Technical & Practical
Connecting Process Simulators to the Control Room
One of the best ways to realize value from your process data is to use those data — both real-time and historical — in a process simulator. The many applications for doing so are generally categorized into offline and online…
Viscosity Measurement
Measurement of fluids’ viscosity in the chemical process industries (CPI) can represent a useful “product dimension” for manufacturers. Understanding a material’s flow characteristics is valuable in predicting several parameters relevant to many CPI processes, including pumpability, pourability, performance in a…
Process Pump Control
When automating fluid handling processes, it is critical to ensure that you are using the best type of pump for the process, and to understand how to control the type of pump you are using. The two major classes of…
MSMPR Crystallization equipment
Crystallization is a key purification technique for various sectors of the chemical process industries (CPI). Several approaches for industrial crystallization have evolved over time and highly specialized crystallizer designs have been developed, especially in long-established industries. Solution crystallization is an…
Zarko’s challenge
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…
Improving Control Valve Performance
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…
Crossover Applications for the ASME-Bioprocessing Equipment Standard
Because the global chemical process industries (CPI) encompass so many varied industry segments — including the conversion of raw materials and intermediates into chemicals and petrochemicals, fats and oils, paints and coatings, food and beverages, the refining of petroleum, the…
Lessons in Feedstock Change
These days, there seem to be more reasons than ever to change feedstocks throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). Whether environmental, or more directly based on financial and market drivers, big benefits usually require big changes. This is especially true…
Industrial Insulation Systems: Material Selection Factors
Thermal insulation systems can provide several functions on piping and equipment in industrial facilities. Some of these are: reduction in energy loss, process control, personnel protection, emissions reduction, condensation, freeze protection, and noise reduction. In the chemical process industries (CPI),…
Fractionation Column: Pushing capacity limits
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…