Technical & Practical
A Primer on Spray Drying
An understanding of the basic information presented here will help you produce powdered products with desired characteristics, while operating the drying plant safely and with minimum energy This photo shows a spray dryer with a heat recuperator. The plant…
De-emphasize Capital Costs For Pipe Size Selection
Piping represents a major cost for projects in the chemical process industries (CPI). Larger pipe diameters increase upfront capital costs for a project, but the lower pressure drops afforded by large pipes mean less power is required to move the…
Making the Leap from R&D to Manufacturing
The success of industrial R&D activities has a direct impact on a company’s long-term commercial profitability. Today, a variety of market forces, including the drive for growth, the search for new ideas and innovative products, and the increasingly competitive pressures…
Direct-Fired Heaters: Evaluate Thermal Performance And the Effects of Fouling
Direct-fired heaters find wide application throughout the chemical process industries (CPI) and are common in petroleum refineries, where they are used to preheat petroleum or petroleum-derived feedstocks in advance of downstream process operations. Since excessive internal tube fouling occurs above…
Aboveground and Underground Storage Tanks
The ultimate objective of storing liquid, fluid and gaseous products, which may be corrosive, flammable or unstable, is to store material in an environmentally safe and economically viable manner. Storage tanks in the chemical process industries (CPI) can be most…
Preventing Dust Explosions
Household items, such as breakfast cereal, flour, corn starch and sugar are so common that many were left surprised after the 2008 combustible-dust explosion at a sugar refinery in Georgia. Heard in much of the early media coverage was the…
Compressed Gases: Managing Cylinders Safely
Compressed gas cylinders are widely used in research, pilot plant, laboratory and small-scale manufacturing and processing operations as a way to provide a convenient, economical and safe source of high-pressure gases for various applications. These gases can be inert, flammable,…
Energy Efficiency: Tracking Natural Gas With Flowmeters
Thermal mass flowmeters provide advantages over other options for metering the consumption of natural gas by individual combustion units throughout the facility With today’s increased emphasis on strategic energy management, many throughout the chemical process industries (CPI) and elsewhere are…
Estimating the Total Cost of Cartridge and Bag Filtration
Bag filters for industrial applications have been in existence longer and are considered by some to be easier and simpler to specify than cartridges for a filtration project. And although cartridge filtration is now one of the mostly widely used…
Chemical Resistance of Thermoplastics
Corrosion is estimated to account for a significant portion — 8–10% — of total annual-plant-capital expenditures for the chemical process industries. To avoid it, engineers can consider corrosion-resistant plastics for process piping and storage vessels. Thermoplastics are generally resistant to…