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Technical & Practical

Facts At Your Fingertips: Heat-Transfer Fluid System Venting

Heat transfer fluids (HTFs) provide heating and cooling of process equipment, including reactors, autoclaves, distillation columns, reboilers, mixers and dryers. HTF system designs should provide for effective system venting, both of residual water at startup and of degradation products during…

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Conveyor Selection for Bulk Solids Processes

Use this guide to aid the selection of conveying technologies for applications in powder and bulk solids handling Many sectors of the chemical process industries (CPI) — including chemicals, plastics, batteries, mining, power generation, plastics, food, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and others…

More Specification Tips to Maximize Heat Transfer

Presented here are practical points to help in the selection of plate-and-frame and air-cooled heat exchangers With a wider variety of heat exchangers to choose from than ever before, there are a number of variables to be considered when assessing…

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Materials of Construction: Stainless Steel Versus Nickel Alloys

Nickel alloys have long been the default choice for demanding applications in the chemical process industries (CPI). A new grade of stainless steel offers an alternative Demanding chemical engineering applications, such as plate heat exchangers (PHEs; Figure 1), tubing, pipes…

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Tower Doctor: A Quick Diagnosis Makes a Short Assignment

Henry Kister shares lessons learned from troubleshooting distillation towers On an assignment to troubleshoot a vacuum tower for a petroleum refinery, my team was tasked to “run simulations to determine why the heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) has a very…

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Facts At Your Fingertips: Alternating-Current Induction Motors

Alternating-current (a.c.) induction motors are widely used throughout the chemical process industries (CPI) and other manufacturing sectors to convert electrical energy into mechanical energy to power rotating equipment, such as centrifugal pumps, compressors and fans, as well as other industrial…

Valve Actuator Selection Guide

Information provided here can help guide the selection of valve actuators that are best suited to the demands of a particular chemical processing application Actuators are machines used to control the position of a valve remotely and automatically. They are…

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Improve Energy Efficiency Using Heat Pumps

Heat pumps are an efficient way to provide space and process heating. Information on their types, and how to assess their potential benefits is provided here Approximately 40% of the energy that is used in buildings in the U.S. goes…

An Ounce of Prevention: Cybersecurity and the CPI

As the frequency and sophistication of industrial cyberattacks continue to rise, chemical companies can follow guidance from industry and government directives to help define their organization’s specific cyber-risk profile Cybersecurity risk is a key topic for all companies, due, in…

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Why Innovation Operations are Critical

The future of the CPI depends on sound innovation. The guidance provided here will help organizations to shape an effective innovation strategy that can give them a competitive edge You would be hard-pressed to find a company in the chemical…