Industrial uses of high-intensity ultrasound have grown tremendously over the past 25 years, says Kenneth Suslick, professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and one of the pioneers in the field. Ultrasonic welding of plastics is universal,…
China’s largest private chemical EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractor, Wison Engineering Ltd. (Wison; Shanghai; www.wison.com) has recently introduced details about its proprietary butadiene technology, which is set for commercialization. The process aims to meet the anticipated growth in annual butadiene…
Oji Holdings Corp. (OJI; www.ojiholdings.co.jp) and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC; both Tokyo, Japan; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) have developed a continuous process for producing transparent sheets made from ultra-thin, wood-based cellulose nanofibers (CNF). Both OJI’s papermaking technology and MCC’s chemical treatment technology contributed…
MP Series piston manifolds are Class 800 forged manifolds available with four, eight or twelve stations. Each connection point has a built-in piston valve, minimizing the amount of space required for installation. MP Series manifolds contain a high-performance, Class 800…
Plant Watch Evonik plans new precipitated- silica plant in Brazil May 10, 2013 — Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has started basic engineering for a precipitated-silica plant in Brazil. Subject to the approval of the responsible bodies, Evonik aims…
Chemical technology is in a state of constant innovation and evolution that is being spearheaded by laboratory researchers across the world. Within the past decade, research specific to “green” or bio-based chemicals has gathered funding and momentum as broad-based opinion…
Kraemer Garber Prejean Schaub Watson Kenneth Lane becomes president of BASF’s Catalysts Div. (Iselin, N.J.), succeeding Frank Bozich, who has decided to leave the company. Klüber Lubrication North America LP (Londonderry, N.H.) names Ralf Kraemer CEO. He succeeds Dieter…
Have you ever participated in a team-building exercise, the type where Human Resources personnel teach a group of individuals how to work better together? I’ll bet that during my career I participated in about ten such exercises, but right now…
Process sensors and actuators provide a wealth of information about their status. The Namur recommendation NE 107 that proposes standardized, easily understandable status indicators was issued by the International User Association for Automation in Process Industries (Namur; Leverkusen, Germany; www.namur.de),…
With the advent of smart or intelligent field devices, a wealth of digital information has become available. However, what does the host system do with these data? The field device transmits a bucket of bits to the host system. How…