and
challenges facing hydrogen development and deployment. The
potential benefits that adoption of hydrogen would accrue to
the climate cause and energy customers will be discussed, as
well as the barriers which must be overcome to achieve such
deployment. All technical assessments will be framed within
the context of the UK energy markets (power, heating and
transport) given the maturity of the UK energy markets as well
as the legally-binding carbon emissions targets set by the UK
Government.
THE CHALLENGE
Decarbonising the global economy is the largest challenge
humanity currently faces, as the existential crisis of climate
change becomes ever more present and violent. The cultural
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 28
hydrogen DG NEW.indd 28
revolution taking place which is redefining the relationship
between humanity and our environment will come to shape
the trajectory of social development over the course of the 21st
Century. As societal attitudes adapt and change, the transition
from fossil fuel driven economies to environmentally sustain-
able economic models will provide new opportunities and
economic benefits for those who have the courage to act now
and grasp the first-mover advantage.
Like every great challenge facing humanity, environmen-
tal sustainability seems insurmountable when viewed from the
perspective of the status quo. However, there is no alternative
– maintaining the status quo is to knowingly continue to build
the structure of society out of materials borrowed from its own
foundations whilst wishing for calm winds.
DECARBONISATION OPTIONS
There are three options by which the world can decarbonise
the global economy and meet the Paris targets of maintaining
average temperature rises below 1.5oC relative to pre-indus-
trial times, or to push beyond that reduction to the recent IPCC
assessment of net zero emissions by 2050. The three options
are: reduce energy demand; capture carbon dioxide follow-
ing fossil fuel combustion; and reduce the carbon intensity
of energy.
Within each of these options lies a spectrum of technological
21/02/2019 12:17
 feature hydrogen economy

National Grid, Elexon and BEIS

Figure 1: UK Energy Demands (source: Grant Wilson, University of birmingham)
4,500 GWh

4,000 GWh

3,500 GWh

3,000 GWh
HEAT
GWh PER DAY

2,500 GWh
transport

2,000 GWh

1,500 GWh

1,000 GWh

power
500 GWh

0 GWh

Jun

Jan

Mar
Apr
Mar
Apr
May
Jun

Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Feb
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb

Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
2015 2016 2017 2018

avenues to policy makers and the exact balance of vectors will during the production of fertilisers. However, post-combustion
be country specific, determined ultimately by ease of use and CCS is unlikely to be a universal solution.
minimum cost to customers. Taking each of these options in This leaves us with option 3 - reducing the carbon inten-
turn will allow a pragmatic conclusion to be drawn on the sity of energy by replacing fossil fuel usage with low carbon
relative significance of each option. sources. This strategy is the least disruptive option from the
Option 1 involves technological development in the form of perspective of the consumer and is achievable with current
efficiency gains and cultural change in the form of reducing technologies given the maturity of the necessary technolo-
absolute demand. Both of these strategies are, and will remain, gies in other industries other than energy supply. The primary
important contributors in reducing carbon emissions; however, barrier to fully realising the opportunity of this strategy
scale is the issue here. Carbon reductions on the scale required has been a clear and cohesive national plan with the neces-
to achieve an 80% reduction by 2050 relative to 1990 simply sary regulatory mechanisms to allow private investment and
cannot be achieved using this option without previously unseen market-driven solutions.
technological advances and currently unacceptable disruptive Option 3 has been the dominant strategy to date via the elec-
changes to consumer lifestyles. tricity market by replacing coal fire stations with gas, biomass,
wind and solar. This strategy has achieved a 50% reduction in
the carbon intensity of electricity from 2013 to 2017.1
Although wind and solar power have been
transformative to date in decarbonising
electricity, extending that logic to the other WHY HYDROGEN
energy vectors of gas and oil (heating and Extending the current decarbonisation approach of electrifica-
transport) does not stack up when tion across all energy sectors would be, at a minimum, myopic
taking a system approach and certainly unfeasible. Although wind and solar power
have been transformative to date in decarbonising electric-
If option 2 is to be the dominant technology vector, this world ity, extending that logic to the other energy vectors of gas and
view would be contingent on connecting every household’s gas oil (heating and transport) does not stack up when taking a
boiler flue, industrial flue stack, gas turbine and moving vehicle system approach. As is shown in Figures 1 and 2, the UK’s elec-
in the UK to CCS infrastructure. This is self-evidently not prac- tricity demand is the smallest of the three, annual transport
tical nor politically acceptable. Post-combustion CCS will likely demand is 1.4 times electricity, and heat is 2.7 times electric-
play a role, especially where easily isolatable streams of signif- ity. Therefore, to electrify these demands with intermittent
icant carbon dioxide volumes are ready for capture, such as electrical supply would be predicated on building generation,

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 29

hydrogen DG NEW.indd 29 21/02/2019 12:17

 feature hydrogen economy
Figure 2: To Scale Energy System Comparison
POWER
TRANSPORT
HEAT
transmission and distribution assets equating to four more
grids along with industrial levels of battery deployment to
transfer summer power to winter heat.
All considerations are then exacerbated when viewing the
problem from the perspective of the current level of resilience
required within the gas network which must cater for the 6
minute 1-in-20-year heating demand, and then factoring daily
travel patterns regarding electric vehicle charging peaks.
Clearly, low carbon electricity has a natural economic ceiling
to its deployment. The question therefore turns to alternative
energy vectors to lower the carbon intensity of heating and
transport in an economically and politically acceptable way.
The two options for reducing the carbon intensity of energy
supplies alongside electrification are: renewable hydrocarbon
sources such as biomethane and liquid biofuels; and hydrogen.
Biomethane and liquid biofuels are important vectors within
the energy landscape as they offer sources of fuel which promote
a closed system of carbon. They are limited, however, to the
availability of sustainable feedstocks. For example, biometh-
ane based on domestic feedstocks could contribute 100 TWh/y,
which represents around a third of domestic gas demand.2
This is significant. However, other complementary sources
will be required, given that total UK natural gas demand is up
to around 1,000 TWh/y.3 Hydrogen is not feedstock limited as
it can be produced from a variety of sources and can poten-
tially unlock negative emissions. Therefore, it has the potential
to play a very significant role as a vector to reduce the carbon
intensity of energy.
HEAT
Displacement of natural gas for the purposes of heating is
the principal opportunity that hydrogen represents. Heating
accounts for almost half of all emissions in the UK 4, therefore
tackling this source of carbon dioxide will be paramount in
achieving the legally-binding reductions set by the UK govern-
ment. Hydrogen deployment within the context of heat could
take a variety of forms, from blending in the network, to full
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 30
hydrogen DG NEW.indd 30
conversion of industrial users or even the wider network. The
opportunity of hydrogen has been recognised by all gas distri-
bution networks (GDNs) as demonstrated by the number of
projects underway. The gas industry has a history of hydrogen,
given that it was the single most abundant component in towns
gas - the UK’s gas supply prior to the discovery of natural gas
beneath the North Sea. It is through demonstration projects
such as the HyDeploy project that the hydrogen-for-heat land-
scape is being carved, setting the technical and regulatory
scene for wider adoption and deployment.
POWER
Within the electricity market, hydrogen is a symbiotic vector
alongside intermediate renewables supplies. Electricity
production from hydrogen is a dispatchable generation source
which provides mechanical inertia to the grid. The reduction in
mechanical inertia of the electricity grid, due to replacement
of thermal generation (alternating current) with renewa-
ble generation (direct current followed by an inverter), has
resulted in increased challenges in maintaining grid frequency,
as recognised by National Grid’s EFCC project. A low-carbon
thermal generation source has a valuable role in stabilising
the electricity grid if intermittent sources are to play the role
they are expected to play within the future generation mix.
Hydrogen-powered gas turbines or industrial fuel cells would
provide the necessary mechanical inertia needed to maintain a
stable electricity grid, whilst further reducing electrical energy
carbon intensity.
TRANSPORT
Transport is a second-order decarbonisation problem – the
technical solutions for electricity and gas will provide the infra-
structural framework for transport decarbonisation. If electricity
is to be the sole form of energy for transport then major invest-
ment in dispatchable generation, alongside smart technologies
would be required to allow charging of vehicles when required.
Hydrogen peaking plants are likely to provide a lower cost and
more stabilising vector relative to the counterfactual of indus-
trial batteries. Hydrogen can also be used directly for transport
using fuel cells, delivering zero emissions at the point of use.
Building on the adoption of electric drive trains, a hydrogen
fuel cell is functionally equivalent to a battery, with associ-
ated benefits of range and fill rate following development and
deployment. The notion therefore holds that whichever decar-
bonisation strategy prevails within the transport market,
hydrogen is expected to play a key role.
PRODUCTION
If hydrogen is to play a central role in the decarbonisation of
our energy systems, major investment in production will be
required. The importance of hydrogen production technologies
21/02/2019 12:17
 feature hydrogen economy

Figure 3: 2017 Total Electrolysis Potential

80% EFFICIENCY 6%
H2

O2 H2

94%
61.5 TWH H2 BLEND NATURAL GAS

4,5
TOTAL ELECTRICITY GENERATION FROM WIND AND SOLAR IN 2017 WAS 62 TWh.
IF ALL PRODUCTION WAS CONVERTED TO HYDROGEN VIA ELECTROLYSIS AT A TYPICAL EFFICIENCY OF
80%, HYDROGEN PRODUCTION WOULD HAVE BEEN 49 TWh. TOTAL NATURAL GAS USAGE IN 2017 WAS
875 TWH, THEREFORE ELECTROLYSIS WOULD HAVE DISPLACED 6% OF NATURAL GAS SUPPLY

has been recognised by the UK Government and has resulted in COST

the £20m Hydrogen Supply Competition.
Production technologies will be covered in more detail within
this series, however the most established and suitable processes
for bulk production require converting methane to hydrogen
and carbon dioxide via steam methane reformation (SMR), or
autothermal reformation (ATR). Therefore, deployment of bulk
production at the scale required would be contingent on the
establishment of CCS infrastructure. Electrolysis with renew-
able electricity has a role but cannot economically supply bulk
hydrogen at the scale required, as demonstrated by Figure 3. In
the long run, hydrogen produced via solar-thermal hydrolysis
and transported in shipping tankers could provide the ultimate
environmentally sustainable model.
Methane conversion coupled with CCS provides a neces-
sary foundational production process which would allow the
required regulatory and commercial frameworks to be devel-
oped to enable wider deployment.
DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY
The challenges of hydrogen deployment extend across techno-
logical development, commercial models, regulatory support
mechanisms and customer perceptions. None of these chal-
lenges are insurmountable when considered in isolation,
however when aggregated and put within the context of the
scale of decarbonisation required, the sum total could seem
daunting. It is therefore incumbent to tread the path of least
regrets. Projects which de-risk the route map of deployment,
for example by removing the need to modify existing appli-
ances and equipment, whilst still representing material carbon
savings, should be favoured for early deployment. Adopting this
rollout strategy would allow the necessary commercial frame-
works and regulatory mechanisms to be established to facilitate
deeper deployment whilst minimising the cost of early adoption
to consumers.
Finally, with regards to cost, it would be intellectually dishon-
est to set expectations that decarbonisation of the economy will
not come at a cost compared to the status quo. This is because at
present, our energy systems do not properly internalise the cost
of the damage caused by carbon emissions. The known reserves
of the major oil and gas companies are more than enough to
exceed the carbon dioxide requirements to breach the Paris
limits. Therefore, decarbonisation is fundamentally a moral
decision, not an economic inevitability.
It is the duty of policy makers and informed entities to
promote the least-cost pathway, as this will ensure the economic
burden does not prohibit the success of the cause. Hydrogen is a
key element of that pathway. The deployment of hydrogen can be
achieved with known technologies in a way that maximises the
utilisation of existing assets, principally the gas network, whilst
enabling deeper deployment of other low-carbon technologies.
Through the course of this article series the opportu-
nity that hydrogen presents, as well as the challenges facing
its deployment, will be presented, to inform debate and drive
evidence-based conversations.
Tommy Isaac CEng MIChemE is Principal Engineer at Progressive
Energy
references
1. National Grid, Future Energy Scenarios Workbook, 2018
2. https://bit.ly/2TZb1CI
3. BEIS. Supply and consumption of natural gas and colliery
methane (DUKES 4.2), July 2018
4. BEIS. Final UK greenhouse gas emissions national statistics:
1990-2016, March 2018
5. BEIS. Electricity fuel uses, generation and supply (DUKES
5.6), July 2018

