Plant Watch Johnson Matthey to build U.K. gigafactory for H2 fuel-cell components July 18, 2022 — Johnson Matthey plc (JM; London; www.matthey.com) is building an£80-million gigafactory at its existing site in Royston, U.K. to manufacture hydrogen fuel-cell components. The gigafactory…
Compliance with industry- and machinery-specific safety standards and classifications is essential to make the safest possible environment for plant personnel, especially those working in potentially hazardous conditions Navigating the world of industrial safety standards can feel like being in uncharted…
Biogas plants play an important role in defossilization — anaerobic bacteria in these plants break down biomass to form biogas which, on average, comprises up to 60% methane and more than 40% CO2. While the biogas is used to generate…
Track pump operation with this monitoring system This company has developed Smart Monitoring for its ecoflow and triplex metering and process diaphragm pumps (photo). A combination of sensors integrated into the pump and software-based evaluation provides the user with comprehensive…
Alternating-current (a.c.) induction motors are widely used throughout the chemical process industries (CPI) and other manufacturing sectors to convert electrical energy into mechanical energy to power rotating equipment, such as centrifugal pumps, compressors and fans, as well as other industrial…
The production of clinker used for making cement continues to be a major source of global CO2 emissions. Now, three engineers from the University of Cambridge (U.K.; eng.cam.ac.uk) have filed a patent and been awarded new research funding for their…
Henry Kister shares lessons learned from troubleshooting distillation towers On an assignment to troubleshoot a vacuum tower for a petroleum refinery, my team was tasked to “run simulations to determine why the heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) has a very…
Plant Watch Solvay completes PVDF capacity expansion in Changshu June 13, 2022 — Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has significantly increased production capacity for polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) at the company’s site in Changshu, China. Solvay has now more than doubled…
Presented here are practical points to help in the selection of plate-and-frame and air-cooled heat exchangers With a wider variety of heat exchangers to choose from than ever before, there are a number of variables to be considered when assessing…
Transporting chemical products across global supply chains is complex and challenging, but data-supported technologies are helping to improve efficiency, sustainability and reliability Materials produced by the chemical process industries (CPI) are used in nearly all global product chains. According to…