As chemical production shifts to growth regions such as China and India, and moves closer to areas like the Middle East, where there are less expensive sources of feedstocks, North American and European chemical processors are under global pressure to…
The 26th International Pump Users Symposium will be held from March 15–18, 2010 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. This international meeting will emphasize pump technology and troubleshooting. The symposium is one of two annual gatherings sponsored…
Green Löebbert Rabie McElhattan Douglas Bently Green joins Black & Veatch’s global water business (St. Louis, Mo.) as client accounts project director. Mustang (Houston) promotes Mike Dear to CFO. Borealis AG (Vienna) appoints Gerd Löebbert executive vice-president for base chemicals.…
A survey of tower failures [ 1 ] ranks kettle reboilers as the most troublesome reboiler type in the chemical process industries (CPI). Excessive pressure drop in kettle reboiler circuits is the prominent kettle malfunction, causing liquid to back up…
Today’s high costs of energy make an energy audit evaluation of process facilities a must. Most plants were designed and built when energy costs were low by today’s standards. This makes facilities that have not been reviewed for energy efficiency…
This blower applies rotary screw technology AtlasCopco Compessors A prominent design feature of ZS Series blowers (photo) is their application of rotary screw compression technology. The rotary screw concept helps the blower to operate at efficiencies 35–40% higher than traditional…
NORTH AMERICA Pittcon 2010. Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry & Applied Spectroscopy (Pittsburgh, Pa.). Phone: 412-825-3220; Web: pittcon.org Orlando, Fla. Feb. 28–March 5 Biopharmaceutical Development & Production Week (“Five Conferences In One”). IBC Life Sciences (Westborough, Mass.). Phone: 800-858-4881; Web:…
For valves operating in hazardous environments, certification testing is critical to ensure the reliability and safety of the equipment. But this testing process has historically required facilities to shut down and sacrifice valuable production hours to check each valve. Built-in…
The chemical process industries (CPI) invest large amounts of capital each year and spend even more to produce the goods they sell. In 2007, CPI companies large enough to be in the Fortune 500 list invested more than $100 billion…
Typical wastewater-treatment plants (WWTP) — both industrial and municipal — consume large amounts of energy, which can represent 50% or more of the facility’s variable operating and maintenance costs. Most employ biological processes that rely on energy-intensive aeration systems whose…