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Chemical Engineering

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The Protein Shift

Goals to sustainably feed a growing population with limited land resources are driving massive efforts to develop new food sources Today, it is common to see plant-based “meat” products on the shelves of grocery stores. Although soy-based meat products have…

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Process Sensors: It’s All About the Data

Today’s process sensors provide a real-time data foundation for asset management and process optimization across the enterprise For many decades, industrial process sensors have been used across the chemical process industries (CPI) to measure common process variables, such as pressure,…

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Facts at your Fingertips: Mixing Intensity in Stirred Tanks

The ability to quantify liquid motion in a stirred tank is a basic step toward understanding how mixing influences process results. Quantifying mixing according to a mixing index (MI) can evaluate and predict mixing intensity related to fluid velocities in…

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Chem Chronicles: The first patent holder in the U.S. was a ‘Pott Ash Maker’

Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford — these are some of the larger-than-life figures who spring to mind when reflecting on the history of innovation and invention in the U.S. But the first person in American history to…

Electrification of Industrial Facilities

Manufacturing complexes may benefit from using more electricity instead of steam and fuel gas for their energy needs. Improved energy efficiency, lower emissions, higher reliability and debottlenecking of utility systems may be achieved Electrification is a popular buzzword when energy…

Energizing the CPI

The first issue of this publication in September of 1902, then titled Electrochemical Industry, contained this statement from professor C.F. Burgess: “Chemical manufacturing was a number of years ago considered best developed when the processes were so simple that no…

Incremental Electrification Drives Sustainability

For decarbonization of chemical processing sites, electrification opens a new world of efficiencies and cost benefits The industrial sector is responsible for one-third of the world’s end-use energy consumption, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA; Washington,…

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Patented technology captures real-time ‘hyperspectral’ images

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M; Spain; www.uc3m.es) has patented a new system for capturing hyperspectral images — those capable of collecting information across a broad frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum (near-infrared, mid-infrared and terahertz). The system can…

Bulk Solids Centers Support Research and Education

Bulk-solids handling is a critical aspect of many product manufacturing processes throughout the CPI, but the field is often underappreciated. Research centers that specialize in bulk-solids handling and particle technology are important resources for expanding knowledge and solving technical challenges…

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Using a ‘green’ oxidizer to degrade Kraft lignin into vanillin

The demand for vanillin vastly outstrips the natural resources of this flavoring agent. A chemical process is thus used to produce the required large quantities of vanillin from petroleum, which is far less expensive than obtaining the substance from fermented…