Environment, Health, Safety & Security
How to Handle Hydrogen In Process Plants
Hydrogen is widely employed for hydrogenation and other purposes in chemicals manufacture, petroleum refining and other chemical process industries (Hydrogen: The Real Action Is Today, CE, February, pp. 28ff), and it holds promise as a fuel. However, this…
A Modern Approach to Solvent Selection
Solvents have been used for centuries and in all type of industries for the processing, manufacturing and formulation of goods. In the chemical process industries (CPI), solvents are used in various process-operation steps such as separation (of gas,…
Green chemistry — there’s a lot still left to do
Last August, the comments on this page saluted recent achievements of BASF Corp., Merck, Archer Daniels Midland and other winners of the U.S.’s 2005 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Program, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (Green-chemistry feats bring in the…
Chementator: A ‘litmus’ test for heavy metals
Toshishige M. Suzuki and his colleagues at the Tohoku Center of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST; Sendai, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5827-538) has developed a new analytical test strip that can quickly detect parts-per-billion (ppb) concentrations of heavy metal…
Consider Alternate Fuels To Cut Costs
Fuel costs rose sharply in 2005 because of hurricane damage to U.S. interests in the Gulf of Mexico, and international developments in the oil supply market. Competing fuels — coal and natural gas — rose in price in…
Chementator: Selective flotation
The presence of arsenic minerals, such as enargite and tennantite, in some copper-bearing ore bodies, can be a problem for those wishing to recover the copper. When delivering copper concentrates to smelters in Australia, for example, miners are subjected to…
Green chemistry — there’s a lot still left to do
Last August, the comments on this page saluted recent achievements of BASF Corp., Merck, Archer Daniels Midland and other winners of the U.S.’s 2005 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Program, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (Green-chemistry feats bring in the…
Chementator: A dosimeter monitors long-term exposure to phosgene
Phosgene is widely used for making fine chemicals, pharmaceutical intermediates, and polymers such as isocyanates, polyurethanes and polycarbonates. But phosgene is highly toxic, and although gas detectors are required to monitor for dangerous leaks, they cannot determine if workers have…
Dust collection focuses on smaller particles
A direct link between the size of particles and their potential for causing health problems is what has the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.; epa.gov) concerned about particulate matter (PM) that is 10µm in diameter or…
Chementator: …and there’s a new CTL licensee and patent for Rentech
Last month, Rentech, Inc. (Denver, Co.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-539) signed its first domestic license agreement with DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC (Houston, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-540) for the use of Rentech’s patented F-T CTL technology (CE, May 2004, p. 23). At the same time, DKRW’s…