Last month at the Chem Show, Chemical Engineering (CE) had the pleasure of honoring this year’s finalists and the winner of the 2009 Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award, a biennial prize that the magazine has bestowed continuously since the early…
The desire to move from batch to continuous processes for the production of high-value organic molecules has become more widespread in recent years as evidenced by the increasing number of related studies published in the literature. The benefits of continuous…
The ultimate objective of storing liquid, fluid and gaseous products, which may be corrosive, flammable or unstable, is to store material in an environmentally safe and economically viable manner. Storage tanks in the chemical process industries (CPI) can be most…
Corrosion is estimated to account for a significant portion — 8–10% — of total annual-plant-capital expenditures for the chemical process industries. To avoid it, engineers can consider corrosion-resistant plastics for process piping and storage vessels. Thermoplastics are generally resistant to…
There are many considerations when choosing piping materials for an industrial system. Historically, when options were more limited, the decision-making process was relatively straightforward. It was a matter of choosing what grade of metal to install. Today, there is a…
New radial diaphragm valves improve 'cleanability' A single-body valve design with boreline seal that minimizes entrapment areas is responsible for the ease of cleaning. The DR Series of valves (photo) is designed for sterile flow streams in media preparation, fermentation,…
Multiple CSTRs (continuous stirred-tank reactors) are advantageous in situations where the reaction is slow; two immiscible liquids are present and require higher agitation rates; or viscous liquids are present that require high agitation rates. Unlike in plugflow reactors, agitation is…
Efforts toward large-scale production of lithium-ion (Li-ion)-based car batteries got a big boost in early August, when the Obama Administration announced $2.4 billion in U.S. government investment aimed, in part, at dramatically ramping up the supply chain for advanced batteries…
The Instrument Society of America (ISA) 2009 exhibitor show Expo 2009 will be held October 6–8 at the Reliant Center in Houston. Over 300 exhibitors are expected to display automation-and-control technology products and services. The show is organized into six…
Earlier this year, NSR Technologies (Decatur, Ill.; www.nsr-tech.com) commercialized its patented process for producing potassium hydroxide (45–50 wt.%) and dilute hydrochloric acid via a membrane separations technology. The company’s flagship production facility in Decatur, Ill. is the first commercial application…