Separation Processes
Earthquake fractionation
Some columns sway with the wind; some columns sway with the waves. In fact, hundreds of columns now reside offshore, on platforms and on barges. Most dry and sweeten gases. Some distill. The trays and packing distributors of such columns…
Reboiler Circuits For Trayed Columns
The reboiler generally supplies most of the energy required to effect component separation. If too much heat is supplied, the tower may flood; conversely, if too little heat is available, separation performance may decrease via poor reflux ratio (pinching), excessive…
Filtration Centrifuges: An Overview
To solve the task of solid-liquid (S-L) separation in the chemical process industries (CPI), a wide variety of methods are invariably used. Many of these methods are not mutually exclusive and include a selection of technologies that can be expediently…
Did somebody say pilot plant?
During the first three days of last month’s AIChE Annual Meeting (November 7–12; Salt Lake City, Utah), like many attendees, I hopped from session to session listening to those papers that were of the most interest to me. Generally, I…
Hazards of column entry
In obtaining a degree or even a professional license in chemical engineering, there is little, if any, mention of facial hair. Nevertheless, that aspect of my appearance was surprisingly pivotal at one particular moment in my career. At that time,…
MSMPR Crystallization equipment
Crystallization is a key purification technique for various sectors of the chemical process industries (CPI). Several approaches for industrial crystallization have evolved over time and highly specialized crystallizer designs have been developed, especially in long-established industries. Solution crystallization is an…
Zarko’s challenge
Every distillation engineer west of the River Neretva is familiar with the work of Professor Zarko Olujic. His distillation laboratory at the Technical University of Delft (The Netherlands; www.tudelft.nl) is one of the largest and best facilities in the history…
Controlling Membrane Fouling
The deposition and accumulation of suspended and dissolved particles on membrane surfaces leads to performance loss. Fouling can dramatically reduce the efficiency and economic benefits of a membrane process. The type of fouling and how strongly it appears depends on…
Fractionation Column: Pushing capacity limits
Starting around 1970, many new contacting devices became available for use in distillation, absorption and stripping columns. Those devices included high-performance random packings, structured packings, high-capacity structured packings, augmented crossflow trays, counterflow trays and cocurrent flow trays. At the request…
Nanopores improving sterile filtration
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials (IWM; Halle, Germany; www.fraunhofer.de) have developed ceramic membranes with uniform pore structure and tight pore-size distribution, which makes them more stable and delivers considerably higher flowrates than existing ceramic membranes, which…