March 2019 | Vol. 3
5 Things You Need To Know
Bringing You The Latest Industry News
FEATURED THIS MONTH
- PSS Registration is Open – 2
- What’s so Great About the PSS? – 3
- Combined Cycle Power – 4
- The Early Days of ECI – 5
- The Future of Oil – 6
Welcome To Our Monthly Newsletter!
In this month’s issue of “5 Things You Need to Know”, we’ll dive into our current Process Solutions Summit, as well as the history of this event: how and why it started. Also featured includes a spotlight on Combined Cycle Power, the first part of a mini-series celebrating our 50th Anniversary, and the future of oil!
PSS Registration is Now Open!
Join us on May 22nd for a day filled with 36 educational courses, an all-day trade show exhibition, hands-on demos of the PTU, and much more!
Registration for this year’s Process Solutions Summit (PSS) officially opened last week and the registrations have been flooding in! This year’s PSS will be a one-day event held on May 22nd and will feature 30 educational courses, an all-day trade show exhibition, hands-on demos of the PTU, and much more!
In celebration of our 50th Anniversary, the PSS will be our biggest yet with 36 educational courses (the most we’ve ever offered!) covering a wide variety of topics including industry trends, new products, and innovative solutions. Each course will be taught by an industry/product expert.
The PSS also features all-day hands-on demos of our PTU (Process Training Unit) where you will have the ability to demo products found in real-life process plants and refineries. In addition, an all-day trade show will showcase the various products/services by our
manufacturing partners – including brand new product innovations!
As an added bonus this year, we’ll be hosting REXA’s demo trailer and Endress+Hauser’s Calibration trailer onsite for additional opportunities for you to get hands-on with the latest technologies.
Complimentary refreshments, breakfast, lunch, and a networking happy hour are also included!
Courses fill up quickly, so make sure you don’t miss your chance to sign up now so you don’t miss your favorites!
Keep up with the latest news on the PSS by following us on social media!
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What’s so Great About the PSS?
You’ve seen us advertise the PSS (Process Solutions Summit), but what exactly is it and how does it benefit you?
So you’ve seen us advertise the PSS. Great! But what is it, and why should you consider attending? To answer that, we need to start from the beginning!
In September, 2015, ECI was appointed the exclusive representative and authorized service provider for Endress+Hauser. In addition to this, ECI became the new home for Endress+Hauser’s Philadelphia-area PTU™ (Process Training Unit). The PTU™ is a fully-functioning automation unit outfitted with the latest industry-renown process instruments, control valves, gas & flame detection devices, and much more.
With the PTU™ came the opportunity to provide training for engineers, technicians, and operators. It also was the inspiration we needed to create the PSS!
The PSS originated in 2016 as a way to bring customers in to our facility and incorporate the PTU™ in a day full of training opportunities.
We brought in dozens of industry experts from our manufacturing partners to provide useful, thought-provoking content in over 30 educational courses.
Course offerings generally range from trending industry innovations to the latest product technologies. Regardless of the course topic, our goal is to ensure customers learn something new.
Three years later after its debut, the PSS has evolved into a full-day packed not only with more courses than ever before (36!), but with a trade show exhibition showcasing the latest products from some of the industry’s most respected manufacturers. We’ve also dedicated an outdoor space for our manufacturing partner, REXA, and their mobile demo trailer featuring the latest innovations in actuator technology!
The PSS is a great way to sharpen your skill set.
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Combined Cycle Power
The flexibility of combined cycle power plants using air and water as the working fluids provides efficient, reliable, and economic power. Read more below!
With market demands continuing to point towards renewable energy for power generation, it’s become critical to shift focus to more environmentally-friendly options. Combined cycle power utilizing gas turbine (Brayton Cycle) and the steam system (Rankine Cycle) combat against the harmful coal fired emissions worldwide. These types of plants compliment the growing renewable energy market, as they are able to come on line and shutdown quickly.
