Category: Blog

Blog posts including links to news, useful websites, pictures, documents et al

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Coordinate Systems

Understanding coordinate systems is important in some development engineering studies.

We use Google Earth Pro to study development concepts (e.g. plot locations and pipeline routes). Google Earth shows coordinates as lats/longs or UTMs. Google Earth is available for free download here.

In offshore engineering lats/longs and UTMs are generally used. In onshore engineering national systems are used.

Conversions between systems are complex. Software is available. We use an excellent web-based tool called The World Coordinate Converter. Find it here.

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Logos

For us, a logo has never been particularly important. But we needed one on stationery and a website. The logos on the left below were provided by a low cost online service. We didn’t like them so we made our own. The company was formed to do projects from an office in Pendeen, Cornwall. We wanted a Cornish theme and used a tin mine engine house photo to create a logo in the black and white colours of the Cornish flag. It didn’t cost anything. It wasn’t a great logo but served us well for many years. Recently, we decided to refresh our branding and used MS WORD to produce a series of very simple logos which could be used for different divisions. These are the logos we use today. Finally, as I was writing this post, I came across across BrandCrowd.com. It’s is a cool site which generates numerous logo ideas including the t-shirt below.

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What Happened to ESI?

Back in the day, jobbing oil & gas process engineers used a handy GWBASIC utility called ESI. It was written in 1984 by Engineering Software Inc and supported to 1988. The start screen looked like this:

I used the utility on PC’s running Windows for years. Then in 2015, Microsoft released Windows 10 which did not support GWBASIC. As a result, I lost access to ESI.

A few years ago, I discovered a free, cross-platform emulator for the GW-BASIC family of interpreters called PC-BASIC. I installed it on my PC running Windows 10 and now Windows 11 and it works.

I am able to use use ESI once again.

Follow this link to download PC-BASIC by Rob Hagemans.

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Project Management Software

We use a number of commercial software solutions in project management. In this article we discuss tools for scheduling, task management and business diagrams.

Scheduling We have used MS Project for many years for developing and managing schedules and resources. In recent months we have looked at alternatives including Project Libre (a free, open-source application) and Project Plan 365 (a subscription-based application very similar to and compatible with MS Project). We have concluded that MS Project remains the best application for us and we have upgraded to MS Project Professional 2021. We also use Office Timeline (a Powerpoint add-in) which produces very nice looking GANTT charts and can interface with MS Project. Milestones Professional is an interesting and more powerful alternative to Office Timeline which we are considering for future use.

Task Management We are currently trialling ClickUp (the latest version 3.0) which is a sophisticated task management tool for projet teams. There are many similar tools out there (e.g. Trello, Monday, ATMS). But we like ClickUp. The pricing model includes a very usable free tier. The interface is highly configurable. We expect that Click-up will become an integral part of our working practise.

Business Diagrams We use MS Visio Professional 2021 for creating business diagrams including organisation charts, flow charts mindmaps et al. It is easy to use and there are literally thousands of customisable shapes out there. There are lower cost alternatives (e.g. My Draw) but we continue to like Visio.

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Energy News & Information

There is so much energy news and information available on the web. The graphic below shows some of our favourite sources.

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CAD Software

Many years ago I wrote an HP41C program to calculate pipeline routing parameters. I was pleased with it until I realised that simple 2D CAD software (e.g. Autosketch) was a better tool.

There are numerous CAD packages available today. We use an open-source 2D CAD product called QCAD. It’s a powerful tool and excellent for most of our applications (e.g. field development layouts, pipeline routing studies, etc).

Download it here and try it.

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Process Simulation Software

Process simulation software packages such as Aspen Technology’s Aspen HYSYS are used to mathematically model chemical processes, from unit operations to chemical plants and refineries. They are able to perform chemical engineering calculations concerned with mass balance, energy balance, phase equilibrium, heat transfer, mass transfer, chemical kinetics, fractionation, pressure drops and more. HYSYS is used extensively in industry and academia for steady-state and dynamic simulation, process design, performance modelling, and optimization.

An open source alternative to HYSYS is DWSIM. DWSIM is an open source chemical process simulator for Windows, Linux and macOS  and features a Graphical User Interface, advanced thermodynamic calculations, reactions support and petroleum characterization / hypothetical component generation tools.

It was written and is maintained by Daniel Medeiros.

Download it here and try it.

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CheCalc

CheCalc is a very useful source of easy-to-use basic chemical engineering calculations.

It’s particularly useful for quickly estimating pipeline sizes and pressure drops.

Try it here.