LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) announced it has acquired Colortech da Amazonia, a manufacturer of color concentrates, additive masterbatches and mineral-filled compounds located in Manaus, Brazil. “As a well-respected producer of masterbatches, compounds and additives in Brazil, Colortech da Amazonia is…
Condensing industrial refrigerants in cryogenic processes is a major contributor to energy consumption and has a direct impact on the production output of the facility. By condensing at lower temperatures, the Wet Surface Air Cooler allows for increased condensing capacity…
October 2022: The following are recently published books that may be relevant for professionals working in the chemical process industries (CPI). Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Manufacturing: Nondestructive Creation. By Girish Malhotra, deGruyter Press, 2022, 317 pages, $94.99 (e-book). Keys to Improving…
Rare-earth materials are a crucial part of high-performance magnets in many electronic devices. Right now, only about 5% of these magnets are recycled, but tapping into end-of-life electronics is a promising and more sustainable source for rare-earth materials, the vast…
At Achema 2022 (Frankfurt am Main, Germany; August 22–26), a new compressor designed for hydrogen service was launched by Aerzen Machinenfabrik GmbH (Aerzen, Germany; www.aerzen.com). “We consider this solution to be the game changer in the market,” said Michael Leitsch,…
Plant Watch Gevo breaks ground on commercial-scale SAF facility in South Dakota September 16, 2022 — Gevo, Inc. (Englewood, Colo.; www.gevo.com) announced the groundbreaking in South Dakota of its first commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility, Net-Zero 1 (NZ1). This…
An expanding array of CO2-capture approaches are quickly developing for hard-to-abate industrial sectors. The key objective is to significantly lower the costs of traditional CO2-capture techniques, which are based on aqueous alkanolamine absorption and desorption Achieving climate mitigation objectives, such…
When evaluating capital projects in the chemical process industries (CPI), there are many scenarios in which there are important differences between the alternatives in terms of capital, operations and maintenance and decommissioning costs. In these cases, decisions must be made…
Milling active ingredients combines equipment selection, material characterization, and process characterization, with the aim of improving and controlling the properties of the solid crystalline drug substance. These topics are discussed here Milling is a common technique used for the reduction…
Henry Kister shares lessons learned from troubleshooting distillation towers In my courses, I discuss the effect of column operating pressure on flooding and capacity. There are two counteracting effects: The volatility effect increases in importance at higher pressures and for…