Technical & Practical
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
A Shortcut to Optimize Pipe Diameters by Economic Criteria
This methodology can be used not only for laminar flow, but also for the complete turbulent flow region In recent decades, the impact of energy costs on the transport of fluids has led to a significant reduction in fluid velocity…
Technology Profile: Polychloroprene Production
This column is based on the report “Polychloroprene Production – Cost Analysis,” published by Intratec. It can be found at the following URL: www.intratec.us/analysis/polychloroprene-production-cost. The need to find a substitute for natural rubber during World War II boosted the development…
Facts at your Fingertips: Distillation
Computer-generated simulations of distillation processes are often validated experimentally. This reference discusses three concepts that influence comparisons between experimental results and simulation predictions: vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) of the components; relative liquid-to-vapor flowrates (L/V ratios in the column); and vapor-liquid contactor…
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…