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.
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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.

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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.