In The News
An improved anti-corrosion coating for steel
Using zinc-based coatings to protect galvanized steel from corrosion has been standard practice in the steel industry for decades, but these processes have several key disadvantages. First, achieving longer corrosion performance requires thicker layers of zinc, which raises costs and…
Wastewater concentrator uses waste heat to lower treatment costs
Landfill leachate and other challenging wastewaters incur rising treatment and disposal costs. Technology developed by Heartland Water Technology, Inc. (Hudson, Mass.; www.heartlandtech.com) can lower costs for treating wastewater by slashing wastewater volumes by 95% or more, using waste heat as…
Business News December 2017
Air Products signs agreement for coal-to-syngas facility in China November 13, 2017 — Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) and Shaanxi Future Energy Group Co. (SFEC) signed an agreement for a $3.5-billion coal-to-syngas production facility to be built in Yulin…
CPI Workforce Issues See Positive Movement
Significant workforce-related hurdles remain in place for CPI companies, but signs of progress are emerging For the past several years, companies in the chemical process industries (CPI) have been grappling with three consequential workforce issues that have also plagued other…
Simulation Software: New Applications Evolve
Optimization, advanced process control and performance monitoring are possible via simulation tools Software advances, including faster computations and ease of use, are opening new doors for simulation software applications in chemical process industries (CPI) facilities, allowing processors to extend the…
New turbine flowmeters with wireless integration
The TW Series turbine flowmeter (photo) provides flow measurement of oils, water and chemicals with±1% of reading or better and 0.1% repeatability. TW Series turbine meters are available in flow ranges from 0.6 to 5,000 gal/min and feature 316 stainless-steel…
Chementator Briefs
Trash bags Barrier films used in food packaging are difficult to recycle effectively, because they often contain multiple polymers that are not compatible with one another in the mixing steps required for the recycling process. Now, trash bags made from…
Lower costs for converting alkylation units from hydrofluoric to sulfuric acid
For petroleum refineries, the cost of converting hydrofluoric-acid-based alkylation units to the relatively safer sulfuric-acid-based alkylation process (diagram) has been cost-prohibitive and has lacked specific economic benefits. Now, DuPont (Wilmington, Del.; www.dupont.com) has developed a low-cost approach to converting existing…
Extremophilic microbes enable new methane pathways
Microbes inhabiting the extreme environments thousands of feet below the earth’s surface possess unique properties not encountered elsewhere. A research consortium of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT; Rapid City; www.sdsmt.edu), University of Oklahoma (Norman) and Montana State…
Business News November 2017
Plant Watch Inovyn starts up KOH plant in Belgium October 13, 2017 — Inovyn (London, U.K.; www.inovyn.com) announced the completion of its new potassium hydroxide (KOH) production facility at its Antwerp/Lillo site in Belgium. The new plant uses membrane technology…