Luckily, with more than 20 years of experience in the Combined Cycle Power market, REXA offers high-quality, low/no maintenance Electraulic™ Actuators. These actuators have proven to work in some of the most critical and difficult applications within the industry including:
- Turbine Bypass Systems
- Feedwater control
- Fuel oil/fuel gas valves
- Inlet guide vanes
- Water injection valves
- Attemperator spray valves
In Combined Cycle Power plants, one of the most crucial systems needing increased on-line availability is the Steam Turbine Bypass System. Commonly used for startup, shutdown, and steam turbine trips, these systems are required to perform in low load and simple cycle operations.
In regards to turbine bypass systems, REXA offers a rugged, responsive, and repeatable solution. Designed for continuous modulating service, REXA’s Electraulic™ Actuation can provide significant savings due to decreased ramp-up and ramp-down times (up to 25%), leading to reduced off line fuel usage, as well as substantial yearly savings.
To learn more about REXA’s solutions for Combined Cycle power plants, click here to read the full whitepaper!
Combined cycle plants are a lethal weapon against coal fired emissions.
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The Early Days of ECI
In celebration of our 50th Anniversary, let’s take a look at some of the most notable events in ECI’s history!
As you may already know, this year is Eastern Controls’ 50th Anniversary! In celebration, we wanted to share some notable parts of our history with you throughout the year. In this piece, we’ll dive into the very beginning of ECI and discuss how the decisions made then shaped our company into who we are today!
Founded in 1969, ECI’s headquarters opened its doors in Ardmore, PA spearheaded by Cliff McLaughlin Sr., John Bravacos, and Richard “Dick” Bright with our first manufacturing partner – Masoneilan. Equipped with their Masoneilan Valve Sizing Slide Rules, the group began making sales calls featuring Masoneilan’s “Valve of the Future”, the CAMFLEX valve.
Within that first year, Ed O’Brien, President of O’Brien Corp., introduced ECI to O’Brien’s heat transfer expertise. Over a handshake, ECI began representing a line of products dedicated to insulating process equipment for petrochemical,
refining, pulp & paper, power and many other industries.
After the first few years, ECI began experiencing exponential growth. This lead to the purchase of a second office in Towson, MD to support a growing customer base in and around the Baltimore, MD and Washington D.C areas. In addition, ECI headquarters moved to Wayne, PA due to a need for more warehouse space, allowing for continued expansion in the future.
Stay tuned for next month’s edition of 5 Things You Need to Know as we dive into how the 1980s and 1990s were pivotal in shaping us into who we are today!
Check out Part 1 of our 3-part dive into ECI’s history!
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The Future of Oil
With gasoline demand and consumption expected to continually decrease, crude-to-chemicals complexes could start dominating the petrochemical industry by the 2020s.
In an article on C&EN, the future of oil is apparently in chemicals, not fuels – with crude-to-chemicals complexes forecast to dominate the petrochemical industry as early as the 2020s. So how is this possible?
The driver seems to be the declining demand for gasoline and other fuels. In contrast, the petrochemical sector still has room to grow and can capitalize on the declining demand for fuels. Oil companies and engineering firms have already noticed and are installing new equipment and even designing new processes to seize on this growing trend.
This trend is growing stronger every day, but that doesn’t mean this shift won’t have consequences. The larger scale of a refinery compared with a chemical plant means existing petrochemical markets could become overwhelmed.
Oil companies are willing to take this risk, though. In Yanbu, a renown industrial town
in Saudi Arabia, two Saudi state-owned firms (oil company Saudi Aramco and petrochemical company Sabic) are planning an oils-to-chemicals project. The partners expect to have a facility making 9 million metric tons (t) of petrochemicals directly from 400,000 barrels (bbl) per day of Arabian light crude oil. Over 45% of the Yanbu facility will be chemicals – significantly higher than the 5-20% rate most refineries are at.
“The tremendous growth in chemicals demand provides us with a fantastic window of opportunity – but such windows by their very nature offer maximum benefit only to those who act quickly.” – Amin H. Nasser, Aramco CEO
