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Environment, Health, Safety & Security

Aging Relief Systems — Are they Working Properly?

Relief systems are the last line of defense for chemical process facilities. Verifying their capability to safeguard equipment integrity becomes important as process plants age, increase their capacities to adjust to new market requirements, undergo revamps or face new environmental…

Safety, ethics on the Horizon

Any chemical engineer can attest to the fact that safety is an ongoing pursuit in our profession, where we occasionally find our teams taking two steps forward and then one step back. Foreseeing and avoiding every type of equipment malfunction…

Decoding Pressure Vessel Design

Tracing its origins to 1915, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (the code) [1] has become the established safety standard governing the design, fabrication and inspection of boilers and pressure vessels, as well as…

Wireless Communication in Hazardous Areas

Wireless communications have great potential in the chemical process industries (CPI) because they do away with complex and costly cable installations and enable completely new applications. And while a recent wave of successful demonstrations has begun to emerge in the…

A Safety-Centered Approach To Industrial Lighting

The use of appropriate hazardous-area lighting in the chemical process industries (CPI) is a key factor when it comes to improving overall plant safety and worker productivity, and supporting the best maintenance practices. The potentially hazardous conditions associated with many…

Opinions on greenhouse gases

A little over one month ago, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) received national pledges from 55 countries, to cut and limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Included in the pledges was a commitment from the U.S. to…

Greenhouse Gases: U.S. Starts Counting

As 2009 came to a close, the U.S. crossed a key milestone in the path toward regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Nearly 10,000 facilities (Figures 1 and 2) — a significant portion of them in the chemical process industries (CPI)…

A magnet operates on this rupture-disc sensor

Oseco The Flo-Tel rupture disc detection system (photo) is a noninvasive sensor that operates with a reed-switch and magnet technology. The design avoids several challenges of standard rupture disc sensors. Some sensors require replacement or rewiring after one use, and…

These regulators suppress internal cylinder forces for safety

ESAB Welding and Cutting Products Purox and Oxweld oxygen cylinder regulators (photo) have a patented design that suppresses internal forces from a cylinder explosion within the cylinder walls. The design minimizes risk of injury in the event of an explosion.…

A purging compound effective for biodegradeable resins

The commercial purging componPurgex 461 Plus is effective for purging new biodegradeable and compostable polyethylene resins. The compound comes ready-to-use, and is recommended for color or material changes and the removal of residual contamination. The new compound blends low-linear polyethylene…