Flow Control - Jan 2012
news notes trendlines Global Demand for Industrial Valves to Approach 94 Bil in 2015 Global demand for industrial valves is forecast to increase 54 percent per year through 2015 to 935 billion according to World Industrial Valves a new study from The Freedonia Group Inc freedoniagroup com The study shows gains will be driven by continuing robust growth in the Asia Pacific region as well as strong recovery in the United States and West European markets from a weak 2010 base Freedonia reports valve demand growth in the U S will outpace the global average through 2015 due to recovery in the domestic economy after the 2007 2009 recession Valve demand in Japan and Western Europe will also recover from recent declines but advances will continue to considerably lag the world average through 2015 The study predicts the oil and gas industry will see strong growth in valve demand with increasing offshore shaleand tar sand related exploration activities helping boost sales of higher end products Among the World Industrial Valve Demand million dollars countries that will record robust increases in the unconventional oil and gas sector are Brazil Canada Nigeria and the U S Freedonia says the nuclear power market for valves will see weak gains in the developed world in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan Weakness in the nuclear power generation sector will be offset by increasing valve sales to coal fired and combined cycle natural gas power plants According to Freedonia the global market for automatic valves will outpace that for conventional valves due to the continuing efforts of process manufacturers Item 2005 2010 2015 2005 Industrial Valve Demand 60620 71780 93500 34 54 North America 16050 14990 19430 14 53 Western Europe 18160 19770 21050 02 32 Asia Pacific 17270 25600 35750 82 69 Central South America 1890 3010 3740 98 44 Eastern Europe 3940 5390 7130 64 58 Africa Mideast 3310 4810 6400 78 59 to improve operational efficiencies The strongest gains will be registered in sales Annual Growth 2010 2010 2015 of separately sold automatic actuators which are used together with standard valves to allow for automated valve functions actuators pre installed The study shows conventional valves will still account for 54 percent of world valve demand in 2015 with suppliers benefiting from the lower cost of these products relative to highly engineered automatic valves As Nuclear Falls from Favor Japan Looks to Renewable Power In the midst of Japans ongoing nuclear crisis only six of Japans 54 nuclear reactors representing 12 percent of the countrys nuclear capacity will be running by the end of the year according to a report from Industrial Info Resources And by next March it is reported the countrys entire nuclear fleet will be offline However Industrial Info says The Japan Energy and Environmental Council has estimated that renewable energy areas such as solar power onshore windfarms and geothermal accountability file power stations given use of optimal locations could produce nearly 40 percent of the countrys total power generation Japans first feed in tariff FIT scheme which takes effect next summer will allow a greater influx of renewable energy projects according to Industrial Info But the FIT law is unclear in regards to rate of pay per watt and other important points pertinent to project development and existing laws could also pose a problem for companies that want to develop windfarms and are less expensive than automatic control and regulator valves with or solar power stations Industrial Info says Industrial Info also reports several of Japans regional power generation companies are planning to restart shuttered thermal power stations to help compensate for the loss of the countrys nuclear capacity It is reported that Japans thermal energy generation has increased drastically since the earthquake disaster in March with liquefied natural gas LNG imports expected to reach 80 million tons by years end In the September 2011 Quiz Corner article Calculating the Error for a Flowmeter Installed in the Wrong Size Pipe by David Spitzer page 48 the equation 1 142 182 was presented without superscripts to read 1 142 182 We regret this typographical error A corrected version of the article can be found at FlowControlNetwork com Help us make Flow Control the best if can be If you see any errors mixups or oversights whether grammatical or technical please e mail ARichardson@ GrandViewMedia com Thanks for your support think tank quiz corner Calculating the Error for a Flowmeter Installed in the Wrong size Pipe A n insertion flowmeter is specified for a 14 inch pipe What will be the approximate flow measurement error if the flowmeter is installed in an 18 inch pipe A Increase flow by 40 percent B Increase flow by 20 percent C No effect D Decrease flow by 20 percent E Decrease flow by 40 percent Commentary Estimating the internal pipe diameters to be 14 and 18 inches the fluid velocity will be approximately 40 percent 1 142 182 lower in the larger 18 inch pipe as compared to the 14 inch pipe Therefore the insertion flowmeter will tend to measure lower in the 18 inch pipe as compared to the 14 inch pipe so Answers A B and C are not correct The type of insertion flowmeter is not known It could be a linear flowmeter using vortex shedding magnetic or thermal technology that is directly affected by fluid velocity If so Answer E is approximately correct Inferential flowmeters such as a Pitot tube are nonlinearly affected by fluid velocity and would exhibit an effect approximated by Answer D Additional Complicating Factors For estimating purposes the internal pipe diameters were assumed to be 14 and 18 inches This is not correct because the inside diameter of these pipes is based not only on the pipe sizes but is also on the pipe schedules A detailed calculation would entail using the inside diameter used for calibration purposes and the actual inside diameter of the pipe where the flowmeter is installed before applying the above relationship FC by David W Spitzer David W Spitzer is a regular contributor to Flow Control with more than 35 years of experience in specifying building installing startup troubleshooting and teaching process control instrumentation Mr Spitzer has written over 10 books and 150 technical articles about instrumentation and process control including the popular Consumer Guide series that compares flowmeters by supplier Mr Spitzer is a principal in Spitzer and Boyes LLC offering engineering expert witness development marketing and distribution consulting for manufacturing and automation companies He can be reached at 845 623 1830 www spitzerandboyes com august sOLutION steam Flow Control Circle 37 or Request Info Instantly at www FlowControlNetwork com 48 September 2011 Flow Control FC 0911 DF 1 indd 48 8 25 11 1 04 PM 12 January 2012 Flow Control
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