Technical & Practical
Sensing Change in Batch Reactors
The batch reactor is the workhorse of the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Within it, many different unit operations are performed such as chemical reactions, bioreactions, crystallization, distillation and dissolution. Despite their significance to the industry, batch reactors have been…
Maintaining and Repairing Heat Exchanger Tubes
Tube plugging is probably the most frequently used maintenance and repair technique for the tube side of an exchanger. This article provides information on how to locate the positions of tube failures and discusses why it is important to know…
Facts at Your Fingertips: Membranes
Separation by a membrane is achieved by creating a boundary between different bulk gas or liquid mixtures. As different solvents and solutes flow through a membrane at different rates, separation is achieved. Here, we will focus on three filtration techniques:…
Cover Story Part 1: Are You Ready For REACH?
This is an important year for any company that makes, uses, buys or sells chemicals or products containing chemicals. On June 1, 2007, the European Union’s (EU) Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical substances (REACH) came…
Caring for Cooling Water Systems
Hydrocarbon leaks can disrupt recirculated cooling-water systems. Here’s an outline of effects and remedies Water is often the fluid of choice for cooling systems in the chemical process industries (CPI). Recirculated cooling-water systems are used to control the temperature of…
Tank Coatings: Covering the Basics of Selection and Specification
The interior surfaces of your storage tanks are constantly at risk. If you walk past a tank often without giving thought to what is happening on the inside, it is because you trust the interior coating to protect not only…
Pump Hazardous Liquids Safely
Reduce the problems associated with handling hazardous liquids by following these guidelines Pumps are one of the most ubiquitous items of equipment found in chemical processing plants. Often, they are used to transfer hazardous liquids, such as flammable, combustible, toxic…
CPI Water & Steam Chemistry
Careful control of water and steam chemistry at CPI facilities can pay off handsomely in reliable operation Sometimes lost in the hustle and bustle of production issues at chemical-process-industries (CPI) facilities is that high-purity water, and steam produced thereby, is…
Causes of Overpressurization
The failure of a device or of a group of components can lead to overpressurization and subsequent adverse events, such as fire, explosion, spill or release. The most common causes of overpressurization are listed below. Understanding the circumstances surrounding overpressurization…
Facts at Your Fingertips: Sedimentation Centrifuging
Centrifugation is the method of choice in the chemical process industries (CPI) for separating solids from liquids. It relies on the G-forces generated by high-speed rotation to recover solids or liquids from slurries, as well as clarify liquids or classify…