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Processing & Handling

Piloting a process that makes hydrogen and carbon from methane

Next year, construction will begin on an industrial-scale pilot plant to further develop a new process that decomposes methane into H2 and carbon. The process uses a thermo-catalytic decomposition (TCD) technology developed by Hycamite TCD Technologies Oy (Kokkola, Finland; www.hycamite.com).…

Technology Profile: Production of Nitrogen from Air

Nitrogen (N2) makes up 78% of ambient air (20.95% of air is oxygen). N2 is an inert (non-flammable) gas used in industrial plants to prevent undesirable chemical reactions from occurring. Nitrogen is the most common inert gas used in the…

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Time and Length Scales of Mixing: The Macro Scale

Successfully scaling up a mixing process involves understanding several important timescale parameters that can impact chemical reactions and equipment performance Many industrial processes are defined by rates. For example, rates of mass and heat transfer, rates of reaction and rates…

Hydrogen Piping Systems: Mitigating Pitfalls by Design

This overview presents guidance for the safe design of piping systems that are used for the distribution of hydrogen gas Hydrogen gas is a very volatile fluid that has a high propensity to leak. This is a very dangerous and…

Announcing the Kirkpatrick finalists

Five innovative technologies have been selected as finalists for the 2021 Kirkpatrick Award for Chemical Engineering Achievement.* The finalists were selected based on three criteria: the difficulty of chemical engineering problems met and solved; novelty of the technology; and evidence…

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Embedding active enzymes into plastics

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (IAP; Potsdam-Golm, Germany; www.iap.fraunhofer.de) have developed a process for embedding active enzymes into plastics. This has been difficult before, since plastics are normally processed at temperatures above 100°C. The technology offers…

Polyolefin deconstruction process could provide new use for post-consumer plastic waste

A catalytic process to selectively break carbon-carbon bonds within the polymer chains of polyethylene and polypropylene could allow the use of waste plastics to make biodegradable surfactant molecules. Researchers led by the Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) at…

Facts At Your Fingertips: Adsorption bonding

Physical adsorption phenomena play a critical role in many separation and purification processes, including separations of industrial gases, purification of gases, moisture removal from fluids, water purification and others. Adsorption is a surface phenomenon in which a fluid (gas or…

Technology Profile: Production of Caprolactam from Benzene

Caprolactam (Figure 1) is a cyclic amide widely used as a chemical intermediate. The main forms of caprolactam are molten (liquid) and flakes. At ambient temperatures, it is a white, hygroscopic, crystalline solid. Almost all caprolactam is used as monomer…

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Explosion Protection: Considerations for Combustible Dusts

Managing the risk from combustible dust explosions involves a number of strategies for preventing explosions, as well as isolating, venting and suppressing explosions if they occur. Complying with applicable NFPA standards is a pathway toward minimizing risk Combustible dust explosions…