Vertellus (Indianapolis, Ind.) announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain businesses of Toronto-based Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund. This acquisition will expand Vertellus’ capabilities to manufacture and develop specialty ingredients in high-growth healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Under the…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany) intends to divest its Lülsdorf site in the medium term. More detailed plans will be drawn up by spring 2022. The aim is to transfer the entire site to a new owner, although the sale…
Usalco, LLC (Baltimore, Md.), a producer of water treatment and industrial chemicals, announced that it has acquired the water treatment business of Altivia (Houston). Altivia’s water treatment business is a leading manufacturer of specialty chemicals for municipal water and wastewater…
Runaway polymerizations of acrylic monomers can lead to catastrophic fires and explosions in production plants and storage terminals, as well as during transportation. Special chemical products called shortstop inhibitors are used to minimize the likelihood of runaway polymerization reactions. A…
Better designs and improved monitoring and control technologies lead to higher efficiencies While bioprocessing can be challenging due to the sanitation requirements and exacting processes, new technologies are allowing bioprocessors to more easily sanitize, analyze and optimize their processes in…
Attention to the design of bulk-solids pneumatic-conveying pipelines can help avoid conveying-system problems, such as low conveying rates, plugging, excessive wear-and-tear in the conveying line, high conveying-system pressure drop, product breakage, fines generation and product cross-contamination. This one-page reference provides…
Linear alpha olefins (LAOs) are hydrocarbons with the chemical formula CnH2n, characterized by linear chains and one double bond at the alpha position (Figure 1). Such hydrocarbons are important chemical intermediates, widely used in several industrial and consumer products according…
In some situations, it might be necessary to remove or replace a bolt during operation. This article shows how to determine the proper bolt load to prevent leaks Bolted flange joints (Figure 1) are part of pressure vessel and piping…
Taking a system approach to find the root cause of a problem can be more beneficial than simply replacing a problematic pump. This article explains why We want the best reliability with anything that we work with. In a plant…
The recently concluded 5th annual Connected Plant Conference (CPC; www.connectedplantconference.com), held in Austin, Tex., illustrated both the real promise of Industry 4.0 digital tools to improve operational efficiency and safety at chemical process industries (CPI) facilities, as well as the…