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Environment, Health, Safety & Security

Chemical Engineering Bookshelf: CPI Booklist for March 2019

The following recently published titles are relevant to various parts of the chemical process industries (CPI). Fluid Mechanics of Control Valves: How Valves Control Your Process. By Hans D. Baumann, International Society of Automation (ISA), 2019, 125 pages, $99.00. A…

Chemical Recycling Makes Waste Plastic a Resource

With an eye toward a circular economy, technology developers are advancing a host of new approaches to chemical recycling of post-use commodity plastics Plastics are indispensable parts of almost every sector of the economy, with wide-ranging economic, environmental and convenience…

Unified Operational Environment Improves Process Safety

A unified gateway station and related components increase availability to improve operations and safety In information technology (IT) security circles, the most important acronym is CIA: confidentiality, integrity, availability. In industrial control security, the corresponding acronym is AIC: availability, integrity,…

The Value of Safety Instrumented Systems

A safety instrumented system (SIS) is important to ensure the safe operation of a plant. The SIS requires up-to-date sensors — recent developments in vortex flowmeters are presented here There are four key areas of concern for chemical producers that…

Ending plastic waste

Last month, almost 30 global companies announced the formation of an alliance to address the impact that plastic waste is having on our environment, with particular focus on our oceans. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW; www.endplasticwaste.org) has committed…

Protection Through Better Housekeeping Practices

Using the hierarchy of controls can help guide housekeeping and safety programs to better protect employees and facilities There is a close link between safety and housekeeping for all manufacturers, but facilities that store, handle or process chemicals have an…

Recently Published Books for the CPI: January 2019

The following is a list of recently published books of relevance for chemical process industries (CPI) professionals   Picturing Science and Engineering: A guide to making scientific photographs for presentations, journal submissions and covers. By Felice C. Frankel, MIT Press,…

Power-to-X: Batteries Not Required

As renewable energy becomes increasingly available (and less expensive), Europeans are looking to Power-to-X as a way to couple the energy, CPI and transportation sectors Germany’s energy transition (Energiewende) from fossil-based fuels to renewables, such as solar and wind, is…

An Investigation of Premature Flooding in a Distillation Column

Surprising observations regarding flooding in the upper fractionation trays of an atmospheric crude-petroleum distillation column are investigated In industial distillation processes, flooding is an abnormal, but relatively common, process condition in which liquid accumulates in the column. The accumulation may…