COVER STORY
Water spray support for efficiency enhancement of air-cooled heat exchangers by mist creation
Globally, there is a growing need for both electric power and water. The acute scarcity of water may lead to conflict between water for power plant cooling requirements and water for other uses such as agricultural, residential, or environmental. Hence, there is a huge inclination towards use of Dry Cooling (air cooling) as an attractive alternative to the use of Wet Cooling - basically on the grounds of water conservation. It is well known that Dry Cooling on one hand will substantially reduce the need of water in process/power plants. On the other hand, it can cause reductions in plant efficiency and out-put during hottest periods of the year.

- Makarand A Chitale

FOCUS
Zero drift cooling towers
Drift losses are a very important criteria to be considered during the selection of cooling system like spray pond and mist form. During heavy breeze and storms, both the basins will become empty in just two to four hours of time. However, a cooling tower with FRP-lined steel structure at the centre of the basin can withstand the wind velocity of the area and the basin (preferably RCC)...
- P M Kudva

Interview
We are dedicated to delivering the most efficient steam generation equipment possible
- Mahendra Mali, Regional Manager, Forbes Marshall Inc...

CASE STUDY
Installation and operation of a bulkflow sugar cooler at the sugar plant of brugelette in Belgium (EUR)
Bulkflow Technologies Inc is a world leader in the indirect heating and cooling of powder and bulk solids in many industries worldwide (chemicals, polymers, fertilisers, detergents, minerals, oilseeds, grains, food products, sugar and biosolids). In the last few years, Bulkflow has introduced this technology to the sugar industry with great success where it has been established as a proven and effective method for cooling sugar crystals before storage and packaging. The bulkflow system can be installed either as a primary cooler or a secondary cooler and is readily adaptable to plant retrofits.
-Jean-Marc Reichling

INSTRUMENTATION
Experimental methods for high pressure VLE masurement
Accurate measurement of high pressure vapour liquid equilibria is a most demanding task. The number and variety of approaches adopted atleast to the exacting nature of the task of finding the most reliable, accurate and cost effective approach. But there exists no firm opinion as to which type of equipment is superior. Each type has its own advantages and drawbacks. The purpose of this study is to summarize in some detail the equipments and procedures used to measure high pressure VLE. We discuss some of the dynamic and static methods developed for high pressure VLE measurement.
- Varun Bhalla, Rajpuri Sai Kiran Singh, S N Kaul and V A Shinde

SEPARATION
Divided wall distillation column
The separation of liquid mixture into various components is one of the major operation in the process industries and distillation the most widely used method of achieving this end is the key operation in any oil refinery. In processing the demand for purer product, coupled with the need for greater efficiency has promoted continued research into the technique of distillation. Divided wall distillation column offer improved thermodynamic efficiency at low cost, as they are compact. For a given amount of feed divided wall column require less reflux than conventional towers allowing for increase in capacity energy saving and less working cost.
- Prof Y R Soman, Prof B A Bhanavase and S S Salunke

PROCESS
Pick of the litter: A typical fluidization
Fluidized bed has vast applicability in the chemical process industries. Understanding and predicting the mechanisms governing the fluidized bed behaviour is of foremost importance not only for improvement of the operability of existing commercial system, but also for the development of new industrial processes. This article presents the review of manipulating the fluidization operation incorporating hydrodynamics besides the applications of fluidization using internals and advanced types of fluidization in brief...
- V N Lad