August 2009
Volume XV, No. 8
How's Your Seal Support System?

An Insider’s Guide to Seal Support Systems
Understanding the Benefits of Plan 53B Compliance
Modern crude oil pipelines and petrochemical plants rely on mechanical seals to contain hazardous emissions and optimize performance of centrifugal and rotary pumps. A seal failure can result in a product delivery interruption and expensive reactive maintenance. Seal support systems are therefore a critical technology and must be properly designed and operated in order to deliver petrochemicals to market profitably.

Q&A: Trends in Valve Actuation & Control
Technology Evolves to Provide Valuable New Capability
B. P. (Bob) Urbanowicz is the president of Samson Controls, Inc., USA. Since joining Samson Controls in Canada in 1985, he has held various positions, including President of Samson in Canada. He earned his master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Gdansk University of Technology in Poland. Here Mr. Urbanowicz fields questions from Flow Control on valve actuation and control technology and application strategy.

The ‘Cleaner’ Fossil Fuel
Natural Gas as Part of the Alternative Energy Future
The energy industry has never been more in the spotlight than it is today, as the wide acceptance of global warming by the scientific community and by the general population has made the topics of clean and alternative energy of prime importance. The slow but steady warming of the atmosphere has made it critical to find non-polluting sources of energy, as well as to monitor and control carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

Considering the Cooling of Capillary Tubing
How a ‘Rule of Thumb’ Can Result In a Measurement Error
Last month we determined that the capillary tubing for differential-pressure measurements should generally be the same length — even though the added physical length may seem wasteful, expensive and cumbersome. Often the excess capillary tubing for the closer nozzle or tap is coiled for convenience.

A Random Rant
The ‘Pump Guy’ Ponders When Globalization Will Hit Home
Maybe the labor rates are perceived as elevated in the U.S. Maybe they’re elevated in Europe, too. Are the labor rates high enough to justify buying a tract of land, building a multi-million dollar factory, hiring and training new people, establishing transportation and distribution links over and over again? And then dismantling and bouncing the factory from the US, to Mexico, to Brazil, to Malaysia, and China?

QUIZ CORNER:
Expressing Pump Discharge Pressure
Reducing the motor speed of a centrifugal pump reduces both the discharge pressure of the pump and energy consumption of the motor. When the motor is operated at 80 percent speed, what is the approximate pump discharge pressure and motor energy consumption expressed as a percent of full speed discharge pressure and full speed motor energy consumption respectively?