Technical & Practical
A Bit of Extra Lab Effort Can Prevent Grief During Scaleup
It’s an old saw, but I’ve long held that process development is very much a team effort. Developing safe, robust and scaleable chemical processes calls for close collaboration between synthesis chemists, process development engineers and pilot plant personnel.…
How to Estimate Utility Costs
Typical process utilities include electricity, process steam, refrigerants, compressed air, cooling water, heated water, hot oil, process water, demineralized water, municipal water, and river, lake, or ocean water. For preliminary cost estimates, waste disposal cost can also be…
Know Your Hydrogen-Supply Options
At present, around 540 billion Nm3 of hydrogen is produced worldwide, and the trend is upward (Hydrogen: The Real Action Is Today, CE, February, pp. 28ff). The numerous chemical-process and other industrial applications of this colorless, odorless gas…
Will Mass Flow Solve All Your Segregation Problems?
Most chemical processes must produce products that are uniformly mixed. There have been many articles written about preventing particle segregation during bulk solids flow; and ensuring a mass flow pattern is a common suggestion. But mass flow alone is not…
Understanding Atmospheric Storage Tanks
Liquids are accumulated and stored in tanks of various shapes and sizes throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). A small number of companies have made the design, fabrication and erection of these vessels their specialty. Initially, however, it…
Mixing Systems: Design and Scale Up
Fundamental to the chemical process industries (CPI) — whether specialty or bulk chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food products, minerals processing, environmental protection or other products or activities — is the need for mixing. The wide variety and complexity of mixing…
Distillation: How to Specify & Install Cartridge Trays
Cartridge trays, defined below, can be the perfect hardware solution for distillation columns that are less than 3 feet (0.9m) in diameter and have a unique need for trays. Packing is usually the preferred choice for small-diameter columns, but there…
Short-Cut Piping Costs
Engineers often need to predict the cost of piping and pipefitting associated with a process unit. Even though detailed prices are available, finding and organizing them takes time and costs money. For those needing a quick method of…
A Modern Approach to Solvent Selection
Solvents have been used for centuries and in all type of industries for the processing, manufacturing and formulation of goods. In the chemical process industries (CPI), solvents are used in various process-operation steps such as separation (of gas,…
Process Water Treatment – Challenges and Solutions
Depending on their location and on other factors, chemical-process-industries (CPI) plants obtain their process water from a diverse range of sources (see Process Water Supply — the Big Picture, Chem. Eng., May 2005, pp. 32–34.). The water from…