Business & Economics
June Calendar: Europe
OAPEC/IFP Joint Seminar: The Importance of Conversion Processes in Oil Refining and Their Role in the Production of Clean Fuels. IFP (Rueil-Malmaison, France). Phone: +33-147-526000; Fax: +33-147-527000; Web: ifp.fr Rueil-Malmaison, France June 20–22 16th European Symposium on Computer…
June Calendar: ASIA & ELSEWHERE
Interphex Asia. Reed Exhibitions (Singapore). Phone: +65-6789-8800; Fax: +65-6789-7711; Web: reedexpo.com.sg Singapore June 27–29 12th Annual China Chemical Industry Conference. Chemical Week (New York, N.Y.). Phone: 212-621-4978; Fax: 212-621-4970; Email: reg@chemweek.com Shanghai, China Sept. 12–14
Job Hunting? Avoid These Ten Blunders
During career coaching to hundreds of individuals, I’ve come to realize that the people who take longest to find meaningful employment tend to commit the same blunders. Singled out here are ten of the most egregious career-stalling maneuvers. If you…
Chementator: A continuous route to HI generates less effluent
Nippoh Chemicals Co. (Tokyo; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5830-539), is developing a continuous, vapor-phase process to produce hydroiodic acid as an alternative to the conventional liquid-phase batch process. Over the next few months, the company will test the new process in a 30-m.t./yr pilot…
Chementator: This biodiesel reactor is made of duplex
Although many new biodiesel plants are sprouting up around the world, Perstorp Oxo AB’s (Stenungsund Sweden) 160,000 m.t./yr rapeseed-methyl-esters (RME) facility, now under construction at Stenungsund, will be the first to have a reactor made from duplex stainless steel. The…
A Bit of Extra Lab Effort Can Prevent Grief During Scaleup
It’s an old saw, but I’ve long held that process development is very much a team effort. Developing safe, robust and scaleable chemical processes calls for close collaboration between synthesis chemists, process development engineers and pilot plant personnel.…
A new Al plant
Qatar Petroleum (Doha; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-542) and Norsk Hydro A/S (Oslo, Norway; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-543) have formed a joint venture company, Qatalum, to build and operate what is claimed as the largest, initial-phase greenfield aluminum smelter ever constructed. The smelter will have an annual…
Chementator: A commercial breakthrough for microreactors
Early next year, Nippoh Chemicals Co. (Tokyo; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-532) plans to build a 1,000-m.t./yr plant for producing the pharmaceutical precursor trimethyl orthoacetate (1,1,1-trimethoxyethane). The facility will utilize a continuous-flow, microreactor-based process that Nippoh Chemicals developed in cooperation with professor Jun-ichi Yoshida…
How to Estimate Utility Costs
Typical process utilities include electricity, process steam, refrigerants, compressed air, cooling water, heated water, hot oil, process water, demineralized water, municipal water, and river, lake, or ocean water. For preliminary cost estimates, waste disposal cost can also be…
A worthwhile trek back to the sandbox
For any of us who have kept up in recent years with the business news (happenings at Enron and some major Wall Street firms, say), it seems safe to assume that, nowadays at least, ethical behavior and personal honesty are…