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 31

hydrogen DG NEW.indd 31 21/02/2019 12:17

 feature education
Growing and Surviving
Amanda Jasi visits the University of Greenwich, where a new lab has
opened to support chemeng student learning
T
HIS academic year the Faculty of Engineering and
Science at the University of Greenwich, UK opened
a new chemical engineering laboratory at
university’s Medway Campus in Kent.
The University of Greenwich has a history that stretches
back to 1890 when it was first established as Woolwich
Polytechnic. Given this, you might be surprised to learn that
the university only recently created a programme of studies
for chemical engineering – a profession which became estab-
lished in the UK in 1887 when a precursor of the University of
Manchester offered the first chemical engineering course.
Greenwich’s new chemical engineering lab was opened last
year to complement the new chemical engineering programme.
The lab is located in the Hawke building, a multidisciplinary
facility belonging to the Faculty of Engineering and Science.
I met Pablo García-Triñanes, Head of the Chemical Engi-
neering Division, and Secretary of IChemE’s London & South
East Coast Members Group. He explained that the new lab is
fitted with equipment to facilitate student learning and give
them hands-on experience to complement their theoretical
studies and prepare them for careers in industry.
García-Triñanes: “we want to be open”
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 32
greenwich DG NEW.indd 32
A new lab
“There’s no possibility of developing a programme in chemical
the engineering without practical experiments,” says García-
Triñanes. The new chemical engineering programme started in
the 2017/2018 academic year, but the new lab only opened at the
beginning of the 2018/19 academic year.
In their first year the 2017/18 cohort used existing labs
common to all engineering students. García-Triñanes says
that engineering students at Greenwich experience a common
first year, and there are laboratories available which include
some equipment for chemical engineering content such as fluid
mechanics, heat transfer and pumps.
However, before the chemical engineering students started
their second year, García-Triñanes felt it was really impor-
tant to get a teaching laboratory in which they could gain more
specialised experience. He sought and gained approval from the
university to equip and open the much-needed lab.
“Chemical engineering is very broad... and
that is one of the beauties of the subject. It
touches on different areas, and this allows it to
complement the school of engineering”
“The new equipment arrived mid 2018 and includes continuous
distillation, reverse osmosis, heat transfer in fluidised beds, and
multivariable control or reactor engineering kits,” says García-
Triñanes. “These experiments are designed specifically to support
our curriculum … with a responsive technical team of experts, and
in the vicinity of industrial-scale pilot plant units for the study of
bulk solids handling and separation processes.”
The new equipment includes kit that will help students to
understand fundamental modules of the chemical engineering
programme as well as modules more specific to the curriculum at
Greenwich. These are modules that García-Triñanes says have been
included to add some “personality” to the programme, such as
process safety and chemical plant design, and materials handling.
García-Triñanes consulted with employers to help shape the
curriculum.
“These are the kinds of issues that we need to stress to create
well-rounded students and prepare them for the “real world”.
Chemical and manufacturing plant layout, commissioning and
21/02/2019 12:30
 feature education
process safety or sustainability are key in ensuring that all systems
and components of an industrial plant are designed, installed,
tested, operated, maintained and are safe according to the opera-
tional requirements.”
Improving through collaboration
The addition of chemical engineering at Greenwich filled a hole
García-Triñanes says. “Chemical engineering is very broad, very
general,” and that is one of the beauties of the subject. It touches
on different areas, and this allows it to complement the School of
Engineering.
In constructing the new programme, a conscious effort was
made to collaborate and share ideas with local expertise present at
the campus and in the area. “Exchange of information is feeding
us,” he says. “We need to be open to what’s going on.”
The chemical engineering division has relationships with other
specialist research units on campus such as Natural Resources
Institute (NRI); Chemistry; Pharmacy; Food Innovation; Water,
Waste and Environmental Engineering, and Algae Research.
These relationships can benefit the students by contributing
to the chemical engineering curriculum. For example, particle
technology – which is embedded in the chemical engineering
curriculum - is an area of expertise for Greenwich’s Wolfson Centre
for Bulk Solids Handing Technology. The centre is one of only
three in the world that work with powders on an industrial scale,
according to García-Triñanes. It is involved in research, consul-
tancy, and education and its work spans a range of industries
including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and mining.
Greenwich also participates in external collaboration. For
example, during the development of the new chemical engineering
programme it joined other new providers in meetings to discuss
the challenges involved in creating a new degree programme. Other
universities involved were University of Chester, University of Hull,
Queen Mary University of London, and University of Huddersfield.
“It’s what others are creating as well that inspires us, and we want
to inspire others at the same time. So, we want to be open,” says
García-Triñanes.
In addition, staff cultivate relationships with professionals and
industry by attending conferences and meetings, such as those
run by IChemE. This has helped inform the programme, provided
visiting lecturers, placements for students, and led to research
collaboration. Greenwich also collaborates on research at an inter-
national scale with organisations in countries including France,
Netherlands, Oman, Egypt and Japan.
Future milestones
Now that the chemical engineering programme has been estab-
lished and the lab opened, there is still more to be achieved.
Next steps include adding a research lab for chemical engineer-
ing students who move on to doing Master’s and PhD projects. This
lab could also be shared with other programmes at the university
and facilitate collaborative projects. Talks are currently taking
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 33
greenwich DG NEW.indd 33
bespoke: the new lab includes kit that will help students
understand fundamental chemical engineering modules
place, with hopes of research labs becoming fully available in 2019.
Other milestones García-Triñanes has in mind include seeking
IChemE accreditation once the first round of chemical engineering
students have graduated. This will help to validate the quality of
the newly-created course.
As Head of the Chemical Engineering Division, García-Triñanes
took the lead in creating the new programme and is keen that it
continues to grow. “I want to build something here that leaves a
legacy,” he says. To do this the faculty must first maintain and
survive. As chemical engineering student applications are on the
decline, and more course providers are becoming established “it’s
going to be a fierce fight,” García-Triñanes says, “and some of the
new providers probably won’t survive.”
Greenwich has so far more than survived and has managed to
grow. In the first-year of offering the subject 11 students joined the
chemical engineering programme. In the following year, 18 new
students joined. And “prospective numbers continue to grow,” says
García-Triñanes.
The importance of chemical engineering
García-Triñanes believes in the importance of chemical engineer-
ing. It can inform a range of industries such as the “pharmaceutical
industry, food engineering, nuclear engineering, biochemical
engineering, material sciences and energy and renewable energy,”
he says. “These impact people’s everyday lives drastically.”
“The way I see it is that chemical engineering … provides a deep
insight and a generic and collective way of thinking that makes use
of science and technology tools and applies them to solve complex
problems and grand challenges of the society,” he says. “Chemical
engineers not only contribute as specialists to supply human needs
but also have an active and responsible role in the society with
their decisions, including the ones affecting health, environment,
sustainability, economics or social growth.”
Arming chemical engineering students with the tools and skills
they need to enter careers in this field betters society as a whole.
21/02/2019 12:30
 feature membrane technology
uniform: Micropore’s metal membranes
have pores with consistent sizes
Monodispersion at Scale
manda Doyle isits icropore echnologies to find out about
its new techni ue for membrane emulsification
M
icropore Technologies, a specialist engineering
company, has successfully scaled up membrane
technology that can create emulsions with mono-
disperse droplets. The membrane has applications in a wide
range of industries.
Emulsions are created using two liquids that are normally
immiscible. One liquid, known as the dispersed phase, is
dispersed within the other, which is known as the continuous
phase. A vinaigrette is an example of an emulsion that can be
made in a kitchen blender using oil and vinegar. Blending the
oil and vinegar together will create an emulsion, but once it is
left for a while it will separate back out. This is due to the range
of sizes of droplets in the emulsion.
Micropore’s membrane technology consistently creates
droplets that are all the same size. “If you produce droplets all
of the same size they are inherently more stable,” explains Dai
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 34
micropore DG NEW.indd 34
Hayward, CEO of Micropore. “If you’ve got a variety of differ-
ent sizes they’ll agglomerate back together again just like your
vinaigrette does when you do it in your kitchen blender. A wide
size distribution means the big ones swallow up the small ones
so it all agglomerates back into the oil in that instance.”
Go with the flow
Conventional methods for producing emulsions at scale usually
involve spinning blades. Not only does this produce a wide
dispersion of droplet sizes, the blades have high shear forces
which can damage droplets and degrade biological material.
Emulsions can also be produced at lab scale using membranes
where the disperse phase passes through the membrane into
the continuous phase. Micropore has designed a porous metal
membrane, in contrast with other lab techniques that use
21/02/2019 13:44
 feature membrane technology
sintered ceramic or glass membranes. In a typical ceramic
membrane, the fluid has to follow a tortuous path through a
mesoporous intermediate layer before reaching a microporous
top layer. When the droplets emerge they can be quite close
together and could merge to form larger droplets.
“The benefits of a metal membrane are that we can control
exactly where the holes are drilled, the exact diameter of
them, and the exact spacing and shape,” says Bruce Williams,
Consulting Engineer at Micropore. “That means that we don’t
suffer the same problems of droplets joining together as they
emerge from the pores. Essentially, the droplets will come out
of the little pore and form on the surface and we make use of a
flowing second phase – the phase that you’re dispersing those
droplets into. It’s the flow of that and the shear that it gener-
ates that pulls the droplets off. If you can control the shear that
each droplet sees, then it will come off at about the same size.”
“The benefits of a metal membrane are that
we can control exactly where the holes are
drilled, the exact diameter of them, and the
exact spacing and shape”
The stainless steel metal membrane, known as CXF-1 (contin-
uous cross flow), can also be used at pressures of up to 50 bar,
unlike glass membranes which aren’t as robust, and the droplet
sizes can range between 10 µm and 1 mm depending on the
pore size and the shear. Stainless steel also has an advantage
over glass and ceramic as it is acceptable to use stainless steel
in the pharmaceutical or food and drink industries. Stainless
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 35
micropore DG NEW.indd 35
steel is also naturally hydrophilic so it will attract water.
However, for processes that require a hydrophobic membrane,
a coating can be added to the membrane to repel water.
Micropore is the first company to
successfully scale up membrane
emulsification, and received an IChemE Award
in 2018 for developing the ability to create
commercial-scale monodisperse particles
The metal membrane also has a major advantage over the
other types of membranes in that it can be easily scaled up
to produce kiloton quantities. Membrane emulsification has
been a lab-scale process since the 1990s, and the challenge has
been to keep the narrow size distribution while increasing the
flow rate. Micropore is the first company to successfully scale
up membrane emulsification, and received an IChemE Award
in 2018 for developing the ability to create commercial-scale
monodisperse particles. The process also has the advantage of
being continuous, rather than batch, as long as there is suffi-
cient feed.
Unlocking the potential
The CXF-1 is already being used in numerous different indus-
tries and sectors, including pharmaceuticals, food and drink,
petrochemicals, cosmetics, agrochemicals, and even aerospace.
The monodisperse droplets can flow into downstream
processes such as encapsulation. For example, the biopolymer
constant: Micropore CXF-1
Continuous Crossflow unit
21/02/2019 13:44
 feature membrane technology

advantage: When compared with traditional emulsification methods, such as rotor/stator homogenisers (LEFT) membrane emulsification
(RIGHT) offers clear benefits

HOMOGENISER MICROPORE DISPERSION CELL

12 45

40
10
35
AMOUNT IN GRADE %

AMOUNT IN GRADE %

8 30

25
6
20

4 15

10
2
5

0 0
0.1 1 10 100 1000 0.1 1 10 100 1000
PARTICLE DIAMETER, MICRONS PARTICLE DIAMETER, MICRONS

Membrane Emulsification Advantages

• Emulsions prepared via membrane emulsification are inherently more stable, as all of the droplets are close to the same size,
they will have the same buoyancy, reducing creaming or sedimentation.
• The amount of emulsifier or surfactant can be reduced, providing a reduction in raw material costs.
• The membrane process uses much lower shear force and so it is more gentle, allowing processing of sensitive materials
without damage.
• These emulsions can be post-processed and turned into microcapsules, delivery systems for a variety of actives. Each
microcapsule will behave in exactly the same way, reducing variability upon rupture.

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 36

micropore DG NEW.indd 36 21/02/2019 13:44

 feature membrane technology
on film: creating a hole lot of
product in the micropore lab
poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), which degrades natu-
rally in the body, can be used to trap a pharmaceutical active
ingredient which then leads to controlled release of the drug.
A narrower size distribution also allows for the use of smaller
needles for injections, which is a patient benefit. Due to the
low shear of membrane emulsification, it retains most of the
biological activity, which leads to lower dosage requirements.
Another example of how the monodisperse droplets can be
applied is in thermochromic products, where a clean colour
change with temperature is needed. “You want all of the ther-
mochromic material to see the same temperature at the same
time, so different particles and different sized capsules are
unhelpful because the small ones change colour earlier than
the larger ones,” says Hayward. “So you get a muddy colour
change over a range of a few degrees. Given that thermochro-
mics are there to tell you whether the goods have exceeded the
temperature, that’s not a good idea.”
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 37
micropore DG NEW.indd 37
Less energy, less waste
A kilowatt motor is needed to drive the stirrer in tradi-
tional batch homogenisation. In contrast, the emulsification
membrane only requires power of the order of a few watts to
run the pumps that drive the fluids.
There is also little or no waste produced when the droplets
are monodisperse. “Typically, people throw away 25–30% of
everything they make but because you get the size you want
from the get go, there is no waste,” says Hayward.
The Micropore process also replaces or reduces the need for
emulsifying agents. “If you think of a batch emulsification…
you’ve got lots of chemicals in there just to get the droplets to
form because they’re initially so large because it’s just in two
separate phases,” says Williams. “The disperse phase effec-
tively has to be chopped up into ever-decreasing droplet size.
We’re naturally starting with a small size drop so you don’t
need all those extra chemicals to be able to provide the surface
effects that keep those drops stable.”
Back to basics
Due to the reduced need for emulsifying agents and because of
the differences between Micropore’s membrane and conven-
tional technology, the team at Micropore have had to rethink
process steps for emulsification in some cases, often making
the process a lot simpler.
The next challenge for Micropore will be to
develop technology to create membranes with
smaller pore sizes, opening up further avenues
for membrane emulsification
“Formulations are always a trade-off between achieving stabil-
ity and performance and in many ways formulations become a
product of a series of problem-solving issues,” says Hayward.
“Somebody will develop a formulation to start with but then
over time there will be a problem so they’ll add a little bit of
something to solve the problem and then somebody else will find
a different problem and they’ll add something else. Eventually
you end up with something that is really quite complicated but
done because it works. One of the things that we can do is strip
all of that back and ask ‘what are we trying to do?’ and ‘what’s
the simplest way of achieving that?’ The approach that we’ve
taken is really in a sense back to scientific first principles.”
Due to limits in laser drilling technology, the smallest
pore size currently possible in the membrane is 3 µm, which
results in the minimum droplet size being around 10 µm. The
next challenge for Micropore will be to develop technology to
create membranes with smaller pore sizes, opening up further
avenues for membrane emulsification to be used in industry.
All images reproduced with kind permission of Micropore Technologies
21/02/2019 13:44
 feature careers in chemical engineering

Yasmin Ali interviews Bob Langer about his journey from playing
with chemistry sets to pioneering drugs delivery systems

I
’M a chemical engineer working in the energy sector.
I was originally attracted to study chemical engineering
because of the breadth of career opportunities it provides.
To showcase this diversity, I’ve been talking to a range of
chemical engineers to find out what they do, how they got
there, and why they do it. For this instalment, I spoke to Bob
Langer, the David H Koch Institute Professor at MIT, and
winner of the 2015 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
Bob holds an astonishing number
of accolades, achievements and
prizes, including being the most
cited engineer in history
Bob holds an astonishing number of accolades, achieve-
ments and prizes, including being the most cited engineer
in history. When I asked him how and why he has achieved
this, he said, “other people probably know the answer better
than me.”
“I think it’s a combination of caring about people and
asking big questions with a big impact on the world. But it’s
really hard to know.”
From Small beginnings
Playing with chemistry sets at a child strengthened Bob’s
interest in science, influencing his career choices later in life.
He graduated from the US’ Cornell University at a time when
many chemical engineers went on to work for oil companies,
but he bucked the trend, and struggled to find work in the
medical field.
His perseverance paid off, and he was eventually hired by
Harvard University. His task was to isolate molecules that
inhibit blood vessel growth, which he managed to do, and went
on to lay the foundations for the fields of controlled release
drug delivery and tissue engineering.
The lab that Bob now runs at MIT is bigger, and better
funded, than ever. The group works with the Gates Founda-
tion, applying their discoveries to help people in poorer parts of
the world. One example of this is improving vaccination rates.
Patients may only get the opportunity to visit the doctor once,
but could need up to 20 vaccinations over a period of time. A
proof of principle, published in Science, tackles this issue.
“You can put each vaccine in a different nano-shell, and
make the shell dissolve at specific times – one month, two
months, one year. So you give a single injection, different nano-
shells will pop at a different time. That might be a way someday

