Monday, July 19, 2010

Report – CETD Study Tour, Bintulu

The Chemical Engineering Technical Division organized a study tour to Bintulu, Sarawak on June 14th, 2010. The study group comprised of 9 people. The tour was led by Ir. Razmahwata Mohd Razalli.

The tour started at the MLNG plant. The group was met by Mr. Rhymie Rashidie Ibrahim, Corporate Affair. The IEM guests were first brought to a presentation room where a safety briefing was first conducted. A corporate video was then shown, providing an overview of the history, specifications and achievements of the MLNG project.

After getting a bird’s eye view of the facility, a slide presentation was given. It started off with an introduction to the MLNG complex, and a recap of MLNG 1-3’s history. A simplified LNG process flow diagram was then used to describe the plant’s process to the group. An introduction to the technology and use of MISC’s LNG ships was provided, along with the breakdown of LNG customers (60% of LNG is shipped to Japan, 27% Korea, 12% Taiwan, 0.9% China. 19% of Japan’s LNG is imported from Malaysia).

At the end of the presentation, a number of questions were asked, and answered by the speaker. A selection of questions asked were the usage of LNG in Malaysia, the makeup of engineers disciplines in MLNG, the mercury removal process from the gas, and MLNG’s involvement in downstream industries.

This part of the tour was concluded with a token exchange ceremony.

After refreshments, a plant tour was arranged, guided by a knowledgeable engineer. The group had the opportunity of observing the plant from the luxury of an air conditioned van. Among the sites the group visited were the nine 380 tph boilers, the gas metering station, flare tower, the cryogenic unit, the mercury removal unit, the Sulphinol process, and the LNG berthing terminal, where Putri Delima Satu was in port.

After the MLNG visit, the group then visited the ABF plant. The group was met there by Mr. Roy Thian Shin Min, Process Technologist and Ms. Suryani Dohan, PR Executive. Mr. Roy presented an introduction of the plant. Among the commercial tidbits revealed was the ownership breakdown of the plant (63.5% Malaysia, 13% Indonesia, 13% Thailand, 9.5% Philippines, 1% Singapore) and the plant’s market breakdown (30% of ammonia is sold to Thailand, 20% to Malaysia, 24% to Vietnam) . He then talked the group through a process schematic of the plant. Among the process discussed were CO2 removal using a modified Benfield process, steam reforming using NiO catalyst in tubes, and the urea process. The uses of ammonia and urea was explained to the group. The presentation ended with an overview of the plant’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Among the questions asked by the group was what biuret was, and how much CO2 was released by the plant.

This part of the tour was concluded with a token exchange ceremony, and lunch that was hosted by the ABF.

As the plant was not open for a visit at the time, the group was taken to view the plant from a vantage point on top of the Bintulu Port Authority building, where we were treated to a breath-taking view of the plant and surrounding environs.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Shout Out - Control in Biomedical Engineering

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will hosting a talk on the 12th July, 2010. It'll be at 5:30 pm (makan-makan at 5:00). You still gotta climb those steps at Wisma IEM.
...

As the use of anesthetics in operation is to loss of sensation even by painful stimulation, here a question arose is what is sufficient dosage of anesthetics for a patient during a surgery? Because an overdose of anaesthetic can result in brain injury from asphyxiation, cardiovascular injury which can cause heart attack or stroke, tracheal damage, and wrongful death.

...

Closed loop system for patient under general anesthesia and diabetes type I patient is designed. The controller design in biomedical using model-based and model-free technique is discussed. Model-based optimal closed loop clinical trial for general anesthesia is discussed.

The speaker, Dr. Syafiie has a doctorate degree from the University of Valladolid, Spain in area of system engineering and automatic control. He did post doctoral research at department of electrical energy, system and automation collaborated with department of anesthesia and university hospital at Ghent University, Belgium. His project was development and clinical validation of a MIMO model-based predictive closed-loop system to guide patient-individualized ICU sedation.

Dr. S Syafiie has published several articles in area of model-free and model based control engineering and image processing. His current post is senior lecturer at department of chemical and environmental engineering at university putra malaysia.




You can obtain a brochure here. Flyers for the above and other events may be obtained here. A map to Wisma IEM is presented here.

Monday, June 14, 2010

REPORT - “USE OF ORGANIC MATTER FROM AGRO-INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES IN MALAYSIA: POTENTIAL, TECHNOLOGIES AND PERSPECTIVES”

A Technical Talk was organised by the Chemical Engineering Technical Division (CETD) entitled “Use of organic matter from agro-industrial processes in Malaysia: Potential, Technologies and Perspectives” on 13th May 2010 at C&S Lecture Room, 2nd Floor of Wisma IEM. The talk was delivered by Reza Dzulkiflee and Baptise Kervyn. Ten (10) members attended the talk.

