August 2010
The August issue features two of the winning papers from our recent Awards: the undergraduate paper by Maria Muller of UP and the winning entry in the Energy category of the Specialization Awards, by Marco Furrutter and Darren Gabriel, from UJ. Next month's issue will feature the winning paper in the ‘Specialization Awards: Water category', which was submitted by Joseph Bwapwa, a student at UKZN, and comprised an analysis of an anaerobic baffled reactor treating complex particulate wastewater in an ABR membrane bioreactor unit.
Also to be published in September's issue will be the paper which the judges awarded a ‘Special prize for environmental engineering'. This was submitted by Puxley Mashele of UP and studied stabilization of LDPE and HDPE films.
We once again extend our heartiest congratulations to all the winners and thank all those who entered from various institutions around the country.
Our other features look at safety, standards and risk analysis, food and beverages, and pumps, valves and actuators.
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Risk assessments in process industries in South Africa
by Dr KG Harding, School of Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Major Hazard Installation (MHI) Regulations were promulgated in South Africa under Section 43 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (No. 85 of 1993) to control and manage activities where there is the potential for major accidents. These regulations were revised in July 2001 and apply to sites that have a quantity of substance on their premises that could pose a significant health and safety risk to employees and the surrounding public. A requirement of the MHI Regulations is that a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) needs to be undertaken by a SANAS Approved Inspection Authority (AIA), and reviewed at intervals not exceeding five years. A QRA is also required prior to the proposed construction or upgrade of any Major Hazard Installation. In addition, if there is an incident at an existing MHI, the facility is required to revise their QRA. The QRA report should be submitted to the Department of Labour (DoL) and the local emergency services for review and, if it is deemed that the site is a Major Hazard site, registration.
Turn to page 12 to read on ...
The fresh milk alternative: ESL milk with double bacteria removal using the Westfalia Separator® prolong method
by Christian Frahm and Wolfgang Gruchot, both of Business Line Dairy Technology at GEA Westfalia Separator Process GmbH, Oelde, Germany
The production of ESL milk (Extended Shelf Life milk) is a question of freshness, naturalness, taste, vitamin content, and the number of actually necessary shelf life days. However, it is also a question of installation and operation costs for suitable technologies and thus in the final analysis a question of the technology itself. GEA Westfalia Separator has now taken a tried-and-tested method which is familiar in cheese-making operations, and has adapted it for the production of ESL milk; the process has a wide range of advantages compared with the previous methods of heating and micro-filtration: double bacteria removal for fresh milk called Westfalia Separator® prolong with bacteria removal separators connected in sequence.
