Management of process plants requires the understanding and application of the fundamental tenets of safe design, construction, and operation of each facility. In that context, many years of practical experience with systems that use very high-temperature organic heat-transfer media has…
Chemicals in production and laboratory environments alike have three distinct lifecycle phases: the first is procurement and inventory storage; the second is use in a manufacturing process or research program; and the third is post-use, including onsite handling, removal and…
Measurement of fluids’ viscosity in the chemical process industries (CPI) can represent a useful “product dimension” for manufacturers. Understanding a material’s flow characteristics is valuable in predicting several parameters relevant to many CPI processes, including pumpability, pourability, performance in a…
When automating fluid handling processes, it is critical to ensure that you are using the best type of pump for the process, and to understand how to control the type of pump you are using. The two major classes of…
When tanks are draining, the potential may exist for a swirling vortex to form leading from the liquid surface to any of the bottom-exit or side-exit nozzles connected to downstream piping (Figure 1). One important aspect of the vortex is…
In obtaining a degree or even a professional license in chemical engineering, there is little, if any, mention of facial hair. Nevertheless, that aspect of my appearance was surprisingly pivotal at one particular moment in my career. At that time,…
Although proper water treatment and conditioning for combined-cycle units and standalone steam generators are vitally important for reliability in the chemical process industries (CPI), a well maintained and operated steam generator can also save the facility much money with regard…
One of the best ways to realize value from your process data is to use those data — both real-time and historical — in a process simulator. The many applications for doing so are generally categorized into offline and online…
Crystallization is a key purification technique for various sectors of the chemical process industries (CPI). Several approaches for industrial crystallization have evolved over time and highly specialized crystallizer designs have been developed, especially in long-established industries. Solution crystallization is an…
Every distillation engineer west of the River Neretva is familiar with the work of Professor Zarko Olujic. His distillation laboratory at the Technical University of Delft (The Netherlands; www.tudelft.nl) is one of the largest and best facilities in the history…