The talk started with Mr Baptiste Kervyn introducing why organic matter management was required and important. He raised an important topic on Organic Matter (OM) cycle which was long being forgotten. He also discussed the Malaysian agriculture industry and explained how agriculture has impacted the environment and energy of Malaysia. Next, he raised another important point for the audience to ponder about, i.e. what is the relationship between agriculture, environment and energy, and how to maintain the sustainability. The answer was through a proper OM management system. He then highlighted some tools in OM management, which include energy generation from wastewater, composting, ferti-irrigation. An integration of all these tools is illustrated using a few case studies from palm oil and sugar cane milling industries. Mr Reza Dzulkiflee discussed further in detail on the biogas generation from wastewater. He focused on the case studies in South America and Malaysia. Finally, interesting conclusions were drawn by Mr Baptiste. The talk ended with a Q&A session at about 6.45 pm. On behalf of the Chemical Engineering Technical Division, Ir. Razmahwata Mohd Razalli presented a token of appreciation to Reza Dzulkiflee and Baptise Kervyn.

Reported by,


Engr Dr Chong Mei Fong

Monday, June 7, 2010

IEM Shout Out – Miri / ABF / MLNG Visit

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will hosting a visit to the Asean Bintulu Fertilizer (ABF) and Malaysian Liquefied Natural Gas (MLNG) on on the 13th and 14th June, 2010. You will be awarded with 3.5 CPD points.



Flyer for Bintulu visit- 14 June 2010

Flyers for the above and other events may be obtained here.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Publications -

One committee member, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ir. Dominic, has provided some links to his papers written on his areas of interest. These are:

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Report - Eco Towns for Asia

A Technical Talk was organised by the Chemical Engineering Technical Division (CETD) entitled “Ecotowns for Asia” on 24th Nov 2009 at C&S Lecture Room, 2nd Floor of Wisma IEM. The talk was conducted by Mr Joe Eades, the Vice Chairman for the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE - Singapore Branch). Twenty-three (23) IEM members and 1 non-member attended the workshop.

The talk started at 5.30 pm. The talk began identifying what are the key issues facing us today for sustainable development, then proposing a solution in the form of a sustainable town development that combines green build techniques with an integrated decentralized infrastructure system. This would lead to a reduction net electrical consumption for a town by 80%, a net reduction in potable water consumption by 60%, then by integrating energy from waste technology, can reduce the landfill significantly as well as reduce the carbon footprint. On top of this closing the loops also become a net generator of food. This can be done economically using currently available and proven technology. This radical new approach when applied will provide power, water and food security for this region which soon will be facing huge challenges from population growth, urban migration as well as the potential loss in arable land due to global warming over the next 40 years.

The workshop concluded at 6.45 pm.

Reported by,
Engr Assoc Prof Dr Dominic C. Y. Foo

Monday, May 10, 2010

Shout Out - Use of Organic Matter from Agro-Industrial Processes in Malaysia

This is a shout out for the IEM. The Chemical Engineering Technical Division will hosting a talk on the 13th May, 2010. It'll be at 5:30 pm (makan-makan at 5:00).
Malaysia is one of the leading countries in agricultural-based industries in the ASEAN region. Many industrial processes are used in the chain of agro-based industries. ... There are several technologies available to manage the organic matters from the processes
...
Two speakers will be making the presentation. The first speaker is Mr. Reza Dzulkiflee, who is a Mechanical Engineer by qualification. Currently he is the Operation Manager of BIOTEC. The second speaker is Mr. Baptiste Kervyn who is an Agronomical Engineer. He is the CEO of BIOTEC.
Get the form here.  Flyers for the above and other events may be obtained here. A map to Wisma IEM is presented here. It's the building identified as 'Puteri Nursing College.'

Thursday, May 6, 2010

IEM 2010 Young Engineer Award

Congratulations to Ir. Dr Dominic Foo Chwan Yee for being conferred the award.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

IEM Journal - Special Edition

The December 2009 edition of the Journal focused on Chemical Engineering achievements. You may download a copy of the Journal for the IEM site.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

CETD - Most Improved Technical Division, 2009

The Chemical Engineering Technical Division has been awarded the Most Improved Technical Division for 2009. The Award consists of:
  • A certificate
  • An appreciation dinner
  • Presentation of the Award during the 2010 IEM Annual Dinner, which was held on Saturday night on 17th April, 2010 at the Sime Darby Convention Centre.
Congratulations to the committee members who made the award possible.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

IEM Shout Out - Visit to SGL Carbon Sdn Bhd

This is a shout out for the IEM. My Technical Division will be organising a visit to SGL Carbon on April 24th, 2010.
SGL Group – THE CARBON COMPANY – is the largest producer of carbon and graphite products worldwide. The business portfolio of SGL Group consists of three Business Areas which are Performance Products (BA PP), Graphite Materials & Systems (BA GMS) and Carbon Fiber and Composite (BA CFC) respectively

...

