Tech Briefs Wants You to Create the Future

Tech Briefs invites you to enter their 17th annual "Create the Future" Design Contest

Tech Briefs Media Group, an SAE International Company, is the publisher of Tech Briefs, the largest-circulation design-engineering magazine worldwide and Aerospace & Defense Technology, and the largest-circulation engineering magazine for the mil/aero market

As an SAE-Society of Automotive Engineers publication, it might be surprising that Tech Briefs organizes a contest that is not focused on the automobile. Surprising or not, it is true.

For example, in 2018 the grand prize went to inventors of a product they call Invisible Glass.
Charles T. Black, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA; Andreas C. Liapis, Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge MA, USA; and Atikur Rahman, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, Maharashtra, India, created a nanotechnology coating that imparts anti-reflection and water-repellency capabilities to surfaces made of silicon, glass, and plastics like Teflon.

In 2015, 2015, the grand prize went to a team for Development Of A Non-surgical Circulatory Support Device For The Treatment Of Chronic Heart Failure.
Created by Omar Benavides, Benjamin Hertzog, Jace Heuring, Reynolds Delgado, and Will Clifton, Aortix™ augments heart function by accelerating a portion of native blood flow within the pump and pushing it downstream to entrain aortic flow. Strategic placement downstream of the heart allows for combined benefit to the heart, kidneys, and other vital organs while eliminating the common VAD risks of damage to the heart and thrombotic stroke.

WHY THIS MATTERS
Are you developing an innovative technology in ANY field? If so, consider entering the 17th annual "Create the Future" Design Contest

For details, visit https://createthefuturecontest.com or https://contest.techbriefs.com/

Technology in Action – PTQ Style

The latest issue of PTQ-Petroleum Technology Quarterly (www.eptq.com) has just come out. As always, it is well worth reading.

One part that many people overlook is at the end of the magazine. Labeled Technology in Action, it offers a few paragraphs on technology solutions to specific problems that may (or may not) be worth pursuing. At the end of each item is contact information for the company offering the solution.

TIP: Visit the Technology in Action Web sites. These sites may suggest avenues for further investigation.

The Table of Contents for PTQ 2019 Q2 appears below. Below that you can find excerpts from the PTQ Technology in Action section.

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PTQ 2019 Q2 Table of Contents

• Solving hydrotreating fouling problems
• Refinery catalyst testing
• New catalysts for low and medium pressure hydrotreating
• Forecasting crude oil prices
• Troubleshooting a heavy crude topper
• Development of a naphthenic acid corrosion model
• Problems in processing discounted crudes
• Part 2: crude and vacuum columns
• Sizing relief valves for real gas or vapour
• Claus waste heat boiler economics
• Part 2: mechanical considerations
• Revamping a bitumen heating system
• Flue gas heat recovery through the acid dew point
• Operational challenges in sour water stripping

