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Technical & Practical

Piping for Process Plants Part 6: Testing and Verification

This sixth and final part of a series of articles [ 1 – 5] on piping for process plants discusses practical issues of leak testing and verification of piping systems. Read Part 5 here. Leak Testing Leak testing and pressure…

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Facts at Your Fingertips: Humidity Control

Applications Dehumidification by cooling or dessication has a variety of applications, including: Preventing moisture regain. Nearly all materials have some affinity for moisture based on surface characteristics and the amount of surface exposed to humid air. Moisture regain occurs when…

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Solids Processing: Automating Your Weigh Batching System

In many plants that batch-blend bulk products, weigh batching is a manual, time-consuming operation in which ingredients are weighed individually before being discharged to a blender or some other process vessel. A significant number of such plants could benefit from…

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Engineering Practice: Hydrogen-Pinch Analysis Made Easy

An automated spreadsheet method can quickly help minimize fresh hydrogen consumption while maximizing hydrogen recovery and reuse in petroleum refineries and petrochemical complexes In petroleum refineries and petrochemical complexes, there are many hydrogen consumers, such as hydrotreaters, hydrocrackers, isomerization units…

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Zirconium and its Alloys: For Extreme Sulfuric Acid Applications

One of the earliest applications for zirconium in the chemical process industries (CPI) is for sulfuric acid service. Used commonly during the manufacture of chemicals as a catalyst, dehydrating agent, absorbent, or an oxidizing or reducing agent, sulfuric acid is…

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Solids Processing: Blender Selection And Avoidance of Post-Blender Segregation

A. Alexander and F. Muzzio, Rutgers University Proper blender selection can improve the mixing of bulk solids. Be sure to consider post-blending segregation problems Mixing and blending of bulk solids occurs frequently in many industrial processes. Though small-scale mixing and…

Technology Showcase: Carbon Capture and Storage

  Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an area of technology that has received national and international attention. CCS is seen by some as a way to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere and thereby decrease the threat…

An Integrated Approach to Industrial Security

To many, the concept of a "smart plant" involves integrating critical process subsystems and instrumentation with the goal of streamlining operations, increasing production and, simply put, making more money. But looking at the bigger picture, the true goal of having…

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Warming Up to Accurate Temperature Measurement

Accurate temperature measurement is not difficult. It does, however, require you to think about accuracy from specification and selection, all the way up to installation and operation of your temperature-measurement sensor. There are opportunities to improve accuracy during each of…

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Engineering Practice: Designing Steam Stripping Columns for Wastewater

  FIGURE 1. In a typical system for wastewater treatment, the liquid feed is introduced at the top of the column and steam is introduced at the bottom In recent years, steam strippers have become integral parts of industrial plant…