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Refineries: The real winners of the shale oil boom
Stefanie Heerwig Natural ResourcesSmoke rises again from the pilot flare of a Texas-based Blue Dolphin Energy refinery after a two-decade standstill — and that's just the beginning. Following the shale oil boom, is another boom: refining. Blue Dolphin Energy, Valero Energy, Kinder Morgan and many others are building new crude-processing equipment, reopening old refineries and building new ones.
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A growing problem: Stray current and light rail
Sasha Viasasha EngineeringAs U.S. cities expand rapidly, light rail transit (LRT) projects are beginning to develop all around the country. At the same time, the problem of stray current from LRT lines is becoming a serious concern as people and transit systems vie for control of valuable downtown real estate.
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AHR Expo highlights important trends in HVAC&R industry
Denny Hydrick Facilities & GroundsI recently attended the AHR Expo 2014 in New York City along with several thousand more freezing souls. The show is co-sponsored by AHRI and ASHRAE, which is obviously pointed towards HVAC professionals, many of whom are employed in some type of facility (vs. construction or service companies). This fact alone made the Association for Facilities Engineering presence almost a necessity.
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Solar energy global market drivers and challenges
Don Rosato ManufacturingThe worldwide solar energy or photovoltaic (PV) demand reached only 29 gigawatts (GW) last year, a 5 percent year-over-year increase. This is the first time in 10 years that the year-over-year PV industry market growth has been less than 10 percent. For supply and demand to have been balanced during 2012-13, end-market demand should have approached the 45 GW level. This overcapacity is having a significant effect on companies all along the supply chain as the industry consolidates.
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The impact of macrocells on underwater corrosion
Sasha Viasasha ManufacturingCorrosion due to macrocells is a serious threat to certain types of structures, especially in the ocean. New developments have recently shed light on how macrocells form in hollow undersea structures and what engineers can do to mitigate their effects.
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3-D printing taking center stage in additive manufacturing
Don Rosato ManufacturingAdditive manufacturing (AM) is a process of joining materials to make objects from 3-D model data, usually in successive layers, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies. The parts produced can be models, prototypes, tooling components, and increasingly, series production parts. They are generated from 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) data, medical scans, or data from 3-D scanning systems. Based on thin horizontal cross sections taken from a 3-D computer model, AM systems produce plastic, metal, ceramic, or composite parts, layer upon layer.
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Azerbaijan and the Shah Deniz project: A small country playing a big game
Lucy Wallwork Natural ResourcesAzerbaijan is a piece of the post-Soviet jigsaw roughly the size of Minnesota, home to a population of 9 million that gained independence in 1991. Few feel confident pointing out the country on a map (it's located on the northwest corner of Iran, right on the Caspian Sea). But just before 2013 closed out, Azerbaijan's policymakers finalized a $45 billion deal that will make them a key link in the European Union's and United States' play to secure Europe's energy independence, and to reduce Russian influence. This is a small country playing a big game.
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The View from Europe: The quest for life beyond the compressor
Andrew Gaved ManufacturingThese look like exciting times for the future of refrigeration. One of the undisputed holy grails for researchers working at the frontiers of refrigeration science is to find a way to cool without requiring compressors and all the inefficiencies that vapor compression brings with it. And, crucially, they want to achieve them in a way that is commercially sustainable.
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Effective storage tank protection system: The use of anodic protection
Sable Mc'Oneal ManufacturingThere are certain circumstances that make it impractical for cathodic protection to be used, such as in extremely acidic or alkaline environments. For these situations, anodic protection can be a useful corrosion control technique, specifically in metal environment conditions that demonstrate active-passive behaviors.
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Innovative medical plastic devices define the road ahead
Don Rosato ManufacturingFuture medical device innovations are expected to center around six major technological areas.
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