Source: www.eptq.com  

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PTQ 2019 Q2: Technology in Action
Demonstrating the viability of small scale LNG terminals
The project was intended to create small scale LNG infrastructure and establish the port of Klaipeda as an LNG hub for the Baltic region and northeastern Poland by creating a single value chain from LNG delivered from a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).
For more information: paul.shields@chartindustries.com
www.chartindustries.com  
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PTQ 2019 Q2: Technology in Action
Minimising product giveaway
Refiners are responsible for controlling their blends of gasoline and diesel fuels to meet specifications for multiple parameters. Gasoline producers, for example, seek to control octane number (RON/MON), vapour pressure (RVP), distillation points, aromatics, oxygenates and more. The precise control of blend components to comply with specifi cations is necessary to meet legal requirements and reduce costs.
Grabner Instruments, a subsidiary of Ametek Inc., is a developer and manufacturer of automatic petroleum testing equipment to determine the different values of gasoline and butane as products.
Gasoline is a high value product. Butane, on the other hand, is relatively low cost. Thus, adding butane to a gasoline blend improves refi nery operating margins. Notwithstanding, a refi ner must still comply with regulations for RON/MON and vapour pressure. The addition of lighter butane signifi cantly increases the vapour pressure, but maximum vapour pressure values are strictly regulated in many areas of the world as a means for limiting emissions. At the same time, minimum ON need to be strictly observed to guarantee the quality of gasoline grades, since refi n- ers typically demand higher prices for higher gasoline grades.
Increasing the octane number adds value to the gasoline, while decreasing the vapour pressure requires adding low volatility components. Either approach is costly for refi nery operations, since increasing the octane rating or decreasing the vapour pressure requires blending more expensive components into the gasoline. Thus, the closer that gasoline can be blended to the required ON and RVP ratings, the less the refi ner gives away as result of blending costs. The industry estimates that in the United States the average octane giveaway is 0.7/bbl, whereas the average vapour pressure giveaway per barrel is 0.4 psi (2.8 kPa). A major contributor to product giveaway is the reproducibility of the ASTM or EN methods used to monitor compliance with gasoline specifi cations (see Figures 1 and 2). Another contributor is the precision of the testing equipment used.
Based on production data from the US and the European Union, the consolidation of octane and vapour pressure giveaways results in an annual loss of more than $3.3 billion in the US and more than $1.9 billion in the European Union (see Table 1).
Therefore, testing precision is vital to reducing giveaway costs. To minimise RVP giveaway, an exact analysis of the vapour pressure, in combination with the exact dosing of butane, is required. The Minivap on-line RVP tester from Grabner Instruments is known to off er high reproducibility of 0.1 psi (0.7 kPa) as well as ASTM/EN standard compliant analysis of the vapour pressure of fi nished gasolines or butanes in the blender.
When a Minivap on-line analyser is installed in a Global Technics butane blending system, a precise blend can be achieved directly on the pipeline. The Global Technics blending system can achieve tight dosing to within 0.05% of butane. A combined RVP analyser/butane blending system can achieve a positive ROI in a matter of months, and even a medium sized refi nery can save more than a million dollars per year.
Grabner Instruments
www.ametek.com 
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PTQ 2019 Q2: Technology in Action Protecting against high pressure rupture
Since rapid pressure relief is required, rupture discs are a common solution to over-pressure protection, but the challenging environment in these high pressure/ high temperature applications can cause traditional rupture discs to fatigue over time. The common solution for high pressure applications is a rupture discs manufactured with a weld seam. This has an influence on the burst pressure and, after installation, the applied pressure is nearly fully loaded on the welding joint. Over time the weld seam fatigues under pressure and results in an unnecessary rupture disc response which can even take place at a lower pressure than the defined burst pressure.
In comparison, R􀀨MB􀀨 HPRD rupture discs have a much longer life time than the traditional discs as the pressure load applies only on the seat of the disc. By moving the weld seam out of the pressure loaded area of the disc, the burst pressure is defined only by well controlled parameters such as material thickness and it is not influenced by the strength of the weld seam. This precise control over the rupture disc response pressure also allows the tightest burst tolerances of +/-􀀖% and lower. HPRD rupture discs protect various high pressure processes around the world. This long life version for high pressure applications has a lifetime which is 5-10 times higher than that of a standard rupture disc. That saves money and installation time by eliminating downtime caused by unwanted responses. An increasing number of companies are benefitting from reduced downtime and large cost savings by using a long life rupture disc in their production facilities. R􀀨MB􀀨 was recently approached by one of the leading multinational companies in this field to protect their polymer plant in Belgium and help bring them in line with E􀀨uropean regulations on pressure equipment.
REMBE
www.rembe.de 
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Ball valves for methanol-to-olefins project
A methanol-to-olefins (MTO) project in China, is installing rising-stem ball valves from Union Tech. The company was awarded a contract consisting of rising-stem ball valves and paired actuators to be installed in Nanjing Chengzhiongqing Energy Technology’s methanol-to-olefins (MTO) project. The project, which converts methanol from coal and other sources into ole- fins that are the essential ingredients for plastics production, licenses Honeywell UOP’s MTO technology.
MTO is a recently developed process technology that converts methanol to olefins (ethylene, propylene, and/ or butylene). The ability to convert methanol from different raw materials into olefins diversifies the requisite feedstocks to yield olefins. This technology enables regions rich in coal but potentially lacking in oil feedstocks to economically produce olefins. The project will be the second MTO plant at the site.
Union Tech’s rising-stem ball valves will be used throughout the processing units with the mixed olefins produced by the MTO reactors as the media. The process itself presents several challenges to traditional valves

Substantial variations in temperature and pressure
Media contains particulates which present corrosion and erosion risks
Frequent cycling operation.

For more information: robert.hsia@uniontechmfg.com
www.uniontechmfg.com 
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Cybersecurity + Mission Secure

High profile cyber attacks on major companies like Saudi Aramco (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamoon) have made industrial cybersecurity a hot topic.

Mission Secure Inc. (https://www.missionsecure.com) purports to offer helpful technology to combat cyber threats. Chevron is one of the companies invested in the company. (See: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181010005693/en/Mission-Secure-Announces-Series-Venture-Financing)

Of course, you will want to do due diligence.  You don’t want to fall into the Sulphco trap, another company that Chevron was interested in.

You may remember Sulphco (R.I.P.) and its sonocracking technology. Motley Fool published an insightful article on the company in 2008 (See: https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/07/30/sulphco-will-burn-your-portfolio.aspx).

According to Motley Fool …

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[ EXCERPT from SulphCo Will Burn Your Portfolio ]
It's not nearly as magical as spinning straw into gold, but if SulphCo (AMEX:SUF) can crack the code of ridding sulphur from heavy-grade crude oil, it might be just as valuable. Unfortunately, "Sonocracking" hasn't lived up to the hype so far, and that could be why the collective wisdom of the 110,00-strong Motley Fool CAPS community has bestowed a lowly one-star rating on SulphCo.
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Here are a few search strings you can use to read more on Mission Secure and Sulphco, as well as cybersecurity …

TIP #1: Google® "Mission Secure" chevron
TIP #2: Google® "Mission Secure" "university of virginia"
TIP #3: USPTO (U.S. Patent & Trademark Office) Search Statement (Advanced): AN/("mission secure") - http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/index.html
TIP #4: Google® "saudi aramco" cybersecurity
TIP #5: Google® sulphco chevron
TIP #6: Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com) "mission secure"
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