Overview

As a major U.S. producer of basic industrial chemicals, Vulcan Chemicals strives to continuously adopt "best engineering practices" to streamline operations. Jimmy Allred of the Geismar, LA plant used PIPE-FLO to save time when modeling pump and system compatibility for a system with over 1000 pumps.

The Challenge

Vulcan Chemicals needed a tool to quickly and accurately show how newly installed pumps operate within their piping systems. The goal was to evaluate the efficiency and compatibility of piping networks with various new pump installations. They wanted a better way to model the system without having to develop a long and complex spreadsheet. For many years the company had used a combination of spreadsheets and hand calculations for system analysis. Using this approach they couldn’t as quickly and easily perform ‘what-if’ variations.

PIPE-FLO's Solution

With the purchase of PIPE-FLO, Vulcan was able to size and troubleshoot pumps for the entire system, giving the company the power to analyze the relationships between the installed pumps and the piping system. PIPE-FLO saved time from the long work of spreadsheet analysis. With the ability to instantly switch between many different operating conditions, Jimmy was able to analyze dozens of scenarios in one day. PIPE-FLO eliminated many of the assumptions out of the process, resulting in a much faster and accurate solution.

"PIPE-FLO gives us the ability to troubleshoot the system, make changes, and calculate the changes very quickly," said Jimmy Allred, Vulcan Chemicals. "The program saves time, especially on multi-pump headers. Using PIPE-FLO, I am confident that we cut the time in half from the traditional hand calculations. I can determine the losses to a particular section or a certain flow in just a few seconds, where I normally would have to spend time sorting through engineering reference books. The program is incredibly easy to use."