In 1983, I started teaching a three-day process equipment troubleshooting seminar to chemical engineers and experienced plant operators in the petroleum refining and chemical process industry. Since the inception of the seminar, in excess of 7000 men and women have attended the classes. The seminar is largely based on my 40 years experience in field troubleshooting and process unit revamp design.

I have taught hundreds of seminars explaining how pumps, compressors, heat exchangers, distillation towers, steam jets, fired heaters, and steam turbines malfunction. I have explained to thousands of chemical engineers how to design trays and modify tube bundles for improved performance. More thousands of operators have listened to me expound as to how and why cavitation damages pump mechanical seals. And throughout these lectures, one common thread has emerged.

The general knowledge as to how process equipment really functions is disappearing from the process industries. This is not only my opinion but the general view of senior technical managers in many large corporations.

Chemical process equipment is basically the same now as it was in the 1930s. The trays, K.O. drums, compressors, heaters, steam systems have not changed and probably will not change. The fundamental nature of process equipment operation has been well established for a very long time. Modern methods of computer control and process design have not, and cannot, change the basic performance of the bulk of process equipment. These tools just have made learning about the working of the equipment more difficult.

The chemical engineer has traditionally...