Technical & Practical
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…
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…
Technology Showcase: Carbon Capture and Storage
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an area of technology that has received national and international attention. CCS is seen by some as a way to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere and thereby decrease the threat…
An Integrated Approach to Industrial Security
To many, the concept of a "smart plant" involves integrating critical process subsystems and instrumentation with the goal of streamlining operations, increasing production and, simply put, making more money. But looking at the bigger picture, the true goal of having…
Warming Up to Accurate Temperature Measurement
Accurate temperature measurement is not difficult. It does, however, require you to think about accuracy from specification and selection, all the way up to installation and operation of your temperature-measurement sensor. There are opportunities to improve accuracy during each of…