Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Other Books By Norman Lieberman -- Introduction -- Part I -- Chapter One: Process Operations & Design -- Increasing Cooling Water Flow Thru an Elevated Condenser or Cooler -- Hot Vapor By-Pass Pressure Control -- Stalling a Thermosyphon Reboiler -- Optimizing Fractionator Pressure -- Adjusting Steam Turbine Speed to Minimize Steam Consumption -- Steam Condensate Drainage from Reboilers Blowing Condensate Seal -- Effect of Reflux on Fractionator Top Temperature -- Centrifugal Pump Head Vs. Flow Performance Curves -- Condensate Back-Up in Condensers-the Effect of Sub-Cooling -- Distillation Tray Downcomer Back-Up and Liquid Flooding -- Effect of foam on Level Indication in Distillation Towers -- Split Liquid Levels in Vertical Vapor -- Liquid Separators -- Optimizing Excess Air in a Fired Heater to Minimize Fuel Consumption -- Distillation Tray Dumping or Weeping with Valve Cap Tray Decks -- Fired Heater -- Tube Failures -- Low Air Flow in a Fin Fan Forced Draft Air Cooler -- Measuring Air Flow For an Aerial Fin Fan Aerial Cooler -- Measuring Cooling Tower Efficiency Approach to Wet Bulb Temperature -- Adjusting Heater Stack Damper for Optimum Energy Efficiency -- Preventing Tray Dumping by Use of Bubble Cap Trays -- Demister Fouling in Vapor-Liquid Seperator Vessels -- Effect of Temperature on Liquid Level Indication -- Draw-Off Nozzle Capacity Limits -- On-Stream Repair of Tube Leaks in Surface Condenser -- When Are Vortex Breakers Required? -- Naphtha Injection to Centrifugal Compressor -- Internal Overflow from Total Trap-Out Chimney Tray -- Vacuum Ejector -- Loose Steam Nozzle -- Effect of Tramp Air Leaks on Heater Efficiency -- Effect of a Single Fouled Tray -- Steam Turbine -- Surface Condenser Outlet Temperature -- Water Accumulation in Turbine Case -- Chapter Two: Crude Distillation How to Adjust Pumparound Flows -- How Top Reflux Rate Affects Flooding on Top Trays -- Desalter -- Adjusting Mix Valve Pressure Drop -- Causes of Tray Deck Fouling -- Minimizing Flash Zone Pressure -- How to Adjust Bottoms Stripping Steam Rate -- Overhead Condenser Corrosion -- On-Line Spalling of Crude Pre-Heat Exchangers -- Effect of Reflux on Overhead Accumulator Temperature -- Removing Trays from Pre-Flash Towers -- Total Trap-Out Chimney Tray -- Side Draw-Off Limitations -- Packed Towers -- Rules of Thumb for Packed Towers -- Controlling Ago Draw-Off Rate -- Filming Amine Plugs Overhead Vapor Line -- Stripping Tray Pressure Drop Profile -- Protecting Crude Tower Stripping Trays from Damage Due to Water in Steam -- Chapter Three: Engineering Basics -- Draft in Fired Heaters -- Turbine Exhaust Surface Condenser Outlet Temperature -- Adjusting Steam Turbine to Save Steam -- Distillation Tray Downcomer Seal -- Bernoulli's Equation -- Properties of Steam -- Measuring Flows -- Head Loss in pipelines -- Irene Explains Horsepower -- Refrigeration -- Packed Towers Vs. Trayed Towers -- Condensing Steam Turbine Exhaust -- Maximizing Lmtd in Heat Exchangers -- Chapter Four: Routine Refinery Operating Problems -- Pump Bearings Lubrication -- Pressure Measurement Problems in Vapor Lines -- Negative Pressure Drops -- Coked-Up Thermowells -- Centrifugal Compressor Surging -- Commisioning Steam Turbine -- Refrigeration Systems -- Seal Pan Drain Hole -- Measuring Steam Flow Without a Steam Meter -- Air Leak on Suction of Cooling Water Pump -- Chapter Five: Refinery Safety -- Auto-Ignition of Hydrocarbons -- Failure of Mechanical Pump Seals -- Sampling Tar Safely -- Dangers of Iron Sulfides -- H2S Fatalities -- Fired Heater -- Positive Pressure -- Refinery Explosions & Fires -- Flooding Fire Box with Fuel -- Routing Relief Valves to the Flare Isolating Equipment with Gate Valves -- Explosive Limit of Hydrogen -- Climate Change -- Danger of Carbon Steel Piping Spool Pieces -- Screwed Connections -- Dangers of Steam Deaerators -- Connecting Steam Hose to Hydrocarbon System -- Process Vessel Collapse Under Vacuum During Start-Up -- Acid Gas K.O. Drum -- Safety Note -- Part II -- Chapter Six: Pitfalls in Computer Modeling -- Basis for Process Engineering Calculations -- Underlying Assumptions in Distillation Technology -- Tray Fractionation Efficiency -- Heat Exchanger Train Performance -- Heat Exchanger Pressure Drop -- Packed Towers -- Air Coolers -- Fired Equipment -- Piping Systems -- Centrifugal Pumps -- NPSH -- Rotating Equipment -- Summary -- References -- Value of a Chemical Engineering Degree to the Process Engineer in a Refinery -- Chapter Seven: Latent Heat Transfer -- Propane-Butane Splitter Reboiler -- Heat Flux Limitations -- Chapter Eight: Hydraulics -- Fluids Other Than Water -- Rotational Energy -- Pressure Drop Through an Orifice -- Effect of Fluid Density on Orifice Pressure Drop -- Head Loss in Piping -- Factor Affecting Orifice Coefficients -- Compressible Fluids -- Chapter Nine: Air Coolers -- Measuring Air Flow -- Air Recirculation -- Vane Tip Clearance Problems -- Cleaning Tube Bundle -- Effect of Fouling on Reverse Air Flow -- Effect of Adding Rows of Tubes -- Changing Fan Blade Tips & Speed -- Slipping Belts -- Air Humidification -- Induced Draft Fans -- Chapter Ten: Extracting Work from Steam -- An Isentropic Expansion -- Steam Turbines -- The Potential Energy of Steam -- Condensing Steam at Low Pressure -- The Meaning of Entropy -- The Norm Lieberman Refinery Troubleshooting Seminar Video Presentation -- Index -- End User License Agreement.

This is not your average technical book! Using a humorous and easy-to-understand approach to solving common process engineering problems, this unique volume is the go-to guide for any veteran or novice engineer in the plant, office, or classroom. Textbooks are often too theoretical to help the average process engineer solve everyday problems in the plant, and generic handbooks are often out of date and not comprehensive. This guide focuses on the most common problems that every engineer faces and how to solve them. The "characters" walk the reader through every problem and solution step-by-step, through dialogues that literally occur every day in process plants around the world. With over half a century of experience and many books, videos, and seminars to his credit, Norm Lieberman is well-known all over the world and has helped countless companies and engineers through issues with equipment, processes, and training. This is the first time that this knowledge has appeared in a format like this, quite unlike anything ever published before in books on process engineering. This is a must-have for any engineer working in process engineering

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Includes bibliographical references and index.