Chemical Engineering
Business News: September 2024
Plant Watch Sika more than doubles capacity at its largest manufacturing plant in Indonesia August 13, 2024 — Sika AG (Baar, Switzerland; www.sika.com) has more than doubled the production capacity at the Bekasi plant, its largest manufacturing facility in Indonesia.…
Facts At Your Fingertips: Efficiency in Electric Induction Motors
The purchase price of an electric motor is generally thought to end up as a small fraction (2–3%) of the motor’s total lifetime cost, with the majority of costs resulting from the electricity used by the motor. This makes motor…
Automatic Scraper Strainers for Wastewater Treatment
Advanced strainers are designed to offer far greater reliability than conventional options under unpredictable conditions. An industry expert provides insight into strainer use, design, selection, installation and construction Plants in the chemical process industries (CPI) have long relied on strainers…
A Primer on LPG Storage Systems
Any loss of containment for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) can have potentially catastrophic results. This article details various LPG storage configurations with special focus on the design of mounded-bullet systems Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a mixture of propane and…
Unipetrol Enhances Operational Stability with Advanced Combustion Control
A heater assessment study at an olefins plant led to the implementation of a new combustion-control platform in several furnaces to help optimize fuel ratios, improve overall furnace stability, reduce emissions and extend asset lifespan ORLEN Unipetrol RPA s.r.o. (Unipetrol;…
Utilizing carbon dioxide
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions has taken center stage in efforts to reduce concentrations of greenhouse gases in the environment. Much effort is going into limiting the use of fossil fuels through increased use of renewable energy sources, switching to alternate…
Recycling process allows fast depolymerization of post-consumer mixed textiles
Recycling rates for post-consumer textile waste are very low (<0.5%) because the fabrics often consist of tightly interlaced synthetic and natural fibers that require costly sorting and separation processes, and because they often contain dyes and additives that must be…
First industrial demonstration of plasma-based CO2 conversion
Plasma technology is being explored as an avenue for many molecular conversions, such as methane reforming. Now, for the first time, a plasma-based CO2-conversion technology is being demonstrated industrially. The proprietary technology, developed by D-CRBN (Antwerp, Belgium; www.d-crbn.com), is being…
Biofuels production via co-fermentation of sugar and CO2 takes a step forward
Co-fermentation processes that can consume both sugars and CO2 are emerging as a promising technology to enhance product yield and reduce emissions in biofuels production. A team of scientists at Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, Okla.; www.okstate.edu) are working to accelerate…
Generalizable deep-learning technique for elucidating catalyst reaction mechanisms
Artificial intelligence techniques have great potential in generating insights into catalytic reaction mechanisms, opening the door to more selective and efficient catalysts. However, using machine-learning (ML) in a general way to study chemical reactions is challenging because broad approaches aimed…