A new industry standard relating to the safe operation of electrical equipment can help manufacturers transition from an irregular maintenance schedule to a safer, more prescriptive regimen We used to need to change our motor oil every 3,000 miles. The…
Optimizing the additive manufacturing of parts like actuators, regulators and valves will result in faster delivery, lower costs and improved performance for these crucial equipment components Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are benefiting the chemical process industries (CPI) in two main…
Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are a family of highly reactive gases that can be produced naturally, but largely result from fuel combustion (industrial combustion and automobile engines). In the environment, they are pollutants that react with volatile organic compounds in…
Understanding the water chemistry is a first step in preventing heat-exchanger fouling At the two power plants and chemical plant in which this author formerly worked, the fresh-water-makeup supplies (two lakes and an underground aquifer adjacent to a river) all…
A laboratory ventilation system that does not work effectively may not keep personnel safe and can produce significant adverse impacts on operations Laboratory personnel treat their ventilation systems as a given. They expect them to be designed right, to always…
As the chemical process industries push to decarbonize their businesses, heat pumps are emerging as a go-to alternative to fossil fuels. Efficient and cost-effective, heat pumps are a rapidly expanding solution for industrial heat demand In the drive to meet…
Reactors are at the core of most processes in the chemical process industries (CPI) and are broken down most broadly by whether their operating mode is non-flow (batch) or continuous. Each reactor type has advantages and disadvantages depending on the…
Properly locating a simple 1–2-in. balance line can make all the difference in successful reboiler operation Steam reboilers are crucial to production in petroleum refineries and petrochemical plants, representing huge capital investment in distillation columns. Regardless of the investment made…
Energy recovery in spray-drying processes can reduce production costs, but involves trade-offs. Using milk powder as an example, this article describes a spreadsheet method to evaluate exhaust-gas recirculation scenarios for optimizing spray drying Dairy processing is among the most energy…
Metal-organic framework materials (MOFs) have garnered considerable attention as candidate materials for a number of applications, such as gas storage, molecular separation and catalysis, because their organic and inorganic components are highly tunable at the molecular level. Since being introduced…