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 38

careerslanger DG.indd 38 19/02/2019 17:09

 feature careers in chemical engineering
of giving a single injection. Hopefully we can save a lot of lives.”
Solving drug delivery and testing
The work is not necessarily about coming up with new drugs,
it’s about solving the delivery issues, and it’s not just the
poorer countries. Last year, the New York Times reported that
people not taking their prescribed medications results in
125,000 deaths and costs the US healthcare system between
US$100bn and US$289bn.
“We’ve developed pills that could last for a week or a month,
that’s another thing we’re looking at.”
“You can put each vaccine in a different
nano-shell, and make the shell dissolve
at specific times – one month,
two months, one year.”
Alongside nanotechnology for delivering the drugs of the
future, and regenerative medicine, Bob is excited about the
prospect of faster delivery of life-saving medical developments.
“Based on some of the work we’ve done, you can make
organs for drugs testing, that’s also an exciting area.” He
explained that testing on animals and humans adds time to
the drug development process.
Work-life balanced
Bob’s strong sense of family shines through. He describes his
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 39
careerslanger DG.indd 39
Langer Lab, MIT
LANGER: family man, and most
cited engineer in history
students as “an extended family”. About 600 people, mostly
former students, organised a symposium for Bob’s 70th birthday
earlier this year.
“The students, they’ve done so spectacularly well. When you
see them so happy and doing so well, that part is a thrill. When
they had this party for me, it was amazing. They gave speeches
and showed a tremendous amount of appreciation. Some of them
told stories about how 30 years ago I gave them some advice and
they remembered like it was yesterday. I have to admit I didn’t
know the advice was any good, I just hoped it was!”
“The students, they’ve done so spectacularly
well . When you see them so happy and doing
so well, that part is a thrill.
With a huge lab to run, students to supervise, medical startup
entrepreneurs to advise, I wondered how Bob has time to do
anything else.
“I do two things. I spend time with my family, and I work.
One of the things I used to do with my children when they
were little, and I am honored they still want to do it now that
they’re in their 20s, is I take each of them on a trip every year. I
like to spend time with each of them individually, and with my
wife too.”
Yasmin Ali CEng MIchemE is a chemical engineer working
in the energy sector. For more articles in this series, visit
www.thechemicalengineer.com
19/02/2019 17:09
 feature heat exchange

Wanted:
More Efficient Heat Exchange
Gerard O’Connor gives insight into the work of a
heat exchanger consultancy

I
MAGINE if heat exchange of process fluids in an indus-
trial setting was as simple as boiling a jug of water. We all
know the process is not as simple as that, and companies
can experience a raft of different issues and challenges that
require new and innovative technical solutions. That’s what
keeps chemical engineers in business.
While we often see companies dealing with process capacity
issues, an even more common and topical issue today is around
how we - chemical engineers - can help companies improve
their overall energy use and deal with increasing energy costs,
particularly through more efficient heat transfer technology.
In New Zealand and many other countries, we’ve drawn
a line and have made a commitment to reduce our energy
consumption and resources to improve our environmental
footprint. The primary sector, in particular, is stepping up and
looking for new ways to reduce emissions and counter climate
change.
More companies are now approaching PDV Consultants and
others in our sector with a goal to invest in capital to reduce
energy consumption.
At the time of writing this article, we’re modelling differ-
ent heat transfer options to reduce energy consumption with at
least six New Zealand-based companies.
Strategically, they’re now often prioritising this type of
capital investment over capacity increases because they want to
do the ‘right thing’ whilst also reducing their operating costs.

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 40

heatexchanger DG.indd 40 21/02/2019 12:14

 feature heat exchange
What factors impact efficient heat transfer?
1. The product
For example, if you are working with thick viscous product, the
liquid will have poor heat transfer properties because it is so
viscous. That’s because the heat put into the product will not
mix well into the bulk of the fluid.
2. Fouling on heat exchangers
If the fluid fouls as it gets hot (eg as milk burns onto a heating
surface and creates a coating on it), then that creates a resist-
ance during the heat transfer process.
3. The material that you are heating through
The material that’s transferring the heat from one point to
the other is important, and can have a significant impact on
heat transfer efficiency. For example, a thin copper pipe will
transfer heat far more efficiently than a thick steel plate.
4. The heating medium
The heat transfer coefficient (HTC) of the heating medium
can be affected by its quality. For example, steam that has air
in it has a significantly lower HTC and reduces how fast the
steam can condense and transfer heat. This can be an issue
in evaporators which operate under a vacuum and is therefore
prone to air ingress through any leaking joints. If there are any
leaks, heat transfer will be poor and the plant will suffer
performance issues.
Case study: Engineering a more efficient way of
heating milk to make milk powder
We’re currently working with a client to reduce the amount of
steam used to transfer heat for producing milk powder.
Currently the milk concentrate is heated prior to drying by
directly injecting steam into the milk to increase the tempera-
ture from 50°C to 75°C.
Directly injecting steam heats the milk very quickly and
efficiently, but it also adds additional water during that process
from the condensing steam. The milk concentrate then has all
the water removed in a spray dryer to create milk powder.
Injecting steam directly into the milk is a very efficient
way to increase the milk temperature and because it does not
contain any heating surfaces this reduces the fouling created
by milk burn-on to hot surfaces. Think of milk burning onto
the bottom of a pot when heated on a stove top, as compared to
injecting the steam via a steam wand on an espresso machine,
and that’s why this technology is commonly used in this
scenario.
But this condensed steam is then required to be removed
from the milk in order to make the powder. The energy effi-
ciency of older spray dryer plants is typically only 60-70%
as the exhaust air contains significant amounts of latent and
sensible heat. This exacerbates the energy requirements as
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 41
heatexchanger DG.indd 41
each kilogramme of water added to the milk takes about 1.5 kg
of steam to evaporate. This is why an alternative solution to
heating the milk rather than direct steam injection is desired.
For example, if the milk flowrate is about 25,000 kg/h, it
takes roughly 1,000 kg/h of steam to heat the milk from 50°C to
75°C. Therefore once it gets to 75°C, there is an extra 1,000 kg/h
of water to remove. To remove this extra water in the spray
dryer takes about 1,500 kg/h of steam to heat the air due to the
60-70% energy efficiency of the spray dryer.
To put it into perspective, 1,500 kg/h of steam is
around 1 MW of energy.... that is equivalent to
16,000 lightbulbs not being turned on!
If indirect steam is used to heat the milk, eg a shell-and-
tube heat exchanger, then there is no extra water added to be
removed in the spray dryer. It will still require the 1,000 kg/h
to heat the milk but because there is no water added to the milk
the 1,500 kg/h steam requirement in the spray dryer is elimi-
nated. Therefore there is an energy reduction of 1,500 kg/h of
steam by using an indirect steam heater. This is obviously a
significant saving, especially considering this is a 24/7 produc-
tion facility.
The steam is produced by burning natural gas and coal at the
plant to make the steam. Every kilogramme of steam produced
creates CO2 emissions. To put it into perspective, 1,500 kg/h
of steam is around 1 MW of energy. If an average lightbulb is
about 60 W, that is equivalent to 16,000 lightbulbs not being
turned on. That’s a lot of energy!
what’s the payback on smarter heat transfer?
This plant would save around about 1 MW of energy to create
milk powder if the milk concentrate heating process was
modified from direct steam to indirect steam heating.
In the grand scheme of things, the indirect heating tech-
nology already exists so it’s not a difficult project to deliver,
however, it does require some capital investment to replace the
steam injection heaters with shell and tube heat exchangers.
The project will take a number of years to pay for itself.
We recommend our clients to carefully weigh
up how much capital they need to spend and how
much energy reduction it will achievE
Companies will seriously consider the environmental impact
of making that type of investment, but they are also going to
think about the payback. For instance, in a couple of years they
will save that money in energy reduction anyway, so there
needs to be a commercial proposition.
We recommend our clients to carefully weigh up how much
capital they need to spend and how much energy reduction
21/02/2019 12:14
 feature heat exchange

it will achieve, and then do an internal rate of return (IRR)
calculation to find out what their return on investment
will be.
There will be many ways to save energy during heat
transfer operations, but often the capital costs start increasing
versus the energy savings available, so the payback becomes
less attractive. There will always be a cut-off point where
spending the money isn’t warranted because the capital costs
outweigh the benefit of the energy savings. This cut-off point
is not always clear to determine and often requires time-con-
suming engineering calculations to determine, and this can
be a significant cost for a company to carry out. That’s where
experienced and skilled chemical engineers can often assist
tremendously by knowing how to approach the problem and
drawing on their experience from similar studies to narrow
down the options much more efficiently and cost effectively.
Another consideration we put to our clients is the amount
of energy it takes to construct the equipment they are looking
to install to reduce their overall energy costs. For example, it
requires energy to make the stainless steel to make the heat
exchangers and other equipment.
Our team works carefully through a cost analysis with each
client to ensure any capital investment is worthwhile.
Other Opportunities
Our consultants also see many energy consumption issues with
evaporators when they are concentrating milk solids. Milk is
around 13% total solids when it leaves the cow and is usually
concentrated to 50% total solids before it goes to the spray dryer
and is processed into milk powder. 50% total solids is about as
high as milk can practically be concentrated before it becomes
too thick and viscous to pump to the spray dryer.
Because milk is heat sensitive, it is evaporated under a vacuum
to reduce the boiling point. But if any air leaks into the evap-
orator, it reduces the HTC and therefore reduces efficiency. Air
leaks can have a huge impact on heat transfer, energy consump-
tion and capacity rates. So this is one example where good
process engineering knowledge and maintenance on an evap-
orator plant can result in significant cost and energy savings,
quality improvements and increased production throughput
rates. Too often this is something that is not always obvious and
can be easily overlooked by companies during the search for cost
efficiencies in the more obvious operating cost centres.
Gerard O’Connor CEng FIChemE is Managing Director of PDV
Consultants, New Zealand

EXPERTLY PACKAGED SOLUTIONS

Benefits of Fulton’s skid mounted and plant room heat transfer solutions include:
· Higher productivity
· Reduced construction timescales and year-round
construction (not constrained by weather)
· Increased build and quality assurance
· Design flexibility
· Minimised on-site disruption
· Reduced wastage
· Improved Health & Safety
· Built in a controlled environment
with designers and fabricators under one roof
· High cost benefit against site work

www.fulton.co.uk
Home of the award-winning
+44 (0)117 972 3322
The World’s Best Steam Boiler sales@fulton.co.uk

FBW123 - Skid Solutions Advertisement - TCE.indd 1 18/02/2019 16:50

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 42

heatexchanger DG.indd 42 21/02/2019 12:14

 feature innovation

Quick Thinking
The process industries need facilitated decision making
for investment in innovation, says Robert Peeling

W
HY is it that the introduction of innovative process
technologies appears to be so slow in the process
industries? For example, the benefits of imple-
menting flow chemistry at smaller commercial scales have
been discussed for over a decade, and yet the reality is that
new products continue to be realised through batch processes.
Economies of scale and the two-thirds rule dominate the
approach to large-volume, commodity chemicals, leading to
highly centralised production, reliance on long-established
process routes, and incremental improvements.
In-house project management procedures typically envisage
a project as proceeding through a series of stage gates, or
decision points. However, there is rarely specific guidance on
how to make the stage gate decision. Generally, it will take
the form of a report or presentation to the decision makers or
budget holders.
This article describes a methodology that fits within this by
supplying a more consistent and auditable basis for the decision
makers to use, for all project stage gates. Facilitated decision
making on whether or not to invest in innovative process ideas,
particularly in the early stages before formal project manage-
ment techniques are typically applied, and will help a business
to better understand the uncertainties and risks.
A brief history
The process industries seem to display conservatism and risk
aversion when it comes to investment in new technology. This
behaviour may be rational to some extent if it is a response
to previous bad experiences, but to what extent were those
bad experiences self-inflicted? In 1998, McNulty gathered 41
case histories in the mineral processing sector.1 He charted
the rate at which each project achieved design capacity and
divided his sample into four types of project, of which type I
(non-innovative, but achieved capacity within 12 months of
commissioning) and type IV (involving substantial innova-
tion, but failed to achieve 60% of capacity within 36 months of
startup) are of interest here. McNulty highlighted four causes

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 43

britest DG.indd 43 19/02/2019 17:08

 feature innovation
Table 1: Key problems with failed innovative projects1
• If any pilot-scale testing was conducted, it was
for generating product, not for confirming process
parameters.
• Equipment was downsized or design criteria were made
less conservative in response to projected cost overruns.
• Process flowsheets were unusually complex with
prototype equipment in two or more critical unit
operations.
• Process chemistry was misunderstood.
of failure (see Table 1), the first two deriving directly from
management actions, and the other two relating to lack of
process understanding.
This work is 20 years old, but little has changed since. It
is proposed that the reasons for failures of innovative projects
are systemic and common across many organisations in the
process industries.
Common problems
One problem that can lead to unhelpful management decisions
is a disconnect between an organisation’s business func-
tions and its R&D community. “Commercial will never attend,
they are too busy” – a response heard by Britest facilitators
trying to establish the business case during initial screening
analysis of a development project. The disconnect can also be
seen in substantial R&D hours being expended on an inter-
esting problem that has little relevance to business needs.
Communication between business and R&D is further hindered
by a lack of understanding of business drivers and econom-
ics in one direction and requirements to achieve the technical
targets expected in the other direction. Unrealistic timelines
and resource constraints are major contributors to the failure
to develop sufficient process understanding.
Uncertainty within the data upon which a complex decision
is based is also a serious problem for decision makers. This is
particularly a concern at the very early stages of a project where
the decision is about whether or not to commit resources to
developing one or more options. Uncertainties in estimating
the market opportunity, the project costs and the technical risk
involved will be at their maximum at this point in the project
lifecycle. With the current culture towards making major deci-
sions with perhaps only a few minutes discussion time and on
the basis of a single-page summary, a tendency for conserva-
tism to dominate over innovation is not very surprising. The
other impact of this high-pressure approach is that the basis
of the decision may be instinctive rather than evidential and
is typically incompletely recorded and irreproducible. In this
situation a business cannot learn lessons from failure nor learn
how to further propagate success.
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 44
britest DG.indd 44
One consequence of (inevitable) uncertainty, is the need to
establish a strategy for mitigating risk. In this context, all
types of risk should be considered, not just those associated
with safety and environmental protection (extending to patient
safety within the pharmaceutical sector). The organisation’s
in-house use of language can be a strong barrier to taking an
all-risks approach. One particular risk mitigation strategy that
is frequently absent, is having a clear understanding of when to
either kill or proceed with (and continue investing in) a project.
Towards A Method for Early-Stage Decision Making
A structured approach (ideally including a facilitator to lead
the team of stakeholders) to making early-stage decisions on
investing in innovation is needed. It should provide:
• independence and objectivity – ensuring that the
decision-making process is data/evidence driven and
dispassionate;
• traceability – recording and clearly presenting a
recommendation for decision outcome in an auditable
and reproducible way;
• adaptability – whilst being aimed particularly at
early-stage decisions from initial idea to engineering
feasibility, the methodology should be useful for project
stage gate decisions later in the cycle as the project
moves to implementation;
• compatibility - seamless integration with usual project
management practices;
• complementarity – the risk mitigation strategy should
be complementary to, rather than a replacement for,
existing, well established and more detailed risk
assessment techniques (such as HAZOP, FMEA);
• a unified approach - combined commercial and
technical criteria (including safety and environmental
factors) in a single analysis;
• the ability to capture and assess uncertainty in the
available data;
• the means to enable communication and understanding
between business and R&D communities of each other’s
respective needs and delivery;
• targets - setting specific development targets that are
aligned with requirements for commercial success; and
• a systematic probe of whole process knowledge and
understanding.
Britest Decision-Making Method
Britest’s method is the result of nearly 20 years’ practical expe-
rience in technical facilitation for whole process understanding,
gained in the context of a specialist not-for-profit SME service
provider to a diverse client base ranging from multinational
pharmaceutical and fine chemical manufacturers through
to contract manufacturers and biotechnology startups. It is
19/02/2019 17:08
 feature innovation

therefore primarily empirical – over time, we have retained practicalities).

