Plate-and-frame heat exchangers, or plate heat exchangers (PHEs), are a type of compact heat exchanger. PHEs have been widely used in the food industries, mainly because they easily meet health and sanitation requirements due to their simple disassembly for cleaning.…
Leaks in a chemical process industries (CPI) facility can run the gamut from creating a costly waste to prefacing a catastrophic failure.. They can be an annoyance, by creating pools of liquid on concrete that can become a possible slipping…
Large petroleum-refining complexes often have dozens of fired heaters, making broad-based competency in this area essential to overall reliability, safety and energy efficiency. Despite industry’s widespread familiarity with fired heaters, they continue to pose significant challenges during initial control-system design…
Batra McMillian McCairns Martin Boyle Udit Batra becomes president and CEO of EMD Millipore (Boston, Mass.), the Life Science Div. of Merck KGaA and a supplier of solutions for biopharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing. Antwan McMillian is named manager…
FRI is lucky to have survived a simple valve-tray project. A few years ago, the low-pressure (LP) test column stood empty, because there were no trays ready to be installed. The intention was to install a set of new valve…
Plant Watch Lanxess inaugurates new high-tech plastics plant in Brazil April 10, 2014 — Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com) inaugurated its new high-tech plastics plant in Porto Feliz, Brazil. The company has invested around €20 million in the facility, which…
Existing chemical process industries (CPI) facilities possess years, if not decades, of legacy engineering information. The data exist in a myriad of formats and are typically siloed across multiple systems and locations. In cases where the engineering data are either…
Most chemical processes are born in the laboratory. The challenge for engineers is to then convert the laboratory method into a large and economically sound industrial process. Unfortunately, many promising technologies never see the light of day; some because of…
Adjustment and control of moisture levels in solid materials through drying is a critical process in the manufacture of many types of chemical products. As a unit operation, drying solid materials is one of the most common and important in…
Plant Watch ExxonMobil to construct butyl rubber and hydrocarbon resin plants in Singapore March 6, 2014 — ExxonMobil Chemical Co. (Houston; www.exxonmobilchemical.com) plans to build facilities to manufacture halobutyl rubber and hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin at its petrochemical complex in Singapore.…