Steam-heated storage tanks are critical to manufacturing processes, and prioritizing reliability in tank-system design and operations can mitigate unwanted issues Storage tanks are essential to the chemical process industries (CPI), and they require significant capital investment to ensure optimal installation…
Plant Watch Celanese expands production capacities for acetic acid and VAE April 9, 2024 — Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) started up a new production unit for vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) in Nanjing, China and completed several downstream debottlenecking projects…
Bipolar plates (BPPs) are a key component in electrolyzers and fuel cells. BPPs include two key components: the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), in a fuel-cell system; and the catalyst-coated membrane (CCM), in an electrolyzer. In a fuel-cell stack, for example,…
Performance improvements in robotics technologies for manufacturing and energy operations are leading to greater productivity, cost savings and safety improvements In the chemical process industries (CPI), mobile robots, often in conjunction with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), are…
Membranes are widely used in a variety of industrial separation processes, but the polymeric materials that make up many membranes are not durable enough to handle extreme conditions, such as processes with low pH or hazardous-metal content. Membrion, Inc. (Seattle,…
The 8th annual Connected Plant Conference (May 20–22; www.connectedplantconference.com) is taking place at Lake Conroe, Tex., near Houston. Hosted by POWER and Chemical Engineering magazines, the event will bring together experts from across the chemical process and power generation industries…
Hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers will be crucial technologies as the global energy transition progresses. However, both devices are often hampered by issues with durability and material costs — mainly associated with their membrane elements — which have slowed their…
Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt (www.uni-frankfurt.de) and Kiel University (both Germany; www.uni-kiel.de) have developed a new sensor for the detection of bacteria. It is based on a chip with a surface coating that ensures only very specific microorganisms, such as…
Hydrogen chloride is an important byproduct of the chemical industry, with over 9-million ton/yr generated by industrial chlorination processes, such as the production of chloromethanes and polymers (polyurethanes and polycarbonates). Although HCl can be easily recovered by gas scrubbing with…
Trends related to the energy transition are shifting global demand for refined products and affecting feedstock slates, forcing petroleum refiners to embrace adaptation and flexibility Demand for fossil fuels has remained strong in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic, but…