what worked and modified or removed what didn’t.
Initial Screening Analysis
The study should begin with a review of the project as proposed.
This initial screening analysis (ISA) needs to cover six areas:
• Project definition - general context and key goals;
current status; desired final state; potential and desired
benefits of process/product.
• Objectives for the study - the decision team needs
clarity on exactly what needs to be decided at this
decision point and how the results will be used and/or
disseminated. In the simplest case this may be simply
a decision to proceed with or discontinue further
development.
• Constraints - identify and note any that may influence
the decision made (eg regulatory, business or technical
• Product definition - specific features required to
achieve customer acceptability. Discussion should cover
the whole supply chain to the end user, in case this
turns up new delivery opportunities. It may be useful to
use a tool such as Strategyzer’s Value Proposition Canvas2
to help ideas to flow.
• Process definition - perhaps the most important of
the ISA stages. The boundaries of the process scope
are important here. The team should consider the
whole supply chain from suppliers to customers, even
if subsequently, parts of the chain are deemed less
important when choosing the areas of focus in the sixth
step below.
• Areas of focus - this step is particularly important
because it provides an opportunity to gauge the
present state of process understanding and hence
technical risk, and is the point to start collecting the

figure 1: PrISM tool

PrISM captures key stages within a process, along with the key inputs and outputs for each stage. This tool helps the
team to focus activities on the most appropriate parts of the process by providing an overview of the most critical
material, time and energy dependencies.

1. List the key process stages.

2. Record information about the principal feedstocks.
3. Record information on reagents added at each stage to the left.
4. Record information on wastes removed from each stage to the right.
5. Record information about each stage inside the box.
6. Draw a horizontal line between each stage once all information about each stage is recorded.
7. Record information about the desired product exiting the bottom of the box.

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 45

britest DG.indd 45 19/02/2019 17:08

 feature innovation
data on which the decision will be based. A tool such
as Britest’s Process Information Summary Map (PrISM)
can be useful for this. PrISM (see Figure 1) captures
a simple, semi-quantitative model of the proposed
process and is easily tailored along the supply chain. It
can be a useful tool for checking whether the options
actually align with the desired business benefits and
as a starting potential for simple financial modelling.
The facilitator’s role is essential to ensure that the level
of detail is kept appropriate to the development status
of the project. PrISM can also reveal gaps in data and
understanding, highlighting areas of uncertainty. This
step is also the starting point to identifying the gaps in
whole process understanding. Process knowledge and
understanding can be explored fully using tools such as
process definition diagrams (PDD), a form of State Task
Network.4 This is a separate task to the decision study,
but the results should feed back into further iterations
of the decision.
Critical aspects to focus on
Identify and note the key features of the project that poten-
tially enable differentiation between options and hence provide
a basis for a decision. For example, in the context of deciding
upon a reaction scale-up strategy the chemical synthesis
step(s) of a process may be important, but it is also vital to
consider product isolation and any solids handling steps as
these may in practice be where the greatest scaleup risks lie.
Simple Financial Modelling
At this point it is useful to construct a simple, financial model of
each of the alternatives, to generate a graph of the net present
value (NPV) over time. This appears to happen rarely in the
very early stages of project development, possibly because the
business/commercial functions have not been engaged and the
technical personnel involved often lack familiarity with simple,
financial modelling. In practice, remarkably few parame-
ters need to be estimated to construct a NPV curve, enabling
the team to visualise the financial differences between alter-
natives. It is useful to do this even if ‘accurate’ information
is not available, because the existence of a model, even if it
is ‘wrong’, will promote discussion – of why it is wrong and
where and how better data can be sourced, all leading to better
understanding and refinement of the business drivers for the
project. This discussion should encompass the uncertainty in
the input data, and different scenarios can be run to see how
this affects the NPV.
Evaluation of Alternatives
By this stage, sufficient data should have been gathered to
enable the decision alternatives to be evaluated. The evalua-
tion needs to be carried out in a manner that is reproducible
and auditable. A number of decision-making algorithms have
been proposed in the literature and used in a number of
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 46
britest DG.indd 46
applications. One algorithm in particular, Hodgett’s Multi-At-
tribute Range Evaluations (MARE)5, is well suited to selecting
between options for chemical process routes because (unlike
other available options) it has been designed to accept and
process uncertainty ranges in the input scores. We have imple-
mented MARE under licence through a simple software tool,
ChemDecide, which enables a facilitator to lead the decision team
through the process of defining and scoring selected criteria
across the alternatives under consideration. The decision
process is quite simple, and the majority of the problem defini-
tion and data collection work will have already been done if an
initial screening analysis has been completed.
The first step in a ChemDecide session is to identify the
alternatives from which to make a selection. It is worth taking
some time to carefully describe each option rather than simply
listing them by name. This improved understanding of the
alternatives will help when it comes to scoring. In most cases
one of the alternatives that needs to be considered is what
happens if the decision is not to invest. The team language used
to describe this situation is informative. It may be described
as “business as usual”, “do nothing”, or “zero capital”. It is
important to explore and challenge the underlying assump-
tions and connotations (either positive or negative) behind
these statements. Such options are for example, rarely zero cost
in reality: an existing plant will always require some continu-
ing capital investment in order to sustain extended operations
and, if (say) the business benefits rely on market growth, then
where will the necessary additional production come from
under a “do nothing” scenario?
a structured approach to making complex
decisions on selecting investment and
development options for innovative products and
processes...benefits businesses in several ways
The next step is to brainstorm the possible selection criteria to
be used to differentiate between the alternatives under consid-
eration. An ISA as described above, can expedite this stage.
The team will then need to pick a set of criteria that will be
used to score the alternatives. Suitable criteria are likely to be
those that test the ability of each option to deliver the desired
business benefits of the project. Each of these criteria should
be fully defined to understand the basis on which they will
be scored. The number of criteria selected for scoring should
ideally be kept in a range of 4–10 to avoid over-simplification
on the one hand, and an onerous and confusing scoring process
on the other.
The team should allocate a score to each alternative with
respect to each of the selected criteria. Scoring may be quanti-
tative if a specific value can be assigned (eg time to beneficial
production) or qualitative (eg overall technical risk on a scale
from extremely low to extremely high). Qualitative and quan-
titative criteria can be mixed, and in subsequent iterations, a
19/02/2019 17:08

Figure 2: Idealised output for a MARE decision – Option B appears
to offer the prospect of substantial benefits overall compared
with Business as usual, or Option A, however a high degree of
uncertainty is indicated by the error bar. Further data
refinement will be needed for a conclusive decision to be made
1 Uncertainty in these quantities can usefully be explored with a
0.95
DECISION PREFERENCE SCORE
0.9
0.85
0.8
0.75
0.7
0.65
BUSINESS AS USUAL OPTION A
qualitative criterion may become quantitative as better infor-
mation becomes available. With each score, uncertainty can be
represented as a range between maximum and minimum, with
the most likely score lying somewhere in between. For some
criteria there may be no uncertainty in scoring, in which case
no range should be supplied.
Once the scoring is complete, the algorithm calculates the
overall rating for each alternative, effectively ranking them
in order of attractiveness. Visually presenting the results
in a chart, indicating the uncertainty ranges for each alter-
native as well as the most likely outcome, is usually the best
way to communicate the overall result (see Figure 2). The team
should always check that the result is explicable in terms of the
input data.
It is only at this stage that we would recommend considering
whether weightings should be applied to the various criteria. It
is generally better to complete the scoring and obtain prelim-
inary results with equally-weighted criteria before deciding
whether to give one criterion more weight than others. Gener-
ally speaking, we have found the overall result to be relatively
insensitive to weightings, (especially when there are more than
five criteria employed) and so a major difference in outcome
would require a single criterion to be extremely heavily
weighted. Weighting the criteria may therefore not be a useful
additional step. However, if it is desired to weight the criteria,
then a semi-quantitative (eg low, medium, high) approach will
usually be sufficient, rather than spending a lot of time trying to
refine quantified weighting values for each individual criterion.
The algorithm should then be re-run with the agreed weighting.
This is the end-point for a single iteration of the deci-
sion-making process. In practice, it is likely that the cycle, or
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 47
britest DG.indd 47
feature innovation
parts of it, will be repeated as further information is obtained.
The decision is therefore refined as the project progresses, and
so the methodology is well adapted to support stage gate-based
approaches to project management. In particular, financial
information is likely to firm up from initial qualitative (non-nu-
merical) or very approximate values to more detailed numbers.
Monte Carlo simulation, and the results directly input into the
decision-making algorithm if MARE is used for this purpose.
Conclusions
In our experience, the method described here provides a struc-
tured approach to making complex decisions on selecting
investment and development options for innovative products
and processes in the process engineering sector. A structured
approach of this type benefits businesses in several ways.
Efficient capture of the salient points of the basis for making
a decision is enabled, together with the uncertainty in those
points in a clear, concise, and visually-supported discussion
OPTION B
paper for consideration by executives or boards.
A process led by an independent facilitator allows any
significant risks, gaps in process understanding, and gaps and
uncertainty in available technical and commercial information
to be identified. This provides the basis for an ongoing project
development plan targeted at mitigating the identified risks.
It also promotes clear and mutual understanding of project
goals and benefits between business, R&D, and manufactur-
ing functions.
Clear, structured documentation and consistency of
approach makes the reasoning behind the selection of alter-
natives clear and reproducible. It also enables the process to
be audited, making it possible to review and capture learning
from both successful and unsuccessful projects with a view to
improving future success rates. The team establishes unequiv-
ocal “kill” or “proceed” conditions for project stage gates from
the outset.
Robert Peeling CEng FIChemE is a Senior Innovation Specialist
at Britest
References
1. “Developing Innovative Technology”, McNulty, TP, Mining
Engineering, October 1998, 50-55.
2. https://strategyzer.com.
3. McLachlan et al, J Bioprocess Biotech 2017,
DOI: 10.4172/2155-9821.1000305.
4. Wall, K et al, “Plant-independent Process Representation”, ,
Org Proc Res Dev, 2001, 5 (4), pp 434–437.
5. Hodgett, RE, “Comparison of Multi-criteria Decision-mak-
ing Methods for Equipment Selection”, Int J Adv Manuf Technol,
October 2015.
19/02/2019 17:08
 feature biosector

IChemE Launches
BioFutures Report
Daniel Firth reports on the findings and recommendations
of the BioFutures programme

C
HEMICAL engineering and society are facing some
significant challenges, including: the rapid devel-
opment of the bioeconomy, the pressure to decrease
greenhouse gas emissions, and the increasing emphasis on
sustainability. These challenges will dramatically change the
chemical engineering community, how we define chemical
engineering, and will require fundamental changes to the ways
IChemE functions and how we continue to promote the profes-
sion of chemical engineering. The BioFutures programme was
set up to identify how IChemE might address these challenges.
The programme presented its key findings and recommenda-
tions to IChemE’s Board of Trustees in January 2019.1
In a global context, the growth of the bioeconomy and
engineering biology is having a great impact on the chemical
engineering profession.2 This covers a broad range of sectors
and industries and involves a variety of biological processes
and purposefully bioactive substances including fermentation,
synthetic biology, biocompatible materials and the develop-
ment and manufacturing of drugs and biologics.
The biotechnology and bioengineering
landscape is undergoing a transformation, which
is driving a substantial need for chemical and
biochemical engineering skills
The biotechnology and bioengineering landscape is undergo-
ing a transformation, which is driving a substantial need for

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 48

biofutures DG.indd 48 19/02/2019 17:05

 feature biosector

chemical and biochemical engineering skills. The IChemE
BioFutures programme was launched3 in November 2017, to
advise the Institution on how it might adapt as the profession
evolves, develop the Institution’s work in the biosector, and
highlight the importance of biochemical engineering careers
and skills. The programme consists of four working groups to
address key areas identified by the steering group:
• Skills - identifying required skills and any skills gaps;
• Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – understanding
how IChemE currently engages with SMEs, and potential
opportunities for engagement;
• Careers – the types of career opportunities in the
biosector and how IChemE can promote these; and
• Policy – identifying how IChemE can shape policy in the
biosector.
strong desire for IChemE’s help to facilitate additional learning
activities (like site visits, guest speakers, industrial placements
and industry-focussed projects) and to promote much greater
academia-industry interaction.
The working group sees an opportunity for IChemE to enable
universities that want to increase their biocontent, including:
• encouraging the sharing of best practice guidelines
among universities;
• improving IChemE’s role in liaising between academia
and industry;
• developing (with relevant SIGs and industrial partners)
bioindustry examples for universities to integrate into
their core chemical engineering teaching; and
• ensuring clear guidance on how core principles can be
demonstrated through the use of bioindustry examples.

