Plant Watch Novozymes and Beta Renewables open advanced biofuels facility in Italy October 9, 2013 — Novozymes (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.novozymes.com), a producer of industrial enzymes, and Beta Renewables, opened what is said to be the world’s largest advanced biofuels facility,…
Just a few years ago, the natural gas industry seemed to be in its death throes, nuclear power had modest comeback aspirations, and coal was king. Since then, environmental compliance costs have tossed coal under the bus, Fukishima dinged nuclear…
The 86th Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (Weftec) will be held this October at the McCormick Place South Convention Center in Chicago. The conference runs October 5–9, with the exhibition taking place on October 7–9 and will…
Optimizing fan performance can help plants reach overall process efficiency goals. The cost of powering fans and ventilators in the chemical process industries (CPI) is significant. For example, ventilation and air-pollution control systems can account for over a quarter of…
Ethanol is a widely used commodity chemical with several applications, including use as a solvent and as a gasoline blendstock in the fuel market. Globally, the major portion of ethanol production is based on the fermentation of sugars from crop…
Chemical, pharmaceutical and related industries produce large amounts of wastewater in their production and cleaning processes. The wastewater characteristics are often diverse, and may include minimally biodegradable or toxic substances, or both. To protect the environment, these wastewaters typically must…
Boilers generate steam using different methods to circulate the steam-water mixture through the evaporator tubes. These methods include natural circulation (Figures 1, 2a–2c), forced circulation (Figure 3a), and a once-through design. Figures 3b, 4 and 5 show examples of a…
Kehl Diaz-Stringel Morgan Imbrogno Morgan Thomas Kehl becomes president and chairman of the executive board of Coperian GmbH (Stuttgart, Germany), which specializes in compounding and bulk-materials-handling systems. Univar, Inc. (Redmond, Wash.), a global chemicals distributor, names Sam Sutherland vice…
Distillation and absorption are back. The AIChE Spring Meeting (San Antonio, April 28–May 2) proved it and the fall meeting to be held in November will muffle any doubting Thomases. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, I spent appreciable…
Plant Watch Sibur and BASF sign longterm agreement for polymer additives September 12, 2013 — Sibur (Moscow, www.sibur.com) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) have signed a longterm cooperation memorandum to supply additives to be used for polymer production and…