This is my fiftieth editorial in Chemical Engineering. There have been several surprises, going all the way back to the beginning in 2010, when I was first asked if I would like to author a monthly editorial. I said that…
At the 2011 Spring AIChE meeting (Chicago, Ill.), Sean Hennigan of BP gave a presentation regarding a column troubleshoot that yielded a counterintuitive result. A column bottleneck was ultimately traced to the presence of a vacuum cleaner in a tray…
FRI is lucky to have survived a simple valve-tray project. A few years ago, the low-pressure (LP) test column stood empty, because there were no trays ready to be installed. The intention was to install a set of new valve…
About thirty years ago, my golf foursome learned an important safety lesson and we credited the Dalai Lama. We were all big fans of the movie “Caddyshack.” In that movie, Bill Murray’s character talks about caddying in the Himalayans for…
I felt somewhat insulted when he said, “At universities, we do the difficult work and we leave the easy work for industry.” I had asked a question of a speaker at the November 2013 AIChE meeting. The speaker answered the…
Do you know someone whom you would describe as having a distinguished career in chemical engineering? Perhaps it is someone you have admired, or who has inspired you. If you would like to bring recognition to that person, consider nominating…
FRI’s membership has been growing steadily since 2006. As a result, I have more bosses every year; at present, 78. I receive input from them in several ways. They attend quarterly meetings. They respond to surveys and votes. They send…
Capital cost calculations I recently read the article “Capital Costs Quickly Calculated” [ Chem. Eng., pp.46–52, April 2009] and find it extremely informative and useful. I have reservations about the example given about the cost comparison of two spherical storage…
It is with extreme reticence that I author this page, even though I received permission several months ago to do so. FRI had a near miss in 2010, which was identical to a near miss that occurred in 2007. In…
Currently, there are around 13,000 desalination plants in operation or under construction in 150 countries, according to the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE; Rugby, U.K.; www.icheme.org). A number of these plants are in, or are planned for, locations that might…