The following letter originally appeared in Chemical Engineering, December 2011, p. 6. The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) flawed and unwarranted ruling that styrene poses a health hazard continues to stir opposition from respected scientists, manufacturing leaders,…
(From November 2011, Letters) Perhaps enough has been written about the questionable science underlying recent U.S. government pronouncements concerning formaldehyde and human cancer of the lymphohematopoietic system (“LHPs—including the leukemias and the lymphomas)*. Now, suppliers of formaldehyde-containing product must face…
Thermosiphon reboilers are the new standard in petroleum refineries and chemical plants. Nevertheless, approximately 50% of the world’s reboilers are kettles. In the realm of heat transfer, kettle reboilers have not been understood well. Last month, at ChemInnovations, however, Pete…
As the calendar flips to May, spring is finally beginning to push a tough winter out of the way in the Northeastern part of the U.S. With the change of season, many companies in the chemical process industries (CPI) are…
LEAN Chemical Manufacturing There has been a great deal of new activity around so-called lean thinking or the lean enterprise lately, even though the practical application has been going on since the early 1900s. It was started by Henry Ford,…