October 2018

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× COMMENTARY

Preparing for unprecedented storms
This year, hurricane season in the U.S. has been active…

COVER STORY

Figure 4. These LLE internals will be installed into a commercial column

Liquid-Liquid Extraction: Generating Equilibrium Data
Equilibrium data and related information gathered from a liquid-liquid extraction…

IN THE NEWSNEWSFRONTS

Figure 3. Glass or glass-lined steel is often the best material of construction for acid recovery plants (except for HF), as seen in this denitration column

De Dietrich Process Systems

Acid Recovery Becomes the Norm
As environmental and transportation regulations become more stringent around the…

Figure 1. When it comes to compatibility, it is essential that the sealing material is compatible not just with individual chemicals, but with the product that results from mixing those chemicals.

American High Performance Seals

Seals and Gaskets: Sealing the Deal
Increased reliability, chemical compatibility and containment of sealing solutions are…

CHEMENTATOR + Show More

Extracting gold without cyanide
The first gold using a process without cyanide and without…

Measure bulk solids in piles and silos
Advances in sensing and imaging technologies have enabled new levels…

Japan takes a major step toward a hydrogen-based economy
A Japanese consortium has started the construction of the Fukushima…

Oxidative desulfurization approach for hydrocarbons lowers costs
Petroleum refineries must meet increasingly stringent levels for sulfur content…

Materials properties discovery aided by machine learning
A new materials-discovery platform that relies on machine-learning enables scientists…

Advanced ODC electrolysis reduces energy consumption even more
Around 70% of all chemical products use chlorine in their…

Advanced thermal hydrolysis pretreatment boosts biogas production
Thermal hydrolysis of wastewater sludge before it enters anaerobic digestion…

Chementator Briefs
New adsorbent Last month, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) launched…

A compact system cleans fluegas from glass-melting furnaces
Furnaces used in the production of glass are normally equipped…

BUSINESS NEWS

Business News October 2018
Plant Watch Dow announces investment plans to increase global silicones…

TECHNICAL & PRACTICAL

Figure 1. Experimental studies are important to either verify distillation simulations or to provide a path forward to improve the simulations

Experimental Methodologies to Verify Distillation Simulations
Presented here are practical considerations concerning the equipment and methods…

FEATURE REPORT

FIGURE 1. The complexity of CPI heating processes, including boilers, burners, furnaces and more, necessitates much effort being applied to ensure their safe operation

Avoid Common Mistakes When Specifying Burner Management Systems
While some aspects of burner management systems may seem intuitive,…

FIGURE 1. A safety instrumented function (SIF) has a specified safety integrity level (SIL) that is necessary to achieve functional safety. The SIL applies to the SIF, which is the combination of the sensor, logic solver and final element — not the programmable logic controller (PLC)

Reduce Risk and Cost with a Lifecycle Approach to Process Safety
Better upfront planning and management can lead to safer, more…

FACTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Figure 1. In cake filtration (a), the separation takes place on a buildup of particles (cake) on the filter medium. In some cases (b), more than simple size exclusion may be involved

Facts at your Fingertips: Filtration Process Design
Designing a new solid-liquid filtration process or optimizing an existing…

TECHNOLOGY PROFILE

Figure 2. Benzene can be produced via several different pathways

Technology Profile: Benzene Production from Pyrolysis Gas
This column is based on “Benzene Production from Pygas,” a…

ENGINEERING PRACTICE

FIGURE 2. In the event of a fire, the fluids inside a partially filled ASME pressure vessel with 2:1 SE heads will absorb heat through the wetted surface, which is shown here in a darker shade of blue

Calculate the Wetted Surface Area of Pressure Vessels
This article provides a comparative study of two approaches to…

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGER

FIGURE 1. Cyber-crime is on the rise as digital technologies continue to proliferate across the process industries, and malicious individuals become more adept at targeting companies’ vulnerabilities

Cybersecurity: Building Resilience from the Inside Out
Cybersecurity is no longer a far-fetched concept relegated to science…

FIGURE 3. Predictive maintenance can reduce the fouling of heat exchangers in a factory

Improve Energy Management to Reduce Your Facility's Carbon Footprint
This article describes an approach that uses data analytics for…

EQUIPMENT & SERVICESFOCUS

Focus on Valves
These versatile, modular valves enable quick installation More than 2,500…

NEW PRODUCTS + Show More

Sight-glass-mounted camera enables remote vessel inspection
The EXPCMR-IP-POE-4MP-IR-SGM explosion-proof camera (photo) is a remote inspection device…

This discharging system has built-in bag-piercing knives
The patented Material Master bulk-bag discharging system (photo) includes bag-piercing…

These liquid-level sensors work when condensation is present
Typically, the presence of condensation substantially degrades the measurement signal…

Cybersecurity for legacy control systems
SerialTap (photo) is a new cybersecurity solution for legacy industrial…

New release of this structural analysis software
GT Strudl 2018 R1 software offers fully integrated and database-driven…

Signal transmission and functional safety combined
EtherCAT terminals (photo), part of this company’s ELX Series, have…

This pump handles solids with diameters up to 4 in.
This company’s vertical wet-pit cantilever pump (photo) features a fully…

This agitator avoids fibrous buildup
The Chemineer RL-3 impeller (photo) has been specifically engineered to…

Continuous vibration measurements improve uptime
The new 3561 FC vibration sensor (photo) improves uptime by…

These AODD pumps have a safety-enhancing design
New C-Series air-operated double-diaphragm (AODD) pumps (photo) are designed to…

New motor options for drum pumps
This company’s Finish Thompson drum pumps and barrel-emptying pumps are…

A solution to optimize motor performance in cooling towers
Series M Geareducers (photo) are designed and manufactured to directly…

Comprehensive monitoring for heat-trace circuits
The TraceNet Genesis control and monitoring system (photo) manages heat-trace…

A pressure gage for frigid conditions
The T6500 pressure gage (photo) is designed for use in…

These dryers feature a versatile base to accommodate auxiliaries
This company’s rugged fluid-bed dryers feature unitary steel bases as…

Highlights Experimental Methodologies to Verify Distillation Simulations Cybersecurity for legacy control systems Measure bulk solids in piles and silos Focus on Valves Preparing for unprecedented storms

Comment Automation & Control

Introducing the first hybrid safety-standard I/O module

By Chemical Engineering | December 1, 2015

Hans Turck

The TBPN safety block I/O module (photo) is said to be the first module to combine both standard and safety inputs and outputs in a single device. The IP67 hybrid modules can be adapted flexibly to the specific signal requirement in the machine, helping to implement space-saving, less expensive machine wiring. On the safety side of the Profinet/Profisafe module, the user has two safety inputs for connecting different safety sensors, such as light curtains or emergency-stop buttons. Two additional safety channels can be used either as inputs or outputs. The four universal I/Os for connecting non-safety-related signals can switch up to 2 A. Two of the I/Os can also be connected as IO-Link masters. In combination with the company’s I/O hubs, users can connect up to 32 additional I/Os to the module in this way. — Hans Turck GmbH & Co. KG, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

www.turck.com

Breakthrough Technologies