Chemical Engineering
Steam Reboilers: Condensate Vessel Balance to Reboiler is Important
Properly locating a simple 1–2-in. balance line can make all the difference in successful reboiler operation Steam reboilers are crucial to production in petroleum refineries and petrochemical plants, representing huge capital investment in distillation columns. Regardless of the investment made…
CPI Outlook for 2024
Following a strong year for the chemical process industries (CPI) in 2022, 2023 saw modest growth, with global industrial output rising only 0.6% and chemical production growth at about 0.3% [ 1]. Numerous factors contributed to the lower demand for…
Optimization of Spray Drying with Exhaust-Gas Recirculation
Energy recovery in spray-drying processes can reduce production costs, but involves trade-offs. Using milk powder as an example, this article describes a spreadsheet method to evaluate exhaust-gas recirculation scenarios for optimizing spray drying Dairy processing is among the most energy…
This new stainless steel is ultra-resistant to corrosion
One of the major hindrances in saltwater electrolysis for “green”-hydrogen production is the cost of materials to construct electrolyzer components that can withstand an extremely corrosive saltwater environment. Currently, titanium coated with platinum or gold is usually required for such…
A continuous electrochemical process for direct-air CO2 removal
Direct-air capture (DAC) of atmospheric carbon dioxide presents promise for helping to reach global-warming reduction goals. However, many DAC technologies are hindered by high costs and inefficiency. RepAir Carbon (Yokne-am Illit, Israel; www.repair-carbon.com) recently launched a field prototype of its…
Sand-based thermal-energy storage
Using concentrated solar thermal (CST) energy to supply industrial-heating requirements is a promising way to reduce the use of fossil fuels. This is the aim of Magaldi Green Energy (Rome, Italy; www.magaldigreenenergy.com), which developed its Solar Thermo Electric Magaldi (STEM)…
Converting a steel mill to climate-neutral steel production
To decarbonize steel production and its high carbon dioxide emissions, Fraunhofer researchers, TS Elino GmbH (Dürren; www.elino.de) and Salzgitter AG (all Germany; www.salzgitter-ag.com) are working on converting an existing steel mill to climate-neutral production methods. The aim is to produce…
Chementator Briefs
CO2 to CO SK Innovation Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, an R&D organization of SK Innovation Co. Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea; www.skinnovation.com), has successfully manufactured about 1 kg/d of CO using diatomic catalyst (DAC) technology, which selectively converts CO2…
Converting natural gas to alcohols using MOFs
Capturing natural gas from petroleum drilling wells is economically challenging, but would have positive environmental impacts because it would eliminate the need for flaring and could allow the hydrocarbons to be converted into useful chemicals. Now, research led by chemists…
AGC to expand biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacities at Yokohama Technical Center
AGC, Inc. (Tokyo) has announced that it has decided to expand its biopharmaceutical CDMO capability at the AGC Yokohama Technical Center. The total investment for the expansion is expected to be approximately 50 billion Japanese yen. Development services for gene…