The purpose of this visit is to have an overview of the integrated production processes for graphite electrode and graphitized cathode and the high level of engineering and technology employed in the project which is currently in its Phase 2.
Flyers for the above and other events may be obtained here.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Report - How to Maximise the Potential of Water Reuse/ Recycle

A Technical Talk was organised by the Chemical Engineering Technical Division (CETD) entitled “How to maximise the potential of water reuse/recycle” on 6th August 2009 at C&S Lecture Room, 2nd Floor of Wisma IEM. The talk was delivered by Associate Professor Ir Dr Dominic Foo. Sixteen (16) members attended the talk.

The speaker started the talk by showing some relevant data on domestic water consumption followed by examples of water usage in chemical processing plants. The speaker then deliberated numerous water recycling options available using an industrial case study. It was emphasized that without a systematic method, it is extremely difficult to identify cost effectiveness of water recovery schemes. The speaker then presented a graphical plot in water pinch analysis technique, i.e. the composite curves to identify the maximum water recovery potential in a process plant. The technique identifies the minimum fresh water needed as well as minimum wastewater that can be generated for the process, prior to the detailed network design. Several Malaysian case studies were also presented and as usual, the talk ended with a Q&A session at about 6.45 pm. On behalf of IEM’s Chemical Engineering Technical Division, Engr Hj. Tunai Shamsidi Bin Ahmad presented a token of appreciation to Associate Professor Ir Dr Dominic Foo and thanked him for his very informative talk.

Reported by,
Engr Hj. Tunai Shamsidi Bin Ahmad

Monday, April 5, 2010

Report - Industrial Drying

In conjunction with the IEM Engineering Week, Chemical Engineering Technical Division (CETD) organised a technical talk entitled “Industrial Drying” on 21 April 2009 at IEM Auditorium, 3rd Floor, Wisma IEM, Petaling Jaya. The talk was delivered by Associate Professor Ir Dr Law Chung Lim. 13 Members attended the talk.

Ir Dr Law stated that there are over 400 dryer types cited in the technical literature. However only about 50 types are commonly found in practice. As such, proper selection of dryer is an important topic to industrial drying. Dryer selection has long been practiced as an art rather than science depending more on prior experience and vendors’ recommendations. As drying technologies have evolved and become more diverse and complex, this has become an increasingly difficult and demanding task for the non-expert. Ir Dr Law discussed various aspects related to the selection of industrial and topics which are important to the selection and classification of industrial dryer.

Q&A session was followed after the technical talk. The whole session ended at 7.10 pm.

Reported by,

Associate Professor Ir Dr Dominic Foo

Monday, March 29, 2010

Report - Visit to Malaysia Energy Centre (PTM)

Summary

A visit to Malaysia Energy Centre (Pusat Tenaga Malaysia - PTM) at Bandar Baru Bangi was successfully held by the Chemical Engineering Technical Division (CETD) on 19 March 2009, with a total of 37 participants. The group departed from IEM at 2.30 pm and arrived at PTM at 3.15 pm. A talk was then given by PTM on its various activities on energy planning, energy efficiency, as well as research and development. This is followed by a visit around the Zero Energy Office (ZEO) Building, the main building where PTM is situated. The visit was completed by 5.15 pm and the group returned to IEM by 5.30 pm.

Overview of ZEO Building

ZEO Building is the main administration and research building for PTM. It is a demonstrator building which promotes sustainable building concept, where energy efficiency and renewable energy are demonstrated. The ZEO building was designed to be energy efficient, with an energy index of 35 - 40 kWh/m2.year, compared to a typical office building in Kuala Lumpur of 250 to 300 kWh/m2.year. In principle, the energy consumption of the building is balanced by its renewable power generation system. The building demonstrates that the ZEO concept can be realised using readily available technology while making use of an environment where solar generated electricity and daylight are plentiful.

The building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) panels are integrated into the building design such that it is both architecturally and aesthetically pleasing, besides providing the electricity needs for the building users. This BIPV system is connected to the national electricity grid by feeding electricity into the network and shaving the peak power demand of the grid during the peak daylight hours.


Reported by

Assoc Prof Ir Dr Dominic Foo
Chemical Engineering Technical Division