These working groups reviewed IChemE’s current activities IChemE should continue to build on the success of IChemE
in these areas, with input from our global membership and accreditation and work on improving the recognition of
extending into a large network of SMEs across a range of inter- chartered status within the bioeconomy and industrial
national territories. A policy consultation was conducted with biotechnology.
all BioFutures programme members, relevant IChemE special
interest groups (SIGs), and national IChemE boards. More than SMEs
90 SMEs were also approached for consultation. Surveys were The SMEs working group found there is also a lack of knowl-
conducted with 159 organisations in industry and 39 univer- edge and awareness amongst some bioeconomy-related
sities, and interviews were carried out with biochemical and companies regarding the benefits of employing chemical engi-
chemical engineers representing a range of career paths from neers and therefore a potential area for IChemE to promote the
across the biosector. The findings and recommendations were profession.
compiled in a final report.

vital: key policy areas and drivers related to the growth of the
Key Findings and Recommendations bioeconomy
Skills
The skills working group found a strong correlation between
from the Bioecono
the biosector-related knowledge wanted by the bioindustry and ste my
Wa
those topics currently covered by the universities questioned.
Despite this correlation, a majority of industry respondents
yst
(62.5%) still feel there is a general lack of skills and knowledge Ecos ems
my

Ne

provision among chemical engineers entering the biosector.

ono
De nology and bioec ial

ed
tr

A majority of industry respondents highly value an IChemE-

Susta
pments in Indus

to
De

accredited degree as an indication of the quality of potential

reduce GHG emi
hnologies

carbonisation
ina

employees, but they value Chartered status less so.

bility

nd
ha g
alt
He llbein
Tec

We

a majority of industry respondents (62.5%)

velo

still feel there is a general lack of skills

ch

ssio

Re
e

and knowledge provision among chemical so ur

c e u t ili s a t i o
n
t
Bio

ns

engineers entering the biosector e ffiicien cy

Dr y
ive om
A large proportion of universities questioned want to increase tow on
a rds a Circular Ec
the biocontent of their courses, but the majority of those identify
potential barriers as a lack of staff knowledge and a wish not to
dilute established ‘core’ chemical engineering. There was also a

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 49

biofutures DG.indd 49 19/02/2019 17:05

 feature biosector
It also found that IChemE would benefit from a clearer corpo-
rate and member engagement strategy, particularly with
SMEs. The group identified areas for improvement in IChemE’s
current corporate and member engagement, promotional
materials and membership processes.
Careers
The careers working group found there is a wide variety of
career paths available to chemical and biochemical engi-
neers in the bioeconomy, which are inadequately represented
in IChemE’s current careers profiles (including the success-
ful careers campaign, whynotchemeng).4 The group conducted a
series of interviews with individuals throughout the biosector
to create new careers case studies and highlight career oppor-
tunities in the bioeconomy and industrial biotechnology.
Policy
The policy working group’s consultation exercises highlighted
the several policy topics centred around sustainability with four
main areas ‒ decarbonisation of the economy, resource utilisa-
tion efficiency, ecosystems services (covering water, land and
air natural assets), and technologies that impact on health and
wellbeing, food and nutrition, and support the goal of sustain-
ability. The policy working group’s report will be considered by
IChemE when deciding which future policy topics and issues it
should address.
Conclusion
Chemical engineering has changed dramatically. New and
emerging areas, such as the biosector, provide so many oppor-
tunities for chemical engineers’ skills to be used to help provide
solutions to the global challenges our society is facing. The
BioFutures programme has set out its work in the final report
and highlighted some of its recommendations for IChemE to
consider in its future strategy. The BioFutures programme
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 50
biofutures DG.indd 50
believes that implementing some of its recommendations as
part of a wider IChemE strategy will help ensure the organ-
isation continues to promote a diversifying profession and
membership.
Next Steps
The final report by the BioFutures steering group summarised
these key findings and recommendations.5
New and emerging areas, such as the
biosector, provide so many opportunities
for chemical engineers’ skills to be used to
help provide solutions to the global
challenges our society is facing
IChemE’s Board of Trustees supports the report and the work of
the BioFutures programme, and has agreed to form a working
group to review the report, discuss its findings with IChemE’s
executive team and recommend to the Board of Trustees
how IChemE should take the recommendations of the report
forward.
Daniel Firth is Policy Officer at IChemE. If you would like to contribute
to taking the work of the BioFutures programme forward, please
contact chemengmatters@icheme.org
references
1. https://bit.ly/2UpUEPj
2. https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/pick-a-mix
3. https://bit.ly/2DP4Km3
4. https://www.icheme.org/education/whynotchemeng
5. https://bit.ly/2GT6WMF
19/02/2019 17:05
 IChemE process safety training

TCE933
The Institution of Chemical Engineers is a market leader
Process Safety Management
in process safety training, with our courses providing the
essential knowledge and skills to help you implement Process Safety Leadership and Culture
successful process safety programmes and reduce risk. UK | New Zealand | Australia
www.icheme.org/safety-leadership
Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis Fundamentals of Process Safety
UK | Australia | New Zealand | South Africa
HAZOP Leadership and Management
www.icheme.org/fundamentals
UK | Ireland | Australia | South Africa
www.icheme.org/hazop-leadership Asset Integrity Management in the Process
Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) Industries – Managing your Ageing Assets
UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | South Africa UK
www.icheme.org/lopa www.icheme.org/asset-integrity

HAZOP Study for Team Leaders and Team Members Human Factors
UK | Australia
www.icheme.org/hazop-team Managing Human Factors
UK | Australia
Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF)
UK Managing Human Failure
www.icheme.org/sif UK | Australia
Process Risk Assessment Strengthening Organisational Performance
UK
UK | Australia
www.icheme.org/risk-assessment

Hazard Identification Techniques Human Factors and Design

UK | Australia
UK
www.icheme.org/hazard-identification www.icheme.org/human-factors
Consequence Modelling Techniques
UK | Australia Online Process Safety training
www.icheme.org/consequence-modelling
We have a number of safety courses available online, so you are able
Understanding Hazards to develop your CPD wherever you are in the world.
Courses are available either live or on-demand,
Comprehensive Explosion Science visit www.icheme.org/online-training to find out more.
UK
www.icheme.org/explosion-science
All courses can also be
Managing the Hazards of Flare Systems
UK delivered in-house
www.icheme.org/flare-hazards
IChe
m
E
Safet

For more information or to request a quotation

contact courses@icheme.org ISC
re
y

n
Ce

tce.933.51.indd 2 21/02/2019 14:46

 viewpoint food & drink

We should sell Lean Manufacturing to the food industry, says Ian Madden

I
MAGINE you are a sales executive and you have been given
the job of selling an extraordinary machine to senior
executives within the food industry. This machine does
not produce any food product but has the capability to not only
turn every £1 you put into it to at least £3 within a year but also
to make your organisation better in terms of safety, quality
and delivery performance with a substantially more motivated
and engaged workforce.
figure 1: the lean machine ‘flywheel’
INVESTING IN OUR LEADERSHIP
AND CAPABILITY
The machine is not new, although it’s massively improved;
its founding principles have been around since the end of the
Second World War. So you’d be forgiven for assuming that every
food company must have one by now and that there would be
very few customers for it left.
(LEAN) has the capability to not only turn every
£1 you put into it to at least £3 within a year
but also to make your organisation better
in terms of safety, quality and delivery
performance with a substantially more
motivated and engaged workforce

Imagine further that I tell you that there is still a huge oppor-
tunity and that the take up is surprisingly low. So what is this
machine? This ‘machine’ is Lean Manufacturing” (see Figure 1).
INCREASING OPERATIONAL
INNOVATION MANAGEMENT Of course, it’s a philosophy rather than an actual machine but
AND GROWTH = KEEPING OUR as a system of behaviours and methodologies, I think ‘machine’
THROUGH PROMISES AT
INCREASED THE LOWEST is a good way to describe it.
INVESTMENT COST I add that many of your prospective customers will have
heard of it and, indeed, many will have tried it and either
adopted it in a fairly limited manner or reverted back to their
previous ways of doing things after a fairly short while.
STRATEGY DEPLOYMENT = BREAKTHROUGH
IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFETY, QUALITY, DELIVERY, COST I’m afraid that selling the Lean Manufacturing machine to the
food industry is a hard sell, but I have some tips that will help you.

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 52

food DG.indd 52 19/02/2019 17:40

 viewpoint food & drink
Where do you start?
Assuming they are interested in the business case described
above, first ask the senior executive to complete the checklist
in Figure 2.
What happens if they answer “no” to any of the questions
or are not sure? Explain to them that before they progress any
further they (the senior management team) have to achieve a
solid “yes” to all of the questions. Tell them they will need
to work with a Lean teacher (or ‘sensei’) to teach them about
Lean principles and how to think differently. The sensei will
convince them that they will need to change their behaviours
because without their leadership, continuing involvement and
discipline, the whole Lean implementation will fail.
Lean – isn’t that just for car manufacture?
No. And a little bit of history might help here. Lean, although
a philosophy which was arguably first described by Womack,
Jones and Roos1 in the early 90s, has its origins in the approach
started by Deming in Japan in the 1940s. By the late 70s, the
relative success of the Japanese manufacturing industry
compared to the West’s (the so-called “Japanese Miracle”) was
being dissected by Western companies, particularly automotive
figure 2:
THE LEAN CHECKLIST: yes or no?
WHY: There is a ‘burning platform’ need for change
that is owned by all the senior management team and
understood by all
WHAT: There is a vision of the future which is owned
and understood by all in the company
HOW AND WHEN: There is a plan to achieve the vision
which we work on every week. We stick at it and
overcome obstacles to achieve the plan
WHO: We have a team with the right skills and mind
sets to achieve the plan
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 53
food DG.indd 53
jobbing assembly continuous
project batch
shop line process
Automotive
Food
figure 3: the types of manufacturing processes that the
automotive and food industries typically use
who were, at that stage, being soundly beaten on quality, reli-
ability and price.
The approach at that stage was called Total Quality Manage-
ment, or Kaizen. It principally entailed focussing on continuous
improvement of processes through front-line worker involve-
ment. Well known techniques that were developed included:
5S; simplified flows and material layouts; autonomous main-
tenance; standardised work; just in time; visual management
and controls; and set up reduction (single minute exchange of
dies – SMED).
Toyota took this approach to another level with the Toyota
Production System (TPS). This philosophy was the one essen-
tially described by Womack, Jones and Roos, and involves the
following guiding principles: Value; The Value Stream; Flow;
Pull; and Perfection.
When people hear Lean described they are often hearing
the terms that were developed in the TPS: Poke yoke (mistake
proofing), Gemba (‘the real place’ ie working on problems on the
shop floor), Hoshin (Policy Deployment) etc. These terms are used
by most automotive companies these days so, by association,
‘pure Lean’ is often thought to be automotive.
When comparing automotive and food industries, it is worth
reviewing the types of manufacturing process that each typi-
cally uses. The continuum in Figure 3 illustrates these.
In actual fact (food) is probably more suited
to lean than the car industry
As you can see there is a large degree of overlap between the two
industries so ‘technically’ there is no reason why Lean cannot
apply to food. In actual fact it is probably more suited to Lean
than the car industry, as it is characterised by: high volume;
short lead times; high number of SKUs; rapid NPD; perishable
products; multiple retailer requirements; and defined manu-
facturing processes.
The demands of the automotive and traditional engineering
19/02/2019 17:40
 viewpoint food & drink
Automotive: Less suited to lean than food?
assembly industry are in fact moving in this direction. The
high number of product variations required by ‘mass customi-
sation’ is, in essence, exposing their manufacturing operations
more to the demands of the marketplace by removing the safety
(and cost) of finished goods inventory. Within the chilled food
industry, in particular, this has long been a fact of life because
companies cannot hold large amounts of finished goods stock
because of the risk of the product going past its shelf life.
It is also interesting to note that a lot of the Lean work in
automotive component operations has involved ‘identifying
the value stream’. This is because many companies still have
a workshop set up eg a foundry, a machine shop, a paint shop,
a fabrication area, an assembly shop etc. This means that they
had very little concept of the processes for individual products
figure 4: the lean enterprise as a three-legged stool
LEAN ENTERPRISE
IT Y
ST R
LEADERSHIP
A BIL
ATE
CA P
GY
RESPECT FOR PEOPLE
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 54
food DG.indd 54
and parts, for instance, could be in the system for months and
even years. This typically does not apply to the food industry
where product comes in one end of the factory and literally
goes in a pipe or along a belt until it is finished. The processes
are much easier to see and ‘parts’ are in the system for a matter
of hours or days.
Go and see
If your senior execs are still not convinced then ask them to go
and see for themselves. There are many world-class companies
who are willing to show interested parties around, to talk to
people who live and breathe Lean on a daily basis. They recog-
nise that such visits are a win-win activity that will not only
give benefits to the visitors but they will learn something new
too. Above all else, it is this enthusiasm and drive for progress
and improvement and respect for people which underpins
their culture which the visitors will experience and take away
from such a visit. Their financial results will also speak for
themselves.
There are many world-class companies
who are willing to show interested parties
around, to talk to people who live and
breathe lean on a daily basis
The prospective customer may then ask what needs to be done
to make a Lean enterprise sustainable. My advice would be to
ask them to picture a three-legged stool (see Figure 4). We all
know that a stool is a very stable seat but if you take away one
of the legs it will fall over.
First and foremost it is a culture that is built on respect for
people. Secondly there is leadership at all levels to not only to
stick to improved ways of doings things by rigorous adher-
ence to standards but also to lead and develop teams to achieve
success for both the business and themselves.
Thirdly there must be a continually-refined strategy built
on Lean principles that is aligned with the business priorities
that everyone plays their part in achieving.
Finally, it is about a never-ending focus on building both
Lean methodology and leadership capability.
With all these elements in place, Lean will be sustained and
it has only one enemy – pride (and we all know what comes
after pride!)
Ian Madden CEng MIChemE is a Lean Consultant with Torrs
Consulting.
Reference
1. Womack, Jones, and Roos, The Machine that Changed the World,
Simon & Schuster, UK, 1990
19/02/2019 17:40
 019 ds obal AemE obalhA
2
Gl 0Ch ard2
0
ty Process Safety Industry

Categories ob1 1
Outstanding Achievement

w
Outstan
oject Research Project Innovati

I
al 9 E
Biotechnology Biotechn

9
y Diversity and Inclusion Sustainability Oil and
Outstanding Achievement Industry Project Diversity

e s
Outstanding Achievement Team Palm Oi

2
Energy Energy

mE m
Development Food and Drink Training and Development Pharma
Food an

0
Water Global Process

A
Industry Project Outstanding
OutstandingAchievement
Achievement Industry

1
Outstand

wa w
AWARDS

IC
trialist Young Industrialist
Biotechnology Researc

G I IC
Innovative Product Innovati

lobb Chheem G
Biotechnology 2019

G
Biotechn

ard
9
archer Young Researcher Sustaina

rds lo
Diversity and
andInclusion

l
Oil and Gas

h
Industry Project Diversity Inclusion Oil and
Diversity

o
ct Industry Project Research Project

e
2
Outstanding Achievement Team

mEE Categories
Energy

2
s
aarrd2
b2019 Catego
Palm Oil Palm Oi

IChemE Global aal l Awards

Energy Energy

a m
Food Training
Foodand andDrink

0
Pharma Drink Pharmaan

0
Food and

lo0
AAww lA E
Industry Water
IndustryProject

1
Process Safety
Outstanding Achievement Project Process
Industry

1
Outstand

1
IC war
Young In

Will you be a winner?

