Every distillation engineer west of the River Neretva is familiar with the work of Professor Zarko Olujic. His distillation laboratory at the Technical University of Delft (The Netherlands; www.tudelft.nl) is one of the largest and best facilities in the history…
Improvements to the performance of basic, regulatory control systems have a great return on investment and are some of the least expensive control improvements to make [1]. Control valves have a major impact on control loop performance and, therefore, improvements…
Starting around 1970, many new contacting devices became available for use in distillation, absorption and stripping columns. Those devices included high-performance random packings, structured packings, high-capacity structured packings, augmented crossflow trays, counterflow trays and cocurrent flow trays. At the request…
Adding an organic Rankine cycle system to generate power onsite can help operators optimize the overall economics of combustion-related systems and emissions controls The ever-increasing cost of fuel and relentless push for environmental responsibility are constant factors in the profitability…
Polymeric piping systems have been used in well-defined segments of the chemical process industries (CPI) for decades. They have proven their sustainability to manage almost any chemical load up to temperatures of 100°C in the moderate pressure region ( p…
If the debate that culminated in passage of national healthcare reform in the U.S. is any indication of what is ahead for pharmaceutical manufacturers, they should ready themselves for battle. Implementation of the sweeping measure puts the onus on drugmakers…
The deposition and accumulation of suspended and dissolved particles on membrane surfaces leads to performance loss. Fouling can dramatically reduce the efficiency and economic benefits of a membrane process. The type of fouling and how strongly it appears depends on…
When selecting a temperature sensor, don’t fall back on outdated rules of thumb that may no longer be valid, or ‘plug and play’ solutions that may not be applicable Temperature is a critical measurement in the chemical process industries (CPI).…
My first distillation dream occurred about 30 years ago, and yet, I recall it as vividly as if it were yesterday. In it, my distillation-column design work started with a vapor-liquid thermodynamic model that was widely regarded as perfect. I…
The mechanical design and material science of pH-sensor technology have evolved dramatically over the last century. Current-day uses include a wide range of applications from high-purity pharmaceutical processing to wastewater treatment. Some of these applications pose high challenges to pH…