Sean Moran's Blog, page 20
July 19, 2018
Proofreading Process Plant Design
I'm on Rev 4 of my updating of "An Applied Guide to Process and Plant Design", which will become the second edition, published around this time next year.
It normally takes me seven to nine revisions to get to a finished manuscript. Writing a first draft is relatively trivial. It's the rewriting that takes the time.
It normally takes me seven to nine revisions to get to a finished manuscript. Writing a first draft is relatively trivial. It's the rewriting that takes the time.
July 13, 2018
Expert Witness Water and Drainage Engineer
A few expert witness enquiries this week, mostly to do part 35 reports on drainage issues. These are usually pretty basic from an engineering point of view, but I'm happy to do them. I often get a big expert witness job to do over summer, but these are all fairly small.
Mainly this week, I have been getting into the final specification of the new bespoke treatment plant for my commercial analytical laboratory client. Had a site visit on Wednesday to meet suppliers and installers.
Mainly this week, I have been getting into the final specification of the new bespoke treatment plant for my commercial analytical laboratory client. Had a site visit on Wednesday to meet suppliers and installers.
July 6, 2018
Engineering Consultant : Detailed Design Procurement and Commissioning of Commercial Effluent Treatment Plants
My main work this week has been making preparations to procure that new effluent treatment plant for my long standing commercial client.
The Environment Agency have been very helpful, and I now have a revised consent to discharge which fits the site, and have designed a plant to fit the revised consent.
All that remains now is to make sure that we have recommended suppliers for all of eth kit, and an installation contractor to put it all in place. I'm meeting suppliers on site next week to finalise that, and procurement should follow soon after.
Commissioning wont take place until the autumn though, due to long lead time on the main process units.
In the meantime I have enquiries to deal with from Malaysia, West and South Africa, Pakistan, (and less exotically), Ireland for various water process engineering services.
The Environment Agency have been very helpful, and I now have a revised consent to discharge which fits the site, and have designed a plant to fit the revised consent.
All that remains now is to make sure that we have recommended suppliers for all of eth kit, and an installation contractor to put it all in place. I'm meeting suppliers on site next week to finalise that, and procurement should follow soon after.
Commissioning wont take place until the autumn though, due to long lead time on the main process units.
In the meantime I have enquiries to deal with from Malaysia, West and South Africa, Pakistan, (and less exotically), Ireland for various water process engineering services.
July 3, 2018
Buy Direct
You can buy my books direct from me at around half list price here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/expertengi...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/expertengi...
June 29, 2018
June 14, 2018
Troubleshooting Effluent Treatment : Expert Witness
I've had a few more expert witness enquiries this week for sewage and drainage related problems. I've also been finalising the design and pricing of a novel trade effluent treatment plant. I'm not in favour of any more novelty than is strictly necessary, but in this particular application, it seems as if it might be necessary.
June 7, 2018
New IChemE Book by Chemical Engineer Sean Moran
My new IChemE /Elsevier book was published this week. I have made a start on updating the first book I wrote for the Institution of Chemical Engineers, which will probably be my last, as I resigned from the IChemE earlier in the year, unhappy with their direction of travel.
New Water Treatment Plant Design Book Published
An Applied Guide to Water and Effluent Treatment Plant Design
“When gone am I, the last of the Jedi, will you be…Pass on what you have learned”-Yoda
None of us knows everything about anything and all of us know more than any of us. There are however certain things that every competent engineer in a discipline or subdiscipline needs to know. When I write my books, I usually make sure that I have captured all of these things by recruiting a large number of professional chemical engineering designers to help review the content.
This worked well for my previous books on general process plant design and layout, but when I came to my latest book on my own area of specialism, water and effluent treatment, I had a problem. Instead of my usual hundreds of volunteer reviewers, I had less than five! Neither was I granted permission to use many of the edge-of-public-domain sources I wanted to use. I don’t know if this is because the book deals not in generalities, but in what appear to be jealously guarded secrets of experienced designers, because the water industry is particularly secretive, or for some other reason, but I was more or less on my own with this one. Luckily, I have almost thirty years of experience in the sector and I have talked to many other specialists during that time, so I got my consultation in first with this one.
Whatever the reason, it seems that this book contains information which people would rather remained obscure. Much of it was originally obtained from those old geezers who carry the memory of engineering companies past and present in their heads, on multiply-photocopied bits of paper in their filing cabinets, and in obscure out of print books and papers off the radar of academia on their shelves.
Joe Bonem calls these old geezers “the voice at the end of the corridor” or somesuch. They are the source of much real engineering knowledge. They were certainly the source of much of mine, and I suppose I am now one of those old geezers myself.
The book is not a perfect substitute for access to a master of the discipline, but it will at least provide the key information that such access gives you: quick ways to rough up a design in the absence of proper design information, the ability to apply a sanity check to the result of more sophisticated design methods, some knowledge of classic beginners’ mistakes to avoid, and ways to plug the gaps in existing public domain literature.
