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Tower Doctor: Can the Cure be as Bad as the Illness?

Henry Kister shares lessons learned from troubleshooting distillation towers During a course that I was presenting in Houston one year, a participant asked me the following at the end of one of the sessions: “Do you have experience with BX-type…

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A biomimetic process to make soft fibers for smart textiles

For intelligent textiles to function effectively, they need to be strong, stretchable and electrically conductive. However, fabricating fibers that possess these three properties has been challenging. Drawing inspiration from how spiders spin silk to make webs, an international team of…

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Business News: August 2023

Plant Watch UBE to expand silicon nitride plant July 13, 2023 — UBE Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.ube.com) plans to expand the silicon nitride production facility at its chemical complex in Ube, Japan. The facility is scheduled to go online in…

These new check valves can be flexibly installed

The ES Series of spring check valves (photo) feature a PTFE-covered, stainless-steel spring for positive closing, as well as a new disc design for smooth, trouble-free operation. Compared to ball check valves, the ES Series requires very low liquid-head pressure…

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New heating method tackles PFAS contamination on spent treatment media

There are several established technologies to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water, including membranes and adsorbents. However, such purification media can pose disposal challenges due to the potential for further PFAS contamination stemming from the spent media. Now,…

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Electrochemical amalgamation effectively removes mercury from concentrated H2SO4

It is well known that mercury is not only toxic, but is also highly mobile. As a result, Hg emissions from both industrial processes (gold mining, combustion of fossil fuels, cement production, waste incineration and more), as well as natural…

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Low-Carbon Hydrogen: Considering Scale

The future of green hydrogen depends on the success of each stage of its ecosystem. Many factors are contributing to the critical infrastructure scaleup necessary to achieve industrial decarbonization Globally, hydrogen is increasingly being considered as a critical part of…

Adjust the pH with this CO2 feed system

The new CO2 Feed System (photo) is a safe and effective way to adjust pH and minimize risk associated with dangerous mineral acids. The 0–100% scaled flowmeter has an integral adjustment needle valve for increased accuracy. Additional benefits of the…

Multi-agitator mixing systems for specialty applications

This company has engineered a purpose-built VM-450-gallon VersaMix (photo) that features three independently driven agitators, including a two-wing center-mounted agitator with contoured bottom and Teflon scrapers to efficiently motivate viscous product throughout the mixing zone, a long helical flight agitator…

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Carbon nanotube coating could expand the applications for superlubricity

When a sliding interface experiences a coefficient of friction (CoF) below 0.01, the situation is said to have superlubricity. In the past, superlubricity has been limited to the microscale in controlled environments, and to ceramic surfaces with polar-fluid lubrication. Now,…