Operators and engineers in the chemical process industries (CPI) who are responsible for the daily operations associated with sludge dewatering and drying equipment are undoubtedly aware that wastewater-sludge drying is not an easy task. A large number of the problems…
The compound 1,4-butanediol (BDO) is a versatile intermediate for the chemical industry. Its largest derivative product is tetrahydrofuran (THF), which is used to make spandex fibers, resins, solvents and printing inks. The second largest product is polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), which…
Magnetically driven (mag drive) centrifugal pumps have been in use since 1947 when the first magdrive pump was developed. Mag drives have always been the workhorse pump in applications with corrosive and often toxic fluid applications, and particularly over the…
Collecting representative samples of heat-transfer fluid for routine quality checks falls short of the goal if safety or the environment is compromised. While users should consider their systems’ unique design features in consultation with their safety and health experts, incorporating…
The chemical process industries (CPI) have many applications that require classifying or separating solid materials. Examples of separation or classification processes include those operations that attempt to isolate specific material fractions according to particle size, scalp off the coarse fraction…
Laboratories, such as those used for quality control in a production environment and those in research and development, are an integral part of the chemical process industries (CPI). Everyday demands of business can easily overtake safety when it comes to…
Sorbent materials are used commercially for bulk separation, as well as purification of both liquids and gases. This one-page reference provides manufacturing and application information on the most widely used industrial sorbent material — activated carbon. Four types of generic…
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…