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Technical & Practical

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Oxygen Production via Cryogenic Distillation

This column is based on “Oxygen Production – Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/oxygen-production-cost. Oxygen is a nonmetallic element and one of the most abundant elements on Earth’s surface. Under standard pressure and…

Facts at your Fingertips: Pump Sizing Parameters

A solid grasp of pump sizing allows engineers to make effective economic and practical decisions about process pumps. This one-page reference provides information about two key parameters and other considerations for pump sizing. Pump sizing steps Sizing a pump requires…

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Accelerating Six Sigma Research with the Definitive Screening Design (DSD) Technique

DSD is a new design-of-experiments (DOE) technique that is expected to bring huge benefits when using a Six Sigma optimization strategy Statistical tools are deeply ingrained in the Six Sigma methodology to optimize processes and products during chemical process industries…

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Cost Engineering: Equipment Purchase Costs

A methodology and examples for estimating equipment costs are presented Engineers have the responsibility to create projects having attractive returns on investment and to create economically sound designs — designs that produce high-quality, competitively priced products. This requires the technical…

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Commercializing Process Technologies

New technologies can provide competitive advantages compared to established processes, but significant effort is required to transition a promising concept into a commercial reality Many students study chemical engineering with the aspiration of someday inventing an innovative process that could…

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Technology Profile: HDPE Production via Slurry-Loop Process

This column is based on “HDPE Production via Slurry Loop Process – Cost Analysis,” published by Intratec. The report can be found at the following URL: www.intratec.us/analysis/hdpe-production-cost. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is one of the three main types of polyethylene, and…

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Facts at your Fingertips: Pressure Measurement for Real Gases

The ideal gas law ( PV = nRT), relating molar volume of a gas to pressure and temperature, is predicated on two assumptions: 1) that the volume occupied by the gas molecules is negligible compared to the volume of the…

Recommended Fluid Velocities in Pipelines

The recommended velocities for fluids’ transportation must be updated periodically to obtain the optimum value of the pipe diameter in the current economic conditions To arrive at the optimum diameters for pipes, the heuristic criteria of recommended velocity has been…

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Engineering & Construction (E&C): Modeling Integration Enables Optimized Execution

As E&C companies strive to develop Building Information Modeling (BIM) 6D models for the owners and operators of CPI facilities, strong efficiency gains benefit all parties Truly transformational change is upon the engineering and construction (E&C) industry, and some consider…

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Pitfalls to Avoid When Generating Cost Estimates

The pitfalls in cost estimating that cause project overruns have been well known for decades, yet they continue to plague the CPI When I first started writing this article, I set out to summarize the mechanics of project cost estimation.…