Webinars

Does NFPA Compliance Make Your Burner Management System Less Safe? NFPA 85, 86, and 87 have long defined the baseline for Burner Management System (BMS) design and operation. But what if strict adherence to these prescriptive standards is creating a false sense of security—and in some cases, actually increasing risk?

This webinar challenges the conventional assumption that NFPA compliance equals safety. While NFPA standards define minimum requirements, they do not ensure that risk is reduced to tolerable levels. In fact, many BMS implementations rely on architectures, testing intervals, and component selections that align loosely with SIL 2 performance—regardless of actual risk exposure.

When evaluated through the lens of IEC 61511 and Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA), it becomes clear that certain fired equipment scenarios—high occupancy, frequent demands, offsite consequences, or aggressive corporate risk targets (e.g., 1×10⁻⁵/year)—may require SIL 3 risk reduction. Yet typical NFPA-based BMS designs fall short. Field devices are often only SIL 2 capable at prescribed test intervals, and logic solver requirements are rarely sufficient to achieve higher integrity levels.

This session will challenge deeply held assumptions and provide a clear path forward: moving from “compliant” to “defensibly safe” through risk-based design, lifecycle data, and performance validation.

Variable area flowmeters, commonly called rotameters, are basic, direct acting flow measurement devices that have been around for decades and are widely used in the chemical industry because they are simple, reliable, economical, and easy to operate.

Variable area flowmeters range from basic glass tube to rugged metal tube versions and are a versatile option for flow measurement that can be used in both liquid and gas applications where a visual indication is satisfactory and extreme accuracy is not necessary. They are particularly suitable for measuring low to medium flow rates of liquids and gases where continuous visual monitoring is required.

Although most Variable Area flowmeters have limitations regarding installation orientation and fluid properties, they remain one of the most common flow measurement devices in chemical plants.

This webinar will provide information about the installation and operation of variable-area flowmeters and offers insights into best practices for reliable operation.

Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) is increasingly recognized as a key technology for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in thermal process industries. In the chemical sector, where evaporation, distillation and heat-intensive separation processes are common, MVR can offer significant opportunities to improve energy efficiency while supporting decarbonization goals.

This webinar will provide an overview of modern MVR solutions and their application in chemical processing environments. Attendees will gain insights into how MVR technology can optimize thermal processes, enhance energy recovery, lower operating costs and improve operational reliability. Real-world examples will illustrate practical approaches to integrating MVR systems into demanding production environments.

A major focus of the session will be two success studies from the chemical industry. These projects will highlight design considerations, implementation challenges, operational performance and key lessons learned from large-scale MVR installations, demonstrating how vapor recompression can contribute to more sustainable and cost-effective chemical production.

Surge vessels such as silos are required for storing feedstock, in-process materials and final product between process steps such as blending, heating, cooling, purging, and tempering. While necessary to ensure material feed to value-add operations, they are often viewed as a required cost that does not provide direct return to the operation or product. Their primary function is material storage to decouple unit operations and allow for timing discrepancies between material delivery from upstream processes and feed required for downstream operations.

Reliable storage and feed of a bulk solid can be achieved with material flow properties testing and design of the silo and feeder according to the results of testing. Once material behavior is confirmed through testing, being able to accurately predict fill and flow sequences within surge vessels will allow for integration of value-add operations to new or existing silos and bins. By achieving this the silo becomes not only a storage system to decouple unit operations but also adds value in the process train. There are a number of different operations that have been successfully integrated into silos which will be reviewed as case studies in this webinar, along with the factors one must consider when evaluating a material and process for suitability of processing in a surge vessel.

Access to historical process data is no longer just an operational necessity; it’s the foundation for advanced analytics, regulatory compliance, and successful AI implementation. Yet many manufacturers struggle to understand how the most widely used data storage systems differ, and how to design a cohesive architecture that meets their unique data goals.

This webinar takes a deep dive into industrial historians, data lakes, and time-series databases to explain how each system is designed, where it excels, and how they work together to scale from real-time operations to advanced analytics and predictive modeling. Whether you’re evaluating your first historian implementation or modernizing an enterprise-wide data stack, you’ll leave with a clear framework for turning today’s data storage options into a scalable, future-ready industrial data architecture.

In the chemical industry, steam is used extensively as a heat transfer medium, power generation, as well as directly used in chemical reactions. Measurement of this vital process input has been challenging with traditional flow technologies like Differential Pressure (DP) Orifice, Venturi, and other elements as well as the newer Vortex principle, which overcomes some of the limitations of DP based meters, however, is still limited in turndown and has its own unique limitations (i.e. sensitivity to mechanical vibrations in vortex frequency range)

A new gas ultrasonic flowmeter is available for superheated steam which provides exceptional accuracy over extremely wide turndowns, is completely non-obstructive causing zero additional pressure loss and requires no maintenance. This session will cover the challenges in developing an ultrasonic flowmeter able to contend with the difficult conditions poised by superheated steam. We’ll show the unique construction of this meter and discuss the user benefits it brings to the chemical industry.

We’ll demonstrate some real-world applications that solved measurement problems while exceeding user expectations! Learn how gas ultrasonic flowmeters can help your management of this essential utility.

Design Smarter. Reduce Risk. Deliver Faster.
In today’s competitive engineering landscape, accurate process insight is essential. Whether you’re evaluating a new concept, optimizing an existing plant, or preparing for a major capital investment, simulation is no longer optional — it’s foundational.

Join us for a comprehensive introductory webinar exploring how CHEMCAD empowers engineers and organizations across industries to model, analyze, optimize, and validate process designs with confidence.

Why Process Simulation Matters
Every project face uncertainty — feedstock variability, energy costs, market shifts, regulatory changes, and technical risk. Simulation provides clarity before capital is committed.

This session is designed for professionals at every level — from new users exploring process simulation to experienced engineers seeking more powerful tools for decision-making.