Research
Biotechnology Project Innovative
InnovativeProduct Researc

9
Product Innovativ
Biotechn

G
9 9
Oil Young R
Sustainability Oiland
andGas Sustaina

he ds
Diversity and Inclusion Gas Oil and G
Diversity

d
ievement Research
Industry Project
Project Research Project Outstanding Achievement

s
Outstanding
chievement
velopment Energy Achievement
Food and
Diversity Drink
and Inclusion Sustainability Palm
PalmOil
Training
Energy and
Oil Development Diversity
Food Oila
and D

2
s
Team

b
Team
Palm

ies
mE Categories
Energy

a mE
Training
Food andand Development
Drink Pharma
Pharma Training
Pharma
Food an

0
l
Process
ProcessSafety

Aw
Water
Industry Project Safety Water S
Process
Industry

1
Achievement

wa
Outstanding
Research Achievement
gy
Young Industrialist
Innovative Product ResearchProject
Project Young In
Research
Innovati

ard
9
Gl ICh
Biotechnology
Sustainability

rds
Young Researcher
Oil and Gas Sustainability Young
andR
Sustaina
Oil
Inclusion Industry
Research Project
Project Industry Project
Diversity and Inclusion
her Business Start-Up Oil andResearcher
Gas Pharma

ob em Categories
Pharma
Outstanding
Training and Achievement
Development Innovative Product
Diversityand
and Inclusion Young
Team
Sustainability Business
Energy St

Categories
Palm Oil

s
Training Development Diversity
Team and Inclusion Sustainab
Team
Palm Oil

Categories
2
Energy
Training
Pharma TrainingandandDevelopment
Development Training
Pharmaa

al
nk Food and Drink

019 Categories
Aw E
Process Safety Water
Water Water
Process
ect Industry Project
Research Project Young
YoungIndustrialist
Industrialist Young
Researc In
oduct Innovative Product
Young
YoungResearcher

ard
Sustainability Researcher Young R
Re
Sustaina
ct Oil and Gas
Industry
Research Project
Project Pharma
Oil and Gas Research
Oil and
Innovative
Pharma Project
Gas
Product Young Rese
ist Biotechnology
Process
Team Safety Water Team
Young Industrialist Process
Team S
Innovative
Biotechnol

es
chievement Energy
Training and Development Food and
Diversity Drink
and Inclusion Sustainability Energy

s
Training and Development Palm Oil
Training
Water Pharma
ty Water
Young Industrialist Process Safety
oject Young In
Research Project

Gl ICh
y Young Researcher Young R
Team
Research Project Process Sustainability
elopment
duct Diversity
Young
Oil and
Gas Inclusion
andResearcher Pharma Safety
Sustainability
Business
Team Start-Up Water
Energy
Processand
Training
Innovative Safety
Development
Product Young
Food Indu
and Dra
Diversity
Water
Young Rese

ob
evelopment Diversity
Training and and Inclusion
Development Sustainability
Diversity and Inclusion Energy
Sustainability Food
Energy and
Team

201
Categories
Development

al
Training and Development
Water

A
rialist Outstand
Young Industrialist

Gl ICh
Biotechn

9
archer
Pharma
Pharma
Oil and Gas
Young
Energy
Team Industrialist Innovative
Innovative
Pharma Product
Biotechnology
Food Product
and Safety
Process Drink OilYoung
Young and
Young
Innovative
Researcher
Researcher
Gas
Water Researcher
Product Business
Pharma
BusinessSta
St
Diversity
Young
Young Rese
Indu

ob em
ct Training and Development Diversity
Outstandingand Inclusion
Achievement Sustainability Energy

201
Energy

al
Food an

Aw E
Industry
Innovati

ard
9
uct Process
Young
Oil
Team and Safety
Researcher
Gas
Process Safety Water
Business
PharmaStart-Up
Water
Process Safety Young
TeamIndustrialist
Innovative
Young
Water Product
Industrialist Biotechnolo
Process
Oil and
Young S
Rese
Biotechno
Young Indu
Food and Drink Industry Project
evelopment Outstanding Achievement
Diversity and Inclusion Sustainability Energy Food and

sCatego
Palm Oil
Pharma
Process
Researc
er Young
Team Industrialist
Business Start-Up Biotechnology
Process Safety Water Sustaina
Young Indu
Industry
Pharma Project Research
InnovativeProject
Product Young Researcher Business St
Team

Categories
The IChemE Global Awards celebrate chemical, process and biochemical engineering excellence and are widely
recognised as the world’s most prestigious chemical engineering awards. Entry is free and open to members and
Training
Water
Young In
non-members.
ist Biotechnology
Young R
Research
Find out more at Project
Process Safety Water Entry
www.icheme.org/globalawards
Training anddeadline: 28 June 2019 Young
Development Industrialist
Diversity and Inclusion Biotechno
Sustainab

Sponsors
MB0029_18 TCE 933

Training and Development Oil and Gas

Diversity and Inclusion Pharma
Sustainability Innovative
Energy

TCE Awards FD 2AD 2019.indd 1

tce.933.55.indd 21/02/2019 14:49
21/02/2019 14:23
 obituary geoffrey hewitt

Geoffrey Hewitt:
1934–2019
G
EOFFREY (“Geoff”) Hewitt, Emeritus Professor of
Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London,
passed away peacefully on 18 January.
Geoff was a pioneer in the field of multiphase flow systems
and his achievements in industry and academia are unparal-
leled. He was a Fellow of IChemE, the Royal Society, and the
Royal Academy of Engineering, and served as President of
IChemE from 1989–1990.
Geoff received his PhD from the University of Manchester
Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1957, having
been motivated by his father to study chemical engineer-
ing. After completing his degree, he worked for the UK Atomic
Energy Authority at Harwell, one of Europe’s largest atomic
energy research laboratories, as Appointed Division Head and
later as Founder and Head of Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow Service.
He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at
Imperial College London in 1985 as a professor, receiving his
promotion to Courtaulds Professor of Chemical Engineering in
1993, and to Emeritus Professor in 1999.
He was a global leader in his field, and those of us fortunate
to work with him encountered a passionate, dedicated, thought-
ful and kind teacher and researcher who leaves an incredible
legacy to the department and the profession. He was tremen-
dously popular with students and staff alike; he had time for Other accolades include the Imperial College Medal (2016),
everyone and his positive attitude and enthusiasm would light and the Max Jacob Memorial Award (1995) from the American
up a room. Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He received honorary
Geoff’s research into multi-phase flow systems, with a degrees from the University of Louvain (1988), and Heriot Watt
particular focus on channel flow and heat transfer, leaves a University (1995), and was a Foreign Member of the National
lasting legacy, and has made Imperial’s name synonymous with Academy of Engineering in the US.
the gold standard in this area. Reflecting on Geoff’s career, Omar Matar, a former colleague
In 1996 he founded the Imperial-led Transient Multi- and close friend, said: “He leaves behind a body of work which
phase Flows (TMF) programme, one of only two enduring joint most people can only dream of both in terms of volume and
industry programmes worldwide. His work continues to be used impact, and a large number of students and postdocs who
in calculations needed in hydrocarbon extraction systems design worshipped him and will be forever grateful for the honour to
and thermal power plants, and in the production of chemical have worked with him.”
machinery, such as separators and heat-exchange units. In In addition to his professional achievements, Geoff had
addition to the numerous papers and books he published, Geoff a profound impact on those who knew him and was beloved
also delivered lectures around the world and carried out exten- by many. Matar added: “For me personally, I cared less about
sive consultancy work. the fact that he was obviously an excellent scientist, and more
Many awards and honours have marked his career, including about the fact that he was a true gentleman; that’s the quality
the prestigious MM Sharma Medal, awarded by IChemE in 2017 that made him shine, in my view.”
for “significant contributions to chemical engineering research He is survived by his daughters Alison and Karen.
and practice over a period of 60 years”. This was preceded by
the Global Energy Prize in 2007, an international award for
outstanding scientific research and technological development Professor Nilay Shah, Head of Chemical Engineering, Imperial
in energy. College London

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 56

hewittobituary DG.indd 56 19/02/2019 17:13

 13–14 November 2019
Hilton, Brisbane, Australia

Learn more about contracts

We offer two courses that are ideal for anyone involved with
engineering and construction contracts

IChemE Forms of Contract

2‒3 April, London
You will look at the structure, main provisions and features of the
IChemE forms and learn how best to apply them to your projects.
www.icheme.org/forms-of-contract

What Engineers Need to Know About Contracts

22‒23 May, Rugby, UK
Examine contract law for engineering and construction
contracts and learn how it is used to help deliver
successful projects.
www.icheme.org/contracts
Contact us: courses@icheme.org
Tel: +44 (0)1788 534431
TCE 933

EDITORIAL Statements and opinions expressed in The Chemical Engineer are the responsibility of
Editor: Adam Duckett, aduckett@icheme.org, @adam_tce, +44 (0)1788 534469 the editor. Unless described as such, they do not represent the views or policies of the
Institution of Chemical Engineers. The Editor and the Institution do not accept liability
Managing editor: Delyth Griffiths, dgriffiths@icheme.org, +44 (0)1788 534424
for any incorrect information written by the authors of articles.
Staff reporter: Amanda P Doyle, adoyle@icheme.org, @amanda_tce
+44 (0)1788 534404 All rights reserved. Multiple copying of the contents of the publication without
Staff reporter: Amanda Jasi, ajasi@icheme.org, @tce_ajasi permission is always illegal. USA authorisation to photocopy items for internal or
+44 (0)1788 534426 personal use or the internal or personal use of specific clients is granted by
The Institution of Chemical Engineers for libraries and other users registered with
www.thechemicalengineer.com
the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) Transactional Reporting Service provided
@tcemagazine www.facebook.com/tcemagazine
that the base fee of US$7.00 per article is paid directly to CCC, 21 Congress Street,
PRODUCTION Salem, MA 01970, 0302 0797/98.

Graphic designer: Alex Revell, arevell@icheme.org, +44 (0)1788 534421
Advertising production: Lyzanne Cox, lcox@icheme.org, +44 (0)1788 534486
ADVERTISING SALES – MEDIA SHED
Display, classified & directory:
Ian Carter, ianc@media-shed.co.uk, +44 (0)20 3475 6811
Recruitment:
Luke Palmer, lukep@media-shed.co.uk, (0)20 3137 8583
MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS
Visit www.thechemicalengineer.com/register to view options to subscribe
PUBLISHER
Claudia Flavell-While, Institution of Chemical Engineers, Davis Building,
Rugby, CV21 3HQ, UK +44 (0)1788 534422
The Chemical Engineer (ISSN 0302-0797) is published monthly (with a combined
December/January issue) by the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Davis Building,
Railway Terrace, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 3HQ, UK.
Periodicals postage paid at Rahway, NJ. US agent: Mercury Airfreight International Ltd,
365 Blair Road, Avenel, New Jersey, 07001. Postmaster: Address changes to
Mercury Airfreight International Ltd, 365 Blair Road, Avenel, New Jersey, 07001.
Printed in the UK by Lock Stock & Printed
© The Institution of Chemical Engineers 2019
IChemE is a registered charity in England & Wales (214379),
and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 039661)
ISSN 0302-0797
See your address label for instructions on
disposing of the biodegradable wrapper in
which this magazine was delivered.

ICHEME MEMBERSHIP ENQUIRIES

Membership department: members@icheme.org;
www.icheme.org, +44 (0)1788 578214
Scottish Members Group

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 57

mastheadpage DG xxNEEDS ADV.indd 57 21/02/2019 12:12

 news icheme
education
IChemE, Chester Uni and industry join forces on first
chemeng apprenticeship
ICHEME, the University of Chester, and major employers in the
region are working together to offer the first chemical engi-
neering degree apprenticeship in the UK.
IChemE is working with Chester to ensure that the degree
delivered as part of the apprenticeship is accredited. The new
science industry process/plant engineer degree apprentice-
ship has been designed in consultation with major employers
of chemical engineers in the North West, and is the first such
apprenticeship related to chemical engineering under the recent
Apprenticeship Levy scheme.
Consumer goods giant Unilever is the first employer to offer
the apprenticeship. Michael Leary, who joined Unilever work-
ing in its Advanced Manufacturing Research and Development
(R&D) Centre in Port Sunlight in October 2018, is the first to
take part. While working as part of the pilot plant team, he is
studying part time at the University of Chester for a BEng degree
in chemical engineering. Leary, who has straight-A grades in
maths, chemistry and biology A-levels, is paid by Unilever as a
full-time employee during the apprenticeship, and, as with all
degree apprenticeships, he does not pay any tuition fees.
He said: “It’s a superb opportunity for me. I’m busy but really
happy to be learning in both the university and workplace envi-
ronment. The principles I get from my university studies are
reinforced with real-life experience at Unilever, where I work
closely with process development engineers, R&D scientists and
awards
IChemE names safety prize in Sam Mannan’s honour
SAM Mannan (pictured), a safety
expert who died last year, will have
a prize named in his honour at
IChemE’s Hazards conference.
Mannan, who passed away
in September, was the Executive
Director of the Mary Kay O’Connor
Process Safety Center (MKOPSC)
and Regents Professor and holder
of the T Michael O’Connor Chair in
the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas
A&M University. He helped develop the MKOPSC into a leading
international process safety research and education centre, estab-
lishing undergraduate certificates and post-graduate qualifications
in process safety.
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 58
ichemenews933 DG.indd 58
LearY (centrE): industry-ready
pilot plant technicians.”
Steve Wilkinson, Head of the Department of Chemical Engi-
neering at the University of Chester, said: “This is a fantastic
opportunity for Michael and the other degree apprentices, and it
fits perfectly with the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s ethos
at Thornton Science Park, where we work hard to ensure that we
produce industry-ready graduates.”
Tom Gibbins, AMC and Pilot Plants Manager at Unilever, said:
“We’re delighted to have partnered with the University of Chester
to offer the UK’s first chemical engineering degree apprenticeship
and to be able to support Michael with the first step in his career.”
Bill Harper, Immediate Past Vice-President Qualifications at
IChemE, has spent the last two years working with the university
on this particular apprenticeship model. He said: “I look forward
to working with the university to move this forward.”
As a tribute to his career, IChemE has renamed the poster prize
given at its annual Hazards process safety conference. It will now be
called the Sam Mannan Poster Prize, which will be awarded for the
first time at Hazards 29 in Birmingham, UK, in May.
Trish Kerin, Director of the IChemE Safety Centre, said:
“Throughout my career, Sam Mannan has always been a great
friend and supporter of our work at the IChemE Safety Centre. He
was passionate about teaching process safety to undergraduates
and postgraduates, so it is fitting for the Hazards poster prize to be
renamed in his honour.
Mannan was a Fellow of IChemE and a Professional Process
Safety Engineer. He delivered the first Trevor Kletz memorial
lecture at  Hazards 25 in Edinburgh, UK in 2015. His expertise in
safety led to him serving as a consultant to the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board in 2003.
21/02/2019 12:19
 news icheme

