Liquid-oxygen : project, design and economic evaluation for Malta Drydocks.

Abstract

In writing this project report my overriding goal has been to contribute to Management decisions regarding the availability and production of oxygen at Malta Drydocks. It was not the intention to emphasize any nets scientific or engineering principles, but it certainly presented ample opportunity to apply all that which has been absorbed during the whole course. It is true that an economic evaluation is a difficult job that requires long engineering experience and maturity. However I had the advantage of being freshly acquainted with the theory and calculations. This project consists mainly of two parts : a project design and and economic evaluation. Both parts have been dealt with in great detail. The aim of dealing these two aspects in parallel was to show how the fundamentals of engineering design can be blended with engineering economics to produce a final specification; how textbooks para-meters can be applied to the solution of a real problem. It was worth doing such a practical project for the simple reason that I had to tackle problems which were totally unrelated to my past experience and, in some cases I have to admit, quite beyond my capabilities. In fact I have found myself in the harsh industrial world which is no longer dealing with frictionless pulleys and water flowing in clean smooth pipes; instead real problems, such as producing enough oxygen to meet the demand, are the order of the day. No longer is there a unique answer to each problem (as I was accustomed to find at the foot of the tutorial sheet l); indeed there were cases were problems had several solutions and sometimes no answer at all. [...]