All chemical process industries (CPI) operations involving combustion need to be concerned with the emission of combustion products, due to their potential environmental and health impacts. This one-page reference provides information about several of the most common combustion byproducts from…
Process industry plants install sophisticated air-pollution control systems, but they can be ineffective if the flowmeters on which they rely deliver inaccurate or unreliable data. This one-page reference provides information on measuring the flow of gaseous combustion products in large…
High-shear, high-speed mixing equipment supplies the mechanical energy necessary to reduce the size of solid particles and liquid droplets in emulsions and dispersions. Emulsions are mixtures of two normally immiscible liquids in which tiny particles of one liquid are suspended…
Agglomeration and granulation are used to achieve a wide range of objectives in solids-handling processes, including to ensure a desired particle-size distribution, minimize segregation, and improve solids flow, as well as to control de-aeration and compaction behavior and attrition resistance…
Cake filtration is a common operation across many sectors of the chemical process industries (CPI). In cake filtration, the solid being filtered acts as a screen so that particles of the suspension are retained by the medium, resulting in the…
The components of air (Table 1), especially nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2), are critical for many modern industrial processes. Primary metals production, chemical manufacturing, gasification processes, clay, glass and concrete production, welding and other processes depend on O2 from air,…
Heat-transfer fluid selection can be intimidating when considering the long-term impact on costs and operability. The right fluid will provide optimal performance and lifecycle costs, while freeing engineers for other assignments. Most engineers do not routinely consider fluid selection, so…
Blending is a fundamental chemical unit operation, and there are a handful of common ways to implement it. Blending applications can be either manual or automated, and can be carried out either as a batch or continuous process. There are…
The physical properties of zeolites make them extremely important in many industrial processes. This one-page reference provides information on the structure and chemistry of zeolites that allows their use in the chemical process industries (CPI). Zeolite structure Zeolites are a…
Modern control systems for chemical processes can generate frequent alarms. This one-page reference provides information on common alarm-management metrics, which can foster focused remedial actions and ultimately lead to a safer, better-performing plant. Alarm frequency As alarm frequency increases, an…