So I called my son, Steve, and I asked him, “Which course sounds better to you, ‘Dealing with Difficult People’ or ‘Unacceptable Employee Behavior’?” Steve is a human resources specialist at a 2,000-employee company. He is not a member of…
As engineers in the chemical process industries (CPI) are pressed harder to meet deadlines in the workplace, the amount of information available to them in their field is growing at an exponential pace. To address the situation, chemistry- and engineering-oriented…
A novel method for treating industrial liquid waste employs supercritical water infused with oxygen to destroy organic compounds. Developed by Innoveox (Paris; www.innoveox.com) and based on technology patented by the French government research organization CNRS (www.cnrs.fr), supercritical water oxidation (SCWO)…
A team from CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (Melbourne, Australia; www.csiro.au) has developed a new technique for growing smart materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which can be used in pollution control, or as catalysts, or for transporting drugs in…
Last month, construction was completed on the world’s first commercial plant to produce a next-generation solid fuel, called Bio-cokes, at Takatsuki, Japan. The renewable material is produced from forest residues and can be used as an alternative to coal-based coke…
When it comes to distillation trays and packing, chemical processors require the same criteria they seek from all equipment in this tight economy — technology that will reduce energy use and boost throughput without costly facility expansion. In an effort…
NORTH AMERICA AWMA Annual Conference & Expo. Air & Waste Management Assn. (Pittsburgh). Phone: 412-232-3444; Web: awma.org Orlando, Fla. June 21–24 BioPlastek 2011. Schotland Business Research (Skillman, N.J.). Phone: 609-466-9191; Web: bioplastek.com New York, N.Y. June 27–29 BIO…
A team led by Rice University (Houston; www.rice.edu) researcher Michael Deem has assembled a database of 2.6 million possible unique zeolites — porous silicate minerals often used as catalysts or molecular sieves. The database of potential structures could inform efforts…
Expect more in selection and scaleup, prediction of energy consumption and reliability Very seldom is a product of desired size manufactured directly in a process. Size reduction, coupled with screening (classification), is commonly used to achieve desired particle size. In…
Plant Watch Strategic partnership for acrylonitrile and sodium cyanide in the Middle East April 29, 2011 — Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com), Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corp. (Tokyo; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) and Mitsubishi Corp. (Tokyo; www.mitsubishicorp.com) have signed…