“When gone am I, the last of the Jedi, will you be…Pass on what you have learned”-Yoda
None of us knows everything about anything and all of us know more than any of us. There are however certain things that every competent engineer in a discipline or subdiscipline needs to know. When I write my books, I usually make sure that I have captured all of these things by recruiting a large number of professional chemical engineering designers to help review the content.
This worked well for my previous books on general process plant design and layout, but when I came to my latest book on my own area of specialism, water and effluent treatment, I had a problem. Instead of my usual hundreds of volunteer reviewers, I had less than five! Neither was I granted permission to use many of the edge-of-public-domain sources I wanted to use. I don’t know if this is because the book deals not in generalities, but in what appear to be jealously guarded secrets of experienced designers, because the water industry is particularly secretive, or for some other reason, but I was more or less on my own with this one. Luckily, I have almost thirty years of experience in the sector and I have talked to many other specialists during that time, so I got my consultation in first with this one.
Whatever the reason, it seems that this book contains information which people would rather remained obscure. Much of it was originally obtained from those old geezers who carry the memory of engineering companies past and present in their heads, on multiply-photocopied bits of paper in their filing cabinets, and in obscure out of print books and papers off the radar of academia on their shelves.
Joe Bonem calls these old geezers “the voice at the end of the corridor” or somesuch. They are the source of much real engineering knowledge. They were certainly the source of much of mine, and I suppose I am now one of those old geezers myself.
The book is not a perfect substitute for access to a master of the discipline, but it will at least provide the key information that such access gives you: quick ways to rough up a design in the absence of proper design information, the ability to apply a sanity check to the result of more sophisticated design methods, some knowledge of classic beginners’ mistakes to avoid, and ways to plug the gaps in existing public domain literature.
May 31, 2018
Expert Troubleshooting Package Plant Problems
I have had cause before to write about problems with package sewage treatment plants, and the companies who supply, install and maintain them, based on long experience as a troubleshooter and expert witness.
I'm presently finalising the detailed design of a commercial effluent treatment system which uses a packaged plant as the biological stage, and it seems that nothing has improved since I last looked at things.
It seems the market is still dominated by salesmen whose only technical support seems to be from former tanker drivers who have done a 3-day package plant maintenance course. Calling a monkey a senior engineer doesn't make it so, I'm afraid.
Many of these "senior engineers" and their managers have been sharing their half-baked opinions with me and my client in a tone which makes it clear that they consider themselves experts. All I have learned from these exchanges is how so many people I meet are so confused about what they need. These know-nothings are so sure of themselves, but they are so frequently wrong.
To list a few of the falsehoods I have recently had presented forcefully to me as fact:
Businesses do NOT have a right to discharge trade effluent to sewer if the business is long established. A right like this might have been established with respect to purely domestic sewage, but there is no right to discharge trade effluent.
Peristaltic dosing pumps are NOT generally speaking more reliable and lower maintenance than piston pumps.
There is no magic liquid additive which can get a biological treatment plant to produce compliant effluent if its aeration system is not functional.
It is almost universally the case that there are no experts working at package plant supply and installation companies. The experts who designed the plants do not work there any more, if they ever did. I designed a series of these plants once. It was a design-only contract for a consumer product, and this is the normal case. The designers have made them idiot proof, which has given some idiots the idea that they understand them, but they do not. They actively misunderstand them.
If you want expert advice, see an independent like me. Salesmen and tanker drivers are not professional engineers, whatever their job title. Their advice is neither expert nor unbiased. Caveat emptor!
I'm presently finalising the detailed design of a commercial effluent treatment system which uses a packaged plant as the biological stage, and it seems that nothing has improved since I last looked at things.
It seems the market is still dominated by salesmen whose only technical support seems to be from former tanker drivers who have done a 3-day package plant maintenance course. Calling a monkey a senior engineer doesn't make it so, I'm afraid.
Many of these "senior engineers" and their managers have been sharing their half-baked opinions with me and my client in a tone which makes it clear that they consider themselves experts. All I have learned from these exchanges is how so many people I meet are so confused about what they need. These know-nothings are so sure of themselves, but they are so frequently wrong.
To list a few of the falsehoods I have recently had presented forcefully to me as fact:
Businesses do NOT have a right to discharge trade effluent to sewer if the business is long established. A right like this might have been established with respect to purely domestic sewage, but there is no right to discharge trade effluent.
Peristaltic dosing pumps are NOT generally speaking more reliable and lower maintenance than piston pumps.
There is no magic liquid additive which can get a biological treatment plant to produce compliant effluent if its aeration system is not functional.
It is almost universally the case that there are no experts working at package plant supply and installation companies. The experts who designed the plants do not work there any more, if they ever did. I designed a series of these plants once. It was a design-only contract for a consumer product, and this is the normal case. The designers have made them idiot proof, which has given some idiots the idea that they understand them, but they do not. They actively misunderstand them.
If you want expert advice, see an independent like me. Salesmen and tanker drivers are not professional engineers, whatever their job title. Their advice is neither expert nor unbiased. Caveat emptor!
May 27, 2018
An Applied Guide to Water and Effluent Treatment Plant Design
UK Release date for An Applied Guide to Water and Effluent Treatment Plant Design still June 1st, though US/Worldwide is a week or two later for some reason.
