Congratulations PTOA Readers and Students!

You have just finished the focus study that introduced Process Industry Temperature-Changing Equipment!

WAIT A MINUTE!

When and where was the focus on creating really low process temperatures for industrial processing?

What about refrigeration equipment and systems? There are scads of useful refrigeration systems in process industries.

And how about changing the state of gases like Methane into liquids by producing very low temperatures via cryogenics? 

Liquid Oxygen is made by a cryogenic process. Liquid O2 is loaded into Air Force jets and breathed by pilots after being vaporized back into a gas.

Making Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) in a LNG Plant requires cryogenic technology...righteeo?

Correctamundo!

The word "cryogenics" sounds so weird and scientifically mysterious until you know that  "kryos" means "frost" and "genics" means "produce" in Greek.

"Frost-producing" must not have been a sufficiently confusing phrase to satisfy the early physical scientists.

Anyway...

The focus on generating really low process temperatures for refrigeration or cryogenic industrial processes shall be deferred until after the future PTOA Rotating Equipment Segments are concluded. Refrigeration and cryogenic processing will just make a lot more sense at that point!

 

WAIT ANOTHER  MINUTE!

Aren't there any more ways that the Process Variable "Temperature" can be changed in the process industries?

Additional creativity increasing and decreasing industrial process temperatures is limited by the laws of nature.

Sure, there are variations on the temperature-changing process technologies presented so far in the PTOA.

For example, there is the pressure-temperature relationship that impacts all liquids that are on the verge of boiling.

As the below graphic illustrates, increasing the pressure in a container full of liquid will increase its boiling point and vice versa.

Future PTOA Segments featuring the Process Variable "Pressure" will clarify how the PVs Pressure and Temperature are related.

And nano scale nuclear reactions can generate and absorb much more heat than the exothermic and endothermic chemical reactions presented so far in the PTOA.

Heck, the hydrocarbon chemical reactions focussed on in the PTOA have been limited to breaking and rearranging hydrocarbon bonds...the nucleus of the atom was not changed as happens in the logically named "nuclear reaction."

Still...the difference is simply a nuance of magnitude:

An exothermic reaction is an exothermic reaction is an exothermic reaction...just like "a rose is a rose" (That's from ole Billy Boy Will Shakespeare).

PTOA Readers and Students may be working in a processing plant someday and notice a piece of Temperature-Changing Equipment that looks different than what has been presented in the PTOA.

In that instance, take a closer look and notice that the operating principle of the Temperature-Changing Equipment will be functionally equivalent to something that has been covered.

For example:

Have you ever done a table top  experiment in a lab class? The "Fired Heater" in an experiment may be as small as a Bunsen Burner. Yet the Bunsen Burner and a Fired Heater are functionally one and the same.

 

STEP BACK AND LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE

This is as good a time as any to reiterate that the process temperatures of the process fluids flowing through the pipes in any process are purposefully generated to enhance conversion of feedstocks into desired products.

Process temperatures are not the ambient temperatures experienced when walking around outside.

Creating a process temperature that is hotter or colder than the ambient temperature that surrounds the process costs a lot of money.

Some form of energy is required to create the process temperature of the process fluid that flows through any process pipe.

And there are physical limits regarding how much a process temperature can be changed before the process becomes uneconomical ergo not profitable to build.

Now..if the process plant were on the Moon or Mars...that would be a different set physical limitations to deal with!

 

WHAT'S HAPPENING NEXT?

A set of PTOA Deja Vu Review segments covering Temperature-Changing Equipment is next.

Then the PTOA will recap process industry jargon related to Temperature Changing Equipment so that PTOA Readers and Students can "talk the talk" of process technology.

 

THE PTOA SUCCESS STRATEGY REMINDER

PTOA Readers and Students are already aware that the PTOA is a highly integrated self-study of Process Technology and Operations.

In just 45 PTOA Segments the introduction and demonstrated application of the below Process Industry Basic Concepts have been focussed upon:

• Process Variables with a heavy emphasis on Temperature
• Process Industry Automation
• Process Industry Schematics
• Process Industry Temperature Changing Stationary Equipment

Optimal comprehension of the PTOA Focus Study Areas is contingent upon reading the PTOA Segments in the intended sequential order.

Use the convenient PTOA bookmarking feature to keep your place when you just cannot bear reading one more word and need a break to mull things over.

 

PTOA SOCIAL MEDIA INTERFACE

Social media can also be used to conveniently access the PTOA. Just be certain that PTOA Segments are read  in the intended sequential order.

 

PTOA Facebook Fan Page

The PTOA can be accessed via the PTOA Facebook Fan page.

The PTOA Facebook Fan Page is easily accessed via the Facebook Icon that is located on the right side of the PTOA Home Page.

PTOA Segments are regularly posted to the PTOA Facebook Fan Page.

The most recent PTOA Segment will appear on the top of the list.

Be certain to read "from the bottom up" so that you are reading the PTOA Segments in the intended order.

For even easier PTOA access...officially "Like" the PTOA!

Officially "Like"-ing the PTOA Facebook Fan Page will automatically post the most recent PTOA Segment to your Facebook page.

This mode of easy PTOA access will be successful for PTOA Readers and Students that have caught up reading the most current PTOA Segment.

 

Your Mentor@PTOAcademy

Follow the PTOA tweets by accessing the Twitter Icon on the right side of the PTOA Home Page.

PTOA Segments are not automatically posted to the PTOA Twitter Home Page.

However there is a convenient link to the Process Technology and Operator Academy website  (ProcessTechAcademy.com) on the left side of the PTOA Twitter Home Page.

The "Contact" link in the menu bar on the PTOA Home Page can also be used to send comments and questions to Your Mentor.

 

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!

ONWARD!

Namaste,

YM

 

©2015 PTOA

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