Shift Engineers

The Shift Managers and Shift Engineers are positions not commonly found in startups. When a fast startup is imperative and is complex technically, these positions can add considerable value. 

Shift Engineers are usually selected from the manufacturing organization. Depending on the size of the new facility, one to three per shift will be useful. Their prime responsibility is to provide close technical support for the supervisors and operators. They will also assist the Step Specialists by continuing and watching any tests or startup activities begun by the Specialists. This also permits the Step Specialist to go home and rest. 

This is the biggest enemy of a successful startup. Shift managers and shift engineers will allow the non-shift personnel to leave at night. The consecutive working hour rule must be rigorously enforced. Recommend that no more than 16 consecutive hours out of 24 and no more than 80 hours in a seven day week. 

The line of defence concerning inadvertent re-supply to the JML power cabinets (administrative lockout G21) did not avoid the event as a result of the authorisation to remove padlocking issued by the shift engineer... 

All Shift Engineers and industrial staff work on a five-shift cycle, which allows for some additional shift staff to provide cover for sickness, leave, or training. 

For the Shift Engineers assigned to the different positions mentioned above, the training is identical. However, the higher positions on shift are filled with engineers with extra experience and technical ability. 

In UK power stations the practice is to engage only persons with professional engineer or technician status for positions of Shift Engineer or Reactor Desk Operators. 

We were on a day shift. Day shifts were hard work - aU the non-shift engineers would be in and out of the control room badgering the shift team for information, and there would be meetings to attend in the administration building. There was lots of hassle. 

About 15 min after the fire started (at approx. 12 35 p.m.), a siren alarm sounded to warn personnel in the cable-spreading room to evacuate because the permanently installed CO2 Cardox fire-extinguishing system was to be actuated. This system flushes the room with enough CO2 to displace most of the oxygen required for the survival of the personnel. After the room was evacuated, an assistant shift engineer attempted to actuate the Cardox system... 

The assistant shift engineer left the area and called the Athens Fire Dept, at 1 09 p.m. The fire truck arrived at 1 30 p.m., and, by 1 45 p.m., seven firemen had been admitted to the plant and were prepared to assist in fighting the fire but in support of, and under the direction of, Browns Ferry personnel. It has been stated that there appears to have been no central organized direction of the fire-fighting efforts i.i the reactor building between approximately 1 00 p.m. and 4 20 p.m. However, it should be noted that the ventilation system was lost at 12 45p.m. 

Laser Doppler Velocimeters. Laser Doppler flow meters have been developed to measure Hquid or gas velocities in both open and closed conduits. Velocity is measured by detecting the frequency shift in the light scattered by natural or added contaminant particles in the flow. Operation is conceptually analogous to the Doppler ultrasonic meters. Laser Doppler meters can be appHed to very low flows and have the advantage of sensing at a distance, without mechanical contact or interaction. The technique has greatest appHcation in open-flow studies such as the deterrnination of engine exhaust velocities and ship wake characteristics. 

D. Kitchen, A. Pinto, and H. Van-Praag, "ICI s Operating Experience with Shift Catalyst at Low Steam to Carbon Ratios," AIChE Ammonia Safety Symposium, Denver, Colo., Aug. 22—24, 1988, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, 1989. 

Limited Data First, plant data are limited. Unfortunately, those easiest to obtain are not necessarily the most useful. In many cases, the measurements that are absolutely required for accurate model development are unavailable. For those that are available, the sensitivity of the parameter estimate, model evaluation, and/or subsequent conclusion to a particiilar measurement may be very low. Design or control engineers seldom look at model development as the primaiy reason for placing sensors. Further, because equipment is frequently not operated in the intended region, the sensitive locations in space and time have shifted. Finally, because the cost-effectiveness of measurements can be difficult to justify, many plants are underinstru-mented. 

Please notice that in a well-ventilated laboratory and a pressure cell, these experiments can be executed safely. In seven years of graduate research activity at the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Akron, only one catalyst ignition and one real CO alarm occurred. Several false CO alarms were sounded until someone noticed that they always happened about 2 30 PM. As it turned out, one maintenance employee parked his old car right in front of the air intake to the lab ventilation. He warmed up his car for a while before he started to go home after his shift, and the motor exhaust gas set off the false alarms. 

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