Filtration is arguably the most common unit operation in the chemical process industries (CPI). Filtration processes can be divided into three broad categories: cake filtration, where the incoming slurry contains enough solid material to form a cake on the filter…
Citric acid is a naturally occurring tricarboxylic acid commonly found in plants and animals (Figure 1). In its pure form, it is a colorless compound readily soluble in water. Citric acid is mainly used to add taste to food and…
Selecting personal protective equipment (PPE), including safety eyewear, for the chemical process industries (CPI) depends on the hazards present in the facility where it is used. The following describes considerations for selecting eye and face protection based on the potential…
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…
Properly specifying process control valves for a plant project is critical to achieving efficient and effective processes. This one-page reference discusses key considerations for specifying control valves. Valve specification Process engineers should take the following aspects into consideration when specifying…
The spread of COVID-19 opened the world’s eyes to the weakness of much of its infrastructure and drove home the important role operators and engineers play in keeping manufacturing plants running. These unsung heroes were challenged with the difficult logistics…
Physical adsorption phenomena play a critical role in many separation and purification processes, including separations of industrial gases, purification of gases, moisture removal from fluids, water purification and others. Adsorption is a surface phenomenon in which a fluid (gas or…
The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA; Quincy, Mass.; www.nfpa.org) NFPA 652 (Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust) creates a single, unified combustible-dust standard that applies to “all facilities and operations that manufacture, process, blend, convey, repackage, generate, or handle…
Industrial evaporator heat-transfer surfaces are either tubular or flat plates, packaged into a variety of evaporator types, as outlined here. Batch evaporators Batch evaporators are vessels with a heating jacket or internal coil, an overhead condenser, a condensate receiver, and…
Any corrosion process in which microorganisms initiate, facilitate or accelerate corrosive chemical reactions is termed microbially influenced corrosion (MIC). MIC occurs when the chemical, microbiological and physical conditions allow the active growth of biofilms containing specific types of microbes on…