Siloxanes — synthetic chains of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms — are widely used in personal care products, soaps, pharmaceutical formulations and other products, but are notoriously difficult to manage in production- and waste-fluid streams. Current approaches, including flaring and…
Pharmaceutical residues, particularly from antibiotics, are extremely difficult to fully remove from wastewater using traditional bulk-treatment methods, wherein antibiotic compounds are often only partially broken down. Even at trace amounts, antibiotic fragments can accumulate and wreak havoc on natural ecosystems.…
In continuous processes, the properties and quality of the products depend on the residence time of different feed substances, and feed materials may not spend the same amount of time in a reactor. When designing equipment for continuous processes, it…
Advanced safety-instrumented system features minimize complexity, downtime and costs Chemical process plants must be vigilant when it comes to preventing accidents that have the potential to harm people, assets and the environment. While safety instrumented systems (SIS) reduce risks, they…
Effectively dispersing powders into liquids can be a challenge. Utilizing vacuum in the correct ways can help with wetting and dispersion When introducing powdered materials into liquids, the goal is always to achieve an air-free dispersion of solids in the…
Palladium is widely used in membrane applications because of its extreme selectivity for hydrogen. However, conventional palladium membranes can be damaged at the high temperatures required for many processes that generate hydrogen for various subsequent uses, including the manufacture of…
Among the major challenges facing efforts to chemically recycle common waste plastics is that many methods require a pure stream of a single type of polymer to be effective. Now, researchers at Northwestern University (NU; Evanston, Ill.; www.northwestern.edu), led by…
Year’s end is, of course, the default juncture at which current situations are assessed and forecasts for the future are posited. As this year nears its end, indications are that 2026 will likely be a tough year for much of…
The widely used plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) can be depolymerized by reacting it with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) under strong mechanical impact from metal spheres in a ball mill. This type of mechanochemical route to recycling could alleviate some of the…
All-in-one monitor, data-logger and converter for flow sensors The IFQ Monitor 2 (photo) is a user-friendly monitor, advanced data-logger and converter for this company’s flow sensors. The IFQ Monitor 2 ensures accurate liquid-flow measurement in open-water and full-pipe applications, providing…