The approaches currently used by process integration specialists to assess the opportunities for the integration of reboilers are frequently erroneous and lead to proposals that have to be rejected at the detailed engineering stages or worse, to commissioned reboilers that…
At one time, the design of distillation columns and other major components for the chemical process industries (CPI) required engineers to make one-at-a-time calculations in order to project what-if scenarios covering the processes, equipment, raw materials and capital necessary for…
Instrumentation best practices that are taught in colleges and published in standards are intended to be broadly applicable, guiding users in every industry and geography. However, for outdoor applications in cold climates, where the temperature can fall below –40°C, the…
To obtain a representative sample for particle size characterization, adhere to the golden rules of sampling and follow these best practices In the chemical process industries (CPI) it is often necessary to verify material specification at various points in the…
When a process plant is set up, an owner has several things in mind; the market demand for his product and hence the plant capacity, the plant cost, the space availability, space for future expansion and so on. Once a…
To optimize process control and overall plant performance, magnetic flowmeters (mag meters) are the most widely used devices in many industrial flow-measurement applications. Mag meters are used to measure the flow of water and other conductive liquids by applying a…
Thermodynamics cannot yield any information about the intermediate states of a given reacting system. These intermediate states are the subject matter of chemical kinetics, which studies reaction rates and mechanisms. Chemical kinetics will predict what chemicals are present while thermodynamics…
Distillation is one of the most extensively used operations in the chemical process industries (CPI). It is a highly energy-intensive unit operation, and continuously rising energy costs make it imperative to look for ways to reduce energy requirements. Some energy-saving…
Rotating machines, such as pumps, compressors, gas turbines, steam turbines and electric motors, play crucial roles in most chemical process industries (CPI) facilities. Increasingly, advanced condition monitoring is being used to improve the operation and maintenance of these workhorse components.…
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