awards
New student safety
medal applicants sought
ICHEME has launched a new prize – called
the SIESO Medal – to recognise student
presentations about safety incidents.
The medal will be awarded annually to an
awards individual or a group of up to six students for
the best presentation about a major accident
and its learning outcomes. IChemE is seek-
IChemE announces medal winners ing applications from students inside and
outside of chemical engineering from across
TWENTY-SIX chemical engineers have been recognised by the IChemE Medals the world.
and Prizes Committee for their contributions to the profession. Applications will be judged by IChemE’s
John McAndrew, of Stantec, New Zealand, has been awarded the  Ambassador Loss Prevention Bulletin (LPB) Panel and the
Prize. He is a committed ambassador for IChemE and has had significant involvement winner will receive prize money of £750
in the globalisation of the Institution’s Water Special Interest Group. (US$980) and an allowance towards travel
Colin Webb, University of Manchester, UK, will  receive two medals this year: to IChemE’s Hazards conference.
the Council Medal for instigating the work of the Qualifications Commission (com- Deadline for this year’s applications is 29
monly called the Webb Commission), which addressed the need to substantially March. For more details on the award and
transform the Institution’s qualifications processes; and the  Donald Medal, for his how to apply, visit: https://bit.ly/2IgWuRn
contribution to biochemical engineering. The SIESO Medal is named after the
Barry Weightman, KBR, UK, and Chair of IChemE’s Professional Formation Forum Society of Industrial Emergency Ser-
(PFF), has been awarded the Davidson Medal for his continuous commitment towards vices Officers (SIESO), an organisation that
his duties and mentoring. Dyllon Randall, University of Cape Town, South Africa, will towards the end of its life used the term
receive the Warner Prize this year for his work in sustainable chemical engineering. SIESO to promote itself as an organisation
John Challenger has won the Greene Medal in recognition of contributing for more that “Shared Information and Experience for
than 30 years to the development and success of the IChemE Forms of Contract. Safer Operation”.
Asel Sartbaeva, University of Bath, UK, is the recipient of the  Hanson Medal, It ceased operating in 2018 and donated
for her work:  Vaccines: The End of the Cold War?, which was featured in  The Chemical the bulk of its reserves to IChemE to help
Engineer in March 2018. The full list of medal and prize winners is available  at: raise awareness of process safety among
https://bit.ly/2TTHWs4. The winners will be presented their awards later in the year. engineering, science and business students.

cpd
IChemE set to begin sampling member CPD
ICHEME is set to begin its continuing professional development
(CPD) sampling activity for 2019, in accordance with its own CPD
policy, and requirements from the Engineering Council and other
bodies with whom it holds a licence.
Almost any activity that improves knowledge and skills,
including on-the-job learning, is considered CPD. The
typical CPD cycle includes identifying your development objec-
tives, planning activities, implementing your plan and recording
the outcomes, and then reviewing and reflecting on whether
you have achieved your goals, which feeds back into the start of
the cycle.
In January 2019, the Engineering Council made it mandatory
for professionally-registered engineers and technicians to record
evidence of CPD, and professional engineering institutions
including IChemE will continue to conduct random sampling of
registrants’ records to provide feedback.
Richard Cousins, CPD Assessor Panel Lead, said: “IChemE
expects its members to take responsibility for undertaking
appropriate CPD and if you are selected for sampling in 2019, you
will be asked to provide IChemE with a written account of your
recent and planned CPD activities to demonstrate that you are
meeting the requirements. The exact nature of the CPD under-
taken should be based upon your own circumstances, current
membership grade and registrations held.”
Further information about the requirements for each grade,
professional registration and exemptions, can be found at:
www.icheme.org/membership/demonstrating-cpd
Email cpd@icheme.org if you have any further questions.

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 59

ichemenews933 DG.indd 59 21/02/2019 12:19

 The Chemical Engineer events
FOR A FULL LIST VISIT WWW.ICHEME.ORG/EVENTS
UNITED KINGDOM & EUROPE
Get Chartered Event
Milton Keynes, 4 March
Professional development and networking
event for chemical engineers aimed at
supporting students, young professionals and
experienced (but not yet Chartered) engineers
on the requirements for Chartered Chemical
Engineer and CEng registrations.
www.icheme.org/
milton-keynes-get-chartered
All Ireland Members Group Dinner
Cork, Ireland, 7 March
The All Ireland Members Group dinner
in Cork offers an ideal opportunity to
recognise and reward staff and to network
across the industry.
www.icheme.org/aimg-annualdinner19
IChemE Teesside Members
Group Annual Dinner
Teesside, 8 March
The Annual Dinner is now in its 20th year, and
provides an excellent occasion for companies
to network with other chemical industry
professionals across Teesside.
www.icheme.org/tmg-dinner2019
Great Debate 2019: Can New Technologies
Transform Healthcare?
Reading, 13 March
Please join us for our collaborative annual
Great Debate event between IChemE, IMechE,
ICE, IET, BCS and University of Reading.
www.icheme.org/thames-valley-greatdebate19
Annual Dinner
Aberdeen, 21 March
This extremely popular event is an ideal
opportunity to network with colleagues
involved in Scotland’s chemical and
process industries and other local chemical
engineers, entertain clients and reward key
staff. The dinner also includes three prizes
for professional excellence awarded by the
Aberdeen Members Group committee.
www.icheme.org/amg-dinner19
Hull & Humber MG – Troubleshooting
Distillation and Absorption Column Internals
Hull, 21 March
This illustrated talk will include aspects
of column internals and tower design to
avoid operating problems, typical operating
problems as related to column internals,
troubleshooting methodology and inspection
of internals at turnarounds to
avoid future problems.
www.icheme.org/cmg-iggesund-tour
north west engineering excellence awards
manchester, 29 march
Evening dinner event, organised jointly
by IChemE’s North West Members Group,
and IMechE. Closing date for all
bookings is 1 March.
nwmgecm@ichememember.org
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 60
diary 933 DG.indd 60
Future of Food & Drinks:
Sustainability and Food Processing
Manchester, 3 April
The Food & Drink Special Interest Group
invites you to the 2019 conference on Future
of Food & Drinks: Sustainability and Food
Processing, organised jointly with the North
West Members Group.
www.icheme.org/fdsig-sustain-food
ChemEngDayUK
Edinburgh, 8–9 April
This year’s UK Chemical Engineering
Research Day event is hosted by
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
https://milhostech.com
Hazards 29
BIRMINGHAM, 22–24 MAY
Hazards 29 is IChemE’s annual process safety
conference, the leading event of its kind in
Europe. Covering every major aspect of process
safety, Hazards 29 will share good practice, lat-
est research and lessons learned, providing
essential insight into how to manage and
reduce risk effectively, and helping to make
good practice common practice.
www.icheme.org/hazards29
16th European Symposium on
Comminution & Classification
Leeds, 2–4 September
The long-established European conference
is coming to the UK. Covering applications in
food, pharmaceuticals, mineral processing,
fine and ultrafine grinding etc. Online
registration is now open.
www.escc2019.com
ECCE12/ECAB 5
Florence, Italy, 15–19 September
The 12th European Conference of Chemical
Engineering (coupled with the 5th European
Congress of Applied Biotechnology) takes place
every two years and is the leading gathering
for chemical engineering in Europe.
www.ecce12-ecab5.org
IChemE Global Awards 2019
TBC, 7 November
Opens for entries March. Entry deadline
is 28 June. The Awards will be
presented on 7 November.
www.icheme.org/awards
Advances in Process Automation and Control
Manchester, TBC November
IChemE’s biennial process automation
and control conference comes to
Manchester in 2019.
Register your interest at
conferences@icheme.org
AUSTRALASIA
Chemeca 2019
Sydney, Australia, 29 September–2 October
The theme for 2019 is “Engineering
Megatrends and the Elements”. The traditional
chemical engineering paradigms, upon
which most existing chemical engineering
programmes and approaches are based, have
been unit operations, transport phenomena,
and process control.
www.chemeca2019.org
HAZARDS Australasia 2019
Brisbane, Australia, 13–14 November
This event will cover every major aspect of
process safety and bring together hundreds of
practitioners from around the globe. It is the
perfect place to learn from others’ experiences,
keep up-to-date with good process safety
practice, and network with the international
process safety community.
www.icheme.org/hazardsaus2019
ONLINE
Model Predictive Control for
a Batch Crystallisation Process –
A Digital Design Approach
7 March
A one-hour webinar from the Process
Management & Control SIG, covering a
digital design approach to the development
and testing of MPC.
www.icheme.org/pmc-mpc
Early Phase Process Synthesis and
Design: Stage-Gate Approach for Process
Evaluation and Selection
14 March
A one-hour webinar from IChemE’s Education
Special Interest Group.
www.icheme.org/process-evaluation
Control Room Design –
Demystifying the Process
28 March
As an experienced architect, specialising in
control facility design for the last 25 years,
BAW Architecture will share its view of the
best process to achieve the highest levels of
safety and productivity. This webinar will
share process methods, tools and example
projects of control room design and useful rec-
ommendations for organisations beginning
to consider how best to improve their control
room facility.
www.icheme.org/control-room-design
The Implementation of AI for the
Protection of Automation Systems
Online 29 March
A one-hour webinar presentation from
IChemE’s Process Management & Control
Special Interest Group.
www.icheme.org/webinar-protection
How to create effective Level 1 displays
for enhanced situation awareness
11 April
A one-hour webinar presented by
IChemE’s Process Management & Control
Special Interest Group.
www.icheme.org/situation-awareness
21/02/2019 12:24
 The Chemical Engineer courses
FOR A FULL LIST VISIT WWW.ICHEME.ORG/COURSES
UNITED KINGDOM & EUROPE
Chemical Reaction Engineering
Rugby, 5–6 MARCH
www.icheme.org/reaction-engineering
Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)
Rugby, 12–13 March
www.icheme.org/lopa-uk
Pressure Relief
Liverpool, 12–14 MARCH
www.abb.com/uk/consulting/training
Practical Aspects of ATEX/
DSEAR Compliance Success
Southampton, 12–15 MARCH
https://bit.ly/2QkppaD
Expert Hazard Awareness
Spadeadam, 26–28 MARCH
https://bit.ly/2PlGiMQ
IChemE Forms of Contract
London, 2–3 APRIL
www.icheme.org/forms-of-contract
Area Classification
Edinburgh, 2–3 APRIL
www.abb.com/uk/consulting/training
Chemical Engineering for Scientists
Rugby, 2–4 APRIL
www.icheme.org/scientists
Practical Aspects of ATEX/
DSEAR Compliance Success
Dublin, 2–5 APRIL
https://bit.ly/2AXYSW7
HUMAN FACTORS 9.1
EDINBURGH, 3–4 APRIL
www.icheme.org/managing-human-factors
HAZOP LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
RUGBY, 9–11 APRIL
www.icheme.org/hazop-leadership
HAZOP Leadership and Management
dublin, 10–12 APRIL
www.icheme.org/hazop-leadership
Hazard Study Leader
Billingham, 29 APRIL–3 May
www.abb.com/uk/consulting/training
LAYER OF PROTECTION ANALYSIS
RUGBY, 7–8 MAY
www.icheme.org/lopa
Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)
Ireland, 9–10 MAY
www.icheme.org/lopa
MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 61
diary 933 DG.indd 61
HAZOP STUDY FOR TEAM LEADERS
AND TEAM MEMBERS
RUGBY, 14–16 MAY
www.icheme.org/hazop-team
Process Safety Leadership and Culture
London, 16 MAY
www.icheme.org/safety-leadership
What Engineers Need to Know About
Contracts
Rugby, 22–23 MAY
www.icheme.org/contracts
HAZOP LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
RUGBY, 4–6 JUNE
www.icheme.org/hazop-leadership-uk
HUMAN FACTORS 9.2
EDINBURGH, 5–6 JUNE
www.icheme.org/human-failure
Chemical Engineering for Other Engineers
Rugby, 11–13 JUNE
www.icheme.org/chemical-engineering
Comprehensive Explosion Science
Rugby, 18–19 JUNE
www.icheme.org/explosion-science
IEC 61508/61511 SIL Determination
Warrington,19 – 20 June
www.abb.com/uk/consulting/training
FUNDAMENTALS OF PROCESS SAFETY
EDINBURGH, 24–28 JUNE
www.icheme.org/process-safety
Process Design Practices
LondoN, 24–28 June
www.proceng.co.uk
Managing the Hazards of Flare Systems
Rugby, 2–3 July
www.icheme.org/flare-systems
Expert Hazard Awareness
Spadeadam, 2–4 July
https://bit.ly/2PlGiMQ
Chemical Plant Commissioning
Leeds, 3–5 July
www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/short-course/13
ENGINEERING PROJECT MANAGEMENT
RUGBY, 9–10 JULY
www.icheme.org/project-management
Asset Integrity Management
Rugby, 16–17 July
www.icheme.org/asset-integrity
AUSTRALASIA & SE ASIA
Process Safety Leadership and Culture
Auckland, New Zealand, 7 MARCH
www.icheme.org/safety-leadership
Project Finance
Melbourne, Australia, 20 MARCH
https://bit.ly/2U6sHMN
Energy Cost Reduction
Brisbane, Australia, 21 MARCH
www.icheme.org/energy-efficiency-australia
Fundamentals of Process Safety
Perth, Australia, 8–12 APRIL
www.icheme.org/process-safety
Bulk Solids Handling for Chemical Engineers
Perth, Australia, 1 MAY
www.icheme.org/bulk-solids-handling
HAZOP Leadership and Management
Brisbane, Australia, 7–9 MAY
www.icheme.org/hazop-leadership
Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)
Perth, Australia, 3–4 JUNE
www.icheme.org/lopa
Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)
Melbourne, Australia, 6–7 JUNE
www.icheme.org/lopa
Process Safety Leadership and Culture
Perth, australia, 3 July
www.icheme.org/safety-leadership
Project Finance
Singapore, 10 JuLY
https://bit.ly/2U6sHMN
Consequence Modelling Techniques
Melbourne, australia, 16–18 July,
www.icheme.org/consequence-modelling
Project Finance
Sydney, australia,14 August
https://bit.ly/2U6sHMN
Managing Human Failures – module 2
Brisbane, australia, 20–21 November
A professional development programme for the
process industries and resource sector.
www.icheme.org/human-factors-module-two
SOUTH AFRICA
HAZOP Leadership and Management
Boksburg, 18–20 MARCH
www.icheme.org/hazop-leadership
Fundamentals of Process Safety Management
Boksburg, 13–17 may
www.icheme.org/process-safety
HAZOP Leadership and Management
Boksburg,12–14 August
www.icheme.org/hazop-leadership-south-africa
21/02/2019 12:24
 The Chemical Engineer jobs
TO APPLY ONLINE VISIT JOBS.THECHEMICALENGINEER.COM, TO ADVERTISE CONTACT
LUKE PALMER AT MEDIA SHED, +44 (0)20 3137 8583, LUKEP@MEDIA-SHED.CO.UK

