Presented here is the progress and resolution of a troubleshooting case involving a distillation column with a capacity reduction problem Troubleshooting distillation columns during operation is often the key to stable production at industrial facilities. The collection of troubleshooting references…
Weeping and flooding phenomena set the vapor velocity in industrial distillation columns. Presented here are procedures for calculating flooding and weeping velocities in a four-pass sieve-tray column In industrial distillation, the term “weeping” is primarily used when the liquid in…
Henry Kister shares lessons learned from troubleshooting distillation towers This conversation started in a course I was presenting in Sydney, Australia. I was about 15 minutes into my presentation when a delegate from a major petroleum refinery stopped me. “How…
Eighty years ago, in 1944, Dr. Hans Müller from Winterthur, Switzerland filed a patent application for a device designed to process liquid substances at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property in Bern. Liquids prone to fouling on heated surfaces,…
Sealed and gas-purged decanter-centrifuge systems can be effective for separating Class I, Div. 1-, or Class I, Div. 2-rated solvents and hazardous materials Traditionally, solids and liquids have been separated by filtration or with press equipment. While these methods are…
Advanced strainers are designed to offer far greater reliability than conventional options under unpredictable conditions. An industry expert provides insight into strainer use, design, selection, installation and construction Plants in the chemical process industries (CPI) have long relied on strainers…
The following titles are recently published books that may be relevant for professionals in the chemical process industries (CPI): Fundamentals and Practice in Statistical Thermodynamics. By Jianzhong Wu and John Prausnitz. Wiley and Sons Publishing, 2024, 768 pages, $149.95. Rare…
At Achema 2024 (Frankfurt, Germany; June 10–15), Sulzer Chemtech (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzer.com) revealed MellapakEvo (photo), the latest addition to its structured-packing product family. The MellapakEvo structured packing has been developed to enhance the efficiency and capacity of distillation columns, maximizing…
Researchers from the Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI; Fribourg, Switzerland; www.ami.swiss), together with international collaborators, have pioneered a novel method for creating thin, energy-converting membranes that mimic the structure and function of biological cell membranes. This discovery, described in a recent…
New membranes enable traditional water treatment and emerging energy transition applications While membranes and filters have provided a reliable and cost-effective solution for water desalination, purification and treatment as well as specialty process separations, innovative membrane and filtration technologies are…