At the 2011 Spring AIChE meeting (Chicago, Ill.), Sean Hennigan of BP gave a presentation regarding a column troubleshoot that yielded a counterintuitive result. A column bottleneck was ultimately traced to the presence of a vacuum cleaner in a tray…
In my October 2011 column (A window into kettle reboiler secrets, Chem. Eng. p. 28) I briefly described FRI’s early work using two windows on its industrial-size kettle reboiler. Subsequent to that, FRI had performed appreciable heat-transfer work. All of…
JM Science An oil evaporator for difficult sample matrices The AquaCounter EV-2000L oil evaporator (photo) utilizes azeotropic distillation and completely separates water from sample matrices, thus eliminating any side reactions with interfering substances. The oil evaporator is especially useful…
I felt somewhat insulted when he said, “At universities, we do the difficult work and we leave the easy work for industry.” I had asked a question of a speaker at the November 2013 AIChE meeting. The speaker answered the…
FRI’s membership has been growing steadily since 2006. As a result, I have more bosses every year; at present, 78. I receive input from them in several ways. They attend quarterly meetings. They respond to surveys and votes. They send…
A plant turnaround is always challenging in the chemical process industries (CPI). But with proper planning and reliable procedures in place, last-minute time crunches and failures can be prevented. When haste combines with faulty methods, costly problems result. This article…
Testing in filtration processes is critical for determining the properties of solids being filtered and the ease or difficulty of the filtration. In addition, laboratory testing is important in specifying filter media, filter aids, filter area, cake space needed and…
A recent book by Lieberman [1] stresses that to combat the environmental crisis that our planet is facing, it is essential to make existing units work adequately and efficiently. Equipment that malfunctions or limps along limits production and does not…
Distillation and absorption are back. The AIChE Spring Meeting (San Antonio, April 28–May 2) proved it and the fall meeting to be held in November will muffle any doubting Thomases. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, I spent appreciable…
The Farr Gold Series dust collection system is now available in a simplified skid package. The high-efficiency cartridge dust collectors and all associated equipment are incorporated onto a single platform, for ease of transport and installation. In addition to dust…