New crystallization-system designs rely on previous successful installations and rules for scaling-up systems to adapt to slightly different conditions. However, guidelines or rules of thumb have underlying assumptions that might have been ignored when scaling-up a system during…
For companies in the chemical process industries, water is an indispensable utility. But the growing scarcity of quality industrial water, combined with stricter environmental regulations and the rising cost of wastewater treatment, have encouraged the conservation of water…
Accidents do happen. While not everything can be predicted, addressing safety concerns throughout the design of a process can help to prevent accidents from occurring. Designing with safety in mind can also help to minimize potentially serious consequences…
The dramatic jump in petroleum and natural gas prices over the recent years has created much impetus to reduce operating costs at chemical process plants. In processes that use either oil or gas for feedstock, such reduction can…
Energy consciousness and environmental awareness have transformed condensate from an inexpensive byproduct of steam distribution to a valuable resource that can substantially reduce operating costs. For process systems that use steam as the heat transfer media, improved condensate…
More and more, it is recognized that business and science are interwoven, and that these disciplines can complement each other to achieve corporate goals. In the chemical process industries (CPI), a noteworthy role is that of engineering in…
Vapor pressure is important to engineers throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). Knowledge of a compound's vapor pressure is required in the design of storage vessels containing the compound. In hazard analysis, knowledge of vapor pressure…
When Estee Lauder begin stirring up recipes for facial creams recipes in her kitchen some 70 years ago — the start of a $6.5-billion cosmetics empire that still bears her name — making high-purity emulsions was…
The need to transfer bulk-solids materials from the outlet of a bin or from a conveyor, to a process, truck, or another bin is ubiquitous throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). Transferring material using equipment designed to mechanically…
The process industries are extensive users of energy. But it is now clearly established that a large amount of this energy is wasted, essentially in the form of heat rejected to the environment through gaseous or liquid effluents.…