Opening up on control valves
There are three key steps to ensuring that control valves don't cause process plant instability. Mark Perry explains the problems and their solutions
Instrument aware
Maintenance engineers used to have a lot in common with fire fighters. Now, the job is increasingly about heading off trouble before it starts - and on highly automated plants, this predictive approach is possible, thanks largely to intelligent, digital instrumentation.
Fuel for fire
Converting corn into fuel ethanol is a fast-growing business, responsible for one of the fastest plant-building programmes in the world. But it's not been without its challenges, particularly in terms of process optimisation. So it's well worth looking at plant engineers' choices of instrumentation technologies.