MITO Material Solutions (Indianapolis, Ind.; www.mitomaterials.com) has developed a proprietary graphene-functionalization technique that produces unique strength-enhancing additives for a wide variety of polymers and composites. The additives significantly improve mechanical properties (including tensile strength, flexural modulus and others) of the…
The Philadelphia Wellington heavy-duty workboot (photo) is built to withstand tough work environments, while also keeping feet comfortable. The Philadelphia Wellington features a full-grain, waterproof leather to help resist the damaging effects of many chemicals, including oleic acid, urea, sodium…
Capacitors are attractive in large-scale energy-storage applications, such as electric vehicles or grid storage, because of their ability to rapidly charge and discharge, but their energy densities have been too small to allow their use in such applications. Researchers at…
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU; Singapore; www.ntu.edu.sg), led by professor Madhavi Srinivasan, have developed a method of using orange peel waste to extract precious metals from spent lithium-ion batteries and to make batteries from those recovered metals, creating minimal…
New mobile devices, apps and augmented reality are supporting the digitalization revolution, as well as keeping business going during the pandemic Anyone who has visited or toured a production plant of the chemical process industries (CPI) knows that mobile phones…
Improved understanding of the causes of piping leaks can reduce the frequency of leaks and lead to significantly better performance over time Leakage in pipes is an ongoing problem in research and development facilities across many sectors of the chemical…
This column is based on “Sodium Chlorate Production – Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/sodium-chlorate-production-cost. Sodium chlorate (NaClO3; also known as chlorate of soda) is an odorless inorganic salt with colorless crystals and…
When transferring stored bulk-solids materials from hoppers, bins and silos, flow stoppage can occur because of bridging or arching at the vessel outlet. Hopper outlets must be large enough to prevent cohesive arches or stable ratholes from developing. Determining the…
Pipe supports in industrial process plants are often more complicated than commonly thought. Presented here are some of the challenges that can arise and how to address them On one level, the topic of pipe supports seems like it should…
Even with advanced predictive technologies, unplanned equipment failures can still occur. In these instances, as shown in this boiler example, rapid maintenance action is crucial to minimize downtime Maintenance activities generally fall into two categories — reactive and preventative. The…