When updating equipment protection systems in a plant, it often pays to think long term. Today’s protection systems can do more than avoid catastrophic failure — they are the foundation of an enterprise-wide predictive maintenance program Chemical process industries (CPI)…
As wind energy takes a prominent role in the energy transition, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL: www.nrel.gov) have focused on manufacturing sustainable turbine blades that can be made from bio-derivable resources and then…
Tire recycling The Mitsubishi Chemical Group (MCG; Tokyo, Japan; www.mcgc.com) has demonstrated chemical recycling of end-of-life tires (ELTs) using the coke ovens at its Kagawa Plant (Sakaide City, Kagawa Prefecture). The company is able to feed crushed ELTs as raw…
There are many categories of air contaminants that may be encountered in industry, from volatile organic compounds to aerosols to viruses, as well as a range of particulate matter and ultra-fine particles, which also vary greatly in size and properties.…
Across several regions of the U.S., new lithium projects are emerging to build up a more localized supply chain Despite growing demand in the U.S. for batteries in consumer electronics and electric vehicles (EV), the vast majority of lithium extraction…
Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE, www.energy.gov) announced that two Energy Innovation Hub teams would receive a total of $125 million ($62.5 million to each team) in funding over five years to “seed and accelerate next-generation technologies beyond…
Currently, medical waste streams are complicated to recycle because these single-use products — such as facemasks, syringes, nitrile gloves and non-woven gowns — consist of multiple materials and must be considered contaminated with potentially infectious particles. Now, researchers at Chalmers…
Facility monitoring, LED lighting and low-impact cleaners help reduce carbon footprint at chemical process industries (CPI) facilities It is not always possible to refine a process to help reduce a facility’s carbon footprint; however, embracing some newer trends in more…
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown great potential for a number of applications, including as carbon-capture materials, but their use commercially has been limited by production methods, which are generally expensive batch processes. With the development of a continuous process for…
Industrial electrolysis involves passing a direct electric current through an electrolyte to elicit a range of chemical reactions. Electrolyzers are key pieces of technology for producing many important industrial chemicals. This one-page reference reviews the basic general operation of an…