Technical & Practical
Modularization: Managing Project Delivery Risk in the Time of COVID
Taking a modular approach to capital projects offers a pathway for companies to be proactive, rather than reactive, as they manage project risk in the time of COVID and potential similar disruptions in the future It has been more than…
Enhancing Plant Safety Via Virtual ‘On-Site’ Visits
New developments in augmented reality can help plant operators fix critical issues while limiting the number of outside visitors entering the facility Reducing risk is an important goal for any plant or petroleum refinery to maintain the health and safety…
Advanced Analytics for Process Safety
A look at how advanced analytics facilitates and improves process safety efforts within the chemical process industries (CPI) Simply by the nature of some of the chemicals used and the associated complex processes involved, chemical plants can be hazardous. With…
Keeping Valves Corrosion-Free
In all phases of a valve’s lifecycle — from fabrication to decommissioning and storage — corrosion protection is essential Corrosion can be a serious source of valve damage, and it can often result in costly leakage, failures and repairs or…
Specifying Severe-Service Valves for Urea Applications
To withstand the harsh conditions and potential safety risks encountered in urea agricultural applications and other severe-service processes, special consideration must be given to valve construction, performance and installation Severe-service valves (SSVs) are specially designed and manufactured for critical applications…
Technology Profile: Producing Polylactic Acid from Corn
Polylactic acid (PLA, polylactide; Figure 1) is a thermoplastic aliphatic polyester that is derived from a number of renewable starting materials, such as starch and sugarcane, via bacterial fermentation. PLA is semicrystalline or amorphous, rigid, resilient and an ultraviolet-light-resistant material,…
Facts At Your Fingertips: Evaporator Equipment Types
Industrial evaporator heat-transfer surfaces are either tubular or flat plates, packaged into a variety of evaporator types, as outlined here. Batch evaporators Batch evaporators are vessels with a heating jacket or internal coil, an overhead condenser, a condensate receiver, and…
Technology Profile: Suspension Polymerization of Polyvinyl Chloride
This column is based on “Polyvinyl Chloride Production from VCM (Suspension Polymerization) – Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/polyvinyl-chloride-production-cost. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is the third most commonly produced synthetic polymer, after polyethylene and…
Operational Best Practices for Rotary Dryers
To maximize the service life and reliability of rotary dryers for solid materials, adhere to this set of practices Rotary dryers have a well-deserved reputation for reliability, often providing decades of trouble-free operation in solids-handling processes. As with any type…
Facts At Your Fingertips: Microbial-Influenced Corrosion
Any corrosion process in which microorganisms initiate, facilitate or accelerate corrosive chemical reactions is termed microbially influenced corrosion (MIC). MIC occurs when the chemical, microbiological and physical conditions allow the active growth of biofilms containing specific types of microbes on…