Technical & Practical
Facts at your Fingertips: Vacuum Pumps
Vacuum is any system of reduced pressure, relative to local (typically atmospheric) pressure. Achieved with a pump, vacuum systems are commonly used to: Remove excess air and its constituents Remove excess reactants or unwanted byproducts Reduce the boiling point Dry…
Cover Story Part 1: Level Measurement Technologies For the CPI
Plant performance and safety are key issues for the chemical process industries (CPI) and level measurement plays a crucial role in both. Level measurement helps maintain material inventory at economic quantities, improves product quality and ensures a smooth continuous…
Cover Story Part 2: Liquid-Level Measurement Options In the CPI
Many types of industrial processes utilize liquid level sensors to provide the information needed to monitor and control a process. This enables the design parameters to be maintained in order to produce the end product at the desired level of…
Cover Story Part 1: Compressed Air: Exploring the Need For Temporary Systems
Compressed air is often referred to as the fourth utility, and yet for an upstart business or process there is no commercial infrastructure that provides a core supply as exists with gas, electricity and water. When a need for compressed…
Cover Story Part 2: Compressed Air: Your Most Expensive Utility
Compressed air is your most expensive utility. This is a fact that has been documented time and time again. It takes 7 to 8 hp of electricity to produce 1 hp in an airtool. In many plants, the compressed air…
Piping for Process Plants Part 6: Testing and Verification
This sixth and final part of a series of articles [ 1 – 5] on piping for process plants discusses practical issues of leak testing and verification of piping systems. Read Part 5 here. Leak Testing Leak testing and pressure…
Facts at Your Fingertips: Humidity Control
Applications Dehumidification by cooling or dessication has a variety of applications, including: Preventing moisture regain. Nearly all materials have some affinity for moisture based on surface characteristics and the amount of surface exposed to humid air. Moisture regain occurs when…
Solids Processing: Automating Your Weigh Batching System
In many plants that batch-blend bulk products, weigh batching is a manual, time-consuming operation in which ingredients are weighed individually before being discharged to a blender or some other process vessel. A significant number of such plants could benefit from…
Engineering Practice: Hydrogen-Pinch Analysis Made Easy
An automated spreadsheet method can quickly help minimize fresh hydrogen consumption while maximizing hydrogen recovery and reuse in petroleum refineries and petrochemical complexes In petroleum refineries and petrochemical complexes, there are many hydrogen consumers, such as hydrotreaters, hydrocrackers, isomerization units…
Zirconium and its Alloys: For Extreme Sulfuric Acid Applications
One of the earliest applications for zirconium in the chemical process industries (CPI) is for sulfuric acid service. Used commonly during the manufacture of chemicals as a catalyst, dehydrating agent, absorbent, or an oxidizing or reducing agent, sulfuric acid is…