Maintenance costs, as defined by normal plant accounting procedures, are normally a major portion of the total operating costs in most plants. Traditional maintenance costs (i.e. labor and material) in the U. S. have escalated at a tremendous rate over the past 10 years. In 1981, domestic plants spent more than $600 Billion to maintain their critical plant systems. By 1991, the costs had increa...

Urban land-use planning in the U.S. has traditionally been bas ed on the Euclidean zoning model, the separation of land uses. The long-term impacts of this development pattern, often termed “urban sprawl”, have been a continued source of controversy (1). This research determines if expert opinion regarding sprawl’s negative effects, specifically, that regarding the public/ private capital and o...

The technical equipment developed and used in both installation and operation processes in refineries, oil and gas pipelines, and gas booster stations has always been expensive. Hence, managers at different organizational levels are keen to find methods to control and reduce these costs. Generally speaking, the operators in a gas booster station choose the operating devices without considering ...

This report presents a cost analysis of Polymer Grade (PG) Propylene production from ethylene and raffinate-2 using a metathesis process. The process examined is similar to CB&I Lummus Technology's Olefins Conversion Technology (OCT). In this process, Polymer Grade Propylene is produced through a metathesis reaction of ethylene with 2-butene, present in raffinate-2 feedstock. This report examin...

The potential benefits of optimal service scheduling for cleaning heat exchangers based on minimizing operating costs are explored. A demonstration is performed on a simulated 20 ton air-to-air vapor compression air conditioner. The costs of regular service schedules (indicative of current practice), minimal schedules needed to maintain comfort, and the optimal schedules are compared. Generally...

2 Introduction How can the productivity of a plant with a high level of automation be increased even further? Surveys have indicated that plant operators in all sectors consider increased availability and shorter downtimes to be the most effective lever toward increasing productivity. Investigations have shown that downtimes are frequently the result of insufficient maintenance – despite the fa...