Minimisation

Smith, R., and Petela, E. A., Waste Minimisation in the Process Industries, paper presented at the IChemE Symposium on Integrated Pollution Control Through Clean Technology, Wilmslow, UK, May 20-21, 1992. 

The production phase commences with the first commercial quantities of hydrocarbons ( first oil ) flowing through the wellhead. This marks the turning point from a cash flow point of view, since from now on cash is generated and can be used to pay back the prior investments, or may be made available for new projects. Minimising the time between the start of an exploration campaign and first oil is one of the most important goals in any new venture. 

Surface tension arises at a fluid to fluid interface as a result of the unequal attraction between molecules of the same fluid and the adjacent fluid. For example, the molecules of water in a water droplet surrounded by air have a larger attraction to each other than to the adjacent air molecules. The imbalance of forces creates an inward pull which causes the droplet to become spherical, as the droplet minimises its surface area. A surface tension exists at the interface of the water and air, and a pressure differential exists between the water phase and the air. The pressure on the water side is greater due to the net inward forces... 

Perhaps the greatest stimulus for the development of such tools has been the proliferation of high angle wells in which deviation surveys are difficult and wireline logging services are impossible (without some sort of pipe conveyance system), and where MWD logging can minimise formation damage by reducing openhole exposure times. 

Introduction and Commercial Application Section 8.0 considered the dynamic behaviour in the reservoir, away from the influence of the wells. However, when the fluid flow comes under the influence of the pressure drop near the wellbore, the displacement may be altered by the local pressure distribution, giving rise to coning or cusping. These effects may encourage the production of unwanted fluids (e.g. water or gas instead of oil), and must be understood so that their negative input can be minimised. 

For a single stage separator i.e. only one separator vessel, there is an optimum pressure which yields the maximum amount of oil and minimises the carry over of heavy components into the gas phase (a phenomenon called stripping). By adding additional separators to the process line the yield of oil can be increased, but with each additional separator the incremental oil yield will decrease. 

Produced water has to be separated from oil for two main reasons, firstly because the customer is buying oil not water, and secondly to minimise costs associated with evacuation (e.g., volume pumped, corrosion protection for pipelines). A water content of less than 0.5% is a typical specification for sales crude. 

Ceramics can be ground, cut, drilled, etc. There is a risk of cracks, but this can be minimised by using the right machining techniques. Customised products can be made quiekly, design changes are fast. 

The algorithm contains five minimisation procedures which are performed the same way as in the method " i.e. by minimisation of the RMS between the measured unidirectional distribution and the corresponding theoretical distribution of die z-component of the intensity of the leakage field. The aim of the first minimisation is to find initial approximations of the depth d, of the crack in the left half of its cross-section, die depth d in its right half, its half-width a, and the parameter c. The second minimisation gives approximations of d, and d and better approximations of a and c based on estimation of d,= d, and d,= d,j. Improved approximations of d] and d4 are determined by the third minimisation while fixing new estimations of d dj, dj, and dj. Computed final values dj , d/, a and c , whieh are designated by a subscript c , are provided by the fourth minimisation, based on improved estimations of d, dj, dj, and d . The fifth minimisation computes final values d, , d, dj, d while the already computed dj , d/, a and c are fixed. 

Fig.3 The algorithm for sizing of cracks with complex cross-sections and unknown shapes. The five minimisation procedures are numbered consecutively.

Today the demand for inspection of components with complex geometry, difficult access conditions or location in a hazardous environment is steadily increasing. Documentation, reproducibility and minimised health risk for the inspection staff are key issues. This leads to an increased demand for automated inspection, resulting in a need for new, advanced scarmer systems for NDE. 

NDT has a very important formal status. Requirements for performanee of NDT, acceptance criteria and requirements for personnel qualification are implemented in codes and standards. The NDT procedure is part of the contract. During the many years that NDT methods have been used in industry a well-established situation has evolved, enabling the use of NDT for the evaluation of welds against Good Workmanship Criteria on a routine basis, thus maintaining workmanship standards and minimising the risks of component failure. 

In maintenance practice, we base our decisions on NDT that is performed during shutdowns. A significant amount of money could be saved if we would have NDT methods that minimise the time required for that shutdown, or, a step further, avoid it by performing inspections onstream. 

Murtagh B A and Sargent R W 1970 Computational experience with quadratically convergent minimisation methods Comput. J. 13 185... 

Fluorine cannot be prepared directly by chemical methods. It is prepared in the laboratory and on an industrial scale by electrolysis. Two methods are employed (a) using fused potassium hydrogen-fluoride, KHFj, ill a cell heated electrically to 520-570 K or (b) using fused electrolyte, of composition KF HF = 1 2, in a cell at 340-370 K which can be electrically or steam heated. Moissan, who first isolated fluorine in 1886, used a method very similar to (b) and it is this process which is commonly used in the laboratory and on an industrial scale today. There have been many cell designs but the cell is usually made from steel, or a copper-nickel alloy ( Monel metal). Steel or copper cathodes and specially made amorphous carbon anodes (to minimise attack by fluorine) are used. Hydrogen is formed at the cathode and fluorine at the anode, and the hydrogen fluoride content of the fused electrolyte is maintained by passing in... 

The structure of the metallocene cation energy minimised with the Car-Parrinello method agrees well with the experimentally obtained crystal structures of related complexes. Typical features of the structure as obtained from X-ray diffraction on crystals of very similar neutral complexes (e.g., the dichlorides), such as small differences in distances between C atoms within a cyclopentadienyl (Cp) ring, as well as differences in distances between the C atoms of the Cp ring and the Zr atom, were revealed from the simulations. 

---