Clients often come to us with questions like, “Why won’t my powder come out faster? I even tried speeding up the feeder!” or “Why is my powder flowing out of my hopper like a liquid?” Very frustrating!
These strange behaviors – problems with “not enough flow” when fine powders are rate-limited and won’t discharge any faster, or “way too much flow” when powders act like liquids and flood uncontrolled through the process – are all too common in processes across a variety of industries, including chemicals, cement, consumer products, food products, pharmaceutical production, powdered metals, and even in battery manufacturing.
At Jenike & Johanson, we refer to these behaviors of fine powders as “two-phase” flow interactions, where the two phases are (1) the powder and (2) interstitial air or gas. When not properly accounted for, two-phase flow interactions of powders can be highly problematic and result in product loss, quality control problems, process non-uniformity and segregation, decreased production rates, and significant safety and maintenance concerns.
Join Senior Project Engineer Josh Marion of Jenike & Johanson while he discusses why these fine powder flow problems occur, how they can be predicted, and how they can be prevented.
How has the current pandemic accelerated the rate of implementation of digitalization and technologies? For the past 15 months, both the power generation and chemical processing sectors were pushed toward a greater level of remote communications, remote monitoring, and increased pandemic-mitigation protocols. In this webinar, end-users will share their experiences with digital twins, remote operation centers, augmented reality systems, and other technology applications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Presenters will discuss how these digital technologies supported operations during the pandemic and how they might be used in the future.
Many chemical processes can be complex and depend on the Distributed Control System (DCS) to prepare teams to adopt with confidence new innovations that will drive lower costs, while speeding the development and startup of new process areas or plants. The backbone of innovation are the supporting standards to ensure consistency and robustness of new solutions to age old challenges. To put this into perspective, we will start with a quick look back of how standards have influenced today’s DCS, and then we will focus on the standards being developed now such as Modular Type Package (MTP) and Power Over Ethernet (PoE) that will drive innovations to make the DCS even more nimble and easier to implement than it is today.
Since first developments of ultrasonic technology in the 1920s, it has continued to evolve and is now used for various applications, including measurement of flare gas flow. Join us in this webinar to learn trends and advantages to using ultrasonic technology for flare applications.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
• A brief history of ultrasonic flow meters in flare applications
• Advantages to using ultrasonic meters for flare measurement
• What new technology is emerging in the market
If you’re in a system that’s outdated, you’re well aware of the risks of running your plant processes with aging hardware and software. Waiting to modernize will impact your cost of ownership due to shortages of critical parts, increase risk of an unplanned production shutdown and will have no incremental benefits.
A well-designed modernization approach will allow to reduce footprints and costs. Whether by eliminating unnecessary hardware, reducing wiring, or reducing project hours, these solutions all drive significant cost savings that add up to millions of dollars even on small projects.
This webinar examines the current status of the U.S. chemical industry as well as its outlook over the next several years. We will start with examination of the economic environment, with an emphasis on the recovery from the Covid-19 recession and additional focus on housing, light vehicles and other important end-use markets.
We will then focus on: 1) basic chemicals and synthetic materials; and 2) specialty chemicals. Our premise is that the shale-advantage of the former will be retained. On the latter segment, our premise is that it will reflect the recovery in manufacturing and will be possibly aided by reshoring in the upcoming years. Of particular interest to those in process engineering and chemical company capital programs, we will assess the capital spending outlook.
Today, more than ever, autonomous operations and auto adaptation is required to overcome system challenges in chemical feed systems. Manufactures often talk about the features and capabilities of products, but without directly linking these to applications, it can be difficult to see the value. Special technologies like Flow Control and Measurement capabilities directly integrated into a dosing pump sound interesting, but what does it really mean for your application? In this webinar, we will dive into the details of how this technology works and why it is something that should be considered for anyone looking for the most accurate, robust, reliable, and user-friendly chemical metering pump. Additionally, you will learn how this technology can deliver real-time diagnostics and chemical usage feedback to keep your plant running smoothly.
During 2020 the Chemicals Industry became a highly dynamic environment increasing the need for companies to adapt to different demands and production loads. Among the top enablers to help face these uncertainties are Cloud and Artificial Intelligence. During this webinar, we will explore how cloud-based, AI-driven Predictive Asset Optimization provides very early detection of O&M issues and a 360o view of risk, facilitating optimization of operational efficiency, production, and costs based on known constraints or potential loss of equipment. As a result, plants can manage risks, thus decreasing production losses due to downtime and optimizing operations and maintenance strategies. We will explore this cutting-edge AI solution, the cognitive technologies behind it, and real world case studies that bring its value to the forefront.
As more industries bring more analytical equipment online, it is increasingly important to have high-quality sampling systems in place to accurately capture process conditions for later analysis. Sampling reliability is necessary to optimize your costs and ensure the quality of your process outputs, but finding the right system requires careful analysis of a variety of factors, including sample pressure, temperature, phase, compatibility, and chemical composition. Swagelok advisors routinely help customers work through the complex considerations necessary to choose a grab sampling system that will perform reliably in their specific applications, and our experts have tapped decades of chemical processing and sampling experience to design safe, easy-to-use, locally configurable grab sampling solutions. In this webinar, we will explain how to decide between grab sampling and online analyzer systems, requirements for designing a high-performing liquid grab sampling system, and tips to find a grab sampling system that meets your needs.
Maintenance and design engineers are increasingly searching for lightweight and cost-effective materials like plastics, which are easy to fabricate, and are capable of providing extended service life in a given application. For these reasons, plastics are being considered more frequently as the material of choice when designing components for use in chemical plants. However, choosing the correct plastic for the application is critical, as plastics offer an incredibly broad range of performance characteristics. For many decades, engineers have specified fluoropolymers, a specific family of plastics, for their plant’s critical fluid handling systems to transport some of the world’s harshest and most corrosive chemicals safely and dependably. Fluoropolymers offer a unique combination of thermal stability, chemical and corrosion resistance, and ultra-high purity that make them the ideal choice for a wide variety of applications.
This webinar will provide engineers and plant personnel case histories identifying where fluoropolymers, like Kynar® PVDF and Kynar Flex® PVDF, are currently used, why they were specified, and where they have been successfully handling the most corrosive and highly critical fluids for years. Performance against various chemistries such as concentrated strong acids, chlorinated solutions, and chemical mixtures will be discussed. Engineers will also learn about how to fabricate with fluoropolymers, including pipe joining methods, vessel fabrication, and tower packing considerations. By learning some of the sweet spots for fluoropolymers in chemical applications, engineers can design and implement longer lasting and more dependable fluid handling systems in a chemical plant’s harshest environments.