Processing & Handling
Feature Report: Advances in Valve Position Monitoring
Demanding application requirements coupled with improved downstream control devices and enhanced instrument diagnostics have led to major changes in process-valve monitoring and control. Factors driving these changes in the chemical process industries (CPI) include the need for lower plant operating…
Chementator: A Rapid-Cycle PSA System Economically Recovers H2
A pressure-swing-adsorption (PSA) system for hydrogen purification that operates at "tens of cycles per minute," versus one cycle every 4 – 10 min for conventional PSA, will have its first commercial-scale demonstration at an ExxonMobil refinery in France. Developed by…
Chementator: New Pyrolysis Method Improves Carbon Black Recovery from Scrap Tires
The standard temperature range for waste-rubber pyrolysis has been reported as 480 – 1,740ºF. Within 480 – 750ºF, shredded tire scrap decomposes into increasing amounts of gases and oil; and above 750ºF, oil and solid char yields can decrease relative…
Chementator: Beta-Glucan Separation
The blood-cholesterol-lowering effects of beta-glucan — the soluble oat fiber — is well known, but up to now it has been difficult to obtain beta-glucan-rich fractions that are feasible for food applications, according to VTT Technical Research Center (Espoo, Finland,…
Pinch valve introduced to accommodate particulate flows
This week, Plast-O-Matic Valves, Inc. (Chem Show, New York; Booth 1018) debuts an all-thermoplastic, air-operated pinch valve with a newly designed sleeve element. With an open tubular-sleeve element to control flow, the Series HSA pinch valves provide an open flow…
Resodyn to Unveil ‘Entirely New’ Mixing Technology at Chem Show
The technology — now being demonstrated at the company’s booth with its lab-scale version (LabRAM) — generates acoustic waves via the resonant vibration of a simple, mechanically driven agitator. At an 11:00 a.m. press conference today, Resodyn Acoustic Mixers Inc.…
Capacity increase for carbon nanotubes
Bayer MaterialScience AG (BMS; Leverkusen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6900-541) is opening a second production facility for Baytubes, its carbon nanotubes product, at H.C. Starck GmbH (Laufenburg, Germany). When combined with the existing pilot-production plant, the new, 30-m.t./yr facility will increase the site’s…
A new type of internally cooled reactor for selective synthesis
Rigorous temperature control is required for performing selective catalytic reactions, such as hydrogenation and oxidation (ethylene oxide production, for example), and in reactions where the chemical equilibrium is strongly temperature dependent (Claus sulfur recovery or the CO-shift reaction, for example).…
Piping for Process Plants, Part 4: Codes and Fabrication
Click here for full pdf version of this article - includes all graphs, charts, tables, and author information  This fourth in a series of articles* on piping for process plants examines two topics that may, at first, seem to…
Increase Productivity Through Better Gas-Liquid Mixing
Mixing is one of the oldest unit operations in the chemical process industries (CPI) and can also be one of the most demanding. The complex challenges presented by the wide variety of mixing tasks and scaleup needs encountered…