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Improve Ethylene Production Margins with Digitalization

Digitalization can help ethylene producers to flexibly respond to economic uncertainties and assess available options based on their existing infrastructure and priorities Post-pandemic, olefin and polyolefin producers have been faced with regional and global economic headwinds. Inflation, energy security, rising…

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Safeguarding the Hydrogen Economy: A Focus on Leak Detection and Mitigation

The use of fixed gas detectors can play a crucial role in mitigating the environmental impact of hydrogen leakage and help protect workers in the hydrogen value chain Governments, industry sectors and companies seeking sustainable energy sources to reduce greenhouse…

CPI Outlook for 2025

The industrial sector consumes more than 80% of basic and specialty chemicals. Worldwide, industrial activity saw a modest recovery in 2024. Global industrial production is expected to have increased by 1.3% by the end of 2024, with predictions of about…

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Business News [January 2025]

Plant Watch Chevron upgrades Pasadena refinery to increase capacity and flexibility December 11, 2024 — Chevron Corp. (Houston; www.chevron.com) has completed a retrofit of its petroleum refinery in Pasadena, Texas, which is expected to increase product flexibility and expand the…

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New electrode design improves electrochemical CO2-to-ethylene conversion

Electrochemically converting carbon dioxide into useful chemicals or fuels is a promising CO2-utilization strategy, but scaling up the process is a challenge. One reason is that the gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) used to facilitate contact between gaseous CO2, solid catalyst and…

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Single-atom catalysis reduces water-splitting costs

One of the main limiting factors in the production of “green” hydrogen via electrochemical water splitting is the relatively slow rate of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the use of very expensive noble metals like iridium to catalyze the…

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Troubleshooting a Trayed Distillation Column

Presented here is the progress and resolution of a troubleshooting case involving a distillation column with a capacity reduction problem Troubleshooting distillation columns during operation is often the key to stable production at industrial facilities. The collection of troubleshooting references…

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Entrainment Flooding and Weeping Velocities

Weeping and flooding phenomena set the vapor velocity in industrial distillation columns. Presented here are procedures for calculating flooding and weeping velocities in a four-pass sieve-tray column In industrial distillation, the term “weeping” is primarily used when the liquid in…

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Oxygen-free slow pyrolysis boosts bio-waste utilization

Biogenic materials, including agricultural residue or other organic waste, hold a considerable amount of energy density in the form of carbon and hydrogen, but efficiently processing these solid materials to harvest energy can pose challenges. The Modular Conversion TechnologyTM (MCT)…

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Weighing in on Accuracy: Recent Developments in Weighing Equipment

Innovation, intelligence and automation increase precision in weighing equipment for chemical processors Accurate weighing and dosing are critical to the success of any chemical process, because they ensure product quality, safety and resource optimization. Fortunately, innovative technologies, intelligence and automation…