Processing & Handling
Chementator briefs
Toxicology testing The world’s first toxicology-testing strategy without animal testing has been approved by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; Paris, France; www.oecd.org). The testing strategy consists of three so-called alternative methods. They can be used to predict…
Piloting a process that makes hydrogen and carbon from methane
Next year, construction will begin on an industrial-scale pilot plant to further develop a new process that decomposes methane into H2 and carbon. The process uses a thermo-catalytic decomposition (TCD) technology developed by Hycamite TCD Technologies Oy (Kokkola, Finland; www.hycamite.com).…
Technology Profile: Production of Nitrogen from Air
Nitrogen (N2) makes up 78% of ambient air (20.95% of air is oxygen). N2 is an inert (non-flammable) gas used in industrial plants to prevent undesirable chemical reactions from occurring. Nitrogen is the most common inert gas used in the…
Time and Length Scales of Mixing: The Macro Scale
Successfully scaling up a mixing process involves understanding several important timescale parameters that can impact chemical reactions and equipment performance Many industrial processes are defined by rates. For example, rates of mass and heat transfer, rates of reaction and rates…
Hydrogen Piping Systems: Mitigating Pitfalls by Design
This overview presents guidance for the safe design of piping systems that are used for the distribution of hydrogen gas Hydrogen gas is a very volatile fluid that has a high propensity to leak. This is a very dangerous and…
Announcing the Kirkpatrick finalists
Five innovative technologies have been selected as finalists for the 2021 Kirkpatrick Award for Chemical Engineering Achievement.* The finalists were selected based on three criteria: the difficulty of chemical engineering problems met and solved; novelty of the technology; and evidence…
Embedding active enzymes into plastics
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (IAP; Potsdam-Golm, Germany; www.iap.fraunhofer.de) have developed a process for embedding active enzymes into plastics. This has been difficult before, since plastics are normally processed at temperatures above 100°C. The technology offers…
Polyolefin deconstruction process could provide new use for post-consumer plastic waste
A catalytic process to selectively break carbon-carbon bonds within the polymer chains of polyethylene and polypropylene could allow the use of waste plastics to make biodegradable surfactant molecules. Researchers led by the Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) at…
Facts At Your Fingertips: Adsorption bonding
Physical adsorption phenomena play a critical role in many separation and purification processes, including separations of industrial gases, purification of gases, moisture removal from fluids, water purification and others. Adsorption is a surface phenomenon in which a fluid (gas or…
Technology Profile: Production of Caprolactam from Benzene
Caprolactam (Figure 1) is a cyclic amide widely used as a chemical intermediate. The main forms of caprolactam are molten (liquid) and flakes. At ambient temperatures, it is a white, hygroscopic, crystalline solid. Almost all caprolactam is used as monomer…