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Facts At Your Fingertips

Facts At Your Fingertips: Hopper Outlet Geometry and Arching

When transferring stored bulk-solids materials from hoppers, bins and silos, flow stoppage can occur because of bridging or arching at the vessel outlet. Hopper outlets must be large enough to prevent cohesive arches or stable ratholes from developing. Determining the…

Facts At Your Fingertips: Cost Estimation and Risk

Understanding project risks is critical to arriving at useful cost estimates. Since each capital project in the chemical process industries (CPI) is somewhat unique, it can be difficult for engineers and project leaders to price risks in their estimates and…

Facts at your Fingertips: Heat-Transfer-System Maintenance During Slow Periods

Periods of reduced heat-transfer-fluid (HTF) system operation offer opportunities for mechanical integrity engineers to perform necessary maintenance. Here are suggestions for using the downtime for maintenance tasks. Safety These activities support ongoing safety of the HTF unit. Leak repairs. Repair…

Facts at your Fingertips: Cyclone Separators

Removing solids from a stream of air or other gases is an important operation across virtually all sectors of the chemical process industries (CPI). In many cases, gas-solid separation is motivated by the need to reduce environmental impact and health…

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Facts at your Fingertips: Ion Exchange Resins in Water Treatment

Removal of dissolved ions from industrial process water, boiler feedwater or wastewater is a common challenge for facilities in the chemical process industries (CPI). Ion exchange (IX) systems offer one possible solution for demineralization, purification or wastewater-treatment applications. Ion exchange…

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Facts at your Fingertips: Nucleation Phenomena in Crystallization

Industrial crystallization processes are widely used in the chemical process industries (CPI) for their ability to separate and purify products in a single step, often to greater than 99.9% purity. Crystal growth proceeds after nucleation, a molecular aggregation process whereby…

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Facts at your Fingertips: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is an analytical chemistry technique used to elucidate molecular structure and help identity unknown compounds. It is a powerful research tool used for quality control, reaction monitoring, purity analysis and other functions. Nuclear spin The…

Facts at your Fingertips: Distillation Trays and Packing

Industrial distillation columns use either trays or packing to promote vapor-liquid contact in separating the components of liquid mixtures to the desired purity. Approximately one half of columns are equipped with trays globally, and the other half contain packings. This…

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Facts at your Fingertips: Centrifuge Separation Capacity

This one-page reference describes how to measure the capability of a given centrifuge to separate solids from a liquid phase. G-force The centrifugal force developed by a centrifuge is expressed as a multiple of the force of gravity. This force,…

Facts at your Fingertips: Removal of Particulate Matter from Industrial Processes

Controlling and reducing particulate matter pollution from industrial operations is a key environmental and human health objective. In chemical process industries (CPI) facilities, airborne particulate matter can result from combustion of fuels, or from process operations, such as dust from…