The organic compound 1,3-butadiene is a petrochemical commodity used as a raw material for the production of rubbers and plastics, such as polybutadiene rubber (PR), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). These materials are mainly applied in…
A dividing wall column (DWC) is an atypical distillation column with an internal, vertical partition wall that effectively accommodates — within one shell — two conventional distillation columns that are connected in series as required when separating a multicomponent feed…
Several market conditions, including availability of light crude oilds in the U.S., low natural-gas prices and improving macroeconomics, are driving debottlenecking projects related to columns in both petroleum refining and chemical settings. Fortunately, the process-simulation tools that can be used…
Historically, many large industrial facilities, including power plants, have relied on once-through cooling, in which the entire cooling water volume flows through the plant heat exchangers and then is discharged to the original source. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency…
May Technology Profile I would like to ask the following questions and offer the following comments regarding the May 2014 Technology Profile (Ethanol from the Direct Gasification of Biomass, p. 43). • What is the overall yield of ethanol (in…
Many industrial gases are transported, stored and used in liquid form, a situation that poses significant health and safety risks. This one-page reference highlights good safety practices for preventing personnel injury when working with cryogenic fluids. High-purity industrial gases, including…
New safety and environmental regulations, longer plant uptime and changes in maintenance practices have created new requirements across the chemical process industries (CPI). Among the plant equipment affected by these changes are control valves, since they are used in numerous…
Pressing global issues, such as climate change and declining energy security, have led to an increasing interest in the use of renewable feedstocks for fuel production. These feedstocks include lignocellulosic materials, such as waste biomass from the agriculture and forest…
In the face of intense market pressures, companies are increasingly requiring their engineering organizations to complete capital projects more quickly, while spending less capital and creating systems that cost less to operate over the long run. They are also asked…
Dust in the chemical processing industries (CPI) is present in numerous operations, including powder processing; the transport of materials on belt or rotary-screw conveyors; grinding materials in giant shredders and pulverizers; machining, sawing, grinding or sanding operations; dumping bags of…