As the coronavirus pandemic brings society and business to a near standstill in much of the world, the demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel has crashed and so have oil prices. According to the BBC, over half the world’s 7.8 billion population was under some kind of containment intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) provide a critical layer of protection for process facilities, which can be dangerous places because of the chemicals and processes involved. There are two main standards that exist to define the design and implementation of safety systems: IEC 61508 and IEC 61511. IEC 61508 addresses the manufacturers and suppliers of devices for safety systems while IEC 61511 is intended for the safety instrument systems designers, integrators and users.

Natural Soda operates seven production well pairs in Colorado to produce saturated nahcolite brine for manufacturing sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).

Mining nahcolite requires very careful monitoring of temperature, pressure and flow to not only optimize production performance—but also to mine the product sustainably and protect the freshwater aquifer. Wireless transmitters make it possible to monitor remote injection wells to protect the environment, increase efficiency and improve productivity. Our operating permits require us to continuously monitor and record fluid temperature, pressure and flow rate in both the recovery and injection wells. We must also keep these parameters within specified ranges as detailed in our BLM-approved mine plan.

The facility is located in mountainous, rugged terrain making it difficult and very expensive to employ wired devices. To improve overall efficiencies, we installed wireless temperature, pressure and flow sensors to monitor all the parameters specified in the plan.

Many changes in the power industry have taken place over the last decade. In advanced economies, sensitivity to climate change has displaced coal as a viable source of fuel for new power plants while the need for baseload power generation in developing countries has perpetuated the building of conventional coal-fired power plants. But the question on many people’s minds now is: “Will the changing political climate in the United States have an impact on power plant building in North America?”

While renewable energy generation has risen rapidly in the U.S. with solar, wind and tidal varieties increasingly taking a share of the power demand, the thermal plants powered by coal, gas and nuclear fuel sources still provide much of our power requirements.