SENIOR/LEAD PROCESS DESIGN ENGINEERS £50 TO £72,500 PA
HANTS & CHESHIRE CHEMICALS/FINE CHEMICALS/API
Our client is an independant design consultant supporting the UK’s chemical
manufacturing base with a range of services including feasibility/screening and
estimation studies, FEEDS, detailed engineering, project delivery and construction
management. The business has developed a particular niche in the development
of batch and continuous chemical production facilities, including those under
COMAH and GMP regulation, where they address modifications and improvements,
process technology transfers and major CAPEX. The company is currently looking
for experienced process design engineers with established experience in leading
the design of processes and systems for pharmaceutical, fine chemical or chemical
manufacturing. Taking a senior or lead role on one or more projects and chartered,
the job holders will support and work closely with reporting engineers on the scoping
of design packages and the generation of design deliverables such as flow and data
sheets, mass-energy balances, control philosophy and performance requirements,
start-up and shut-down procedures and so on for proposals, engineering studies and
detailed execution programmes.
For an initial confidential discussion about these roles, please call
Mark Stracey at MSR on 01303 812433
or simply email a Word cv and a brief covering letter to
mark.stracey@outlook.com
Internship –
Technical Knowledge and Policy
Location: Rugby or London, UK
Salary: £18,000 ‒ £20,000 per annum plus
London Weighting (if applicable)
Fixed term period of 6 months or 12 months
We are looking for a recent graduate to join our Learned Society team as a
fixed term intern. You will be working directly with our network of expert
members to develop tools to disseminate knowledge and best practice
both to members and non-members.
You will be a recent graduate in chemical engineering or another relevant
science or engineering discipline and will be well-organised and equally
good with English and Mathematics. You’ll need a firm grasp of how
chemical engineering can help solve the big challenges facing society
and have a passion to really make a difference.
Core responsibilities of the role include:
■ Assisting staff and members to develop clear and compelling policy
positions
■ Supporting the review of our technical roadmap Chemical Engineering
Matters
■ Providing administrative support to our Learned Society Committee
■ Assisting the Learned Society team in providing technical guidance for
external enquiries and to support internal enquiries from colleagues
To apply, please send a CV and a cover letter to recruitment@icheme.org
The closing date for all applications is close of business Friday 15 March
For more details about this and other vacancies at IChemE, visit

TCE 933
Mark Stracey Recruitment operates as both an employment agency and employment business
www.icheme.org/jobs

Loss P
reven
tio
Improv

n Bull
ing pr
ocess

etin
safety
by shari
ng expe
rience

Issue
265, Feb
ruary
2019

Access the leading source LPB covers major accidents such

as Piper Alpha, Bhopal and

of case studies in process

Institu
tio
and the nal cultures

Seveso but also looks at less Layers

ir
loss pre influence on
vention

Analy of Protecti
Grain
silo

well-known incidents whose si o

and m s – limitati n
illustrate explosions
Blaye d by the

safety
silo ex
isuse ons
plosio
Oxide n

details are not widely available.

s of nit
Nitrou rog
s oxide en –
Anhydro
ammo us
nia lea
k
LPBco
ver26
5.indd
1

Subscribing to this resource

would give you: 24/01
/2019

Loss Prevention Bulletin (LPB) has an

16:21

■ access to the entire archive

archive of lessons learned over more ■ six new issues each year

than 40 years and is now the leading ■ technical articles offering practical advice on specific hazards,
process safety management systems and good safety practice
source of process safety case studies. ■ access all of the Toolbox Talks presentations ‒ a series of PowerPoint
slide shows which can be used for short safety talks

For more information or to take out a subscription, visit www.icheme.org/lpb

TCE 933

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 62

tce.933.62.indd 2 21/02/2019 11:40

 The Chemical Engineer products
VISIT WWW.THECHEMICALENGINEER.COM
TO ADVERTISE CONTACT IAN HARTLEY AT MEDIA SHED, +44 (0)20 3137 8581, IANH@MEDIA-SHED.CO.UK

SEMMCO
Representative of recruitment advertisers on
ESCAPE AND RESCUE EQUIPMENT: NO ROOM FOR thechemicalengineer.com
COMPLACENCY
British manufacturer of custom-made
breathing escape respirators and respiratory
protection systems, Semmco LPS is pleased
to report that it’s entire range of hooded life
protection devices is fully compliant with the
new PPE Regulation (EU) 2016/425, ahead of
the deadline in April 2019.

After April 2019, it is a legal requirement that Respiratory Protective

Equipment (RPE) must be compliant with this regulation. The New
Approach Directive safeguards that every Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE) product on the market will enhance consumer safety. All available RPE
must be updated to adhere to the changes to ensure employee health and
safety is effectively protected against hazardous or compromised air.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

+44 (0) 1483 757200; WWW.SEMMCO.COM JOBS.THECHEMICALENGINEER.COM

Human Factors in Health

and Safety
A better understanding of human factors – how the
people, the job and the organisation interact as a whole
– can help drive safety standards and overall business
performance.
Our modular training programme, Human Factors in
Health and Safety, provides the chance to learn more
about human factors in the process industries and
resource sector, and how to implement solutions to
manage it effectively.

The following modules are available with dates

scheduled in the UK and Australia:
■ Managing Human Factors
■ Managing Human Failure
■ Strengthening Organisational Performance
■ Human Factors in Design

Find out more: www.icheme.org/human-factors

In partnership with
TCE 933

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 63

tce.933.63 Products V2.indd 62 21/02/2019 11:38

 RESIDuE the STUFF LEFT OVER AT THE END

Let’s get quizzical

REGULAR contribu
tor Tom Ba xter sen
recreated below. Mu t us a series of vis
ual puzzles that we
ch like the board have
newspapers, the aim game Dingbats, or
of the game is to fin Katch-Its publishe
d in
d the cry ptic term
hidden within.

1. Find the phase ch

ange of which chem
ica l 2. Find the hidden
scientist/unit
1m

1m

3. Find the science

term
4. Find the chemical

4. Water
) 3. Molar solution
on per square metre
2. Pascal (One Newt Kelvin)
water (273 degrees
1. Freezing point of
SOLUTIONS

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer | page 64

residue933 DG.indd 64 20/02/2019 16:43

 The Chemical Engineer suppliers & services
VISIT WWW.THECHEMICALENGINEER.COM
TO ADVERTISE CONTACT IAN CARTER AT MEDIA SHED, +44 (0)20 3475 6811, IANC@MEDIA-SHED.CO.UK

DYNASCAN VALVE ACTUATION SPECIALISTS HOSE, VALVES & COUPLINGS

Avoid costly production downtime by using leak detection A leading manufacturer and supplier of hose
products from Dynascan, as part of your quality control. AVS, a UK ISO9001 approved quality supplier
User-friendly and low maintenance, Dynascan instruments of valves specialising in pneumatic and assemblies, valve and coupling products
are essential pieces of leak detection equipment for pack- electrically actuated ball and butterfly valves, providing ‘the right connection’ for companies in
aging facilities providing instant test results to improve a broad range of industries.
your packaging processes. Dynascan offers a wide range and valve accessories. Quality valve and actuated
of seal integrity and leak detection solutions to suit most project solutions for most industrial process Dixon offers specialised support and bespoke
food, pharmaceutical, medical and industrial applications. applications. Specialist valve and actuator engineered solutions from concept, to design,
Testing methods include; burst testing, bubble emissions, products offering exceptional chemical and
pressure decay, reactive force, altitude simulation and blue through to installation providing; hose fittings,
dye. All test systems are designed and manufactured to corrosion resistance and user-friendly time couplings, hose assemblies, valves and related
the highest quality with an individual tailor-made service saving installation. accessories.
available, providing complete technical and engineering
solutions. Whatever your packaging testing requirements,
Dynascan has the essential leak detection equipment.

+44 (0) 1480 462142 +44 (0) 330 053 5750 +44 (0) 1772 323529
INFO@DYNASCAN.CO.UK INFO@ACTUATEDVALVESUPPLIES.COM SALES@DIXONEUROPE.CO.UK
WWW.DYNASCAN.CO.UK ACTUATEDVALVESUPPLIES.COM WWW.DIXONEUROPE.CO.UK
Is your packaging leaking?
PROCESS SAFETY Avoid costly production downtime by using leak detection products
from Dynascan, as part of your quality control. User-friendly and low
ENGINEERING DESIGN-PROJECT & CONSTRUCTION
maintenance, Dynascan instruments are essential pieces of leak detection
equipment for packaging facilities providing instant test results to improve your
Safety Engineering Solutions is a professional process
packaging processes.

safety engineering consultancy Dynascan

providing offers aflexible,
wide range of seal integrity and leak detection solutions
competitively-priced consulting/engineering
to suit most food, services
pharmaceutical, medical and industrial applications.
Testing methods include; burst testing, bubble emissions, pressure decay,
within a wide range of challenging industries and and blue dye. All test systems are designed and
reactive force, altitude simulation
environments, both onshore and offshore.
manufactured Wequality with an individual tailor-made service
to the highest
available, providing complete technical and engineering solutions.
specialise in Process Safety Management; HAZID
HAZOP/SIL; Bowtie development; consequence requirements, Dynascan has the essential
Whatever your packaging testing
leak detection equipment.
modelling; firewater demand/network hydraulic
analysis, hazardous area classification;
www.dynascan.co.ukand flare
radiation/dispersion info@dynascan.co.uk | +44 (0)1480 462142
assessment.

+44 (0) 7808 889684

INFO@SAFETYENGINEERINGSOLUTIONS.COM
WWW.SAFETYENGINEERINGSOLUTIONS.COM

STEAM
Ultrasonic Flowmeter for
PROCESS CONTROL TLV produces steam traps, condensate recovery
pumps, pressure reducing valves and other
steam-related equipment.
(2ml-15L/min) TLV also We also offer consulting and

process
engineering services. TLV consulting,
engineering and service activities are designed to
find the best solutions to increase productivity,
maximize energy savings, improve quality and
TM
promote environmental conservation.

TLV. EURO ENGINEERING UK LTD

+44 (0) 1242 277 223
TITAN ENTERPRISES LTD SALES@TLV.CO.UK
Coldharbour Business Park, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4JW. UK
www.flowmeters.co.uk WWW.TLV.COM

ICHEME PUBLICATIONS

Advertise year round IChemE Online Store

to more than 32,000 We have a wide variety of products

available on our online store:
process & chemical
• Forms of Contract
engineers • BP Process Safety Series
for just £495+VAT •
•
A range of books
Conference proceedings
• Case studies
• Online training

CALL IAN CARTER ON +44 (0) 20 3475 6811 SALES@ICHEME.ORG

TO BOOK YOUR SLOT WWW.ICHEME.ORG/SHOP

MARCH 2019 | The Chemical Engineer

tce.933.IBC suppliers and services.indd 62 21/02/2019 11:39

 Standard Elevating Platform
The Vertically elevating Platform provides
absolute safety for operators working on
tanker tops by providing
a walk surface over the entire tanker
top that can be simply lifted up where
necessary to provide access to the tanker
connections. Handling Loading Arms and
Hoses just became a lot easier.
Meter Skid Systems
Loadtec supply packaged metering
systems to provide the customer with
point of transfer volumetric or mass
metering of liquids. The skids can also
have pumps included and be provided
as mobile units if required. The range of
materials and methods of metering are
configured to suit customer
requirements.
Loadtec Loading Arms
Loadtec have an extensive range of road
and rail tanker loading and unloading
arms. These range from standard API
configuration bottom loaders to PTFE lined,
heated and insulated arms with vapour
recovery. We can provide arms for almost
every liquid, ensuring safe and clean bulk
transfer operations.
Fixed Access Platforms and Stairs
Safe and robust access to tanker tops for operator
convenience. A customer driven specification
based on our unique design, provides an
inexpensive and safe system for inspection or
loading operations.
Electronic Grounding
Static, generated during high speed product flow
into a tanker, needs to be dissipated safely, easily
and repeatedly. Loadtec offers a range of high
integrity, self check systems that rwill only give a
permissive for liquid flow, when the route of
dissipation is proven.
ENGINEERED SYSTEMS LTD
tce.933.OBC.indd 2
Tilting & Elevating Platform
The Tilting Platform system is the pinnacle
of tanker top safe operations. This raises and
lowers vertically through a 1.5m range and
can tilt each end to correct for sloping tanker
tops. It can be custom designed to suit a
range of lengths and widths.
Mobile Access Carts
In cases where infrequent access is
required or tanker positions are not fixed,
the Mobile Access Cart will provide safe
access to tanker tops of varying height.
Ideally used for sample taking and
inspection of bond seals, the cart has
foam filled 16” wheels and galvanised
steel chassis with numerous optional
configurations.
Marine Loading Arms
Safe and clean transfer of marine liquid
cargo is essential. The Loadtec marine
arm is available in 6” to 216” size and
capable of transferring oils and
chemical fluids We can provide fast
and efficient support for our products. If
you want great service, then give us a
try.
Track Mounted Folding Stairs Marine Gangways
This system utilises a unique track and barrier
system to allow a folding star to traverse over any Bridging the variable gap between the jetty
distance, providing flexible access onto tanker and ship, ship to ship or platform to ship. Our
tops where long loading racks are used. Marine gangways are custom designed for each
application.
Breakaway Couplings Loadtec Floating Suction Units
An unplanned drive-away by a road tanker during Simple and complex floating suction arm units
liquid transfer operations could be disastrous. are used in storage tanks to allow suction of the
The breakaway coupling will part before damage product near to the liquid surface level, avoiding
occurs to the hose or loading arm and will close intake of water or sediments that accumulate at
off at each end to secure the liquid in the line. the bottom of a tank.
The Stables, Coach House, Hythe Road, Smeeth, Kent, TN25 6SP
Tel: 01303 813030 Fax: 01303 814040
Email: info@loadtec.co.uk Website: www.loadtec.co.uk
21/02/2019 11:40